United Methodist Church Westlake Village

Sacred Simplicity: Do Justice, Love Kindness, Walk Humbly

• United Methodist Church Westlake Village

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Pastor John explores the timeless wisdom found in Micah 6:8, examining what God truly desires from us beyond rituals and sacrifices.

• A reflection on Micah's ministry during the slow decline of the Israelite kingdom and its parallels to modern society
• The dramatic dialogue between the people asking what sacrifices God wants, and God's surprising response
• Exploration of the three principles: doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God
• Personal story about Pastor John's friend David who challenged him to address LGBTQ inclusion
• Examination of how faith is less about what we believe and more about how we act
• Challenge to move beyond polarization and dualistic thinking in complex issues
• Invitation to embrace grace and unconditional love for those we agree and disagree with

We invite you to join us in embracing kingdom values of love, justice, and truth. Go now with God's blessing to live these values through the power of our challenging, faithful, loving, empowering God.


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Speaker 2:

no-transcript. Good to be with you all this morning. I hope that you are enjoying some good summer weather and good times together with friends and with family. I hear the rest of the country is really, really hot, so we should probably enjoy the weather God has given to us. Welcome to those of you who are joining us online as well. Good to be with you here in spirit and worshiping together, if not in the same place and in different places, but with shared heart.

Speaker 2:

We are still busy here in the summer. I'll remind you our mission of the month is the Westminster Free Clinic. You can give to that program this week and you'll see the slide is up above me for the last of it and then next week we'll be into another mission of the month. We are going to do some Galatians sermons in July, but I will mention as well we have a guest preacher coming while I'm on some vacation. Pastor Gary Keene is going to be here, reverend Gary Keene, on July the 13th. He's a retired pastor down in the Oxnard-Ventura area and he's excited to be amongst you. So I'll give you that heads up that you want to make sure that you are here on that Sunday.

Speaker 2:

Our Genesis study continues. We finally got through a flood and we built a tower and now we get to enter into family with Abram and start that journey together. So that is open, by the way, to all. If you've missed up till now, that is okay, jump right in. We'll see you Wednesdays at 10. We also do tape the service or tape the class if you'd like to enjoy it that way. So I just keep reminding that we're still busy with that.

Speaker 2:

Pizazz is full, so we're excited about that, but you can get on a wait list. So, stephen, you're going to sign up for Camp Pizazz. You can only get on the wait list. Sorry about that. We're having fun together. I'll remind you we've got a directory project. We want to get some fresh photos for it. Have it ready for September. I encourage you to send in a good photo, and my good friend Carol has offered to take pictures while we're here on Sunday mornings. So if you want to take a fun one here on site, we can do that as well. Finally, or almost finally, we are having a Western Night fundraiser on September the 6th, and we have a video done by Ken and Agnes' grandson to show us the kinds of auction items that are going to be available to us. So let's go ahead and hit it.

Speaker 2:

I'll let you know. It's not in black and white. Actual visiting, you know these are places that have color, Some of these good places locally. A lot of you folks know where these are, so these are some good things.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, we hope that you are getting yourself excited, because we are excited about not only having the fundraiser but also getting everybody together for a fun event. So, yeah, make sure you write that down. September the 6th, we're going to be at the First Neighborhood Community Center and we're going to have a really good time. I hope you're there. Finally, we have to celebrate a birthday. Now some of you might be saying, oh, I'm jumping in on Jenny. Some of you might be saying, hey, I turned 90. Where was my birthday celebration? Hey, I turned 90. Where was my birthday celebration? Ah, but were you our bookkeeper for over 50 years? Ah, yeah, 50 years of service. So I invited Boyd to come forward and to say a few words, because I know he is quite close with Leroy. Leroy, how are you feeling? Do you like attention? No, not at all. Probably. Why we did this? Oh, you climbed the rail.

Speaker 3:

You only gave me a minute so I've got to go fast.

Speaker 1:

I was going to wing this, but then I was handed something to read, so I've got to go fast.

Speaker 3:

I was going to wing this, but then I was handed something to read and it's a little more formal. So I'm going to get through this and then I'll wing the rest. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote the purpose of life is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference, that you have lived and lived well. And that certainly is true of our next honoree, a quiet, dedicated charter member, charter member number 42. Those were all the other charter members. Leroy Friel, along with his wife Millie, raised their two children, tina and David, in this church before accepting the position of treasurer in 1973.

Speaker 3:

Lee served as a trustee. A task he took upon himself was that of driving into the valley to have the broken above ground sprinklers repaired due to the fact that people walking along Hampshire deliberately kicked the heads, breaking them off. When Lee accepted the position of treasurer three years later, everything was done on paper. His first computer was an H89 Heath kit with very small three drives but no hard drive. Lee himself built the second, one, another Heath kit with a small hard drive, finally upgrading to a commercial computer due to the growing number of accounts.

Speaker 3:

Lee is still Leroy. He's not Lee to me, leroy is still our treasurer today. He comes in every day, quietly coming into the church office to check his mailbox for expense reimbursement requests or issuing staff paychecks. Thank you, lee, for thousands of checks you have written and for the integrity of the position that you have so lovingly given over the past 50 years. Now, john, I don't know if you did this, if we can reconcile and verify each other's numbers, but I added up all the checks that Lee has written over all those. No, I did not. So that was Jeannie's minute. This is my, ok no.

Speaker 3:

I'll be quick, I just want to. So it's a very simple, very small operation. Out here we have a cake. We hope all of you will have some, because otherwise somebody's got to eat it. But it's a great cake. It's celebrating a great man and, Leroy, we wish you the best. The reason we're celebrating today his birthday is the 4th of July and he missed his 85th in Vegas because you know what was happening five years ago. So they're doing it now and so he's going to be in Vegas with his two kids, his five grandchildren and how many great-grandchildren, what do you think? 15 great-grandchildren. I'm excited for Lee Roy, and just wish you the best, my friend, and not to be left out. But it's also Tom Sutton's birthday today.

Speaker 2:

That's right. And then we've got Carol Freeman, who actually got flowers. So lots of birthdays in this area. But we thank Dave who shared the flowers with us today, and we thank Carol for being born. Well done, well done, all right friends. I think we're ready for being born. Well done, well done, all right friends. I think we're ready to start worship. So I'm going to invite everybody to stand and turn to their neighbor and offer him or her the grace and peace of Christ Good morning.

Speaker 1:

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, good morning, thank you. This is the day the Lord has made. He calls the earth his own. Let him rejoice like a new birth and raise about the throne. Good morning, thank you Good morning.

Speaker 4:

Good morning, thank you. Come and hear the good news, no matter what is happening in your life, god's blessing and love is with you. Come and hear what God wants you to do, live lives of justice and love and truth. Come and get courage and strength to be fools for Christ, embracing kingdom's values rather than those of the word. We're here, ready to listen, open to change, expecting to be blessed by our time together.

Speaker 1:

Where charity and love prevail, where God is ever found. Why did you gather my Christ up, my unharmed witherspout? Forgive me thou each other well, in Christian holiness, Let us recall that in our midst does not be God, inside son, as the news of his coming day. We are in faith now.

Speaker 4:

Loving God, we come this morning seeking to abide in your presence. Open our minds to your spirit of wisdom that we may know how to live as your people. Open our hearts to your spirit of truth that we may love all your people with a love that speaks of justice, kindness and racial grace. May this time of worship be authentic and pleasing to you. Amen, amen.

Speaker 5:

Good morning kids. Come on up, have a seat. Fantastic, all right, good morning. I see a theme here. Everybody's got some pink on and some pretty dresses. I love the summer colors. You guys are celebrating summer. Are you having fun this summer? Yeah, oh, I like that enthusiasm. Yay, we're having fun. Well, we'll have some more fun today, for sure. In Sunday school I have a special craft for you, because we're talking about God's creation today, and one of God's main creations are animals, and they are so fun to do crafts with. So I had to make sure we did something fun in Sunday school today.

Speaker 5:

We're learning about getting closer to God this summer, and today we're learning about something in the Bible called a psalm, and a psalm is just a fancy way of saying a song or a poem that talks about God. The one we're learning about today is talking about how amazing God is. You see up on the screen our amazing God and how amazing his creation is God, and how amazing his creation is. The writer of the psalm talks about how he looks for God in all of creation. He looks at tall mountains and he thinks God built this mountain. He looks at the ocean and he thinks God made water and every creature that's in that water or in the ocean. You know how many creatures there are in the ocean. I mean, there are millions. So we are learning about how we can look at God's creation too and think, wow, how amazing God did all this. We've talked about God being an artist. We've talked about God being an artist, and you can think about God making the sunset and looking at the pretty colors and say God did this. Yeah, Kiki, you have something to say about God's creation.

Speaker 5:

One time, I saw a lot of trees and I, and they were very pretty. That's exactly what we're talking about, kiki. That's the perfect. We can look at the trees and look at each little leaf, and, in the fall, what do the leaves do? Yes, and they turn colors and they fall off. God designed them that way. Isn't that cool when you think about all of the details in nature, about all of the details in nature?

Speaker 5:

This morning, I was kind of irritated, because there are some ants that keep coming into my house. I have plugged six different holes in my house trying to keep them out, and they keep finding a way in, and I thought you know what. My message today, though, is about God's creation. How can I look at this a little differently? Instead of being irritated with these ants, I can look at them, and they really are amazing. They can find my cat's food, no matter where I put it in my house, and they communicate to each other and they tell each other where to go, and they make these little perfect lines. That's God's creation. Yeah, kiki, you have another example. I can tell I have ants in my house too. You know what? I think there's something going on this year, because I have never had this many ants in my house. I think it's the weather, and that's God's creation too, though God is providing those ants with what they need to survive well this year.

Speaker 3:

Yes, go ahead. One time I was so bad, I found them in my bed.

Speaker 5:

Now that's pretty rough. I bet your mom was really irritated, huh yeah. So, even though ants can be very annoying, as we've seen, they really are super special creatures and God provides them with everything they need to survive to. So this week, I want us all to think about how amazing God is and how he was the one that created all of the things in nature. So let's all think about that this week and let's say a prayer together. You can repeat after me God, thank you for loving us, Thank you for all that you've created. Help us remember how amazing you are. Help us share your love. Amen.

Speaker 2:

All right, let's prayer, o Lord, I'll invite you to join me in a time of prayer. God, we know that you are the source of all life. All that is created is created through you and has a piece of you in its heart, in its being. We know this is your relationship with creation and all that's been created. It's in your mercy and grace that we are in prayer. We are praying for those who are on difficult journeys in this world, For those who are on difficult journeys in this world, those who need to know your love as it affects their relationships, as it affects their different challenges. For all of these, lord, we say O Lord, hear our prayers. We think specifically of those in our community. Kitty and Chris Sultow are inviting prayers for a Massachusetts friend with cancer who only has a short time left. Stephen Langberg and his wife offer prayers for their friend, emily Johnson, who is suffering from severe psychological problems, problems that are making it difficult to keep a job. And Tom Skinner is asking for prayers for successful surgery for his brother-in-law on June the 30th. For all of these, we say O Lord, hear our prayers. We think of other people and situations as we lift up our own private prayer thoughts. God, we ask you to come into these lives, the lives of those who are struggling. Let them know in some powerful way that you are there. You are there with support, you are there with there. You are there with support, you are there with nurture, you are there with healing. Oh Lord, hear our prayers.

Speaker 2:

We pray for those who are facing challenges, suffering around the world. We pray for the victims of violence currently in Israel, iran and the US, though we are grateful for the ceasefire that continues to be in effect. We pray for those who are victims of the natural disasters that happen around us the fires, the floods, the pandemics. Disasters that happen around us the fires, the floods, the pandemics. Finally, we, during Pride Week, we are remembering God's love for everyone, no exceptions. For this, we say O Lord, hear our prayers.

Speaker 2:

Finally, we think of those who have experienced particular moments of joy. Andrew and Taylor Humeki were married in a joyous ceremony in La Jolla. This is Rick and Terry Gere's son Four weeks ago getting married, and it is a tremendous blessing, and the Geres are delighted to have Taylor as a daughter-in-law. Christy Douglas received a 40 under 40 award from the Conejo Chamber of Commerce. Ward. From the Conejo Chamber of Commerce, gary Evans'. Friend Imal appears to be back on his way home to the US, and we are grateful for our delegates at our annual conference as well as for the work that they do during that week every year.

Speaker 2:

O Lord, hear our prayers. O Lord, hear our prayers. Finally, we pray for our church as it continues in its ministries through these times, and we ask your help in maintaining our effectiveness and our vitality. May the good we do be pleasing in your sight In all of this. We pray in your Son's holy name, joining in the prayer that he taught us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those. Amen, my Jesus, my Savior.

Speaker 1:

Lord, there is none like you. All of my days, I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love, my comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength. Let every breath, lord, that I am, never cease to worship you. Now, the earth, let us sing Power and majesty, praise to the King. Mountains bow down and the seas will roar At the sound of your name. I sing for joy at the work of your hands. Forever I'll love you, forever I'll wipe them, your hands. Forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand. Nothing compares to the promise I have in you, my Jesus, my Savior. I love them as none like you, my Savior, my Lord, there is none like you All of my days.

Speaker 1:

I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love, my comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength. Let every breath, all that I am, never cease to worship you. Shout to the Lord, all the earth. Let us sing Power and majesty, praise to the King. Mountains fall down and the seas will roar At the sound of your name. I sing for joy at the work of your hands. Forever I'll love you forever. I'll love you forever. As that, nothing compares to the promise I have in you. Nothing compares to the promise. I Thank you.

Speaker 4:

Micah was a prophet whose ministry occurred towards the beginning of the long, slow demise of the Israelite kingdom. Slowly, conquerors were taking over, leaving Israel oppressed and in diaspora. Amidst their hardships, the divide between the rich and the poor grew as they looked to God for help. Micah makes clear what God is looking for. Listen now for the word of God in Micah, chapter 6, verses 6 through 8. With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased? With thousands of rams and tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, o mortal, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Speaker 2:

So do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God. It's kind of the core of the oh, I got to get my. Now I'm ready, ay-yi-yi. You know what I was just telling Candice, the vibe's really good today. Well done everyone. I don't know what you're bringing. You know there's good spirit inside of y'all. This is really fun. It's probably Leroy Leroy. And did anybody else think of Donny and Marie when they were? No Me, okay, maybe just me. I think you maybe had to be like 55 or older to even understand what I just said, but believe me, those of us 55 and older enjoyed that. That joke was just right in there. All right, do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God. Micah sums it up in those three things, and that's our focus for today.

Speaker 2:

Before we get started though I don't know that I have told you how I met my friend, david Kettle. I met David almost a year ago and I want to tell you the context of having met him. 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. But it's in these times that your mind starts looking at the sacredness of moments that happened even in the past. 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. 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. That was it. New pastor simple email.

Speaker 2:

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. Our denomination is who it is, having made the claims that it is now making, and there is some grace to that. There is some freedom to that, even though we do grieve the separation, shall we say. But I sat with David, we arranged to get some coffee. After I kind of got a little bit of groundwork information from others and said okay, who's David, what am I walking into, what's this coffee going to be all about? 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. You should see the long list of traditional hymns that are the favorites that David has. 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. So it's in that context that he says to me well, pastor, I'm going to need you to speak to the LGTBQ issue at least one time this year, one time. I started July 1st. It is now June 29th. I said, david, you know that's been a difficult issue here. It's been a challenge. 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. Here we are and me walking into what can be a little bit of a hot button conversation. So I wanted to say out loud I know, I know, I know, but we're going to walk through some things.

Speaker 2:

So, micah 6.8, one of our prophets in the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament For some of you this might be a favorite. Any of you had a chance opportunity to engage Matthew 6, especially 6.8? Is that one that's been on your radar? Okay, potential new favorite for everybody except Nancy who has already walked with me a little bit on that one. So it's an interesting passage.

Speaker 2:

It's difficult for us to know exactly the context because little is offered. 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 these, what are really sermons that don't necessarily always have that context handy. 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, things are going pretty good and we know when the Jewish kingdoms were doing well, so we can place it in there. 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. 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. So we think it's probably likely in the time between Israel falling and Judah falling.

Speaker 2:

Those are the two Jewish kingdoms. Israel actually fell first. Ironic in the way we talk about Israel. Judah went longer First. Ironic in the way we talk about Israel Judah went longer. That was the kingdom that David was a part of and was able to establish 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.

Speaker 2:

In the way that it's all working, the society is doing less of what actually got them to a place of prosperity. 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 and doing other things, like the immigration passages tend to be really good here. 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. 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 you can do. 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. This is when a passage like we might find about welcoming the stranger which there are many, including some from from jesus himself.

Speaker 2:

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. We like where we've landed. There is prosperity, that seems to be working. 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. But we need to remember we've got to still do what God wants us to do. We've still got to live out the teachings that God has been teaching. 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. Now I should have invited you to pull your Bibles out that are in the pews because you can see how this plays out.

Speaker 2:

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. 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. Am I right? Big fans of slavery? No, okay, this is what I figured. So they God sitting there or at least Micah's projection of God saying, hey, I saved you guys numerous times. What else are you wanting from me? And he walks through this thing. You hear Israel feeling like they've been tried and convicted by God, but then it's God defending God's self. You wonder really who's on trial here, as we try to decide exactly what's wrong and why things have gone wrong.

Speaker 2:

Then you get to verse 6. And there's a change in the voice. Who is speaking Now? It's the people, and the people are speaking to God and saying plaintively what do you want, god? What kind of sacrifices are going to be pleasing to you, god? And they rattle off a few of the kinds of sacrifices that they had experienced as people from Old Testament times, hebrew Bible times. Are we supposed to sacrifice animals? Is that what you want, god? If we sacrifice more animals, then you'll take care. Oils, we'll get you oils and oils and oils All of this valuable stuff, or the heavy one? He plays the card. Are we supposed to kill our firstborn? For you, god, that's a heavy card because it was asked for once, and they know it was asked for once.

Speaker 2:

They know their stories, those of you who probably know, many of you the Genesis story. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. He lets him go on it. He doesn't end up sacrificing Isaac, but that has been asked in the past. And so they throw that out to God. Hey God, what are we supposed to do? What do we have to give you so that you start taking care of us.

Speaker 2:

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. Even if that's the way you want to think about it, it's not even sacrifice. What I'm asking is that you do three things you do justice, you love kindness and you walk humbly with God. Those three things Do you hear the pivot in that? 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. And God, at least in Micah's projection here, is saying it's not about that. If you want to sacrifice, if you want to show love to me, do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. Justice, doing what is right and fair for all of God's children. Pretty straightforward Kindness. If we wanted a guardrail for living life, kindness is a pretty good one. 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.

Speaker 2:

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. And now you're in this place of. Should I be judging that? Should I be assuming what God wants there? And God is saying no, let me do that. You walk humbly with me. Walk humbly with me. That is what God is asking.

Speaker 2:

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. Right, america, we've had our time of prosperity. Many would argue we are still the most significant society in the world today. We are that relevant, we are that big of an elephant, but most of us would argue, too, that we're starting to see some cracks. But most of us would argue too, that we're starting to see some cracks. Maybe we're not doing all of the things that led to the prosperity that we are enjoying and that we are leaning on. 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 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. Oh, we better mount up, we better. You know this is going to be this kind of situation. You're on this side, you're on this side. All of a sudden, all these complex issues, issues that require a certain nuance, at the very least, are now getting aligned. You're either this or you're this, or you're this or you're this. I think it happens in these places of anxiety, when we start feeling like we're we're lesser than we used to be and we're trying to solve things as society. We're trying to get it figured out, but we're arguing with each other about how we might solve them. We're arguing each other with each other about what we think should be solved and what maybe should be left alone.

Speaker 2:

In our own denomination, we have what's called a book of discipline. It's a very happy book, full of all sorts of fun and frolicking. We talked about John Wesley a month or so back. We know dude was pretty OCD, so to him discipline was a happy word, just so you know. Ah, 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. Really not any language about homosexuality in it, just didn't have it in there. I don't there was. You know, we'd be kidding ourselves to think there wasn't an overall oppressive circumstance for people who were created that way. But homosexual people needed to be private, needed to be unseen. But there wasn't anything official in our book of discipline. It wasn't until the battles for social acceptance, cultural acceptance, that some of that language started to appear. Battle lines started to be drawn All of a sudden, scriptures like ours in these battle lines.

Speaker 2:

As we start looking at our own scriptures and what they're saying and what they're believing 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. In this case, if they, if they, fit into our box of faith, then we do justice. If they're willing to hide parts of themselves, then we will love kindness. If they're willing to accept part of themselves as sinful, then we'll walk humbly with God. But not until then. Not until then In my life of faith and I feel like you know, I'm 57. I've had a little bit of life. Some of you all judge me like I'm still a puppy. 57? I'll bet you pop out of bed in four seconds. But in my life 57 I really felt like the nuances are way more meaningful than this, significant than this.

Speaker 2:

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. These are no-win situations. We're going to get it figured out, we're going to get it solved. This will be the absolute truth for everybody and we'll move on when that's our goal. We'll never be successful. We'll never find our way to being able to live together, and I think that's why I like the Micah passage.

Speaker 2:

When we think of faith, we often think of this set of beliefs. My faith is this, I believe this, I believe this, I believe this, and then we do our best to live out that faith. We do our best to live out that set of beliefs, but for Micah it changes just a little bit. It's not in that space, the conversation about what we believe. It doesn't even really happen for the most part, in fact, for Micah, your faith is how you act. Your response to God is how you act. God said I don't need your sacrifices, I need your heart. I need your time. I need you to share it with people who are in need of it. Like Matthew 25, sheep and goats, you love me by loving my children.

Speaker 2:

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. 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. 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.

Speaker 2:

And for those who agree with this movement of the heart, I encourage you to live into grace. 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. I also feel like that might be the best way to open others' hearts, to convince people of what you believe. 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. 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. Amen, amen.

Speaker 4:

If you'll just allow me a minute, I was just thinking what a wonderful pastor we have who has sat with someone, and that someone we all know, that someone who has passed away and he's honoring something that he said that he needed him to do.

Speaker 4:

And it just, pastor, it warms my heart. I just Thank you for allowing me that. With that, we are here and being called to live life's justice and love and truth. We've been blessed to be a blessing. Let us generously offer all that we are and all that we have to further this beloved no-transcript. O God, you bless us in so many areas of our lives, in places we often fail to recognize as blessings. Help us have eyes to see and hearts to understand the depth of your love and blessing. Today we give out of these blessedness, dedicating ourselves to lives of justice and love, giving all that we are and all that we have to bring about our beloved community, here and now. Amen.

Speaker 1:

We must accept each other as Christ accepted us. He just assisted, covered each person to embrace. He blessed and poured upon us and gave us to be we are ourselves, accepted and led to love and peace. Teach us, o Lord, lessons, as in our daily life we struggle to be human and search for hope and peace. Teach us to care for people, for all, not just for some, to love them as we find them or as they may become, but for today's encounters with all who are in need, who offer their full acceptance for righteous Christ and bread. We give you thanks for seeing your hands. Our Holy One May you our strength, your strength, your freedom. He knew us and was still, and will be a Savior's Son.

Speaker 2:

Well, my friends, there is some cake for us in the honor of Leroy and turning 90 years old and you know I keep adding and 50 years of devoted ministry to the church. You know that's something that matters. But, carol and Tom, you can have some cake too. I'm glad you were born as well. Friends, hear these words of benediction those who live lives pleasing to God shall not be moved. Go now to embrace the kingdom values values of love, justice and truth. Go now, with God's blessing, to live those values through the power of our challenging, faithful, loving, empowering God. Amen, amen, amen.

Speaker 1:

May the Lord go with you. Let him take your hand. Keep his love within you Until we meet again. Amen, thank you, thank you.