6/27/2021 | Sermon Only | Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III

1:01 When you discover what does not belong, I ask, O God, that you would remove it from me and cast it into the sea of forgetfulness as far as the east is from the west. that it may never return again. I thank you for the privilege to be able to stand behind this sacred desk and to explore your word, preach your word, and to serve your people. Let the words of my mouth this day and the meditation of my heart this day be acceptable in thy sight. O Lord, you are my strength, and without a doubt, you are certainly my Redeemer. Holy Spirit, do thy will, do thy will, Holy Spirit, in the mighty, magnificent, awesome, majestic, powerful, and saving name of Jesus, who is the Christ we pray, and the people of God, who love God, may say, Amen.

2:05 I want to invite you at this time to turn with me to Acts chapter 9, verses 1 through 9. The scripture will come up on the screen. We'll be looking at the new international version, but whatever version you have, if you want to mark in your Bible or your Bible app, is certainly the Word of God. But we're going to look at Acts chapter 9, beginning with verse 1, and it reads as follows. Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the way, whether men or women, he might take them prisoner to Jerusalem.

2:59 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you, Lord? Saul asked. I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, he replied. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do. The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard a sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind and did not eat or drink anything.

4:00 May the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing of God's holy word. We continue on our journey looking at this general topic as we've been exploring in the book of Acts entitled, The Truth About the Church. As I've stated over and over, the book of Acts gives us a history of the development of the church, of the movement we know as the way to eventually what we call to this day Christianity of the church. This movement, the way, was something unique within the Roman world that was spreading like wildfire. And today we want to look at this idea of rebuilding broken lives. But we serve a God who can rebuild broken lives even if you don't know your life is broken.

5:06 Hmm. Rebuilding broken lives. I begin this way today. Many within the Trinity family are familiar with an institution just an hour and a half from Buffalo, New York. This institution is called Chautauqua. There's a place, this place is hard to describe, but best can be defined as a retreat, a learning center, and family vacation spot for people seeking rest and continuing education. education on this property, on this campus for over 100 years, some of our nation's greatest writers, poets, thinkers, artists, and musicians have spent the summer studying and exploring the world of ideas.

5:58 When you get an invitation from Chautauqua, you certainly want to be present because you have the opportunity to hear and to witness some of the nation's greatest thinkers explore the world of ideas. And not too long ago, I had the opportunity to be on the Chautauqua grounds at the invitation of the Department of Religion. And I was privileged to serve as chaplain, which allowed me to spend time and listen to all of the lectures and the musicians and the poets. And I had the opportunity to hear a professor by the name of Charles Kimball. Kimball, professor at Wake Forest, who wrote a book entitled, listen to this, When Religion Becomes Evil. Dr. Kimball stated that there are five areas a person should understand that lead or can lean a good, compassionate faith down a path that, if unchecked, can become evil. He stated this, that a religion that preaches the end justifies the means is walking down a dangerous path. He also stated that a religion of blind obedience, that there is no room for struggle, no room for doubt, or an intellectual engagement is a faith, is a religion walking a dangerous path. And then he said something very interesting.

7:48 He said that a religion that says the ideal time, he says this, if you ever hear a preacher or a person who claims to be a prophet that knows the moment that God will show up or that the apocalypse shall happen, you are also walking down a dangerous path because no one knows the time nor the hour. And then he moved on and said that any faith that calls followers to harm another human being in the name of God is a religion that is walking a dangerous path. And he even moves further and says that it's not even really a religion, but an ideology that is destructive. But it's the one claim, his final claim, that interests me. He said that a faith, a religion that has absolute claims, he used the term fundamentalism, the belief that there was only one way to read scripture, that anyone who reads it differently or has an argument to say, can you look at it this way, is a person or a group that is walking down a dangerous path.

9:05 It's fundamentalists view that the world in one particular way, and no one can have a differing perspective. Fundamentalism, as you said, is dangerous. And it is dangerous in all human endeavors because it is not solely related to religion, but in any particular discipline where there is no other type of framework, that there can be no discussion, that it's only this way and it cannot be seen any other way, you are walking down a dangerous path. When a nation says there's only one way that the world can be looked at, there's only one way that this nation can be looked at. That is why today, if I may stop here parenthetically, there is a fundamentalism that is moving across the United States as people are saying that we've got to get rid of critical race theory because we cannot raise issues about systematic racism. In other words, that is a form of fundamentalism that says that there is no other way to look at the American project except one that lifts up this nation in such a way where it is always pristine and no one can see the marks nor the cracks nor the pain within this country.

10:33 Fundamentalism is a problem, according to Kimball, and those who challenge fundamentalism are branded as heretics, are exiled and in some cases even killed. And Saul, the main character of this particular scripture that we read today, this particular individual by the name of Saul practices a form of Judaism not recognized by many Jews. He has the term Judaism, but he is practicing a Roman version that leans more into the fundamentalism of Rome instead of the compassion that comes out of the Torah. This Roman version borrows from the empire perspective and embraces the tenets of what Dr. Kimball spoke of, specifically fundamentalism. Saul was a fundamentalist from the territory of Tarsus.

11:36 He was a Pharisee, but his extreme faith was not recognizable by the Pharisees. He was an outlier. He had the pedigree of being Hebrew, but none of the compassion of a people who were once in bondage and now free. He was a scholar of scripture, but was swayed by the Roman way of looking at the divine. Again, throughout scripture, we see that Paul, Saul, is seen as breathing out threats to other Jews. His own people, people who disagree with him, he is breathing out threats to them. Angry with anyone who does not believe his brand of religion. That they must be dealt with. That they are heretics.

12:31 They are branded as dangerous and you cannot allow those people to speak or they will corrupt the faith. Saul was a fundamentalist. Hmm. Ah, but there is an encounter here. An encounter that I must lift up before we continue in the scripture. that an encounter with a fundamentalist who believes that they are right and no one else can be right can turn a person away from their faith and can also leave a bad taste in your mouth. Whenever you run into someone, in the words of Dr. Wright, who says that ain't nobody right but us, you know that they are functioning with a dangerous type of faith tradition. It is our brother, by the name of Jared McKenna, who lives in Australia, an absolutely brilliant and wonderful minister, and a shout out to his family, to Cat and Noah, and to all of the children.

13:39 I heard Jared on a podcast some years ago, and he was defending the work of Trinity, and the preaching tradition of Jeremiah Wright. And he was on this podcast with a conservative pastor who was arguing that social justice is incompatible with the Bible. Jared did something that frustrated this person so much. He had the unmitigated gall to actually quote Jesus to this pastor. This fundamentalist got upset and could not in any way answer Jared. But it was a beautiful thing to witness somebody who has a deep abiding faith confront someone who says that ain't nobody right but us. See, when a person becomes so holy that they are no earthly good, don't waste your breath arguing. Just share the Jesus you know, the Jesus who looked beyond your faults and supplied your needs.

14:46 Just let them know, I don't have to justify my love of Christ and God's love of me to you. You are not the one who determines whether God covers me. Saul was such a person, not unlike this person that Jared ran into on this podcast. Saul was such a person that believed that nobody was right but him. But this is the strangeness of the text that I want to bring up to you. And how God rebuilds broken lives. Let me give you this because this thing just blesses me so. Is that God calls unlikely people. Let me say it again. God does not consult you. God does not consult me.

15:40 And whom God shall call. Ah, this man is called by God to do God's radical, progressive, prophetic work by the name of Saul. But he is an individual who is a fundamentalist who had been breathing out threats upon his own people. but God still said, I can use you. You see, divine selection is not the same as democratic election. You must see this, that it is Saul who is selected by God. And I must say this, I'm so glad that God does not consult us in reference to what God should do. I'm glad that God does not seek our approval. And we must recognize that we have a very limited view of who can be used by God.

16:45 God says that I'm going to use somebody who you thought was your enemy to end up being the person who will bless the world by the name of Saul. God can use anybody, anywhere, anytime. God so demands and chooses that we must release ourselves to relish in the sovereignty, let me say it again, the sovereignty of God, that God is sovereign. God does not need us. God is sovereign. God can make God's choices. God is sovereign. God can see beyond what we can see. God is sovereign. And God does not consult us on who God calls. You will notice that today I am wearing this pin. This pin right here. This is a pin of Bayard Rustin. He is one of the great luminaries of our history and one of the great sages of the civil rights and human rights movement. If you know anything about the civil rights movement, you will know it is not Dr.

17:53 Martin Luther King Jr. who organized and came up with the idea of the March on Washington, but it is A. Philip Randolph and this gentleman here by the name of Bayard Rustin who is the one who was the organizer around this. Why do I bring up Rustin? It's because for many, people said that Rustin should not be involved in the civil rights movement. It should find his way into the background because he was queer. But you see, Rustin was a Quaker and believed that God was beyond the doctrines that humanity is always creating. And I'm glad that God called Bayard Rustin because if God had not called Rustin, then Rustin would not have never sat down with Martin Luther King Jr. and said to him that it's one thing to have nonviolence as a tactic, but you must make it a philosophy of your life and became a teacher for Dr. King.

18:51 And as a result, it is King who attributes Rustin to his spiritual growth and his understanding of community organizing. But if in 1955 and 56 and 57, if you had passed out a ballot, they would have not marked Rustin's name because we don't look with the eyes that God has. God is sovereign. And I am so glad that God does not consult us. Saul is called by God a cruel but intelligent person of faith. And the first thing that we see within this text that we must understand that God calls unlikely people and that God can choose to call whomever God decides to call. But look what happens when God calls Saul.

19:58 It's not just simply saying, I've been called, therefore I must preach, therefore I must go. Saul has been involved in nefarious activity. He is the one who has been breathing out threats. He is looking for official papers to be able to drag people into religious court to claim that they are heretics because he is a fundamentalist. He believes that ideas are dangerous, that they don't expand our understanding of God, deepen our faith, but they pull us away. That any idea that is not within the orthodoxy pulls us away from our depth and understanding of God. And there he is riding to Damascus. There he is in his mind preparing to find people who do not fit the faith tradition upon the framing that he has created. When he hears a voice and he is knocked off of his horse, he hears the sound of Jesus saying to him, why do you persecute me?

21:08 That every time you harm another human being, that you are persecuting me. Do you not see that God is trying to expand this idea of love and compassion and justice and faithfulness? But here you are so concerned about your corner of religiosity. And there Paul is saying, how have I persecuted you? And this conversation within his spirit, we notice that God is saying to him that you have been persecuting me every time you persecute someone who is promoting and communicating the love of Christ. And Paul, after hearing this voice, opens his eyes after being knocked down off of his horse. Hmm. We could do a whole thing there that sometimes God has to knock you down from the pedestal you have placed yourself upon. When he opens his eyes, he cannot see.

22:09 He is blinded. And here's the principle that I want you to know, that sometimes the process to reach your godly potential is in the gauntlet of God removing something from you. Godly potential that you have. You have to walk through the gauntlet of removal. Blindness may be your pathway to your blessing because it is Saul who has his sight removed. And as a result of his sight being removed, he now is forced to become humble because he has to depend on someone else. And I say this to you on this day.

23:00 What has God removed from your life in order to humble you? we can get so arrogant that sometimes God must humble us and humble our spirit so that we know that we do not do things upon our own power, that we have to lean upon other people, that we are all interconnected and interwoven, and there should be a great humility in the way that we function every day that you don't do anything completely by yourself. I love the way, I love the way that Maya Angelou said it when Monica graduated from Spelman College. She said to every graduate at Spelman on that day, she said, I do not want you to go into your interviews and think that you go by yourself.

23:56 When you step into the interview room, don't you walk with your head held down, hanging your head. Know that you do not walk alone. When you step into that room, to the right of you will be Sojourner Truth speaking in your ear. To the left of you will be Harriet Tubman. Behind you will be your grandmothers and your ancestors. There's an entire room and a great cloud of witnesses. You do not do anything by yourself. And it is your responsibility to be humble enough to say thank you and recognize that other people are supporting you. and Saul is knocked off his horse and blinded. And now he must depend upon other people. This fundamentalist must now be dependent upon other people. He's blinded, but yet he's about to see in ways that he has never seen in his life.

24:58 And so often it is in the removal. It is in the brokenness where we receive our greatest lessons. Think for a moment. The times that God taught you some great things. It was not when you were standing on top of the mountain. It was when you were walking through the valley. It was not when you were at your best. It was when you were at your lowest moment. It was when the facade was broken down. the perception that we have of ourselves is cracked and then we find the true person we are and we turn that over to God this is what happened to Saul his fundamentalism was cracking the way in which he had been living was broken he had lived his life thinking he was right And at this moment, he is blinded and told, no, bro, you are wrong.

25:58 You must be one of compassion if you want to be able to be a representative of God. You must be one of love if you are to be one who is a representative of God. And how often has it been us? And I speak, I do not know who today, but I speak to you today. Those of us, those rule followers in the spiritual community who are skipping this principle because they believe that it is someone else. You know who you are. The one who has a high degree of authority with a dash of judgment. who is always right, that sometimes God has to remove some things and put some stress, anxiety, and pressure in your life so that you can be humble and know that you've got to depend on God. And to put Saul in this position where he is blinded, but something else happens at this particular moment, as he is blinded in this moment, this puts him in a position for the radical nature of repentance, where he returns back to God. He's broken down and then rebuilt. The fundamentalism is broken away. The idea that anybody who disagrees with me, I then have the right to breathe out murderous threats. All of this is broken away. He now has to embrace this idea of love and compassion and of being just and caring with individuals he comes in contact with, especially his own people.

27:42 Think about it now. It was Saul who was harshest with people who looked just like him, who practiced the same faith that he did, who he thought were going in the wrong direction. And so often, we can have our harshest criticism, the cruelest statements that we make to people we are closest to, the people in our family. We can be as sweet as pie to those folk we meet on the street, But when we come home, oh, we can just be an absolute terrorist, cruel in our communication, in the way that we communicate with our own loved ones. Sometimes God has to blind you and break you down so that you can be rebuilt in the image that God wants.

28:42 and repentance is a part of this. And as a result of this, Paul then fasts. And eventually we find out that Saul no longer has the name Saul. His new name is Paul. So you couldn't go back and be the same person. He has to get a new name. And that's what God will do when God breaks you down. God will give you a new name in your spirit and God will give you another chance. I've got to get on out of here, but I've got to give you this final thing, a very simple thing that is that is a part of our tradition. The God gives us another chance. I do not know who I'm speaking to this day, but I want you to know that whatever you have done, whatever ditch you have found yourself in, whatever valley you have walked through, Whatever challenge you have faced, whatever you have done, whatever you have committed, I'm here to let you know the God we serve will give you another chance.

29:50 As a matter of fact, God gives us more than one chance. God gives us two chances and three chances. And if I were to count this day, and if I could see you right now, you could count up on your fingers and run out of fingers and count up on your toes and run out of toes. that many times that God has given you another chance. And I don't know if there's someone in the chat that simply wants to give a shout that God gave you another chance after all that you have done and all that you have been through and the things that you have said and the places that you have been, God still pulls you back in and says, you are my child and I can use you. God will break you down and build you back up and give you a new name. I'm here to let you know that God will give you a new chance and God will rebuild our lives.

30:45 It's time for us to break down the fundamentalism that is keeping us from a deeper relationship with each other and with God. It's time for us to take in the lessons when God removes something from us, blinds us in order to bless us. and for us to enter into the radical nature of repentance and see how God gives us a second chance. I pray that this message blessed you today, that someone heard this word and you were touched by what God has placed in your spirit on this day. We welcome you if you want to become a part of Trinity United Church of Christ. this movement, movement of people who are unashamed and unapologetic, who are followers of the way.

31:42 We welcome you right now. Coming up on your screen is information. If you would like to email or to call us, we welcome you to be a part of this community. I end out this day with this simple prayer that I give to you on this day. I offer this to you on this final Sunday of this June as we are getting close to our outdoor worship experience and to worshiping in this house once again. May I pray with you and offer this. May God break down the fundamentalism and the dangers that we harbor in our heart when we think we have all the answers. May God bless you by sometimes removing things from you, by blinding you so that you can truly see.

32:46 And may the radical nature of repentance be bountiful in your heart. And never forget that God gives us a second chance. Hmm. A third chance. Hmm. A fourth chance. A fifth chance. A sixth chance. A seventh chance. that God keeps giving us chances over and over and snatching us back. May the road rise to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sunlight of Jesus Christ always grace your cheek and may rain gently fall upon your field. And may God keep you in the hollow of God's hand until we meet again.

33:42 May you go this day in peace and also in humility, knowing that you are made in the image of God, but you are also called, called to be a person, a spirit, an individual who will spread the beauty, the sacred beauty that comes through compassion. that comes through love and comes through just action. May God bless you and may God keep you. I'm Otis Moss. I will see you next week. Peace.