We all have interests in life don’t we? If I were to ask what your interests are, I’d expect to get lots of different answers because our interests can be as varied as we are. I’d expect a lot of people to say football, others might say music, some might say films or perhaps the theatre. Others might say reading or knitting or cooking or eating or drinking. Some might say walking or the countryside or animals, and I’m sure that some would say dogs. So we all have interests, and perhaps more than one interest, and whatever our interests are, we indulge in them, that is, we spend time and effort and often money on these things because they give us pleasure.
There’s nothing whatsoever wrong with having interests in life, in fact it’s a very healthy thing to have interests in life. And yet there have been, and no doubt still are, many people in the Church who actively try to discourage Christians from having interests outside the Church. There are people in the Church who say that outside interests, or certain outside interests at least, are sinful and are things that Christians simply should not be indulging in and , if they are, they should desist from them immediately. And I’ve met a lot of people over the years who’ve been lost to the Church for this very reason; that someone in the Church has told them that they must stop doing something they enjoy doing because it’s a sin. But the simple fact has often, and even usually been, that there’s been nothing sinful at all in what that person’s been doing, it’s just that the one pontificating about it doesn’t share their interests and, for whatever reason, doesn’t approve of it either.
For example, as I’m sure you all know, my great sporting interest in life is speedway racing, I’ve followed it all my life and I’ve raced too. But after I was ordained, a priest told me that I should give that interest up, partly because it would take my attention away from my duty to God, and that I should especially give up racing because it was sinful to compete against other people because that was simply about wanting to prove yourself better than another human being. I’ve rarely heard such complete and utter rubbish in all my life quite frankly, which is an opinion I expressed at the time. Speedway racing was, and is, an interest of mine, but a pastime, something I indulge in in my spare time and to the best of my knowledge, it’s never adversely affected my ministry; whenever there’s been a clash of dates, even when I was still racing, the Church has always come first. And whether I beat someone on track or lost to them, it never affected my opinion of them, or myself, as a human being.
To be fair to them, I think people who do pontificate about the sinfulness of people’s interests are often well-meaning in that I’m sure they think that they’re simply trying to help people be better Christians – to bring people closer to God. But what they’re often doing in fact, is conflating their own opinions with the Christian faith, and confusing simple interests and pastimes with the kind of earthly desires that St Paul speaks about in this morning’s reading from his Letter to the Colossians. Perhaps especially, they’re confusing simple leisure interests with that ‘covetousness which is idolatry.’
I’m sure we all know that to covet something is to want it, but covetousness is a particular kind of wanting; it’s an excessive desire to have something that’s often accompanied by envy and greed: covetous people want something so badly that they’re prepared to go to inordinate lengths to get it. And one of the driving forces behind covetousness is often jealousy; covetous people see what someone else has and want it for themselves. And these things can, and do, lead to idolatry, to making the object of our desire the be all and end all of life. In effect, making
the thing we want our god by loving it with all our heart and soul and mind. And of course that is sinful. It’s sinful because it’s contrary to the Great Commandment and wanting something so badly that we’re prepared to go to any lengths to get it can, and almost certainly will, lead us into all kinds of other sinful activities too. So one thing we do always have to be careful to avoid is allowing our interests to become overwhelming passions. We need to avoid allowing something we do because we enjoy it from becoming something that we want it so much that it takes over our lives.
This is something we often find in people who excel in something. I don’t know if anyone here watched the Prom concert on TV last night but between the pieces of music we heard from a musician and a conductor who said, “Music is life and life is music” and “This (playing music) is what we live for.” There may be some hyperbole in those statements, but equally there may not be. I’ve mentioned my interest in speedway racing, and what I heard last night reminded me of some word written by Ivan Mauger, who I’m sure some of you will have heard of. In terms of individual world title wins, he’s the most successful speedway rider ever, and in a book he wrote shortly after becoming the first man ever to win three consecutive individual world titles he wrote,
‘To win a Word final you have to be dedicated. You have to give up some of the pleasures of life. This means you give up absolutely everything in your quest. You must want it badly enough to give up everything.
You must have only one thought on your mind …how you are going to beat the rest of the world. And you must be prepared to work to that end.’
What is that but a covetousness which is idolatry, of making a god, in this instance, of a world championship gold medal? I’m sure that kind of mentality is quite fundamental to becoming the best in the world, but what is the cost? We know, for example, that many athletes have used performance enhancing drugs to win Olympic gold medals. And we also know that not a few have died young as a result. But isn’t that the lesson of the parable of the Rich Fool? And in using drugs to achieve success, how many other, perhaps younger, athletes have been encouraged to do the same, or even felt that they had no choice other than to use them simply in order to compete at a high level? And how many people have become wealthy by supplying those drugs? So the sin of making a god of success can so easily lead to more sin that in turn can so easily draw other people into sin.
We might think that there’s not much danger of us becoming so single minded about our interests that we’d be prepared to give up absolutely everything for them. So there’s no chance of us becoming covetous to the point of idolatry or of our interests leading us into sin is there? Well, to be honest, it’s actually something we all do perhaps without even realising that’s what we’re doing.
One of the things I’ve often found wryly amusing over the years is when people apologise that they won’t be able to come to church because they’re ill or have to work, or have some other important business that they simply have to attend to, only for me to find out that they’ve actually gone to the seaside or for a walk in the country or to visit some tourist attraction or other, in effect, they’ve indulged an interest rather than come to church (and in this day and age if people are going to do things like this, they really should be more careful about what they post on social media!).
Now, you might say that’s not really anything too serious. But, if people really believe they’re not really doing anything wrong when they do this kind of thing, why do they feel the need to be dishonest about it? Is lying in order to make an excuse not to be in church worshipping the Lord not a sin? It’s certainly not loving the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, and mind is it? And when the people who do this are supposed to be taking some part in the worship, reading, leading intercessions, even being on sidesperson’s duty, aren’t they then expecting someone else to do something for the Lord that they said they would do and so should have done? Is that not a sin?
But perhaps the most common way people put their interests before the Lord is when it comes to supporting the Church with their time and money. We’re always looking for people to take on roles and responsibilities in our parish churches, and in almost every parish I’ve been in either as a lay person or since I’ve been ordained, we’ve always been in the position of needing to raise more money. And yet people often say that they don’t have time to take anything on for the Church and can’t afford to give more than they do. But people can still usually find time and money to indulge their interests. Of course that’s not the same as being covetous and idolatrous, but nevertheless, it is putting earthly things before heavenly things. We’ve all done it at one time or another, and when we do it, what are we being but rich fools?
As I’ve said, there’s nothing wrong with having interests outside the Church; in fact, it’s healthy to have those interests and to indulge in them. And despite what some people say, there’s nothing inherently sinful about the interests that most of us will have and indulge in, so we don’t need to lose them. But we do have to make sure that don’t indulge those interests in a sinful way, and that’s simply a matter of getting our priorities right by setting our minds on heavenly things rather than earthly things. That means making sure that our interests don’t become overwhelming passions that we pursue at the expense of everything else, that we don’t want anything earthly so much that we make a god of it. That might bring us some earthly reward but at the end of the day, while I’m sure a world’s championship or Olympic gold medal is a very nice and wonderful thing to have, what good will even those things do any of us when God makes the demand for our soul?
Amen.
Propers for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 3rd August 2025
Entrance Antiphon
O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me! You are my rescuer, my help; O Lord, do not delay.
The Collect
Draw near to your servants, O Lord, and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness, that, for those who glory in you as their Creator and guide, you may restore what you have created, and keep safe what you have restored. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Readings
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23
Psalm 95:3-6, 12-14, 17
Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Luke 12:13-21
Prayer after Communion
Accompany with constant protection, O Lord, those you renew with these heavenly gifts and, in your never-failing care for them, make them worthy of eternal redemption. Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 