Gluttony, Greed, Envy, Sloth, Lust, Pride...what was the seventh deadly sin; I could not remember as I kept counting them out on my fingers this morning. When I came in the office I asked Audrey--she couldn't think of it either, so I had to look it up, although you probably know it: it is Anger! I had actually thought about anger and then said, 'Nah, it can't be; anger is such a common emmotion, and besides, even Jesus got angry; God gets angry.' But it is anger, or wrath if you prefer. And when it is indulged, it is deadly, as I am sure many doctors and counsellors would agree.
And isn't that the thing about most of the deadly sins; they often have a stealth element about them, or they are disguised in ways that make it hard for us to see them at work in ourselves, even as we can see them clearly at work in others. For example, busy people (I can tell you from experience) are some of the most slothful people on earth: Naomi was always amazed at how much housework I got done on Saturdays when my sermon was needing to get written!
This Sunday we will be taking a look at the deadly sin of Greed. 'Be on your guard against all kinds of greed,' Jesus says the gospel reading about the man who keeps building storehouses for all of his grain. I think what he means by that is that greed has thousands of subtle disguises, and we need to be vigilent lest we wake up one day and find that our lives have been squeezed almost dry in its vise-like grip. We will be looking at Greed, how it operates, and what we can do about it. We will even sing 'O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing'--an appropriately greedy song title, now that I think about it! R
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