Listen to Readings and Sermon

14th Sunday after Pentecost

The Good News Written

Sirach 10.14-15 (NRSV)

¹⁴The Eternal overthrows the thrones of rulers, and enthrones the lowly in their place. ¹⁵The Eternal plucks up the roots of the nations, and plants the humble in their place.

From the wisdom of Monica Baldwin

What makes humility so desirable is the marvelous thing it does to us; it creates in us a capacity for the closest possible intimacy with God.

Luke 14.1, 7-11 (NRSV)

¹On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. ⁷When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. ⁸“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; ⁹and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he [or she] may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. ¹¹For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, August 29, 2010.

Television and film helped form who I would become. When I was a kid, I loved School House Rock. SHR was a 3 minute musical infomercial on Saturday mornings from 1973 until the late 90s  meant to teach kids about math, grammar, civics, science and history. I loved old movies, they would usually come on Saturday afternoon. Movies like Spencer Tracy’s last film in 1967, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. And as I made the transition from “kid” to young adult, I loved movies that seemed to speak directly to who I was and how I was experiencing life; movies like Torchsong Trilogy which came out in 1988, 3 years after I was graduated from High School.

Only 90 years ago this month, the 19^th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, recognizing that women had the right to vote in this country. The Amendment was ratified in 1920…to put that in some perspective…my paternal grandmother was born in 1917 and my maternal grandmother was born in 1919. When my grandmothers were born, women were not allowed to vote in this country.

And 47 years ago this month, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the march on Washington. In that historic speech, Dr. King said:

“I say to you today, my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men [& women] are created equal.’”

Again, for some perspective, that historic march took place in 1963, the year before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law, and 5 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was signed into law. Dr. King was assassinated that same year. I was born in 1966 (right in between the Civil Rights legislation of 1964 and 1968).

So called anti-miscegenation laws, that is, laws prohibiting bi-racial marriage in some US states existed until the year after I was born.  By the way, the arguments for prohibiting bi-racial marriage were the very same ones, often verbatim, that are used to deny marriage equality for same-gender loving people today.

And, in fact, until ONLY 7 years ago, there were states that had so-called sodomy laws which prevented same-gender loving people in some states from depending on a protected right to privacy!

7 years ago same-gender loving people won the universally protected right to privacy.

43 years ago, bi-racial couples were allowed for the first time in every part of this country to celebrate their love openly.

46 yeas ago, Civil Rights legislation was finally signed into law.

And 90 years ago, women were allowed to vote. Some of the most significant victories for “liberty and justice for all” have happened in the last 7 to 90 years…there are members of this congregation who have been alive for every single one of these advances.

And yet, for as hard won as these victories have been, and as long it is has taken for them to be realized, and as much work as there is still to be done before we really have “liberty and justice for all”, the truth is that there is a vision for us that predates even our nation by a couple of millennia.

You see, the gospel passage this morning isn’t really about acceptable behavior at a dinner party! The passage is about modeling the kin-dom of God. Remember, the so-called Kingdom of God, or Empire of God (basilaia in Greek), is the anit-empire, the anti-kingdom. Kings and Queens and Emperors are born to positions of privilege and power, and to have that power, they must have power “over” other people. But the kingdom of God is different (otherwise, how would it have been good news to oppressed people?). The kingdom of God is a kin-dom…a family…a community of fictive kinships where we decide that we are brothers and sisters, and choose to live as chosen families within the larger human family.

Rather than protecting the power and privilege of a few, the kin-dom of God is trying to empower, build up, heal and uplift everyone. There isn’t a bad seat at God’s table, because everyone is welcome, everyone is invited, and everyone is both guest and host, server and served. In the kin-dom of God we serve one another…we ask one another for help, and we offer it. We demonstrate love to one another, and love says, “HERE, come sit next to me!” Love makes sure you have a place to sit, a shoulder to cry on, a place to be affirmed, a place to be held together when you are falling apart, a place to be uplifted when you are feeling down, a place to have hope renewed when despair has all but crippled you. Luke’s dinner party today isn’t about a party at all! It’s about the kin-dom of God, and in that kin-dom, everyone has a place at the table, everyone is honored and loved, and everyone is asked to help serve one another and to make welcome the new guests…because they are always coming in, and they will need what we have experienced.

Before Dr. King’s dream, Jesus had a dream. That dream still hasn’t yet come completely true, and so we continue to do what we can to make his dream a reality. We do this by choosing to be the family of God, and in that family, there is enough love for everyone. This is the good news. Amen.

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100829_1.mp3)