Listen to Readings and Sermon

The Good News Written

From the wisdom of Florence Scovel Shinn

“Thou in me art: Eternal joy. Eternal youth. Eternal wealth. Eternal health. Eternal love. Eternal life.”

Luke 4.23-30 (NRSV)

²³[Jesus] said to [the crowd], “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” ²⁴And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. ²⁵But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah [when there was no rain for] three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; ²⁶yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow… in Sidon. ²⁷There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. ²⁹They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. ³⁰But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, January 31, 2010.

I have one great-aunt still living, my Aunt Lois. She’s 95 years old. She was my father’s aunt. She’s about 4’11″ and at her plumpest may have weighed 130 lbs. One day she was at the post-office and as she was leaving, a woman walking near by her noticed an inebriated man lying on the steps. The woman scolded the ne’er-do-well, saying, “Get a job!” She then turned to my great-aunt Lois and said, “I wouldn’t have told him that if you weren’t here with me.” Aunt Lois said, “Who am I, Mohammed Ali?” It’s important to know who you really are… it’s probably the most important thing for any of us to know.

Luke chapter four opens by reminding us that Jesus is a spirit-filled person. Before the dogmas and creedal formulas of later centuries, the earliest followers and admirers of Jesus knew him to be a spirit-filled, grace-filled, god-filled person. And as such, Jesus has the authority to remind us that WE are spirit-filled, grace-filled, god-filled persons. Luke reminds us of this by saying that Jesus was FULL of the spirit.

Next, in chapter 4, we see Jesus having a wilderness experience. Have you ever had a wilderness experience? Have you ever felt alone, unappreciated, unsure of what to do, utterly terrified? Jesus’ ministry is preceded by a time in the wilderness… so take heart. The wilderness moment may actually be leading to something amazing. Don’t give up hope… don’t give up period. Continue reading »

Listen to Reading and Sermon

¹²For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Audio reading and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100124_6.mp3)

Listen to Readings and Sermon

The Good News Written

From the wisdom of Abraham Heschel:

The beginning of faith is not a feeling for the mystery of living or a sense of awe, wonder and amazement. The root of religion is the question what to do with the feeling for the mystery of living, what to do with awe, wonder and amazement.

Religion begins with a consciousness that something is asked of us.

It is in that tense, eternal asking in which the soul is caught and in which humanity’s answer is elicited.

Luke 4.14 – 21 (NRSV)

¹⁴Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee , and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. ¹⁵He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. ¹⁶When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ¹⁸“The Spirit of [God] is upon me, [who] has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. [God] has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹⁹to proclaim the year of [divine] favor.” ²⁰And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Mona West at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, January 24, 2010.

In 2004 the United Church of Christ launched a marketing campaign called “God is Still Speaking”. The purpose of the campaign was to increase membership in churches and increase united Church of Christ name recognition by sending a clear message that God (and the UCC) is in the business of welcoming all people. A primary target of this campaign is the LGBT community.

The heart of the beginning of this campaign was a series of provocative television commercials that got this message of radical inclusivity across. Many of you may have seen the first one to air called “The Bouncer”. The ad showed bouncers — much like the ones you would find in nightclubs — outside a church building. They were allowing white, well-dressed different gender couples, and nuclear families in, but they were “bouncing” or rejecting a number of other people: an African American female, A Latino male, two men holding hands and a person using a wheelchair. The text displayed on the screen read, “Jesus didn’t turn people away. Neither do we.”

The idea for the campaign came from a quote by Gracie Allen: “Never put a period where God has placed a comma.” One denominational leader said that the UCC wanted to build on the concept of earlier theologians that there is “more light and more truth yet to come from God’s Holy Word.” Continue reading »

Listen to Readings and Sermon

Turning Water into Wine

The Good News Written

Psalm 36.7-9 (NRSV)

⁷How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. ⁸They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. ⁹For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.

John 2.1-11 (NRSV)

¹On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ²Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” ⁴And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” ⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” ⁶Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. ⁹When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom ¹⁰and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” ¹¹Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, January 17, 2010.

Today’s gospel story is unique to the Gospel of John. Like most of what we find in the 4th gospel, the story is highly symbolic, metaphorical, philosophical and offers us the most when we view it through the lens of allegory.

John’s gospel is written more than 6 decades after Jesus’ execution and almost 3 decades after the Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed. The Temple was a place of gathering, pilgrimage, celebration, hope, opulence, ritual cleansing, a place of blessing. It was a place where people were reminded of their unity with the divine; a place where any false sense of separation from the divine could be healed. But it’s gone when the gospels are being written and long gone when this particular gospel is being written. Without the Temple, where is God housed now? Where might God be found in a world that no longer has this sacred shrine? Today’s reading from John actually answers that question with quite a bit of detail.

Continue reading »

Listen to Readings and Sermon

Baptism of Jesus

The Good News Written

Acts 8.14-17 (NRSV)

¹⁴Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. ¹⁵The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the holy Spirit ¹⁶(for as yet… they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). ¹⁷Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the holy Spirit.

Luke 3.15-16, 21-22 (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. ²¹Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, ²²and the holy Spirit descended upon… like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my… Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Robert L. Griffin at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, January 10, 2010.

I was visiting my sister Juniata once, and it was around one of our family reunions. My family being the religious family that is it decided that they all wanted to go to church on Sunday of the reunion … I of course, being the good minister that I am I said, go for it, I’m staying home.

They come back and my nephew is all excited about having going to church and attending Sunday School and I said well what did you learn and he stated talking about the creation story, all the things that the story said, animals, birds, you know all the stuff that the first creation story has it; then he said and God made people where this fig leaves, so being the good minister that I am, I said go find a bible and read the story me.

He brings the bible back and opens it to the book of Genesis and he shouts, Uncle look what I found, now this being my sisters Juniata’s bible I didn’t know what to expect, but pressed between the pages of the was an old leaf — and with the sincerest look on his face he looks at me with the leaf in hand and says I’ve just found part of Adam and Eve’s clothes. Continue reading »

Listen to Readings and Sermon

Epiphany

The Good News Written

From the Wisdom of Margaret Gooding

“Some bright star shines somewhere in the heavens each time a child is born. Who knows what it may foretell? Who knows what uncommon life may yet again unfold, if we but give it a chance?”

Matthew 2.1-12 (NRSV)

¹In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, [magi] from the East came to Jerusalem, ²asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” ³When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ⁶‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” ⁷Then Herod secretly called for the [magi] and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

⁹When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹²And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkinsat the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, January 3, 2010.

The second star to the right shines in the night to tell you that the dreams you plan really can come true.

Reminds us of the words of that well-known great prophet, Jiminy Cricket: When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, anything your heart desires will come to you.
If your heart is in your dreams no request is too extreme; when you wish upon a star as dreamers do.

Of course, stories about the magic and hope and possibilities represented by the heavens aren’t limited to Peter Pan and Pinocchio. Continue reading »