Listen to Readings and Sermon

The Good News Written

Daniel 12.3 (The Inclusive Bible, Priests for Equality)

“The wise will shine like the bright heavens, and leaders of justice like the stars forever more.”

The Bhagavad Gita

“Abandon all hope of gain from this world and take refuge in me alone; I will wash away your every [error] and free you from every evil. Never again will you grieve.

Fix your mind on me, think of yourself as me; worship me, sacrifice to me, honor me as your own Self, and you will surely come to me. This I promise you, for you are dear to me…”

Mark 13.1-8 (The Inclusive Bible, Priests for Equality)

“As Jesus was leaving the Temple, one of the disciples commented in passing, ‘Look, Teacher! What huge stones these are! What wonderful buildings!’

“Jesus replied, ‘See these great buildings? Not a single stone will be left on another. Everything will be torn down.’

“As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives facing the Temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when will all this happen? What will be the sign that all this is about to take place?’

“Jesus began by saying, ‘Be on your guard that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name saying, ‘I am the One,’ and they will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of war, do not be alarmed. Things like this must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and empire against empire; there will be earthquakes throughout the world and famines — yet this is only the beginning of the labor pains.’”

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, November 15, 2009.

Video: “I’m Still Here”

My Great-Aunt Gladys enjoyed arguing with her idiot brother-in-law, Jesse. One day at Sunday dinner, moronic Uncle Jesse was outraged by some gay-rights thing he had heard on the news. He insisted that the Good Book, as he liked to call the bible, made no room for such reprobates. If we tolerated such naughty people in the world, God would surely punish us all… I suppose Uncle Jesse didn’t have a favorable view of the divine, certainly not a flattering one.

Well, Aunt Gladys, who was by no means a fundamentalist, launched her counter-offensive. She said, “Jesse, where in the Good Book does it say that gay people can’t demand equal rights?” Uncle Jesse said, “Why, Leviticus, of course.”

Aunt Gladys grabbed her family bible, turned to Leviticus, and began to read from the 25^th chapter. “Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves.”
“Jesse, Love,” Aunt Gladys continued, “Leviticus says we can buy slaves as long as they are from a neighboring country. Do you know how I might go about purchasing a Canadian?” No answer.

She then flipped to Exodus 21, and read, “If a parent sells a daughter into service, she will never go free as men servants do.”
“Jesse, angel, I’m a little strapped for cash these days. How much do you think I could get for my daughters… they’re in their 50s, but we mustn’t be ageist about this sort of thing.”

She flipped back to Leviticus, chapter 1, and read, “a bull burned as an offering on the altar makes a pleasing aroma to the Lord.”
“Jesse, precious, when I burn bulls in the back yard, like you do, I’m sure the odor is pleasing to God, but it is apparently offensive to the neighbors. Should I smite them?”

And then back to Exodus, chapter 35, Aunt Gladys read, “Whoever does ANY work on the Sabbath MUST be put to death.”
“Jesse, pumpkin, my husband Arthur works all weekend long! Am I morally obligated to slay him myself, or is there some sort of Exodus police squad that will do it for me?”

Finally, she turned to Leviticus 21, and read, “No one who is dwarfed, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged [male body parts] … no priest who has any defect is to come near to the altar of the Lord.”
“Jesse, darling, our parish priest is short and wears glasses… I don’t know about the festering soars or hidden body parts that may be damaged, but short and myopic I can prove. Should I stop taking communion until we can find a tall priest who has had Lasik surgery?”

The next sound heard was the front door slamming as Uncle Jesse left in a huff.

The passage that we heard today from Mark 13 is an apocalyptic passage. There are a few of them in the gospels, and of course Daniel and Revelation are famous for their apocalyptic imagery and language.

Apocalyptic literature was quite popular for a couple of hundred years before Jesus’ birth and lasting until a couple of hundred years after his death. It was a cryptic and dramatic way to achieve catharsis during troubling times. People who felt oppressed or overwhelmed or hopeless would imagine divine forces putting an end to their enemies and to painful situations and replacing the unfriendly world with a better one.

It was a fantasy of destroying the wicked systems and replacing them with something better. Such literature wasn’t really a science to pinpoint literal destruction; it was art, theatre in a way, meant to give hope and encouragement to people who had almost given up.

As we heard from my Aunt Gladys’ exposition of scripture, we don’t take all of it literally… we couldn’t and we shouldn’t. So, for people to use scripture to justify their prejudices or to manipulate others or to terrorize others really doesn’t need to be very effective. Since all literalism is selective literalism, we can simply admit that we are suspicious of passages that used to hurt, control, frighten, or exclude us, or anyone.

The apocalyptic literature in the bible is resistance literature. It is a clever and creative way of saying, “when all hell seems to be breaking loose, don’t give up.” Don’t despair. Find hope within yourself and cling to it always.

Apocalyptic literature is often used to frighten us, as if such passages where little more than thrilling, late night reruns of B horror movies.

But the bible is a collection of stories showing us how our ancestors coped with their world, and how they found faith and hope and encouragement and strength in their world… often a world fraught with danger, disappointment, and uncertainty. The bible isn’t meant to terrify us; it’s meant to show us how we can have hope even when terror is all around us… it is meant to help us rise above our fears. We don’t need scripture to scare us… that’s what Cable News is for! The bible is our source of strength and comfort. If it has ever been used in any other way, it has been misused and it is our task to redeem it!
Biblical images of monsters and beasts and dragons and demons, those are symbols of oppression, disease, mental illness, military conflict, corrupt leaders. But the story always goes on to show angels defeating demons, destroyed places being rebuilt, displaced people returning home, and the darkness of evil finally being dispelled by the bright light of divine love. The monsters make an appearance in the story, but the story isn’t about them… the story is always to say that ultimately, the monsters can’t win!

Oppression can’t win. Misogyny can’t win. Racism can’t win. Homophobia and homohatred can’t win.
The Apocalypse is never really the end… it’s the end of what is false making room for what is true. It is the end of the nightmare, so that one can live joyously in an awakened state. It isn’t the terrifying end; it’s the hope-filled new beginning!

Mark isn’t remembering Jesus predicting an end… Mark is witnessing the end of an era. Jerusalem and its Temple have been destroyed. But what do the holy city and its Temple represent? Community! Faith! History! Hope! Celebration! And those things won’t stay dead! They are still with us!

And so as Mark contemplates the rubble of the Temple and the city, he imagines Jesus saying, “We can rebuild.” These are just labor pains; we’ll be reborn, rejuvenated, revived, and renewed.

We can… we can rebuild our dreams, our hopes, our self-confidence, our inner peace. We can’t control what happens out there, but we can control how we respond to what happens… and a positive response, an optimistic response, a commitment to indefatigable, indomitable hope is the power of Resurrection!

Tear down our temple but you cannot tear down our faith! Tear down our city but you cannot tear down our heritage! Crucify our hero but you can’t keep him from living in our tradition and in our stories and in our hearts. Do your worst! Because no matter how many times you knock us down, we’ll get back up. We’ll rebuild. We will out last fear and oppression and injustice and in the fullness of time All That God is MUST be made manifest in the world of experience.

That’s the message of Apocalyptic literature… not that the end is near… but that the appearance of an end can’t ultimately have the last word. God is eternal, and it is in that Eternal goodness that we all live and move and have our being.

You think you’ve wiped us out? Heavens no! That’s not the pain of death; that’s the pain of new birth. That’s just our hope and our commitment and our firm belief in our own sacred value being renewed. Try to tear us down, and we’ll just keep building ourselves back up. “When you hear of wars and rumors of war, do not be alarmed. Things like this… happen, but this isn’t the end… [all of this chaos] is only the beginning of the labor pains.” We’ll rise back up. We’ve been knocked down before, and yet, we’re still here. That’s the apocalyptic hope. And this is the good news. Amen.

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20091115_1.mp3)
Video readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/video/20091115_1.wmv)