The seven deadly sins, Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony and Lust in the Christian tradition are not biblical; lists of sins exist in the Old Testament but they are not exactly the same as the classic seven. St Paul is famous- perhaps notorious -for his lists, usually rather more than seven. But in the middle ages a consistent canon emerges and seems fixed by the time Dante envisioned Hell in the Divine Comedy.
The mediaeval tradition is surely right to order the sins starting with Pride, and moving through Envy to Anger and this is the same movement that we see in Genesis. After describing the creation of the world and how it was good in the sight of God, we hear how man spoils the perfection, as Adam and Eve exercise their ability to choose and seek to become like God, by eating the fruit of the tree of life. Pride and the overestimation of self worth and the misunderstanding of their relation to God lead them to disobedience.
There is envy too in this pride as Adam and Eve think they have been left short of God’s position. But Envy comes to the fore in the story of Cain and Abel, although the underlying reason for Cain’s envy is left obscure. Why is it that God has regard for Abel’s offering of the firstlings and the fatlings of his flock, but rejects Cain’s offering of the fruits of the ground? Superficially, and perhaps essentially, it appears to be that Abel is generous bringing the best- everyone likes tender lamb and the Gods were known to like the fatty bits. Even so, it seems rather harsh to reject the more standard offering of Cain; had Cain known God’s carnivorous tendencies, what could he have done about it? He could not at this stage change his choice of agricultural interest and still less God’s predilections. However it is looked at, the story reveals an inherent and seemingly inevitable unfairness and even capriciousness in the distribution of skills, resources, aptitudes and preferences in man and God, and the essence of the story- what I think is its real point is our response to that inequity and unpredictability.
It’s hard to conceive of any real world in which there is no inequality and no chance; the one inevitable, albeit unpredictable, constant in life is that it must involve struggle, death and decay; those ever present facts may be unevenly distributed but they are always there. Some may be – or appear to be- lucky enough to sit under bread fruit trees and others are born with silver spoons in their mouths- you may question their luck, but there is no doubting that chance put them there and it is equally the chances of birth, ability, and external fortune that dictate our lives, just as they did those of Cain and Abel.
The story of Cain and Abel shadows that of Adam and Eve; Adam and Eve are also put in an environment – the benign Eden- where all is equal and good, although not entirely free and they are tested as to how they will exercise the freedom which they do enjoy. Their response to their situation is of course pride and disobedience. With Cain and Abel are confronted with the unfairness of reality- the unfairness that Abel is favoured but Cain is not. God is clear, however, that Can’s response to this unfairness is in his own hands: “Why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well Sin is crouching at your door; its desire is for you but you can master it.” Sin is the envious, and so angry, response to inequality.
Sin is not however, the only response to unfairness; we do not have to be envious and nor need envy always lead to anger still less to fratricide. Another reaction to the unfairness of the world is to seek to make it a little less unfair; to remove the causes of unfairness or alleviate their effects- in a word to promote justice. Significantly, it is the failure to do that which lies behind the sins which follow Pride Envy and Anger in the traditional canon; Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony and Lust are all examples of our failure to do what we can do to reduce injustice and promote fairness in the world; they represent imbalance and disrespect for self and others, thus increasing the grounds for envy and provoking anger.
But however much we strive for social justice and for an equitable distribution of the bounty of this earth and however much we succeed in eradicating greed and gluttony from society and ourselves, there will still be inequalities. One brother will be more charming than another; one sister cleverer than another; the climate on the Cote d’Azur nicer than it is in Aberdeen. Recognition of these differences is central Old Testament. We see it in the rivalry of brothers- Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau and echoed in the parable of the Prodigal Son. The bounty and freedom of the Promised Land is contrasted with the hardship of the desert and slavery, wandering and exile with home and belonging.
It would, of course, be a dull world in which these contrasts did not exist and justice and beauty are not the obliteration of differences but their management and harmonisation. It is the arrangement of opposites which creates happiness and self fulfilment, not their grinding down into grey uniformity. The realisation of our divine potential will be an acceptance and constructive exploitation of our diversity. It is the very things which provoke sin, crouching at our door which may also lead to concord, beauty and fulfilment. Cain will not accept God’s advice; he gives way to envy, anger and murder and the result is wandering disconnected existence, a dysfunctional lonely life of estrangement from family and home and all those things which identify us and give our lives meaning.
So envy and anger need not be our response to the inevitable differences and inequalities of life; we may respond constructively in two ways; on the one hand by seeking to improve the world by removing the differences and inequalities- by using them as the motivation for social change and economic development; and on the other hand we may also use them as the material from which to create a profounder beauty. It is not paradoxical that the greatest art, literature and music is that which explores the tragedy of the human condition; the experience of suffering, the contrast of pain with joy of harmony and discord is what enlarges us and brings us closer to the divine. As Christians we believe that our God’s human experience of pain, injustice and cruelty was the necessary pre-condition for new and truly meaningful life as revealed in the resurrection. Our ability to achieve this fulfilment- to improve both the world we live in and ourselves- is within our own power; sin is crouching at the door, but we can master it. Amen.