The Good News Proclaimed
Preached by the Reverend Durrell Watkins at
the Sunshine Cathedral on
Sunday, April 13, 2008.
In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde wrote, “To get back my
youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or
be respectable.” In other words, he would do anything other than change his
attitude or his habits.
It’s true for us, too, isn’t it? We all want happiness, but we are
sometimes reluctant to simply allow ourselves to be happy. We’re suspicious of
happiness, and of those who try to help us embrace it. We have convinced
ourselves that there is something holy, or noble, or courageous, or at least
inevitable about unhappiness.
But you know what? I find it odd that Religion promises us joy in the next
life. The promise is that in the next world, the righteous will enjoy unending
happiness. This suggests to me that happiness is a natural goal. Heaven
symbolizes the joy to which we are entitled. Once we believe that, I think it
is a short step from believing we can have joy beyond this life to believing
and even insisting that we can have joy IN this life.
Happiness isn’t just a carrot on a
stick leading us to the afterlife. Happiness is possible here and now; it is
our right, it is in our grasp, and difficult circumstances can’t rob us of it
unless we allow them to.
There is a marvelous example of joy being available even when a situation
is unpleasant. The example comes from Mark’s gospel and is repeated in
Matthew’s. It’s the story of Jesus’ final moments. He’s suffering the pain,
the indignity, the injustice of crucifixion. And in his moment of agony he
cries out, “Eloi, eloi, lema sebachthani!”
My God, my God, why have you
abandoned me?
(Mark 15.34; Matthew 27.46).
That moment is usually highlighted as a moment of doubt or unbearable
sorrow, but I believe it suggests something far more hopeful, even joyful.
You see, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” is the first line of
the 22nd Psalm. But that complaint is how the psalm begins, not how
it ends. The psalmist acknowledges his pain, his disappointment, his regret,
his fear that God has somehow forgotten him; but he does not stay there. He
moves from that moment of self-pity to remembering all that God has done and
all the evidence that God’s love is always with him. Listen to how Psalm 22
ends:
24For God has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted
one, did not turn away from me, but heard me when I cried out.
25I will offer praise in the great assembly; my vows I will fulfill before
those who revere God.
26The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will offer
praise…
27All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all
the families of the nations will bow down before you,
28for dominion belongs to the LORD who reigns over the nations.
29All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God; all who have gone
down into the dust will kneel in homage.
30And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you.
31The generation to come will be told of the Eternal, that they may
proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.
The psalm begins, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” and it ends by
saying, in effect, “Oh, that’s right, you haven’t. You never did. You never
would. You never will.” Why did you abandon me? You didn’t. And so the psalm
ends on a note of hope. Joy is restored, or at least the hope of joy is
restored.
I don’t think it’s an accident that Mark and Matthew place the opening line
of Psalm 22 on the lips of Jesus at his most difficult moment. They have Jesus
singing a song that says, “Why have you abandoned me, God? Oh, yeah, you
haven’t. The story’s not over. There is still reason to hope.” And that’s what
it Resurrection is all about. Resurrection doesn’t say that Golgotha doesn’t
happen; Resurrection says that Golgotha doesn’t get the last word. And so even
in a world where Golgotha can happen, we can choose to be happy; we can refuse
to let Golgotha have the last word.
I believe in Good News. I honestly believe that religion at its best helps
us live happier lives. And I believe we are meant to be happy. The prophet
Nehemiah didn’t say that fear or melancholy or regret would give us strength.
Nehemiah said, “The JOY of the Lord is my strength!” (8.10).
A familiar version of today’s gospel reading tells us “The thief comes only
to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have
it more abundantly” (John 10.10). The thieves Jesus refers to are religious
authorities who use religion to instill fear and to rob joy. Jesus’ kind of
spirituality offers hope, offers joy, offers the promise of an abundant life!
The Thief comes to kill joy, steal joy, destroy joy; but the way of Jesus
is meant to offer a life of hope, wholeness, and happiness.
The psalmist declares, “Weeping may endure for a night, but JOY comes in
the morning” (Psalm 30.5). Religion isn’t meant to reinforce fear, misery, or
self-loathing. Religion is meant to help us navigate the night so that we get
back to the joy of the morning. Happiness is the natural state. We’ll deviate
from it, but then we come back together on Sundays and remind one another of
the truth. When we talk about joy, we aren’t pushing fluff… This is the Good
News. It’s not superficial, it’s not cheap; it’s just the honest hope for real
happiness. And once we find the strength of our joy, we will be more generous,
more courageous, more inclusive, more peace loving, more justice seeking… by
accepting our own happiness we can heal the world.
The psalmist prayed, “You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows” (Psalm
23.5). God wants us to have cups full of joy, full to overflowing. And when we
allow our cups to be full, the overflow is what we have to share with the
world. We can teach what we don’t know and we can’t lead where we won’t go.
And we can’t give what we don’t have… by accepting our happiness we have
happiness to share with the world. I believe that’s a gift our world
desperately needs. By committing to our own happiness, we are sharing
happiness with the world. And that’s no small gift; in fact, this is the good
news. Amen.
Another of a series based on the topics covered in Robert
Holden’s book, Happiness Now!: Timeless Wisdom for Feeling Good FAST
(Hay House, 1998; 2007)