The Route to Happiness

Sermon writing is a mix of art, spirit, inspiration, and chutzpah. It is also darn hard. To get a real appreciation of what goes into writing a sermon, try it! You then can get a real appreciation of the wonderful job our minister does each Sunday. I was told that the key to delivering a good sermon is to “identify the good news!”

Now, identifying the good news can be a pretty difficult task, particularly if you are exposed to the media. For some reason, those who decide what “news” is fit to disseminate seem to chose those events that play up natural disasters and human-created evil deeds and suffering. Those stories seem to attract our attention and apparently help sell the things being advertised. Where, then, where can we find the good news? Perhaps, for the time we dwell in this sanctuary, it is fitting and proper that we should search for the news that is good.

So, then, what is the topic for today’s good news? I would propose that around the world, no matter what our situation – rich or poor; educated or not; of one race, religion, gender, or another – we all want to be happy and to avoid suffering. Our every intended action: how we choose to live our lives within the context of the limitations imposed by our circumstances – can be seen as a quest to answer the great question that confronts us all: “How am I to be happy?”

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