The Golden Solution

Notes
Transcript
We are living in disturbing times. Not only is the COVID scare unsettling, but also the deep division among countrymen. We have talking to and listening to each other. Instead, we are shouting past each other. We no longer listen to the other side, we just let them talk, ignoring them while we think how to make our next point. In our mind any opposing view is not even worth considering. This division has split families, friends, and sadly even churches.
Our passage today is widely known and seldom followed. Now more than ever we need to meditate on and follow the Golden Rule.
Matthew 7:12 KJV
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Think about this. If police officers would treat folks in the BLM movement they way they would want to be treated… things would be different. If the BLM protesters would treat officers they way they want to be treated, things would be different. The Bible is not an old dusty, and irrelevant book. Jesus’ words are the pathway for America to Heal. This morning may God grant us the spiritual eyes to see the Golden Solution. Treat others the way you want to be treated.

We All Want to be Loved

Matthew 22:36–39 KJV
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 KJV
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Romans 13:8–10 KJV
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Galatians 5:14 KJV
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Philippians 2:3 KJV
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

We All Want to be Forgiven.

Ephesians 4:32 KJV
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Albert Tomei is a justice of the New York State Supreme Court. A young defendant was convicted in his court for gunning down another person, execution style. The murderer had a bad record, was no stranger to the system, and only stared in anger as the jury returned its guilty verdict.
The victim’s family had attended every day of the 2-week trial. On the day of sentencing, the victim’s mother and grandmother addressed the court. When they spoke, neither addressed the jury. Both spoke directly to the murderer. They both forgave him.
"You broke the Golden Rule—loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind. You broke the law——loving your neighbor as yourself. I am your neighbor," the older of the two women told him, "so you have my address. If you want to write, I’ll write you back. I sat in this trial for two weeks, and for the last sixteen months I tried to hate you. But you know what? I could not hate you. I feel sorry for you because you made a wrong choice."
Judge Tomei writes: "For the first time since the trial began, the defendant’s eyes lost their laser force and appeared to surrender to a life force that only a mother can generate: nurturing, unconditional love. After the grandmother finished, I looked at the defendant. His head was hanging low. There was no more swagger, no more stare. The destructive and evil forces within him collapsed helplessly before this remarkable display of humaneness." [source: www.preachingtoday.com]

We all Want to be Heard

Isaiah 1:17–18 KJV
Learn to do well; Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, Judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

We All Want to be Treated Fairly

Micah 6:8 KJV
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; And what doth the Lord require of thee, But to do justly, and to love mercy, And to walk humbly with thy God?

Paid What is Owed

Romans 13:8 KJV
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

Treated Justly

Proverbs 18:13 KJV
He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, It is folly and shame unto him.

Shown Mercy

Matthew 5:7 KJV
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Treated With Humility

Matthew 5:3 KJV
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
I don’t like peanut butter. Some people get very upset when I tell them that. It’s nothing personal. It’s not a character flaw. I just don’t like it. I don’t even like the smell of it. My mother told me I ate a lot of peanut butter when I was young, so maybe I just reached my limit. My two daughters, however, do like peanut butter and that caused a bit of a problem.
When they were elementary school age I would on occasion make their lunches and one of their favorites was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I dutifully made their sandwiches making sure that I would use the knife first in the jelly, which I like, so that there would be no peanut butter residue in the jelly jar. I abhorred (that may be a little strong, but you know the feeling) when I would put jelly on my toast and detect that faint but distinct taste of peanut butter that was a result of some careless peanut butter lover contaminating my jelly with a peanut-butter-infected knife. I was not going to let that happen on my watch! Anyway, I would make their sandwiches and send the little darlings off to school knowing that come lunch time they would enjoy their sandwiches and give thanks to God above for their devoted father who so lovingly prepared their lunch.
One day one of my daughters said she needed to talk to me about their lunches, in particular about their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was prepared to hear my praises sung as the world’s greatest PB&J maker when I was shocked to hear her complaint. Apparently I had been going a bit overboard with the jelly and skimping on the peanut butter. Jelly was oozing out the sandwich drowning out the taste of the peanut butter. That, of course, was my intention! My rationale was the more jelly the better. I loved jelly and shouldn’t everyone else. I was thinking that in order to offset the nastiness of peanut butter one needed as much jelly as two pieces of bread could possibly hold. I was giving her what I liked, not what she liked. I was being influenced by my preferences and oblivious to hers. Her simple and reasonable request was less jelly and more peanut butter.
At the end of my freshman year in college I began dating a girl. During the summer we exchanged letters and it was her custom to end each letter with a scripture, not the whole scripture but just the reference. One of her letters ended with Philippians 2:3, 4. I eagerly opened my Bible anticipating that this was some verse in the Bible extolling some virtue she had seen in me (by this time you probably see I suffer from delusions of grandeur, both as a father and a boyfriend) only to find these words: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
It hit me that day that I often, if not always, look out for my interests above the interests of others. The same feeling hit me that day when my daughter asked me for more peanut butter and less jelly. So often I impose on others my likes, my preferences, my desires rather than consider their likes, their preference, their desires.
I don’t understand how anyone can like peanut butter, but this little encounter with my school-aged daughter taught me that in order to be a good PB&J maker, or for that matter in order to be a good father or a good husband or a good friend, I need to sometimes get past that terrible smell and spread on the peanut butter good and thick!
So let us endeavor to see things through the eyes of others, and strive to achieve the Golden Solution.
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