“The Source of Conflict” Colchester Federated Church, September 22, 2024, Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a)

As we continue our exploration of The Letter of James (next Sunday will mark the end of this sermon series), today we are thinking about jealousy/envy.  It’s not the most comfortable topic.  So far, James has shared wisdom about anger, advising us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to grow angry.  James reminded us that his brother Jesus called us to love our neighbors and that faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity.  We can be compelled to put our faith into action.  Last Sunday, James advised us to tame our tongues.  Because with our tongues we can both bless God and curse people made in the image and likeness of God, and it just shouldn’t be this way.  James reminded us that words have power.  Our words can heal, and our words can wound. 

In Chapters 3 and 4 of the letter, we are reminded of the importance of humble lifestyles that come from wisdom.  James rather bluntly lays out the situation, “Wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and everything that is evil.”[1]  James asks where the source of conflict is among the followers of Jesus.  James wants to get to the heart of the matter and figure out the root cause of problems being experienced both within people and as a community of faith.  James asks, “What is the source of conflict among you?  What is the source of your disputes?  Don’t they come from your cravings that are at war in your own lives?”[2]  In a way, James answers his own questions.  He tells us that perhaps we long for something we don’t have, so we commit murder.  Well, that’s a bit extreme.  Then again, James tells us that maybe we are jealous for something that we can’t get, and so we struggle and fight.  Don’t most of us experience that?

Have we heard of the seven deadly sins?  I assume that those of you who grew up in the Roman Catholic Church know them (maybe by heart)!  Stay with me anyway!  These heavyweight sins have sometimes captured our imaginations.  And not just in the Christian world, but in popular culture.  The seven deadly sins were featured recently in one of those high-budget comic book movies—Shazam.  The seven deadly sins were depicted as a group of ancient demons that represented the very worst aspects of humanity.  UCC Minister Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers wrote a book years ago called The Virtue in the Vice: Finding Seven Lively Virtues in the Seven Deadly Sins.  I used the book as a main source to preach a seven-week sermon series on the seven deadly sins and seven lively virtues at my former church. 

And here’s one thing about the seven deadly sins we may or may not remember—we won’t find a compiled list of them in the Bible.  Listing out the seven deadly sins was a product of the medieval church and monastic thinking.  Because your average person was not literate in medieval times, so compiling lists of sins and categorizing them was a way to help people understand what not to do.  Some Christian traditions still operate this way.  Of course, we can challenge this way of thinking as controlling or overly focused on guilt and shame.  We can wonder if compiling and categorizing sins is ultimately about the Church having power and keeping people in line.  However, the seven deadly sins can still be viewed as “toxic to the soul.”[3]  Some of these so-called deadly sins do indeed represent troubling aspects of human behavior.  The traditional seven deadly sins are: pride, envy, anger, lust, gluttony, greed, and sloth.

We can keep in mind that James has been cautioning the earliest believers about some of these deadly sins along the way in his letter.  For instance, anger has been a frequent topic of discussion.  Remember James’ advice: “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to grow angry.  This is because an angry person doesn’t produce God’s righteousness.”[4]  There have been many spiritual leaders who have understood that anger can be dangerous to others and to ourselves.  Just last Sunday we were considering how hard it can be to tame our tongues, especially when we are angry.  Yet we know how necessary it is to do so considering the damage that can be caused when we say whatever we want in the heat of the moment without considering the consequences of our words and lasting hurt.

Additionally, James has been cautioning the earliest believers about the deadly sins of greed and pride.  Remember when he gave the scenario about two people walking into a worship service.  One person has a gold ring on their finger and is wearing nice clothing.  The other person is poor and dressed in filthy rags.  Suppose we took special notice of the one wearing the nice clothes and jewelry and gave them a seat of honor.  But to the poor person, we told them to stand in the back or even sit on the ground.  James was warning the earliest followers of Jesus to not show favoritism.  Because when believers show favoritism to the rich, they are inherently discriminating against the poor.  People start acting like judges who judge other people according to their own prejudices and self-interest and not according to God’s values.

Today James is explicitly warning people about the danger of the deadly sin of envy.  So, my mind went to the seven deadly sins this week (not sure what this says about me, especially being born and raised in the UCC where we don’t overly focus on sin and guilt and shame, but here we are)!  I went here because there are some arguments that envy is the worst of them all.  Because there is something about envy that can bring out the worst in us.  When James is talking about the source of the conflict among the followers of Jesus, he talks about the cravings that are at war in our lives.  He speaks about longing for things that we don’t have.  He says that when we are jealous for something we can’t get, that’s what makes us struggle and fight.  Cravings, longings, jealousies that result in struggles and fights—envy is the source of conflict.  This is the argument that James makes.  Why?

As Robin Meyers explains, “When the church called envy a deadly sin, it was nicknamed the ‘green eyed monster.’  Envy is the pain we feel when we perceive another individual possessing some object, quality or status we do not possess . . . True envy consumes us.  If we don’t have it, we don’t want anyone else to have it either.”[5]

Sometimes envy plays out on a large scale with institutions like governments and businesses and schools.  There are conversations around Colchester about the state of our schools, athletic fields, our town itself versus neighboring towns.  Sometimes the green-eyed monster of envy appears.  Churches are no better.  Sometimes when clergy colleagues gather, we can’t help but compare our churches (and humbly brag)—whether that comparison is when our church was founded, how many active members we have, how large the endowment may be, and on and on.  I admit to coming home from clergy gatherings like that and complaining to Neill (whether he wants to hear it or not)!  Or perhaps on a personal level, we look at our neighbors and think—well, it must be nice to have a new car or go on that fancy vacation or already have the new iPhone or have the perfect marriage and the perfect children and the perfect house.

That green-eyed monster of envy has a way of consuming us.  The story we tell ourselves when we feel jealous may not even be true.  Though we want what somebody else has and that craving/longing/jealousy can bring out the worst in us.  We can call it a “deadly sin” or not.  The label doesn’t really matter.  Though once again James is sharing timeless wisdom and a warning.  James wrote, “Wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and everything that is evil.”[6]  Wherever there is envy, there is everything that separates us from God, from one another, and from our best selves.  We are meant for so much more.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] James 3:16, CEB.
[2] James 4:1.
[3] Dr. Robin R. Meyers, The Virtue in the Vice: Finding Seven Lively Virtues in the Seven Deadly Sins, pg. xi.
[4] James 1:19-20.
[5] Meyers, The Virtue in the Vice, pg. 34.
[6] James 3:16.

Photo by Rev. Lauren Ostrout.