Envy Versus Persecution

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 10:16-31:  

John Chrysostom, who was the 4th century arch-bishop of Constantinople, in writing about rules for clergy, especially in relation to abuse of power, said that he thought that rather than lust being the chief clerical sin, as most people supposed, that it was instead greed. Now, I don’t know much about 4th century clergy, and perhaps he was right for his day, but I would argue that today, at least amongst United Methodist clergy, our chief clerical sin, when looking at the seven deadly sins, is that of envy.  And it’s been said that out of the sin of envy come many of the other sins, including lust and greed, but we clergy like to look around at what other clergy are doing and make judgments. We look at other clergy salary, sometimes whispering under out breaths, can you believe how much they make? We look at what other churches people get appointed to, and make judgments about whether they deserve it or not. We look at what committees people get appointed to, or where the conference might be sending some clergy for some training or to represent the conference, and we make judgments. But, it’s a specific type of judgment. It’s been said that with suffering we ask “why me?” but with envy we ask “why not me?” or sometimes leading to “why them?” which comes with the follow-up; I’m so much better, or more deserving, or more honorable, or whatever it might be, than they are.

Earlier in this worship series we heard the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying at the temple, and the Pharisees prayer of thanksgiving to God for not making him like the sinners there, especially like the tax collector. And so his prayer became one of self-righteousness, rather than true thanksgiving, because he felt superior to others, but only because he was spending his time looking at everyone else and comparing himself to others, rather than being focused on his prayer. Envy does the same thing to us. Envy is a sin of looking around and seeing others and making destructive comparisons either because we judge ourselves less than, or others less than. And so remembering that the seven deadly sins were compiled in monasteries, where, for the most part everyone was exactly the same, and wore the same clothing, and ate the same things, any little change that could cause envy could destroy the community that had been established. And as Joseph Epstein said, of all the deadly sins, only the sin of envy is no fun, and it is the only one that is always directed at someone else, which is not true of the others, because even lust can be directed at an inanimate object.

And yet, all of us have probably been guilty of the sin of envy, and indeed I read that a word for envy exists in all known languages. Additionally, what we are envious about says a lot about ourselves and what we value, and desire, because envy is never general, but rather very particular. And it also tends to be very localized. We tend not to be envious of people we don’t know or who are at distance from us either geographically, or professionally, Kierkegaard says that envy is a small town sin and as I said it tends to be about a sense of injustice done to us, as the first recorded case of envy is probably that of Cain being envious of his brother Able, which leads to him becoming a murder. Which leads to two ways that envy can go.

One of them is emulation. Being ambitious can come with having a little bit of envy, but envy that drives us to be better. Cain could have done that. He could have looked at Abel’s offering being accepted, trued to understand why and then sought to do the same thing. That’s where it’s possible for envy to be at least helpful. But, most often envy leads to the opposite which is not just being upset about what someone else has or has received, but also wanting the other person to lose what they do have. Studies has shown that people would agree to make less money as long as they make more than what their neighbors make, that it they would be rather earn $85,000 a year when no one else is making more than $75,000, then they would to make $100,000 where everyone else is making $120,000. And so envy becomes destructive both to ourselves and also destructive to others because of what we do which is not to act out of love. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 about love, that love is not envious. So when we love we rejoice and are happy at other’s good, but envy causes us to sorrow at other’s goods, and so envy forbids us from being able to love our neighbors, let alone being able to pursue righteousness which is where it then compares against the blessing for those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.

One of the things that was surprising to me in my studies about the Deadly Sins was how many commentaries there are on it from Jewish writers and theologians. One of them, Joseph Epstein, whom I have already quoted, also came up with the term virtucrat, which he defines as “any man of woman who is certain that his or her political views” and I would add or religious views, “are not merely correct but deeply, morally righteous in the bargain.” And so we should note again that there is a big difference between considering ourselves righteous and hungering after God’s righteousness or even being righteous. Because the problem with virtucrats is that they are too often self-righteous, and thus when they get any push back they consider it persecution of them and their beliefs, because, after all they are deeply and morally righteous. And so we too often then hear about Christians being persecuted in this country. And in hearing these complaints there is a large degree of envy underneath it. Envy towards others who they think are getting away with things, envy towards the past when they think these things didn’t happen, envy to the way things used to be. But there are several significant problems with this line of reasoning, and most of them have to do with the difference between persecution and preference.

Now there are people, Christians, around the world who are being persecuted for their faith. I had a friend in seminary who was born in North Korea, and he and his family fled after their father was converted to Christianity, but was then arrested, sent to prison and executed. His family, who had also converted, then fled to South Korea and then to America where he went onto earn a Ph.D. in engineering before receiving his call to the ministry. That is being persecuted for your faith, and it is happening, but just not very often in this country, and by that here is what I mean.

As Christmas gets closer we are going to start hearing once again about the war on Christmas, even though every store is decorated for Christmas, and the Christmas candy was already out at Smith’s on Friday. But not having someone tell you Merry Christmas at check-out is not persecution. Not having a Christian prayer said before the Friday night football game is not persecution. Having youth soccer games take place on Sunday is not persecution. All of those things simply mean that Christianity is no longer preferenced; it is no longer being held up above every other religion, and I can give you lots of reasons why that’s a good thing, including some really terrible and theologically troubling prayers that I have heard being given at public events. It has been wrongly assumed for a long time that everyone else in society was also Christian, and therefore Christians were favored and treated as special, while everyone else was either ignored or told that they didn’t matter. And even then it was not every Christian, because for a long time Catholics weren’t included in that last, and different protestant churches have also been excluded, including Methodists and even Baptists, depending on the time and place. Similarly, being told that we cannot say hateful things to others does not mean we are being persecuted, just that we are being told not to be a jerk.

Jesus did not say “Blessed are those who tell others how wrong they are, or how right we are,” nor did he even say “blessed are those who believe the right things.” Instead he says, blessed are those who persecuted for righteousness sake, which is about living in right relationship with God and with each other. Loving God and loving our neighbor. And those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, Jesus says, “Theirs is the Kingdom of God.” That ending was given to one other of the beatitudes. Does anyone remember which one? It was for those who are poor in spirit, which was our first message, and so you may not remember, but being poor in spirit was about humbling yourself before God, and if you remember India Jones and the Last Crusade, what does a humble person do before God? They kneel. They realize it’s not about them, that they don’t know everything, they are humble before God and they are humble before others.

Jesus is not talking about virtucrats or the self-righteous in this blessing. He is talking about those who are living the life that we are called for as disciples, that we are poor in spirit, that we mourn for the way the world is broken, that we are meek, taming ourselves to God, that we hunger and thirst for righteousness, for God’s Kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, that we are merciful, that we are pure in heart, that we are peacemakers. And what Jesus knows is that when we are doing these things, that when we strive first for the Kingdom of God, that it’s going to get us in trouble, that people will strike out against us, that we may even lose our lives, because all of these things challenge the powers and principalities of the world. All of them challenge the status quo and seek to turn the world upside down, and that therefore when we live as disciples we will be threatened because these things don’t go along with the world and the world thoughts and powers. As Archbishop Dom Helder Camara said, “When I gave food to the poor they called me a saint. When I asked why they were poor they called me a communist.”

When you call for peace and seek to be a peacemaker when we are saber rattling people will get upset and even attack you. When you call for justice to be done, people will strike back. That’s what Jesus is talking about here. The prophets were not persecuted because they said everything is great, support your king and do whatever they say. They were persecuted because they called out the ways in which the world and those in power were not fulfilling God’s command to welcome the stranger, to care for the widows and orphans, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide water for those who are thirsty, visit those who are sick and in prison. To love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. That’s why this thing called discipleship is so hard.

But when it gets hard, when people attack us, what does Jesus say that we are to do? We are to rejoice and be glad, not whine and complain about how unfair it is. Keep doing what you are doing Jesus says, because what he also knew, and what we have seen throughout the history of the church, is that when we call for God’s love to be lived out in the world, and then actually do live that love out, that we are an even bigger witness to our faith and the good news of Jesus Christ than any words we can ever use. Here on All Saints Day we remember the martyrs of the faith, from the disciples to Polycarp and Justin Martyr, to John Rogers and Thomas Cranmer, to Oscar Romero and Martin Luther King, who all died for their faith. Who were all willing to stand up for what was right, even when the going got tough, even when they knew how it was probably going to end. What are we willing to risk for our faith? Are we willing to risk suffering? Are we willing to risk persecution? Are we even willing to risk death? Or do we practice our faith because it’s preferenced and therefore easy and safe?

Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom of God is encapsulated in the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount, and they stand in contrast to the ways of the world especially as found in the Seven Deadly Sins. The sins are about brokenness. Broken relationships with God and broken relationships with each other. They are things that keep us from being able to live in righteousness or in community. But the Kingdom of God is about wholeness and healing, about forgiveness and mercy, about grace and understanding, about peace and justice, and when we seek to live those out then we seek to challenge the world, and Jesus tells us that that challenge will not go unopposed. If we are going to be envious of something, let’s be envious of the saints who live in the Kingdom of God and seek to bring that Kingdom here and now. Because Jesus is sending us out into the world like lambs in the midst of wolves, which means there is danger and threat. 

But, he says, “Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness sake, and blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven.” The path that is easy leads to destruction, but the path that is hard leads to life, not just life eternal, but life abundant here and now. Blessed are the saints who have gone before us, blessed are those who choose to follow Christ, blessed are those who pick up their cross and follow daily, for they shall be known as disciples because of the love that they show to the world. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.