Sunday Sermon
Friday, October 17, 2008
All of us have experienced a great deal of stress in the last year: Extreme fluctuations in gas prices, a presidential election process that started two years ago, government regulation that encouraged lenders to give loans to people who couldn’t afford them and $700 Billion of our children’s future potentially thrown away to fix a problem that was avoidable.
We want someone to blame for this mess we’re in! There must be some villain out there! It’s the government’s fault! It’s speculators manipulating oil prices and the stock market! Each of us blames someone else, but it is all the same. We just want someone else to be responsible so we don’t have to take responsibility for our own actions.
Most of us who are struggling with money because of rising prices are in this situation because we were irresponsible. We didn’t save money and we lived beyond our means. We continue to buy things we don’t need because we deserve them.
We complain about politics being negative, but they only do it because it works on us.
Wow, do we need someone to blame for this economic mess! We all voted for these representatives who set up these bad regulations and if you didn’t vote then you are even more culpable by allowing your voice to be silenced. People didn’t take out excessive mortgages because the banker twisted their arms. Most bankers were responsible and ignored the government pushing for risky lending. Most of us live beyond our means and it can’t go on forever. We need to learn basic home finance and those of us who know home finance need to teach it to others. If you find yourself in trouble, check out Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University! St. Andrews Episcopal Church began teaching this class and hopefully they will continue.
We live in a great country! We have freedoms endowed to us by our creator and our government was founded on this principle. People died for these freedoms and still die for them, every day. With freedom comes responsibility. We are free to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and we are free to blame others for our problems. But we are only truly free if we are allowed the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail.
God created us free to make our own choices. We can choose to follow Him or not. We can choose to be a part of God’s work in the world, or not.
The world is not coming to an end. Yes, we are in a difficult situation, but God will see us through. This is just another opportunity to realize we are not defined by our wealth or our poverty. We are defined by the choices we make and what we do with the finite lives God has granted us.
God bless you!
F “Sunday Sermon” is a forum for Emporia area ministers to share their sermons, thoughts and observations. This week’s sermon is from the Rev. Mike Sorsen of the Emporia Presbyterian Church.