Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Sermon 10-12-2014 - Reasons To Be Cheerful
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Sermon 10-12-2014 - Reasons To Be Cheerful
EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2014 PHIL 4:1-9
This week has been full of occupational hazards for me. We all have them, don’t we. Postal workers have to deal with vicious dogs, salespeople have to handle angry customers, and office workers have to tackle temperamental copiers and phone systems. And for preachers the occupational hazard is preaching on a topic and then all the following week, facing situations where your sermon comes back to haunt you. So, last week, if you were here or if you listened online, you’ll remember it was week 1 of our annual stewardship campaign, and I talked about how everything in all creation is God’s rightful property and we don’t actually own anything – we’re just the managers of God’s stuff.
So, the power went out in my garage (sorry, that’s God’s garage that I look after). I called out an electrician. He was there for less than an hour, changed a part which had blown out, and charged me $390. I looked on the internet to see how much the part costs, and found that you can buy it at the Home Depot for 11 bucks. Now you know what I’m feeling, don’t you. Because you’ve felt it to. I feel ripped off. I’m trying to let it go. But $390? And then I hear the Holy Spirit saying, “Hey remember what you were saying on Sunday? You know, if you really believed it, you wouldn’t be so bent out of shape right now. If you really think that that $390 is God’s then you’d be much more peaceful.” Don’t you hate it when God’s right?
By the way, I reckon every church should have an electrician, a plumber, and a car mechanic. That way they can give big discounts to the pastor.
But that’s not all, just as I was getting over that I received an email. It was from Priceline. Now several weeks ago I booked a flight to London on Christmas Day. My plan was to celebrate a wonderful Christmas Eve with my church family, lead worship at our three Christmas Eve Services, get a decent night’s sleep and then catch a plane and be in London early Boxing Day morning with my sons Tim and Rob. What could be better? The fight I booked from Harrisburg on Christmas Day was at 6 O’clock in the evening, connecting in Philadelphia and then on to Heathrow overnight. Perfect. And then I got this email that said my flight from Harrisburg had been changed from 6 in the evening to 7.30 in the morning. But the connecting flight form Philadelphia is the same as it was before. And there is no way out, no refund, no anything. So, now I have to be at the airport at 6.45am Christmas morning, will fly to Philadelphia, where I will wait for ten hours for my connecting flight. The entirety of my Christmas Day will be sitting in an airport. Ten hours of my life wasted. My Christmas Day ruined. And then God said, “What was that you were saying again, last Sunday? You know, if you really thought that your time was not actually yours but mine you wouldn’t feel so cheated. Those ten hours you think you’ve lost never belonged to you in the first place, and they don’t now. So you are going to use my ten hours sitting in Philly Airport. I’m still lending you those hours. I’m excited to entrust you with them. Look at this as my Christmas gift to you. You know, you could do great things with my ten hours. We could have a lot of fun. Think about it.”
Read the full Sermon here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3198325/Phil_4v1.htm
View all episodes
By The Rev. Dr. Duncan H. Johnston, RectorEIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2014 PHIL 4:1-9
This week has been full of occupational hazards for me. We all have them, don’t we. Postal workers have to deal with vicious dogs, salespeople have to handle angry customers, and office workers have to tackle temperamental copiers and phone systems. And for preachers the occupational hazard is preaching on a topic and then all the following week, facing situations where your sermon comes back to haunt you. So, last week, if you were here or if you listened online, you’ll remember it was week 1 of our annual stewardship campaign, and I talked about how everything in all creation is God’s rightful property and we don’t actually own anything – we’re just the managers of God’s stuff.
So, the power went out in my garage (sorry, that’s God’s garage that I look after). I called out an electrician. He was there for less than an hour, changed a part which had blown out, and charged me $390. I looked on the internet to see how much the part costs, and found that you can buy it at the Home Depot for 11 bucks. Now you know what I’m feeling, don’t you. Because you’ve felt it to. I feel ripped off. I’m trying to let it go. But $390? And then I hear the Holy Spirit saying, “Hey remember what you were saying on Sunday? You know, if you really believed it, you wouldn’t be so bent out of shape right now. If you really think that that $390 is God’s then you’d be much more peaceful.” Don’t you hate it when God’s right?
By the way, I reckon every church should have an electrician, a plumber, and a car mechanic. That way they can give big discounts to the pastor.
But that’s not all, just as I was getting over that I received an email. It was from Priceline. Now several weeks ago I booked a flight to London on Christmas Day. My plan was to celebrate a wonderful Christmas Eve with my church family, lead worship at our three Christmas Eve Services, get a decent night’s sleep and then catch a plane and be in London early Boxing Day morning with my sons Tim and Rob. What could be better? The fight I booked from Harrisburg on Christmas Day was at 6 O’clock in the evening, connecting in Philadelphia and then on to Heathrow overnight. Perfect. And then I got this email that said my flight from Harrisburg had been changed from 6 in the evening to 7.30 in the morning. But the connecting flight form Philadelphia is the same as it was before. And there is no way out, no refund, no anything. So, now I have to be at the airport at 6.45am Christmas morning, will fly to Philadelphia, where I will wait for ten hours for my connecting flight. The entirety of my Christmas Day will be sitting in an airport. Ten hours of my life wasted. My Christmas Day ruined. And then God said, “What was that you were saying again, last Sunday? You know, if you really thought that your time was not actually yours but mine you wouldn’t feel so cheated. Those ten hours you think you’ve lost never belonged to you in the first place, and they don’t now. So you are going to use my ten hours sitting in Philly Airport. I’m still lending you those hours. I’m excited to entrust you with them. Look at this as my Christmas gift to you. You know, you could do great things with my ten hours. We could have a lot of fun. Think about it.”
Read the full Sermon here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3198325/Phil_4v1.htm