[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..."

[joeparrish]

Part 2: 


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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:  

 

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 retired 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





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