Dear
Friends,
I
was born and reared in the MidSouth where church was central to social life.
Between Sunday school and youth groups, church camps and church sing-alongs,
camp meetings/revivals/spiritual renewals, bible colleges and religious radio
stations, billboards and bumper stickers, cemetery decoration picnics with prayer
services (it’s a thing)…religion was ubiquitous. And while there were some
progressive Christian and non-Christian religious communities, the overwhelming
feel of the world I grew up in was conservative (and often fundamentalist)
Christian.
I
have always been drawn to faith and I have never experienced a day where Jesus,
God, and scripture didn’t pop up in some manner, and most days (perhaps it’s an
occupational hazard), those topics dominate my thoughts!
Early
in life I jettisoned the strict, narrow, condemning, fearful, proselytizing
brand of Christianity that seemed so normative in my childhood. The God of my
experience and understanding is pure love and isn’t partial to Christians or to
certain brands of Christians, but responds with grace to anyone searching for
Truth and meaning regardless of the symbols and vocabularies that one chooses
for the search. My fondness for Jesus and for God as I’ve experienced God
through Jesus is genuine and not mere “fire insurance” for the next life. The
God to which I have devoted my life and work is bigger than false binaries,
bigger than either/or limitations, bigger than our fears and prejudices and
self-imposed restrictions and conditions. The God I know and worship and preach
is all-inclusive, unconditional, everlasting Love.
But
you know what? That doesn’t mean the conservative faith that introduced me to
religious living was all wrong. I
remember those revivals, those meetings, those renewal services, and I see the
wisdom of them. Faith, like anything we take for granted, can become routine,
lax, even a bit lifeless. We need to reenergize now and again; we need to renew
our commitment, revive our passion, and remember why we chose a life of
religious devotion in the first place (or did it choose us?).
Last
week, Robert and I were in DC for the Festival of Homiletics and then we
participated in the Reclaiming Jesus prayer vigil. A
week of preaching, teaching, prayer, and then a vigil of affirmations,
reflections, an intentional reclaiming of the healing, compassionate, justice
seeking, inclusive ministry and good news of Jesus (followed by a silent
procession to the White House) was reviving! In fact, one minister from the
Progressive National Baptist Church said, “This feels like a revival.”
This
summer, let us have a revival of faith, a revival of progressive values, a
revival of commitment. Let us reclaim the message and mission of Jesus and let
us faithfully support that message and mission.
Sunshine
Cathedral, as always, I am asking you to support the work of this church with
your time, talent, and treasure. Pray daily for the church and for its leaders.
Make worship a priority and when events are offered to bring us together,
support them. Invite people to play and pray with you at Sunshine Cathedral.
And if you are away, take faith and commitment with you.
When
I travel I almost always visit a church. My only requirement is that it seem to
offer a welcoming and inclusive ministry where I can share with others the
experience of worship and reflection. I love church. I need it. And even when I
can’t be at the one I love the most, I still find myself somewhere worshiping
in community. I wish for all of us to so love church that we crave it, that we
commit to being part of it no matter where we are. Current trends suggest that
such devotion isn’t as common as it once was, but faith has never depended on
trends. We can know the joy of devotion. We need it. We deserve it.
23
Christian leaders, men and women, Black and white, Catholic and Protestant,
liberal and conservative, evangelical and mainline came together as a council
of elders to draft the Reclaiming Jesus affirmation of faith. The entire (and
powerful) statement can be read at ReclaimingJesus.org.
It includes the following affirmations and denials:
1. We believe each person is made in God’s image. Therefore, we reject white nationalism and racism.
2. We believe we are one body. In Christ, there is to be no oppression
based on race, gender, identity, or class. Therefore, we reject misogyny…We confess sexism as a sin,
requiring repentance and resistance.
3. We believe how we treat the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the
stranger, the sick and the prisoner is how we treat Christ. Therefore, we reject language and policies [that] would debase
and abandon the most vulnerable children of God.
4. We believe truth is
morally central to our personal and public lives. Therefore,
we reject practices and patterns
of lying that are invading our political and civil life.
5. We believe Christ’s way of leadership is servanthood, not
domination. Therefore,
we reject any move towards autocratic
political leadership and authoritarian rule.
We believe our
churches and our nations are an international
community whose interests always surpass national boundaries. The most
well-known verse in the New Testament starts with “For God so loved the
world”…We, in turn, should love and serve the world and all its inhabitants,
rather than seek first narrow, nationalistic prerogatives. Therefore,
we reject “America first” as a
theological heresy for followers of Christ. While we share a patriotic love for
our country, we reject xenophobic or ethnic nationalism…
The elders state: “WE ARE DEEPLY CONCERNED for the soul of our nation, but also for our churches
and the integrity of our faith. The present crisis calls us to go deeper—deeper
into our relationship to God; deeper into our relationships with each other,
especially across racial, ethnic, and national lines; deeper into our
relationships with the most vulnerable, who are at greatest risk.”
Reclaiming Jesus is nothing less than a call for renewal, revival,
recommitment. Jesus has been weaponized to cause shame and fear and to
marginalize many in society; we who believe in the inclusive gospel message
must reclaim it, support it, and share it. May God bless us as we do so.
At Sunshine Cathedral, our food sharing programs (Brown Bag
Lunch program and collections for food banks), our housing dozens of 12 step
groups, our support of the Global Justice Institute, our participating in
BOLD-Justice (Broward Organized Leaders Doing Justice), our civil rights
history tours, our efforts to help the people of Puerto Rico after the
hurricane, to raise funds for Mother Emanuel AME after the shooting at their
church, to encourage people in Jamaica and Cuba, our work for marriage equality
(and to protect it), our support of transgender services, our efforts to raise
money for local HIV/AIDS services and for Heifer International, and our various
other programs are all important and are in the spirit of Jesus, but let us
also be very clear about who Jesus was and who we who follow his light are
meant to be. Reclaiming Jesus is central to everything we do.
As the Reclaiming Jesus elders affirm: “Our urgent need, in a time of moral and political crisis, is to recover
the power of confessing our faith. Lament, repent, and then repair. If Jesus is
Lord, there is always space for grace. We believe it is time to speak and to
act in faith and conscience, not because of politics, but because we are
disciples of Jesus Christ.”
Amen!
Bright blessings,
Durrell Watkins, MA, MDiv, DMin
