March 26thSix of One, Half a Dozen of Another?
To my dear TFMC family,
These last few weeks have made for fun discussions in the car drive home. This past week Christine remarked to me, “So, what’s the difference between Envy and Greed? They seem to be so similar.” And she’s not wrong, a lot of these Sins that we’re discussing seem to share attributes with each other.
In Christine’s defense, she answered her own question, reflecting that while both Envy and Greed have similar roots, a desire for more, Greed is more interested in the accumulation, rather than just coveting another has. As we talked more we did agree that these Sins that we’re exploring do tend to overlap; their boundaries tend to blur between one and the other.
At the root of most of these Sins is a love of self. Pride makes us think of ourselves first, Envy makes us covet what others have because we feel that we’re lacking, Greed wants more at others expense, Lust is concerned with self-pleasure, Gluttony is an overconsumption.
Embodied in these Sins is a misdirected love. It’s love that’s directed at oneself. It’s an inward pointing love; a self serving love.
And yet, we’re called to take this inward pointing love, reorient it and direct it outwards. We’re called to share the love of God. We’re called to be a blessing to our neighbours and to our surrounding community.
Part of the challenge of talking about these Sins is differentiating them each one from the other.
The other part of the challenge is uncovering and bringing light to these corners of our personalities. And, it seems to me at least, that it’s harder to name these Sins, as they have, in some ways, become normalized by our culture.
Pride is regularly encouraged as a mask for self-confidence. Our modern consumerist society embraced Envy as a sales tactic. Greed is no longer looked down upon even though the divide between the haves and the have nots has grown. The adult entertainment industry has worked hard to normalize Lust. The food and restaurant industry has tried to entice customers with more food for less money. Our leisure industry makes promises that equate laziness with rest. Rage rooms have promised to be places where we can ‘safely’ vent our suppressed anger.
By confronting these Sins in our lives, we prepare ourselves to better reflect the love of God. As we continue to cultivate the holy virtues, our love is re-oriented, it is redirected, away from ourselves, as we embody Jesus’ teaching to love our neighbour, as we love ourselves. These virtues re-shape the way we love. The Christian walk is not to be Sinless, that’s impossible, rather, the Christian walk is to be honest with ourselves, recognizing the Sin in our lives, and working towards re-orienting our misdirected love.
Yours,
Craig Janzen Neufeld, Pastor