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The Good News Written

Micah 6.8

God has shown you, O mortal, what is good; and what is required of you? Only to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

The Wisdom of Olympia Brown (found in Singing the Living Tradition)

“We can never make the world safe by fighting. Every nation must learn that the people of all nations are children of God, and must share the wealth of the world. You may say this is impracticable, far away, can never be accomplished, but it is the work we are appointed to do. Sometime, somehow, somewhere, we must ever teach this great lesson.”

Matthew 5.1-12 (The Message)

^1-2When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

³“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God…

⁴“You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

⁵“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are — no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

⁶“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. [God is] food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

⁷“You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

⁸“You’re blessed when you get your inside world — your mind and heart — put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

⁹“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

¹⁰“You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s [realm].

^11-12“Not only that — count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens — give a cheer, even! — for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. [Many] prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”

The Good News Proclaimed

Happiness Is…

by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins on January 30, 2011, at the Sunshine Cathedral MCC

“Happiness Is” from You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown

The Peanuts gang tell us how to live a life of joy. They recommend learning, discovery, celebrating life, reflection, sharing, loving, expressing goodwill, and friendship. By engaging in these life-giving endeavors, we can be blessed, which means truly happy.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus promises blessings to those who engage in life-giving practices. He says that true happiness comes from promoting love, justice, peace, healing, community, and goodwill. We’ll get back to that important lesson, but first, I want to reflect on some of what has been happening in our world recently. Continue reading »

Listen to Worship Service

The Good News Written

Micah 6.8

God has shown you, O mortal, what is good; and what is required of you? Only to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

The Wisdom of Olympia Brown (found in Singing the Living Tradition)

“We can never make the world safe by fighting. Every nation must learn that the people of all nations are children of God, and must share the wealth of the world. You may say this is impracticable, far away, can never be accomplished, but it is the work we are appointed to do. Sometime, somehow, somewhere, we must ever teach this great lesson.”

Matthew 5.1-12 (The Message)

^1-2When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

³“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God…

⁴“You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

⁵“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are — no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

⁶“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. [God is] food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

⁷“You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

⁸“You’re blessed when you get your inside world — your mind and heart — put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

⁹“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

¹⁰“You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s [realm].

^11-12“Not only that — count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens — give a cheer, even! — for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. [Many] prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”

The Good News Proclaimed

Living into the Good

by the Reverend Brian Hutchison on January 30, 2011, at the Sunshine Cathedral MCC

I very much enjoy The Life of Brian, and by that, I mean that I really do enjoy my life… and I also happen to enjoy the Monty Python movie The Life of Brian. How ironic, to be standing in the presence of Jesus, people cursing one another and arguing with one another, just out of ear’s reach from the loving and liberating words being delivered in the so-called Sermon on the Mount. Brian’s mother proposes the tragic entertainment of the town stoning since she can’t stand the company of the bickering few who made listening to Jesus practically impossible. And to the stoning they did go.

The so-called Beatitudes are familiar to many of us, especially those of us with church backgrounds.  These sayings of Jesus were gathered together, just as the sayings of the Gospel of Thomas were gathered and written in a particular order.  In reality, Jesus probably said these things at various times rather than in one long sermon. But regardless, let’s focus on the truth of the gospel of Matthew’s presentation of these sayings.

Matthew places Jesus up on a high place.  We know that in ancient times, people saw the world as flat and the sky as where divinity dwelt. Jesus is placed in this narrative on a mountain… well, really a large hill… The point is, Jesus is placed up high, where lofty teachings and goals are expected to come from.  And then Jesus speaks, and he teaches about the lowliest of people.  Isn’t it ironic?

Perhaps the people were waiting for Jesus to command them to legalistically stick to the law. Or perhaps they hungered for Jesus to feed their hatred for the empire that oppressed their people. Or maybe they even expected Jesus to affirm people of privilege over those who begged for wholeness.  But Matthew’s Jesus did none of that. Instead, he spoke justice, peace, and humility.

Jesus spoke of blessedness, in a sense, happiness.  Not the sort of thrill that Brian’s mother got from watching and participating in the stoning, but rather true happiness, what I understand as deep joy.

Here are Jesus’ Top nine ways you can tell that you are really part of his movement: (Each of these points is there for you to meditate on and discern for yourself, but here’s my reflection.) Continue reading »

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The Good News Written

Psalm 27.1, 4, 6

¹God is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? God is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

⁴One thing have I asked of God, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of God all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of God, and to inquire in the temple.

⁶And now my head shall be lifted up… and I will offer in God’s tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to God.

The Wisdom of Lisa Nichols (The Secret)

“Every single thing you’ve been through, every single moment that you’ve come through, were to all prepare you for this moment right now. Imagine what you can do from this day forward with what you know How much more do you get to be? How many people more people do you get to bless, simply by your existence?… No one else can dance your dance, no one else can sing you song, no one else can write your story. Who you are, what you do, begins right now!”

Matthew 4.12-14, 16 (NIV)

¹²When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. ¹³Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum… ¹⁴to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:

¹⁶the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.”

The Good News Proclaimed

Gone Fishing

by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins on January 23, 2011, at the Sunshine Cathedral MCC

I once read a bumper sticker that said, “Fishing is boring, unless you catch an actual fish – then it’s disgusting.” There is some truth to that and it may actually say something about why fishing is used as a metaphor in our scriptures. But I’ll get back to that.

As you know, Sunshine Cathedral is a Metropolitan Community Church.

Metropolitan Community Churches (known throughout the world as MCC) have 4 Core Values that the Sunshine Cathedral tries to live into as a congregation. They are: Continue reading »

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The Good News Written

Deuteronomy 30.11-14 (NIV)

¹¹Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. ¹²It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” ¹³Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” ¹⁴No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

1 Corinthians 10.1-4 (CEV)

¹Friends, I want to remind you that all of our ancestors walked under the cloud and went through the sea. ²This was like being baptized and becoming followers of Moses. ³All of them also ate the same spiritual food ⁴and drank the same spiritual drink, which flowed from the spiritual rock that followed them. That rock was Christ.

Gospel of Thomas 2-3, 5

²Jesus said, ‘Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find…

³Jesus said, “If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the Kingdom of God is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom of God is inside you and outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living God. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty.

⁵Jesus said, “Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that won’t be revealed.

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20110116_1.mp3

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Baptism of Jesus Sunday

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The Good News Written

The Wisdom of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (excerpt from Letter from Birmingham Jail)

“How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a [human]-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an ‘I-it’ relationship for an ‘I-thou’ relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and awful.”

Matthew 3.13-17 (NRSV)

¹³Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ ¹⁵But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then [John] consented. ¹⁶And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved,* with whom I am well pleased.’

The Good News Proclaimed

The Baptismal Call to Action

by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins on January 9, 2011 at the Sunshine Cathedral MCC

It’s only January 9^th and already Advent, Christmastide and Epiphany are all behind us. Today is the day in the church cycle where the important work of ministry begins.

In the Gospel story we see Jesus coming to be baptized. Of course, cleansing rituals were common in his day but in this baptism seems to be something more. In this story John says to Jesus, “I should be baptized by you and you come to me?” and then Jesus responds, “Let it be so; this fulfills what is right.” Continue reading »

Epiphany Sunday

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The Good News Written

Sirach 24.1-12 (NRSV)

Wisdom praises herself, and tells of her glory in the midst of her people.
²In the assembly of the Most High she opens her mouth, and in the presence of his hosts she tells of her glory:
³‘I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and covered the earth like a mist.
⁴I dwelt in the highest heavens, and my throne was in a pillar of cloud.
⁵Alone I compassed the vault of heaven and traversed the depths of the abyss.
⁶Over waves of the sea, over all the earth, and over every people and nation I have held sway.’

John 1.14 (NRSV)

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a [parent’s only child], full of grace and truth.

The Good News Proclaimed

A 7 Step Strategy for a Happy New Year!

by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins on January 2, 2011 at the Sunshine Cathedral MCC

This is for us Epiphany Sunday. Epiphany recalls the story of the Magi traveling from Persia, following the guidance of their astrological arts, and discovering the Christ on their own journey. And then, they returned home by a different route the scriptures say. They were still Magi, still Persian, still astrologers, but they also knew they could do something new, something different. They could be themselves and still grow, still learn, still change. They followed the light of a star, discovered the light of a child, and returned home with their own Inward Light trying a new route. This is not only a new year, it is a new season and with the newness comes a reminder that our past need not determine our future and that unlimited possibilities exist for us.

If we believe that God is near us, within us, expressing through us, then we naturally expect that good things are possible for us.

St. Paul said to the Philippian Church, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me” (Phil. 4.13). I can do all things through the Divine Idea, the holy Wisdom, the anointing of God’s presence…that Christ Principle that I see in Jesus which is also in me, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me! Continue reading »