Why did Jesus say he was dying for his friends?

Q&A by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins, Senior Pastor

Question: Why did Jesus say he was dying for his friends? What does that mean?

Answer: I have no idea if Jesus said he was dying “for” his friends. Remember, Jesus didn’t write the gospels. People wrote those stories 40 – 70 years after Jesus’ death, so lots of words have been put in Jesus’ mouth that Jesus probably never said.

In ancient Greek culture, warriors who died defending the city-state were said to have “died for the people”. Perhaps the gospel writers saw Jesus in this way — willing to put himself on the line to make changes in the world and to empower people on the margins. While he was defending the sacred value of all people, he was killed like a warrior dying for his people.

When Dr. King was killed in Memphis, didn’t he die for the sins of racism, violence, and classism? Didn’t he live and die to improve the lives of others? It doesn’t mean God wanted him to be harmed; it just means that the love of God was so powerful in him that he was willing to risk death to bless people’s lives. Maybe that’s what the writers of the gospel were suggesting about Jesus.

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If you have questions about faith, the bible, the church, or sexuality & spirituality, you can email your questions to durrell@sunshinecathedral.org, or go to the Ask the Reverend Durrell Watkins page and click on the link there. Rev. Durrell Watkins will answer your questions and publish the answers here and in the weekly SunBurst. Your name will always be withheld, so only the actual question and the response will be published.

Knowing Who We Are

Healing Rays: A Progressive, Positive, Practical Weekly Reflection
by Durrell Watkins

"[Human-beings are] Life and Intelligence expressed." Myrtle Fillmore

Have you ever noticed that we tend to think of people in the past (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Socrates, Buddha, Jesus, Helen Keller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sojourner Truth, etc.) as being "great". But we think of ourselves as being insignificant. Or, because we feel insignificant, we pretend to be great, exaggerating our accomplishments and taking credit for things we didn't really do. Or, we allow ourselves to believe that we are pretty good, but our neighbor or enemy or "those" people are evil, nefarious, beneath contempt.

In reality (divine Reality), we are ALL an expression of the One Life, the Infinite Intelligence. If we don't know or believe this Truth, then we may not live up to our enormous potential, but that doesn't change who we really are. We are (ALL) children of God. The divine Spark we see in Dr. King or Mother Teresa is also in us. Once we really see it in ourselves, then we'll tend to see it not only in the heroes of the past, but in all people. And when what we see is divine, what we experience will more often be divine!

Spiritual Resources

Sunshine Cathedral is now offering three new resources to help you on your spiritual journey. The first is a book called A Treatment A Day: a book of and about prayer. The second is a book called Progressive, Positive, & Practical Encouragement for Spiritual Leaders (recommended for clergy and lay leaders of churches of every size). The third is called Fairy Dust: Using Affirmations to Unlock the Magic of Life. They are available here. A limited number of copies are in the bookstore at church, and A Treatment A Day is also available at Amazon.com.

PBS Special and Rev. Robert Griffin HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean: A deadly cycle of stigma and secrecy

Early this summer, Rev. Robert Griffin was invited by Micah Fink of PBS to take part in a taping of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean specifically focusing on homophobia and religion in Jamaica through the outreach of Sunshine Cathedral in Jamaica.

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in association with the M∙A∙C AIDS Fund and the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism made this project possible as they focused on stigma and discrimination that prevents people around the world from accessing HIV prevention, care, and treatment services they need. This is particularly true in areas of the Caribbean, such as Jamaica, where anti-sodomy laws and concerns about violence put vulnerable populations at extreme risk.

The first of the five-part series will begin airing on the PBS series World Focus on Tuesday, September 22^nd; please check local listing for timing. Also, web videos of all five pieces are also going to go live on the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting website early next week as well. The videos will, we believe, be available internationally at http://pulitzergateway.org/the-glass-closet/.

For our associates in the New York area the series will kick off on Tuesday with two events, a viewing of the series at the Columbia University’s School of Journalism at 4:00 PM followed by a reception/panel discussion at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. Seating is limited so if you plan to attend please RSVP to RSVP@pulitzercenter.org.

We are uncertain as to how much of Sunshine Cathedral will be presented in this special; however we invite you to watch the series.

Micah Fink is an Emmy-nominated producer specializing in international affairs, public health, national security, and environmental issues. Micah’s work has appeared on Wide Angle, Frontline, National Geographic Television and ABC News. He has written for print, magazines, and the web. His recent work, Glass Closet, explores the intersections among homophobia, violence, stigma, religion and the disease in Jamaica.

Isaiah's Message

Q&A by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins, Senior Pastor

Question: You preach a message of optimism and self-esteem. But how do you account for biblical messages like the one in Isaiah, chapter 64 that says, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”?

Answer: There are at least three contributors to the Book of Isaiah. They each speak from their own perspective. The second contributor to Isaiah, for example, believes that a day of healing from Yahweh is on the way. The third contributor, however, is sometimes hopeful and other times desperate. “Third Isaiah” (the last ten chapters of the book) is the writer of the passage you mention, and he has a hard time maintaining a positive outlook. His gift to us is his honesty about his struggle. That doesn’t mean we should emulate his despair.

The writer believes that God has been unfairly harsh in punishing people for their mistakes and the harshness of God’s punishments cause the people to doubt God’s goodness, and their doubt leads to more mistakes. What a vicious cycle! I don’t believe God punishes people for their mistakes (though choices have consequences… we may be punished “by” our mistakes, but nor “for” them), and even Third Isaiah knows that. He says, “Yet, O God, you are our Parent; we are the clay and you the potter — we are all the work of your hands” (v.8). When he’s thinking clearly, he knows that God is good. When he focuses only on the hardships of life, he blames God for those hardships, saying things like, “No other god would treat its servants in such a way!” (v. 4).

Yes, one of the three writers of Isaiah during a moment of crisis believes that God isn’t terribly fair. But he shows us how such defeatist thinking doesn’t serve him, and how his natural bent is to hope anyway. In a weak moment, Third Isaiah may have imagined God was treating him like dirty rags, but that isn’t the big picture of Isaiah, or of the bible.

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If you have questions about faith, the bible, the church, or sexuality & spirituality, you can email your questions to durrell@sunshinecathedral.org, or go to the Ask the Reverend Durrell Watkins page and click on the link there. Rev. Durrell Watkins will answer your questions and publish the answers here and in the weekly SunBurst. Your name will always be withheld, so only the actual question and the response will be published.

Sharing the Light: Transformation vs. Salvation

Sharing the Light is an Internet talk show where Reverends Durrell Watkins, Robert Griffin, and others discuss theological questions of interest to our community.

In this episode of Sharing the Light, Sunshine Cathedral’s Senior Pastor Durrell Watkins speaks with Light University Academic Dean Robert Griffin and Michael Diaz, Volunteer Coordinator / Miami Outreach Coordinator. We invite you to join us for an enlightening conversation on Sharing the Light.

Moderator of MCC Calls for Prayer Regarding the Death of a Gay Man in Jamaica

This past week, the LGBT community around the globe learned of yet another horrific attack on a gay man that resulted in his death.

John Terry, a British honorary consul living in Jamaica, was strangled and beaten to death by someone police believe to have been close to John. A note found on his bed referred to him as a "batty man" {derogatory slang for gay man} and that read in part, "This is what will happen to ALL gays."

Since 1997 Amnesty International has recorded the murders of at least 35 gay men on the island, including that of Brian Williamson, founder of JFLAG {Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All Sexuals and Gays} and of a man serving as the Choir Director of a Sunshine Cathedral MCC congregation in Jamaica. Thirty-two incidents of mob violence directed against LGBT people have been recorded in the last eighteen months alone. In many cases, the murders were followed by crowd celebrations around mutilated bodies.

THIS MUST STOP NOW!

"There is nothing politically correct or culturally sensitive about failing to name the realities that are violently claiming the lives of LGBT people and justifying those heinous acts," said Rev. Nancy Wilson, Moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches, the world's oldest and largest global LGBT organization. "'Murder music' is neither artistic form nor cultural heritage. It is, along with cries from the pulpit for condemnation and execution, and proclamations from the Jamaican Parliament advocating life in prison for so-called 'acts of gross indecency,' the instigation behind and support for not only criminal and immoral behavior, but untold human suffering," she added.

Rev. Robert Griffin, liaison to Sunshine Cathedral's MCC congregations in Jamaica, added that, "Even church-goers live in fear of detection, knowing that the safety of the sanctuary does not extend to them, simply because they are LGBT. The persecution and violence in Jamaica must stop and it must stop now!"

Though it should not matter, John Terry was both a gentleman and a generous human being, whose charitable acts included individual assistance to the poor and volunteer work with agencies, such as those dedicated to serving the mentally ill. His death, and the countless recorded and unrecorded victims of hate crimes before him, must not go unprotested by the international community.

Change is possible. Violence is endemic to no society. Good will among all and living in just and right relationship are not "insider" or "outside" concerns or standards. — They are the business of all of us who care deeply about the safety and well being of all God's children, in particular, God's LGBT children around the globe.

Join me today in:

+ Praying for an immediate end to homophobic violence in Jamaica and around the globe.

+ Contacting Sunshine Cathedral MCC in Jamaica and JFLAG, who together are working to combat the homophobia and discriminatory attitudes behind the violence in Jamaica. For more information regarding Sunshine Cathedral in Jamaica please contact Rev. Robert Griffin.

+ Reaching out, if you are a Jamaican citizen, to local religious leaders and asking for their assistance in ending the violence by preaching acceptance and tolerance of diversity.

+ Writing to The Honorable Orette Bruce Golding, Prime Minister of Jamaica at hpmgolding@opm.gov.jm. 

Tell Prime Minister Golding that you are a person of faith demanding that the violence against LGBT people stop now. Tell him religious bigotry and social sanction must no longer be used to justify discrimination and criminal acts of violence against gay people. Laws that sanction discrimination must be eliminated, and laws that protect LGBT equally must be passed.

Tell him you are part of a global community of faith that believes in the value and dignity and worth of all God's children, and that you won't give up until all LGBT people are safe from persecution and violence in Jamaica.

We can make a difference. We must make a difference. We must not give up for the sake of the safety of our community in Jamaica.

//signed//

The Rev. Nancy L. Wilson

Moderator

Metropolitan Community Churches

Mothers of God

Healing Rays: A Progressive, Positive, Practical Weekly Reflection
by Durrell Watkins

"We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born." Meister Eckhart

Christian mystic Julian of Norwich is known to many of us for her affirmative prayer, "All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." But of course, her profound and deep spirituality offers us a wealth of insights. Once she wrote, "God is the true Father and Mother of Nature and all natures that are made to flow out of God to work the divine will, will be restored and brought again into God." We may notice that even in the middle ages, Julian knew that God wasn't limited to a Y chromosome! But we also see her faith that Good flows out of God, and the Good we share is an offering back to God. When we believe in our sacred value and share that optimism and goodwill with the world around us, we are expressing the Goodness of God. And when we express God, we are actually offering our best back to God. We are here to give birth daily to divine potential! Isn't that good news?

Spiritual Resources

Sunshine Cathedral is now offering three new resources to help you on your spiritual journey. The first is a book called A Treatment A Day: a book of and about prayer. The second is a book called Progressive, Positive, & Practical Encouragement for Spiritual Leaders (recommended for clergy and lay leaders of churches of every size). The third is called Fairy Dust: Using Affirmations to Unlock the Magic of Life. They are available here. A limited number of copies are in the bookstore at church, and A Treatment A Day is also available at Amazon.com.

Another Murder in Jamaica...There is Something You Can Do

Speak Out Against Homophobic Violence

Since 1997 Amnesty International has recorded the murders of more than 35 gay men in Jamaica. 32 incidents of mob violence have been recorded in just the last 18 months. And last week, another gay man was attacked and brutally murdered in that country.

John Terry, a British diplomat living in Jamaica was beaten and strangled. A note found near his body read, "This is what will happen to all gays."

You can email the Jamaican Prime Minister, The Hon. O. Bruce Golding and tell him that as a person of faith you are calling for decisive action to change the culture of violence and intolerance in Jamaica. And join us in praying for an end to homophobic violence in Jamaica and around the world.

Here is our statement on the recent killing.

9/11 Commemoration

by Durrell Watkins
September 11, 2009


September 11th - a day that serves to remind us how dangerous religious fanaticism can be. Fundamentalism and the intolerance it breeds, as well as the violence it tends to promote, is dangerous and potentially lethal whether it calls itself Muslim, Hindu, or Christian.

In 2001 I was living about 60 miles outside of Washington, DC. I was stunned as I watched on CNN a plane fly into the World Trade Center (NYC was only a four hour drive from my house at the time). While I was trying to make sense of what happened, another plane struck a tower. I remember saying, "We're under attack." Of course, the Pentagon was also attacked, and another plane landed in rural Pennsylvania.

Friends from Texas called me to make sure I wasn't "too" close to the planes that were raining down from the heavens. Less than a year later I began a second master's degree in New York City. People in the City still responded with sorrow and near disbelief when they spoke of the terrible day in 2001.

It's 8 years later.
Religion is still used to divide, wound, and intimidate.
Politics seem no more civil than they were almost a decade ago.
Racism along with political discord and religious fundamentalism all conspire to keep power and privilege in the hands of too few.
The oppressed and marginalized attack one another rather than banning together to demand equal opportunity and "liberty and justice for all."

September 11, 2001 was a sad in the US.
Of course, other countries live with days like 9/11 every day.
In this country, AIDS attacked entire communities while many pretended not to notice or worse, actually blamed the victims.
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd knew what it was like to be targeted, tormented, and killed for being different.

9/11 could have been a wake-up call that caused us to look with compassion on all who suffer. It could have been an opportunity to unite for the common good making sure no one gets left out.

As we continue to argue about providing health care for all people, and as we continue to protect homophobia/homohatred instead of standing up for equality for everyone, and as we voice our disagreements by spreading misinformation, insults, and personal attacks instead of engaging in healthy, respectful dialogue, one wonders if the healing that could have followed the 9/11 tragedy has been carelessly overlooked.

As we remember a sad day in American history, let's also remember that others have also had sad and painful days. And lets use our painful memories not to justify hatred or to promote fear, but to summon the compassion and goodwill that can bring healing to our whole world. That is the Phoenix that ought to rise from the ashes of 9/11. That is the Resurrection that can affirm life in the aftermath of death. That is the spiritual maturity that may just help heal the wounds inflicted by fundamentalism of every stripe.

(posted at Kweerspirit)


Yours in shared service, 

Durrell+

You Are the Power

Healing Rays: A Progressive, Positive, Practical Weekly Reflection
by Durrell Watkins

"Know that you are the power you're looking for." Louise Hay

Most of our discontent comes from feeling separated from our "Source." You may imagine your Source to be the human family, or the universe, or the interconnecting web of all existence. You may call your Source "spirit" or "Goddess" or "God." How we imagine It and what we call It isn't as important as our awareness that we are connected to It. When we feel connected to Source and we feel its currents of energy flowing through us, then not only do things tend to go better for us, but even when there are challenges or setbacks, we tend to handle those disappointments with more courage, hope, and grace. The Power of Life is expressing in, through, and as us. We are individuations of the Whole, and when we remember that, we have all the empowerment we need. Right where we are, the power of life is; It's part of us and it is expressing as us. Let this thought renew your hope today.

(Reprinted from March 16, 2009)

Why is Sunshine Cathedral so different from other churches?

Q&A by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins, Senior Pastor

Question: I have found Sunshine Cathedral to be one of the most positive churches I’ve ever attended. Growing up Catholic I thought we were to be afraid of God and have a low opinion of ourselves, but the message seems to be the just the opposite here. I never get tired of hearing that God is love and I am good. And you wrap it all up in a joyful celebration that I love being part of. Why is Sunshine Cathedral so different from other churches?

Answer: Well, there are certainly other positive, festive, warm churches in the world. Unfortunately, there are also churches that promote fear, division, and self-loathing. But even those churches tend to care about the needy or at least form communities where true friendships can be formed. So, let’s not be too hard on them.

At Sunshine Cathedral our mission is to be “seekers and students of truth, empowered by spirit, sharing the light with the world.” We seek openly, rather than handing out pre-packaged answers to pre-approved questions. We are students, always learning and willing to allow our learning to take us wherever it might. We find the spirit of God to be life-giving, empowering, the source of hope and joy; and we want to share these realizations with whoever might benefit from them. Because we are non-doctrinal, open and affirming, we might seem different from more theologically rigid or narrow faith communities. We seek to be a “progressive, positive, and practical” church. If we have succeeded in being that for you, then that is a reason to celebrate. Now that you have found a spiritual home at Sunshine Cathedral, help us spread the word about this progressive, positive, and practical faith community. Others need what you have discovered.

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If you have questions about faith, the bible, the church, or sexuality & spirituality, you can email your questions to durrell@sunshinecathedral.org, or go to the Ask the Reverend Durrell Watkins page and click on the link there. Rev. Durrell Watkins will answer your questions and publish the answers here and in the weekly SunBurst. Your name will always be withheld, so only the actual question and the response will be published.

Learning to Let Go

Healing Rays: A Progressive, Positive, Practical Weekly Reflection by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins, M.A., M.Div., D.Min.

"My work has taught me that any pain or struggle is a signal to relax and let go. Pain and struggle are signs you are holding on to a fear, judgment, expectation, doubt or some other self-limiting thought." — Dr. Robert Holden, Shift Happens: Powerful Ways to Transform Your Life

We all are familiar with stress. But our stressful situations are often made worse by our own attitudes. Situations can be difficult, but our attachments and our "shoulds" and our resentments and our fears all keep us tied up in emotional knots. The result is we get tired, cranky, and we become less effective. Dr. Holden assures us, "The best things in life happen when you dare to let go! How good is romance when you let go
and trust... How attractive you are when you let go and relax! How effective at work are you when you let go and give yourself fully! Letting go inspires creativity, intimacy, laughter, balance, abundance, and peace."

Our attempts to control life will leave us exhausted and dissatisfied. But when we let go of our judgments and allow ourselves to be present to what is, we find we are part of creating something wonderful, dynamic,
exciting, fun, and miraculous. And when we are having THAT experience, stress is suddenly nowhere to be found. Let's let go today and be present to the possibilities that exist for us; let's be part of the joy
of being our best selves, now.

(Reprinted from February 19th, 2008)

Durrell+

© Durrell Watkins, Sunshine Cathedral, 2009

Sharing the Light: The Authority of Scripture

Sharing the Light is an Internet talk show where Reverends Durrell Watkins, Robert Griffin, and others discuss theological questions of interest to our community.

In this episode of Sharing the Light, Sunshine Cathedral’s Senior Pastor Durrell Watkins speaks with Light University Academic Dean Robert Griffin and Michael Diaz, Volunteer Coordinator / Miami Outreach Coordinator. We invite you to join us for an enlightening conversation on Sharing the Light.