AfterWords: Seven Deadly Sins...Life-Giving Virtues -- Wrath

 

Romans 12:17-21

Today, we come to the sin of wrath…not be confused with mere anger. We all get angry from time to time. Jesus got angry. Paul got angry. Anger is a normal human emotion, and we’re told that anger grows out of our fears or our sense of injustice. When our child runs out in the street, we yell, we grab their arm…we’re angry…and we’re angry because we are afraid for our child’s life. When we see people robbed of basic services and rights, we get angry; when we see people taking advantage of the system, we get angry—both of these cause anger because a sense of justice is challenged.

But, wrath—in the context of these deadly sins—takes anger to the next level. Wrath means two things: 1) I have taken the offense personally, and 2) I want to get even; I want vengeance. On a national level, when we discovered that Osama Bin-Laden and al-Qaeda were responsible for the 9/11 attack on our country, we wanted vengeance. We began the “war on terror”…a war that continues to this day. On a personal level, we feel attacked or offended daily as we drive—especially if one lives in the Rio Grande Valley. People pull out in front of us, make incredibly dangerous U-turns, and cross three lanes of traffic at the last minute to make a sudden exit. And, of course, at work, in our communities, and even in our own families—we are offended, challenged, endangered…and we want revenge.

Paul’s letter to Romans tells us, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (12:19). We can be angry, but we can’t allow our anger to grow into wrath…something that moves us towards revenge. Paul simply echoes Jesus: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also” (Matt. 5:38-39). So, our Christian ancestors are right when they call this a ‘deadly sin’—it destroys relationships and robs us of life. We have got to abandon the attitudes and behaviors of wrath. How?

First, we accept and trust that what God says in Scripture is true. We believe it…and allow belief to impact our actions. God’s Word says God will get the revenge, God will set things right. Then, we stop planning revenge (for some of you, you’re not going to know what to do with all that spare time!) But, now that we know, we stop. Maya Angelou says, “When we know better, we do better.” Finally, we replace wrath with kindness. Paul writes, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21)

Besides, when has vengeance ever fixed a situation? When has revenge ever made things right? Never. When US Special Forces killed Bin-Laden in 2011, did it make things right, did we regain a sense of safety in America? When we jump in front of the bad driver and slow down just to "show them," does it really fix anything? So, we put aside wrath, and we respond with goodness and kindness—we pray for others, we allow others to go first, we presume they need something we don’t see. And, if there has been any injustice, we trust God to make things right--in God's way, at God's time. When we do, we let go of life-robbing attitudes and behaviors and embrace the life-giving way of Jesus.

Sunday, July 13, 2025
“Seven Deadly Sins Life-Giving Virtues”
Watch/Listen: HERE

AfterWords: "Seven Deadly Sins - Sloth"

 

Ephesians 4:11-15

The Scriptures have plenty to say about this week’s “deadly sin”—sloth or laziness. Proverbs 6 captures the sentiments of Scripture clearly:

⁶ Go to the ant, you sluggard;
    consider its ways and be wise!
⁷ It has no commander,
    no overseer or ruler,
⁸ yet it stores its provisions in summer
    and gathers its food at harvest.

⁹ How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
    When will you get up from your sleep?
¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest—
¹¹ and poverty will come on you like a thief
    and scarcity like an armed man.

The message comes through loud and clear—no room for the lazy among the people of God. Paul echoes the same message in his writing: “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat’” (2 Thess. 3:10). We get the message—don’t be lazy loafers.

Today, we’ve taken lazy to new places—mainly to our minds. We have become lazy thinkers; we allow others to think for us. Paul has something to say about that as well. In Ephesians 6, Paul is concerned that “we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God.”  When we have that unity and knowledge, “then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” Rather, we must be a people who insist on “speaking the truth in love.” Knowledge, truth--these we need to seek.

Today, we tend to be lazy thinkers. We tend to believe or accept anything that appears enough times on social media. We start to believe something if someone simply says it often enough. People still believe cracking our knuckles will lead to arthritis (not true). Folks believe “sugar free” is better for us (not true, unless one is an insulin dependent diabetic). Christians believe that God causes the suffering of this life (false—God is the Author of life and joy). After the horrific tragedy of the Hill Country Floods this past week, already hundreds (if not thousands) have posted on social media that the floods are “the wrath of God” or “God’s call for repentance” (not true—the floods are a symptom of our sin-broken world.)

Paul says we are to pursue knowledge and truth. That means we read, we study, we search for real answers. Jesus says, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). When we really and truly know what Jesus teaches, we will find freedom…freedom from fear, freedom from the lies of the world around us. So, when ‘lazy’ creeps up on us, let us throw it off and do something—read, write, draw, cut the grass, help a friend. We reject and replace laziness with a life of creativity, productivity, activity…and when we do, our sleep is sweeter and the world is a better place.

Sunday, July 3, 2025
“Seven Deadly Sins Life-Giving Virtues”
Watch/Listen: HERE

AfterWords: Seven (Deadly Sins) Life-Giving Virtues

 

1 Timothy 6:17-19

Greed. We don’t have to look far to see the greed around us. We all know of Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg—people who are worth hundreds of billions of dollars—and we see that they want more. More, more, more. But, we need not focus on our billionaires. We look around our own cities, in our communities, and even in the mirror…and we find greed.

“Greed is defined as the immoderate love or desire for riches and earthly possessions. A person can also be greedy for fame, attention, power, or anything else that feeds one’s selfishness.”^[1] It’s a love or desire for more riches, more things. Last week’s look at gluttony revealed that far too many of us have much more than what we need. One of our greatest challenges is finding space to store our stuff—our unnecessary often redundant stuff.

But, there is another element of greed in our lives: time. We become greedy of our time. Perhaps it’s to be expected in this rapid, rushing world of ours. We only have so many hours in a day, and those hours—besides sleeping, eating, and working—become quickly filled with family activities, after hours Zoom meetings, spouses’ wishlists, and all of the other things that crave our time. Soon, we become greedy with our time…and we hold on every minute we can.

Where does greed come from—whether greed for money or greed for time? Greed is born out of fear…fear of not having enough, fear that we’ll need more than we already have. Since our God says hundreds of times in Scripture, “Fear not!”, we know that fear is not from God. In fact, Jesus gives us every reason not to fear, not to be afraid that we won’t have what we need. In his “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus reminds us that God provides, so we don’t need to live in fear of not having enough (Matthew 6:25-33).

As we have already seen, it is not enough to let go of greed; we need to replace the life-robbing (“deadly) attitudes and behaviors with life-giving virtues. Paul tells us in his letter to Timothy that Christians are not “to put their hope in wealth,…but to put their hope in God…to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share” (1 Tim. 6:17-18). We replace our greed with generosity.

The poet, Maya Angelou, says this: “I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.” We find freedom in trusting God and letting go of fear. I have yet to hear anyone bemoan being generous with their resources or their time. Let us be a people of generosity, sharing our lives and resources as able with the world around us.

Sunday, June 29, 2025
“Seven Deadly Sins Life-Giving Virtues”
Watch/Listen: HERE

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[1] Ostberg and René, “Greed | Description, Deadly Sin, History, Bible, & Facts,” Encyclopedia Britannica, last modified July 14, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/greed.

AfterWords: “Seven (Deadly Sins) Life-Giving Virtues”

 

John 6:35

We continue this week with the “Seven Deadly Sins”—that list of attitudes and behaviors that our Christian ancestors began developing in the 3rd Century, those attitudes and behaviors that rob us of life, and separate us from God and one another.

Gluttony is taking an excess of food or drink…more than we need. We find gluttony mentioned and condemned in the Old and New Testaments. In the 21st Century, we continue to wrestle with gluttony. We tend to celebrate every good thing with excess food and drink, and we tend to respond to every set-back with excess food and drink. Our culture glorifies food, promotes excess, and generally encourages us to throw off restraint. To make it worse, our food manufacturers today desig addictive ultra processed foods.

But, food and drink are no longer the only excesses of our lives. We have hundreds of channels and dozens of streaming services that tickle our desire to be entertained. So, we watch more and more and more. We live in a capitalist culture that encourages us to buy more and more and more. We now binge on potato chips, binge on alcohol, binge-watch shows, and binge-shop at the mall. We eat, drink, watch, and buy more, and these excesses are robbing us of life.

Paul writes that people have becomes “enemies of the cross” and that “their god is their stomach” (Phil. 3:18-19). In short, people are trying to fill the spiritual hole in their lives in the same way they fill their stomach—with food and drink. All of our excess is our attempt to deal with the emotional and spiritual issues of our lives with physical, earthly stuff. We eat too much, drink too much, watch too much, and buy too much as we deal with personal emptiness, strive to handle the pain of life, or attempt to fell something instead of nothing.

Jesus knows this is true, and we find it in John 6. Over 5000 people are fed. Jesus leaves and travels to another part of the lake. The people follow him and want more food. Jesus tells them that what they need is not more baked bread but the “bread of life”—himself.

As with bad habits, we need to replace sinful attitudes and behaviors with virtuous ones. Just as I replaced bread, butter, and honey (deadly) with cucumbers, hummus, and whole-wheat crackers (life-giving), we replace gluttony (excess for self) with generosity towards others. We say ‘no’ to the sin, ask God to show us what we’re avoiding or not dealing with well, and instead of feeding ourselves, getting drunk, watching the screen until we fall asleep, or buying yet another blouse or another tool, we help feed others, we do chores that await us, we serve others, we get outside of ourselves. In short, we recognize that Jesus is what we lack, and we stop trying to fill ourselves and our time with food, drink, and stuff. We turn to God to help us redirect our lives towards Jesus—the bread of life—and his Kingdom.

Sunday, June 22, 2025
“Seven Deadly Sins Life-Giving Virtues”
Watch/Listen: HERE

AfterWords: “Seven (Deadly Sins) Life-Giving Virtues”

 

Philippians 2:1-4

I had the habit of eating two pieces of toast with a generous helping of butter and honey every night before bed. I realized that this was literally killing me, that I had to stop. Stopping was not enough—I needed to do something else at that time…or I would just fall back into the bad behavior. So, I started eating a sliced tomato with olive oil. Better, right? (I hope!) Just as it is with habits, we need to replace our sins with virtues, our sinful attitudes and behaviors with godly attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, while we identify these deadly sins in our lives, we also need to practice life-giving virtues.

The “Seven Deadly Sins” are not found in the Bible, per se—no Old Testament list, no list in Jesus’ sermons, and no list in Paul’s writing. Rather, these sins were first identified by 2nd and 3rd Century Christians who were escaping the evil cities and going out to live in the desert. They soon learned what we know today: Wherever you go, there you are. They took their sins with them. Over time, they began to identify the sins that were most damaging, most life-sucking…the sins that took their eyes and attention off of God. That list evolved into the Seven Deadly Sins.

Our first sin is lust, a sin Jesus highlights in his Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:27-30). Jesus points out that the sin behind adultery is lust…and that we need to root out this and other sins the seek to destroy us and others. Other writers of the New Testament also point to the sin of lust (Col.3:5; 1 Thess. 4:5; 1 Peter 4:3).

What is lust? “Lust is the strong, passionate desire for something…a disordered and inappropriately strong desire…a desire that leads us to act against our best interests…When directed at a person, lust makes us unconcerned about the object of lust.”^[1]

While we can lust for power, for wealth, for popularity…Jesus and Scripture focuses on our lust for others. When we do, when give all that energy to the object of our lusts, we take our eyes off of God, and we rob ourselves of real life. We say, “the object of our lust,” and that indicates exactly what happens when we lust for another person—we objectify them. They lose their humanity. When we catch ourselves in the sin of lust, we find a way of escape by recalling and holding on to the person’s humanity. We remember this is a daughter or son of someone…a brother or sister…a person with dreams and hopes and aspirations—and those do not include being the object of our lust. That person is also created by God, loved by God, and embodies the “image of God” (Gen. 1:27).

The other side of this same coin is loathing. When we see someone that we loathe, we have done the same thing—we have objectified them, robbed them of their humanity. We are able to think less of them because we have conveniently forgotten that they, too, are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, made in the image of God and deeply loved of God.

We respond to lust and loathing in the same way—we remember that they are human beings. Paul tells us, “… in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Phil. 2:3-4). When we see another person that we feel tempted to objectify (whether lusting or loathing), let us hold on to this Scripture and remember their very real humanity. If doing this, we walk away from death and embrace life.

Sunday, June 15, 2025
“Seven Deadly Sins Life-Giving Virtues”
Watch/Listen: HERE

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[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201408/the-philosophy-of-lust#:~:text=Lust%20is%20the%20strong%2C%20passionate,fame%2C%20power%2C%20or%20knowledge .

AfterWords: “What Does This Mean?”

 

Acts 2:1-21

Every year we celebrate, we remember, Pentecost Sunday. And we should! This was the beginning of something entirely new that God was doing in the world, something that Jesus proclaimed and promised: The coming of God’s Spirit to us.

On that first Pentecost Sunday as recorded in Acts 2, we find two responses to this event—this appearance of “something like tongues of fire” and everyone “hearing their own language.” The fiery tongues go largely unnoticed, but that language thing? THAT was noticed. One response was, “They’re drunk!” Well, that’s an interesting response…but not without its merit. In 2017, Time magazine published an article, “Alcohol Helps You Speak a Foreign Language Better,” but Peter assures folks it’s way too early for that. The second response is where we want to go: “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:12). Rather than wrestling with the details that may explain what happened, like those early observers/participants, we want to dive into the meaning—what does Pentecost mean?

What does this mean? When we see the people from across the Mediterranean world assembled in this scene, we realize that Pentecost means there is no room in God’s Church, in God’s family, for racism, culturalism, nationalism, or any other -ism that serves to divide or separate people. While the Church has often dropped the ball on this (see the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s), Pentecost means that all people and all peoples are welcome.

What does this mean? When Jesus was still with the disciples, he promised them the Holy Spirit who would “help you and be with you forever” (Jn 14:17). After the resurrection, Jesus told his followers they would receive the Spirit. In Acts, just before Pentecost, Jesus tells them to remain in Jerusalem to await the Spirit. And then the Spirit falls…and God’s presence is now forever with us to help us and be with us. This means we are never alone—in the very best sense. When we as congregation engage in ministry, God is with us. When we feed the hungry, build ramps, cook for the homeless, meet for Sunday School, gather for Bible study, God is with us. When we are “alone” in our homes, riding in our cars, walking in the morning, God is with us. Pentecost extends the reality that Jesus began: Immanuel—God with us.

What does this mean? Peter’s sermon begins with a quotation from the prophet Joel about men and women, young and old, slave and free…all of them speaking God’s word, God’s will. Pentecost means that God longs to use everyone in ministry. No one is excluded—all who are willing are included in God’s mission to the world.

Pentecost—this is God’s GREAT news for us: All are welcome; we are never alone; God longs for us to join in the mission to the world.

Sunday, June 8, 2025
“What Does This Mean?”
Watch/Listen: HERE

AfterWords: Who is Matthias?

 

Acts 1:15-17, 20-26

When we think of the disciples, Peter is often the first who jumps to mind. Then, there’s James and John. Almost immediately after these, we think of Matthias, right? Matthias? Wait. Who is Matthias?

He is mentioned exactly two times in Scripture—and both mentions are in today’s reading. The disciples-now-apostles (apostle means “sent”) decide they need to fill the place left by Judas who died in some 'we’re-not-sure' fashion. The requirements of the one who could take his place?
“…One of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us…” (Acts 1:21-22). So, we know that Matthias has been a faithful disciple all this time. And, we confirm here that more than just the Twelve were with Jesus during his ministry.

But, Matthias is not mentioned in the Gospels…and neither Paul, James, Peter, nor John mention him in the rest of the New Testament writings. Matthias lives and serves as one of the “quiet witnesses”—those who do not stand in the spotlight, those who do not call the attention of the world. In fact, Matthias comes to represent the vast majority of the Christians in the world, the disciples through the centuries.

Between the 1^st Century AD and the 4^th Century AD, the Christian faith grew from the “120 believers” mentioned in today’s reading to over 25,000,000. That is staggering, phenomenal, unimaginable. How did it grow like that? Well, it wasn’t because of those Twelve disciples—they were gone in a single generation. So, we realize that the “quiet witnesses” of the ages continued and continue today to tell the story, to invite others to know Jesus, to share with others what they had found in this thing called the Christian faith.

Matthias is us--you and me. We are not in the spotlight. No one will ever talk about us in seminaries. We won’t show up in the church history books. We are the quiet witnesses who befriend, invite, pray, share, encourage, and spend time with others.

Think about your own life: Who was the quiet witness that brought you to faith, invited you to a Bible study, prayed with you in your time of need, first told you about Jesus? Was it a Sunday School teacher, a youth leader, a children’s director…a neighbor…a grade-school teacher…a VBS leader…a parent…a relative? Someone, somewhere along the way quietly lived and witnessed to the faith that impacted your life.

And now, for whom are you a quiet witness? Who will come to faith because of your quiet witness to the Good News of God in Christ Jesus? Who life will be changed because you listened, prayed, helped, sat with, invited, taught, shared with...?

Sunday, June 1, 2025
“Who is Matthias?”
Watch/Listen: HERE