1 Samuel 18:1-9

Envy is defined as "chagrin, mortification, discontent, or uneasiness at the sight of another's excellence or good fortune, accompanied with some degree of hatred and a desire to possess equal advantages."

Envy is so devastating it's known as one of the seven deadly sins, and this is because envy corrupts our soul and disrupts our relationship with God, envy turns us away from God. I believe envy is a sin of sins because being envious can lead to a life of more and more sin.

In his short story "The Window," author G. W. Target tells of two seriously-ill men who occupied the same hospital room. The man by the window was propped up for an hour each day to drain fluid from his lungs. The other man spent his entire time on his back. The two men enjoyed each other's company and talked for hours about all different types of subjects.

During the hour the one man sat up in his bed, he would describe all of the things he saw to his roommate. Each day great detail would be given to the activities going on outside. He described the park with its lovely lake and grand old trees. He would tell of children playing and lovers walking through the park outside their window.

Then one day, a beautiful parade went by. Even though he couldn't hear the music, the man on his back could see it all in his mind as his roommate gave exquisite details. But it seemed unfair. Although he enjoyed listening to his friend describe the sights, he began to crave the view himself. His desire for the bed by the window grew into a consuming thought. So much so, it even kept him awake at night.

Then, in the darkness of one sleepless night, his roommate began to cough. He was choking on the fluid in his lungs, desperately groping for the button to call for help. The envious roommate could have pushed his own button to summon a nurse, but instead, he watched the old man die.

The following morning the nurse discovered the man's death. The standard procedure was carried out, and the body was removed. The surviving man then asked to switch beds so he could see out the window.

At last, he would have what he felt he deserved. Painfully and slowly he struggled to prop himself up for his first look at the park. But to his chagrin, the window looked out to a blank wall. He learned in a very painful way that fulfillment in life is never achieved with the venom of envy.

Our scripture reading this morning is another story of envy, Saul's envy of David. And over time we learn that Saul's envy of David becomes a dangerous obsession that eventually leads to his destructive behavior. You see David was garnering more attention than Saul, especially after killing the Philistine. Scripture records that women from "all towns of Israel" came out to join the returning troops in a victory parade. They greet the returning men with singing and dancing. And they sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands."

All of a sudden Saul's joy of victory turns to anger as it seems David is praised a bit more than Saul. And this really upset Saul and he became very jealous and envious of David's popularity. As time would go by David became more and more popular, and Saul became more and more bitter. Saul became so obsessed with what he didn't have, meaning the complete devotion and praise of all the people of his kingdom, that he tried to kill David.

Envy is a sin, in that it can motivate us to potentially do harm to another. When we're envious of another, one of the things many people will engage in is tearing down that person in some way so as to look better themselves: saying things or doing things that are equivalent to what we might call "back stabbing." This envy can also escalate to the point of trying to harm someone physically as it did in the case of David.

Today, we see this played out publicly in politics all the time, but this attitude of envy isn't unique to the realm of political life, we also see this attitude played out in all facets of life, including in our families, at our work places, and in the church. We so much want something we don't have, we'll sometimes do anything to get it. And later in David's life he too would succumb to the sin of envy when he encounters Bathsheba.

If we allow envy to take root in our hearts and take hold of our lives it can be very destructive, as Saul experienced, and as the man in my earlier illustration experienced. So how do we deal with our envy?

The ultimate solution to envy is to focus our hearts and minds on the Lord giving him thanks for how we've been blessed, and by being in community with one another sharing the blessings of God with one another.

The truth is there will always be someone who has more than us or something we really want or would like to experience. But it's also true that we to have more than most people in the world and experience what others would like. So we need to stop focusing on what we don't have and focus on what we do.

God has gifted us and blessed us all in various ways. Rather than spending our time whining about what we don't have and what others do, why don't we live into the blessings we've been given, using those blessings to bring glory to God, using those blessings so others might come to receive the ultimate blessing offered to all by God's grace, eternal life.

Now one of the greatest weapons against envy is gratitude. Gratitude orients us toward what we have rather than what we lack. You see envy is tenacious and will look for ways to take over our lives unless we stay grounded in an attitude of gratitude.

Now maintaining an attitude of gratitude is a daily discipline, not merely an ideal or a principle to be thought of from time to time. We have to intentionally cultivate gratitude until it becomes a natural part of our lives. If we don't, we'll be miserable, and before we realize it our lives will be shattered, our relationships will be a mess, and this includes our relationship with God.

Annie Dillard sums up the rewards of cultivating gratitude by drawing an analogy between God's small acts of grace and finding pennies on the street. She writes: "If you cultivate healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It's that simple. What you see is what you get."

We're all human and therefore not perfect, so we may have days when we'll hate our jobs, we'll have days when we'll hate this town and perhaps the whole world too. We'll even be upset when our favorite team looses and we'll be in a bad mood. We'll have moments when we curse the rain, and complain when it gets too hot and then complain when it gets too cold. And we'll be looking around to see what someone else has, unfortunately forgetting about all we've got.

But we can't allow envy to blind us to all we have, or to turn us away from God. The truth is we each have been blessed by God; so let's realize the blessings in our lives, and give thanks. Rather than being blinded by envy may our eyes be always open to the glory of the Lord.

Amen.