When Desire Goes Bad
Sermon
Sermons on the First Readings
Series II, Cycle C
Object:
Nathan, a boy I read about recently, is seven years old. His second grade teacher gave his class an assignment. They were to draw a picture and write an essay about what they would need to have a perfect life. Nathan drew a house and wrote beneath it, "My Home." Also, he drew himself and his dog. Next he drew a checkerboard with faces inside each square and wrote "My Friends" beside that. His essay was titled, "The Perfect Life for Me," and here's what it said:
A perfect life for me is the life that I'm in right now. Because I have a lot of friends and have a big family, too. I do not need a perfect life. 1
We might hope that young Nathan, who sounds wise beyond his years, will continue to be that content all his life, but if he is like most of us, he probably won't; the yearning for more than what we have at the moment is very common. And the affluence and advertising of our age encourages it.
Of course, wanting is a very necessary part of being human. It is a form of energy and motivation that drives invention, discovery, mastery, improvement, and accomplishment. The fruit of healthy desire is achievement and satisfaction.
But like any appetite, it needs to function with some restraint, because when it goes too far, when it becomes our primary motivation, it becomes destructive, both to us and to others. The Bible's word for desire gone bad is "covetousness," and the fruit of covetousness is injury and discontent.
We encounter the word "covet" in the tenth commandment. The other nine commandments stake out the boundaries of the outer limits of decent conduct. Obviously, that few number of commandments can't address every specific behavior. So the final one, "You shall not covet," comes to us addressing this root motivation -- desire -- that drives so much of our action. Basically, it warns us about letting desire run rampant.
To covet is to desire something inordinately, without due regard for the rights of others. If I desire something you have to the point that I reach out and steal it, I am breaking not only the eighth commandment, about stealing, but also the tenth one, about coveting. In short, covetousness is predatory thinking. We could paraphrase this commandment as "You shall not harbor thoughts that can lead to breaking any of the aforementioned commandments."
This prohibition is different than the commandments against stealing, bearing false witness, murdering, or committing adultery, for those address specific behaviors that are to be avoided. The tenth commandment, on the other hand, begins with what is in our minds, where the sequence of feelings, thoughts, and scheming that leads to the breaking of the other commandments begins.
One of the most flagrant examples of covetousness in action is found in our scripture reading for today.
A man in Israel named Naboth had a vineyard next door to the palace of King Ahab. Ahab wanted the vineyard for a vegetable garden, and offered to buy it. But, because it was Naboth's ancestral inheritance, Naboth didn't want to sell. Ahab went home resentful and sullen, and sulked around the palace, too depressed even to eat. Finally, his wife, Jezebel, reminded him of the power he held as king, and in his name, she ordered trumped up charges brought against Naboth so that he was stoned to death. Once Naboth was dead, Ahab seized possession of Naboth's vineyard.
A more recent story of flagrant covetousness comes from the early 1990s. A Texas mom named Wanda Holloway tried to hire a hitman to kill a cheerleader and her mother. Her intention was that with the intended victims out of the way, Wanda's daughter would get the chance to become a cheerleader. Holloway plotted to have Verna Heath murdered by the hit man, hoping the death would upset Heath's daughter, Amber, so much that the girl wouldn't make the cheerleading team. That would improve Holloway's daughter's chances of making the squad. Both girls were thirteen at the time. Mrs. Holloway, who offered her diamond earrings and cash in this murder-for-hire plot, ended up sentenced to ten years in prison. Following the sentencing, Verna Heath, the intended victim, said, "I've always wanted to see Wanda Holloway show some remorse. I think her only regret is getting caught."2
Clearly, the tenth commandment prohibits that kind of predatory thinking. But the problem for us with reading either King Ahab's story or Wanda Holloway's is that most of us who are Christians don't connect with them. We may want more than what we have, but we don't want it at somebody else's expense. If we were in Ahab's sandals, and Naboth refused to sell us the vineyard, we'd simply shop elsewhere. And if our daughter faced tough competition to make the cheerleading squad, we'd try to help and encourage her. We wouldn't set out to ruin or kill the competing cheerleader or her mother. We figure there's plenty to go around, so we just want to be included in the bounty.
Where we do connect with covetousness is when we feel shortchanged. Do you envy someone else their good looks, or their good grades, or their good income, or their good fortune? Those feelings are quite normal and certainly not wrong, but they can make us miserable. What this commandment asks us to see is that honoring God and treating our neighbor right, has its root not in how we act, but in what we let our minds dwell upon. Proverbs puts it succinctly when it says, "For as [a person] thinkest in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7 KJV).
So this commandment warns us to examine that which we hunger after. Greed, envy, jealousy, and lust and similar ugly thoughts are the sources from which bad deeds spring. This commandment calls us to put our minds on better things.
Well, just exactly how do we do that? We may be able to control our actions, but how do we control our thoughts and feelings?
For one thing, we can replace them by providing good experiences that lead to better thoughts. For example, instead of resenting someone because they have more than we do, we can instead do something helpful for someone who has less. Or, instead of begrudging someone a promotion, we throw a congratulatory party for them. We do something the opposite of what the envy would lead you to do. Often, better thinking and feelings follow our actions.
For another thing, we can remember that life is more than arriving at goals. Life is what we do as we head toward our goals. Life itself, not acquisition, is the main event.
For a third thing, we can focus on the example of Jesus. Ask church youth today what WWJD means, and most can tell you. "What would Jesus do?" has become a standard by which many church kids trying to do the right thing have learned to measure themselves. And we can do the same. I may resent that I am feeling left out or shortchanged by something, but what would Jesus do in my situation? And then do it.
WWJD is not just a cautionary statement -- it's not just a reminder against taking wrong action. Jesus offers us a life filled with discipleship joy. Instead of tying us to an ever-spiraling clamber up the world's ladder of "success," Jesus offers us purpose. Jesus offers us service. Jesus offers us God's pleasure. Jesus offers us God's peace. Jesus offers us redemption.
There's an old rabbinic teaching: "Who is wealthy? The one who is content with his life."3 Young Nathan had it right. We don't need a perfect life. We need a contented one, one that is rich in generosity and acts of kindness, and is faithful to the example of Jesus.
__________
1. Laura Schlessinger and Stewart Vogel, The Ten Commandments (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1999), pp. 297-298.
2. Terri Langford, The Detroit News, September 10, 1996.
3. Schlessinger, op. cit., 307.
A perfect life for me is the life that I'm in right now. Because I have a lot of friends and have a big family, too. I do not need a perfect life. 1
We might hope that young Nathan, who sounds wise beyond his years, will continue to be that content all his life, but if he is like most of us, he probably won't; the yearning for more than what we have at the moment is very common. And the affluence and advertising of our age encourages it.
Of course, wanting is a very necessary part of being human. It is a form of energy and motivation that drives invention, discovery, mastery, improvement, and accomplishment. The fruit of healthy desire is achievement and satisfaction.
But like any appetite, it needs to function with some restraint, because when it goes too far, when it becomes our primary motivation, it becomes destructive, both to us and to others. The Bible's word for desire gone bad is "covetousness," and the fruit of covetousness is injury and discontent.
We encounter the word "covet" in the tenth commandment. The other nine commandments stake out the boundaries of the outer limits of decent conduct. Obviously, that few number of commandments can't address every specific behavior. So the final one, "You shall not covet," comes to us addressing this root motivation -- desire -- that drives so much of our action. Basically, it warns us about letting desire run rampant.
To covet is to desire something inordinately, without due regard for the rights of others. If I desire something you have to the point that I reach out and steal it, I am breaking not only the eighth commandment, about stealing, but also the tenth one, about coveting. In short, covetousness is predatory thinking. We could paraphrase this commandment as "You shall not harbor thoughts that can lead to breaking any of the aforementioned commandments."
This prohibition is different than the commandments against stealing, bearing false witness, murdering, or committing adultery, for those address specific behaviors that are to be avoided. The tenth commandment, on the other hand, begins with what is in our minds, where the sequence of feelings, thoughts, and scheming that leads to the breaking of the other commandments begins.
One of the most flagrant examples of covetousness in action is found in our scripture reading for today.
A man in Israel named Naboth had a vineyard next door to the palace of King Ahab. Ahab wanted the vineyard for a vegetable garden, and offered to buy it. But, because it was Naboth's ancestral inheritance, Naboth didn't want to sell. Ahab went home resentful and sullen, and sulked around the palace, too depressed even to eat. Finally, his wife, Jezebel, reminded him of the power he held as king, and in his name, she ordered trumped up charges brought against Naboth so that he was stoned to death. Once Naboth was dead, Ahab seized possession of Naboth's vineyard.
A more recent story of flagrant covetousness comes from the early 1990s. A Texas mom named Wanda Holloway tried to hire a hitman to kill a cheerleader and her mother. Her intention was that with the intended victims out of the way, Wanda's daughter would get the chance to become a cheerleader. Holloway plotted to have Verna Heath murdered by the hit man, hoping the death would upset Heath's daughter, Amber, so much that the girl wouldn't make the cheerleading team. That would improve Holloway's daughter's chances of making the squad. Both girls were thirteen at the time. Mrs. Holloway, who offered her diamond earrings and cash in this murder-for-hire plot, ended up sentenced to ten years in prison. Following the sentencing, Verna Heath, the intended victim, said, "I've always wanted to see Wanda Holloway show some remorse. I think her only regret is getting caught."2
Clearly, the tenth commandment prohibits that kind of predatory thinking. But the problem for us with reading either King Ahab's story or Wanda Holloway's is that most of us who are Christians don't connect with them. We may want more than what we have, but we don't want it at somebody else's expense. If we were in Ahab's sandals, and Naboth refused to sell us the vineyard, we'd simply shop elsewhere. And if our daughter faced tough competition to make the cheerleading squad, we'd try to help and encourage her. We wouldn't set out to ruin or kill the competing cheerleader or her mother. We figure there's plenty to go around, so we just want to be included in the bounty.
Where we do connect with covetousness is when we feel shortchanged. Do you envy someone else their good looks, or their good grades, or their good income, or their good fortune? Those feelings are quite normal and certainly not wrong, but they can make us miserable. What this commandment asks us to see is that honoring God and treating our neighbor right, has its root not in how we act, but in what we let our minds dwell upon. Proverbs puts it succinctly when it says, "For as [a person] thinkest in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7 KJV).
So this commandment warns us to examine that which we hunger after. Greed, envy, jealousy, and lust and similar ugly thoughts are the sources from which bad deeds spring. This commandment calls us to put our minds on better things.
Well, just exactly how do we do that? We may be able to control our actions, but how do we control our thoughts and feelings?
For one thing, we can replace them by providing good experiences that lead to better thoughts. For example, instead of resenting someone because they have more than we do, we can instead do something helpful for someone who has less. Or, instead of begrudging someone a promotion, we throw a congratulatory party for them. We do something the opposite of what the envy would lead you to do. Often, better thinking and feelings follow our actions.
For another thing, we can remember that life is more than arriving at goals. Life is what we do as we head toward our goals. Life itself, not acquisition, is the main event.
For a third thing, we can focus on the example of Jesus. Ask church youth today what WWJD means, and most can tell you. "What would Jesus do?" has become a standard by which many church kids trying to do the right thing have learned to measure themselves. And we can do the same. I may resent that I am feeling left out or shortchanged by something, but what would Jesus do in my situation? And then do it.
WWJD is not just a cautionary statement -- it's not just a reminder against taking wrong action. Jesus offers us a life filled with discipleship joy. Instead of tying us to an ever-spiraling clamber up the world's ladder of "success," Jesus offers us purpose. Jesus offers us service. Jesus offers us God's pleasure. Jesus offers us God's peace. Jesus offers us redemption.
There's an old rabbinic teaching: "Who is wealthy? The one who is content with his life."3 Young Nathan had it right. We don't need a perfect life. We need a contented one, one that is rich in generosity and acts of kindness, and is faithful to the example of Jesus.
__________
1. Laura Schlessinger and Stewart Vogel, The Ten Commandments (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1999), pp. 297-298.
2. Terri Langford, The Detroit News, September 10, 1996.
3. Schlessinger, op. cit., 307.
