United Methodist Church Westlake Village

Lead Courageously

• United Methodist Church Westlake Village

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When courage gets confused with noise and muscle, we step back and ask what strength really looks like. We follow a fresh reading of Ephesians 6—often reduced to battle talk—and uncover a protective way of living that lets love stand its ground without turning hard. Our guiding vision is simple but demanding: love boldly, serve joyfully, lead courageously. To make that real, we reach for images that breathe—civil rights sit-ins as living armor, campus crowds navigating faith in public, and yes, Superman admitting that his greatest power is being human.

We unpack the armor of God as a set of practices rather than weapons: a belt of truth that holds our lives together when spin is cheap, a breastplate of righteousness that guards motives, shoes made for the gospel of peace that move us toward people we’d rather avoid, a shield of faith that absorbs the darts of cynicism, a helmet of salvation that protects our minds from despair, and a Spirit-shaped word that cuts through noise without cutting down people. Along the way, we hold up a mirror to our polarized culture—where a Jesus sign can read as welcome to some and a warning to others—and ask how public faith can be both clear and kind, courageous and gentle, grounded and generous.

The conversation turns cinematic as we contrast Lex Luthor’s sanctified envy with Superman’s humble confession: strength is choosing love and action even when you’re afraid. That lens reframes leadership in the church and the public square. Courage isn’t swagger; it’s the daily decision to defend dignity, resist apathy, and build trust across difference. If you’re hungry for a faith that protects the vulnerable, engages pluralism with grace, and trades outrage for resilient hope, this one’s for you. If it resonates, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review with the “armor” you plan to wear this week.

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PastorDarren:

Well, as you heard Rick uh say, this is a passage from Ephesians. That's an interesting passage, but it's being used by our United Methodist bishops, right? That's that's as high as we go as bishops. It's being used by United Methodist Bishops, the Council of Bishops, uh, to put together a United Methodist guiding vision. So we've been going through it. This is the third week. We've actually, as a denomination, we've been kind of going through the last few years of figuring out who we're going to be, and there's been some bumpiness and conflict, but we're kind of on the other side of a lot of that. We are who we are, and it's fun to be starting this journey, and it's fun to see uh what is coming of it. So, this guiding vision, it's three phrases love boldly, serve joyfully, and today we're going to talk about leading courageously. And like uh Rick said, we're using Ephesians 6. This is uh verses 10 through 20. Um, it is uh a letter in which Paul was trying to do a couple of things. He was trying to communicate who God is, helping the Church of Ephesus understand that. But then he was using uh uh the back half of that letter to talk about, all right, what's our response? You know, how do we act? What is uh God expecting of us in the in the way we act? And so this last bit, this is the last part of the letter, chapter six, he is in trying to inspire some courage, some courage to get out there and do this thing. And he uses a metaphor that maybe some of you have heard before. The armor of God. Have you heard that metaphor before? You know, probably some of you have been out there, the armor of God. Uh, people who have felt oppressed for their Christian beliefs have used that phrase especially. It talks about preparing yourself for tough times, which obviously people of faith, you're gonna have tough times that you're gonna be going through. And also, it reminds us that um we aren't completely vulnerable as we walk this world in those difficult times. The interesting thing is that that on the other side, there are some people of faith who, when they hear that phrase, the armor of God, they get some some twinges of of wariness. Right? They're um it kind of sounds like we're arming ourselves a little bit. Is it really necessary to arm ourselves? Is this a slippery slope? Are we gonna fall into some uh um periods of of aggression that our church has sometimes fallen into, things like Spanish Inquisitions or even more locally, American slavery? Is this really the uh the greatest phrase that we are going to be using for a modern day guiding vision? So hopefully you're recognizing the provocative nature of this passage, especially as the United Methodists choose it for the guiding vision. You're hearing a lot of the provocative underpinnings in it. So let's let's take a look at it a little more in depth, right? As we armor. First of all, the opponent or the enemy, as Paul calls it, isn't armed. Not in a true weapon kind of way. It is a spiritual uh kind of battle that's going on. So there's not literal weaponry involved that we are going up against. So the armor should probably be seen as spiritual as well. Secondly, most of what you're putting on in this armor isn't really weapons either. It's actually mostly protective equipment. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes to proclaim the gospel of peace. Does anybody have those shoes? I'd like to know where I can get a get a pair. Shield of faith to quench the arrows of the evil one. I might need that too. I don't know for sure. The helmet of salvation. Then finally, a weapon, but we should read it through. The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So again, not a literal weapon, it is words. So hopefully uh we're recognizing or deconstructing the phrase a little bit. For those of us that might get a little wary, have a twinge of concern as we're worried about getting too military uh-oriented in how we approach our faith. Most of this is protective stuff. And when you're talking about that armor as I'm reading through, what I think of are those black Americans who were living out civil disobedience in those diners. You remember those pictures? I remember when I was seeing those pictures. I remember being awakened to a lot of what was going on. Uh, and I was, so I was born in 1967, which is weird because I'm 35. You're not giving me any of that, are you? But I remember around junior high seeing pictures that gave evidence of how we had these challenges of prejudice, discrimination. It was 1980, give or take. At the time, I thought, well, shoot, that was way back, right? 50 years, 100 years. That it was more like 12 years that a lot of these pictures were taken of. It was such an eye-opener of what was going on as that battle was being waged in the way it was being waged. To me, those people who were fighting that fight, they're the ones who needed that armor of God. They are the strongest examples of living the Christian love that I've known. Because they were going amidst those who have shown a willingness to punish, to maim, even kill people with only their faith in God's love. Their faith that God's love will find its way into the hearts of those who are oppressing them. That's all they had. That was their armor, that was their faith, that was their breastplate. We know that this isn't a challenge that we or really hopefully anyone is facing every day. But there are sort of microversions of these challenges that we are facing. We aren't always facing a community that wants to dehumanize, but we do face choices every day that challenge our willingness to live out our faith. Do we help those who are in need? Do we defend those who are being prejudiced against? Do we actually live out the belief that everyone is worthy of God's loving grace? Do we do those things? Those choices are in front of us in small ways and bigger ways every single day. There are opportunities for us to choose faiths, a faith or to not. Will we live the love of Christ? Will we trust that God will be with us as we face these challenges? Will we be faithful even when it's tough? The United Methodist Church is is committing to leading courageously in this complex age of ours. In our world, in our nation, we've made it sometimes kind of difficult to do this. We all agree we want to do God's will, but we debate over what that is or what it should be or what it can be. We debate over what God's will actually is. Yesterday I woke up and I watched College Game Day. Good experience for me. For those of you who are uh not converted yet, this is the game, the program on Saturday mornings where they run through all the college football games that are going to happen that day. It's really pretty fun. I won't talk about Pat McAfee and kicking the field goal, but it is super fun, right? This whole thing. I really, really enjoy it. What I'm noticing is that there are Jesus signs that are, I should, I guess I should mention. They go to the college campus and all the college kids come out and they're all behind the announcers who are talking about all the games. So there's this mass of humanity that are all from 20 to about 26 years old living out in this grass or whatever field they are, and their signs are holding up, most of which are making fun of the opposing team. But in this case, they had some Jesus signs up. You know, and a lot of times they aren't up. They'll take the Jesus signs down because they can be a little bit polarizing, or we are polarized, and it just triggers that. So I figured that's why we weren't seeing them so much. But to see them again, I thought, okay, that's that's kind of nice, you know, positive messages about Jesus' love for everyone. And you know, I'm thinking, I believe in that message. I'm glad it's getting out there. I think it will bring life and light to those who engage with Jesus with that message. But it does lead me to wonder what would happen if some, let's say, Muslims were to raise a similar flag in their own faith. Were those to be displayed out there as well? Or maybe there's a flag of the uh star David symbolizing the Judaic faith? Would we be as comfortable? Would we um feel that everybody was in a good space, a respectful place, appreciating multiple passageways and pathways to God? Or would it turn into something more competitive or even worse? This is what I mean by how we've made our world kind of complex. We've made it so we can't always tell the difference between a message of God's love to all God's people and a message of possibly of division. Division using uh faith, using religion. So leading courageously in this context, it's a challenge. It's a problem this world, this community, this society that we've created. And let's not forget about potentially the most important question. What does all of this have to do with Superman? Am I right? You could argue that Superman is the last person who needs courage. Right? This guy's like uh oh he's there's only one thing that can get at Superman, Kryptonite. Other than that, well he's walking into any room feeling pretty confident, one would think. I I hope we're thinking this way. Even if he met some strong person star in him, he'd fly away. See, he's got it all covered. So why does this guy need any courage? Nancy and I were talking about the message of the movie last night at Saturday Night Suppers, right? And I know some of you are sitting there thinking, I saw that movie. There's a message. There is always a message. There is always a message, whether you know you are giving it or not. You were always saying something, even if you don't think you're saying anything. So Nancy was able to find this, and she's gonna be surprised that I've got it in here at all, because she sent it at 7:30 this morning. Yeah, I read emails, they come. So we don't know where this came from. He only left his initials AI. I'm thinking Arnold Ignacio. So Arnold says the primary moral of the latest Superman movie is the power and importance of fundamental human kindness, hope, and decency, emphasizing that these qualities are not weaknesses, but sources of strength in a cynical world. I like that line, sources of strength. I might add sources and signs of strength in a cynical world. The director, James Gunny, stated that the film is about universal morality with Superman acting to protect the vulnerable. The story encourages viewers to choose kindness and action over pessimism and apathy, showcasing how even small acts of goodness can inspire others to fight for a better world. That's a message, right? A pretty good message, too. I think a good message for today, which is you know, inside joke, we showed Superman the other night. Some of us all watched it together. So that's probably that's why it's in the sermon uh um this morning. But yeah, it is it's a good message. It's a message we really need to hear and engage here in 2025, given the complicated world we've allowed to come to pass. So I think the message gets even further laid out in the monologues at the end. You know, the villain gets to do a monologue, and then the hero gets to do the big monologue, uh, you know, that sums it all up. And you remember the villain, in this case, Lex Luthor. He tells us that he is justified in what he does. In fact, he feels like society should be grateful for his envy because it's what drives him to innovate like he does. So, those have seen the movie, you know he is pretty much a scientific genius that creates these really complicated things that are really involved in the world. It's all superhero stuff. I don't want to get too deep into it because it's fake. But that is what he wants us to understand. We should appreciate his envy, because if he wasn't so envious, he wouldn't be so driven to do these amazing things. Right? And the problem is this partner he's chosen, envy, leads him to have to annihilate other powers. If he sees somebody else that he feels like is getting more powerful or even any power around him, he feels like he has to seek and conquer and destroy that other thing because it might threaten his power. That is the end of envy. That's the end point that that partner is going to take you to. And Superman in the story, well, he is targeted for this destruction. Lex Luthor even manages to get the world to believe incorrectly that he's just an alien who wants to take over. He wants to rule the world, which is ironically what Lex Luthor actually wants to do, but somehow he pins it to Superman. And then when he takes his argument even further to try to dehumanize Superman, which he is from another world, right? Uh, you know, we're in this world talking about Superman, he's from another world, he is an alien. In Superman's culminating monologue, he says this. I'm as human as anyone. I love. I get scared. I wake up every morning and despite not knowing what to do, I put one foot in front of the other and I try to make the best choices I can. I screw up all the time. But that is being human, and that's my greatest strength. Hopefully you're noting the irony that the strongest being in this world, Superman, is calling his greatest strength his humanity. To me, that's all part of the message of this movie, and I think it might be the message for us as we look to this challenge, this charge to lead courageously in this world that we've made so complicated, and as we feel so very human, so very fragile, with this message of God's love, we're invited to look for the belt of truth and to wear that truth that we've come to know confidently and proudly. We're looking for the breastplate of righteousness, a source of confidence that we have done some work and understand that this truth is what it is. We've got the shoes to proclaim the gospel of peace. If we're gonna go out into the world and do our best to communicate this truth, we're gonna need the things we need to do that traveling. We look for a shield of faith, because it's not always gonna be easy. There are people who are going to want to impede that journey, impede that message, and we look for a helmet of salvation, just knowing that there is something that we are connecting to that is bigger than just today, that is eternal. Finally, we take with us that spiritual sword, which is the word of God. And with these, we look to engage the world and to lead courageously. Amen.