<font color='black' size='4' face='Times New Roman, Times, serif'><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Forwarded: (Part 1 of 2)</span><br style="font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br style="font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br style="font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<div style="font-size: 10pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="arial, helvetica">-----Original Message-----</font><br>
<font face="arial, helvetica">From: Judy <</font><a href="mailto:judy_boli@ecunet.org" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; color: blue; cursor: pointer;">judy_boli@ecunet.org</a><font face="arial, helvetica">></font><br>
<font face="arial, helvetica">To: Propertalk <</font><a href="mailto:propertalk.topic@ecunet.org" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; color: blue; cursor: pointer;">propertalk.topic@ecunet.org</a><font face="arial, helvetica">></font><br>
<font face="arial, helvetica">Sent: Sat, Jan 16, 2016 9:45 pm</font><br>
<font face="arial, helvetica">Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Epiphany 2C (Part 1)</font><br>
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<div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; margin: 1em 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">Dear Friends,</font></span></div>
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<div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; margin: 1em 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">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. </font><font color="#000000">It’s a yearly repeat sermon.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Here it is:</font></font></span></div>
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<div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; margin: 1em 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">I’m sure you remember 9-11. </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">I’ve shared the teachings in this sermon with you at least every year since then.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">We have our own difficult, painful times- in fact, some of us are living through them right now.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">We just buried Michelle Albert- 42 years old.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">I taught her in Sunday school.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">She didn’t have health insurance and let breast cancer get ahead of her, finally metastasizing into her lungs.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Flint is struggling with lead in their water, endangering the intellect of children.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">We have members struggling with cancer and other illnesses.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">We have families working to cope with the death of loved ones.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">We have people with money problems, moving problems, life problems, relationship problems, etc.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">In other words- join the human race.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">This kind of pain is part of the human condition.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">St. Paul has advice for us when we face situations like these.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">In Romans 12: 19 he says, “Don’t let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good.”</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">I know how devoted you are to your Lord, so I’m sure that this is how you intend to live your life.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Me too.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">The problem is, in frustrating, confusing times like these- how do you know how to defeat evil with good?</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">We’d be glad to do as God wants, but how do we know what that is?</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">I’d like to share it with you again this morning.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">As you may remember, I see five basic principles in our dealing with evil.</font></font></span></div>
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<div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000">FIRST PRINCIPLE: We mustn’t delude ourselves about the power of the enemy.</font></span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Some years ago, I asked our Sunday school youngsters to tell me what Satan looked like.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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!</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">(“Book of Common Prayer”- Service of Holy Baptism, p. 302)</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font></span></font></div>
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<div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000">SECOND PRINCIPLE: Evil is highly contagious-</font></span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000"> look how evil spreads, worse than smallpox or tuberculosis. </font><font color="#000000">At the checkout line, a lady said, “I just can’t see why they (the terrorists) hate us so!”</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">I know.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Among other reasons, one of them goes back to the Jewish holocaust in World War II.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.”</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">The problem of giving them a homeland in Palestine was that someone else already lived there- the Palestinians.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">The Jews said God promised the land to them through their ancestor Abraham (God did, but the Palestinians are also Abraham’s descendants.)</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Unless we take preventative measures, what we sow is what we get</font></span></font></div>
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<div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000">THIRD PRINCIPLE: Jesus’ teachings, especially those in the sermon on the mount, are the vaccination against being destroyed when evil is thrown at us.</font></span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">He justified his opinion by saying that the Bible is full of war- just look at the Old Testament.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">True, but Jesus came to fulfill the old covenant.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">The Old Testament was written for the people of God when they were just beginning their journey.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">“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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">You don’t give a toddler and a fifty-five year old grandmother or grandfather the same rules.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Jesus said he had come to fulfill the law.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.”</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Remember, he’s not talking about love- a feeling, but love- an action, a choice.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">St. Paul reminds us that God says: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.”</font><font color="#000000"> </font></span></font></div>
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<div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000">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. </font><font color="#000000">Power is in the hands of the VICTIM.</font></span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">It is the victim who allows God to take charge of the encounter.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew that.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Why?</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Because it is the victim who determines the response to the evil.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Look how this principle works.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">The more negatives emotionally and physically this person or group can cause the better.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">The first incident only gets the ball going.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">The power for good or evil is in the hands of the victim.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Look- if an evil person throws a ball of nasty garbage at me, I have a choice.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">In fact, I might even miss and get a whole lot of innocent people.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">What happens next?</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Those on the other side do the same.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">Before long, following our natural tendencies, we are all a filthy stinking mess.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">However, we are not called to follow our natural tendencies- we are much more than the highest biological entity on this planet.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">We are called to be children of God, and there is a better way.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">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.</font><font color="#000000"> </font><font color="#000000">If we are strong enough, courageous enough, have enough Spirit power, the contamination stops before it corrupts us or spreads to anybody else.</font></span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">(Continued in Part 2)</font></span></font></div>
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