[Propertalk] [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Epiphany 2C (Part 2}

[Joe Parrish]

Forwarded: (Part 2 of 2)



-----Original Message-----
From: Judy <judy_boli at ecunet.org>
To: Propertalk <propertalk.topic at ecunet.org>
Sent: Sat, Jan 16, 2016 9:45 pm
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Srmon for Epiphany 2C (Part 2}



Dear Friends,
 
This Sunday’s sermon is entitled ““Terrible Times- Don’t Waste Them!” or “God can take your mess and make it into your message.” (Joel Osteen) or “Don’t let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good.” and deals with concepts from The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s teaching and practice.  It’s a yearly repeat sermon.  Here it is:
 <>
(Part 2)
Bringing it down to the nitty-gritty of life, how do we do this?  Do we let evil people walk all over us?  Of course not.  As Christians, our motivation for an action is what is most important.  If a crazed gunman started shooting children at our neighborhood school, what should law-enforcement do?  They should stop him- using as much force as necessary, even if it meant killing him.  Why?  To get revenge?  No- to stop the violence, the killing of innocent children.  Christians have no business getting revenge- only stopping evil and bringing the guilty to justice.  If we try to get revenge, we will participate with Satan in destroying our own spirit.  The Rt. Rev. Nathan Baxter, former dean of the National Cathedral in Washington DC and now bishop of Central Pennsylvania, expresses this idea well when he stated, “As we act, we must not become the evil we deplore.” 
 
FIFTH PRINCIPLE: Don’t waste terrible times!  When someone does something terrible to you, or when encountering a ghastly life tragedy- don’t waste it!  What do I mean?  Think about it.  Think about the huge negative energy generated by evil experience.  That energy can be redirected, by your skill and obedience to our Lord, as positive power for God and for good.  You don’t believe me?  The best example of this is the cross.  What worse catastrophe could Satan throw at us than having people execute God’s son naked on a garbage heap?  And yet, through Jesus’ obedience- came the glorious resurrection, eternal life, salvation, fullness-of-living for all who would accept it.  The Chinese character for calamity is a combination of characters- crisis and opportunity- same idea.  So my challenge to us today is, since we’ve already lived through the crisis (I hope), find the opportunity. 
 
I’m going to close with a very familiar story- almost a parable- that I use at just about every funeral, but it’s worth repeating.  This story illustrates using crises and mistakes for positives.  Before I retired from teaching, Mr. Spencer Porter was often the art teacher assigned to work with my fifth grade students.  He was one of the best art teachers I have ever seen.  If the youngsters were doing art on paper, he would start passing out the supplies, and you could bet that by the time the last student got a paper, some of the first students were already waving their hands.  “Mr. Porter,” they would say- “Mr. Porter, I messed up my paper.  I need a new one.”  Mr. Porter would answer, “Turn it over and use the back.”  Within a few minutes, the hands would start to wave again.  “Mr. Porter, Mr. Porter, I messed up the back too!” they would lament.  Spencer Porter’s answer- “I’m not giving you another paper.  Now is your chance to become an artist and really do art.  Look at your paper on the front, and look at your paper on the back, and figure out what your can turn your mistakes into.”  My friends, some of the most amazing artwork came from those students, because their “mistakes” forced them to think outside the box, be creative, and try new solutions to what they thought were impossible problems.  I only hope they are continuing to apply that kind of thinking to their lives today, and I hope we learn from their example.  The crises we face in our world today, plus those we face every day in the normal demands of living, require fresh, Godly, Gospel solutions and the sure knowledge that with God as our guide, mistakes are simply lessons- lessons to be learned and used for the Kingdom.
 
For anyone who is interested, this sermon and updated African-American wisdom statements are posted on our parish’s web site under “Sermons & Stuff”. The address is: http://www.stpaulsepisag.org .
 
Blessed preaching,
Judy Boli
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Saginaw, Michigan

-- 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20160117/141eca0f/attachment.htm>