Slightly out of my comfort zone, I agreed to give the sermon
on church on the following Sunday. Jenni
also agreed to give hers at the assemblies of God congregation which I think
was slightly out of her’s too! Jenni did
a great job pulling an idea together based on the Dunblane High School motto
‘Look beyond the mountains’. With her ‘bare bones’ I wrote my own sermon and by
the time I was finished I was feeling a lot better about it.
Psalm 121 –
“I will lift up my eyes to the hills – from whence comes my help?”
MONI MPINGO ONSE (said in a big
voice)
“Look beyond the
mountains”
This is a
phrase important to the learners at Dunblane High School as it forms part of
their school motto. My son Matthew will start at Dunblane High School after the
summer and I hope that he will ‘look beyond the mountains’ as he studies hard
to achieve his best.
But for all
of us, we must also ‘look beyond the mountains’ to find a greater strength,
love and faith in God and ourselves.
In Scotland,
we have many mountains. They are high,
majestic and spiritual. Close to my home, we have mountains that I have climbed
with friends and family. One of my favourite places to visit is a place called
Glencoe where the skies are dark at night and the stars are bright. Just like
they are here in Malawi. I have found spiritualism in the Glencoe
skies that I have found here in the Malawi night skies.
But when we
see the mountains in Scotland or the mountains in Malawi, we cannot stand in
awe of them. We must ‘look beyond’ and
explore.
Firstly, we
must look over the mountains for ourselves.
We must look high, look around, look above. We as creatures from God must dream big,
dream over the mountains. These dreams
will allow us to fill our lives with family and friendship. These dreams will
allow us to work hard, achieve more. These dreams will allow us to follow the
path that God wishes us to follow.
Secondly, we
must go beyond the mountain of ourselves to care for others. Our own mountain cannot stop us from helping
those in need. Our own mountain must not stop us from lending a hand to a
neighbour or the sick. But it must stop us from putting ourselves
first. Our mountain must allow us to
stand high and say ‘come to me brother, sister in order that I can help
you’.
In our
Sunday School in Dunblane our children learn
‘To love God is to love other people,
to love other people is to love God’
Finally, we
must look beyond the mountain for the better way, the way together.
I have
learned a Chichewa phrase
Mutu umodzi susenza denga
One head cannot lift a roof
How true is
this?
For Jenni Barr and I, this is the reason for our journey to
Likhubula. Along with our steering
committees, we are looking beyond our own mountains of Mulanje, Ben Ledi, and
Glencoe to work together in partnership. We ask you here in this church, our
congregation in Dunblane, our neighbours, our friends and more importantly,
ourselves to find the time, commitment ,hope, love and faith to work together
to make our world a better place for everyone.
Our motto in the Likhubula – Dunblane Partnership is
Umodzi. Let us make this our motto for
life.
In Johannesburg airport there is a sign that says
If you want to go fast, go alone
If you want to go far, go together
We must remember that where two or three
or four or twenty people are gathered, we do go together to go far. But always
with us is our Good and Loving God.
If we set our sights beyond the mountain, we will find God, travel with
God and be blessed by his Everlasting love.
Praise God
and His Holy Word.
Amen
Fiona
Anderson
July
2013 
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