The Gospel of Alfred E. Newman
Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins, Senior Pastor
Sunshine Cathedral Feb. 27, 2011

In today’s gospel we picked up at the end of a teaching about generosity. In the Sermon on the Mount, we see Jesus telling his listeners at in the first four verses of Matthew 6 to be consistently generous, and then he returns to that topic in verses 19-24. Verse 24 is where we picked up today which led then into a lesson about the need to avoid worrying.

Why add worry to a lesson about generosity? Jesus seems to think anxiety is what keeps us from doing our best and giving our best and being our best. Our inner Fear-Talk keeps us from shining by keeping us from taking risks. We tell ourselves:

I can’t forgive them for hurting me, they might hurt me again and this time I might not recover.
I can’t offer too much praise, you might get the big head and then think you’re better than me.
I can’t offer an encouraging word, you might take it to heart and then surpass me somehow.
I can’t give my money, I might run out and not have enough for me.
I can’t express hope because I’ll look stupid if my hope doesn’t pay off; what if my hope proves to be false hope…I’m better off just bracing myself for the worst.

You see, whatever I’m not willing to share shows where my fears really are. Whatever I’m holding onto is what I don’t believe there is enough of in the world. I better hoard whatever I have so that I don’t run out, or so the Fear Thoughts argue. But Jesus says, You won’t run out, not of what matters. And people of faith should be the ones to know you can never be separate from your Good because you can never be separate from God, the All Good!
People in various ages have responded to this teaching of Jesus or shared a similar insight of their own.

Methodism’s founder John Wesley said, “to believe in God implies to trust God as our strength…to trust God as our happiness…the only rest for our souls…sufficient to satisfy the desires God has given us.”

Shinto scripture teaches, “My Lord, boundless as the sun and moon lighting heaven and earth; how then can I have concerns about what is to be?”

The Jewish Talmud teaches, “Whoever has bread in their basket and says, ‘What am I going to eat tomorrow?’ only belongs to those who are little in faith.”

The prophet Habakkuk boldly declared, “Even if the fig tree doesn’t blossom and the vines bear no fruit…and the fields yield no grain…still I will rejoice in our God!” (Hab. 3.17-18).

The late educator and motivational writer Leo Buscaglia said, “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow; it only saps today of its joy.”

George Bernard Shaw realized, “People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.”

A Chinese proverb wisely states, “That the birds of worry and care fly over your head, this you cannot change; but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent!”

Catholic theologian Dorothy Day said, “I have learned to live each day as it comes and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow.”

Harold Stephens tells us, “There is a great difference between worry and concern. A worried person sees a problem and a concerned person solves a problem.” Not complaining or fretting, but offering something positive to make it better.

Through prophets and poets, sages and saints, God is telling us again and again that worry does very little for us. It hinders our progress, it robs our energy, it destroys our happiness, and often, it sabotages our success.

We’ve all seen the satirical church sign, “Don’t Let Worry Kill You; Let the Church Help.” Sadly, there is some truth in the parody. While the church should be helping us have faith in ourselves, faith in the infinite possibilities of life, faith in the eternal process of life, it has too often told us we were unworthy of its Sacraments, undeserving of its favor, and that we should be uncertain of our place in a divine Plan. Instead of empowering us to face the challenges of life with grace and hope, institutional religion has burdened us with unnecessary fear and needless regret. Jesus, standing up to such counter-productive religiosity (as he so often did), challenges us to fear less and hope more, to worry less and trust more, and to be more present to the possibilities of this moment than concerned about the potential threats of the future. He’s not quite telling us to don the goofy face of Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Newman with his, “What, me worry?” attitude, but he is telling us to believe in grace equal to every need, to entertain the possibility that not only is God good but God’s goodness can and will sustain us no matter what is happening around us or even to us.

This is not pie in the sky rose colored glasses drivel…Remember, Matthew is writing toward the end of the first century. Jesus was brutally executed more than 5 decades earlier, Paul was executed about 2 decades earlier, the Temple in Jerusalem was completely destroyed about a decade and half earlier. Matthew knows that bad things happen! And yet, after all his people have been through, he still imagines Jesus saying, “Dare to dream of a better experience. Dare to hope that things will get better. Dare to believe that you deserve more than you have so far experienced. Dare to wish for the best and don’t sabotage the possibilities by expecting the worst!”

My grandmother was always very frail, and I always adored her. I was her first and favorite grandchild. We had a special bond. I spent most of my life dreading the day that she would die. Well, she actually lived a fairly long life but not because I dreaded the day of her death. My worry didn’t add years or quality to her life; it just added anxiety and misery to mine. When she died, I was just as sad as I would have been anyway, but unfortunately I had already experienced that sadness to some degree throughout my life. Instead of just enjoying her, I worried about losing her. And that constant worry robbed me of much too much joy.

I knew I was HIV+ for years before I got tested. A lover had died, and it would have been fairly incredible if I had not been positive myself. I so dreaded hearing the words though, because in those days there were no effective treatments. And so I waited 7 years before getting tested and receiving medical treatment. Once I decided to face the fear, to hear the news and respond to it, I actually felt empowered. Worrying about testing positive was MUCH WORSE than testing positive. That isn’t to diminish the heartache of the early AIDS years, and my wish is for every person who is HIV negative to take special care to remain so. But the point is that once I got past my worry I was able to take control of my attitude, my treatment plan, and my life. I’ve now been living well with HIV for 20 years, and 13 of those years pretty fearlessly. I wish the first 7 had been as fearless.

I actually worried that I lacked the wherewithal to go to graduate school. I had been a B student in high school even though I was in the Gifted and Talented program, and the 5 and half years it took me to complete my four year undergraduate degree didn’t suggest that I was a scholar in the making. In fact, while friends were graduating Summa Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, and Cum Laude, I was just graduating Thank you Laude! Well, after that less than stellar academic beginning, I went on to complete my coursework for ordination, and then earned two masters degrees and finally a doctorate. I made all A’s in my doctoral program and I won three seminary awards for my writing, preaching, and arts activities. My worry delayed my progress. I could have accomplished more sooner if not for all the pesky worry!

In all three of these personal stories, my worry was worse than what I was worried about. The problem I could face, could manage, could heal from, could cope with. But worry debilitated me much sooner than was necessary. If I had just trusted the divine Presence in me to sustain me through the difficulties, I would have suffered less pain for less time.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Some of your hurts you have cured, and the sharpest you still have survived, but what torments of grief you endured from the evil which never arrived.” Problems we can handle; it’s the worrying about problems that may or may not show up that defeat us prematurely. When real problems occur, we find ourselves to be absolutely heroic; it’s worrying about what could go wrong that keeps us stuck. We can’t keep the birds from flying over head, but we don’t have to let them build nests in our hair!

To restate the first verse of the Gospel lesson today, “No one can serve two masters…you will be devoted to one and not the other. You cannot serve both faith and fear.” You cannot serve both hope and worry. You cannot serve both peace and panic.

You see, worry doesn’t fix problems. Worry doesn’t offer solutions. But worry does make the feared thing more likely. In the oldest drama of our bible, the character Job says, “The thing I feared has come upon me.” What we focus on we will drift toward, attract, or create. And fear is focus. Worry doesn’t make things better; in fact, it almost always makes things worse. Not only will worry make the difficult thing more likely to happen or cause it to happen sooner, but even if the thing itself is inevitable, worry makes us miserable long before there is really a need to be.
And worrying about what could go wrong tomorrow causes us to miss out on what is good right here and right now.

Gandhi said, “There is nothing that wastes the body like worry and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.” Recalling Wesley’s comment: “To believe in God implies to trust God as our strength…”

You are stronger than you know. You are better than you have believed. And when things are easy and when they are difficult, the love, the hope, the beauty, the strength, and the joy that we name God are always within us, ready to sustain us. We have already been given grace equal to every need. So, let’s try to give up worrying. And as we do, we may just find that in reality, there was far less to worry about than we had imagined. And this is the good news. Amen.
© Durrell Watkins 2011
I am in God and God is in me.
God is All Good.
God has given me grace equal to every need.
I choose to trust this now.
Thank you God!
And so it is.

Deuteronomy 15.7-8 (NIV)

⁷If anyone is poor among you… in any of the towns of the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. ⁸Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need.

The Wisdom of Mechtild of Magdeburg

“Effortlessly Love flows from God into [us] like a bird who rivers the air without moving her wings. Thus we move in [God’s] world, one in body and soul, though outwardly separate in form. As the Source strikes the note, humanity sings.”

Matthew 5.38-42 (CEV)

³⁸You know that you have been taught, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” ³⁹But I tell you not to try to get even with a person who has done something to you. When someone slaps your right cheek, turn and let that person slap your other cheek. ⁴⁰If someone sues you for your shirt, give up your coat as well. ⁴¹If a soldier forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. ⁴²When people ask you for something, give it to them. When they want to borrow money, lend it to them.

The Good News Proclaimed

In God, Of God, Like God

by Rev. Durrell Watkins, M.A., M.Div., D.Min., Sunshine Cathedral, Feb. 20, 2011

We’ve been looking at the Sermon on the Mount for the last few weeks. We’ve heard Jesus affirm joy for those who have experienced grief, joy for those who long for and work for justice, joy for those who work for peace.

We’ve heard Jesus affirm those who have been vilified for their efforts to bring hope and healing to others.

We’ve heard Jesus tell us that by Nature we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world and then challenging us to let our light shine brightly by intentionally doing good in the world.

Jesus goes on to say the commandment to not murder isn’t just about not taking a life; we also should be careful not to assassinate someone’s character and not damage our own spiritual health by holding grudges or being unnecessarily antagonist toward others.

And that leads us to today’s portion of the Sermon on the Mount:

“You know that you have been taught, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to try to get even with a person who had done something to you. When someone slaps your right check, turn and let that person slap your other cheek. If someone sues you for your shirt, give up your coat as well. If a soldier forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. When people ask you for something, give it to them. When they want to borrow money, lend it to them.”

We see this eye for eye/tooth for tooth business in the Torah (Exodus 21, Leviticus 24, Deuteronomy 19) and when those words first reach our ears they sound harsh. But the truth is the Law of Retaliation (eye for eye/tooth for tooth) was meant to restrict vengeance and limit violence. It is meant to limit retribution so that people never injure an adversary more than the adversary injured them.

Jesus takes the spirit of the Law and calls us to live more fully into that spirit rather than merely observing the dictates of the Law.

Jesus asks us to go even beyond what the Torah suggests. He challenges us to forego vengeance entirely…I’m afraid he couldn’t get elected to office in our country, but then, he wasn’t terribly politically popular in his own culture.

Now, he isn’t telling us to be doormats; of course we can speak up for our rights and work for our good. We must challenge injustice. We must work for peace. We must comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. And we must do all this very important ministry without wasting a lot of time or energy playing tit for tat.

Yes, some people have been mean to us. Yes, friends have even betrayed us. Yes, some people have tried to manipulate, control, or insult us. Yes, families and churches and politicians have vilified and slandered us. And we want to challenge every injustice, but we must do so without resorting to unjust or oppressive behaviors.

If the oppressed becomes the oppressor, that’s not justice. If the oppressed take their frustrations and disappointments out on others, that isn’t justice.

Because we have God’s DNA, we want what God wants, and that isn’t vengeance or violence, but restorative justice that brings healing and reveals wholeness and establishes goodwill and peace.

What God does for us God does through us. For God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven it must be done through us.

In scripture, when a prophet travels up a mountain, that is a metaphor for experiencing the presence of God. Mountains in scripture represent the divine presence. This Sermon on the Mount is not just giving us a list of do’s and don’ts, it is helping us recognize the divine presence in our lives so that we can experience that presence more fully and more powerfully.

So Jesus’ teaching today is more than a lesson on moral behavior. It is actually a deeply theological truth. Jesus takes us to the mountain and shares with us how we can continue to live on the mountain, that is, how we can be aware of the divine presence within us.

We don’t want to hurt others because, like us, they are incarnations of the one life that is divine. The Eastern greeting “Namaste” is an affirmation of our unity with the Source of All Life. Namaste means, “the divinity in me recognizes the divinity in you.”

God, the Source of Life, the Substance of Life, the Principle of Life, the Spirit of All Life gives of Itself and is expressed most fully as we receive and share the divine gifts we’ve been given. We when do what we can to make a positive difference for others, we are expressing a divine purpose, we are giving form and expression to God’s omnipresence.

That we are one with and an expression of divinity shouldn’t strike us as a terribly new concept:

There are two different creation myths in the opening of the book of Genesis.

In Genesis chapter 1 we read, “God said let us make humankind in our image and likeness…So God created humankind in the divine image, male and female were created in the divine image.”

In Genesis chapter 2 we read, “The Eternal formed the human-being from the dust of the ground and breathed into the human the breath of life, and the human became alive.” Another way to say breath of life is “spirit of wholeness.” The holy Spirit of God is our animating principle in that second version of creation.

Two different, non-scientific, non-historical stories about the origins of humanity; but both suggest that God is the Source and Substance of our lives. In Genesis 1, God makes humanity out of nothing, out of No Thing, but perhaps out of God’s very Self…we are one with God.

In Genesis 2, God makes humanity from the earth (we are one will the Earth) and then breathes the divine breath, or spirit, into humanity (we are alive with the life of God). Both stories, though very different each other in their details, affirm the same spiritual truth: We are one with God and with all God has made.

This point is made in other parts of scripture:

The Psalmist boldly decares: “You are divine; [because] all of you are children of the Most High” (Psalm 82.6).

Elsewhere in the Psalter we read: “Where could I go from your spirit? Where could I flee from your presence? If I soar to the heavens you are there; if I am buried deep in the earth you are even there” (Psalm 139.7).

The Apostle Paul told the church in Rome: “…the same God is God of all and richly blesses all who call on God” (Romans 10.12).

The writer of the text we call the First Letter of John said: “How great is divine Love that has been lavished on us that we should be called the children of God” (1 John 3.1).

Do not the children share their parents’ DNA? Are not the children an extension of and a continuation of that which their parents’ are? How great is divine Love that has been lavished on us that we should be called the children of God!

He stated even more clearly, “You are from God…” (1 John 4.4).

The writer of the Letter to the Ephesians (once thought to be St. Paul) wrote, “One God and Creator of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4.6).

Luke’s Jesus tells us “The Realm of God is within you” (Luke 17.21). The power, the presence, the abundance, the majesty of God is within you!

And Luke places the words of the the Greek poet Epimenides into the mouth of St. Paul in the book of Acts:  “In God we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17.28). Our being is in and of the Pure Being we call God.

Beyond scripture, wise souls have intuited this same point that we are in God and God is in us and indeed our lives are expressions of divine Life:

Quaker founder George Fox said that there was “That of God in everyone.”

One of the principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association is, “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are ALL a part.”

Divine Science pioneer Nona Brooks said, “God is everywhere, therefore God is here. What God is, is everywhere, therefore what God is, is here!”

Guru Paramahansa Yoganda taught, “Self-Realization is…knowing that we are one with the omnipresence of God…that we are as much a part of God now as we ever will be. All we have to do is improve our knowing.”

Do you get it? The point is…God is the All-in-all. God is the Source and Substance of all life. God is in us, and as we express generosity, love, compassion, goodwill we are expressing God! As we work for justice, for peace, for healing in the world, we are expressing God! As we turn away from seeking only our own privilege and toward wanting to uplift, empower, and resource all the children of God, we are expressing God! As we turn away from negativity and toward optimism, we are expressing God!

God is in us, and as we express the qualities of God our lives become the love of God in action! Turn the other cheek isn’t about not standing up for justice; it’s about seeing the divine in all people and what we focus on we tend to experience. When disappointment or fear or discord seems to assault you, turn from that appearance and to the truth of divine omnipresent Goodness. Turn your cheek from the negative and toward the positive.

When we see God everywhere, we are more likely to experience God everywhere, and God is All Good. Know that God is with you, in you, expressing as you and you are bound to experience more Good in your life. Know that what is true for you is true for everyone else, and you’ll experience more Good still. That’s what we’re learning on the mountain with Jesus today.

That’s why when we do good…when we share hope and healing with others, we are glorifying God! God is the Truth of our lives, so as we do good we are expressing God. That’s our high calling, to express the Truth of our lives, and that Truth is that we are in God, of God, like God. As we embrace this truth and live into it, we are ushering in the Realm of God on earth.

We can do it and it all starts with knowing that we are in God and of God and like God. This is the Good News! Amen.

© Durrell Watkins

Affirmations

God in me is perfect life. I expect healing now.

God in me is true joy. I expect peace and happiness now.

God in me is All Good. I expect prosperity now.

God in me is always blessing me. I share the blessings now.

Alleluia! Amen.

Final Word

“They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of [God] as somewhat of a recluse.” Emily Dickinson

The Good News Written

Sirach 15.16-19

¹⁶God has placed before you fire and water: stretch out your hand for whichever you wish.

¹⁷Before each one are life and death, and whichever is chosen, it will be given.

¹⁸For great is divine Wisdom; God is mighty in power and sees everything;

¹⁹…God knows every human deed.

Matthew 5.21-26 (NRSV)

²¹You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.” ²²But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister,* you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult* a brother or sister,* you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool”, you will be liable to the hell* of fire. ²³So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister* has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister,* and then come and offer your gift. ²⁵Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court* with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. ²⁶Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

The Good News Proclaimed

The Power of Anger in the Work of Love

by the Reverend Doctor Mona West on February 13, 2011, at the Sunshine Cathedral MCC

In 2003 Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson starred in a funny movie about the ways human beings try to ‘manage’ their anger.  As hard as we may try, and even if we have a personal anger coach, often our anger gets the best of us—even when we think we aren’t angry.  Let’s take a look at the movie trailer….

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.”  Remember that childhood saying?  Jesus invites us to think otherwise in our gospel lesson from Matthew.  We are invited into a deeper relationship with the 6^th commandment as we consider how our expression of anger can lead to death or life.  Our community knows all too well that homophobic hateful rhetoric from pulpits and bullying attitudes can lead to murder and death.  And we also know about the horizontal violence that exists within our community when we internalize anger and hateful language and then direct it toward others. Continue reading »

Listen to Worship Service

The Good News Written

The Wisdom of Norbert F. Capek (found in Singing the Living Tradition)

“In the name of sages and great religious leaders who sacrificed their lives to hasten the coming of the age of mutual respect, let us renew our resolution… to be [united]…”

The Wisdom of William F. Schulz (found in Singing the Living Tradition)

“This is the mission of our faith: to teach the fragile art of hospitality, to revere both the critical mind and the generous heart, to prove that diversity need not mean divisiveness, and to witness to all that we must hold the whole world in our hands.”

Matthew 5.13-16 (NCV)

¹³“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its salty taste, it cannot be made salty again. It is good for nothing, except to be thrown out and walked on.

¹⁴“You are the light that gives light to the world. A city that is built on a hill cannot be hidden.¹⁵And people don’t hide a light under a bowl. They put it on a lampstand so the light shines for all the people in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, you should be a light for other people. Live so that they will see the good things you do and will praise your [God] in heaven.”

The Good News Proclaimed

We Are the Light

by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins on February 6, 2011, at the Sunshine Cathedral MCC

In February of 1991 I walked into a Metropolitan Community Church for the first time in my life. Before I got to the front door, a greeter in the parking lot spoke to me. I didn’t know he was a greeter; I just figured he was a super nice guy who realized he hadn’t seen me before. When I got to the front door, two more greeters welcomed me enthusiastically. I was having a good experience before I had even entered the sanctuary.

Once I got into the room, I sat about 2/3 of the way back. I didn’t want to be on the back row; I might miss something. But I also didn’t want to sit too near the front…I was new after all and didn’t know how things worked. I didn’t want everyone to see that I was lost as they performed their secret handshakes or whatever they would do.

Before too long, a Hammond electric organ, a baby grand piano, a 12 piece of orchestra and a small choir started belting out a song that frankly I did not care for. It was something clearly out of the Baptist Hymnal, and I, a proud Episcopalian, felt compelled to snub it with my entire being. But about 2 bars into the song, I realized something: the 250 or so people in the room were singing the song at the top of their lungs. They were loving it! By the fourth verse, I didn’t hate it either. And anyway, what did I care? I was just visiting and might never return anyway.

Now while we were singing this Protestant evangelical music, I noticed the songs had words different than I had usually heard…these words were decidedly non-sexist, non-racist, and non-violent. I also noticed that while the sound was kind of Baptist, the look was kind of Episcopal. There was a grand processional of people wearing vestments. OK…this seemed familiar enough. I could relax. There was something for me. Apparently there was something for almost everyone imaginable. Happy, clappy music, liturgical grandeur, and a message that was exciting, liberating, and for me, new.

Before long we were listening to a sermon. The homilist didn’t identify as a gay man, but I remember thinking, “If he ain’t, I ain’t!” But more than that, the sermon was good…it challenged some of my assumptions but still affirmed my sacred value. I heard that I was innately good, AND that I could express my goodness in better ways than I ever had before. Affirmed and challenged all at once?! That was new for me, and it was exciting. I could built up and expected to still grow. Continue reading »