The Good News Proclaimed
Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the
Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, May 17, 2009.
On a road trip from Louisiana to Tennessee my great-aunt Gladys and
great-uncle Arthur got into a terrible argument and then refused to speak to
each other for hours. Finally, to break the silence, when they were passing by
a farm Uncle Arthur pointed to a pig pen and said, “Gladys, are those your
relatives.” She said, “Yes dear… they’re my in-laws.”
Not the nicest story, but one that shows how the words we choose have an
effect.
The prophet Isaiah said, “God has given me the tongue of the learned that I
should know how to speak a word in season to those who are weary” (50.4).
The book of Proverbs tells us that a word well spoken is like apples of
gold in settings of silver (25.11).
James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem wrote even more emphatically,
“Consider that a great forest can be set on fire by a small spark. The tongue
also is a fire… It corrupts the whole person, setting the whole course of one’s
life on fire…” (James 3.5-6).
Jesus is remembered as having said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you
bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be
loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18.18). Binding and loosing are terms that come
from an age where magic and miracles where held as scientific truths, where
one could be loosed from a curse using the right spell, or one’s evil
intentions could be bound, again by the right spell. But what is a spell? An
incantation. A set of words intentionally spoken to release power and to bring
about a definite result. How do we “bind” or release personal power? By the
words we habitually speak.
In the book of Genesis there are two creation myths and the first one we
find in chapter one says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth.” And how did God go about this business of creating? God spoke. The
ancient parable says, “God said, ‘Let there be light.” And there was light.
And God said, “Let the waters be separated from the land.” And it was so.
And God said, “Let the land produce vegetation.” And it did.
God spoke forth creatures of the air, earth, and seas. And then God said,
“Let us make humans in our own image and likeness,” and so God created humans
in the divine image, male and female.
The story reads like a children’s bedtime tale, and yet it says something
that is very true and that can be proven time and again in our lives… and that
is, the word is creative. We who are made in the divine image have the divine
power of the word at our disposal. How will we use this awesome power?
What we say matters.
Words of fear perpetuate fear.
Words of worry perpetuate worry.
Words of hope perpetuate hope.
Words of gratitude perpetuate gratitude.
Words of confidence perpetuate confidence.
Words of praise perpetuate praise.
Words are creative. Whether they are words of pessimism and despair, words
of regret and blame, words of forgiveness and reconciliation, words of hope
and joyful expectation… the words we speak matter. And the words we habitually
speak point our lives in very definite directions… positive or negative. They
can bind us, or loose us; in either case, the word creates.
The Apostle Paul told the Romans, “Faith comes by hearing, and what we hear
becomes for us the word of God” (Romans 10.17). That is, what we hear over and
over, we tend to believe; and what we really believe we often receive. The
word is creative. The one way to assure hearing a positive word is to speak
it. And we must speak it enough that we finally hear it, so that the word of
optimism is for us the word of God, the word of truth, the word pointing us in
the right direction in life.
We are free to complain, of course. We can look for the worst, expect
failure and defeat, but as we voice those negative attitudes, we tend to
believe them deeply, and the more profoundly we believe them, the more they
become self-fulfilling prophecies.
The good news is, it works the other way too. We can also choose to be
encouraging instead of complaining. We can look for the best. We can expect
breakthroughs. We can voice our hopes, our dreams, our affirmations; we can
develop and give voice to positive attitudes until we believe the good so
deeply that the peace, joy, fulfillment, success and sufficiency that we are
proclaiming actually become self-fulfilling prophecies. The choice is ours. As
John writes, “in the beginning was the Word.” We can begin a new adventure, a
new beginning by choosing our words more carefully.
And let’s not be too academic, too philosophical, too theoretical about
this. Let’s put it to the test. Think of a time when you were negative,
bitter, afraid, assumed the worst, expected failure, or blamed everyone and
everything but your own choices for how you felt. Just think of a time… was it
last week, last night, since I’ve been talking? How did that work out for you?
Did it make anything at all even one tiny bit better? Did it make you feel
better? Did it make anyone like you more or want to spend more time with you?
Did it put money in your pocket or help you sleep at night?
Conversely, think of the last time you laughed. Really, just threw your
head back and gave out a belly laugh. For that instant, did you have a care in
the world? When we focus on misery, we tend to be miserable; and when we focus
on joy, we tend to be joyous. It really is that simple.
In the nineties, I remember a church concert given by a group that was very
talented. They sang old gospel faves, told uplifting stories, even a few good
natured jokes. It was a good evening. At the end of the concert, a man in his
30s who weighed about 95 pounds, walking with cane came up to one of the
singers and said, “thank you. I had such a good time tonight, it was like for
90 minutes I didn’t have AIDS. For the first time in a long time I didn’t even
think about AIDS.” That dear man experienced 90 minutes of healing, 90 minutes
of rest, 90 minutes of freedom, 90 minutes of joy because he allowed himself
to hear only positive words for a while. Thank God there were people speaking
those words.
In our first reading today, we heard 19th century American
scientist Maria Mitchell remind us that “…the vibrations set in motion by the
words that we utter reach through all space and the tremor is felt through all
time.”
What we focus on we feed, and what we feed grows. Just like the old Native
American parable about an elder teaching a young member of the community that
deep inside every person are two wolves; one is content and friendly and the
other is vicious and deadly. The young person asked, “which wolf will take
over my life?” And the elder said, “whichever one you feed.”
Jesus is feeding us today in John’s gospel. He says, “I don’t call you
servants; I call you friends.” He is affirming his disciples. He is
encouraging them. He is recognizing their potential, and by recognizing it and
naming it, he’s calling it forth. He could have recognized and named other
possibilities, but he CHOSE to see the good and call it forth. He’s feeding
the friendly, content wolf in each of them.
Jesus is speaking a word in season to those who are weary.
Jesus is offering apples of gold in settings of silver.
Jesus is using his word to build up, rather than to destroy like a
forest-fire.
Jesus is trying to bind negative attitudes and loose the power of optimism.
Jesus is using the power of his words to create hope and harmony in the life
of his community.
Jesus knows that faith comes by hearing, and what we hear and internalize
becomes for us the word of God… so he’s making sure that one more time what his
people hear is the word of encouragement.
He is using his words to set forth positive vibrations that are reaching even
us all this time later.
How will we use our word today? We have a choice, and the choice we make
will make a difference.
This is the Good News. Amen.