Listen to Reading and Sermon 1Praise [Yahweh]. Praise the [Eternal] from the heavens, praise [the Great I AM] in the heights above. 2Praise [God], all… angels… 3Praise [God], sun and moon [and] all you shining stars. 4Praise [the Holy One], you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. 5Let them praise the name of [...]
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1Praise [Yahweh].
Praise the [Eternal] from the heavens,
praise [the Great I AM] in the heights above.
2Praise [God], all… angels…
3Praise [God], sun and moon [and] all you shining stars.
4Praise [the Holy One], you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.
5Let them praise the name of [our God],
for [God spoke] and they were created.
Audio reading and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20091227_6.mp3)
// Listen to Readings and Sermon Day 3 of Christmastide The Good News Written Colossians 3.13-16 (NRSV) 13Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as [God] has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect [...]
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Day 3 of Christmastide
The Good News Written
Colossians 3.13-16 (NRSV)
13Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as [God] has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.
Luke 2.41-52 (CEV)
41Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for Passover. 42And when Jesus was twelve years old, they all went there as usual for the celebration. 43After Passover his parents left, but they did not know that Jesus had stayed on in the city. 44They thought he was traveling with some other people, and they went a whole day before they started looking for him. 45When they could not find him with their relatives and friends, they went back to Jerusalem and started looking for him there.
46Three days later they found Jesus sitting in the temple, listening to the teachers and asking them questions. 47Everyone who heard him was surprised at how much he knew and at the answers he gave. 48When his parents found him, they were amazed. His mother said, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been very worried, and we have been searching for you!” 49Jesus answered, “Why did you have to look for me? Didn’t you know that I would be in [Abba’s] house?” 50But they did not understand what he meant. 51Jesus went back to Nazareth with his parents and obeyed them. His mother kept on thinking about all that had happened. 52Jesus became wise, and he grew strong. God was pleased with him and so were the people.
The Good News Proclaimed
by Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins, Sunshine Cathedral (Dec. 27, 2009)
Never Really Lost
Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins Colossians 3.13-16; Luke 2.41-52 Third Day of Christmas (2009).
Today there is no song; no dance. No bawdy story to rival the days of Burlesque. There is no clip from 1970s television or a 1940s movie. Today, I want to be uncharacteristically serious. Because today, as we celebrate the last Sunday of 2009, I don’t want to waste a single moment in making sure that everyone hears the point of today’s message. I want us to hear it; to own it. I want us to internalize it and celebrate it and by all means, share it.
We’ve all heard the speculations about the so-called “lost years of Jesus.” Mark introduces us to Jesus as a full-grown adult. Matthew and Luke, writing several years later, engage their creative imaginations to come up with stories about how Jesus might have been born. Matthew then fast forwards right to adulthood. Luke, after his Nativity story, fast forwards to Jesus as a young teen, and then fast forwards again to his adulthood. There just isn’t any information, not even any conjecture about Jesus’ formative years. That wasn’t important to these writers…none of them knew Jesus as a child, nor did they know anyone who knew Jesus as a child. They were focused on the impact the adult Jesus had on the lives of their communities, and more importantly, how that impact somehow involved the presence and power of God.
The gospel writers aren’t 21st century westerners…these aren’t literalists with a need for obsessing on details. Theirs is not a culture that would obsess for weeks on a celebrity’s affair, divorce, or tax evasion. In their culture, when one has touched people profoundly, you tell great stories that reflect that truth, not the tedious details of that person’s everyday life. You can even make up stories to convey the truth of the person’s importance…truth matters much more than mere facts. And to communicate truth, one may have to take some license and employ some creativity. And even at that, one is free to leap over huge spans of time in service of one’s message. And so, the life of Jesus we encounter in the synoptic gospels is only the highlights of a single year of ministry.
Many of us grew up in churches that focused on Jesus, on the biblical texts, on the tradition, on the rules we were meant to follow, on the symbols and sacraments of the shared rituals, but the bible writers were focused on God.
To be sure, Luke and the other NT writers thought of Jesus as a God-filled person, and they themselves had a richer experience of God because of Jesus; but the unnamable, indescribable, unlimited, omnipresent mystery of life was their primary focus, and the divine Life that was the at the center of their contemplations includes us all. We can’t ultimately be lost from it. In it we live and move and have our being, according to Luke’s account of St. Paul’s theology in the book of Acts (17.28).
Luke isn’t doing an expose’ on Jesus’ life; he’s offering commentary on how Jesus’ life helped other lives experience divine love more fully. Jesus helped people wake up to the divine spark that was already in their lives, because apparently, Jesus had managed to wake up to the reality of that divine spark in his own life. But the focus is, as it should be, on the Divine, on God. Any symbol, image, idiom, or metaphor which might point toward God is never meant to be a substitute for God. Wherever we see Jesus, we are meant to see how he is pointing us to the presence of God in our own lives; and if God is always in our lives, how can we ever really be lost?
This omnipresent, divine, Life is demonstrated in the experience of shepherds and in the experience of a teenage expectant mother in Luke’s Nativity narrative. Luke will insist that this benevolent Omnipresence includes prodigal sons, wandering sheep, and in today’s reading, even inconsiderate youngsters who wander off from their parents, leaving them to worry themselves sick. The power and presence that we call God leaves no one out for any reason; It is infinite Love and it is expressing in, through, and as every one of us without fail!
Our being always at home in God is a theme Luke seems to really like:
He tells of the Son, lost – found in Temple (Luke 2.41-52)
Lamb, lost – found wandering about (Luke 15)
Coin, lost – found in the house (Luke 15)
Prodigal, lost -found returning home (Luke 15)
He mentions an Altar to an unknown god…God is big enough to know what you are looking for, and big enough to respond. (Acts 17.23)
Luke even uses the scholar Gamaliel to suggest that we need not fear the twists and turns of a journey; we needn’t even fear being wrong. We can trust the process of life, trust the activity of growth, trust the journey will lead to the right destination. Luke imagines Gamaliel saying of the early Christian movement: if they’re right, then Right is on their side, and you can’t beat them; and if they’re wrong, why bother? Their fallacy will expose itself. Either way, live and let live. Let people find their way and just trust that ultimately, you’ll get where you need to be. (Acts 5.33-39)
St. Paul also suggested that we learn to trust the journey, the questions, the uncertainty, the twists and turns of life when he told the Corinthians to “live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5.7). We don’t need to be spoon fed every answer. We don’t need every detail outlined in a creed or a book or dictated by an elaborate hierarchy. We can live by trusting the process of life, the unknowns and the surprises of the journey, and not by having preapproved questions answered in advanced for us. The bottom line is, if God is omnipresent, then that means God is everywhere fully present, so it could not be possible to ever be separate from God. And if God is good, and God is always where we are, then ultimately, how we could we ever be lost. We aren’t lost; God knows exactly where we are; because God is with us right where we are.
In today’s reading, Jesus goes with the family to Temple, but lags behind when they start to return home. But even though he was very naughty to not tell his parents where he was, ultimately, his journey didn’t take him away from Mary’s love, or Joseph’s, and certainly not away from God’s.
The Lamb, the Coin, the Prodigal son take some wrong turns, but everything works out. Oh sure there were dangers and anxieties, in the prodigal son’s case, there was very real hardship and disappointment, but those were circumstances. The truth was, that even in a pig sty, eating garbage and living in filth, the prodigal’s sacred value was never tarnished. He always had a home, a place of love and acceptance…and even the worst of circumstances couldn’t change that truth. In the heart of God, we always have a home…and nothing will ever change that truth.
The God we are looking for has never let us go! That’s the exciting point that Luke makes over and over again. We’re looking for something we’ve never lost, because it is in us, it is part of us, it is holding us, it is expressing through us…in it we live and move and have our being…God is omnipresent and so there is nowhere away from God to go? The psalmist figured it out when he prayed, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? (Psalm 139.7). St. Paul, likewise affirmed that “nothing can separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8.39). The divine Love that the early church saw lived out in the life of Jesus is everywhere, including everything…nothing can separate us from that love. Where could we go from it? How could we ever flee from it? If God is, then “lost” is never a possibility.
Luke tells us that Mary & Joseph are afraid they’ve lost Jesus…but what does Jesus symbolize in the gospels? God with us, in us! Can we ever lose the love, the presence, the grace of God? No…where could we go from the Spirit in which we live and move and have our being?
Luke repeats the point throughout his gospel.
The lamb tries to wander off from the security of the flock.
A homemaker can’t seem to find her precious coin (a symbol of sacred value).
A son is afraid that he is forever estranged from his family’s warmth, love, and abundance.
In every case, the teen, the lamb, the coin, the adult son…is not really separated from the parents’ love, the shepherd’s protection, the homemaker’s care, the comfort and safety of family. What Luke is saying is that separation from God simply is not possible.
We are never really lost. We may be confused. We may be afraid. We may have focused on circumstances more than on the truth of our oneness with divine Love. We may feel like that lost coin, or that lost lamb, or like that irresponsible teen who lagged behind…but even when that teen was inconsiderate, he was still full of light…that light shone to inspire and impress the Temple leaders. Circumstantial clouds may temporarily hide our light, but they cannot remove it; that Light is God’s presence, and it is part of us, always with us, unwilling and even unable to let us go…it is the energy of existence, the divine stuff of creation. It is us and in us and it surrounds us and flows through us…we cannot lose it nor will it ever lose us.
Have you made mistakes? Have you lived in fear? Have you doubted your sacred value? Have you wondered if there was really a place for you in the interconnected wholeness of Life? In short, have you ever felt lost? Well, it’s time to get past that. The coin is never really lost. The lamb can’t wander off very far. The parents backtrack to find the teen. The adult son always has a home to come back to. Being lost or separated from or forgotten or abandoned by God just isn’t possible. The one thing God can’t do is stop loving you.
Accept this good word, and let it dwell in you richly. Be glad and give thanks to God…to the God who has never, will never, and could never let you go. This is the good news. Amen.
© Durrell Watkins 2009
Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20091227_1.mp3)
Video readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/video/20091227_1.wmv)
// Listen to Readings and Sermon Christmas Eve The Good News Written Luke 2.1-14 (NRSV) 1In those days a decree went out from Emporer Augustus that all the word should be registered. 2This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3All went to to thier own towns to be [...]
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Christmas Eve
The Good News Written
Luke 2.1-14 (NRSV)
1In those days a decree went out from Emporer Augustus that all the word should be registered. 2This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3All went to to thier own towns to be registered. 4Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house of David. 5He went to be registered with Mary, to whomhe was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
8In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then the angel… stood brfore them, and [ divine glory ] shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, ” Do not be afraid; for see — I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying , 14″ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace…!”
The Good News Proclaimed
A Ridiculous Story by Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins
Sunshine Cathedral, Christmas Eve 2009
Luke 2.1-4
I want a hippopotamus for Christmas.
Only a hippopotamus will do.
Don’t want a doll; no dinky tinker toy.
I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy.
I want a hippopotamus for Christmas.
I don’t think Santa Claus will mind, do you?
He won’t have to use the dirty chimney flue;
Just bring him through the front door that’s the easy thing to do.
I can see me now on Christmas morning,
Creeping down the stairs!
Oh what joy and what surprise when I open up my eyes
And see a hippo hero standing there.
I want a hippopotamus for Christmas.
Only a hippopotamus will do.
No crocodiles or rhinocereroses,
I only like hippopotamuses; and hippopotamuses like me too!
And hippopotamuses like me too!
Love for a hippo?
Excitement over a hippo?
It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?
But then the Christmas narrative is ridiculous, and therefore liberating, and joyous, and empowering. We know it by heart, and yet we yearn to hear it again every year.
It’s ridiculous to think that in the first century Roman Empire, a peasant baby might be exalted for millennia to come!
When Augustus was Caesar, he was the most powerful human alive. His uncle and adoptive father, Julius, had been raised to the status of a deity, which made Augustus the son of a god. When there was news of his conquests, or of the empire’s prosperity, that was called Good news (gospel). When the empire was as peace, Caesar was considered the sovereign of peace. As the emperor, he was the king of all kings. The son of a god, the prince of peace, the king of kings, the one about whom good news was proclaimed, the ruler with almost unlimited power…in Caesar’s world, how ridiculous is it to think that an unwed, teenage mother in a land occupied by Caesar’s army could have a baby in a barn with hay and goat droppings and cow slobber, and that THIS would be the story people would remember and celebrate!
It’s ridiculous to think that angels would appear to shepherds working and living outdoors with livestock, and that these shepherds would find grace and hope in a homeless baby’s birth in a stable!
But the Christmas story is the story of God breaking through, showing up in the ridiculous.
Maybe it’s ridiculous to celebrate life even when illness is at hand.
Maybe it’s ridiculous to love again after your heart’s been broken.
Maybe it’s ridiculous to affirm your own sacred value when religion and society have labeled you a sinner.
Maybe it’s ridiculous to have hope when the situation seems hopeless.
Maybe it’s ridiculous to feel blessed when the bills are piling up.
Maybe it’s ridiculous to pray for peace when the rest of the world seems to be rushing to war.
Maybe it’s ridiculous to work and wait for the day when there is liberty and justice for ALL.
But Christmas says the ridiculous is the foundation for the miraculous.
Christmas says the ridiculous can be joyous.
The ridiculous is how God seems to show up.
It’s certainly how God shows up in the xmas story.
The xmas story is about outcasts, people who have been denied dignity and power encountering angels and finding miracles in the midst of difficulties, and learning that no matter what religion or government or society may say about them, God is with them. Just as they are, right where they are…God is with them. And even the angels join them in wishing for peace on earth and goodwill that leaves no one out…goodwill for all people.
As ridiculous as it may sound, this is the xmas story and this is the good news. Amen.
© Durrell Watkins 2009
Hope is born in me tonight.
Peace is born in me tonight.
Joy is born in me tonight.
Love is born in me tonight.
All that God is, is right where I am tonight.
Alleluia!
And so it is.
[1] “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” written by John Rox, 1950 (originally recorded by 10 year Gayla Peavy in 1953)
// Listen to Readings and Sermon Advent 4 — Love The Good News Written Charles Fillmore: “The birth of Jesus was foretold and arranged beforehand. It was not left to chance. His mother “magnified” the Lord before He was born. This illustrates the truth that it is necessary to have order from the very beginning. [...]
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Advent 4 — Love
The Good News Written
Charles Fillmore:
“The birth of Jesus was foretold and arranged beforehand. It was not left to chance. His mother “magnified” the Lord before He was born. This illustrates the truth that it is necessary to have order from the very beginning.
“The same law holds good in our body and our affairs. The power of the word should be expressed in our homes. We should surround ourselves with words, suggestive of spiritual things. If words count, and we know they do, we should be careful of every belief taken into consciousness through the eye as well as through the ear.”
Luke 1.39-47 (NRSV)
39In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the holy Spirit 42and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the [Eternal].” 46And Mary said, “My soul magnifies [my God], 47and my spirit rejoices in… my Savior.
The Good News Proclaimed
No Buts; Just a Period Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins Advent 4, 2009 Sunshine Cathedral
I remember family sing-a-longs at Xmas time where we would all sit around the spinet and each sing our favorite Xmas song. This was my Great Aunt Gladys’ favorite Xmas song:
Put the loot in the boot, Santa; you’ve got to be good to me.
Another jewel would be cool big daddy, they’ve got a sale going on at Tiffany’s.
Last year’s mink was fine for a while but Santa, honey, its now out of style, so…
Put the loot in the boot, Santa, if you want to share my company.
Put the jack in the sack, Nicky, and bring it right down to me.
Another deed’s what I need, Nicky, uranium mines suit me to a tee.
Although gold and platinum are nice, its uranium or no dice
Put the loot in the boot, Santa, then I’ll let you share my company.
What do we call God? What do we say about God? Charles Fillmore reminds us today, “If words count, and we know they do, we should be careful of every belief taken into consciousness.” Or as Emerson said, “Be careful what you are worshiping, because what we are worshiping we are becoming.”
Do we worship violence (the angry God)? Do we worship maleness (the god that can only be known by male images and pronouns)? Do we worship exclusion (the god who won’t allow women clergy, who can’t see the beauty of love shared between persons of the same gender, who only recognizes one religion, or who prefers one nation to all others)? We are made in the divine image, and our image of the divine will influence what we are becoming. Which image of God have we enshrined in our hearts?
There is the Room-service God : willing to provide you with everything from a wake-up call to breakfast in bed to someone to schlep your luggage…but you’ll have to ask for these favors, and if you tip, well, service might even be better in the future.
There is God the mob-boss: Doling out favors with one hand and breaking knuckles the other. Generous when you show the proper respect; merciless when you don’t.
There is God the Garbage Collector: Worshipers of this god feel their lives are filled with sinful debris…their prayers are all about having this God wash away their sins, carry away their innate depravity…they are always asking for forgiveness. They believe their lives are polluted with sinful trash, but if they ask God to take away some of the filth they might not smell quite so terrible, at least part of the time.
And there God the petulant child (or God the brat): Brat God tells us…give me this and I’ll love you. Give me this and I’ll kiss you goodnight. Give me this and I’ll behave. Give me this and I won’t embarrass you. Give me this and I’ll make you proud. Give me this and I’ll do what you want…PUT THE LOOT IN THE BOOT IF YOU WANT TO SHARE MY COMPANY.
I’ve encountered, and even worshiped each of these false gods in my life. And learning that each one is a graven image far too limited to truly be called God, I have discarded first one and then the other. As we go deeper and deeper into the Mystery of Infinite Life, we are bound to discard old ideas and images and embrace new ones along the way. As St. Paul said, “When I was a child, I thought like a child…but when I became an adult, I put away childish things.” If our theology hasn’t changed much over the last few years, we probably haven’t grown much, and we may want to open ourselves to newer, more life-giving understandings.
The god that is THIS (whatever this is) is an idol…standing in the way of a transcendent experience of the infinite Source of unending life. A god that excludes non-Christians isn’t god (Good) enough…a god that excludes women from any part of social, religious or political leadership isn’t god enough…a god that can only see the holiness of love shared by people of opposite genders isn’t god enough…a god that can answer to only one name isn’t god enough…a god that is limited by the human conditions of gender, race, nationality, sexual orientation or religious affiliation isn’t god enough.
Do you remember the golden calf that Aaron made and that Moses destroyed? The golden calf was the image of Apis, the bull god of Egypt (the oppressive system Moses people had left…why bring the oppressive thinking with them?!). The golden calf was a tribute to an oppressive past and that just wasn’t god enough for Moses. Are we courageous enough to destroy our idols so that we might have a fresh, a larger, a more inclusive and life-giving experience of the divine?
How might God be more than we’ve allowed ourselves to imagine?
We might think of God as the power of beginnings (Genesis 1.1).
God is the strength and comfort in difficult times (Psalm 73.26).
God is the universal presence, the energy of life in which we live and move and have our being (Acts 17.28).
God is Ruach or Pneuma, Spirit…the vital forces of life, the flowing, dynamic heartbeat of the universe (John 4.24).
God is Wisdom (John 1.1).
God is peace (Judges 6.24).
God is Isness, expressing in, through, and as us (Exodus 3.14).
God is power – not dominance, but real strength that doesn’t have to bully others to feel strong (Exodus 15.2).
God is like a mother (Is. 66.13), like a father (Rom. 8.15), like an eagle (Dt. 32.11), like a dove (Mark 1.10), like a rainbow (Ez. 1.28)…and so much more than any of those.
God is the All-in-all (Col. 3.11).
God is love
God is the love that is the all-in-all.
(1 John 4.16)
. Now, think about Allness – the all in all – eternity – ultimate reality…infinity…that’s too much for our particular locations, for our limited perspectives, for our finite experiences. So we chop God up into little pieces…which is fine i guess…until we insist that our little piece is the best that God can be. When God can’t be bigger than our experience, our story, our tradition, our group, our vocabulary…then God has become not only too small to be useful, but sometimes has even become dangerous. The God we have whittled down to the size we can be comfortable with becomes the excuse to exclude, wound, condemn, violate, or torment others.
As we approach Christmastide, we are waiting to rediscover that God is love, and the love that God is, is omnipresent. God is the love that is the all in all! What a scandal to say God showed up in a barn, in a feeding trough, in a homeless unwed teenage girl’s son. That required people to destroy some old idols and to open their minds and hearts to new possibilities. We are meant to see the divine in that baby…in the humblest and least likely of all circumstances, places and people…not just to make the baby be one
more idol! but we are to see the infinite love that is as present in the helpless, marginalized, homeless baby as in the grandest cathedral, basilica, temple or mosque. Christmas reminds us that God’s love is omnipresent, it is the truth of our lives, our world, our endless being. The Christmas story that we will celebrate in a few days says that God, Divine Love is so inclusive, that even a peasant baby lying in a feeding trough, a manger, can be where we experience this God in new and life changing ways.
People will often say, “I agree that God is love, BUT…”
But?
God is love, but you have to share my theology to benefit from it. Really? God is love, but you have be against all the things I’m against for it to reach you
. Really?
God is love, but if you don’t follow the rules that I follow, God will lovingly still abandon you forever
What if we really believed the imagery of Christmas…a baby laid in a feeding trough instead of a crib, Persian astrologers practicing their religion, shepherds living outdoors in the fields, an unwed teenage mother, Jewish people in a land occupied by Roman forces…these are the characters in our Christmas narratives…the story screams that God is unconditional and all-inclusive love, love that seeks to be expressed in places and in ways that others have excluded or condemned. The Christmas story says, “God is love” and there is no but. The Christmas story says God is love, PERIOD. And this love is the all-in-all…in us, expressing as us. This is the miracle of the season, and this is the good news.
© Durrell Watkins 2009
…because, you know, God is love. Really?
God is love.
Divine Love is the All-in-all.
I trust that I am a creation of love.
I know that my love is an expression of God.
Love is blessing my life now.
I expect and accept miracles.
And so it is.
“Ego attempts to rule our life by fear and competition with others, the soul rules by love and sees the one in all.” Rev. Ellen Grace O’Brian
Listen to Reading and Sermon 2Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The [Great I AM] …is my strength and my song; [God] has become my salvation.” 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. Audio reading and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20091213_6.mp3)
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2Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The [Great I AM] …is my strength and my song; [God] has become my salvation.” 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
Audio reading and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20091213_6.mp3)
// < ![CDATA[ YAHOO.util.Event.onDOMReady(function() { YAHOO.sunshine.setBtn("20091213_1"); }); // ]]> Listen to Readings and Sermon Advent 3 — Joy The Good News Written Philippians 4.4-9 (NIV) 4 Rejoice in the [Holy One] always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The [Messiah] is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, [...]
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Advent 3 — Joy
The Good News Written
Philippians 4.4-9 (NIV)
4 Rejoice in the [Holy One] always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The [Messiah] is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally… whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praioseworthy — think about such things. 9 … And the God of Peace will be with you.
Luke 3.15-18 (NRSV)
15As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16John answered all of them by saying “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire. 17His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granery; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 18So with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.
The Good News Proclaimed
by Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins, Sunshine Cathedral (Dec. 13, 2009)
The Apostle Paul gives gave the Philippians some good advice about how to maintain joy. He says, very simply, Rejoice always…I’ll say it again, Rejoice!
And then he even goes on to say how it is possible to rejoice always. He believes that Christ is near. He’s experienced the nearness of Christ, in his life-changing experience on the road to Damascus. And the idea that there is a benevolent presence with him, near him at all times, perhaps returning in very dramatic ways in the near future, but spiritually present already is something that gives Paul hope and peace and joy.
So Paul says focus on those things that give you hope and peace and joy. Find things to be grateful for, and as you rejoice and express gratitude, peace will guard your hearts. So focus on whatever is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, on anything that is excellent or praiseworthy, and you will experience God more. And to experience the life-giving presence of God is to experience joy. Continue reading »
// < ![CDATA[ YAHOO.util.Event.onDOMReady(function() { YAHOO.sunshine.setBtn("20091206_1"); }); // ]]> Listen to Readings and Sermon Advent 2 — Peace The Good News Written Baruch 5.1-4 (The Inclusive Bible, Priests for Equality) “Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. Put on the robe [...]
Listen to Readings and Sermon
Advent 2 — Peace
The Good News Written
Baruch 5.1-4 (The Inclusive Bible, Priests for Equality)
“Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Eternal One, for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven. For God will give you evermore the name, ‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory.’”
Emilie Cady:
“We all must recognize that it was the Christ within that made Jesus what he was, and our power now to help ourselves and to help others lies in our comprehending the Truth… that this same Christ that lived in Jesus lives within us… It is the ‘I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one’ of which Jesus spoke.”
Luke 1.26-38 (NIV)
26In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27to a [young woman] pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The [young woman’s] name was Mary. 28The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his [ancestor] David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his [dominion] will never end.”
34“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am [unmarried]?”
35The angel answered, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37For nothing is impossible with God.”
38“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
The Good News Proclaimed
Preached by the Reverend Elder Nancy Wilson at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, December 6, 2009.
Today, the second Sunday in Advent we light the candle of Peace, as we anticipate the birth of One who was called The Prince of Peace, Jesus, who announced and ushered in a realm of peace.
We need peace today, as much, if not more than we did 2000 years ago. Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh says that life is simultaneously dreadful and wonderful, which is why we need peace. Continue reading »
