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.
