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<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Judy <judy_boli@ecunet.org><br>
To: Propertalk <propertalk.topic@ecunet.org><br>
Sent: Sat, Sep 10, 2011 12:23 am<br>
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Proper 19A<br>
<br>
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<pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><tt>Dear Friends,
Tomorrow’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 deals with the epistle. Here it is:
As I’ve mentioned many times, my thinking about the presence of evil
in the world and how we deal with it as God’s people got serious after
watching the awful events of 9-11. I’ve shared the teachings in this
sermon with you at least every year since then, and now here we are-
the tenth anniversary of that horrific event! Not only the terrorist
attacks of 9-11, but also today’s Bible lessons raise the question of
evil once again. In the Old Testament lesson (Exodus 14: 19-31) we
heard how God rescued the Israelites from Pharaoh’s mighty army at the
Red Sea. Sounds great, but what about those soldiers who were drowned
in the sea and who were simply following orders? What about the
drowned horses? And what about the families of those soldiers-
mothers and fathers, wives and children? In the epistle (Romans
14:1-12), we heard Paul teaching the church in Rome not to be critical
of their neighbors, just because they had opinions that differed from
theirs. Well, there must have been some serious criticizing, or Paul
would have taught something else. Finally in today’s gospel (Matthew
18: 21-35), we heard about the debtor who refused to forgive being
thrown into prison- probably until he died. Lots of evil, nasty stuff
in today’s Bible readings!
Difficult, painful times are present today- in fact, some of us are
living through them right now. The ghastly wildfires in Texas and
California are destroying everything in their path- homes, businesses,
animals, everything! Floods in New York and Pennsylvania are doing
the same. Drive-by shootings have some youngsters living as prisoners
in their own homes. One of our young mothers has been in the hospital
for weeks, and is now in Ann Arbor recovering from heart surgery. I
don’t know about you, but I still miss Mrs. Susie Cummings. On
October 1st, DHS will be cutting off cash assistance for anyone who
has received it for 4 years- job or no job. 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. Last week we in Romans 12: 19 we read, “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.
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. What opportunities can we ferret out of the
messes of our lives? Terrible times encourage us to reexamine our
priorities. In 9-11, do you remember the three passengers who became
heroes (Jeremy Glick, Tom Burnett, and Mark Bingham) on United
Airlines Flight 93 that crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside?
They prevented the terrorists from using the plane as a bomb against a
heavily-populated target by trying to take back the plane. What did
they do as their crisis became apparent? They used their cell phones
to call family and friends, they asked their listeners to say the
Lord’s Prayer with them, and they made the decision to make their
lives count- they knew they could make a difference. At that point,
talking on their cell phones- all the little disagreements,
irritations didn’t matter at all. What are your priorities? When is
the last time you told your family and friends that you love them? If
you don’t do it today, how do you know you’ll get another chance? Are
you making your life count- making a difference? Are you really
spending your time and money on your true priorities? Are you using
all your energy and problem-solving talent to work for God?
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 web site. The address is:
<a href="http://www.stpaulsepisag.com" target="_blank">http://www.stpaulsepisag.com</a> .
Blessed preaching.
Judy Boli
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Saginaw, Michigan
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