The Good News Proclaimed
Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the
Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, August 16, 2009.
St. Paul and the writer of John’s gospel have both been misused to cause a
lot of self-hatred in the world. People actually are afraid of their
physicality because of some of the quotes they have heard from Paul and John.
In the rural South where I grew up, preachers would often preach against
“fleshly” desires and they would warn against being too “carnal”. Everything
from playing cards to dancing to listening to almost any song that would be
played on the radio was considered questionable, and the hardliners would even
say such activities were evil.
Of course, sexuality was viewed with suspicion, and same-gender love and
attraction were viewed with hostility and contempt. The message that I
received from many directions in my childhood was that the body was basically
evil, and Religion’s job was to help us rein it in and keep it under control
so that it wouldn’t experience too much pleasure. There really was this
desperately neurotic fear among the adults of my community that someone
somewhere might be having a good time. And they were determined to put a stop
to it if they possibly could.
Some churches were even concerned with appearance. Makeup was discouraged
for women, and forbidden for men. Tattoos, piercings, jewelry, certain styles
of clothing, hair styles even were all taboo and were thought to be doorways
to perdition. Apparently, not only was one not to feel too good, one wasn’t
even supposed to look good. The amazing thing was that such hatred of
physicality ever appealed to anyone.
Now, I don’t mean to be unkind. I have no doubt that the people who taught
and believed these things were completely sincere. I have no doubt that they
were trying to please the god of their understanding. Of course, the God they
were trying to please seemed pathologically unpleasable, but still, the
devotion of the faithful is not what I question.
What I take issue with is the interpretation of a few isolated verses of
scripture that fed this fear of the flesh and all things physical.
Of course, the local congregations in my small town growing up were not the
first to doubt the body’s sacredness. In antiquity, there people who honestly
believed that all things heavenly were good, and all things earthly were at
best inferior, and at worst evil. Some even believed that a good god created
the heavens, while a less honorable deity created the world. That sort of
thinking made its way into some early Christian congregations, which is why
when the creeds were being hammered out, the church councils tried to put an
end to such dualistic thinking. They said, “We believe in ONE God — the
creator, the almighty — maker of heaven AND earth, of all this is seen and
unseen.”
One God as the Source of all that is… seen and unseen, heavenly and
earthly, spiritual and physical.
This is the God that looks at Creation in that mythical tale in Genesis and
says of the physical world that it is VERY GOOD.
This is the God of the lovers in the Song of Songs… that highly erotic book in
our bible where lovers praise the way each other looks and smells and tastes!
This is the God for whom King David danced naked in the street!
This is the God people encountered in the physical, living, breathing, human
person called Jesus.
So when we hear the gospel writer today say, “It is the spirit that gives
life, while the flesh is of no avail,” let’s not hear that as a call to hate
our bodies. In fact, we are told that our bodies are a temple of the spirit (1
Cor. 6.19), and the author of the drama of Job portrays Job as experiencing
extreme physical discomfort, and still saying, “yet in my flesh I will see
God” (Job 19.26).
The flesh, of itself, may be of no avail, but the flesh enlivened by spirit
is how we know life. The flesh, enlivened with the breath of life, is how we
experience life. The flesh, enlivened with the divine energy we call spirit is
how we interact with all that is. The spirit gives life, and what does it give
life to? Our physical selves. God is “is-ness,” or as Jesus said, “God is
spirit…” (John 4.24). The spirit of Life creates life out of itself. The flesh
we see is an echo of the spirit which we cannot see.
There is no good spirit and bad flesh… there is only Spirit… it gives life,
it is life, and it is All Good.
“The flesh is of no avail” doesn’t mean that our bodies are bad or worthless;
it means our bodies are not separate from the love and goodness of God. Our
bodies are spirit… spirit is life and life is made manifest in many forms,
including our own!
Proverbs says, “Wisdom has built her house…” And guess what? We’re it! We
are one with the Source of All that is; It expresses in, through, and as us.
We and the eternal are one. That’s the house that the spirit of wisdom has
built. That is the spirit that gives life. And affirmations of this oneness,
of this goodness, of this endless Life are the words that are for us spirit
and life!
To paraphrase our second reading today, “Take this peace into your Selves…
the divine spark is within you all. Seek inside… and you’ll find it; and once
you find it, you’ll express it in your physical, earthly, living, breathing
lives.”
Let me share something that John Wesley said. He said, “Catch on fire with
enthusiasm and people will come for miles around to watch you burn.”
Enthusiasm… that’s another word for energy, another word for spirit. We the
see the flames of the spirit, the flames of a new outlook, the flames of
enthusiasm in the Pentecost narrative in Acts.
We have a choice today… fear or love. Despair or hope. Anxiety or peace.
Hatred or healing. Denigration or affirmation.
The negative choices are lifeless, but the positive choices are
life-giving. They are the words that give life. They are the channels through
which spirit flows. As we learn to believe in ourselves, to be thankful for
who we are, to trust our innate goodness, to know that in our physical
experience of life we can exude the very spirit of life… then that will
attract many others who need to know they are lovable, they are capable, they
are worthy, just as they are. It’s time to catch on fire with enthusiasm.
Let’s be enthusiastic about our possibilities, about our mission, about our
community, about our love, about our relationships, about our bodies, about
the gifts we have to share with the world.
I am enthusiastic about the Sunshine Cathedral.
I am enthusiastic about Sharing the Light with the world.
I am enthusiastic about your innate goodness and sacred value.
I am enthusiastic about the possibilities that exist for all of us.
I am enthusiastic about who we are, just as we are.
I think that’s the way and the life of the spirit. I also believe that this
is the good news. Amen.