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136 Baptist Preaching We have abandoned morality in the name of fiscal expediency. We have dismissed certain ethical convictions for economic gain. We have sacrificed much, and some would say even our souls, at the shrine of the almighty dollar. This younger son shows us the danger of abandoning our morality; of doing only the things that we want to do; of following what is popular but not necessarily proper; of embracing what feels good but is not good for us. The thing about morality is that it cannot be selective. We cannot apply the moral plumb line to one thing but then remove it for another. We need to follow a morality that is informed by principles that can be sustained over time; a morality influenced by a purpose located in the liberation and upliftment of human beings; a morality that is inspired by a zeal to be consistent. Where, I ask again, is the moral warrant for the introduction of casino gambling in this country? The church has been vilified, ridiculed, and marginalized by a small but influential group of Jamaicans whose lifelong dream is to put the finishing touches on the “gamblingization” of this land we love. But I state again that we are unequivocally opposed to the legalization of casino gambling in this country because we believe it is taking us in a negative direction at a time when values and morals are under siege. Thankfully, this story bears in its message good news. It points to what is possible even when we have misused freedom, if we are willing to come to our senses and turn to the God who is the source of true freedom. Let us pray for this country that we love so dearly that all of us, church, state, business sector, and civil society, will confess and ask forgiveness for the ways in which we have misused our freedom; and may we enter with joy and gratitude into God’s arms outstretched to receive us for, truly, then, we will have come home. This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. 17 Holistic evangelism (Luke 10:1-24) Karen Kirlew St. Ann’s Bay Circuit of Baptist Churches St. Ann, Jamaica BIOGRAPHY Karen Kirlew is from the parish of Kingston, Jamaic. She is married to Raymond and has a son, Dominic. She is the pastor of the St. Ann’s Bay Circuit Part III—Caribbean 137 of Baptist Churches in St. Ann, Jamaica. She is also the moderator of the St. Ann Baptist Association; presenter for the program Christ for Today, a program produced by the Jamaica Baptist Union, which is aired on Radio Jamaica (RJR) each Sunday morning. She was ordained to the Christian ministry on September 30, 2004. Since then she has served the Jamaica Baptist Union as a member of the executive committee, as chairman of the Christian Education Department, as secretary of the Faith and Order Commission, and as secretary of the Ministerial Care Committee. SERMON COMMENTARY Kirlew gives us a wide-angle view of the commissioning of the seventy and their mission in pairs to the cities where Jesus is about to go. Taking in the larger context, Kirlew uses the passage as a point of departure to call for a holistic redefinition of evangelism. That redefinition shapes itself in terms of the “good.” She pushes this great abstraction in the direction of concretion and yet leaves about it an element of the transcendent and ineffable, the luminous goal that is summed up in Christ. The call of evangelism is thus to redefine what good means. Much that passes for good serves the purposes of those doing the good. Luther would remind us that even our doing good is still incurvatus in se. Good may be done in a way that society conventionally defines as goodness and yet be selfcentered . This would include all patronizing doing of good that stands above others rather than beside them. This good must not be defined as subjective feeling or even doing what is culturally expected as doing good. Good is good only to the degree that it expresses God’s standards and his will. This view of goodness reified has about it transcendence. It is not merely the good of the Platonic trilogy but a hypostatic goodness that rests in God himself and cannot be achieved without him. Yet, along with a redefinition of good, the world needs a resurrection of good. Evil reigns. Corruption prevails. There is such a...

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