What to Covet: James 3:13--4:3, 7-8a - 17th Sunday after Pentecost

 ¹³Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. ¹⁵Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. ¹⁶For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. ¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. ¹⁸And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.<sup>4:

  1</sup>Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? ²You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. ⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ^8aDraw near to God, and he will draw near to you. (NRSV)

share by Albert Sunyer on flickr. CC BY-NC 2.0

I don’t think the Google App Store knows me very well… I was given a recommendation that I check out the Covet App—which I discovered was role-playing game where you can build a digital dream wardrobe and dress up virtual fashion models with designer label fashions, hairstyles, and cosmetics. For me, this recommendation was not difficult to ignore… But I find it interesting that someone would name a fashion game after a sin…

I would argue that coveting was the original sin. God gave Adam and Eve paradise in the Garden of Eden. But they burned with desire for the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which they believed would make them like God. So, they ate. Later, their firstborn son Cain envied that God favored his brother Abel’s offering over his own. So, Cain murdered Abel.

Whether you call it coveting, envy, selfish ambition, these are the root causes of every sin—and as James writes, when they are acted upon, “there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.”

We see this all throughout our society and institutions. With our bitter partisan divisions, we have made enemies of our fellow Americans. Public schools have become battlegrounds of personal freedom versus safety—over the issue of masking to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Some universities have devolved into inquisitions of political correctness. Conflict burns like wildfire among Christians and within congregations—while children go hungry, and the gospel goes un-proclaimed.

Everyone will say, “this is about right versus wrong, justice versus injustice, liberty versus tyranny, order versus chaos.” But is it?

James writes, “Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?”

Like Adam and Eve, we want to be the masters of our own destiny. We covet power and authority, especially when they benefit our interests. We naturally resent those who tell us what we must dop and cannot do, even when it’s for our own good. We resent those who possess knowledge we do not, particularly when that knowledge influences how we all must live.

Like Cain, we resent those who enjoy advantages which we ourselves do not—like if you had to struggle for what little you have, while others appear to get everything handed to them for free.

But when there is coveting, envy, and selfish ambition—people will get hurt; usually those who are at a social, economic, racial, or political disadvantage. And this disorder becomes the perfect breeding ground for even more chaos and violence.

We can’t go on like this. Something must change—and that change must happen inside every human heart, yours and mine included. If we cannot be good neighbors to each other, the future will be mighty bleak. As they say—united we stand, divided we fall…

Last week as our nation commemorated the 20^th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, everyone was saying, “never forget.” But who or what should we not forget?

Consider this: when the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were on fire and about to collapse, the first responders didn’t pre-determine who was worthy of rescue. The passengers who stormed the Flight 93 cockpit weren’t trying to be heroes or have monuments erected in their honor. Our troops didn’t put their lives on the line only for their political parties. Instead, these put their lives on the line (and died) to protect and save others. We will never know how many thousands, if not millions of people are alive and free today because of their sacrifice.

What these fellow citizens taught us is that freedom is a gift we give to each other through sacrifice. There’s no such thing as freedom—or the common good—without sacrifice. Jesus taught us this, and without his sacrifice we’d all still be enslaved by sin and death. 

If we fail to see one another as worthy of love, dignity, respect, daily bread; and if we are unwilling to sacrifice ourselves for each other without prejudice, none of us will be free, we will not be on the side of righteousness. We are merely beggars of our own demise.

You can have theological, moral, and political beliefs that differ from mine. We can’t all be the same and believe the same. You have a right to be angry when politicians fail to live up to the promises they made. You have the right to speak up and raise objections when you believe the institutions you depend on are moving in the wrong direction. When you are denied dignity, respect, and daily bread, you have a right to your voice and people have a duty to listen. It’s not a sin to seek justice, even if it’s for yourself and the people you care about.

Sometimes, there are worthwhile and necessary causes to fight for… There’s a time to disagree, there’s a time to compromise, there’s a time to yield, and there’s a time to walk away. The wisdom to know the difference comes from God and God alone.

But with every desire you pursue, every cause you fight for, every decision you make, you must ask: am I loving my neighbor as myself? Do I seek the neighbor’s well-being with my own? What is demanded of me, that others may live as part of the beloved community?

And in the end, when you seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness, you shall receive. James says this—and James promises this. If there is anything in this world to envy, it is a closer walk with Jesus—and the freedom to live for others. If there is anything to envy, it is to live as part of a community where God’s mercy, peace, and justice are visible to us in the care and support we give to each other. If there is anything to envy, it is peace of God, which passes all understanding, that guards your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.