Envy

Are you envious because I am generous?. ~Matthew 20:15

Grace and peace to you on this wet Saturday morning. I pray that this day brings you joy in unexpected ways. 

Tomorrow continues the series of challenging lessons from the gospel according to Matthew. In tomorrow’s reading, the landowner asks the ungrateful laborers this question: “Are you envious because I am generous?” The question convicts us too. Who among us has not been envious of another’s good fortune?

Envy eats away at our hearts. It diminishes our very lives. Yet, if we are honest we are all envious at some point. It’s human nature. Envy is in our DNA. It’s an emotion that emerges when we experience or witness what we perceive as unfair gain. 

Envy is based in a mentality of scarcity and God offers an alternative. God is generous. God offers abundant life and the possibility where all people flourish and can live into their fullness as people of God. We see this most clearly in the sacrificial love of Jesus, God’s only son, who died for our sake so that we all might have life. Our grateful response to God’s abundant grace is to offer it to others. By sharing our abundance we can live into God’s possibilities for all.

God invites us to live in solidarity with others, a way that recognizes that there is enough for all. I wonder what that might look like in your life. 

See you tomorrow for more on the gospel according to Matthew.  

Faithfully,

Jenifer+

The Rev. Jenifer Gamber, Rector
St. Peter's Episcopal Church