The Strange Mixture of Anxiety and Hope

I’m worried. I’m worried about Christian Nationalism, which is really white nationalism, it has nothing to do with jesus.

 

I’m worried about rights being rolled back. The right to support gay and trans kids, the right to talk about LGBTQ families in public spaces, a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, the right to vote,

 

the right to learn history as it occurred even if some of it is ugly, the right to hold even the most powerful accountable for their abuse of power…

 

I’m worried for those who have known discrimination and who are being told they will know more of it if certain agendas are enforced.

 

I’m worried, but not hopeless. Because for now, we can vote. We still have a say in how our future will unfold.

 

Democracy is from the Greek, Demokratia meaning “power of the people.” If we don’t use our power, it will be taken from us, and then democracy gives way to something far removed from Jesus’ dream of a divine kin-dom.  

 

Instead of leaving our fears unchallenged, let’s take Jesus’ advice and seek God’s kin-dom, that realm of peace and justice-love where the last are first and the first are last, where even a widow’s mite is meaningful,

 

where hunger isn’t allowed, where the elderly are safe and children are encouraged and people are never demonized for their love and where the sacred value of all people is recognized.

 

The kin-dom of God is in our hands. We can reject Christian empire and embrace instead God’s kin-dom, the non-kingdom, the anti-empire.

 

I’m asking people of faith to dare to dream Jesus’ dream of God’s universal family making sure that no one is oppressed, forgotten, or left out, and then let that dream inform your participation in our democracy, which if we are as Christian as we claim to be, will look more like Jesus’ dream, and less like empire.

 

May the divine kin-dom come and the divine will be done. Amen.

I Hope You Will Vote

 I hope ppl vote for women's rights. I hope ppl vote for LGBTQ+ rights. I hope ppl vote for environmental protection. I hope ppl vote for the feeding of hungry children. I hope ppl vote for Medicare & social security. I hope ppl vote against autocracy & totalitarianism. I hope ppl vote against felonious candidates. I hope ppl VOTE.

Y’all, We Just Have to Do Better

I don’t say this to be unkind, to be condescending, or to be disrespectful of cherished values...I say this because our survival may depend on our waking up. If someone tells you the earth is 6k years old, that person is either a moron, a crazy person, a jokester, or a very sheltered and naive person who has been woefully misinformed. In any case, s/he is WRONG. Who cares? We all should, because if we ignore reliable science on matters like the earth’s age, then we’ll ignore science about climate change, gender identity, sexual orientation, childhood/adolescent/adult development, dementia, immune suppressing diseases...stuff that really matters. You get to have your god, your religion, your rituals, your myths, your values, and your dreams (I am very thankful for my own), but you must also be open to learning, to reason, to peer reviewed information, and to ideas that offer solutions other than “hate/fear those brown people or those queers or those non-Americans over there.”

Children are in cages. Families are torn apart. Refugees fleeing for their lives are being turned away (or turned back to the hells they escaped). The environment is under attack. Same gender loving people and gender non-conforming/non-binary/transgender/two spirit people are having their families, their lives, their very identities threatened. It’s time to wake up. It’s time to be smarter than we’ve been. And it is certainly time to participate fully in our democracy. Apathy is hurting us even more than the dedication of the unenlightened.

The earth isn’t flat and it isn’t young. Living, breathing, named, thinking, socially interactive children matter at least as much as fetuses. The earth isn’t invulnerable. And ignoring these facts has put our collective butts in a sling. Please, let’s do better.

PASTORAL RESPONSE TO “MASTERPIECE” SCOTUS DECISION

PASTORAL RESPONSE TO TODAY’S SCOTUS DECISION
(Re: Colorado Baker refusing to make same-gender loving wedding cake)

Dear Friends,

Same-gender loving and gender non-conforming people have been bullied on playgrounds, harassed in classrooms, physically attacked in parking lots, preached against in pulpits, abandoned by their families, mocked in entertainment, and had their rights to full citizenship debated, voted on, and fought over in courts. The ongoing demonization and dehumanization of LGBTQ people is demoralizing to us.

And so, today’s SCOTUS ruling in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to make a gay themed wedding cake for a same-sex couple is troubling to us, but it is too soon to let ourselves be overly discouraged.

The ruling, apparently, was specific to the one case and does not settle the debate about religion giving one the right to deny service to same-gender loving couples. That conversation will continue for a while and will probably be very hurtful at times to those of us who remain a topic of debate.

But here is what I know:

+ALL people have sacred value.

+Religion has too often been weaponized; however, many of us have discovered that a life of faith can offer hope, joy, compassion, courage, and peace and we are committed to offering a counter-narrative to weaponized religion.

+No court ruling at any time will determine (or limit) our dignity.

+We are each a child of God. No matter who uses God’s name in vain to deny that truth, we will always boldly proclaim that we ARE the beloved children of God.

+Sunshine Cathedral remains committed to celebrating, blessing, and affirming the Rainbow community. LGBTQIA+ have always been lifted up at Sunshine Cathedral as God’s miracles and not God mistakes, and that will continue no matter what.

Today’s SCOTUS decision may have been disappointing to many of us, but remember, it was a “narrow” ruling and hasn’t settled other issues. And, as Jesus said, the kin-dom (the non-kingdom, the anti-empire, the commonwealth, the beloved community) that we belong to is not limited to this world’s systems.

The kin-dom of God is an idea that Jesus held, preached, and died for...a vision of a world of justice, peace, generosity, hope, compassion, goodwill, and equality. We continue to hold the vision of the Kin-dom of God, and we will continue to work to make that vision a reality. “Thy kin-dom come!” Amen.

There is more work to do. We are the laborers to do it. And I affirm that God’s blessing is upon us today and always.

Yours in shared service,

Durrell Watkins, MA, MDiv, DMin

Senior Minister, Sunshine Cathedral

SunshineCathedral.org 

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)

I am what I am...which is a lot

I am Queer. I am on the gender continuum (two spirit). I am an Anglican Universalist Humanist New Thought Christian Pluralist. I am by both accident of birth and full participation an American citizen. I am fully human (this will be news to certain kinds of religious extremists and politicos). I am a person who benefits from unearned white privilege who is trying to dismantle racism (society's and my own). I am a person who has lived with HIV for decades. I am married and there are two Y chromosomes in my marriage. For some reason, TODAY, I felt the need to be crystal clear about all of that.

Angry With Non-Voters

IF the election had broken down like this: 65% voter turnout with those who voted supporting Trump 51%, Clinton 47%, Other candidates 2%...I would still hate the current administration's agenda, but I would have to accept it. I would have to admit that a narrow but signficant and legitimate majority wanted this and that's democracy, that a vision different from the one that inspires me prevailed. "Suck it up and make the most of what I believe is a bad situation" would be my advise to myself. BUT that isn't how it broke down! Instead, about HALF the electorate stayed home, the person who would be swown in as the 45th POTUS got 3 million fewer votes than his opponent and only 27% of the country actually voted for him. Gay rights, women's rights, voting rights, the dignity of immigrants, hope for refugees, the environment, PEACE, the arts, public broadcasting, education, and safety and dignity for the majority of seniors are ALL in jeaporday now - Not because 27% of the country voted for a vision I detest, but because about half the country didn't vote at all. And in all honesty, I'm still struggling with that. It was civic malfeasance for which our whole country and possibly most of the world will be paying for years to come. The people who "won" are just people I happen to disagree with; the people who didn't care one way or the other what happens to the lives of the people who make up this country are the ones I remain angry with...I will forgive because my sanity depends on it, but I'm not there yet.

God Bless America

God Bless America
Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins
Sunshine Cathedral
Mark 6.1-14

I once had a homework assignment as a child. One of the questions was “Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?” Rather than do my reading, I thought I would ask my great-aunt Gladys for the answer. So I asked her, “Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?” She said, “At the bottom.”

Did you know…
Sunshine Cathedral shares several members with MCC-Toronto.
About 1/4 of our membership is Jamaican.
We have guests almost every week from nations throughout the world, and people all over the world watch our sermons and read our literature and ask us to pray with them.
Because of our international church family, and because the kindom of God is global, I strongly resist nationalism in the house of prayer…Scripture tells us the worship space is to be a house of prayer for ALL nations (Isaiah 56.7).

And yet this is a national holiday weekend in the U.S., and I do want to highlight the U.S.’s potential, its promise, its successes; and at the same time I must remember that much of what is good about the US is good because courageous people (e.g., Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., & Troy Perry) have always spoken out against what was not yet good so the country they loved might be even better.

As a citizen of this country I want my nation to prosper and flourish, but God forbid that I ever think that we are somehow God’s special chosen people…we must claim our sacred value, but never at the expense of anyone else’s.

Now, let’s be clear. I’m glad that separation of church and state means that government cannot privilege one religion over another or speak against anyone’s religion, and religion shouldn’t flaunt symbols of state as if to suggest that they have religious value. But to speak about one’s country, to honestly address its strengths and weaknesses, and to call the congregation to pray for it and other countries as well…that, I believe, is entirely appropriate. And each week at Communion, we do pray for the leaders of this and every country.

After all, to speak about the bible is to speak about nations and governments. Prophets standing up to kings, Jesus being tried and executed as a revolutionary...that’s our biblical story. We have books of the bible titled “Kings” and “Numbers” (as in census), and “Judges” and the first five books of our bible are called the books of the “Law.” If we take politics, government, economics, controversy, sex, and violence out of the bible, we’ll only be left with a handful of verses from Proverbs!

Moreover, I recognize that the Independence of a great nation offers hope and inspiration and I am in the hope and inspiration business. So, after much thought, prayer, and deliberation, I have chosen to honor the country of my birth not with empty praise, but with truth about the greatness it has known, and the goodness to which it must still aspire. And, as a person of faith, I also want to pray for my country, wishing it not only peace and prosperity, but also integrity, health, and the will to be as great as its promise.

Our ancestors rejected the colonialism of the British Empire, but they betrayed the indigenous people of this land. They rejected the aristocracy and class system of Europe and they declared all men are created equal…but they meant only men, and only free men, and only white free men. They preached equality while denying the vote to women and while allowing the enslavement of their fellow human-beings.

This country bravely defended its borders and territories against a threatening Japanese Empire in WW2; but out of fear of their enemy they denied liberty to loyal Japanese Americans as they put them in internment camps because of their heritage.

This country stood up to the evil of Hitler’s anti-Semitic, racist Third Reich, but has often ignored the problems of racism, sexism, and homophobia at home. The US made noble sacrifices in WW2, but has since rushed to other wars that did not have the same moral justification.

And in this country, we pledge allegiance to a republic that is one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all; but as of this moment, GLBT people are not universally included in that “all”.

We each love this country, whether we are citizens or guests. But we love it from our experience of it; and we must never forget that some of us have enjoyed more privilege, more opportunities than others. So we can’t dismiss those who call for change as being malcontents, or unpatriotic. They may be the greatest of patriots, taking great risks to make sure that the American dream is not for a few, or even for just the majority, but truly for all people.

The Reverend William Sloane Coffin, a protestant minister known for his years as a chaplain at Yale University and later as the pastor of Riverside Church in New York, preached a sermon a few years ago where he said there are three kinds of patriots. The first kind is the patriot who is an uncritical lover of the country. They turn symbols of state into idols of veneration and they will not listen to the voices of those who have been left out of the American experiment. These uncritical patriots don’t help their country get better, because they are not willing to see where their country needs improvement.

The second kind of patriot, Coffin said, is the patriot who is a loveless critic. Coffin said that you must hate what is wrong with the country you love so that you can help heal it. But if you hate what’s wrong more than you love what’s right, you become bitter…you become a good hater, but not a good patriot.

The third kind of patriot, Coffin insisted, is the patriot who loves his or her country enough to hold it accountable, to address its flaws because this patriot knows how great the country can be and ought to be. It’s like Mark Twain said, “Patriotism means being loyal to your country all the time and to its government when it deserves it.”

Let’s be clear…patriotism is not nationalism. Nationalism is just another prejudice, like sexism or racism or classism…it says “we” are superior to “them.” Nationalism is the misguided belief that one’s nation is God’s chosen among all nations. But patriotism is a genuine love of country, and love always has room for more. Good patriots may love their country first, but not only. Spanish Cellist Pablos Casals once said, “To love one’s country is a wonderful thing, but why should love stop at the border?”

Our readings today are about healing. In the gospel lesson, Jesus raises his prophetic voice, but in his own community he isn’t heard. He isn’t taken seriously. He is dismissed as being pretentious, or crazy, or unqualified to speak to his neighbors. But those few who would listen experienced healing in their lives; and Jesus kept preaching beyond his community to people who would listen so that the healing could spread. Prophets always call a people to their high potential; they address weaknesses so that they may be replaced with health and strength. They use their courage to help heal the wounds of apathy and injustice. And as they do, individuals and societies are healed along the way.

And so, in the prophetic tradition, I recognize today this country’s great promise and potential; and I call us to work together to help it be all that it can be. But let us remember the US isn’t the only country in the world, it certainly isn’t the only country in the kindom of God; it isn’t even the only country in this church.

May we love this country so much that we won’t settle for it being less than it can be. May our love of country be so genuine, that our love doesn’t stop at the borders. May we love this country enough to challenge it when it is wrong, and to praise it when it is right, and to pray for it at all times.

My prayer today is for the health of America:

God bless America to reflect not its own glory, but the glory of God’s realm where neither race nor religion nor economic status nor gender identity nor sexual orientation nor geographic border is ever used to oppress or exclude any person.

God bless America not to privilege some but to promote liberty and justice for all.

God bless America to be generous with her friends and forgiving of her enemies.

God bless America not to forget the mistakes of her past, but to atone for them so that she can be a leader with genuine moral authority in the community of nations.

God bless America, not because she’s perfect but because she is good and can be better.

God bless America, not because she has lived fully into her promise, but because she still can.

God bless America, not exclusively, but to show all nations and all people that God’s blessing is ever available to them.

God bless America, not because she is weak, but so her strength will be used wisely.

God bless America to be a blessing to the whole world. Amen.


© Durrell Watkins 2009