Eric's Sunday Sermon; Of Coveting, Pride and Prejudice

Let us have no doubt that any thinking man will tell you that these are harmful sins. But any deeply thinking man will tell you that they are also human nature and have their place. If we have done our duty to God and man then we can view these attributes not as character defects but rather good. Of course that duty is to love. If we fill our hearts with love and allow our vision to be through the lens of love. As in my case I draw great inspiration from a man who walked this earth 2,000+ years ago. However it is of great consternation to fundamentalist Bible thumpers that I always quote two parts of scripture to guide my life and thoughts. These of course are the notions that we have two great commandments requiring us to love our God with all our might and to love our neighbor the same, and that great definition of love that is read at all traditional Christian weddings. “Love is”. Make no mistake this is 1 Cor. 13 4-8. And here is something really cool – all you have to do is type in “love is” into google and it will bring you right to it. Isn’t that cool that a search engine puts this notion only on the first page. We can go look for a definition and the most popular one was written thousands of years ago and still holds true and applicable today. I think that is great.

Lest I bore who with my devotion to the concept of love I suppose I should get along with some discussion of the title of this hub. But it is the above premise that allows us to see the good in what is so often thought of as bad.

Hey there is some bad coveting go on out there. Coveting a married couple spouse is a really bad thing in my mind. Coveting the possessions of another is disgusting. It is both materialistic to a fault and just plain wrong. Coveting the worldly success of another is just plain stupid and counterproductive to a healthy life. Coveting the wealth of another puts you in a bad place and out of harmony with love. We can see that most coveting is not loving or caring or charitable. Environmentally it leads us to want more and more stuff and our mother earth needs us to want less and less stuff. “Keeping up with the Jones’s” causes a consumer frenzy that creates the using up and destroying our precious natural habitat and beauty of creation.

Ah ha! I admit and confess to coveting. But I can no longer covet as above as I have prayed on it and thought on it for many years. Those are roads to destruction and despair and take us away from our purpose to love one another.

So we ask how coveting can be good. Let us take a man with great love in his heart and charitable deeds. If we are at all religious Let us take a man who is not hypocritical and walks the talk. Let us take a couple that shows great commitment and love for each other. Let us take a man who is a great steward of our earth. Well I want what they have. I aspire to have what they have. I am inspired to do better to be more like them. I covet their love of others and life. This takes nothing from them and letting them know that I want what they have in this sense is of inspiration to them. This leads me to become a better more loving man.

There is a term called vainglory it is one of those words that leads immediately to thoughts of vanity and the glorification of ourselves. This is bad stuff. Boy let me tell you I have been there and regret every minute of it but will not forget that that period got me to where I am today. Oh sure we all agree that we should love ourselves before we go about loving others but vainglory is different. It is self-centered, egotistical and self-serving. It is the epitome of not loving.

But regular old pride is different. I wish for every father and mother to be proud of their children. I wish for all to be prideful in their work for good health. I wish for everyone to be proud of their deeply held beliefs. I wish for everyone who does charitable deeds to the glory of their God to be proud of that. I wish for everyone who guides others to lead a better life to be proud of that. I wish for everyone who works in service to provide for their family blessings.

Oh to be sure these are gifts we are given by our creator. Given in love and freely. But we must put those gifts into action and when we do we should be prideful that we have served our God with the honor due God, adoration and love.

This is a sticky wicket and one we should tread careful with. Prejudice to the point of hatred is always a bad thing. Certainly prejudice based on differences is a bad thing. Prejudice based on geographies is harmful to our growth and understanding. Prejudice against societal status is pretty much evil. Prejudice against another due to beliefs is not in accord with love and compassion. Basically prejudice is bad when it emanates from our preferences and desire.

But I admit and confess that I am prejudice. If it makes sense I am prejudice against prejudice as just described. I am prejudice toward murderers and sex offenders. I am prejudice against any man who abuses children or women. I am even prejudice against those that through sloth and choice remain ignorant. So call me prejudice and I will actually agree with you.

But back to our preface and beginning here. I still have to love those that I am prejudice against. I still have to show compassion and charity to them. There is a notion that it is just plain easy to love your friends and family. Anybody save a depraved soul can do that. But it takes all the love we got and extreme effort to love one whom you are prejudice against. For me, I can only do this through the strength I gather from my God. Most assuredly for me it requires reading of scripture, meditation and prayer. I hope you have some practice that helps you stay in tune with that core love that you can spread even to your enemies.

You can do it. You can examine your own heart. Be careful of letting another do it for you. You can do your job here on earth and spread the love and inspiration to others. You were given a gift more so than any other creature of the earth. You are a child of the Most High. You can take your negatives and turn them into positives through the love freely given to you. We can be better stewards and servants of what is good we just have to give it some thought and try. Perhaps today we can put aside our negative side of coveting, pride and prejudice and embrace those concepts with love. Actually we could say embrace your love with love.

From Paul to us.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.