A handful of words can change one\u2019s life. Consider what happens to a person when another says, \u201cWill you marry me?\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m pregnant!\u201d Or when an employer calls to say, \u201cWe want you to come work for our company.\u201d Or when a doctor says, \u201cYour tests came back and you need to go to the hospital.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Twenty centuries ago in a small country far away, a teacher sat down in front of a crowd of people and gave a talk that we know today as \u201cThe Sermon on the Mount.\u201d You can read it in the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 5-7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus\u2019 beloved sermon has changed lives and the world down through history. The Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote a book, What I Believe,<\/em> about the Sermon on the Mount. An Indian lawyer, Mahatma Gandhi, read Tolstoy\u2019s book and it inspired him to apply Jesus\u2019 nonviolent teachings to the struggle for independence in the second most populated country in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A young German minister read Jesus\u2019 sermon and wrote his own reflections on it that were later titled, The Cost of Discipleship; <\/em>the book inspired millions after the Nazis killed its author, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A young Baptist preacher read Jesus\u2019 sermon and news reports about Gandhi\u2019s work; Martin Luther King, Jr.\u2019s nonviolent civil rights work changed the United States for the better, for all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An electrician working in a Polish shipyard was inspired by Jesus\u2019 sermon and King\u2019s nonviolent work; Lech Walesa organized his fellow workers and helped to nonviolently end communism, which helped to end the Cold War. The Episcopal priest Desmond Tutu followed Jesus\u2019 teachings in the Sermon on the Mount to help end racial oppression in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This Sunday, July 14, the First Presbyterian Union Church, North Avenue and Temple Street in Owego, will celebrate Jesus\u2019 greatest sermon in a creative 10 a.m. worship service. Twenty readers, ranging from a young elementary school student to a 90-plus year old church member, will take turns reading sections of the sermon so that worshippers will hear it all in one service. Different voices speak to different people in different ways. The combination of diverse voices sharing Jesus\u2019 sermon is awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond hearing the words, the congregation will sing hymns inspired by this greatest sermon. Owego Parish Associate, Pastor Carolyn Gillette, has written four new hymns to well-known hymn tunes that are paraphrases of Jesus\u2019 teachings. One of the best ways to learn anything is to sing it; most of us can say the alphabet easily by singing it. These hymns will help us remember Jesus\u2019 teachings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n