1 Samuel 18: 1-10a
By Dr. Charles J. Tomlin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
February 27, 2011, Epiphany 8.
A story is told that a person dressed like the Duke Blue devil mascot was out walking a neighborhood some years ago when a sudden rain storm came up.
Not wanting to ruin his body paint, the devil-dressed man runs for cover in the closest building. It happens to be a church and a worship service is going on. He quickly and suddenly enters directly into this one room sanctuary to the shock of all in attendance. There is a great panic. Everyone clears the room, except for one unfortunate lady who had fallen down and is now lying at the feet of, what is now, a very confused man dressed like Satan.
Looking straight into his face with fear and trembling, she says to him: “You know, I’ve been on your side all along.”
THE SADDEST SIN OF ALL
As we continue our messages on the 7 deadliest sins, today we are considering what many call the “saddest sin of all”; the sin of envy. Chaucer, in his Canterbury Tales, going back to some of the first English ever printed, has the parson describing the sin of envy when he writes: “For hardly is there any sin that has not some delight in itself, save only envy, which ever has of itself but anguish and sorrow.”
Another notable thing about the sin of “envy” is that King James Version has the Roman Governor Pilate suggesting that it is out of “envy” that Jesus was handed over to him to be crucified (See Matthew 27:18).
But that was then. This is now. Just how deadly is this very “old” sin, which writer Garrison Kellior calls “the creepy little sin”, be to us? Do you know why Kellior calls it a “creepy” sin? This is the sin that doesn’t make you feel good until you see another person feel bad.
The most dramatic biblical example of the sin of envy comes from this the life of King Saul.
Saul was the first chosen to be King of Israel, but in the biblical story his leadership became a disaster. So much so, we are told that the “the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul” (1 Sam. 16: 14), and that the prophet Samuel secretly anoints the young boy David as the next in line to be King. It is during the conflict with the Philistines and his famous encounter with Goliath, that the young man David’s star begins to shine. As David matures, we read that he becomes so successful in battle against the Philistines, that Saul makes David the head general of his army (vs. 5). We are told that “everybody”, “even the servants of Saul” approve of this choice. Things were going well for everyone until Saul heard the women singing a new song, which said: “Saul has killed his thousands, but David his ten thousands.” (18:7). You don’t have to guess what hearing this song did to King Saul. He believed it to be a threat to his own Kingdom (18:8). Then we read these very descriptive words: “So Saul eyed David from that day on.” (18:8).
This biblical image of Saul keeping his “eye” on David is important for understanding the sin of envy. In Latin envy is called “invidia,” which literally means looking at someone from the corner of your eye. As a sin of the “eye” Envy is a close cousin to the sin of jealousy; which we often call “the green-eyed monster”. But whereas jealously may or may not be a sin, (remember that the Bible says that God is a jealous God), we need to understand that jealousy is the desire to keep what one has, while envy is the excessive desire for what someone else has, which is desired to be had at the other person’s expense.
You could suggest that envy is the “sin” that causes us to “covet” what our neighbor has. But again, the sin of envy is more than wanting to drive the kind of car, own the kind of house, to have the job or money or to desire the spouse another has. Envy is sin of excessive coveting and wayward jealousy which turns destructive and goes after what one desires and is not satisfied until it gets what it wants. And that is exactly envy did to Saul. In the very next verse we read how Saul attempted twice to “throw a spear” at David and “pin him to the wall”. (Great understatement). Then we are told how Saul sent David out to be in charge of larger armies, probably hoping David would lose at battle or get killed. But we read that the harder Saul tried to stop David’s rising popularity, the more, the Bible says, “The Lord was with David” (18:13) and the less the Lord seemed to be with Saul (16:14). Envy cannot be happy with another’s success. It only sees what the other has as a threat.
A more recent example of the destructive sin of envy is dramatized in movie Amadeus, which tells the story of the great composer, Mozart. The movie opens not with Mozart, but with the Italian musician named Salieri, who tries to commit suicide, because fills guilty over his attempts to hasten Mozart’s death. As a young man, Salieri prayed for God to bless him and make him a great composer. And Salieri was a good composer in his own right. But this was not enough. He was enraged and wondered: How could God lavish such amazing musical gifts on such an arrogant, shallow buffoon? Mozart was now dead, but Salieri knew he could never be as great.
In next scene, after Salieri fails at his own suicide, a priest visits him to hear his confession. As the priest enters the room, the aged Salieri is playing the piano from his wheelchair. Salieri indentifies himself to the priest as a composer and asks whether the priest has had any musical training. The priest admits to having a little training as a young boy, so now Salieri wants to test to see if the priest had ever heard any of his own music. Salieri plays a couple of bars, but the priest is embarrassed that he does not recognize the tune. Then Salieri plays another, and another, but still there is no recognition. Finally, exasperated, Salieri plays the sparkling measures of another little tune. The priest lights up and exclaims, “I know that one!” He even continues humming is after Salieri quits. The priest, relieved that he knows a tune, smiles at Salieri and asks: “Who wrote that one?”. At that moment, Salieri’s face darkens with malice and his eyes narrow. He answers, “That was Mozart!”
With this Salieri continues to believe that his work will always be second-rate and inferior compared to Mozart. The priest tries to console him, saying, “All men are equal in God’s eyes!” But Salieri cannot hear that. “Are they?” He asks skeptically. He cannot allow himself to ever believe something like this (Retold based on Rebecca Deyoung’s “Glittering Vices”, Brazos Press, 2009, p. 42).
THE HEART OF AN ENVIOUS EYE
Looking straight into the heart of envy, we can see a great error of the soul: the constant need to compare ourselves to others.
It can be clearly seen by the story of a lady went to see her therapists. She was honest. She said that she and her husband had designed their new home and moved in just six months ago. Everything was fine until they went to a party at the Bentleys. "I fell hopelessly in love with their house, and now I can't stand ours," the lady told her therapists. "But your house is brand new," said the therapist. You just built it. You designed it exactly the way you wanted it."
"I know," she said, "but when I saw what the Bentleys had done with their four season porch I realized ours should have been built exactly like it. And I haven't been able to get over it. I wish I had their house instead of mine. I hate my house," she kept saying. "Our new home was an awful mistake. I tell myself over and over again my feelings are ridiculous," she confessed. "I should just get over it. I should get my mind on something else. But I can't stop thinking about it. I've been crying a lot lately."
Envy robs us of the ability to have joy over the accomplishments of another. And Envy robs us of our joy because we can’t find contentment and pleasure with who we are or what we have already.
Many might remember the man known as the Flying Scotsman -- Eric Liddell. Eric was a Christian missionary and Olympic-class runner who later competed in the 1924 Olympics. Maybe you remember the story from the book, Chariots of Fire. As the story goes, Liddell was home from china with his sister, raising funds for their mission and involved in ministry. Liddell was also winning some important foot races and was considering the Olympics. His sister urged him to drop running and turn his energies to the missionary enterprise that he came home to, because as she said “God had gifted him to excel in the ministry. His sister pleaded with him: "We need you here. God made you for this." Eric Liddell's recorded response is a classic. To the comment that God made him for ministry, he replied, "Aye...and he also made me fast! And when I run, I feel His pleasure." (Randy Rowland, The Sins We Love: Embracing Brokenness, Hoping for Wholeness, page 82).
THE PLEASURE WE REALLY NEED
I believe Eric Liddell expresses something we have to see, recognize, celebrate and feel if we want to overcome our need for the “the next best thing.” We have to feel God’s favor and “pleasure” within ourselves. It is only from finding “his pleasure” within ourselves that we overcome our constant need to compare ourselves with others. There is nothing out there that can bring us the contentment we need. Our joy must go deeper than comparisons. When we are unable to feel “the pleasure of God” within ourselves or feel happy for others, we become envious. Isn’t this what happen to Saul’s, to Salieri and to the woman who went to the Therapist crying about her house? We can even see this most “creepy little sin” raising its ugly little head around the last communion table Jesus had with his disciples. In Luke 22, after Jesus had just explained to them about his death, he tells us what happens next: “There was also a strife, a conflict among them,” the King James Version says (Luke 22:24). It was about “which of them should be accounted as the greatest”. The disciples where spending their last moment with Jesus, not taking pleasure in being with him, but wasting it on arguing over comparing themselves to each other and asking who would be the greatest in the coming Kingdom of God.
This episode of the disciples reminds me of a story Oscar Wilde once told: “The devil was once crossing the Libyan Desert, and he came upon a spot where a number of small fiends were tormenting a holy hermit. The sainted man easily shook off their evil suggestions. The devil watched their failure, and then he stepped forward to give them a lesson.
“What you do is too crude,” he said.“Permit me for one moment.”
“With that he whispered to the holy man, ‘Your brother has just been mad bishop of Alexandria.’
“What you do is too crude,” he said.“Permit me for one moment.”
“With that he whispered to the holy man, ‘Your brother has just been mad bishop of Alexandria.’
A scowl of malignant envy at once clouded the serene face of the hermit.
“‘That,’ said the devil to his imps, ‘is the sort of thing which I should recommend.’” [From Gordon MacDonald, The Life God Blesses, Nelson, 1994, p. 143.]
“‘That,’ said the devil to his imps, ‘is the sort of thing which I should recommend.’” [From Gordon MacDonald, The Life God Blesses, Nelson, 1994, p. 143.]
Any of us can succumb to feelings of envy. Since we can’t help but compare ourselves with others, and because someone will always be smarter, better, richer, and younger than us, we must find our deepest contentment in God’s pleasure and not only our own. But what is God’s pleasure? What is “his pleasure” that rids our soul of envy?
North Carolina author Clyde Edgerton’s has a wonderful perspective on God’s pleasure in his book Walking Across Egypt. What makes this book so interesting for me is that it’s about a old lady who is a Southern Baptist from eastern North Carolina. One day she listens to a sermon about thinking beyond herself and helping “the least of these, my brethren.” After the sermon, she actually does it. She brings into her home a boy who has broken out of a prison for Juvenile Delinquents.
As she feeds the boy home cooked meals, teaches him to take a bath and takes him fishing and swimming, everybody disagrees with her doing this. Her son and daughter don’t like her giving things to him because they too are jealous or envious of her time with him. Her neighbors think it’s stupid. Even her church turns against her actually helping “one of the least of these” when he steals the preacher’s car. It’s hilarious, but it also turns miraculous. Through it all, the boy the boy starts calling her grandma, not just because he’s old, but because she actually takes pleasure in loving him like a grandma, even though he is a worthless, good-for-nothing, thief. And do you know what happens, next. It is this unmerited favor, and her pleasure in giving it to him, that finally gets through to him, and in the end, even after he steals the preacher’s car, she is the one who convinces the preacher to drop the charges and she is the one who goes to prison and brings him home with her for good. In spite of the fact that this boy is still a little rough around the edges, she knows that he has a heart and is able to change. She takes pleasure in believing in him until he finally he starts to believe in himself.
No comments :
Post a Comment