When Envy Enters the Sanctuary: The Responsibility in the Room

The closed session still has last month's numbers on the whiteboard. God is good sat in the opening prayer.

Another church's attendance sat in the quieter sentence after the vote. The chairs moved the calendar forward without occupying the envy in the same air this table had to keep together.

A staff member two rooms down already received the public version of this oversight. The public version can quote the psalm and close the minutes. It still treats another congregation's ease as indoor furniture the flock is not allowed to hear named as envy. If you preach Psalm 73 as a scolding against jealousy in the pew, you will miss the people at this table who already feel ashamed of noticing an unfair year. If you preach it as a promise that the envied church will stumble by Friday, you will lie to shepherds who have to live with those numbers on Tuesday. Preach it as wisdom poetry: envy distorts the books, and only God's presence tells the truth.

Text

Hear Psalm 73:1-28, from the World English Bible: "Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no struggles in their death, but their strength is firm. They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment. Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit. They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression. They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth. Therefore their people return to them, and they drink up waters of abundance.