Compline - End of Day Prayer

January 9, 2025

COMPLINE with +Bishop Durrell

[Compline is the end of day prayer as one prepares for sleep.

Tonight's Compline includes reflection and meditation as well as a closing prayer.]

California is on fire. Lives are being turned upside down. It will take months or years for some people to fully recover.

By the way, it’s fire. It’s not a divine tantrum or a curse or the fulfillment of some ancient prognostication. It’s fire. It happens. We don’t need superstition or conspiracy drama. What is needed is our concern and our compassion and our generosity.

While fires rage in one area, bitter cold attacks others.

And while the elements misbehave (and of course climate change is a factor and should be addressed), a country mourns the loss of a great humanitarian.

President Jimmy Carter’s work with Habitat for Humanity, and the Carter Center’s work around the world, has touched innumerable lives. In addition to election oversight and diplomatic efforts, the Carter Center also employs about 200 people in Atlanta and thousands more throughout the world. The sort of leader who never stops trying to make the world a better place for everyone is too rare, and now there is one less. Of course we grieve.

BREATHE. Let’s spend one full minute in silence just noticing our breath. Let’s take a full minute respite from all the crazy and all the scary and all the unknown. Let’s have one perfect minute of relaxed breathing and calmness. We deserve it and we can have it. Right now.

Following the breath can be a prayer. A prayer for peace by embracing it and letting it then float into the atmosphere. Another word for breath is “spirit.” When we connect with Breath, we are touching something sacred and powerful and beautiful. Breathe.

We can also ask the Universe to help us, or the angels to guide us, or the ancestors to be with us, or the saints to pray for us, or for the God of our understanding to hold us throughout all the ups and downs of life. Breathe. Pray. Repeat as needed.

My close of day prayer:

Let showers of blessing heal California, and a warm breath of heaven minister to those facing dangerously cold temperatures.

Let peace seem more real than problems. And may we have the courage and the grace to hope, no matter how many times hope didn’t seem to change the outcomes. Still, hope banishes despair, at least for a while, and sometimes, what we hope for does come to pass. Oh, let us dare to hope, or at very least, let us hope to find hope.

May the legacy of Jimmy Carter continue to bless the world, and may we bless his memory even as his memory inspires us. And may humanitarians and peacemakers and justice workers and lovers of humankind rise among us, and may we be willing to count ourselves among them in some measure.

It is in peace and with faith that I pray. Amen.

Bless you and Good night.

+Bishop Durrell

Pray Without Ceasing - You're Doing It Anyway

People are often confounded by the notion of prayer but I think it's very natural and can be quite effortless. Have you ever held your breath waiting for news, hoping it was better than many feared? Wasn't that your body and subconscious saying together, though silently, "My heart is holding this situation in love and I am wishing for the best possible outcome"? And wasn't that a prayer?
Has your heart ever broke open, or even shattered (it seemed) as you considered the agony someone else was experiencing, and in response didn't your tears flow? Wasn't that your spirit touching theirs and offering the blessing of compassion, and wasn't that a prayer?
Have you ever said or even thought "good luck" while truly wishing someone a satisfying experience or a joyful outcome? Have you ever said, "be careful" to someone driving away or leaving for a trip, and was that expressed wish terribly different from asking saints or ancestors or angels to watch over your beloved traveler?
Prayer is part head and part heart,
part logic and part love,
part mechanics and part mystery,
part poetry and part principle,
part faith and part formula,
part humility and sometimes even part hubris,
part courage and part comfort offered by outrageous hope and a sense that life is meant to be good and a realization that we are all, somehow, connected to all that is and all that ever has been.
And in one way or another, don't we experience or engage in one or more of these "parts" almost every moment of our lives?
"Pray without ceasing" may not be so much an instruction as an observation that we are doing that anyway.
I bet you have prayed in the last hour or so. You may not have offered your prayer to a deity, you may not have ended the experience with an "amen," but you undoubtedly have felt hope or gratitude or love or compassion in the last hour, and I would call that prayer. See, it's not so difficult after all. 

--Bishop Durrell Watkins, D.Min.

A Reflection/Prayer Treatment for the Miracle We Are

A Reflection/Prayer Treatment for the Miracle We Are

~ Bishop Durrell

It has taken billions of years for the unique expression of Life that I am to be made manifest. 

Light and energy, sound and star dust, minerals and atoms have all cooperated and conspired to show up as me. The same is true for us all. 

The universe is vast, and compared to it, I am nothing. 

And yet, the universe is vast, and I am an integral part of it, and as part of the vast universe, I am amazing. And so is every person I bring to mind today. 

Someone met someone, somehow, and they had a child who grew up to meet someone, somehow, and they had a child who grew up to meet someone, somehow, and they had a child…until I showed up. How many random, chance encounters took place to make me possible? How many sperm tried to reach how many eggs before one reached one and fertilization occurred and somehow that fertilized egg evolved into the thing that would become me? Randomness after chance encounter after lucky break after disappointment after biological process after ideal circumstance after human effort all merged and combusted into powerful creativity and from the flames of happenstance this phoenix arose!

How many ideas shared over millennia are now part of my consciousness? How many bodies have returned to the earth which provides nurture and sustenance to support more bodies that return to the earth which provides nurture and sustenance to support more bodies…?

How many artists, musicians, architects, farmers, philosophers, inventors, medical researchers, film makers, explorers, loving aunts and adopted children and good neighbors and geniuses and storytellers and peacemakers have contributed to the world that I have inherited? And how lucky am I that I get to contribute to and benefit from this world?

Do I call any of that God? I have done, but I don’t always. However, the marvel of it all is amazing and, in my estimation, sacred, divine even. I bow before the mystery. I am humbled by and grateful to the larger life that gives expression to my life.

Of all the planets and all the stars and all the solar systems and all the galaxies in the ever-expanding universe (which is almost 14 billion years old, at least, and may actually be eternal, without beginning or end, without cause or creator) …You and I are here on this rock, and we know we are. We are aware. We are conscious. Surely conscious life is rare in the universe. Even if 100 planets have it (and we don’t yet have evidence that they do), in the grand scheme, 100 isn’t very many. But we’re here, on one planet in one solar system in one galaxy, and we know that we are. With or without myth, with or without poetry, with or without religious vocabulary, that is awesome.

And so, my fellow miracles, my fellow unlikely events, my fellow self-aware life-forms (rare as we are), I remind you that you are part of grand and glorious realities. In the language I embrace, you have sacred value. I hope that brings you hope today, or peace, or joy, or comfort, or strength, or courage, or relief. Whatever blessing you need, you deserve it and I hope it comes to you in the best way possible; afterall, in a universe where you and I show up, almost anything is possible. And so it is. (dw)

Theism Isn't the Only Way to Explore the Sacred

 The God of my understanding and experience is a presence and a power, not a person, not a potentate.  

Love at its most perfect; that’s God.

The field of unlimited possibilities; that’s God. 

What’s really real; that’s God.

 

Light and air, water and star dust, and echoes of the big bang all coming together as you and as me; that’s God.

 

The Substance and Fabric and Vitality of life; that’s God.

 

The indescribable More; that’s God.

All-in-all; that’s God.

 

Or rather, those are the ways that I experience, understand, and try to discuss the 

unnamable Something that must be pondered but can’t be dissected, 

 

That can be experienced intimately but never known completely, 

 

That requires awe but not submission, 

 

That inspires love and never cruelty, 

 

That is part of everything but cannot be limited by anything. 

 

And I call that, for lack of a better word, God...

 

We’ve been to the moon. The internet connects us instantly to people across geography and time zones. We transplant organs. We have nano robots that do medical procedures from inside bodies. We cloned a sheep. We fly in the air. Every day.

 

We can live underwater for big stretches of time. 

We synthesized insulin. We can help a lot of people live past 100.

 

There are over 700,000 humans alive right now who are more than 100 years old. There are more centenarians on the planet than there are people living in Denver.

 

We know that homo sapiens (that’s us) have been around for 200,000 years with hominin ancestors going back 5 million years or more (maybe 10).  

 

We live on a small planet in a modest solar system that is one of 400 billion solar systems in a galaxy that is one of 2 trillion galaxies in a vast and expanding universe that is at least 13.8 billion years old and might actually be eternal (always is but never began).

 

The old guy on a cloud passing judgement, pulling puppet strings, deciding when people die, granting favors to the deserving few – 

 

is a mental image we inherited from a world that thought earth was flat and at the center of the universe. 

 

For God to be relevant and real to us, we MUST liberate Her from the middle ages and recognize the divine as part of the fabric of the universe that we actually inhabit. 

 

So, if God isn’t a superhero, but is the air we breathe and the light we see by and the electricity in the room and the love we feel more deeply than we can describe…

 

then we can pray to that God because that God is always with us, exactly where we are; 

we are part of its vastness; it individuates as us. The universe explores and knows itself as us.

 

So, yes we pray. We turn within, because God is there; or we turn outward, because God is there, or we turn to the Great Teachers (like Jesus), because God is there, or we turn to the traditions, because God is there, 

 

or we turn to one another, because God is there. That’s how and why we pray, because there’s not a spot where God is not. 

 

We aren’t calling out across a great canyon, we’re tapping Love itself on the shoulder and saying, “Hey, can I have a hug?” 

The answer is always yes.

(excerpts from Nov. 17, 2024 homily at Sunshine Cathedral)

 - dw

Litany of Pride and Healing

For Sunshine Cathedral and spiritual communities that refuse to put conditions and limits on divine love,

Welcoming Grace - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For an informed, compassionate, and responsible electorate,

Spirit of Cooperation - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For those who have died from homophobic or transphobic violence, and those who mourn, and those who fear they could be next,

Spirit of Indomitable Hope - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For those whose governments and religious traditions condemn them, sometimes to literal death, and who experience hell on earth as well as threats of perdition beyond,

Spirit of Compassion - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For those who died from AIDS, and those who live with HIV but dare not take their health for granted,

Spirit of Life - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For those who know the joy of LGBTQ+ pride, and for those whose hearts cry out, “maybe next year,”

God of the Eternal Now - HEAR OUR PRAYER.

 

Queer Saints in heaven and earth, pray for us, pray with us.

 

AMEN.

--Litany prayed at Sunshine Cathedral on June 30, 2024

Thoughts on Independence Day

I posted these thoughts on Facebook on July 4 this year:

As we end this day of celebrating freedom & independence, I remember & bless the ratification of the 13th Amendment, the 19th Amendment, the voting rights act, the Stonewall Uprising, & Obergefell. I also mourn the dismantling of the voting rights act, the crippling of Roe v. Wade, misapplication of the 2nd amendment, & recent attempts to ignore the establishment clause. I'm not feeling very apple pie & Yankee Doodle. I am daring to hope that the ugliness, bigotry, violence, & autocratic tendencies represented by red cap wearing insurrectionists will be washed away by voters who will not allow a return to the 1950s. I cling tenaciously to hope while I try to believe our country is better than it seems to be. "I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul" (Henley). May the nation's soul be also unconquerable, or at least may the phoenix of progressive values rise from the ashes of hatred and fear. (dw)

Remembering Mother Emanuel

God of many names,

We recall the events of 6 years ago at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

During a time of bible study and prayer, eight parishioners and the pastor were slain by one they welcomed.

People who gathered to seek and serve the God of their understanding were viciously murdered in the place they held sacred.

We know, YHWH Shammah, God who was and is there, that the first voice to cry out in horror, pain, and sorrow, must have been yours.

We know, El Roi, God who sees, that you witness our violence, racism, injustices, and our failure to demand, defend, and demonstrate “liberty and justice for all.”

We know, YHWH Rapha, God who heals, that there is much pain that leads to and results from on-going violence in our world.

YHWH Shalom, you are our peace.

Give us the grace to repent of our violence and to become blessed peace-makers.

Give us hope that justice will yet “roll out like waters.”

Give us the will and show us the way to “do justice, love mercy, and live humbly.”

Give us the courage to resist racism in our society and in our hearts, and to do the work of anti-racism. 

Help us be better. 

Help us do better.

Help us rise to the level of love, compassion, and justice that you desire, El Elyon, God Most High.

On this sad anniversary, we remember, and we bless the Mother Emanuel community of faith. 

Amen.

 

--Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

Senior Minister

Sunshine Cathedral

 

THE SACRED HEART AS A SYMBOL OF QUEER COMFORT

THE SACRED HEART AS A SYMBOL OF QUEER COMFORT

A Durrell Discourse

June gives us Father's Day and LGBTQ+ Pride, but June (in the Roman Catholic tradition) is also the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Jesus' Sacred Heart represents love, mercy, grace, and compassion. Jesus' Heart is a symbol of divine love in human experience. Devotion to the Sacred Heart reminds us that faith should be kind and caring. Those of us who are Protestant or Humanist may not have grown up with the Sacred Heart devotional tradition, but if it gives us hope or joy, then why not embrace it?

In the 18th century, Pope Clement approved the Feast of the Sacred Heart for certain locations. In the mid-19th century, Pope Pius approved the Feast for the whole Church. In 1899, Pope Leo dedicated the entire Catholic world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. During his pontificate, John Paul 2 maintained a devotion to the Heart of Jesus.

According to tradition, devotees of the Sacred Heart can expect various blessings and aid throughout life, including inner peace and strong faith.

I love that this Sacred Heart celebration shares a month with LGBTQ+ Pride. The Heart of Jesus is a heart filled with justice-love, a heart with room for all who suffer, a heart that wishes joy and healing for everyone. The Heart of Jesus as a symbol of love seems fitting during a month where people are celebrating their love over against objections and insults from the worlds of politics and religion. People who have been heartbroken by rejection and cruelty can imagine a loving Heart that will always embrace them and never turn them away.

The sacred symbol won't be a comfort for everyone, but for those who miss (or never had but would like to try on) some of the metaphors and symbols of traditional faith, the Sacred Heart may be a balm for the pain that others have inflicted in the name of religion. We are certainly entitled to reject religion, but we also can reclaim and redefine religion. Those who weaponized it do not hold the deed to faith.

Today, my reflections include imagining the Sacred Heart as a sign of love for all who need Love's healing touch, especially the Queer children of God.

(Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

Sunshine Cathedral)

Praying With and For You

My prayer this morning. Maybe I was praying with or for you:

Infinite Hope,
Boundless Compassion,
Abiding Peace,
Enduring Love:
My heart and mind are full of swirling thoughts.
Some of them are difficult to make out.
There’s an idea, no a memory, no a feeling.
When its all soupy like that, I still trust that life is good, that there is grace equal to every need, that wisdom will show up when and how I need her most.
So now, I simply relax and breathe.
I feel connected to loved ones.
I send goodwill to those who face difficulty or who endure pain.
I believe bright days and joyful moments are on the way.
I pause. I feel grateful. I know that I am strong, and so are those who are on my heart today.
All is well.
Amen.

(Durrell Watkins)

Pastoral Response to Violence & Racist Rhetoric

Dear Friends:

I don't have a lot of commentary for you today, or a written homily, or a series of pithy talking points. What I do have is concern for the rise of hatred in the US and in the world, and what I can offer is prayer and an invitation.

Norms of civility and decency have been ignored for a while.

We cringe and cry as we see our siblings of transgender experience shunned, dehumanized, and even murdered. 

We worry that gains made for marriage equality are being undermined. 

We sigh in disbelief as refuge seekers are treated with cruelty. 

We gasp in horror as white supremacists gather in the daylight and spew their vile hatred. 

We are saddened by the personal attacks made by Caucasian government leaders against other leaders who are persons of color. 

And we are completely exhausted by the epidemic of mass shootings that seems to be unique to this wounded nation.

I said I could offer prayer and an invitation. Let me start with the invitation.

Of course we know that the gift of democracy is that we all get to participate in it. 

If you are concerned about the health of our country, then please participate in its governance. Write to your representatives, sign petitions, donate to candidates who articulate your values, and in every single election, please VOTE.

But in addition to taking your civic duties seriously, I invite you to pray daily and worship weekly. When we gather together, sing together, pray together, learn together, are offered both challenge and comfort together, we grow, we heal, we find empowerment, we have our hope renewed. So pray daily for your community, your church, your loved ones, your country, the world...and gather weekly for worship where our shared love and hope can heal our hearts and perhaps infuse the life-stream of the planet with some much needed healing energy. 

And now, for the offering of prayer:

Dear God,

Heal our hearts. 

Heal our nation.

Heal our world.

Heal our needless divisions.

Heal our troublesome suspicions.

Heal our hatreds, our fears, our regrets.

Of course, we know that what you do for us you must do through us, so give us the courage and the grace to respond to your promptings, that we may be your healing hands in the world.

May we use vote and voice, time and treasure, word and work to bring peace and justice to this country and beyond, all for the sake of your love.

Amen. 

Yours in shared service,

 

Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

Senior Minister

Sunshine Cathedral

 

Are miraculous healings real?

Someone asked today about miraculous healings. She grew up in a church were prayer was used as a primary "therapy" for any and all diseases but has grown skeptical as she has seen people from her own faith tradition suffer and even die in spite of their beleif in the power of prayer. This was my response:

My concern with dramatic "faith" cures is the depression and regret that result when the magic doesn't work for someone. Still, I believe in prayer. I also believe in medicine (which doesn't always seem to work either). I believe in the body's wisdom and resiliency. I believe that complementary therapies often help. Attitude, environment, genes, diet...so much goes into our experience of health. 

I have seen people recover when no one thought they could; and I've seen people who should have had a fighting chance not make it. I've expereinced blessings of recovered health for which I was very grateful...and other times, conditions remained or returned. 

Life is complex. We do what we can to be happy and vibrant and productive...medicine, diet, prayer, lucky charms...whatever we can hold onto in a moment. Lots of things help, and nothing seems to work 100% of the time; but isn't that life? Prayer helps us feel connected to God, and when we feel connected to God we have less anxiety, more peace, more hope, and that all can contribute to an improved experience. 

I just met someone who swears that after only a couple of visits to a mystical healer he has experienced dramatic remission of disease in his own body. Who am I to doubt it? He feels better so I rejoice for and with him. But even Mary Baker Eddy (who built an entire movement around healing prayer) said, "We've all known the disappointment of unanswered prayer." 

It works when it works, and even when it doesn't, there may be other blessings or other experiences of healing that took place. I wouldn't give up on any practice that gives you hope or encouragement, but I wouldn't think of it as a zero sum game. The all or nothing, it's 100% or it's BS mindset seems to do more harm than good. 

I say try whatever seems worth the effort, rejoice if it works, look for how it helped even if it didn't work the way you wanted, and know that life is full of ambiguities and unanswered questions. We do, after all, live by "faith" (trust) and not by "sight" (proofs, guarantees, etc.).

Prayers Make a Difference

So here’s a delightful observation I made yesterday (my birthday). 

Of course there were the copious wishes for a happy birthday (and it was happy, and the wishers of happiness certainly contributed to that fact!). There were also lots of prayers, affirmations, and blessings.  It reminded me of how tangible the energy of kindness is, how savory goodwill is, how delicious love is, and how intentions travel on currents of thought and feeling to actually touch and uplift those for whom they are offered. 

We all pray in different ways, but the methods are secondary to the intent. Good wishes, affirmations, invocations of hope, expressions of love, and requests made of a Universal Presence all contribute to something wonderful being shared in the world. So, I am grateful for the good wishes and blessings yesterday (and some have continued today...every day is a good day to offer a blessing) and for the reminder that prayers of every sort make a difference. Keep praying, y’all. Not just for me, but for whoever may cross you mind today. It’s good business!

Midterm Election Prayer

Midterm Election Prayer
By Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

Spirit of shared life,
In the United States it is election time again.
It is time to choose our House of Representatives, a third of our Senate, and many of our governors and local officials.
We can’t ask you to do what we will not, but we can invite you into our thinking, into our actions, into our attitudes, and into our service.
It is both a right and a responsibility of all citizens to vote.
May we have the courage to resist voter suppression.
May we have the desire to participate in shaping the direction of our nation.
May we know that our votes matter, and are needed.
And may we vote according to conscience and character.
May our votes be influenced by both head and heart.
May our votes protect equality, promote justice, preserve peace, and proclaim a respect for the dignity of all people.
Inspire us to vote in this election, and in every election that follows.
May we do our best to be our best, in the name of all that is good and holy. Amen.

God is here

When I don’t know “what” to pray but feel the NEED to pray, I simply whisper, “God is here.” When “God” seems like an almost arrogant or silly assumption that I know what can’t be known or understand what I in my finite human experience could not possibly understand, I replace “god” with “Hope” or “Compassion” or “Wisdom” or “Peace” or “Strength.” The Mystery beyond our naming is HERE. Somehow, that simple affirmation always comforts me. God, even God beyond God, is here. And, if God is here, God is also “there” because the infinite includes everything. So, if you are facing a struggle today, I am knowing that God (that great field of unlimited possibility to which the word “god” points) is there, with you. And so it is.

A Case for Prayer in these Difficult Days

A MESSAGE FROM SUNSHINE CATHEDRAL'S SENIOR MINISTER

Let us pray: 
Dear God,
may our souls be refreshed,
may our fears be relieved,
may our wounded hearts be comforted,
may our will to be agents of positive change be strengthened.
Renew our capacity for hope and let us know that better days are on the way. Give us the wisdom and the courage to help facilitate that very miracle.
Amen.

Dear Friends,

It is unfortunate that the phrase “thoughts and prayers” has become almost trite in its frequent use and is often seen to give those with responsibility some cover for not doing what they are meant to do. Some people have become antagonistic toward any mention of prayer because they feel it is a substitute for action.

But I know the power of prayer. In fact, the prayers of my heart have led to very meaningful action indeed. Of course, what God does for us God must do through us. Prayer isn’t a magical incantation that will spare us personal effort, but prayer can open our hearts and minds, renew our energy, broaden our perspective, and help us maintain hope.

Abraham Heschel wisely stated: “Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city; but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will.”

Prayer can help us change for the better, and then we can help change things for the better.

We are assaulted daily by news reports of gun violence, broken treaties, the rise of nationalism, threats of war, racist demonstrations, and a seeming increase in callousness and cruelty. Honestly, it is exhausting. Sometimes, it’s terrifying.

Still, there are things we can do: we can vote and write Congress and support causes we believe in and speak out against injustice; we can even march and protest and demonstrate if our beliefs and passions call for such action. We ought to do what we can to be good stewards of the planet, helpers of the vulnerable, and allies to targeted and marginalized populations. In fact, our prophetic traditions and gospel witness demand that we love our neighbor, treat others as we would wish to be treated, defend the “widows and orphans” (all who face peril), and that we be generous with our resources.

What we also need to remember is that our faith-action is undergirded by the practice of prayer. Prayer soothes our souls so that we can then tend to parched fields. Prayer helps our hearts heal so that we can keep trying to heal our world. Prayer can fortify our will to do and be better so that we can repair what has been harmed in and among us.

There’s a lot of work to do, and there may be more discouraging news in the days ahead, but I say that prayer is one of our best tools to help keep us focused and optimistic. Our thoughts and prayers must be more than a slogan we toss around, because, as the bible tells us: the fervent and effectual prayers of righteous (committed, justice-seeking, compassionate) people avail much!

We are people of faith, and as such, we are people of prayer. Keep praying. Our prayers will sustain us in these uncertain days. As the old song says, “When nothing else could help, love lifted me.” The Love that God is, the Love that dwells within us, is what we contact and experience in moments of sincere prayer - and It will continue to lift us up.

Hear our prayers, O God.
Grant us hope.
Grant us peace.
Grant us justice.
Grant us the courage to be the answers to our prayers.
Grant us wisdom to do what is right so that we can be healers in our world.
Amen.

Lovingly shared,

Pastor Durrell

US Attacks Syria: Let us pray...

Goddess/God, Spirit of Life, Universal Presence, Higher Power:
Once again a despot attacks his people.
Once again, bombs are dropped.
Once again combat is initiated.
Once again, we find ourselves hacking our way through mendacity and deception to discover what is true, what is trustworthy, what is real, what is wise.
Once again, lives are placed in danger by those who will not have to personally face such danger.
Once again, we feel overwhelmed by the chaos and uncertainty that is all around us.
Once again, we are compelled to pray but we scarcely know how to pray in such times. Do not be limited by our inadequate words but rather, be moved by our hearts’ desire for healing, for peace, for justice, for goodwill to prevail. Help us be better than we’ve been. Stir compassion and hope and kindness within us. Let healing flow to where lives are in peril, and as we constantly pray, “May peace prevail on earth.” Amen.

A Pastoral Response to ANOTHER Mass Shooting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A Pastoral Response to ANOTHER Mass Shooting
By Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins
Senior Minister, Sunshine Cathedral
Fort Lauderdale, FL
SunshineCathedral.org

A high school in Broward County has been attacked. Another mass shooting. More victims. More traumatized children. More devastated families.

There have been almost 30 mass shootings in the US just in the last 45 days. Let that sink in. No other developed nation has such an incomprehensible mass shooting epidemic.

I used to say, “that’s not who we are.” I acted as if each outrageous mass assault was an appalling exception to who we are as a nation. And, of course, the attackers are few in comparison to the larger population. But I can no longer say it isn’t who we are. It continues to happen and we do very little to prevent it from happening again.

Oh, some of us cry, or pray, or yell  into the ether that someone should do something. But how many of us demand that our government leaders do something? How many of us use our vote to bring about positive change? How many of us can’t be bothered to vote in any case? Our inaction, apathy, or acceptance of this on-going soul sickness of our nation is showing who we are. I don’t like it any more than you do. In fact, it breaks my heart to say it. But the evidence is clear: As of this moment, this IS who are. We are a nation that allows our children to be sprayed with bullets.

This time, the tragedy is in my county. This time, the violence is on my local news broadcast. This time, the senseless brutality has struck near me. But, of course, it was naive to ever imagine it wouldn’t be my community next.

Aurora showed that this could happen anywhere.
Sandy Hook Elementary School showed that this could happen anywhere.
The Washington Navy yard showed that this could happen anywhere.
San Bernardino showed that this could happen anywhere.
Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston showed that this could happen anywhere.
The First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, TX showed that this could happen anywhere.
The Pulse nightclub in Orlando showed that this could happen anywhere.
Las Vegas showed that this could happen anywhere.
And now, Douglas High School in Broward County.

God forgive me for not expecting it. God forgive me for not shouting from the rooftops many mass shooting ago, “We’re infected with an apathy toward violence and it’s time to repent.”

It’s time for prophetic voices to call for us to beat our swords into plough shares.

This is not a political issue where many sides have merit. This is a nation that calls itself good, democratic, and evolved that has allowed mass violence to happen so routinely that multiple deaths no longer stun us or even remain in our thoughts for long beyond the initial news of the event.

Today, on this Ash Wednesday, on this day of repentance, that is, on a day that calls for a change of heart and attitude, I do lift my voice to call my congregation, my community, my family, and my nation to repentance. Bullets are raining down on us like a biblical plague. Children are dying. We talk and sing and preach about peace when there is no peace. Toxic attitudes come to kill, steal and destroy. And it is time for people of faith, and leaders of communities of faith, to speak up and say, “Enough!”

Let us pray for the victims of today’s violence. But let us not take too much comfort in our prayers, especially if those prayers are not leading us to speak up and to do what we can to change a culture where mass murder is normalized. Let us pray, and then let us be the answer to our prayers.

Who we are is a country infected with out of control violence and too little righteous indignation about that. But, just maybe, we are also a country that remembers the moral victories of the Civil Rights movement, the Women’s Rights movement, the Marriage Equality movement, and maybe, please God let it be so, we are the kinds of people who are determined to work for what is right again, and to not settle for anything less than the healing our country so desperately needs.

For our country and our culture, I pray the words of a hymn which is also my favorite prayer of repentance:
“Dear Mother-Father of us all, forgive our foolish ways. Reclothe us in our rightful minds, in purer lives thy service find, in deeper reverence, praise.” Amen.

/End/

MLK Holiday Thoughts & Prayers

MLK Holiday Thoughts & Prayers

Jan. 15, 2018

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a prophet of justice, a minister of grace, an orator, a scholar, and a defender of human dignity. He stood up to the evils of segregation. He resisted an unjust war. He advocated for those who worked hard and were paid too little. He stirred the conscience of a nation. He challenged a government as boldly as the Prophet Amos. He comforted the hurting as compassionately as the Prophet Isaiah. He offered healthy ways of expressing righteous indignation in the manner of Jesus. And he envisioned a new, loving, fair world where evil was forever defeated as vividly as John did on Patmos. And, like the prophets and disciples before him, King gave his life for the divinely inspired vision he offered the world. 

Inspired by such a noble example of human charisma, courage, and conviction, let us speak truth today and seek healing where it is needed in our society and in our souls.

On this Martin Luther King Memorial Holiday it would be wrong to ignore or deny the rise of fear, hatred, and unrepentant bigotry that often dominate our public discourse.

We who seek to follow Jesus must surely be heartbroken when we hear of proposed "Muslim bans" or hear entire nations (whose populations are largely non-white) disparaged by people in our national leadership. We must be all the more disturbed when we hear such reprehensible speech defended by pugnacious preachers of pernicious piety.

We who have been instructed to love our neighbors as ourselves must surely feel sickened when our Transgender neighbors (and friends and family members) are demonized and dehumanized.

We who rejoice in the words of Jesus, "Come unto me all who labor and are heavy burdened and I will refresh you" must be overwhelmed with regret when we hear women time after time tell about their experiences of being threatened, mistreated, and assaulted. We must feel something close to outrage when their credible stories are dismissed and their assailants are rewarded with power and privilege.

We who pray weekly (if not daily), "Thy will be done" must surely wish for more to be done to help the inhabitants of St. Thomas and Puerto Rico who still struggle following the seasonal hurricanes.

And we who venerate the Prince of Peace must gasp in horror when threats of nuclear disaster become part of daily conversation.

So much healing is needed, and today is a good day to ask for God's grace and guidance. In the name of Martin, and in the name of Jesus whose way and witness inspired him, let us acknowledge the forces of oppression, pray for healing, and vow to resist injustice as Jesus the Christ did, as Martin the Apostle of Civil Rights did.

Let us pray:

Dear God,

     We acknowledge the sin of racism today. Lord have mercy.

     We admit that we have done too little to heal the wounds of xenophobia. Lord have mercy.

     We confess that we have not done enough to end poverty and to care for those who are poor. Lord have mercy.

     We acknowledge that we have not insisted strongly enough that women's sovereignty over their own bodies be respected. Lord have mercy.

     We admit that we have not done all that needs to be done to protect the rights of LGBTQ people. Lord have mercy.

     We confess that we must do more to defend the dignity of the aging. Lord have mercy.

     We acknowledge that we have not always been good stewards of the earth. Lord have mercy.

     We admit that we have rushed too often to war and have done too little to promote peaceful coexistence. Lord have mercy.

     We confess that love of money, power, privilege, or the comfort of the status quo has lulled us into acceptance of possible tyranny, especially when we thought we might not be the victims of it. Lord have mercy.

     God heal our brokenness.

     May love and hope unite us.

     May peace attend us.

     May we remember our divine inheritance and our sacred mission, and may we live more faithfully into our calling to live as if we were ONE (as in Truth, we are).

     Amen.

Yours in shared mission and ministry,

 

Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

Senior Minister 

 "Let justice roll on like a river, 

righteousness like a never-failing stream!" 

Amos 5.25 

(NIV)

Californians Facing the Fires Are in My Thoughts

I’m thinking of that old hymn, “Showers of Blessings.” I’m wishing for showers of blessings to fall upon the people who are frightened or injured or dislocated by the fires in California. May the people find the comfort they need. And God bless the first responders!

God Save Us

God deliver us from an imperial president. God bless the dreamers. God comfort and heal Jerusalem and all who call Her holy. God save us from the ravages and rage of fundamentalism no matter which religion it may infect. God restore us to sanity. God keep our hope alive. Amen.