Doing a Sermon

The Conservation farming organization that I was volunteer/working with over the last few weeks leads the last sunday of each month at the local church.  In January I did the sermon.  This meant that not only did I have to stand up and do the sermon I also had to sit at the front table in front of the whole church for 2 hours.  They use a liturgy so I used some of the readings that were done that day for the basis of my sermon.  These are my rough notes, when ever I speak I do not read word for word (So ignore any spell/grammar errors).

Bible readings: the church always do one from the New and Old Testament.  The story for the old testament was used both at my sending church service, and at the SALT orientation in Akron. Good thing I remember things like that

2 Kings 6: 18-23
Matthew 5: 43-48
 
Sermon:
The new commandment that was read today (in the liturgy); was about how we should love one another.  Who are the people that we should love; how do we show this love for others.   Jesus loved everybody not just his followers, should we love everybody as well.  How do live our lives to show that we follow the Prince of Peace.  I do not know the answers to these questions.  I looked to the bible for guidance on these questions.
 
To me Matthew 5: 43-48 teaches me who Jesus tells us to love.  Jesus says to love your enemies as well as your friends.  If we are only to love those who love us we are not better than people who do not believe in Jesus.  This passage challenges us to love the whole world and no just love our friends.  We should not be rewarded for doing what is easy.  What is easy is to love those who love us back.
The passage also shows how God loves everybody, and we should follow God's perfect example.  God lets the sun rise on all people whether they are good or bad.  He lets the rain fall on those who do what is right and those who do wrong.  We should follow God's perfect example and show love and compassion to everybody.  We should not judge who should receive our love and who should not.

I also found the story of Elisha and the army that was sent to kill him 2 King 6:18-23.  This is an example of how somebody who follows God showed love to his enemies.  He asked God to make all of the blind.  He brought the blind army to the king of Israel.  The king asked should I kill these men.  Elisha told him not to, they should prepare a feast for these people.  The country that sent the army no longer raided the country of Israel after a meal was given to their army.
The king of Israel showed love and compassion by giving the enemies of his country a meal.  This army did not show love to the people of Israel.  But the king of Israel did not take revenge on these people.  He showed them hospitality, made them comfortable and welcome.  Then he sent them home.  He treated the army the way he would like to be treated.

It is not always easy to follow the way that Jesus has set out for us.  To follow the ways of the Prince of Peace. To love your enemies is not something that is easy to do.  But if we are able to love one another.  And to show the rest of the world how we can love those who do not love us back.  We will show the love of God through us. People will know that we are Christians because of our love. We as Christians can be the light of the world.



I thought that I would have each line translated, but it was only at the end that it was summarized. I asked my host siblings if they understood the English and they said yes.  So that was nice.  And my Nkhono was so proud of me standing up and speaking in front of the whole church.   Most of the bible studies I have lead and the sermon have been focusing on the Sermon on the Mount.  I know that this section of the bible can challenge everybody no matter what they are doing.  It also provides the base line of many of my beliefs.

I have started working at the school this year.  It is very similar to last year.  There are two more MCCers working at the school for the school year.  It will be nice to maybe start a peace club for the kids at the school.  It will also be nice to have some people to bounce ideas off of.  And maybe in the next few months I will be able to get a new system of organization in place with graded books and information all in one place.  I would like the library to be organized in a way that teacher would find it easy to look for books and information.