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Lent 3

The Good News Written

Isaiah 55.10-12a (NRSV)

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace.

Wayne Dyer:

“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.”

Luke 13:1-9 (NRSV)

¹At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. ²He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? ³No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. ⁴Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them — do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

⁶Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. ⁷So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ ⁸He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. ⁹If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, March 7, 2010.

I love that old song, There’ll Be Some Changes Made…
“There’ll be a change in the weather and a change in the sea; from now on there’ll be a change in me. My walk will be different, my talk and my name; nothing about me’s going to be the same.
I’m going to change my way of living and if that ain’t enough, I’ll even change the way that I strut my stuff…”

Today’s scripture readings challenge us to make changes… deep, internalized changes that are meant to then effect change in the world around us. The kind of change that disrupts what we thought we knew… that strips away comfort upon which we have long depended… because only radical change will change lives and only changed lives will change the world.

I mean really, who likes change? Not me.
Oh, I want to change what the scale says, but I DON’T want to change how I eat or how much I move. Move more and eat less? How about I eat the same amount while watching the Logo channel and just complain more that my cholesterol and blood pressure are problematic?

I know it’s hard… I have to pay a person to make me show up at the gym and work out faithfully. Only for the praise of a gorgeous 25-year-old sadist who charges me through the nose can I be bothered to know what the inside of a gym looks like. And just between you and me… I’ve not seen my trainer lately. I gave it up for Lent!

Changing one’s attitudes, one’s habits, one’s way of thinking is difficult. But when it happens, it changes lives.

My grandmother grew up knowing, as sure as she knew that she could depend on the law of gravity, she knew that romance was only for a man and a woman, and it should only go so far until that man and woman were married, and then the primary reason for it was to procreate. And divorce wasn’t an option.

As the saying goes, she grew up hearing that God loved all people and would send most of them to hell, and that sex was evil and dirty and should saved for the person you love.

Of course, Grandma would live to see her first, and frankly favorite, grandchild come out of the closet almost a quarter of a century ago now. I told her my story, gave her some brochures published by MCC, and went to bed. She woke me up the next morning to apologize for any unkind thing she might have ever said about same-gender loving people that would have hurt me. I don’t know how hard she had to struggle to change her attitudes about sexual diversity, but I know she was willing to say, “I love you and I believe in you. That’s what matters; I’ll figure the rest out later.”

That kind of change of perception, change of heart, change of attitude, change of belief isn’t easy, and for some people, it seems almost impossible. And yet, that kind of radical, love based change is what will change the world. Perhaps it is the only thing that can.

I’ve seen families torn apart when someone comes out, or when one marries someone of another race or ethnicity or culture, or when one marries outside the family religion… all because people attribute their prejudices to God and then worship those prejudices rather than challenging or changing them.

We want, we beg, we demand that others change their attitudes… those churches and families and communities must come to learn that any God that would condemn genuine love is not a God worthy of our devotion. God must be bigger than that to be God at all. But if we are going to insist that they change… well, as Gandhi said, we must BE the change we want to see in the world.

That’s why we work so hard here at Sunshine Cathedral to challenge the status quo. The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted but it also meant to afflict the comfortable… it’s a double edged sword and as nervous as that makes us sometimes, we are faithful enough and courageous enough to let the Gospel do its work in and through us.

The word liturgy means “the work of the people.” And at Sunshine Cathedral, our liturgy, our worship service requires work… it’s not the same old same old. We challenge what we thought we knew… we challenge what has previously been comfortable. We use inclusive language because we know that God is not a boy’s name. And so we challenge ourselves, at least when we come together to read scripture and hear sermons and sing songs… at least in the context of worship we choose to let God be bigger than the Y chromosome. We don’t always do it perfectly, but we don’t stop trying. For some of us that’s new and maybe even uncomfortable, but it is right and good and ultimately a joyful thing to let God be bigger than the graven images of our past.

We challenge ourselves to follow Jesus, rather than to merely venerate him. Veneration is easy, that’s just lip service. But following him… trying, sometimes failing but still trying to love our enemies? Let’s just sing a praise chorus instead.

Trying, sometimes failing but still trying to be peacemakers instead of war-makers? Let’s just shout a hallelujah or two.

The Golden Rule? Wouldn’t an organ prelude be much simpler?

Standing up to racism, to sexism, to homophobia, naming privilege where it exists and saying, “to whom much is given much is required?” That might annoy someone. Let’s just recite a creed… venerating Jesus is so much easier than following him… .I mean, Dr King was a follower of Jesus, and look what happened to him? For that matter, look at what happened to Jesus. Who needs that, really? We are tempted to worship his pain instead of risking our own discomfort in his name. But Jesus disturbed the status quo, and followers of Jesus still do. And if we are to be Christ-ians… little christs… we must first be followers (imitators) of Jesus.

Doing the same old thing, in the same old way, will only yield the same old results. “The word shall not return empty, but will accomplish that which I send it to do.” If we keep using words that privilege maleness, or whiteness, or power over others, or violence, or heterosexism… then those words will not return empty, but will continue to promote sexism, racism, militarism, heterosexism. The tree will just keep being what’s its always been… but if we nourish it… .try something new, and give it time to work out differently… if we put a new kind of plant food on the tree of our lives, if we feed it new thoughts, new words, new images, new attitudes… in the days, months, years to come, it might produce more fruit than it ever has. Let’s try a new attitude, and give it time to really work.

We want others to change… but we can’t lead where we won’t go. If we want “them” to move beyond their discomfort, we may need to be willing to move beyond our own. And then, from a place of integrity and moral authority, we can say, “I know change isn’t easy… but to get something new, you have to do something new.”

Lent isn’t about guilt… it’s about focus. The season and the scriptures are making us focus on things we might not like to focus on… like a willingness to grow, to change. But that willingness to change our attitudes is what makes the Easter experience possible. If we want to experience radical change out there, we will have to be willing to change at least some attitudes in here (head) and in here (heart). As we focus our intention and our efforts and our hearts on progressive, positive, practical life changing spirituality, we will find that miracles are still possible… in fact, miracle is just what we call a really big change. Maybe our willingness to change a little, to have a change of attitude, a change in perception is the biggest miracle of all. Just a little willingness… and then let’s see what happens in our lives. I’m guessing that with a just a mental adjustment here and there, we can find ourselves on the road to Resurrection. And this is the good news. Amen.

The Good News Affirmed

I’m willing to acknowledge my sacred value.

I’m willing to acknowledge the sacred value of all people.

I’m willing to make positive changes.

I’m willing to be blessed and to bless others.

Let the miracles begin!

Amen.

The Good News Repeated

The final word comes from French philosopher Henri Bergson who said, “To exist is to change. To change is to mature. To mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100307_1.mp3)

¹The Lord is my light and my salvation —
so why should I be afraid?
The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger,
so why should I tremble?
²When evil people come to devour me,
when my enemies and foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
³Though a mighty army surrounds me,
my heart will not be afraid.
Even if I am attacked,
I will remain confident.

⁴The one thing I ask of the [God] —
the thing I seek most —
is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
delighting in the [God’s] perfections
and meditating in [God’s] Temple.
⁵For [God] will conceal me there when troubles come;
and will hide me in the sanctuary.
[God] will place me out of reach on a high rock.
⁶Then I will hold my head high
above my enemies who surround me… I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy,
singing and praising the Lord with music.

¹⁴Wait patiently for the Lord.
Be brave and courageous.
Yes, wait patiently for [our God].

Audio reading and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100228_6.mp3)

Listen to Readings and Sermon

The Good News Written

Psalm 27.1-6, 14 (NLT)

¹The Lord is my light and my salvation —
so why should I be afraid?
The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger,
so why should I tremble?
²When evil people come to devour me,
when my enemies and foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
³Though a mighty army surrounds me,
my heart will not be afraid.
Even if I am attacked,
I will remain confident.

⁴The one thing I ask of the [God] —
the thing I seek most —
is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
delighting in the [God’s] perfections
and meditating in [God’s] Temple.
⁵For [God] will conceal me there when troubles come;
and will hide me in the sanctuary.
[God] will place me out of reach on a high rock.
⁶Then I will hold my head high
above my enemies who surround me… I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy,
singing and praising the Lord with music.

¹⁴Wait patiently for the Lord.
Be brave and courageous.
Yes, wait patiently for [our God].

Luke 13.30-32, 34-35 (Lamsa)

³⁰[Jesus said] “Behold, there are some who are last who will be first, and there are some who are first who will be last.” ³¹In that very day some of the Pharisees drew near and said to him, “Get out and go away from here; for Herod wants to kill you.” ³²Jesus said to them, “Go and tell that fox that I cast out demons and I heal today and tomorrow , and on the third day I will be finished… ³⁴O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, murderess of prophets and stoner of those who are sent to her! How many times I longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you were not willing! ³⁵Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you that you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is [the one] who comes in the name of [our God].’”

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, February 28, 2010.

Last will be first. First will be last.
A message of hope. A message of liberation. A message of empowerment. A message of inclusion.

Causes a stir, doesn’t it? We want what we want, but not for “them”.

Did you know —
Sunshine Cathedral is home to a social services agency that provides counseling and elder care and youth groups. We don’t make money on those services. Most of those services are offered at no charge, and other than a grant that provides for the cleaning of the elder care center, we receive no money from the social services ministry. Those services are subsidized by the tithes and offerings of those who worship at the Sunshine Cathedral.

Some of you will remember the mass wedding we did on the lawn about a year and a half ago in protest of Amendment 2 and in celebration of same-gender love.

We provide worship in two assisted living facilities, in the virtual world of Second Life, for those who are incarcerated, for our friends in Jamaica, and three times every Sunday in this room. We also share much of our morning worship service with the world on the internet.

At some personal risk, we stand up to brutal, even lethal homophobia in Jamaica.

This church is a consistently generous contributor to local food banks.

We raised money quickly for disaster relief in Haiti.

We provide a home for not only our worshiping community but for two smaller worshiping communities, and for other community organizations such as the Gay Men’s chorus.

We speak up and speak out for marriage equality, for our gender variant, gender queer, and transgender sisters and brothers.

With the offerings of time, talent, and treasure, we are very intentional about creating a place of welcome, celebration, and affirmation so that people will have community, hope, self-esteem, and the skills to improve their own lives. Every time we do a holy union, a wedding, a concert, a memorial, a class, a media interview, or go out to speak at a community function or a local university, we are offering hope and healing; we are sharing the light with the world.

We provide a place of unconditional welcome for everyone from bear boys to leather daddies to log cabin republicans to lip stick lesbians to chap stick lesbians to retirees to left of center social activists to heterosexuals who just like who we are, what we stand for, and what we do.

We provide a spiritual environment where Protestants and Catholics and Pentecostals and positive thinkers and new agers and agnostics and humanists and questioning seekers can all come together and celebrate diversity in the bond of common respect and affection. Even though we are a Protestant church, we may not look Protestant enough for some, we may not look Catholic enough or Pentecostal enough or secular enough for others… but we aren’t trying to recreate the places that we left… we are trying to create a place where we get to be affirmed and challenged and embraced and loved and motivated… no matter where come from or where we happen to be in this moment. We aren’t locking ourselves into a moment; we are nourishing ourselves for forward movement.

We provide written materials, online programming, and onsite classes to help people grow in spiritual maturity.

We provide a place of welcome and celebration for lovers of the arts and we use the arts from opera to jazz to cross-gender impersonation to Broadway show-tunes to film to comedy to sacred organ music to reach out to as many people as possible to say, “whoever you are, there is a place for you.”

We have people who are celibate, who are monogamous, and who are openly and unapologetically non-monogamous… and we say the same thing about and to each and all of them… YOU ARE PERSONS OF SACRED VALUE, MADE IN THE DIVINE IMAGE, FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT OF LIFE AND YOUR LIVES ARE HOLY.

Ours is message of hope, of liberation, of empowerment, of inclusion. Know how much you are doing simply by supporting this place… your presence, your prayers, your financial contributions, your volunteer efforts make all of that and more possible. When people ask why we don’t do more, I wonder if they know what all we are doing? And we can do more… all it takes is more time, more money, more passion… and we are each free to give any of those wonderful gifts at any time.

Of course there is more to do… and we will. We will grow into all that we are meant to be and all that we are called to do.
We’re in this for the long haul. As we grow spiritually, we’ll grow in other areas of our lives and things will just keep getting better and better.

The people who are used to being first, may have to give up some privilege from time to time… to follow Jesus’ message of loving liberation. I am a highly educated, professional, white man. I have a lot of privilege… What will I do with that privilege for the sake of including and empowering and uplifting others? Do I hoard my privilege, or do I share it, knowing that will diminish the advantage I have been unfairly given so that others can have the chances I’ve been given? Do I dare? And if I won’t, do I dare suggest that I am in any sense a follower of Jesus?

The people who are used to being last, get to hope for and ask for and work for the chance of being first sometimes… to follow Jesus’ message of living liberation. Renouncing some privilege for the sake of others; and speaking up for ourselves when we have been treated unjustly… these are both traits of committed followers of Christ.

Now Herod, the establishment, may not like that we threaten the status quo. Of course Herod wouldn’t like that.
Herod is where he is because things are the way they are. If systems have privileged him and those like him, why would he be interested in changing any of that?

The idea of sharing power “with” doesn’t appeal to the one who is accustomed to having power “over.” But the Jesus way is the justice way, and the status quo that privileges some while ignoring or demonizing others is just not good enough. The last will be first and the first will be last… at least sometimes. We must remember that followers of Jesus are meant to be facilitators of fairness.

Listen to these words by a follower of Jesus, a modern day prophet of justice and martyr for the cause of Christ… the cause of liberty and justice for ALL, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
“A right delayed is a right denied.”
“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
“Those who accept evil without protesting against it are really cooperating with it.”

Why do we care about homophobia in Nigeria, Uganda, or Jamaica as well as in the US?
Why do we care about peace?
Why do we care about the right, not the privilege, but the right of every person to receive the best health care possible?
Why do we care about challenging and changing language that privileges maleness or whiteness in our worship services, and hopefully, in every area of our lives?
Why do we want to care about all who have been disadvantaged, left out, overlooked, demonized, or wounded?
Why do we care about promoting the Golden Rule instead of any institutionalized dogma?

Are we heterodox? Unorthodox? God I hope so… orthodoxy is a religious word for the status quo, and that is something Jesus worked hard to change, and challenging the status quo was something he was even willing to die for. Are we at least willing to live for it?

Jerusalem had long been decimated by the time Luke is writing his gospel. But in its day, Jerusalem was the religious epicenter for Jesus’ spiritual tradition. With that in mind, Luke puts these words in Jesus’ mouth, “O Jerusalem, you killed the prophets (those who challenged the status quo, those who spoke truth to power, who demand justice for those who had been left out)… How many times I longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you were not willing.” That mother hen image, reminding us of Lady Sophia, divine Wisdom from the book of Proverbs, or of El Shaddai… the almighty breasted one, the mothering image of God we find in the bible… Jesus, using inclusive imagery and language long before MCC adopted inclusive language as its official policy in 1981, says, “Religious people… who haven’t always received those sent to you who tried to help you live into your promise and potential — How often I have longed to gather you all together like a mother gathers her babies… I lovingly wanted to help you be more than you knew you could be. But you just weren’t willing.”

Are we willing? Are we willing to follow Jesus’ hope that we might be more than we’ve ever been? Are we willing to say, “I’ll work not only for my freedom, but also for yours, even if it costs me something”? This Lent, I’m not asking you to give up soda and ice cream… in fact, I feel a trip to Krispy Kremes coming on right now. I’m not asking you to give up swearing… most of my favorite words only have four letters. No, I’m calling us to do something much more significant… to follow Jesus in the ways of love and liberation. Are we willing to be Jesus’ little chicks, growing into proud hens and roosters of justice and liberation in our world? Are we willing to be the light of the world? If we are, then our very existence IS the good news. Amen.

The Good News Affirmed

My hands are God’s hands.

I am God’s light in the world.

I am blessed to be a blessing.

I am part of a church that makes a difference.

And I make a difference.

Amen.

Listen to Readings and Sermon

The Good News Written

Lent 1

From the wisdom of Charles Fillmore:

Prayer does not change God — it changes us. Sincere desire is a form of prayer. Deep desire is essential for spiritual growth. It is desire — earnest, intense desire — that draws the whole being up out of mortality and its transient joys into the power to appreciate and receive real spiritual blessings. This is a demonstration, the proving of a Truth principle in one’s body and affairs. It is the manifestation of an ideal when its accomplishment has been brought about by one’s conformity in thought, word, and act, to the creative principle of God.

Luke 4.1-13 (NCV)

¹Jesus, filled with the holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. The Spirit led Jesus into the desert ²where the [accuser] tempted Jesus for forty days. Jesus ate nothing during that time, and when those days were ended, he was very hungry.

³The [temper] said to Jesus, “If you are the son of God, tell this rock to become bread.”
⁴Jesus answered, “It is written in the Scriptures: ‘A person does not live on bread alone.’”

⁵Then the [tempter] took Jesus and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in an instant.⁶The [evil one] said to Jesus, “I will give you all these kingdoms and all their power and glory. It has all been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I wish. ⁷If you worship me, then it will all be yours.”
⁸Jesus answered, “It is written in the Scriptures: ‘You must worship… your God only.’”

⁹Then the devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and put him on a high place of the Temple. He said to Jesus, “If you are the son of God, jump down. ¹⁰It is written in the Scriptures:
‘[God] has put… angels in charge of you to watch over you.’
¹¹It is also written:
‘They will catch you in their hands
so that you will not hit your foot on a rock.’ “

¹²Jesus answered, “But it also says in the Scriptures: ‘Do not test the Lord your God.’”

¹³After the [accuser] had tempted Jesus in every way, he left him to wait until a better time.

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, February 21, 2010.

We pray every Sunday during the Lord’s Prayer (which we reflected on extensively during our Ash Wednesday service), “Lead us not into temptation.”
But today, we see Jesus being led into the wilderness where he does in fact face temptations. But whereas the spirit leads Jesus out of the place that is comfortable, familiar, out of what he has always known (and that feels like a wilderness experience), it isn’t God’s spirit that is offering the temptations. The spirit has led Jesus into the new and unknown; it is something else entirely that tempts Jesus to take short cuts along the way. Luke shows us today how Jesus overcame these temptations, and how we might as well.

1st Temptation — Turn these rocks into bread.
Jesus responds (Deut. 8.3), “One does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from God.” Luckily, Jesus knew scripture well enough that he could use to help himself, rather than allow others use it to keep him down.

2nd Temptation — I will give you power and wealth if you worship me.
Jesus responds (Deut. 6.13), “Revere and serve God only.”

3rd Temptation — Try to hurt yourself, for the scriptures say, “God will order angels to protect you” and “They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone” (Psalm 91.11-12).
Jesus responds (Deut. 6.16), “Do not test your God…”

Jesus is tempted to find fulfillment in physical pleasure (eating), in avarice (trying to have wealth and power over others), and in thrill-seeking (do something dangerous and see if God protects you). It sounds an awful lot like the much older story of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes looked for fulfillment in wealth, in the party life, in hard work, in education, even in traditional religion… and none of those avenues offered him the peace and fulfillment for which he longed. He learns that everything is good in its time and place, but no one thing is the magic solution. In the final chapter of Ecclesiastes the writer says, “Eat your food with gladness, and drink your beverage with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. Dress as best you can and enjoy your life with your friends and family. This is your lot in life: Whatever is yours to do, do it as best you can.”

Ecclesiastes is tempted to find easy answers to the complexities of life, and he finally learns there are no easy answers. The “meaning of life” is simply to live it. Be your best, do your best, love as much as you can, don’t let your joy depend on the changing circumstances of life, and at the end you can look back and say, “I lived well.”

Like Jesus being tempted to medicate his anxieties with bread, we sometimes have the temptation to fill the emptiness or medicate the pain of grief, loneliness, or uncertainty with things outside ourselves. Like Ecclesiastes or like Jesus in today’s gospel, we are tempted to look outside ourselves for fulfillment , rather than realizing the divine presence is omnipresent… God is always right where we are, so even what feels empty is actually full of grace and possibilities. But we can overcome the temptation with the understanding, “One does not live by bread alone, by parties alone, by shopping alone, by trying to please our parents or by clinging to the places that never accepted or wanted us. We live by the power and presence of divine life, always with and within us.”

We may have the temptation to boil down divinity to an image… a lover, wealth, a career, a particular theology, nationalism, etc. We may be tempted to forget that God is always more… more than OUR citizenship, more than OUR religious past, more that OUR preferences, desires, comfort levels, opinions, experiences. God is more. We may be tempted to pursue power and venerate that power as a position, a title, prestige, security… but those idols never satisfy. And in our finest moments we know that we are to serve the God that is Love… unconditional, all-inclusive Love… Love that empowers all people, not used as power by some over others.

There is often the temptation to allow religion of the past define us, control us… but we can claim our own authority, our own sacred value. The voice of evil in the third temptation actually quotes scripture at Jesus… and the truly nefarious part of that is that evil quotes it accurately, verbatim! If Jesus had given into the temptation to let his tradition be his god, or even to confuse his sacred texts with God, he might have said, “Oh, Yeah, Psalm 91 says exactly what someone who is against me says it says. I guess that’s it.” But Jesus knows that what we euphemistically call the word of God is not God. Even when it is quoted correctly, if it is quoted to hurt, manipulate, exclude, or demean someone, it is being misused! And so Jesus says, “You’ve got a verse to make me go against my self interest, but I have a verse that actually affirms me and helps me find hope and joy. I’m going with the one I choose for me, not the one YOU choose for me.” Jesus, after all, is the one who told the religious zealots of his day that [Religion] was made for us; we weren’t made for it (Mark 2.27). Religion is our helper; we aren’t meant to be its prisoner!

Jesus is tempted to allow scripture to be used in ways that will hurt or limit him; but he resists that temptation and uses his own self-awareness to then use scripture for empowerment and healing. He doesn’t use scripture as an excuse to feel bad about himself or to condemn or exclude others; he uses his self awareness as permission to use scripture in service of his own empowerment and fulfillment. And then, by doing so, he is encouraging others to do the same!

“The word of God is living and active…” (Hebrews 4.12). Scripture has been used to keep women out of the pulpit, and to keep same-gender loving people in the closet. It’s been used to abuse children and protect the privilege of kings, emperors and popes. It’s been used to justify slavery and segregation and anti-Semitism and war. Scripture has been used, while not even being misquoted, to do terrible things to people… to cause pain and injustice and inequality. But the word of God is living and active… it can be liberated from such oppressive usages, and when we are tempted to fall back into those old and hurtful ways of using scripture or tradition, we can overcome the temptation and say, “No! The word of God is living and must be life-giving; if it’s used to deny life and liberty and joy its being misused and I’ll have none of it!”

We are tempted to resurrect old prejudices, old problematic theologies which were the same theologies that told us WE were no good… we sometimes want to default to those ancient ideologies as an excuse to condemn or exclude others or even to beat ourselves up, but that only demonstrates that we haven’t really learned to love ourselves yet.

Jesus didn’t threaten the status quo by perpetuating it!
He wasn’t killed for abiding by the traditions.
He knew the scriptures, but he felt free to look at them in new ways; when they had been used in oppressive ways, he turned them on their side and used them in liberating ways.
He was tempted to do less… but he overcame those temptations; and as followers of his example we aren’t merely meant to enshrine him… we are meant to do what he did, take the risk, dare to be something new, and move forward to give hope and healing to those who still don’t trust THEIR sacred value.

We want to advocate for peace in the world.
We want to advocate for marriage equality.
We want to speak out for policies that will provide education and opportunities and health care to all people.
We want to show compassion to people in Haiti.
We want to stand up to homophobic violence in Jamaica and Uganda and Nigeria.
We want to support people battling their addictions.
We want to confront racism in our society, and in our community, and in our hearts.
We want to overcome misogyny.
We want there to be an end to child abuse and elder neglect and hunger.
But we can’t give what we don’t have!

We can’t heal the “isms” out there, until we have honestly addressed the “isms” in here… and my beautiful sisters and brothers, believe me when I tell you WE HAVE MORE WORK TO DO.

It is true that God prepares a table for us, anoints us, and wants our cup to overflow… (Psalm 23.5) but we give from what is flowing out of that full cup. We can’t share empowerment until we’ve been empowered. We can’t offer healing until we’ve begun to experience it. We can’t offer hope until we’ve embraced it. We can’t share the light until we believe we are the light! Jesus said, “YOU are the light of the world” (Matthew 5.14). But we are tempted to doubt that. Until we overcome that temptation, we won’t let our light shine, and the light that doesn’t shine is no light at all.

You want to save the world? Then let’s live into our own healing, our own potential, our own brilliance. Let’s take OUR seat at the table God has prepared for us. Let’s acknowledge our own anointing. Let’s allow our cup to overflow… and all that overflow is what we then have to share with the world. We can’t satisfy anyone with an empty cup.

So this Lent, let’s pray and study and reflect. Let’s worship weekly. Let’s return in the evenings for worship. Let’s take Light University classes and pray daily with Spirit & Truth. Let’s give generously and show kindness and give up some of our fears and prejudices. Let’s overcome the temptation to say the past was good enough. Let’s overcome the temptation to believe that we are less than God has created us to be. Let’s spend this Lent filling our spiritual cup to overflowing, and then we’ll have that overflow to share with the world come Easter. This is the good news. Amen.

The Good News Affirmed

God is my source. God is my life.

God is enough. I am made in God’s image…

And I am also enough. Amen.

The Good News Repeated

“It ain’t what they call you; it’s what you answer to.” W. C. Fields

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100221_1.mp3)

Ash Wednesday

From the wisdom of Charles Fillmore:

Ashes symbolize repentance. John the Baptist came, saying, “Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Repentance means denial; it is a relinquishment and should be made without too much vehemence. Therefore, I deny out of consciousness old error thoughts, as if I were gently sweeping away cobwebs, and I affirm positively and fearlessly that I am a child of God, and that my inheritance is from God…
In Christ it is not difficult to eliminate belief in strife and contention. If petty quarrels, jealousy, uncharitable thoughts come into my life, I overcome them by a quiet but positive denial made in the realization that no error has any power or reality in itself. I turn away from the belief in negation, and my thinking changes. I rid my consciousness of limited thoughts that have encumbered and darkened my understanding. I break down mortal thought and ascend into a spiritual realm… In the spirit of divine love I affirm: “Forgetting the things that are behind, I realize I am strong, positive, powerful, wise, loving, fearless, free spirit. I am God’s perfect child.”

Matthew 6.1-6 (The Message)

¹“Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding. ^2-4“When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure — ‘play-actors’ I call them — treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it — quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

⁵“And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a… production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

⁶“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense [God’s] grace.”

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010.

Matthew chapter 6 is a hard passage of scripture. It isn’t hard to understand; it’s hard to accept. It is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and much of that sermon is confrontive, challenging, prophetic. Chapter 6 is so difficult, we’ve enshrined part of it… the prayer Jesus taught us (often called the Lord’s Prayer) while ignoring the tone and teaching of the chapter. It’s always easier to venerate than to emulate, and so, we have repetitiously recited the Lord’s Prayer, while ignoring the larger context in which the prayer is offered.

Matthew’s Jesus says, “When you pray, don’t make a big production of it in the worship space and on street corners (which would certainly include public school class rooms), but instead, when you pray go to your ‘inner’ room, close the door, pray in secret. And God who is with you in the secret place will reward you.” Then in verse 9, he goes on to say, “This is how you are to pray…” and that’s where the Lord’s Prayer, as a model, is presented (a shortened version is repeated in Luke’s gospel).

Now we know the words to the prayer.
What we often over look is the method of the prayer:

Creator in heaven, hallowed is your name.
To acknowledge and honor our divine Source is the first step to achieving peace and hope in any given moment.

Your dominion come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
The reign of God is the omnipresence of God. The will of God is for what is godly to be experienced in our lives (on earth as in heaven). What is godly? Peace. Hope. Joy. Love. Compassion. Goodwill. Generosity. Concern for others. After acknowledging and honoring the divine, we then allow ourselves to know that we are the conduits through which the divine presence and activity must flow.

Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And you will not subject us to trials but you will deliver us from evil.
Having acknowledged God and recognized our unity with God, we then declare that our needs are being met by God. God is offering us opportunities, and as we show love and grace, we experience love and grace in our own lives. We know that difficulties don’t come from God, but God is the one holding us in love no matter what happens in the world.

And some manuscripts end there; others add a doxology that probably came sometime later: For the dominion, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.
Praise and gratitude will lift our spirits, increase our faith, and help us to allow more good to be experienced in our own lives. “Amen” simply means, “So be it” or “Let it be so” or as we say in the affirmative around here, “And so it is.”

The Lord’s Prayer isn’t a set of magic words that will earn us benefits if we say them over and over… in fact, repetitious public prayers are exactly what Matthew 6 tells us to avoid! But the Lord’s Prayer does offer us a model for how to effectively pray: Acknowledge the God of our understanding, recognize our unity with God, affirm the possibilities that God has in store for us, commit to doing our part because what God does for us God does through us, and then in gratitude and joyful expectation release the prayer to the perfection of divine right action. But as good as that model is, there is one more part to it…

“When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray in secret” (Matt. 6.6). We sing our songs of praise, of course. We say our prayers… some poetic and uniform, some new and spontaneous. We sing the Lord’s Prayer (it is beautiful after all). We hear scripture read and we hear reflections on the texts. We share in a ritual feast of all-inclusive and unconditional love. We give our offerings, hug one another with love in our hearts, and all in all, it’s a pretty great worship experience. But then, we are to take that experience into our hearts, into our minds, into our bodies, so that what we shared together for an hour in this place, we can experience in the Silence in our homes, in nature, in the shower, in the car, and anywhere that we might find we can go into our “inner” room and pray in secret, in Silence.

That prayer of Silence isn’t about the words we say… it’s about simply practicing the presence of God. If the Lord’s prayer or a Psalm or an affirmation helps us get into an attitude of prayer, then fine, but then let it be followed by simple, sweet, silence… where every breath is a prayer, every heartbeat is a prayer, every good desire is a prayer.

And over time, we find that with OR WITHOUT words, we can acknowledge the presence of God, recognize our unity with God, expect the best from God, be grateful to God, and allow God to be God in, through, and as us. The Lord’s Prayer becomes not the words we say on Sunday, but the lives we live day in and day out.

This Lent, will you practice with me the art of living prayer?
We’ll say and sing our prayers in church, of course.

But then at home, every day, let’s spend time in the Silence. Just knowing that God is as close as our breath, that God is wanting only what is good for us, and then, we can be filled with gladness and gratitude and a willingness to let Life unfold in miraculous ways. That’s the Lord’s prayer… more than saying it, we want to live it. That is, after all, how we can pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5.17).

This Lent, I hope you’ll worship every week with us. I hope you’ll give generously to your church. I hope you’ll affirm your sacred value and show compassion for others and work for justice where justice has been denied. I hope you’ll reflect on Spirit & Truth each day and I hope you’ll reflect on the Lenten lessons we’ll be sending by email each week. I hope you’ll take a Light University course and I hope you’ll give up one thing that is keeping you from living in utter joy… not chocolate or soda or smoking (though your doctor may want you to give up those things, and less sugar and fresher air is never bad advice)… but I want you to give up is some prejudice, some fear, some nagging sense that you aren’t good enough just as you are.

Now… how that’s a pretty tall order… worship weekly, be generous, study, and give up something that keeps us from being as in love with life as we ought to be! How can we do all that? Prayerfully. By practicing the presence of God… by spending time each day in the Silence, knowing that God is right where you are, wanting only the best for you, and by allowing yourself to feel glad and grateful for that truth. That’s how Jesus taught us to pray, and as we practice that kind of living prayer, we’ll find that Lent isn’t a time of self-denial, but of self-affirmation and of healing and of spiritual growth. This is the good news. Amen.

Listen to Readings and Sermon

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100214_6.mp3)

Listen to Readings and Sermon

The Good News Written

A reading from the wisdom of Ralph Waldo Trine:

The soul is divine and in allowing it to become translucent to the Infinite Spirit it reveals all things to us. As a person turns away from the Divine Light do all things become hidden. There is nothing hidden of itself. When the spiritual sense is opened, then it transcends all the limitation of the physical senses and the intellect.

Luke 9.28-36 (NIV)

²⁸About eight days after Jesus said [that there were people listening to him who would not die before experiencing the kin-dom of God], he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. ²⁹ As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. ³⁰Two men, Moses and Elijah, ³¹appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. ³²Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. ³³As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “[Teacher], it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters — one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)

³⁴While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my [child], whom I have chosen; listen to him.” ³⁶When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen.

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, February 14, 2010.

Today in Luke’s story, we find Jesus and Peter and John and James hiking up a mountain to pray. Jesus is a reminder that God is with and in us. Peter, John, and James may represent Faith, Love, and Wisdom…divine gifts to be cultivated in our lives and which are cultivated by the practice of prayer. And in scripture, mountain experiences almost always represent the divine presence, communing with the Infinite, experiencing the Sacred in a particular moment of time.

Jesus…one with his eternal Source, is cultivating Faith, Love, and Wisdom by acknowledging the presence of God in prayer. If we went no further, we’d have a powerful lesson. To experience more of the divine Nature and the gifts that It offers, we need to be intentional about spending time in the Silence, in communion with the Source of Life. But Luke does takes us even further.

While Jesus, Peter, John and James are on the mountain they see TWO men…Moses and Elijah, appearing in a sort of dream or vision with Jesus. Later, in Luke 24 (v. 4), we find at Jesus’ tomb, TWO MEN in dazzling garments! Wonder who those two men are for Luke? Is he placing Moses and Elijah at the scene to say something about Jesus? Is he reiterating what he has crafted in today’s story? We who love scripture and who love Jesus can have a lot of fun exploring the many interesting possibilities.

Moses and Elijah. What do they represent, what are they symbolizing in Luke’s story? What is Luke using these two characters from ancient sacred literature to say about Jesus, and for that matter, about the readers of his gospel message?

Luke is a disciple of Paul’s, not Jesus’. And Paul never met Jesus…though he claims to have had a mystical experience of the eternal Christ on the road to Damascus. And, scholars used to date Luke’s gospel at the end of the first century, but many scholars now think it may be as late as the early 2^nd century. So, Luke who is the disciple of a person who never met Jesus, is writing at least 50 years after Jesus’ crucifixion and maybe as last as 90 years after the crucifixion. So, whatever Luke is saying about Jesus he is saying it for the benefit of the people reading or hearing the gospel. He isn’t remembering Jesus, he is imagining Jesus in a way that will affirm and empower people who desperately need encouragement in their lives. To serve this purpose, he borrows a story from Mark’s gospel about experiencing light on a mountain top with Jesus. In the story, Moses and Elijah figure prominently, and they may actually make a cameo appearance again at the end of Luke’s gospel during the Easter story. Let’s look at Moses and Elijah.

What does Moses do? He confronts the powers of privilege and oppression. He leads people into the uncertainty of freedom. Bondage is a sure thing…freedom is risky, but it’s worth the risk. He represents the sacred journey instead of the comfort of the status quo. Egypt may be what we’ve always known…it may seem familiar, but Egypt didn’t want us. Egypt didn’t love us. Egypt didn’t respect us. Egypt didn’t affirm us. Egypt treated us like beasts of burden, and that’s just not good enough for the children of God…Moses represents leading people out of the First Egyptian Church and into the scary wilderness of freedom…where people have to live by faith, and grace, and hope, and courage, and a vision of a promised land still to come.

In Egypt…you were told you were NO GOOD. In the wilderness…you learn to depend on your goodness, to trust it, to depend on it, to let it guide you into richer, more liberating, more fulfilling experiences. Sometimes, in the wilderness, the people miss the days of bondage…it was in some ways easier to be told what to do and what to think and how worthless they were…but whenever they are tempted to build idols to the oppressive past, there is Moses to destroy that golden calf and urge the people on to their true destiny. Bondage kills the soul…liberation, working out your own sense of sacred value with fear and trembling may be harder, but it is also more rewarding…it leads to the promise of milk and honey that is what you are worth and were even before you knew it. Bondage told you what to think. Freedom teaches you HOW to think. God save us from bondage. God grant us freedom, liberation, salvation!

What does Elijah do? Elijah is a prophet…prophets are not fortune tellers, they are truth tellers. They comfort the afflicted AND afflict the comfortable. They challenge the complacent and call for fairness and justice. They name hypocrisy and they call people to be their best selves.

The prophet Elijah, the story insisted, somehow escaped death. Instead of dying, he was caught up in a whirlwind and taken to the depths of eternity. Legend said that he might one day return (Malachi 4.5), but he never did. Not in a literal sense.

When Mark tells the story of the Transfiguration event, he says that Elijah DID return in that mountain top vision. He takes great license to interpret the legend for himself…not in a literal way, but in a literary way to suggest that what Elijah represents is available to us here and now. Mark has moved from being told what to think, to learning HOW to think for himself.

The early church hoped that Jesus might return in their lifetimes…in fact, they taught that he would return almost immediately. We see that in Luke’s story today, when he says this all happens right after Jesus said some in his day would live to see the reign of God fulfilled. Maybe Luke, when he is writing Acts, is suggesting that Jesus did return in a symbolic way at Pentecost…when the spirit of God that was in Jesus enlivens the Church to be Christ’s body on the earth (Acts 2). Elijah, the spirit-filled prophet whose spirit doubly blessed his disciple Elisha does return in our mountain top experiences of prayer. And Jesus, the spirit-filled wayshower whose spirit blessed his disciples to lead the early Church does return as we live into the mission of loving the God in all people, by doing unto others as we would have others do unto us. Luke has moved from being told what to think, to learning how to think for himself. He’s left bondage behind, and is calling us to do the same.

Moses and Elijah.

The Law and the Prophets.

The Scriptures…the story of God’s people…the Word of God.

Matthew said the Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have others do unto you IS the law and the prophets (Matt. 7.12), that’s what the scriptures boil down to.

Luke continues that theme in chapter 10 when tells of the Good Samaritan…who is the godly one in that story, the righteous one? Not the Levite and the priest following the letter of the law and hurting someone in the process…the Good person is the Samaritan who doesn’t use scripture or tradition as an excuse to wound, exclude, or dismiss people but who simply shows love where love is needed!

Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets, the scriptures that Jesus knew…and Jesus said if you want to put the whole bible on a billboard here it is: If you wouldn’t like it, don’t do it to nobody else! Just love your neighbor, and PS – EVERYONE is your neighbor.

Well…Jesus and Moses and Elijah on the mountain of God. Peter (FAITH) is tempted to make the mistake we have so often done in the name of faith. We’ve had a marvelous experience…we want to lock it up it tight in a box, claim ownership of it, limit it, control it, freeze it in time, determine who else can have access to it. We want to build shelters, idols…But Peter didn’t know what he was saying…

Notice John (LOVE) didn’t say “let’s create an idol to this experience that is already past.” Notice James (WISDOM) didn’t say, “let’s create an idol to this experience that is already past.” Enjoy your experience…and let others have theirs. We don’t have to hammer out a lot of doctrines…its way more important to learn how to live in love. Don’t enshrine Jesus in a shelter…listen to him. Follow his example. Do what he says…which is love. Love. LOVE!

Love your friends. Love your family. Love your lovers. Love your enemies. Love your NEIGHBOR whoever they are…love your leather neighbor. Love your drag neighbor. Love your trans neighbor. Love your Christian neighbor, your Jewish neighbor, your Muslim neighbor, your Buddhist neighbor, your agnostic neighbor, your Hindu neighbor, your gay neighbor, your straight neighbor, your male neighbor, your female neighbor, your butch neighbor, your fem neighbor….LOVE! Just love. Love yourself for who you are; then love your neighbor as yourself.

Building shelters is easier.

Staying in bondage is easier.

The wilderness of love…that takes work. In Jesus’ name…DO THE WORK.

Work it out with fear and trembling, with courage and hope…That’s what it means to be the church, and maybe that’s what Luke is saying almost a century after Jesus’ execution. Instead of waiting for him to come back and do it for us…let’s allow his light to guide us…let’s US be his body, his people, his church doing the work of love and healing…let’s not wait anymore, let’s start doing it…let’s really be the church of all-inclusive, unconditional love, and when we do, THEN Christ has returned! And isn’t that the good news? Amen.

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100214_1.mp3)

By the grace of God I am what I am; and the grace that is in me has not been in vain; for I labored more abundantly than them all, yet not I, but God’s grace that is within me.

Audio reading and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100207_6.mp3)

Listen to Readings and Sermon

The Good News Written

Isaiah 6.1-8 (Lamsa Translation)

¹In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the [ETERNAL] sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, [with a] train [that] filled the temple. ²And above… stood the seraphim; each one had six wings… ³and one called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy is the [God] of hosts; the whole earth is full of [God’s] glory.” ⁴And the posts of the door shook at the voice of the one who called, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵Then I said, “Woe is me. I am dismayed; for I have unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the [Sovereign], the [Overseer] of hosts.” ⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in hand… ⁷and touched my mouth and said to me, “Lo, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sins are forgiven.” ⁸And I heard the voice of the [ETERNAL] saying, “Whom shall I send…?” Then said I, “Here am I; send me.”

Luke 5.1-7. 10-11 (NIV)

¹One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, ²he saw at the water’s edge two boats… ³He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
⁵Simon answered, “[Teacher], we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
⁶When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
¹⁰…Then Jesus said… “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch [people].” ¹¹So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, February 7, 2010.

I love that song, whether it’s sung by Bing Crosby or Doris Day or almost anyone…Would you like to swing on a star, carry moonbeams home in a jar, and be better off than you are, or would you rather be a fish?

Now in that song, the animals are meant to represent one not living up to one’s highest potential. Mules are stubborn, pigs are untidy, fish are slippery and shiftless, but each person can choose to be better than these characterizations, because, in truth, humans are innately better than these characterizations! One might make unwise choices and not live into one’s potential; one might appear mulish or piggy or fishy, but one always has the right and the option of being better by simply acknowledging one’s potential and making the most of it.

Interestingly, that is the message of scripture; it is certainly the message of Jesus. You are better than you think you are! (and, by the way, the person you don’t much care for is better than you think he or she is). You are better than your mistakes. You are better than your past. You are better than other people’s judgments of you. You are better than you have dared to believe. You may feel less than you really are, but your divine inheritance is to swing from a star, to carry moonbeams home in a jar.

The poetic symbolism of our scripture readings today gives us this same message. There are at least three contributors to the book of Isaiah, and the first of these “Isaiac” writers shares with us today a vision, a dream, a fantasy, an imaginative and creative story that tells us what our truth really is.

In the last year of King Uzziah’s reign, I saw the Eternal… Really? You saw divinity? You saw infinite Life? Ultimate Reality? Obviously, the writer is speaking symbolically… no one from a finite position could see Infinity! So he doesn’t know what cant’ be known; he doesn’t see what can’t be seen.

This Isaiah isn’t making the mistake we often make of trying to limit God to a book, or a denomination, or to maleness, or to any single idea… In fact, Isaiah is doing just the opposite. He isn’t limiting God at all… he is affirming human potential.

Of course from our limited perspective we can’t view the Limitless, eternal, and omnipresent Spirit! And yet he says, “I saw God.” Little ol’ me had an experience of God. I can’t know everything about God… but I can know what I experienced, and I can share that experience with the language and symbols available to me. Of course I didn’t really see the All-in-all, but I experienced the All-in-all IN ME! ME! Who am I to have such an experience? I’m one who did, that’s who.

The passage goes on to affirm this thought… telling us the WHOLE EARTH is full of divine glory… there’s not a spot where God is not… wherever WE are, God is and all is well.

But, religion or society has taught him that he is a tiny speck… a wretched sinner. But this so-called sinner has experienced God for himself, and has envisioned God as being everywhere… if God is in us and we are in God… if God is good and God is omnipresent… then isn’t God’s goodness our truth?

Still, it’s hard to grasp such a radically affirming notion, and so Isaiah falls back into default programming, “I’m unclean and everyone I know is unclean.” And an angel (a messenger) takes a coal from the symbolic purifying fire, and touches Isaiah’s mouth… the coal doesn’t burn him (it’s symbolic, imaginary coal after all), but it does in effect say, “Get over yourself! You’re fine. You’re in God. God’s in you. The light of God surrounds you; the love of God enfolds you. The power of God protects you; the presence of God watches over you. Wherever you are, God is, and all is well!!!” Not all is sinful or all is dirty or all is ugly or all is wretched or all is useless… NO… all is well. You’re fine. You’re OK. You’re good enough. Really. And finally, Isaiah gets it. “Send me! I’ll be the one to tell others this good news.”

Well, as powerful as that prophetic vision is for us today, the Gospel reading is also extremely exciting.

Like the Isaiah reading, the Gospel text is full of rich symbolism, and its message is most uplifting when we take the time to consider the powerful symbols.

The story begins at the Lake of Gennesaret… Gennesaret means royal garden or valley of riches. This whole story is set at a place that means nobility, that means splendor, that means abundant life! In fact, this story isn’t about something that happened once at some lake… this story is about what can happen right here and right now in the Sea of divine Life… the Sea that is ours to fish in whenever we choose.

Next we find Jesus getting into a boat. Is he being anti-social and running from the crowds, or is this another symbol? what do boats do? Boats buoy us up. They keep us afloat. They keep us safe from the elements… they keep us from going under, from drowning. If you ever feel overwhelmed, get in the boat and sail out into the Sea of divine Life.

Which boat does he choose? Simon’s boat. Simon, the Rock, Simon Peter. Charles Fillmore understood each of the 12 Apostles to represent a spiritual quality, and Peter, he insisted, represented faith. Jesus gets into the boat of faith, the boat of trust, the boat of knowing that all is well, and he pushes out into the sea of divine life. And in the boat of faith in the sea of divine life, he’s centered, he’s poised, he’s aware of the divine presence and the truth of who he is and who all people are… and so he sits down (a symbol of being comfortable with himself), and he begins to teach. What’s he teaching? Maybe how to be comfortable with yourself. How to trust your own goodness. How to let the boat of faith in the sea of divine life keep you safe and well.

Jesus then tells Simon to drop his nets in deeper water. They’ve not been catching much doing things the way they’ve always done them. They are following the traditional way of fishing, but the old ways are no longer serving them well… but they keep rehashing the old traditions rather than trying something new. Jesus says cast your nets in deeper waters.

What do nets do… they catch, snare, collect… our minds are like nets… they collect ideas, attitudes, viewpoints… to cast our mental net deeper is to find that we can collect more spiritual security, more spiritual abundance. It may seem new, scary, even blasphemous to think in new ways, to go a little deeper, but look at the results when one is willing to try!

That’s what Isaiah was saying. That’s what Luke is saying. Go deeper. Go deeper than feeling small. Go deeper than feeling like a wretched sinner. Go deeper than shame, guilt, fear, regret, hatred, prejudice, go deeper than self-loathing… Go deeper. Cast your nets in deeper waters, and when you do, you’ll have better results in your spiritual life!

Luke, remember, says in Acts that it’s in God that we live and move and have our being! He attributes those words to Paul who is quoting the Greek poet Epimenides. But even before he reminds us in Acts that the goodness of God is the atmosphere in which we live, he tells us that same thing in Luke chapter 5. Luke is saying that God is the Sea of divine life, and as we cast our nets deeper into that living and life-giving flow of Abundance, we will draw out more joy, more hope, more peace, more enthusiasm, more, more, more! Until the nets of our previous thinking, our limited and limiting thinking will begin to break… the old thoughts won’t hold all the good that God has in store for us when we start to think in new ways… when we cast our nets in deeper waters!

Finally Jesus says today, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will catch people.” Now that you know how to free yourselves from the past, from the beliefs that said you were sinful, unworthy, limited… Now that you have learned that it is in the Omnipresence of divine Goodness that you live and move and have your being, now that you’ve learned that the divine Sea of Life has unlimited abundance if you will just let yourself go deeper into the mystery instead of clinging to the dogma and the tradition, now that you have learned that you are more than you thought you were and can do more than you’ve done so far, you don’t need to be afraid… and your fearless, optimistic, loving example will attract people to you who need to discover what you have discovered!

And so they left all their old, limiting, fearful beliefs behind, and followed the empowering, affirming way of Jesus.

So you see it’s already true…
You’re better than you think you are;
Soon you’ll be swinging on a star!

This is the good news. Amen.

The Good News Affirmed

Today I’m going deeper.

I’m loving more deeply.

I’m hoping more deeply.

I’m living more deeply.

I’m experiencing more Goodness.

And I am deeply grateful.

Amen.

The Good News Repeated

“God didn’t have time to make a nobody, only a somebody. I believe that each of us has God-given talents within us waiting to be brought to fruition.” Mary Kay Ash

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100207_1.mp3)

⁴Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸Love never ends. ¹³And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Audio reading and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100131_6.mp3)