St. John The Baptist

Browsing A message from Father Mark

September 20. 2020

25TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR  A

Here’s the punch line in this Sunday’s gospel:  Are you envious because I am generous? 

No matter how many times Jesus says it, the disciples just cannot seem to get into their heads that God is good and that there is enough of that goodness to go around.  And so, there’s should be no anxiety that someone is going to get more than me.  There’s no need to compete for God’s love.

Jesus is teaching his disciples to guard against envy.  Envy poses a threat to one’s own health and the health of the whole community.  Envy can boil up and foment and churn inside us.  Presbyterian theologian, Fredrick BEEKner, said, Envy is the consuming desire to have everybody else as unsuccessful as you are.

Envy works its way into the heart and soul of relationships and can build walls between family, friends, and colleagues. We nurse our envy.  We become obsessed with the person who is the object of that envy.

When we’re envious of another person or envious of what they have, we create an image of that person that is blown way out of proportion.  We fashion them into a false god, a god that makes us feel really bad about ourselves.

And in order to feel better about ourselves, we try to bring them down a notch or two.  We roll our eyes, we gossip about them, we dismiss them, we questions their intelligence.  Simply put, envy drives us to hurt another person by damaging their reputation.

And left unguarded, envy can become a destructive emotion that fosters destructive behavior.  It’s no wonder that envy is one of the deadly sins.

…Why is it that someone’s goodness – like the landowner’s in our gospel – is often the occasion for our anger or resentment? 

Comparing ourselves to others or calculating how we have been cheated is a losing game.  There will always be someone better off – prettier, more handsome, richer smarter, funnier, more athletic, more creative, a better singer or musician, have kids who don’t get in trouble, have better clothes, or houses or money. 

For instance, it’s hard for me to not feel envious of larger churches, especially in a culture that values numbers as the primary measure of growth.  For me, this is especially true of those mega-churches that started out with 10 people meeting in the pastor’s living room and grew to 5000 people in 3 years…

So, how do we keep from becoming shackled by envy?  Is there an antidote to jealousy?  ,,,It is possible that by paying so close attention to what others have, we become blind to what we have.  So, I believe that gratitude can be a really powerful antidote to envy.

Jesus is really challenging us today to mind your own business.  Stop getting distracted by looking around to see what others have or don’t have.  Put on some spiritual blinders and take seriously your own call to the work God has given you to do with the gifts that God has given to you.

God is a good and generous God, and God’s kingdom of compassion and generosity is what Jesus expected of his disciples back then and what he expects of his disciples today. 

When we come to understand the God we serve, we’ll never be surprised that his grace is given out to everyone without reservation or hesitation.

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