Listen to Readings and Sermon

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)