The Redemption of Desire

Scripture: Exodus 20: 17; Deuteronomy 5: 21; Romans 7: 7-13

Sermon: The Redemption of Desire

Topics: Desire, Envy, Covet

Preached: November 20, 2016 final in 10 Commandment Series

Rev. Mike Abma

EXODUS 20:17

7 You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

In addition to Exodus 20:17, I will also read the 10^th commandment as it is found in Deuteronomy 5:21.

I chose this version of the 10^th commandment because it uses both the word to covet and to desire — highlighting that coveting simply belongs to that larger group of verbs that describes who we are as human beings — we are longing, yearning, hungering, thirsting, desiring, coveting people.

Deuteronomy 5: 21

21 Neither shall you covet your neighbour’s wife.

Neither shall you desire your neighbour’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

Romans 7: 7-13

Now to our New Testament lesson from Romans 7.

Romans 7 is a theologically heavy chapter.

We are perhaps more familiar with the end of the chapter where

Paul speaks of that internal struggle in all of us —

We do not do what we desire

But we do the very thing we hate.

Sin trips us up again and again.

Paul ends the chapter with the confession – O what a wretched man I am.

But at the beginning of this chapter

Paul talks about dying to the law and living in the freedom of Christ.

That immediately raises the question: is the Law a bad thing?

Here are the two things Paul is holding in tension in this passage:

On the one hand, he makes it clear that the law, the commandments,

are holy, just, and good;

But on the other hand, sin has a way of worming itself even into something

good, like the commandments, and producing in us all kinds of

unhealthy and sinful desires.

LAW and SIN Romans 7: 7-13

7 What then should we say? That the law is sin?

By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’⁸But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness (sinful desires). Apart from the law sin lies dead. ⁹I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived ¹⁰and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 

¹¹For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹²So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

13 Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION

There is an old adage

that sin has a way of using what is best in life to do its worst.

And so it is in this passage.

Paul talks about how sin has a way of using the best in life —

namely the holy, the just, the good commandments —

to do its worst.

Sin has a way of taking the very things we are blessed with,

and turning them into curses.

That is the way it has been from the beginning.

God gave us a Garden, filled with fruit-bearing trees.

And what did we do with such a blessing?

We kept looking at the one tree, the only tree,

that we were not allowed to eat from.

We had so much, such blessings,

but we kept coveting what we did not have.

And that coveting brought us a curse.

Not much later, Adam and Eve were blessed with children,

two boys, Cain and Abel.

And both these boys were blessed:

Cain was blessed with a green-thumb, an excellent gardener.

And Abel was blessed in having a way with sheep, an excellent farmer.

But there was trouble with these blessings.

Cain couldn’t help by think

that God liked Abel’s offerings more than his own,

that God loved Abel more than him.

The Bible is rife with these types of rivalries:

The barren Sarah resenting the fruitful Hagar;

Esau and Jacob resenting one another;

Rachel resenting Leah for her children

and Leah resenting Rachel for her beauty.

THE CORRUPTION OF DESIRE

I could go on and on in the Biblical story

recounting one rivalry after another.

Why so many of them?

Because that is our human condition.

We are all so very hungry for love,

so eager for acceptance

from others and from God

that the talents of others,

the blessings of others,

become a threat to us.

It is natural, it is human, to desire the very best things of life:

to desire

Love and intimacy

Joy and justice

Health and beauty

Truth and goodness

Strength and wisdom.

We desire these things.

We yearn for these things.

There is a holiness to these things.

But our desires take an unholy detour when we realize

someone else seems to be more blessed than we are.

That someone else seems to be

smarter, or happier,

or healthier, or more beautiful,

or more liked than we are.

This is especially true when the person who is more blessed is close to us:

A brother, a sister,

A co-worker

A colleague

A next-door neighbor.

A close friend

GENE AND FINNY

There are certain books you read when you are young that stick with you.

For me, one of those books is the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles.

I remember first having to read this novel for a high school English class.

The novel takes place during the Second World War.

It is set in an all-boy’s high school in New England.

The two main characters are Gene and Finny.

Gene and Finny are best friends.

They are always hanging out with each other.

Gene is the more academic one — the quieter one, the student.

Finny is the more athletic one, the more popular one, everyone likes Finny.

Though they were best friends,

there was a part of Gene that resented Finny —

resented how athletic he was;

resented how popular he was;

resented how good, really good a person Finny was.

Gene and Finny were part of a group of friends that had a dare-society.

One of the things they did was climb a tree next to a river,

carefully walk down a branch overhanging the river,

then jump in.

Late one afternoon, when Finny was inching his way down the branch,

Gene bounced the branch,

he jiggled the limb,

he caused Finny to lose his balance and to fall,

fall too soon,

and to go crashing into the bank of the river,

badly breaking his leg.

The novel is the unfolding of that moment,

that tragic moment

when the blessed friendship of Gene and Finny

was infected by the poison of Gene’s

desire to take Finny down a few notches.

Here is the thing – Gene really liked Finny,

Gene loved Finny.

And yet Gene did this to Finny.

It is a great novel. A classic novel.

But not all great novels you read as a teenager stick with you.

So why did this novel stick with me?

Let me tell you why.

It just so happened that in highschool, I had a best friend.

It wasn’t as if I was the student and he was the athlete.

It was not that neat.

The truth is, we were both pretty good students,

but he was always a little better than me.

We were both pretty good athletes,

but he usually made the starting line up a bit quicker than I did.

We both sang in the Chamber Choir,

but he sang bass and I sang tenor,

And — sorry tenors —

But in high school it was simply cooler to be a bass.

We were best of friends,

And that friendship was a blessing,

But in my heart of hearts,

I desired what he had.

As I read that novel about Gene and Finny,

I wondered what if I were on that branch with my friend?

I wondered whether I would have bounced that branch,

jiggled that limb.

In my heart of hearts,

I was afraid I might.

Sin has a way of worming itself into the very things in life

that are holy, just, and good.

Sin has a way of

* worming itself into friendships

* worming its way into families

* worming its way into workplaces.

It is holy, and just, and good to covet the best things in life.

But it is often ruinous, and dangerous, and destructive

to covet the best things in others.

In this Romans chapter

Paul ends up throwing up his hands in frustration:

I do not do what I know is right

But I do the very thing I know is wrong.

Oh, what a wretched person I am, said Paul,

Said Gene

Said I

Said you.

CONCLUSION — THE REDEMPTION OF DESIRE

So how can our desires be redeemed from our chronic need

to be noticed,

to be loved,

to not live in any else’s shadow?

Remember the Parable of the Prodigal Son?

Remember what happens when the Prodigal Son finally comes trudging home?

The Dad runs out,

Gives his son a hug,

And a robe, and a ring, and a fatted calf, and a party.

The Older Brother notices.

He desires, he covets, all the attention his younger brother is getting.

In his heart he is shouting, “What about ME!”

To his father he complains,

“I never disobeyed any of your commands. Not any of them!

Where’s my hug?

Where’s my ring, my robe, my fatted calf, my party?”

And the father whispers,

“My child, oh my child.

You are always with me.

Whatever mine is yours.

Whatever is mine is yours.

In Jesus Christ,

We are all adopted children in the family of God.

In Jesus Christ, there is no condemnation,

there is no living in the shadows,

there is no living as an outcast,

there is no living as a nobody.

In Jesus Christ,

We live in the light of God

We live in the embrace of God

We live as the delight of God.

Know this,

That you are the delight of God –

Know this truly, know this deeply,

And all the desires, the best desires,

of your heart will be satisfied.

Amen