Pastor Darren: I don't know that I have told you how I met my friend, David Keddle.
Pastor Darren: I met David almost a year ago and I want to tell you the context of having met him.
Pastor Darren: We are in the process of, and many of you know, he has passed from leukemia and we are grateful that his family is joining us today and worshiping with us.
Pastor Darren: But it's in these times that your mind starts looking at the sacredness of moments that happened even in the past.
Pastor Darren: And in this case, we were in the process of lay leadership organization right Nominations if you're old school Methodists Nominations and I put out an email to all the leaders, many of whom I had not met because I'd only been here a couple of months and I spent one of those months in Europe, so it was hard to work from there, so I didn't so send out my email.
Pastor Darren: Hey, we want to get started, we want to get organized, and I get a very simple email back from David Kettle I'm going to need to hear your feelings around the LGTBQ issue period.
Pastor Darren: That was it.
Pastor Darren: New pastor, simple email.
Pastor Darren: I'm like okay, clearly something's at work here and I knew enough about where I was coming to know that there had been some wrestling around that issue and many of you know our denomination has been wrestling with that issue and, through some great gnashing of teeth and a lot of tears, a lot of hurt, we look to be where we are now with that whole situation.
Pastor Darren: Our denomination is who it is, having made the claims that it is now making, and there is some grace to that.
Pastor Darren: There is some freedom to that, even though we do grieve the separation, shall we say.
Pastor Darren: But I sat with David, we arranged to get some coffee.
Pastor Darren: After I kind of got a little bit of groundwork information from others and said, okay, who's David?
Pastor Darren: What am I walking into?
Pastor Darren: What's this coffee going to be all about?
Pastor Darren: And I found a really warm person, but a warm person who'd walked a journey in this world, a journey of being a person of faith, growing up in faith.
Pastor Darren: You should see the long list of traditional hymns that are the favorites that David has.
Pastor Darren: It's definitely grounded in his being and still working through the challenge of being a homosexual man, in the midst of that journey and trying to manage not only the justice of that but the emotions of that, the humanity of that.
Pastor Darren: So it's in that context that he says to me well, pastor, I'm going to need you to speak to the LGBTQ issue at least one time this year, one time.
Pastor Darren: I started July 1st.
Pastor Darren: It is now June 29th.
Pastor Darren: I said, david, you know that's been a difficult issue here.
Pastor Darren: It's been a challenge.
Pastor Darren: There are many hearts in this.
Pastor Darren: And he said yeah, but one year.
Pastor Darren: And I said yeah, one year.
Pastor Darren: So, yeah, one year.
Pastor Darren: Here we are and me walking into what can be a little bit of a hot button conversation.
Pastor Darren: So I wanted to say out loud I know, I know, but we're going to walk through some things.
Pastor Darren: So, Micah 6.8, one of our prophets in the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament For some of you this might be a favorite.
Pastor Darren: Any of you had a chance opportunity to engage.
Pastor Darren: Matthew 6, especially 6.8?
Pastor Darren: Is that one that's been on your radar?
Pastor Darren: Okay, potential new favorite for everybody except Nancy, who has already walked with me a little bit on that one.
Pastor Darren: So it's an interesting passage.
Pastor Darren: It's difficult for us to know exactly the context because little is offered.
Pastor Darren: Usually we're looking for a reference to a specific king or a specific issue that helps us to kind of place it in its time, issue that helps us to kind of place it in its time.
Pastor Darren: These, what are really sermons that don't necessarily always have that context handy.
Pastor Darren: And in this case we're kind of resting in this place the scholars are resting in this place that this Micah's prophecy was probably written over time, maybe in two specific different times, mostly because we can see an air, an energy around prosperity.
Pastor Darren: Things are going pretty good and we know when the Jewish kingdoms were doing well, so we can place it in there.
Pastor Darren: And yet we also can feel a time of some real hurt and real pain and real concern, like our passage that we're in today, 6-8.
Pastor Darren: So I don't know, maybe you felt some of that pain in the way that God and human dialogue happens in the midst of this.
Pastor Darren: So we think it's probably likely in the time between Israel falling and Judah falling.
Pastor Darren: Those are the two Jewish kingdoms.
Pastor Darren: Israel actually fell first.
Pastor Darren: Ironic in the way we talk about Israel, judah went longer.
Pastor Darren: That was the kingdom that David was a part of and was able to in a much stronger way, and where he is landing is in this place, between one of the kingdoms going down, one of them still up, remembering the glory years of the Jewish kingdoms, but also feeling the cracks and feeling the anxiety of one of the kingdoms having already gone down and so, like most human institutions, like most human things, some cracks are starting to happen in the way that it's all working.
Pastor Darren: The society is doing less of what actually got them to a place of prosperity.
Pastor Darren: For us, in the faith context, we would say the society was doing less or offering less trust in God, trust in what God was asking people to do, trust in living out the faith orientations that God was encouraging them to do right, and doing other things, like the immigration passages tend to be really good here.
Pastor Darren: When you're coming out of disorder and you're on the upswing, when you're coming out of chaos, when you're coming out of power or powerlessness, when you're coming out of poverty, maybe you're focused a little more on what a stranger might bring to what you're building.
Pastor Darren: All right, we're growing, you're ready to come in, you got a shovel, you got a hammer.
Pastor Darren: Get in here, let's see what you can do.
Pastor Darren: But when you come from prosperity, when you're in a good place, then there's something to lose and then our anxieties start ratcheting up.
Pastor Darren: This is when a passage like we might find about welcoming the stranger which there are many, including some from Jesus himself, those passages they get a little more challenging Because we're talking about welcoming people, but we also know we're kind of in a good spot.
Pastor Darren: We like where we've landed.
Pastor Darren: There is prosperity that seems to be working.
Pastor Darren: So it's in that environment that Mike is trying to preach, and he's preaching to folks about how, hey, we've had some good times.
Pastor Darren: But we need to remember we've got to still do what God wants us to do.
Pastor Darren: We've still got to live out the teachings that God has been teaching, that God has been teaching.
Pastor Darren: He's ringing that bell of reminder constantly and he's speaking initially to the pain, at least in our passage to the pain that the Jewish people are feeling, and he creates this dialogue between the people and God.
Pastor Darren: Now I should have invited you to pull your Bibles out that are in the pews because you can see how this plays out.
Pastor Darren: But it's interesting because it opens with God speaking and God says to the people hey, hey, state your case, tell me why you're upset, but then doesn't wait for an answer and just starts talking about all that God had done for the Israelites, which isn't nothing.
Pastor Darren: When you've been saved from the Egyptians, from slavery, when you've been saved from other oppressive circumstances, that's a pretty good case for God.
Pastor Darren: Am I right, big fans of slavery?
Pastor Darren: No, okay, this is what I figured.
Pastor Darren: So they God sitting there, or at least Micah's projection of God, saying, hey, I saved you guys numerous times.
Pastor Darren: What else are you wanting from me?
Pastor Darren: And he walks through this thing.
Pastor Darren: You hear Israel feeling like they've been tried and convicted by God, but then it's God defending God's self.
Pastor Darren: You wonder really, who's on trial here?
Pastor Darren: Who's on trial here as we try to decide exactly what's wrong and why things have gone wrong?
Pastor Darren: Then you get to verse 6, and there's a change in the voice.
Pastor Darren: Who is speaking Now?
Pastor Darren: It's the people, and the people are speaking to God and saying plaintively what do you want, god?
Pastor Darren: What kind of sacrifices are going to be pleasing to you, god?
Pastor Darren: And they rattle off a few of the kinds of sacrifices that they had experienced as people from Old Testament times, hebrew Bible times.
Pastor Darren: Are we supposed to sacrifice animals?
Pastor Darren: Is that what you want, god?
Pastor Darren: If we sacrifice more animals, then you'll take care.
Pastor Darren: Oils, we'll get you oils and oils and oils All of this valuable stuff.
Pastor Darren: Or the heavy one?
Pastor Darren: He plays the card?
Pastor Darren: Are we supposed to kill our firstborn for you, god?
Pastor Darren: That's a heavy one.
Pastor Darren: He plays the card.
Pastor Darren: Are we supposed to kill our firstborn.
Pastor Darren: For you, god, that's a heavy card because it was asked for once, and they know it was asked for once.
Pastor Darren: They know their stories, those of you who probably know many of you.
Pastor Darren: The Genesis story.
Pastor Darren: God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.
Pastor Darren: He lets him go on it.
Pastor Darren: He doesn't end up sacrificing Isaac, but that has been asked in the past.
Pastor Darren: And so they throw that out to God.
Pastor Darren: Hey, god, what are we supposed to do?
Pastor Darren: What do we have to give you so that you start taking care of us?
Pastor Darren: And then there's this final, pivot, verse 8, micah again putting words in God's mouth, speaking for God, he says it's really not about sacrifice.
Pastor Darren: Even if that's the way you want to think about it, it's not even sacrifice.
Pastor Darren: What I'm asking is that you do three things you do justice, you love kindness and you walk humbly with God.
Pastor Darren: Those three things, do you hear the pivot in that?
Pastor Darren: It's not about these offerings that we assume God is looking for from us, ways that we can sacrifice of our own being, of our own wealth, of our own comfort, and then God will be appeased and do good things for us, our own comfort, and then God will be appeased and do good things for us.
Pastor Darren: And God, at least in Micah's projection here, is saying it's not about that.
Pastor Darren: If you want to sacrifice, if you want to show love to me, do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.
Pastor Darren: And walk humbly with your God Justice, doing what is right and fair for all of God's children Pretty straightforward Kindness.
Pastor Darren: If we wanted a guardrail for living life, kindness is a pretty good one.
Pastor Darren: You can always be kind and humility, reminding yourself that there are powers, there's a presence that is way bigger than you, and you know what that can be kind of freeing, and you know what that can be kind of freeing.
Pastor Darren: You end up in situations in your life where you feel like you're being asked to make judgments about other people, other situations, especially ones that are complicated, maybe a cultural understanding, a sexual understanding that doesn't seem to be harming other folks.
Pastor Darren: And now you're in this place of should I be judging that?
Pastor Darren: Should I be assuming what God wants there?
Pastor Darren: And God is saying no, let me do that.
Pastor Darren: You walk humbly with me.
Pastor Darren: That is what God is asking.
Pastor Darren: When I think of this context in which Micah is doing his ministry, it's fairly easy for me to see our own society today In America.
Pastor Darren: We've had our time of prosperity.
Pastor Darren: Many would argue we are still the most significant society in the world today.
Pastor Darren: We are that relevant, we are that big of an elephant.
Pastor Darren: But most of us would argue, too, that we're starting to see some cracks.
Pastor Darren: Maybe we're not doing all of the things that led to the prosperity that we are enjoying and that we are leaning on.
Pastor Darren: And then we have to add on to our challenge here in our society that we don't generally agree on the things that we need to fix, or what the cracks are, or what's slipping through the cracks, or what is a problem about the cracks.
Pastor Darren: And we argue about these things and I don't know if you notice this, but I sure do we start drawing battle lines Right?
Pastor Darren: Oh, we better mount up, we better.
Pastor Darren: You know this is going to be this kind of situation.
Pastor Darren: You're on this side, you're on this side.
Pastor Darren: All of a sudden, all these complex issues, issues that require a certain nuance at the very least, are now getting aligned.
Pastor Darren: You're either this or you're this, or you're this or you're this.
Pastor Darren: I think it happens in these places of anxiety, when we start feeling like we're lesser than we used to be and we're trying to solve things.
Pastor Darren: As society we're trying to get it figured out, but we're arguing with each other about how we might solve them.
Pastor Darren: We're arguing each other with each other about what we think should be solved and what maybe should be left alone.
Pastor Darren: In our own denomination we have what's called a book of discipline.
Pastor Darren: It's a very happy book, full of all sorts of fun and frolicking.
Pastor Darren: We talked about John Wesley a month or so back.
Pastor Darren: We know dude was pretty OCD, so to him discipline was a happy word, just so you know.
Pastor Darren: Oh, yes, an opportunity to live out my intense desire for intensity In our book of discipline, which is kind of our constitution as a denomination there about 60, 70 years ago.
Pastor Darren: Really, not any language about homosexuality in it, just didn't have it in there.
Pastor Darren: I don't there was.
Pastor Darren: You know we'd be kidding ourselves to think there wasn't an overall oppressive circumstance for people who were created that way.
Pastor Darren: But homosexual people needed to be private, needed to be unseen, but there wasn't anything official in our book of discipline.
Pastor Darren: It wasn't until the battles for social acceptance, cultural acceptance, that some of that language started to appear.
Pastor Darren: Battle lines started to be drawn All of a sudden, scriptures like ours in these battle lines.
Pastor Darren: As we start looking at our own scriptures and what they're saying and what they're believing.
Pastor Darren: Now, with these new eyes, about this polarization, this duality that we've convinced ourselves needs to be true, we start adding a couple of words to scriptures.
Pastor Darren: In this case, if they, if they, fit into our box of faith, then we do justice.
Pastor Darren: If they're willing to hide parts of themselves, then we will love kindness.
Pastor Darren: If they're willing to accept part of themselves as sinful, then we'll walk humbly with God.
Pastor Darren: But not until then.
Pastor Darren: Not until then, in my life of faith and I feel like you know, I'm 57.
Pastor Darren: I've had a little bit of life.
Pastor Darren: Some of you all judge me like I'm still a puppy 57?
Pastor Darren: I'll bet you pop out of bed in four seconds.
Pastor Darren: But in my life, 57, I really felt like the nuances are way more meaningful than this, significant than this.
Pastor Darren: There's so few things that fit into this dualism of this or that it might even increase our anxiety that we keep pretending that they do fit into these.
Pastor Darren: These are no-win situations.
Pastor Darren: We're going to get it figured out.
Pastor Darren: We're going to get it solved.
Pastor Darren: This will be the absolute truth for everybody and we'll move on.
Pastor Darren: When that's our goal, we'll never be successful.
Pastor Darren: We'll never find our way to being able to live together, and I think that's why I like the Micah passage.
Pastor Darren: When we think of faith, we often think of this set of beliefs.
Pastor Darren: My faith is this, I believe this, I believe this, I believe this, and then we do our best to live out that faith.
Pastor Darren: We do our best to live out that set of beliefs, but for Micah it changes just a little bit.
Pastor Darren: It's not in that space, right the conversation about what we believe.
Pastor Darren: It doesn't even really happen for the most part.
Pastor Darren: In fact, for Micah, your faith is how you act.
Pastor Darren: Your response to God is how you act.
Pastor Darren: God said I don't need your sacrifices, I need your heart.
Pastor Darren: I need your time.
Pastor Darren: I need you to share it with people who are in need of it.
Pastor Darren: Like Matthew 25, sheep and goats, you love me by loving my children.
Pastor Darren: I think this is why I landed on this passage on this day where I was doing my best to respond to my good friend David in a way that showed my love for him, my love of faith and in him, and at the same time, recognized that it is a broad issue that we wrestle with here and there are people in different places in this room, but David became a prophet for me when he said you need to speak to this.
Pastor Darren: You need to talk about this because, even though our denomination, even though our church has wrestled with it, even though there have been tears shed from it, even though hearts have been hurt by it, you need to speak to it.
Pastor Darren: It you need to speak to it Because our United Methodist denomination has made a decision that we are going to honor the humanity of everyone.
Pastor Darren: And for those who agree with this movement of the heart, I encourage you to live into grace.
Pastor Darren: I encourage you to live into grace, grace, unconditional love for those you agree with and for those you disagree with, because I feel like that's how you honor God, with your humility in this situation.
Pastor Darren: I also feel like that might be the best way to open others' hearts, to convince people of what you believe.
Pastor Darren: And for those who are wrestling with this movement in our church, in our denomination, my invitation to you is in this Micah passage I invite you to do justice.
Pastor Darren: I invite you to do justice, I invite you to love kindness, I invite you to walk humbly with God and just see where that takes you.
Pastor Darren: Amen, amen.