Sermon From My Mount (High Horse) Part 3

The Challenge of Making Each Hour Count
Basil Waine Kong

Every hour is different from all other hours in which you are endowed with an extra-ordinary opportunity to do heroic deeds. If we recognize that providence rewards the bold, this is not the second, minute or hour to be timid and invisible. Each of us have the power to change things for good or evil. Every little bid you do helps or hurt a little. We must decide whether our life is to be about quick fixes, the avoidance of pain, a pursuit of pleasure and material gain or in the service of mankind.

The need to “fit in” is swallowing us up. If we do not remain true to ourselves and our fore fathers and fore mothers we will drive ourselves into oblivion in our BMWs. Our people need learning, conviction, exaltation and justice yet we remain consumed with the pursuit of superficial material things. We may claim to be a success, but in the eyes of the heroes and sheroes, we are rightly regarded as failures. Our community is in spiritual distress suffering from a disease of loss of character and commitment and most of us are paralyzed with fear. One can be a villain even though very cultured, learned and surrounded by luxuries. There are many among us whose entire existence is been taken up with the trappings of modern life. We have forgotten the value of our human relationships.

The Earth, our home, is a magnificent creation and generous gift from God to whom we owe eternal gratitude.The glory of the creator is manifested in the spectacles that is all around us in Jamaica---the cool breeze, our bountiful harvests, our spectacular mountains, the blue caribbean, the spectacular rainbows and sunsets after a storm. But the greatest of all of God’s creation are human beings! We are the very embodiment of His perfection.

We are interdependent with and partners with God. God need us as much as we need Him. When we walk through storms, we never walk alone. We are not solitary in our toils or forsaken in our efforts. The smallest and weakest of us is a microcosm of the greatest one. A reciprocal relationship binds all of us with our creator.

When I study the Bible, God speaks to me. When I pray, I speak to God. Knowledge of the Bible is only a necessary first step to living the Bible and walking as a Christian. You cannot study philosophy through praying and cannot study prayer through philosophizing. Prayer fulfills a sacred function. When you pray, you talk to God, when we experience a flash of insight, a catharsis, and understanding, God is talking to you. When God is betrayed and abandoned, we experience agony.

Holiness is not man’s achievement, it is a gift from God that cannot be achieved without engaging others. It is not something that can be attained through merit. We become holy not by who we are but by His grace and by how we treat our fellow travelers on the planet. Don’t turn your backs on the world’s most precious treasures. The light we shine to maintain our existence is the light that will transform the world and enrich others as well as ourselves. It is more than ever our duty to recover the relevance of our traditions to be engaged with each other.

Never doubt our wonderful capacity for generosity and forgiveness. We can teach the world a great deal about forgiving and moving forward. The assumption that all Jamaica can offer is mere survival and getting by is an affront to our dignity and not recognizing the magnificent contributions our people have made in every field of endeavor.

We should all stand for and represent a striving to achieve a high purpose. Our sense for meaning grows not by spectacular acts but how we treat the twenty four hours we are given each day.

On one of my visits to Africa, several of us were taken to see Mt. Kilimanjaro. When the guide pointed in the direction of this great mountain, none of us could see it. The guide pointed out that we were not looking high enough and directed us to look above the clouds. There is was in all its snow covered splendor made popular by Ernest Hemingway. Jamaicans are special. We are not regular, average or limited. We are great people whose only fault is that we do not aim high enough. We are guilty of low aim because we devalue ourselves and over value foreign. The ceiling of our aspirations is too low: a job, a house, car, flat screen TV and life insurance. We are capable of so much more. We have world changing ideals and power. We are only limited by our minds. What the mind can conceive and what we believe, we can achieve.

Our community’s need for thought, understanding, and intellectual expansion is profound and urgent. If it is not satisfied, we will be bankrupt, squandering a great legacy and opportunity.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I woke and saw that life was duty.
I acted and behold, duty was joy !!

Aspire to inspire, before you expire.
(Amy Grant)