Beyond Recovery

Beyond Recovery

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

October 28, 2018

at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia

Romans 11: 11-21

Jonah 4: 4-11

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

For your eyes show the way

Your mind knows the truth

Your being is the life.

Amen.

So for the last few weeks we’ve been in anguish with Paul about his sadness over so many of his people not converting, not being drawn to Christ, and he continues on this theme with our lesson for this week, as he continues further into chapter 11. Listen to what he writes this week: this is chapter 11:11-21

 ¹¹ Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all!Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. ¹² But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!

¹³ I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry ¹⁴ in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. ¹⁵ For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? ¹⁶ If the part of the dough offered as firstfruitsis holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷ If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, ¹⁸ do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹ You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

In reading that this week there were two things that jumped out to me. . . one the first line, which was, “did they stumble as to fall beyond recovery” and the other that the purpose of the gentile ministry was to create envy in those who had not fallen in the fold, so I thought that I would spend some time reacting to those, that in fact there would be two sermons, one on stumbling beyond recovery, and one on this positive view of envy but I want to do the envy one first.

Because of all the seven deadly sins, envy is the one I most dislike. . . it causes the most problems. . .

It’s so bad that it has two of the ten commandments about it. . . Right Thou shalt not covet. . . not thy neighbor’s wife, not thy neighbor’s house, his slaves, his animals. . . or anything else. . . they are pretty clear on this whole coveting thing being bad.

Let’s define envy then:

If Pride is self-idolatry, a disordered love.

Envy is the cousin of pride, disordered hate.

Envy is instead consumed with the idea that everyone else and everything else is threatening or diminishing to us

St. Thomas Aquinas says that envy is the hatred of a good enjoyed by one’s neighbor or the rejoicing in his harm. The proud man wants to usurp the lord’s rightful power. The envious man wants there to be no lord at all.

It comes from the latin word Invidia – which means seeing inside out, or looking at things wrong

Which fits the Divine Comedy – in Purgatory, those who are envious have their eyes shown shut with wire. . .

Reminds me of Thumper, and his daddy, if you can’t say anything nice. . . or in this case if you can’t see anything nice. . . don’t see anything at all.

the Parson in the Canterbury Tales says that it is the worst of all sins because it is the only one that seeks to pull down others, rather than just a fall from your own virtue. . .

Our Old Testament Lesson is a great example of this as well. . .

 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

⁵ Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. ⁶ Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant^[a] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⁷ But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. ⁸ When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die,and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

¹⁰ But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. ¹¹ And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh,in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

Proverbs 14:30

A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

Romans 1:29

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,

I can’t stand envy. . . we used to have an envy bush. . . the girls would have to run to it

We see it in our world too. . . and in adults. . . there is nothing worse for the community, for the country than the politically correct push for egalitarianism. . . or a false equality of outcomes. . . There is a difference between equal opportunity and equal results. .  hatred of another person’s success, which we’ve defined envy to be, not only hurts us and our relationships but it tears down the foundation that we build our communities on. . .

No two people are given the same fortune, the same talent, the same, health, the same ingenuity, the same work ethic. . . we just aren’t the same. . . why not?

Because obviously it is not God’s will that we would all be the same. . . God seems to like things that break categories and are a little messy. . .

Equal is straight lines and perfect angles. . . but what map of nature have you ever seen like that. . .

No God makes the lion and the lamb, the cheetah and the elephant, the hippo and the sailfish. . . the flea and the whale. . . equality does not seem to be his thing.

So this envy thing is having an ungrateful heart that is blind to the gifts we have been given in focus of our neighbors. . .

Looking at that greener grass on the other side of the fence, so sure that the other has it so much easier than you do, wishing to take a walk in someone else’s shoes in theory, but never having done so. . .

It’s a lack of gratitude and a lack of empathy. . . because we all face trials and nothing is as easy or bad as it seems and the grass is not greener over there.

But as despicable as envy is. . . look at how Paul uses it here.

What do you think of that

What do you think of God using sin as a means of inspiring folks to salavation

Paul of all people . . . does this mean we should sin so grace abounds. . . by no means! He say. . . isn’t God made the greater by our sins. . . by no means!

“, I take pride in my ministry ¹⁴ in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. “

I hope that it will arouse my people to envy. . .

Now I’ve always said that I am not for scaring people to salvation because I don’t think it creates a lasting genuine love. . . but how bout this envy thing?

Can envy, which we’ve shown to be a vile sin, a horrible sin, a community shattering, relationship destroying sin? Can envy be a path to salvation? Can envy which drives wedges between people, separating them, dividing them and building walls of resentment actually be a step towards Salvation and a fuller relationship with God?

If we are to listen to Paul, and he is calling us to, then yes it must be. . .

God can even use the vilest of sins as a means towards salvation. . .

We talked about God hardening and softening hearts. . . is this possibly one of those ways he does it?

One thing that it shows, that envy shows is desire. . . and desire for God is a marker, it shows something about where our hearts are. . .

Ftheonou – envy in Romans 1

Parazelostho – envy in Romans 11

WE can see the roots in these – theo – God in Romans 1

And para – beside --- and zelostho – which means boiling. . . beside boiling misplaced desire, but zeal is in that too, which is a boiling over. . . passion is something God is about.

Which brings me to the next part. . . did they stumble as to fall beyond recovery? By no means. . .

This really does speak to the glory of God, because if God can even use a sin like envy, which we have shown to be so vile. . . then there is nothing that he can’t use to bring us to salvation. . . there is no limit to his power. . . he always shows up. . . and we see it throughout the Biblical story. . . again and again God shows up, and it is us that hides, it is ourselves that runs away, but God is there again and again, throughout, constant, steadfast.

I said in the weekend welcome how important context is. . .we’ve already looked at it once today with the idea that Paul uses two different words, though we translate them the same – envy. . . but think about an earlier point that Paul makes, and how much his words echo eachother, and make each other true. . .

 ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing, not even envy, not even the greatest sin,  nothing can separate us from the love of God that is Christ Jesus, , for God is very much in control. . . and everything he uses as means to bring us towards salvation, and means to give us a new chance at extending and passing on grace. . .

For as he says we are grafted into a vine, we are not the roots but branches grafted in, we do not make the plant holy, the root does. . . and the root is. . . holy