[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] My yearly Rev. Dr. M.L.King sermon: "Don't let evol defeat you, but defeat evil with good- how to..."

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-------- Original message --------From: Judy <judy_boli at ecunet.org> Date: 19/01/2019  7:23 pm  (GMT-05:00) To: Propertalk <propertalk.topic at ecunet.org> Subject: [propertalk.topic] My yearly Rev. Dr. M.L.King sermon: "Don't let evol defeat you, but defeat evil with good- how to..." 


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.”
(Romans 12:19) and in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, deals with my
thoughts on the theology of dealing with evil 
Here it is:  

 

I’m sure you remember 9-11.  My thinking about the presence of evil in the
world and how we deal with it as God’s people got serious after watching those
awful events.  I’ve shared the teachings
in this sermon with you at least every year since then.  We have our own difficult, painful times- in
fact, some of us are living through them right now.  A bit over a year ago we buried Mr. Richard
Vaughn.  A few months ago we buried Ms.
Damika Henderson.  And now a few weeks
ago we buried Mrs. Felicia Johnson-Martin. 
Our country is in an embarrassing shut-down that might affect food assistance,
security, etc. if it continues.  We have
members struggling with cancer and other illnesses.  We have families working to cope with the
death of loved ones.  We have people with
money problems, moving problems, life problems, relationship problems,
etc.  In other words- join the human
race.  This kind of pain is part of the
human condition.  St. Paul has advice for
us when we face situations like these. 
In Romans 12: 19 he says, “Don’t let evil defeat you, but defeat evil
with good.”  I know how devoted you are
to your Lord, so I’m sure that this is how you intend to live your life.  Me too. 
The problem is, in frustrating, confusing times like these- how do you
know how to defeat evil with good?  We’d
be glad to do as God wants, but how do we know what that is?  For me, one of the blessings of having lived
through pain and suffering (as well as wonderful times) is the chance to think
through and refine my own personal theology of evil based on scripture, and
especially on Gospel.  I’d like to share
it with you again this morning.  As you
may remember, I see five basic principles in our dealing with evil. 

 

FIRST PRINCIPLE: We mustn’t delude ourselves about the
power of the enemy.  Some years ago, I asked our Sunday school
youngsters to tell me what Satan looked like. 
You know what they said: a little man in a red jump suit with a tail, a
pitchfork, fire coming out of his fingernails (too many video games!), and
horns- either red or black- couldn’t decide which.  Wouldn’t that be nice- if we could always
recognize him and his greatest desire was to get us to swear or tell a lie-
don’t we all wish it were that simple. 
The devil (or Satan) is just the name we give “the evil powers of this
world that seek to corrupt and destroy the creatures of God”- i.e. US!  (“Book of Common Prayer”- Service of Holy
Baptism, p. 302)  Satan’s purpose is to
close our open minds; turn our loving hearts into cold, hateful hearts of
stone; make us suspicious of everyone and everything; divide us; enslave us by
fear; and diminish our spirit.  

 

SECOND PRINCIPLE: Evil is highly contagious- look how evil spreads, worse than smallpox or
tuberculosis.  At the checkout line, a
lady said, “I just can’t see why they (the terrorists) hate us so!”  I know. 
Among other reasons, one of them goes back to the Jewish holocaust in
World War II.  When the war was over, our
side- the winning side- officially established a homeland for the Jews in
Palestine and empowered them to become a nation.  I have to be suspicious that one of the
reasons this happened was plain and simple anti-Semitism....they didn’t want
all those Jewish people in their land.  I
remember, as a little girl growing up in Detroit, seeing ad after ad in the
classified section of the Detroit News: “Apartment for rent- no pets, no
children, no Jews.”  The problem of
giving them a homeland in Palestine was that someone else already lived there-
the Palestinians.  The Jews said God
promised the land to them through their ancestor Abraham (God did, but the
Palestinians are also Abraham’s descendants.) 
The Palestinians said it was their land; hatred festered; and Satan
sowed the seed for the poisonous harvest that after all these years we are now
reaping.  Unfortunately, it’s not just
God’s Kingdom that can start with a mustard seed and grow into a mighty tree-
if we water and inflame the hatred, Satan’s can also.  Unless we take preventative measures, what we
sow is what we get

 

THIRD PRINCIPLE: Jesus’ teachings, especially those in
the sermon on the mount, are the vaccination against being destroyed when evil
is thrown at us.  I was talking to a Bible teacher- definitely
someone who should know better, who said he thought we should just go in and
bomb the you-know-what out of any nation that allows terrorists to live within
their borders.  He justified his opinion
by saying that the Bible is full of war- just look at the Old Testament.  True, but Jesus came to fulfill the old
covenant.  The Old Testament was written
for the people of God when they were just beginning their journey.  “An eye for an eye” was a necessity to limit
violence- so a whole family couldn’t be wiped out for the sin of one
member.  You don’t give a toddler and a
fifty-five year old grandmother or grandfather the same rules.  Jesus said he had come to fulfill the
law.  In fact, he said, “You have heard
it said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ but I tell you- love
(i.e. want what is best for) your enemy.” 
Remember, he’s not talking about love- a feeling, but love- an action, a
choice.  St. Paul reminds us that God
says: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” 


 

FOURTH PRINCIPLE: Looked at through God’s eyes, the
power for who wins this round- God or Satan, is not in the hands of the evil
person or group, even though they think and act as if they are in charge.  Power is in the hands of the VICTIM.  It is the
victim who allows God to take charge of the encounter.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew that.  Why? 
Because it is the victim who determines the response to the evil.  Satan can do nothing if the victim responds
as a Christian and refuses to spread anger and hate, but instead works to solve
the initial problem that the devil used to start the whole evil mess.  Look how this principle works.  Since Satan counts on being able to spread
his evil by using one evil person (or a group of evil people) to get something
going, he must pick his person carefully. 
The more negatives emotionally and physically this person or group can
cause the better.  The first incident
only gets the ball going.  The power for
good or evil is in the hands of the victim. 
Look- if an evil person throws a ball of nasty garbage at me, I have a
choice.  If I can’t dodge it, the
instinctual human choice is to catch it and start throwing it back, letting it
splatter at everyone within range.    In
fact, I might even miss and get a whole lot of innocent people.  What happens next?  Those on the other side do the same.  Before long, following our natural
tendencies, we are all a filthy stinking mess. 
However, we are not called to follow our natural tendencies- we are much
more than the highest biological entity on this planet.  We are called to be children of God, and
there is a better way.  Instead, we might
catch the nasty ball and hold it until we figure out how to dispose of it with
a minimum of damage- I might even use it to fertilize our church garden. thus
taking care of the problem, but not spreading the filth.  If we are strong enough, courageous enough,
have enough Spirit power, the contamination stops before it corrupts us or spreads
to anybody else.

 《》

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





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