A magician
worked on a cruise ship and because he had a different audience each week he
could get away with doing the same tricks over and over and over. There was one problem, however. The ship’s captain owned a parrot and the
parrot always watched the shows. Eventually
it figured out how the magician did all his tricks and during performances began
to squawk out things like “Look, it’s not the same hat!”, “He’s hiding the
flowers under the table”, and “the entire deck is made up of the ace of
spades.” Well, as you can imagine the
magician was furious, but because the parrot belonged to the captain there was
nothing he could do. Then one day the
ship hit an iceberg and sank. As fate
would have it, the magician and parrot found themselves alone together drifting
on a piece of wood. They stared at each
other with hatred but did not utter a word. This went on for an entire day and then
another and then another. On the fourth
day adrift, the parrot broke down and said, “OK, I give up. What did you do with the ship?”
There is little
we enjoy more than seeing a know-it-all, self-promoting, glory-hogging,
show-boating so-and-so get taken down a peg or two. There is nothing quite as satisfying as
witnessing the downfall of those who think they are better than the rest of
us. There is something deliciously tasty
about the governor’s trial going on in Richmond. Who doesn’t want to peak behind the ‘Ken and
Barbie curtain’ in order to see the mess that was couple’s real life? Most Cleveland Browns fans are praying that
Johnny Manziel (their rookie quarterback) will be able to walk on water while
the rest of the world will be tuning in in hopes that he sinks like a stone in
some glorious fashion.
If you
understand this sentiment than you have tapped into a dynamic woven into two of
today’s readings from Scripture.
First, there is
Joseph, the youngest of twelve brothers and his father’s favorite. He enjoys snitching on his siblings, telling
them about dreams he has where they bow down to him, and parading around in a
special coat his dad made for him. By
the time he tracks them to field where they are tending to the flock, the
brothers have had enough of Joseph’s act.
At first they plan to kill him, but eventually decide to sell him to a
caravan of traders. If you put yourself
in their shoes you would believe that Joseph got what was coming to him.
And then there
is Peter, the rock on whom Jesus will build his church. The twelve disciples are in a boat,
struggling all night to make headway in a storm. As morning approaches they look out over the
water and see a ghost walking toward them.
They are terrified. The figure
shouts out to them, “It is me, Jesus.”
That is when Peter pushes himself once again into the limelight and
says, “Lord, if it is you, command me to walk on the water with you.” He steps out of the boat and onto the water,
walking toward Jesus. Only when he looks
down and sees what he is doing does he begin to sink. You have to think that the eleven disciples
back in the boat were chuckling under their breath as they whispered to one
another, “Who does he think he is?”
I suspect that
when you boil it all down, the same emotion is driving both Joseph’s brothers
and the eleven disciples: the emotion of resentment. While guilt is anger directed at oneself,
resentment is anger directed at another for something either they did or did
not do. Both groups resented the special
treatment received by one of their members.
The brothers resented Joseph for lording it over them. I suspect that the disciples resented Peter
for taking center stage.
Some resentments
are justified, like when we are offended by a governor and his wife who misuse
an elected position to feather their own nest.
Other resentments are not worth the time, like when we are upset by all
the attention given to a star athlete who has yet to prove himself. But all resentments are more destructive to
the person who holds them than they are to person who inspires them. Friedrich Nietzche said that nothing on earth
consumes a person more quickly than the passion of resentment. Alcoholics’ Anonymous teaches that holding on
to resentment in order to hurt another person is like drinking poison in hopes that
person will die.
Here is
something we should recognize about Joseph’s brothers and the eleven disciples:
ultimately, what they resent is the ‘success’ of another. Joseph did not ask to be the favorite son. That was his father’s decision. He did not ask to rule over his brothers one
day. That will be God’s decision. Peter did not ask to lead the church. That was Jesus’ decision. He was not showing off when he went out of
the water, he just wanted to be close to his Lord.
Do you know who
Dave Winer is? He has been called one of
the 25 most influential people on the web and one of the 10 inventories of
internet technology no one has heard of.
Winer developed RSS, which stands for “Real Simple Syndication”, the software
behind blogging, podcasting, and much of today’s content distribution. Back in the day he was a simple programmer
doing mindless work as just one more interchangeable part of a long line of
people writing code. But he was able to
see something in the web’s potential that others could not. He wanted to open up its potential to
everyone by freeing it from the control of billion dollar business like IBM,
Microsoft, and Oracle. He quit his job, formed
his own software company, and then developed RSS. Do you know what Dave Winer says should be
written on his gravestone? “Who does he
think he is?” He writes on his blog that
you cannot begin to imagine the demeaning and condescending things people have
said to him or about him on account of his success. Resentment runs deep in his critics.
I am convinced that each of us is born with a
distinctive temperament and set of gifts that are God given. Through baptism I believe we acknowledge the power
of the Holy Spirit to activate these gifts for service in God’s kingdom for the
welfare and benefit of all. Each of us
has a job to do. Each of us has a role
to play. We don’t measure ourselves
against others, rather we evaluate ourselves based on how God has equipped us
and on what God has called us to do.
Think about Jesus’ parable of the talents. What the person given five talents was able
to do was not compared to the achievements of the person given ten. The person with five talents was judged based
on faithfulness, not volume or outcome. So, if this is true (and I think it is), there
is no place for resentment of the success of another.
After graduating from seminary I served as an
assistant to two different rectors. Let
me just say that they were very different people. One was threatened by the things I did
well. He became uneasy if I did
something that earned the praise of others.
I have known narcissistic priests where everything had to be about them,
but this person was not like that. He
was more neurotic where everything that happened around him caused him to
question his own worth and value. In
that environment I found it very difficult to discover, develop, and use my
gifts. The other priest I served
delighted in the gifts and achievements of his staff. When one of us shined bright he beamed. I have always appreciated his witness and way
and have tried to emulate it as best I can.
We are here, each one of us, to build up, not
to tear down. I love the imagery of the
proper preface in the Eucharistic prayer that says, “through Jesus Christ…, in
whom we are built up as living stones of a holy temple.” It suggests that we each have a place and a
part. It says that each of our places
and parts is determined by Jesus. And it
hints that we may need help from others to figure out exactly where that place
is and exactly what that part is to be.
Let me leave you with this quote from Henri
Nouwen:
Did I offer
peace today? Did I bring a smile to
someone’s face? Did I say words of
healing? Did I let go of my anger and
resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that
I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.
