The Ninth Sunday after Trinity

1^st August 2010 11:45am

Preacher: Frankie Lee Minor

Readings: Ecclesiastes 1:2,12-14; 2:18-23 ; Colossians 3:1-11 ; Luke 12:13-21

Good morning, my brothers and sisters. God bless you!

Before we start, I would like to us you to ask yourself a simple yet important question:

‘Am I blessed?’

I think we are all blessed people. We have food to eat, we have water to drink, we have friends, and we have our families. Above all we have Jesus as our Saviour, who is all loving. As we can see at the stained glass window at the East End of the church, we know that we, as Christians, worship and glorify the Jesus who is on the Cross-our suffering lord, our servant king. He is not someone who is high up with no interest whatsoever for us, but He loves us and He cares for us. He loves us to a point that he suffers and dies and rises for us. This we glorify.

Am I blessed? I am indeed. As a training priest, I am poor financially. I am certainly not wealthy. Yet I am blessed. I thank for God has blessed me. He has given me the ability to listen, to eat, to see, to read, to study and to talk.

Yet I can choose to keep all these gifts to myself and refuse to share with others. I know how to speak but I can choose not to talk and chat with friends and family. I can read books but I can choose to keep the knowledge I have gained from the books to myself.

But I can also choose to share my gifts with others. I can choose to chat, to talk, to make jokes and share my feelings with others in conversation. I can choose to become a teacher to share the knowledge I have gained with others.

Again, like our boys and girls in the choir. They have lovely voice. They can choose to keep this gift to themselves. Yet they decide to sing to us here. They share their joy and their lovely voice with us. As such, both our choir boys and girls and us can enjoy more fully the music and hymns in church.

Now I have recently got myself a game. (I will show the ‘Monopoly’ board game to the congregation) Have you played this game? I wonder what you will feel if you receive this gift, this board game at Christmas.

I will be very happy if I receive this gift. I can say to myself, ‘this is mine’, and I am happy because I have a gift. Yet, I can choose to invite friends and family to come to my home and play this game with them. I am happy because I have a gift of a ‘monopoly’ But would I be much happier if I share this game with others and play with them? I think I will be much happier if others are invited to share my gift.

Nevertheless, we have the most wonderful gift from God—Jesus, our Saviour and our Friend. God loves us, and He loves us so much that He even sends His only Son to us, to die and to rise for us. But, can we keep this gift of God, this Love, to ourselves? NO

We know that, as Christians, when one of our brother or sister suffers, we suffer also. When we have food, we remember and try our best to help and serve those without food. And I can assure you that there are millions across the Globe who experience hunger daily, who live without clean water, who live without shelter.

Here at St John’s, because of our love for God and for our neighbours, we have to offer them our help and support. We do not do this because we are told to do, but like God, we know we have so much that we cannot but to passionately share with others. Here at St John’s, we offer ministries to those who suffer from HIV/AIDS, all those who suffer from domestic abuse. We believe that one of our brothers or our sisters suffers, we suffer also. It is not only that we are helping them, but we are also learning from them and gaining support from them. Just as the game of ‘monopoly’, it may seem that I am losing something when I share the game with others, but only when I start to share with others, together with all the laughter and shouting during the game, that I have greater joy.

Just as we will share God’s peace with each other before we prepare the Eucharist, we passionately share God’s love and peace with each other and those who are not here with us. Sometimes, it does not require us to do much more than saying ‘Hello’ or ‘God bless you’ to those around us to show God’s love. This minor act of grace can often means a lot to others.

Unlike the rich fool in the parable who keeps all his possessions to himself without considering others and thanking God; let’s not keep God’s gift of forgiveness, of love and of peace to ourselves but share with others—our neighbours, our friends, our family and all those around us.

I would like to invite you to say to the persons next to you, ‘God bless you’

Thanks be to God