The Good News Proclaimed
Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at
the MCC Region 7 South Florida Conference, held at the Sunshine Cathedral,
on Friday, June 12, 2009.
Have you ever needed a healing? Maybe a relationship really went wrong, and
left you in pain. You needed some healing. Maybe a dream seemed destroyed, and
you needed a healing. Maybe the world around you seemed to be falling apart,
and it left you terrified, even immobilized, and you needed a healing. Maybe
the doctor gave you discouraging news that left you so afraid or so depressed
that before you could even consider treatment options, you needed a deep
healing of mind and spirit. Have you ever needed a healing?
Our conference theme tonight comes from Ephesians, where we read that the
church has been given people with different gifts “to equip the saints for the
work of ministry for building up the body of Christ.”
Ephesians is a good book to address this topic. It’s attributed to the
Apostle Paul, but scholars think it was actually written about 35 years after
Paul’s death. That means it was written some 71 years after Jesus’
crucifixion, and about 30 years after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its
Temple. The people in the community that the book of Ephesians is addressing
have experienced decades of loss and grief and pain and fear. They need some
healing.
And so the writer of Ephesians says, “grace was given to each of us… And
some were called to be apostles, others prophets, others evangelists, others
pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry for
building up the body of Christ” (4.7, 11-12).
Each of us has something to share, and we are called to share our gifts. As
we share, we find the principle of sowing and reaping remains true. We are
giving to others, we are giving to the community, the movement, the church, to
the work of God, and as we are giving, we are also receiving something. As we
share hope, love, encouragement, resources, time… we find we are connected
more deeply to that with which we are sharing. We find we have more to offer
than we realized. We are lifted up. By sharing our gifts, we are participating
in the on-going miracle of healing.
Build up your people and your people will build up your church. Build up
your consciousness and your consciousness will build up your body. Build up
the body, and it is then able to be a source of joy in your life… whether the
body of cells, tissues, organs, and atoms, or the body of believers and
seekers we call the Church.
Sharing our gifts, our selves, builds up others and it builds us up, too.
Healing is about building us up and lifting us up.
Now the writer of Ephesians will go on to try to enforce the Roman
Household codes by insisting wives submit to husbands, children to parents,
slaves to masters. That was the Roman culture and it reinforced imperial
privilege and power. If the household looked like a mini-model of the empire,
then the empire would seem acceptable and people wouldn’t think to rebel
against it.
But this writer claiming to be Paul has forgotten or overlooked that the
real Paul was friends with the leader Lydia, who knew women prophets and
praised women deacons, who told women that when they speak from the pulpit
they should have long hair or head coverings… which means he expected that
women would speak from the pulpit!
The long hair and head coverings were about cultural norms of his day, but
regardless of the fashion he encouraged them to observe, he clearly thought
there would be women preachers.
Why mention Paul’s errors? Why compare what Paul did say with what others
used his name to say? Because we need prophets and teachers and shepherds who
will help heal the damage done by scripture misused, so that that people can
trust the church to stand with them for other healing needs. In the power of
healed community, the mighty currents of divine love can flow through us to
strengthen and renew us.
Jesus reinterpreted traditions and scriptures… The tradition says Jesus
took Elijah’s cup at the last supper and instead of reserving it for the
possible return of Elijah, he offered it to everyone at table, leaving no one
out… as if to say “let’s not wait for the prophet’s return any longer; let us
be the prophetic voice that calls for justice, inclusion, and healing… right
here and right now.”
Jesus healed on the Sabbath… Gathered food on the Sabbath. He stunned his
critics by saying, “We are not made for the Sabbath; the Sabbath is made for
us.” We aren’t religion’s slaves; religion is OUR tool.
Paul, too, challenged tradition… not insisting that Gentiles convert to
Judaism to become Christ followers, not insisting new-comers to the movement
keep kosher or that Gentile men undergo circumcision… for Paul, baptism was a
good enough symbol of God’s covenant with us.
Jesus was tempted by the misuse of scripture. In the desert before Jesus
began his ministry, Evil itself had the temerity to say, “It is written…” Evil
knew the scriptures, quoted them accurately and legalistically to limit,
control, and manipulate Jesus… but Jesus didn’t fall for it. Not everyone who
quotes bible verses at you has your best interest at heart! Yes, there are
hateful sayings in the bible… Jesus showed us how to deal with that… he said,
“Treat others the way you want to be treated… THIS is the law and the
prophets.” He said the greatest commandments are to love god and neighbor. He
said, “I give you a new commandment — love one another.”
Paul said, “the letter kills but the spirit gives life.” Paul also said,
“whoever loves has fulfilled the law.”
They are telling us that the spirit of scripture is love, hope,
empowerment, and inclusion. The holy spirit is the spirit of wholeness, the
life-giving power and presence of God. When religion is used to spread hope,
healing, happiness, harmony, and wholeness it is being used properly.
When it is used to divide, terrify, manipulate, exclude, or wound, we can
be sure that it is being misused. And when it has been misused, we are here to
offer healing from that religious abuse.
We can take any sentence in the bible and make a hateful case with it, but
that is not the spirit of the scriptures… that is not the overarching message,
that is not the liberating word of God that is to found in but in no way
limited by the bible. If a scripture verse makes you feel worse, reinterpret
it or find a new one. Isn’t that picking / choosing? Of course it is… everyone
does it. Evil chose the verse that it hoped would dis-empower Jesus; and Jesus
chose to see past that manipulative technique and he chose to affirm a more
positive message. As Christ followers, we can do the same!
We will choose what we believe anyway, so why would we ever choose the
negative, the nasty, or the nefarious understandings. We are going to choose;
let’s choose the good, the empowering, the hopeful, the life-giving… the
healing. We certainly don’t need to agree with those who are choosing the
passages that justify their prejudices or their privilege while ignoring the
passages that offer hope, equality, and liberation!
Let’s choose the life-giving spirit over the life-destroying legalism which
has wounded so many and from which so many still need to be healed.
It’s time to heal religious oppression by abandoning the legalism and
prejudices and fears that choke the life out of us and by embracing the more
uplifting view that love is the commandment that heals and redeems.
Jesus touched the untouchable… to be lovingly touched helped people feel
better about themselves. They rediscovered the spiritual pattern of their
divine wholeness and felt miraculously enlivened. He used the power of hope
and love, and that power is in the room tonight!
A woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years reached out and touched
Jesus’ clothes… She reached out… she participated in her own miracle.
A man at the pool of Bethesda had waited for decades for healing to overtake
him. Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be well?” The man had to decide that he
was willing to do something. Jesus challenged him to take up his mat and walk.
Even Lazarus had to do something. In his tomb, bound in his grave clothes, he
was encouraged by Jesus to do something. “Lazarus, come out!”
A Canaanite woman came to Jesus seeking healing for her daughter. He was
tempted to brush her aside… after all, a verse in Deuteronomy says that
Canaanites should be killed! But the woman did something… she challenged
Jesus’ religious and ethnic prejudice. He called her a dog, an ethnic slur,
and she responded by saying, “If I were a dog you’d give me scraps. How about
treating me with at least as much compassion as you would a dog.” And Jesus’
mind was opened, and rather than affirming the legalistic prejudice of
scripture and tradition, he affirmed the woman’s faith and her daughter was
healed.
Naaman had to wash in the river.
Jacob had to wrestle with an angel and refuse to let go to get his blessing.
Paul prayed, and prayed, and prayed again before he learned, “grace is
sufficient.”
And when he was bitten by a poisonous snake on Malta, he had to shake the
serpent off. He was left unharmed.
All of these healings share something in common… the miracle was never
forced on anyone. Each time, the person had to participate in their own
miracle, often even initiating it. Healing is not passive. Waiting for it to
sneak up on you will probably not lead to a satisfactory result. We may have
step up, speak out, confront fears, shake off the toxicity, wrestle with a new
idea until it leads to a break through.
Tonight we are doing something. We are building up the body with prayer.
There is the prayer of supplication — God help.
There is the prayer of affirmation — God you are helping me (The Lord is my
shepherd, I want for nothing; God I thank you for hearing me and I know that
you always hear me; Christ in you the hope of glory; In God we live and move
and have our being; I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me).
And there is the prayer of demonstration — as I help myself, I experience
god’s power manifesting in, through, and as me. Your talk talks, and your walk
talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.
Whichever develops the consciousness of empowerment, wholeness, and renewal
is the prayer we need. Supplication may be OK, affirmation may be better, but
for healing, demonstration is essential. In fact, one form of prayer can lead
to the next. We might begin with “God heal me,” and move on to “God is my
health,” and then finally we are acting as if our hope has been renewed, as if
we have indefatigable joy, as if the present moment is a perfect moment filled
with life-giving, divine love. We are praying with our lives, and that is the
prayer that is without ceasing.
Take up your mat and walk. Lazarus come out! Shake off that poisonous
attitude. Wrestle with the new idea until you discover who you really are — a
child of God, made in the image of God, filled with the spirit of God…
entitled right now to God’s highest and best!
And being healed… you then have healing to offer.
You can’t teach what you don’t know and you can’t lead where you won’t go
and you certainly can’t give what you don’t have.
In the Sursum Corda of the communion liturgy, we say, “God is with you/and
also with you. Lift up your hearts/we lift them to God.” Sursum Corda… lift up
your heart. The Psalmist says, “Lift up your heads, Oh gates!” and “I will
lift up mine eyes unto the hills, whence cometh my help.”
Hagar in the desert lifts up her head, broadens her perspective, and sees
what in her despair she had almost overlooked. The refreshing, life-saving
well was there the whole time, but she couldn’t see it until she lifted up her
head and broadened her view. The miracle was that she could allow herself to
see the opportunity present to her even in the midst of her difficulty. Lift
up your heart, and you will be lifted up. And isn’t that healing?
With healed attitudes, healed self-images, a healed relationship with God,
and even healed bodies… we will find we are blessed to be a blessing, and we
have been equipped and called to build up the communal body.
We are children of God, and we are entitled to live God filled lives of
hope and joy. We are entitled to be lifted up tonight. And as we are lifted
up, we are then called to lift up others. This much, the writer of Ephesians
got right. And this is the good news.