WEBVTT 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:09.519 So we're getting ready to put a whole lot of thought, energy, and yes, money into this building. 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:21.039 So before anybody hears the title of the sermon today, Too Bright for These Walls, and starts thinking, oh Lord, Anthony is about to tell us we don't need a building. 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:23.679 That is not where I'm going today. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:26.079 Actually, quite the opposite. 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:30.800 I think there's something sacred about the places where people gather. 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:34.000 Buildings like this hold stories. 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:49.840 Baptisms and weddings, funerals and Christmas Eves, Sunday mornings when everything felt right with the world, and Sunday mornings when somebody barely managed to get themselves through the door. 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:52.880 Children have grown up here. 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:55.840 People have found friendship here. 00:00:56.399 --> 00:01:02.320 People have laughed here, cried here, eaten here, prayed here. 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:05.280 So this place matters. 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:09.040 And caring for it matters. 00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:17.840 But I think one of the most important questions we can ask as we care for this place is what is this place for? 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:27.120 Because these walls give the church a place to gather, but the walls are not the church. 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:28.879 We are. 00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:35.599 And thankfully, unlike the walls, we have legs, we can move, we can go somewhere. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:50.239 And the more I have thought about mission, about what it means for us to be Lakeview United Church of Christ in this particular community, in this particular moment, the more I keep coming back to that. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:02:09.120 Because for a long time, the model of the church was pretty simple: build a church, put up a sign, open the doors, say, join us, maybe even put all our welcome out front and wait for the people to come. 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:21.039 But if we really believe there are more seats to add to the table, I'm becoming more and more convinced that simply saying there's a chair waiting for you is enough. 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:28.240 Because some people are never going to find the table unless we go to where they are. 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:32.400 And that is where Micah takes us this morning. 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:43.680 Micah was a prophet in the 8th century BCE from Morsheth in Judah, speaking during a time of enormous political pressure and social inequality. 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:47.039 The Assyrian Empire was threatening the region. 00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:52.960 Power was shifting, the powerful were prospering while others were being exploited. 00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:58.560 And I read that and think, wow, sound familiar? 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:06.879 Different century, different empire, different circumstances, but some of the same questions. 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:12.400 What does faithfulness look like when the world around us feels uncertain? 00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:17.759 What does God ask of us when power seems out of balance? 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:28.319 What are the people of God supposed to do when there's division, inequality, fear, and people being left behind? 00:03:29.199 --> 00:03:38.800 And maybe, just maybe, that the answer Micah gave to the people of his time is still a pretty good answer for the people of our time. 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:43.599 They wanted to know what does God want from us? 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:48.800 More offerings, bigger sacrifices, more religion. 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:52.960 And Micah says, You already know. 00:03:54.400 --> 00:04:01.039 Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God. 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:12.240 And suddenly this does not sound like some ancient prophet speaking into a world long ago, but it sounds remarkably like a word for us. 00:04:13.759 --> 00:04:16.800 The first is do justice. 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:23.199 Now, before I go further, I will share again, I love language. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:29.279 And I think as we explore language, it can be so enlightening. 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:36.160 So forgive me a little bit of Bible nerdiness today as I go into some Hebrew and some Greek sharing some of those words. 00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:48.959 Because I think there's some importance in the weight and depth of those words that sometimes, when brought into English, we can lose a little bit of its light and a little bit of its power. 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:52.160 So do justice. 00:04:52.879 --> 00:04:55.759 The Hebrew word is mishpat. 00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:08.720 And notice that Micah does not say think justice, believe justice, post something about justice, have a really good conversation about justice. 00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:11.680 He says, do it. 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:22.639 Mishpat is about what is right, what is just, what protects those who are vulnerable, what restores what has been made wrong. 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:26.800 And you cannot really do justice from a distance. 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:31.360 Eventually you have to get close enough to see what is happening. 00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:33.519 You have to know people. 00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:36.720 You have to hear their stories. 00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:43.360 You have to know what is happening in your community beyond what you read online or hear second hand. 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:46.079 Who's hurting? 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:47.839 Who's lonely? 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:49.759 Who's being ignored? 00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:51.439 Who is afraid? 00:05:52.399 --> 00:05:55.040 Where are people falling through the cracks? 00:05:56.160 --> 00:06:01.600 We cannot love our neighbors only from the address of the church. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:05.519 At some point, mission requires proximity. 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:11.199 And when I look at Jesus, that should not surprise us. 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:20.399 Jesus was constantly going into villages, into homes, to tables, to people others avoided. 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:24.639 Jesus went where people were already living their lives. 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:34.000 Which means if we are serious about adding seats to the table, maybe sometimes our job is not simply adding another chair here. 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:38.879 Maybe sometimes the table has to be moved. 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:46.480 And that brings us naturally to the second thing Micah says love, kindness. 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:50.319 The Hebrew word here is Hassad. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:56.879 With that little, I give myself pronunciation notes. 00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:01.120 I don't actually need to print to read out those pronunciation notes. 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:20.240 Hasid carries the sense of steadfast love, mercy, loyalty, faithfulness, the kind of love rooted in relationship. 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:23.839 It's covenant kind of love. 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:26.720 Love that sticks around. 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:32.720 And there's a difference between being welcoming and practicing that kind of love. 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:36.160 Welcome says the door is open. 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:40.399 Hassed says, I noticed you weren't here. 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:44.000 Welcome says there is a seat for you. 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:51.199 And Hassed says, if you cannot get to the table, maybe I need to come to you. 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:54.399 That is mission. 00:07:55.040 --> 00:08:01.759 Not collecting people, not increasing attendance, relationship, and faithful presence. 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:11.360 Showing off enough that people know our love is not dependent upon whether they ever become a member of this church or not. 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:16.160 So then Micah gives us the third piece. 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:21.040 And maybe the one that keeps the first two from getting dangerous. 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:24.000 Walk humbly with God. 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:38.799 It carries the sense of walking carefully, modestly, without arrogance. 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:43.200 And I think I think we desperately need that part. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:49.440 Because doing justice without humility can become self-righteousness pretty quickly. 00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:54.720 And I'm going to say something that makes some of us squirm a little bit. 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:56.960 Cancel culture. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:08:59.519 There, I said it. 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:04.480 And I'm not using that phrase as some political talking points. 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:07.120 I mean something much more basic. 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:12.240 Something all sides of our culture are capable of doing. 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:20.639 We've become very good at discovering one thing about someone and deciding we now know everything about them. 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:26.159 And it does not even have to be the worst thing they've ever done. 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:29.759 Sometimes it's simply something we disagree with. 00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:39.200 One opinion, one vote, one sentence, one policy, one theological belief, one tradition we do not understand. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:43.840 And suddenly that becomes the whole story. 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:53.919 We do it with people, we do it with organizations, we do it with churches, we do it with whole communities and whole cultures. 00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:57.120 We say, oh, they believe that? 00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:00.399 Well, now I know who they are. 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:02.000 But do we? 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:10.159 Walking humbly does not mean we stop having convictions, it does not mean injustices go unchallenged. 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:15.279 Micah himself certainly did not keep quiet when people were being harmed. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:18.720 There are things that need to be named. 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:21.919 There are systems that need to change. 00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:35.039 But humility reminds us that identifying one thing we believe is wrong does not mean we understand the entirety of another human being, much less an entire community. 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:37.600 People are complicated. 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:39.440 Churches are complicated. 00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:43.759 Communities, organizations, cultures are all complicated. 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:46.240 We are complicated. 00:10:47.039 --> 00:10:52.399 And walking humbly means learning to hold conviction without contempt. 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:56.720 I can disagree with you without dismissing you. 00:10:57.360 --> 00:11:00.960 I can challenge something without dehumanizing you. 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:08.639 I can disagree with the decision you have made without devaluing the many other good things you have done. 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:14.159 I can listen to you without surrendering everything I believe. 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:22.240 And perhaps most importantly, humility remembers, I am unfinished too. 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:25.519 I have gotten things wrong. 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:27.679 I have changed my mind. 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:30.240 I have needed grace. 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:35.440 And I hope ten years from now I know some things that I do not know today. 00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:39.519 Because God is still working on me. 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:51.840 Which means maybe I should leave the room for the possibility that God is, maybe I should leave room for the possibility that God is still working on everybody else too. 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:55.919 And that changes the way we do mission. 00:11:56.240 --> 00:12:01.759 Because now I'm not leaving this building as the enlightened Christian who has come to fix everybody. 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:04.240 I'm going as a neighbor. 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:06.639 I'm going curious. 00:12:07.039 --> 00:12:09.279 I'm going listening. 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:18.639 I'm going expecting that when I get there, I may discover that God was already there long before I showed up. 00:12:19.919 --> 00:12:32.799 Sometimes adding seats means inviting someone to our table, but sometimes walking humbly means realizing that God has pulled out a chair for us at somebody else's table. 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:42.399 So then Matthew gives us two images for exactly this kind of light of life: salt and life. 00:12:43.039 --> 00:12:54.639 Matthew's gospel was written late in the first century for a community of Jesus followers, trying to understand faithfulness in a dramatically changed religion and political world. 00:12:55.440 --> 00:13:00.080 Jerusalem had been devastated, the temple had been destroyed by Rome. 00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:06.720 People were wrestling with identity, tradition, survival, and what faithfulness looked like for them now. 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:16.240 And Matthew preserves these words of Jesus: you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. 00:13:17.919 --> 00:13:20.879 And the Greek is actually kind of wonderful here. 00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:30.720 Jesus calls them salt of the gay, the earth, the land, and light of the cosmos. 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:43.600 Now most often it's it's it's translated a world or earth, but I'm gonna leave it at that because that keeps its power and depth, the light of the cosmos. 00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:48.320 And I believe that that scope matters. 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:54.480 Their faith has been given a geography bigger than the place where they gather. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:58.559 And the Greek word for salt is halas. 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:05.120 And salt carried in that time all kinds of significance in the biblical world. 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:11.120 Yes, it seasoned, yes, it preserved, yes, it protected what mattered. 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:13.679 But there's another layer here that I love. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:18.799 In the Hebrew scriptures, salt is actually tied to covenant. 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:25.360 Leviticus speaks of salt of the covenant, and numbers speaks of covenant of salt. 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:28.799 Second Chronicles uses that language as well. 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:37.360 So salt becomes an image of something lasting, something faithful, something that endures. 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:48.399 And suddenly when Jesus says, You are the salt of the cosmos, I hear something more than go make the world a little more flavorful. 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:52.960 What I hear is be the kind of people whose love lasts. 00:14:53.279 --> 00:15:02.720 Be faithful, preserve what is good, stay in relationship, live your covenant out there in the cosmos. 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:07.679 And then Jesus says, You are false. 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:09.440 Light. 00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:16.320 Not someday, not after you become good enough, not when you have all the answers. 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:18.879 You are the light of the cosmos. 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:21.440 And what does light do? 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:22.799 It reaches. 00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:26.159 It reveals, it makes things visible. 00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:30.559 And then Jesus gives this almost ridiculous picture. 00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:34.399 Nobody lights a lamp and then puts a basket over it. 00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:38.639 Now, sometimes we do for mood lighting, but that's a whole other story. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:43.840 So what point would be to that? 00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:49.360 And maybe now we can hear why Jesus chooses those two images. 00:15:50.159 --> 00:15:54.000 Salt is only useful when it comes into contact with something. 00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:57.840 Light is only useful when it reaches beyond itself. 00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:02.399 Neither one was meant to be contained. 00:16:02.879 --> 00:16:07.360 And neither were we, which brings us right back here. 00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:11.759 To this room, to these walls that matter. 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:18.240 To this place we are going to care for and invest in because ministry happens here. 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:31.360 We need this place, we need somewhere to gather, somewhere to worship, somewhere to pray, somewhere to eat together and dream together and remind one another who we are in the Spirit of God. 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:39.120 But maybe the best thing these walls can do is prepare us to walk back through those doors. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:44.879 Because there are people who are never going to come here simply because we say, join us. 00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:52.000 There are people who will never believe all are welcome simply because we printed it on something. 00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:57.120 They may need to encounter it first where they are. 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:08.799 On a porch, in a neighborhood, at work, at a community event, beside somebody in a hospital room, across the table we did not set. 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:14.720 And that means the question cannot only be, how do we get more people here? 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:22.000 The question also has to be, how will people encounter Lakeview United Church of Christ out there? 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:25.920 Will they find us doing justice? 00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:31.200 Will they find us close enough to the pain of our neighbors to actually notice it? 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:38.960 Will they find us practicing, Hassed, love that stays long enough to become relationship? 00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:45.119 Will they find us walking humbly enough to listen before assuming that we know everything? 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:52.079 Will they find us willing to sit at somebody else's table instead of always expecting them to sit at ours? 00:17:53.519 --> 00:17:59.279 Because, church, that is where I think Micah and Jesus meet this morning. 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:06.799 Micah gives us the way, do justice, love, kindness, walk humbly with God. 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:13.839 And Jesus gives us the identity: you are salt, you are light. 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:19.279 So maybe our task is simpler than we sometimes make it. 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:29.680 Care for this place, fill it with life, fill it with worship, fill it with laughter and prayer and meals and stories and generations still to come. 00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:32.799 And then let it send us. 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:38.720 Let these doors become something we walk through in both directions. 00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:44.079 We come in to be nourished, and we go out to be present. 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:49.440 We come in to remember who we are, we go out to live it. 00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:52.720 We come in to receive the light. 00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:55.759 We go out to carry it. 00:18:57.200 --> 00:19:05.039 So, Lakeview, let us be the kind of church this community does not only know because of where our building sits. 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:08.480 Let them know us because they have met us. 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:18.559 Because we showed up, because we listened, because we stayed, because we did justice when justice was needed. 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:24.559 Because we chose covenant when it would have been easier to walk away. 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:33.839 Because we held conviction without contempt, because we made room at our table and had enough humility to sit at others. 00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:47.920 Let us care deeply for these walls and let these walls send us into our neighborhood, into our community, into the earth, into the cosmos. 00:19:49.680 --> 00:19:54.720 Because the grace God has entrusted to us is too generous to keep here. 00:19:54.880 --> 00:20:06.559 The covenant is too enduring, the love is too needed, and the light, the light is simply too bright for these walls. 00:20:08.079 --> 00:20:17.680 Actually, you, Lakeview, United Church of Christ, are too bright for these walls. 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:22.640 And all God's people said, Amen. 00:20:24.720 --> 00:20:32.799 Now go from this place emboldened to do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with God. 00:20:33.359 --> 00:20:39.599 Be salt where the world is losing its flavor, and be light where the shadows feel deep. 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:43.359 And remember, you were never meant to stay confined. 00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:48.799 Go in peace, go in courage, go and shine. 00:20:49.359 --> 00:20:50.000 Amen.