[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Epiphany 4A

[joeparrish]

Forwarded Part 1: 


Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
-------- Original message --------From: Judy <judy_boli at ecunet.org> Date: 1/27/17  10:59 AM  (GMT-10:00) To: Propertalk <propertalk.topic at ecunet.org> Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Epiphany 4A 


Dear Friends,

 

This Sunday’s sermon is entitled “God’s Way to
Happiness” and deals with the gospel (Matthew 5:1-12).  Here it is: 

 

We just heard Jesus
tell how to have a blessed life, which is another way to say “a happy
life.”  We’d all like a happy life.  What would make you happy?  (Listen to a few responses.)  Let me tell you about a man who had the
chance to get anything he wanted.  This
is a old, old story I’m repeating from some years ago.  See if you can remember how it ends.  Before we start, does anyone know the
commercial “I Wish I Was an Oscar Mayer Weiner?”  How does it go?  (Get responses.)   Well, here’s the story.  A man was walking along the beach when he
came across this very old oil lamp. The man started to rub it to remove all the
ocean crud when "poof" a genie appeared.  This genie, like all genies, was so happy to
be freed of the lamp that he granted the man three wishes...  "I wish to be the richest man in the
world,” the man said.  "Man,"
the genie replied, "It has already happened.”  The man’s wallet would hardly fit in his
pocket because of all the thousand dollar bills.  “Wait until you get your bank statement!”
said the genie.  You won’t know what to
do with all that money!”  What's your
second wish?"  "Genie”, said
the man, “I want a CAR!  In fact, I want the most expensive Porsche
convertible made: Fire engine red, on board GPS
and the finest audio system ever installed in an automobile."  "That’ll work," said the
genie.  He waved his hand and the finest
car anybody had ever seen popped out of the lamp. The genie then asked the man
for his third wish.  He thought and
thought, since he really wanted to choose wisely.  After all, this was his last wish, so it had
to be a good one.   Finally he said,
“Genie, I can't think of anything now. 
May I save the third wish for later?"  "My, that’s unusual, responded the
genie, but of course you may wait.  Just
call me when you're ready."  With
that, whoosh, the genie disappeared.  
The man leapt into his fire engine red Porsche convertible, turned on
the radio with the great audio system and pulled onto the highway.  He had the top down, so the wind was
whistling through his hair, the sun was shining, not another car was on the
road, and he was HAPPY- in fact so happy that he began to sing along with the
great music on his great radio.  Up came
a commercial, and he continued to sing the old familiar tune: “Oh, I wish I was
an Oscar-Mayer Wiener...."  Whoosh-
what a wish!

 

A
wishing lamp with a genie really won’t make us happy, but God’s way will.  Let’s look at the Beatitudes in the bulletin
one by one to see God’s way: 3 “God
blesses those people who depend only on him. 
They belong to the kingdom of heaven!” 
If you think about it, who or what else can you really depend on that
will never let you down?

 

4: “God blesses those people who grieve.  They will find comfort!”  Here, we’re talking about those whose hearts
are broken by the things that break the heart of God.  Are you so in touch with our Lord that human
pain, misery, injustice, cruelty, ignorance break your heart?  Practice putting yourself in other’s shoes,
so you know how they feel.  Then do
something about their pain.

 

5: “God blesses those people who are
humble.  The earth will belong to
them!”  You know what this means- be
humble- be reality-oriented.  Live in a
real world.  Don’t pretend to be someone
you’re not.  Don’t pretend to know
something you don’t know.  Acknowledge
your talents- they’re from God; compensate for your weaknesses- don’t hide
them.  In other words- know your
spiritual gifts and then develop them.To be continued in Part 2...


 

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





-- 

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Propertalk" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to propertalk.topic+unsubscribe at ecunet.org.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20170127/9671557c/attachment.htm>