1 KINGS 21:1--21A
1Later the following events
took place: Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace
of King Ahab of Samaria. 2And
Ahab said to Naboth, "Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it for a
vegetable garden, because it is near my house; I will give you a better
vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in
money." 3But
Naboth said to Ahab, "The LORD forbid that I should give you my ancestral
inheritance." 4Ahab
went home resentful and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said
to him; for he had said, "I will not give you my ancestral
inheritance." He lay down on his bed, turned away his face, and would not
eat.
5His wife Jezebel came to
him and said, "Why are you so depressed that you will not eat?" 6He said to her,
"Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, 'Give me your
vineyard for money; or else, if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard
for it'; but he answered, 'I will not give you my vineyard.'" 7His wife Jezebel said to him,
"Do you now govern Israel? Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful; I will
give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite."
8So she wrote letters in
Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal; she sent the letters to the elders
and the nobles who lived with Naboth in his city. 9She wrote in the letters,
"Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth at the head of the assembly; 10seat two scoundrels
opposite him, and have them bring a charge against him, saying, 'You have
cursed God and the king.' Then take him out, and stone him to death." 11The men of his city, the
elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to
them. Just as it was written in the letters that she had sent to them, 12they proclaimed a fast and
seated Naboth at the head of the assembly. 13The
two scoundrels came in and sat opposite him; and the scoundrels brought a
charge against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, "Naboth
cursed God and the king." So they took him outside the city, and stoned
him to death. 14Then
they sent to Jezebel, saying, "Naboth has been stoned; he is dead."
15As soon as Jezebel heard
that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, "Go, take
possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give
you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead." 16As soon as Ahab heard that
Naboth was dead, Ahab set out to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the
Jezreelite, to take possession of it.
17Then the word of the LORD
came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: 18Go
down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria; he is now in the
vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. 19You shall say to him,
"Thus says the LORD: Have you killed, and also taken possession?" You
shall say to him, "Thus says the LORD: In the place where dogs licked up
the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood."
20Ahab said to Elijah,
"Have you found me, O my enemy?" He answered, "I have found you.
Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the LORD, 21I will bring disaster on
you; I will consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free,
in Israel;
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Today’s
scripture is right from the lectionary. How many have never heard the story of
Naboth’s Vineyard before? How many of you know this story well? So this is a brand new story to the majority of our
congregation. That means to get the wisdom out of the marrow of this story it
is worth retelling.
**There was this little guy, Naboth. Naboth had a little vineyard, part
of his ancestral lands. He made some wine, supported his family. Naboth is a good
guy. Then there was this big guy,
Ahab, King of all the Israelites.
The big guy is very fancy. He has a fancy house, next to the little
guy’s vineyard. Ahab wants to do
some improvements. Which means the little guy’s gotta go. So the king makes him
an offer. It’s a good offer. The little guy shoulda taken the offer. But the little guy says, “God forbid
that I should sell my ancestral lands.” So the big guy goes home and lies on
his couch. He won’t get up. He won’t eat. He turns his face to the wall. His wife gets tired of the guy laying
and moaning on the couch. So she says to him, “Aren’t you the king of Israel?
Be a man!” But Ahab just lies on the couch. So the wife, Jezebel, says, “I’ll show you how it’s
done.” She knows some guys. They
make some trouble. The little guy has a terrible accident with a bunch or
stones. Bada bing, bada boom, next thing you know no more little guy and the
king get’s a new garden. Thank God such a thing would never, never happen here.
There
is wisdom in this tale of Naboth and Ahab. We like to put this gruesome
little tale far away from us as odd ancient history from the Old Testament, or
to think of it as an episode from The
Soprano’s. But this is an insight and wake up call that we should pay attention
to. This story reveals a part of our nature. But to understand the story better
we need some background. Why wouldn’t Naboth sell his land? According to
Deuteronomy the tribal parcels were really important. This land was a gift from
God to Naboth’s family and Naboth’s tribe. Land was a gift and an obligation.
This was a bad time to be a real estate agent. There was not much selling and
buying of property, because if you sold your lands, by religious law you needed
to buy them back for the welfare of you family as soon as possible. Whether
your family ate or starved depended on keeping a plot of land. You sold your
land right before you sold your children. Selling land was an extreme measure.
It damaged the continuity of God’s gift to the twelve tribes and it was a
violation of religious law. Naboth had to reject the offer. His rejection is
based on religious obligation and family obligation. This rejection of Ahab’s
offer leads to the king’s depression, a plot by Jezebel, lies, perjury, and
murder. But what has this to do with us? None of us here have ever wanted more
wealth or prestige or power, right?
Or
maybe we have just a little bit. I’m going to start with a personal story that gives
me still some pangs of regret and shame and embarrassment. It always feels more
satisfying to tell a story about someone else. But often what is healthier is
to turn your eyes to your own life. So here goes. Long,
long ago in the last century, and far, far away in Sin City, Las Vegas, I was a
young woman, in the Go-Go 80’s. This was a time when Baby Boomers had put away
youthful attempts to change the world and had started to have real jobs and
make real money. In a popular movie Wall
Street a thinly veiled fictional character, Gordon Gekko, played by Michael
Douglas, decreed, “Greed is good.” In that age everything big was good, big
hair, big shoulder pads, big furs even in Vegas. And Vegas was the epicenter of
BIG. After years of waitressing jobs or part time jobs or student jobs in
college and law school, I had a real, solid, “life on your own” paycheck. And I
thought I was rich. I rented a modern one-bedroom apartment with real
appliance, not an efficiency or a little place in a cut up old house with a
humming 30 year-old Frigidaire and a hot plate. When I got my first paycheck I
sent money home to my mom. She never asked for it but she paid for my college,
covered my health insurance through school and always showed up with groceries.
So it seemed fair to share with her my good fortune. As I was cooking dinner, I would have the TV on. In
the background would be a show, “Life
Styles of the Rich and Famous” with Robin Leach. Wildly extravagant homes
and cars and pools would be toured.
And Robin would sign off every program with “Champagne wishes and caviar dreams.” It was incredibly hokey. I
would laugh at it. But I noticed
that gradually my paycheck didn’t seem as grand as it once did. Going to
discount stores didn’t seem as fun as going to the elegant department stores in
the new mall next to Caesar’s Palace. Over time a terrible thing happened. That
money I sent back each month seemed like a bigger and bigger chunk of my pay. I
rationalized that mom never asked for this. She probably doesn’t need it. If I kept it I could save more
and actually it was mine really. Mom would want me to use it. So though in the next several years my
income increased, my sharing with my mom dwindled and dwindled and eventually
stopped. My mother never reproached me for my lack of generosity. For she had
learned not to covet but I had not.
Envy
and covetousness had bitten me. Envy is defined
as a feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with
desire for the possessions or qualities of another. Covetousness defined as a
craving for possession, often the craving for something that belongs to
another. So these two sins are intertwined and bound together in an unholy duo.
Envy is one of the seven deadly sins. The tenth commandment “Thou shallt not
covet” is arguable the basis of many of the other Ten Commandments Other
commandments prohibit outward action. But to covet is an inward process. This
inward disposition leads to outward action. Our scripture today, the story of Naboth and Ahab and
Jezebel, is an ancient wisdom that shows us the real danger of envy and
covetousness. Coveting a vineyard led to lies, theft, blaspheming and murder.
So
who was this green-fingered King Ahab and did he really need another garden?
Ahab was king of the Ten Northern Tribes of Israel. Earlier in Hebrew history the Promised Land had fallen into
disunion and the northern territory was now Israel and southern territory was
Judah. Ahab was a really financially successful king of Israel for a large
portion of his 22-year reign. The bible says that Ahab had a house of ivory. Often
readers have thought of as poetic license, a literary flourish with no basis in
fact. But now archeologists have recovered fabulous ivory carvings from his
palace in Samaria. Scholars have found references to Ahab’s Ivory Palace in other
ancient records. The house of ivory was literal. The artistry and the
craftsman’s ship show tremendous wealth and luxury for his age. Ivory was the
ultimate luxury building material, right up there with Oprah Winfrey’s gold
faucets on her bathtub. Ahab would have been featured on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous had there been a syndicated
program in ancient Israel. Ahab confused need and want. Covetousness is about
want and desire. Covetousness is different from need. But we get our needs and
wants so mixed. Ahab needed another garden like an addict needs another shot in
the arm.
Yet
despite his wealth or maybe even because of his wealth Ahab fell ill to the
disease of envy. He turned his face to the wall in depression. Today we have a
modern name for this kind of covetous despair. This is the disease of
affluenza. A journalist, Britt Peterson, reviewed the research on the
far-reaching psychological effects of wealth in an article for The Boston Globe. Peterson wrote “Rich
people have a harder time connecting with others, showing less empathy to the
extent of dehumanizing those who are different from them. They are less
charitable and generous. They are less likely to help someone in trouble.” Research
shows that people who place a high value on wealth, status, and stuff are more
depressed and anxious and less sociable than those who do not. Materialism is
not just a personal problem. It is an environmental problem, a social problem
and at heart a spiritual problem.
This is new research. But
Ahab shows that it was an old problem. When Ahab couldn’t buy or trade the
ancestral lands of Naboth he took to his bed, couldn’t eat and turned his face
to the wall. Sounds like
depression to me. Ahab suffered from our modern disease of “affluenza.”
Our
problem is we think we don’t have a problem. We fall into the delusion that we
are free of envy. There is an Old Danish proverb that says, “If envy was a
fever all the world would be ill.” Often we don’t even recognize that we are in
the midst of envy. Envy is so much
a part of our worldview that we see covetousness with a veneer of glamour, or we
call it an enterprising spirit, or healthy ambition, or getting ahead or just
rewards or what we deserve. Secondly, we fall into the trap of thinking we
don’t envy or covet because we dumb down those sins to only physical
possessions. We can covet all kinds of non-physical things, a position or job
or power, or privilege or security or a family or a relationship or a quality.
We think we don’t covet because we don’t want other people’s stuff. We fall
into what I call the “If only, Then” trap. We may think, “if only I had that person’s
looks, or job, or family. If only I had a husband or a wife like that, if only I
had kids like that, if only I had an education like that, if only I had ability
like that, THEN I would be happy. So we look for fulfillment outside ourselves,
outside of God and we turn our face to the wall. Our comparisons make us ill
and sap our strength. If our envy goes unchecked it can lead us to very bad
places. We can look not just to the warning tale of Ahab but also to the wisdom
of Star Wars – Yoda once said “Envy leads to jealousy, jealousy
leads to hate, hate leads to anger, anger leads to the dark side” We forget the
dark side. Ahab’s envy lead to
depression, then anger, then Naboth became not a neighbor but an obstacle, not
a person but an enemy to be murdered.
Envy
catches us and traps us. It interferes with our openness to God. I think it works something like
catching a monkey. I better explain to you how to catch a
monkey. We don’t have a monkey here this morning but we have our imagination.
So do you see this jar? I’m going to take this jar and put a banana inside it
like this. I’ll put the jar down here on the floor. Then I’m going to tie this
rope to the jar. Good. That’s nice and tight. Then I’m going to give the other
end of the rope to one of you. If a monkey comes along and sees the banana
inside he’ll say to himself. Hmm. I want to have that banana all to myself. So
he reaches in and grabs the banana. He makes sure he is holding it very tightly
in his hand. But when he tries to take his hand out he can’t remove it because
he is making a fist holding on to the banana. He can’t get his hand out as long
as he holds on to the banana. He could get away very easily if he just let go
but he loves what ever is in the jar so much he just can’t let go. Then you
just need to pull on this rope and you have caught a monkey with his hand in
the jar. Now a banana wouldn’t
tempt me, but maybe chocolate would. Or maybe really, really, good chocolate,
the kind rich people enjoy, the kind that says if I have that chocolate I will
be in a dreamy world that is luxurious and safe and happy and beautiful. For
that kind of chocolate I would grab a hold and not let go. And then I am
trapped. The only way to get free
is to let go of the thing that is not just a luxury but is now a need. But to
let go of what I think I need is counter intuitive. This is a spiritual leap.
But see what happens when I let go.
If I let go of this false need. I am free. If I give my need to God, I am free. God can then break that jar and bust it
wide open. Then my hand is free to receive God’s gifts something better and
deeper.
Our
spiritual work is to let go of the thing we think we need in the jar. There is
a cure to affluenza, a cure for envy and covetousness. It is called perspective and gratitude
and humility. Perspective allows
us to understand that all we have is from God. We have no entitlements. We see
the answer in part in Naboth’s answer. Naboth understood that what he had was a
gift not just to him but also to his family. To see possessions as gifts not rights opens the door
to looking to God for our needs and our wants and learning the difference.
So
the question for you is “What’s in your jar?” What are you hanging onto for dear life? And can you ask God
to help you let go?
