June 29, 2025 • 24 mins
A simple email from David Keddle with seven words—"I'm going to need to hear your feelings around the LGBTQ issue"—set the stage for one of the most meaningful pastoral relationships I would form during my first year at this church. David, a warm man of deep faith who also happened to be homosexual, challenged me to address LGBTQ issues at least once during the year. On June 29th, nearly one year after my arrival, I fulfilled that promise.
The sermon explores Micah 6:8, a profound passage that cuts through religious pretense to reveal what God truly desires from us. The prophet Micah speaks to a society experiencing both prosperity and uncertainty—much like America today—where cracks are forming and people are anxiously drawing battle lines over complex issues. In this polarized environment, Micah's message is revolutionary: God doesn't want our sacrifices or rituals but asks simply that we "do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God."
For too long, our churches have added conditions to these commands—offering justice, kindness, and community only if people conform to certain expectations. The United Methodist Church has wrestled painfully with LGBTQ inclusion, and our denomination has moved toward honoring the humanity of everyone. This sermon offers a dual invitation: for those who embrace inclusion, to live into grace and unconditional love for all; for those still wrestling, to follow Micah's guidance and see where that journey takes them. Perhaps in doing so, we might rediscover that faith isn't primarily about what we believe, but how we act toward one another—especially toward those whose lives and experiences differ from our own.
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Episode Transcript
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Pastor Darren (00:00):
I don't know that I have told you how I met my
friend, David Keddle.
I met David almost a year agoand I want to tell you the
context of having met him.
We are in the process of, andmany of you know, he has passed
(00:21):
from leukemia and we aregrateful that his family is
joining us today and worshipingwith us.
But it's in these times thatyour mind starts looking at the
sacredness of moments thathappened even in the past.
And in this case, we were inthe process of lay leadership
(00:42):
organization right Nominationsif you're old school Methodists
Nominations and I put out anemail to all the leaders, many
of whom I had not met becauseI'd only been here a couple of
months and I spent one of thosemonths in Europe, so it was hard
to work from there, so I didn'tso send out my email.
(01:11):
Hey, we want to get started, wewant to get organized, and I
get a very simple email backfrom David Kettle I'm going to
need to hear your feelingsaround the LGTBQ issue period.
That was it.
New pastor, simple email.
(01:32):
I'm like okay, clearlysomething's at work here and I
knew enough about where I wascoming to know that there had
been some wrestling around thatissue and many of you know our
denomination has been wrestlingwith that issue and, through
(01:53):
some great gnashing of teeth anda lot of tears, a lot of hurt,
we look to be where we are nowwith that whole situation.
Our denomination is who it is,having made the claims that it
is now making, and there is somegrace to that.
There is some freedom to that,even though we do grieve the
(02:17):
separation, shall we say.
But I sat with David, wearranged to get some coffee.
After I kind of got a littlebit of groundwork information
from others and said, okay,who's David?
What am I walking into?
What's this coffee going to beall about?
(02:37):
And I found a really warmperson, but a warm person who'd
walked a journey in this world,a journey of being a person of
faith, growing up in faith.
You should see the long list oftraditional hymns that are the
favorites that David has.
(02:59):
It's definitely grounded in hisbeing and still working through
the challenge of being ahomosexual man, in the midst of
that journey and trying tomanage not only the justice of
that but the emotions of that,the humanity of that.
(03:20):
So it's in that context that hesays to me well, pastor, I'm
going to need you to speak tothe LGBTQ issue at least one
time this year, one time.
I started July 1st.
It is now June 29th.
(03:42):
I said, david, you know that'sbeen a difficult issue here.
It's been a challenge.
There are many hearts in this.
And he said yeah, but one year.
And I said yeah, one year.
So, yeah, one year.
(04:04):
Here we are and me walking intowhat can be a little bit of a
hot button conversation.
So I wanted to say out loud Iknow, I know, but we're going to
walk through some things.
So, Micah 6.8, one of ourprophets in the Hebrew Bible,
the Old Testament For some ofyou this might be a favorite.
(04:27):
Any of you had a chanceopportunity to engage.
Matthew 6, especially 6.8?
Is that one that's been on yourradar?
Okay, potential new favoritefor everybody except Nancy, who
has already walked with me alittle bit on that one.
(04:47):
So it's an interesting passage.
It's difficult for us to knowexactly the context because
little is offered.
Usually we're looking for areference to a specific king or
a specific issue that helps usto kind of place it in its time,
issue that helps us to kind ofplace it in its time.
(05:10):
These, what are really sermonsthat don't necessarily always
have that context handy.
And in this case we're kind ofresting in this place the
scholars are resting in thisplace that this Micah's prophecy
was probably written over time,maybe in two specific different
times, mostly because we cansee an air, an energy around
(05:31):
prosperity.
Things are going pretty goodand we know when the Jewish
kingdoms were doing well, so wecan place it in there.
And yet we also can feel a timeof some real hurt and real pain
and real concern, like ourpassage that we're in today, 6-8
.
So I don't know, maybe you feltsome of that pain in the way
(05:57):
that God and human dialoguehappens in the midst of this.
So we think it's probably likelyin the time between Israel
falling and Judah falling.
Those are the two Jewishkingdoms.
Israel actually fell first.
Ironic in the way we talk aboutIsrael, judah went longer.
That was the kingdom that Davidwas a part of and was able to
(06:20):
in a much stronger way, andwhere he is landing is in this
place, between one of thekingdoms going down, one of them
still up, remembering the gloryyears of the Jewish kingdoms,
but also feeling the cracks andfeeling the anxiety of one of
(06:41):
the kingdoms having already gonedown and so, like most human
institutions, like most humanthings, some cracks are starting
to happen in the way that it'sall working.
The society is doing less ofwhat actually got them to a
(07:05):
place of prosperity.
For us, in the faith context,we would say the society was
doing less or offering lesstrust in God, trust in what God
was asking people to do, trustin living out the faith
orientations that God wasencouraging them to do right,
(07:26):
and doing other things, like theimmigration passages tend to be
really good here.
When you're coming out ofdisorder and you're on the
upswing, when you're coming outof chaos, when you're coming out
of power or powerlessness, whenyou're coming out of poverty,
(07:47):
maybe you're focused a littlemore on what a stranger might
bring to what you're building.
All right, we're growing,you're ready to come in, you got
a shovel, you got a hammer.
Get in here, let's see what youcan do.
But when you come fromprosperity, when you're in a
good place, then there'ssomething to lose and then our
(08:10):
anxieties start ratcheting up.
This is when a passage like wemight find about welcoming the
stranger which there are many,including some from Jesus
himself, those passages they geta little more challenging
Because we're talking aboutwelcoming people, but we also
(08:32):
know we're kind of in a goodspot.
We like where we've landed.
There is prosperity that seemsto be working.
So it's in that environmentthat Mike is trying to preach,
and he's preaching to folksabout how, hey, we've had some
good times.
(08:53):
But we need to remember we'vegot to still do what God wants
us to do.
We've still got to live out theteachings that God has been
teaching, that God has beenteaching.
He's ringing that bell ofreminder constantly and he's
(09:13):
speaking initially to the pain,at least in our passage to the
pain that the Jewish people arefeeling, and he creates this
dialogue between the people andGod.
Now I should have invited youto pull your Bibles out that are
in the pews because you can seehow this plays out.
But it's interesting because itopens with God speaking and God
(09:35):
says to the people hey, hey,state your case, tell me why
you're upset, but then doesn'twait for an answer and just
starts talking about all thatGod had done for the Israelites,
which isn't nothing.
When you've been saved from theEgyptians, from slavery, when
you've been saved from otheroppressive circumstances, that's
(09:58):
a pretty good case for God.
Am I right, big fans of slavery?
No, okay, this is what Ifigured.
So they God sitting there, orat least Micah's projection of
God, saying, hey, I saved youguys numerous times.
What else are you wanting fromme?
(10:21):
And he walks through this thing.
You hear Israel feeling likethey've been tried and convicted
by God, but then it's Goddefending God's self.
You wonder really, who's ontrial here?
Who's on trial here as we tryto decide exactly what's wrong
(10:45):
and why things have gone wrong?
Then you get to verse 6, andthere's a change in the voice.
Who is speaking Now?
It's the people, and the peopleare speaking to God and saying
plaintively what do you want,god?
What kind of sacrifices aregoing to be pleasing to you, god
(11:09):
?
And they rattle off a few ofthe kinds of sacrifices that
they had experienced as peoplefrom Old Testament times, hebrew
Bible times.
Are we supposed to sacrificeanimals?
Is that what you want, god?
If we sacrifice more animals,then you'll take care.
Oils, we'll get you oils andoils and oils All of this
(11:31):
valuable stuff.
Or the heavy one?
He plays the card?
Are we supposed to kill ourfirstborn for you, god?
That's a heavy one.
He plays the card.
Are we supposed to kill ourfirstborn.
For you, god, that's a heavycard because it was asked for
once, and they know it was askedfor once.
They know their stories, thoseof you who probably know many of
(11:53):
you.
The Genesis story.
God asks Abraham to sacrificehis son Isaac.
He lets him go on it.
He doesn't end up sacrificingIsaac, but that has been asked
in the past.
And so they throw that out toGod.
Hey, god, what are we supposedto do?
(12:14):
What do we have to give you sothat you start taking care of us
?
And then there's this final,pivot, verse 8, micah again
putting words in God's mouth,speaking for God, he says it's
(12:35):
really not about sacrifice.
Even if that's the way you wantto think about it, it's not
even sacrifice.
What I'm asking is that you dothree things you do justice, you
love kindness and you walkhumbly with God.
(12:56):
Those three things, do you hearthe pivot in that?
It's not about these offeringsthat we assume God is looking
for from us, ways that we cansacrifice of our own being, of
our own wealth, of our owncomfort, and then God will be
(13:17):
appeased and do good things forus, our own comfort, and then
God will be appeased and do goodthings for us.
And God, at least in Micah'sprojection here, is saying it's
not about that.
If you want to sacrifice, if youwant to show love to me, do
justice, love kindness and walkhumbly with your God.
(13:38):
And walk humbly with your GodJustice, doing what is right and
fair for all of God's childrenPretty straightforward Kindness.
If we wanted a guardrail forliving life, kindness is a
(14:00):
pretty good one.
You can always be kind andhumility, reminding yourself
that there are powers, there's apresence that is way bigger
than you, and you know what thatcan be kind of freeing, and you
know what that can be kind offreeing.
(14:20):
You end up in situations inyour life where you feel like
you're being asked to makejudgments about other people,
other situations, especiallyones that are complicated, maybe
a cultural understanding, asexual understanding that
doesn't seem to be harming otherfolks.
And now you're in this place ofshould I be judging that?
(14:42):
Should I be assuming what Godwants there?
And God is saying no, let me dothat.
You walk humbly with me.
That is what God is asking.
When I think of this context inwhich Micah is doing his
(15:07):
ministry, it's fairly easy forme to see our own society today
In America.
We've had our time ofprosperity.
Many would argue we are stillthe most significant society in
the world today.
We are that relevant, we arethat big of an elephant.
(15:33):
But most of us would argue, too, that we're starting to see
some cracks.
Maybe we're not doing all ofthe things that led to the
prosperity that we are enjoyingand that we are leaning on.
And then we have to add on toour challenge here in our
society that we don't generallyagree on the things that we need
to fix, or what the cracks are,or what's slipping through the
(15:57):
cracks, or what is a problemabout the cracks.
And we argue about these thingsand I don't know if you notice
this, but I sure do we startdrawing battle lines Right?
Oh, we better mount up, webetter.
You know this is going to bethis kind of situation.
You're on this side, you're onthis side.
(16:18):
All of a sudden, all thesecomplex issues, issues that
require a certain nuance at thevery least, are now getting
aligned.
You're either this or you'rethis, or you're this or you're
this.
I think it happens in theseplaces of anxiety, when we start
(16:39):
feeling like we're lesser thanwe used to be and we're trying
to solve things.
As society we're trying to getit figured out, but we're
arguing with each other abouthow we might solve them.
We're arguing each other witheach other about what we think
should be solved and what maybeshould be left alone.
(17:06):
In our own denomination we havewhat's called a book of
discipline.
It's a very happy book, full ofall sorts of fun and frolicking
.
We talked about John Wesley amonth or so back.
We know dude was pretty OCD, soto him discipline was a happy
(17:30):
word, just so you know.
Oh, yes, an opportunity to liveout my intense desire for
intensity In our book ofdiscipline, which is kind of our
constitution as a denominationthere about 60, 70 years ago.
Really, not any language abouthomosexuality in it, just didn't
(17:53):
have it in there.
I don't there was.
You know we'd be kiddingourselves to think there wasn't
an overall oppressivecircumstance for people who were
created that way.
But homosexual people needed tobe private, needed to be unseen
(18:18):
, but there wasn't anythingofficial in our book of
discipline.
It wasn't until the battles forsocial acceptance, cultural
acceptance, that some of thatlanguage started to appear.
Battle lines started to bedrawn All of a sudden,
scriptures like ours in thesebattle lines.
As we start looking at our ownscriptures and what they're
(18:41):
saying and what they'rebelieving.
Now, with these new eyes, aboutthis polarization, this duality
that we've convinced ourselvesneeds to be true, we start
adding a couple of words toscriptures.
In this case, if they, if they,fit into our box of faith, then
(19:01):
we do justice.
If they're willing to hideparts of themselves, then we
will love kindness.
If they're willing to acceptpart of themselves as sinful,
then we'll walk humbly with God.
But not until then.
(19:23):
Not until then, in my life offaith and I feel like you know,
I'm 57.
I've had a little bit of life.
Some of you all judge me likeI'm still a puppy 57?
(19:45):
I'll bet you pop out of bed infour seconds.
But in my life, 57, I reallyfelt like the nuances are way
more meaningful than this,significant than this.
There's so few things that fitinto this dualism of this or
(20:10):
that it might even increase ouranxiety that we keep pretending
that they do fit into these.
These are no-win situations.
We're going to get it figuredout.
We're going to get it solved.
This will be the absolute truthfor everybody and we'll move on
.
When that's our goal, we'llnever be successful.
(20:31):
We'll never find our way tobeing able to live together, and
I think that's why I like theMicah passage.
When we think of faith, we oftenthink of this set of beliefs.
My faith is this, I believethis, I believe this, I believe
(20:53):
this, and then we do our best tolive out that faith.
We do our best to live out thatset of beliefs, but for Micah
it changes just a little bit.
It's not in that space, rightthe conversation about what we
believe.
It doesn't even really happenfor the most part.
(21:14):
In fact, for Micah, your faithis how you act.
Your response to God is how youact.
God said I don't need yoursacrifices, I need your heart.
I need your time.
I need you to share it withpeople who are in need of it.
(21:34):
Like Matthew 25, sheep andgoats, you love me by loving my
children.
I think this is why I landed onthis passage on this day where I
(21:56):
was doing my best to respond tomy good friend David in a way
that showed my love for him, mylove of faith and in him, and at
the same time, recognized thatit is a broad issue that we
wrestle with here and there arepeople in different places in
this room, but David became aprophet for me when he said you
(22:21):
need to speak to this.
You need to talk about thisbecause, even though our
denomination, even though ourchurch has wrestled with it,
even though there have beentears shed from it, even though
hearts have been hurt by it, youneed to speak to it.
(22:47):
It you need to speak to itBecause our United Methodist
denomination has made a decisionthat we are going to honor the
humanity of everyone.
And for those who agree withthis movement of the heart, I
encourage you to live into grace.
I encourage you to live intograce, grace, unconditional love
(23:11):
for those you agree with andfor those you disagree with,
because I feel like that's howyou honor God, with your
humility in this situation.
I also feel like that might bethe best way to open others'
hearts, to convince people ofwhat you believe.
And for those who are wrestlingwith this movement in our
(23:34):
church, in our denomination, myinvitation to you is in this
Micah passage I invite you to dojustice.
I invite you to do justice, Iinvite you to love kindness, I
invite you to walk humbly withGod and just see where that
(23:56):
takes you.
Amen, amen.
I don't know that I have told you how I met my
friend, David Keddle.
I met David almost a year agoand I want to tell you the
context of having met him.
We are in the process of, andmany of you know, he has passed
(00:21):
from leukemia and we aregrateful that his family is
joining us today and worshipingwith us.
But it's in these times thatyour mind starts looking at the
sacredness of moments thathappened even in the past.
And in this case, we were inthe process of lay leadership
(00:42):
organization right Nominationsif you're old school Methodists
Nominations and I put out anemail to all the leaders, many
of whom I had not met becauseI'd only been here a couple of
months and I spent one of thosemonths in Europe, so it was hard
to work from there, so I didn'tso send out my email.
(01:11):
Hey, we want to get started, wewant to get organized, and I
get a very simple email backfrom David Kettle I'm going to
need to hear your feelingsaround the LGTBQ issue period.
That was it.
New pastor, simple email.
(01:32):
I'm like okay, clearlysomething's at work here and I
knew enough about where I wascoming to know that there had
been some wrestling around thatissue and many of you know our
denomination has been wrestlingwith that issue and, through
(01:53):
some great gnashing of teeth anda lot of tears, a lot of hurt,
we look to be where we are nowwith that whole situation.
Our denomination is who it is,having made the claims that it
is now making, and there is somegrace to that.
There is some freedom to that,even though we do grieve the
(02:17):
separation, shall we say.
But I sat with David, wearranged to get some coffee.
After I kind of got a littlebit of groundwork information
from others and said, okay,who's David?
What am I walking into?
What's this coffee going to beall about?
(02:37):
And I found a really warmperson, but a warm person who'd
walked a journey in this world,a journey of being a person of
faith, growing up in faith.
You should see the long list oftraditional hymns that are the
favorites that David has.
(02:59):
It's definitely grounded in hisbeing and still working through
the challenge of being ahomosexual man, in the midst of
that journey and trying tomanage not only the justice of
that but the emotions of that,the humanity of that.
(03:20):
So it's in that context that hesays to me well, pastor, I'm
going to need you to speak tothe LGBTQ issue at least one
time this year, one time.
I started July 1st.
It is now June 29th.
(03:42):
I said, david, you know that'sbeen a difficult issue here.
It's been a challenge.
There are many hearts in this.
And he said yeah, but one year.
And I said yeah, one year.
So, yeah, one year.
(04:04):
Here we are and me walking intowhat can be a little bit of a
hot button conversation.
So I wanted to say out loud Iknow, I know, but we're going to
walk through some things.
So, Micah 6.8, one of ourprophets in the Hebrew Bible,
the Old Testament For some ofyou this might be a favorite.
(04:27):
Any of you had a chanceopportunity to engage.
Matthew 6, especially 6.8?
Is that one that's been on yourradar?
Okay, potential new favoritefor everybody except Nancy, who
has already walked with me alittle bit on that one.
(04:47):
So it's an interesting passage.
It's difficult for us to knowexactly the context because
little is offered.
Usually we're looking for areference to a specific king or
a specific issue that helps usto kind of place it in its time,
issue that helps us to kind ofplace it in its time.
(05:10):
These, what are really sermonsthat don't necessarily always
have that context handy.
And in this case we're kind ofresting in this place the
scholars are resting in thisplace that this Micah's prophecy
was probably written over time,maybe in two specific different
times, mostly because we cansee an air, an energy around
(05:31):
prosperity.
Things are going pretty goodand we know when the Jewish
kingdoms were doing well, so wecan place it in there.
And yet we also can feel a timeof some real hurt and real pain
and real concern, like ourpassage that we're in today, 6-8
.
So I don't know, maybe you feltsome of that pain in the way
(05:57):
that God and human dialoguehappens in the midst of this.
So we think it's probably likelyin the time between Israel
falling and Judah falling.
Those are the two Jewishkingdoms.
Israel actually fell first.
Ironic in the way we talk aboutIsrael, judah went longer.
That was the kingdom that Davidwas a part of and was able to
(06:20):
in a much stronger way, andwhere he is landing is in this
place, between one of thekingdoms going down, one of them
still up, remembering the gloryyears of the Jewish kingdoms,
but also feeling the cracks andfeeling the anxiety of one of
(06:41):
the kingdoms having already gonedown and so, like most human
institutions, like most humanthings, some cracks are starting
to happen in the way that it'sall working.
The society is doing less ofwhat actually got them to a
(07:05):
place of prosperity.
For us, in the faith context,we would say the society was
doing less or offering lesstrust in God, trust in what God
was asking people to do, trustin living out the faith
orientations that God wasencouraging them to do right,
(07:26):
and doing other things, like theimmigration passages tend to be
really good here.
When you're coming out ofdisorder and you're on the
upswing, when you're coming outof chaos, when you're coming out
of power or powerlessness, whenyou're coming out of poverty,
(07:47):
maybe you're focused a littlemore on what a stranger might
bring to what you're building.
All right, we're growing,you're ready to come in, you got
a shovel, you got a hammer.
Get in here, let's see what youcan do.
But when you come fromprosperity, when you're in a
good place, then there'ssomething to lose and then our
(08:10):
anxieties start ratcheting up.
This is when a passage like wemight find about welcoming the
stranger which there are many,including some from Jesus
himself, those passages they geta little more challenging
Because we're talking aboutwelcoming people, but we also
(08:32):
know we're kind of in a goodspot.
We like where we've landed.
There is prosperity that seemsto be working.
So it's in that environmentthat Mike is trying to preach,
and he's preaching to folksabout how, hey, we've had some
good times.
(08:53):
But we need to remember we'vegot to still do what God wants
us to do.
We've still got to live out theteachings that God has been
teaching, that God has beenteaching.
He's ringing that bell ofreminder constantly and he's
(09:13):
speaking initially to the pain,at least in our passage to the
pain that the Jewish people arefeeling, and he creates this
dialogue between the people andGod.
Now I should have invited youto pull your Bibles out that are
in the pews because you can seehow this plays out.
But it's interesting because itopens with God speaking and God
(09:35):
says to the people hey, hey,state your case, tell me why
you're upset, but then doesn'twait for an answer and just
starts talking about all thatGod had done for the Israelites,
which isn't nothing.
When you've been saved from theEgyptians, from slavery, when
you've been saved from otheroppressive circumstances, that's
(09:58):
a pretty good case for God.
Am I right, big fans of slavery?
No, okay, this is what Ifigured.
So they God sitting there, orat least Micah's projection of
God, saying, hey, I saved youguys numerous times.
What else are you wanting fromme?
(10:21):
And he walks through this thing.
You hear Israel feeling likethey've been tried and convicted
by God, but then it's Goddefending God's self.
You wonder really, who's ontrial here?
Who's on trial here as we tryto decide exactly what's wrong
(10:45):
and why things have gone wrong?
Then you get to verse 6, andthere's a change in the voice.
Who is speaking Now?
It's the people, and the peopleare speaking to God and saying
plaintively what do you want,god?
What kind of sacrifices aregoing to be pleasing to you, god
(11:09):
?
And they rattle off a few ofthe kinds of sacrifices that
they had experienced as peoplefrom Old Testament times, hebrew
Bible times.
Are we supposed to sacrificeanimals?
Is that what you want, god?
If we sacrifice more animals,then you'll take care.
Oils, we'll get you oils andoils and oils All of this
(11:31):
valuable stuff.
Or the heavy one?
He plays the card?
Are we supposed to kill ourfirstborn for you, god?
That's a heavy one.
He plays the card.
Are we supposed to kill ourfirstborn.
For you, god, that's a heavycard because it was asked for
once, and they know it was askedfor once.
They know their stories, thoseof you who probably know many of
(11:53):
you.
The Genesis story.
God asks Abraham to sacrificehis son Isaac.
He lets him go on it.
He doesn't end up sacrificingIsaac, but that has been asked
in the past.
And so they throw that out toGod.
Hey, god, what are we supposedto do?
(12:14):
What do we have to give you sothat you start taking care of us
?
And then there's this final,pivot, verse 8, micah again
putting words in God's mouth,speaking for God, he says it's
(12:35):
really not about sacrifice.
Even if that's the way you wantto think about it, it's not
even sacrifice.
What I'm asking is that you dothree things you do justice, you
love kindness and you walkhumbly with God.
(12:56):
Those three things, do you hearthe pivot in that?
It's not about these offeringsthat we assume God is looking
for from us, ways that we cansacrifice of our own being, of
our own wealth, of our owncomfort, and then God will be
(13:17):
appeased and do good things forus, our own comfort, and then
God will be appeased and do goodthings for us.
And God, at least in Micah'sprojection here, is saying it's
not about that.
If you want to sacrifice, if youwant to show love to me, do
justice, love kindness and walkhumbly with your God.
(13:38):
And walk humbly with your GodJustice, doing what is right and
fair for all of God's childrenPretty straightforward Kindness.
If we wanted a guardrail forliving life, kindness is a
(14:00):
pretty good one.
You can always be kind andhumility, reminding yourself
that there are powers, there's apresence that is way bigger
than you, and you know what thatcan be kind of freeing, and you
know what that can be kind offreeing.
(14:20):
You end up in situations inyour life where you feel like
you're being asked to makejudgments about other people,
other situations, especiallyones that are complicated, maybe
a cultural understanding, asexual understanding that
doesn't seem to be harming otherfolks.
And now you're in this place ofshould I be judging that?
(14:42):
Should I be assuming what Godwants there?
And God is saying no, let me dothat.
You walk humbly with me.
That is what God is asking.
When I think of this context inwhich Micah is doing his
(15:07):
ministry, it's fairly easy forme to see our own society today
In America.
We've had our time ofprosperity.
Many would argue we are stillthe most significant society in
the world today.
We are that relevant, we arethat big of an elephant.
(15:33):
But most of us would argue, too, that we're starting to see
some cracks.
Maybe we're not doing all ofthe things that led to the
prosperity that we are enjoyingand that we are leaning on.
And then we have to add on toour challenge here in our
society that we don't generallyagree on the things that we need
to fix, or what the cracks are,or what's slipping through the
(15:57):
cracks, or what is a problemabout the cracks.
And we argue about these thingsand I don't know if you notice
this, but I sure do we startdrawing battle lines Right?
Oh, we better mount up, webetter.
You know this is going to bethis kind of situation.
You're on this side, you're onthis side.
(16:18):
All of a sudden, all thesecomplex issues, issues that
require a certain nuance at thevery least, are now getting
aligned.
You're either this or you'rethis, or you're this or you're
this.
I think it happens in theseplaces of anxiety, when we start
(16:39):
feeling like we're lesser thanwe used to be and we're trying
to solve things.
As society we're trying to getit figured out, but we're
arguing with each other abouthow we might solve them.
We're arguing each other witheach other about what we think
should be solved and what maybeshould be left alone.
(17:06):
In our own denomination we havewhat's called a book of
discipline.
It's a very happy book, full ofall sorts of fun and frolicking
.
We talked about John Wesley amonth or so back.
We know dude was pretty OCD, soto him discipline was a happy
(17:30):
word, just so you know.
Oh, yes, an opportunity to liveout my intense desire for
intensity In our book ofdiscipline, which is kind of our
constitution as a denominationthere about 60, 70 years ago.
Really, not any language abouthomosexuality in it, just didn't
(17:53):
have it in there.
I don't there was.
You know we'd be kiddingourselves to think there wasn't
an overall oppressivecircumstance for people who were
created that way.
But homosexual people needed tobe private, needed to be unseen
(18:18):
, but there wasn't anythingofficial in our book of
discipline.
It wasn't until the battles forsocial acceptance, cultural
acceptance, that some of thatlanguage started to appear.
Battle lines started to bedrawn All of a sudden,
scriptures like ours in thesebattle lines.
As we start looking at our ownscriptures and what they're
(18:41):
saying and what they'rebelieving.
Now, with these new eyes, aboutthis polarization, this duality
that we've convinced ourselvesneeds to be true, we start
adding a couple of words toscriptures.
In this case, if they, if they,fit into our box of faith, then
(19:01):
we do justice.
If they're willing to hideparts of themselves, then we
will love kindness.
If they're willing to acceptpart of themselves as sinful,
then we'll walk humbly with God.
But not until then.
(19:23):
Not until then, in my life offaith and I feel like you know,
I'm 57.
I've had a little bit of life.
Some of you all judge me likeI'm still a puppy 57?
(19:45):
I'll bet you pop out of bed infour seconds.
But in my life, 57, I reallyfelt like the nuances are way
more meaningful than this,significant than this.
There's so few things that fitinto this dualism of this or
(20:10):
that it might even increase ouranxiety that we keep pretending
that they do fit into these.
These are no-win situations.
We're going to get it figuredout.
We're going to get it solved.
This will be the absolute truthfor everybody and we'll move on
.
When that's our goal, we'llnever be successful.
(20:31):
We'll never find our way tobeing able to live together, and
I think that's why I like theMicah passage.
When we think of faith, we oftenthink of this set of beliefs.
My faith is this, I believethis, I believe this, I believe
(20:53):
this, and then we do our best tolive out that faith.
We do our best to live out thatset of beliefs, but for Micah
it changes just a little bit.
It's not in that space, rightthe conversation about what we
believe.
It doesn't even really happenfor the most part.
(21:14):
In fact, for Micah, your faithis how you act.
Your response to God is how youact.
God said I don't need yoursacrifices, I need your heart.
I need your time.
I need you to share it withpeople who are in need of it.
(21:34):
Like Matthew 25, sheep andgoats, you love me by loving my
children.
I think this is why I landed onthis passage on this day where I
(21:56):
was doing my best to respond tomy good friend David in a way
that showed my love for him, mylove of faith and in him, and at
the same time, recognized thatit is a broad issue that we
wrestle with here and there arepeople in different places in
this room, but David became aprophet for me when he said you
(22:21):
need to speak to this.
You need to talk about thisbecause, even though our
denomination, even though ourchurch has wrestled with it,
even though there have beentears shed from it, even though
hearts have been hurt by it, youneed to speak to it.
(22:47):
It you need to speak to itBecause our United Methodist
denomination has made a decisionthat we are going to honor the
humanity of everyone.
And for those who agree withthis movement of the heart, I
encourage you to live into grace.
I encourage you to live intograce, grace, unconditional love
(23:11):
for those you agree with andfor those you disagree with,
because I feel like that's howyou honor God, with your
humility in this situation.
I also feel like that might bethe best way to open others'
hearts, to convince people ofwhat you believe.
And for those who are wrestlingwith this movement in our
(23:34):
church, in our denomination, myinvitation to you is in this
Micah passage I invite you to dojustice.
I invite you to do justice, Iinvite you to love kindness, I
invite you to walk humbly withGod and just see where that
(23:56):
takes you.
Amen, amen.
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