Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III | "When an Inclusive God Meets an Exclusive Church" 6PM 06/28/26

1:09:33 I'd like to place a tag here and for us to focus on this idea on today. For us to focus on this idea of when an inclusive God meets an exclusive church. when an inclusive God meets an exclusive church. It should be known, beloved, that we bring our understanding of God to the table, how we were raised, what we were taught. We bring our understanding of God to the table. One could say, as has been said by our ancestors, our God is so wide, we cannot get around our God.

1:10:34 Our God is so high, we cannot get over our God. We bring our understanding of God to the table, how we are raised. What we were taught is brought to the table to understand and connect with God. And as the preachers of old used to say, in order to talk about God, they would say, This God, this God of creation, and how vast this God is, they would say things such as, This God is the one who put the buzz in the bee, the sweet in the honey. Wet in the water, roar in the lion, slither in the snake, milk in the cow, crunch in the apple, laughter in the child, warmth in the elder. This God, the one who hung the morning stars in the heavens, this God, the one who put the dark in the night, light in the day, cold in the winter, and the dew upon morning leaves.

1:11:43 This God, the God of omnipresence and omniscience, the one who is before there was or was and shall be after there is no more. The God who sits high and looks low. The God who is so far east, he's actually walking west and stands so far north is actually standing in the south. The God of quantum physics who curates particles entangled in yesterday, today, and forevermore at the same time. The preachers of old use poetic proclamation to communicate what cannot be fully communicated with the limited human vocabulary that we have. They understood we serve an unknowable yet knowable spirit present yet beyond human capacity for full contemplation. What I love about this poetic communication is how theologians throughout history have grabbed hold of the symbolic yet grounded concepts that describe our God.

1:12:47 St. Augustine speaks that our God is a God of grace. Atheneas speaks the fact that Christ is human and at the same time divine. Aquinas speaks of creation and nature that if you want to know God, you need to walk in the woods sometimes to see and witness the beauty of God. Anselm says if you want to know God, you've got to learn how to atone to connect with God. Calvin says that you need to know that our God is a God of sovereignty. Barth says that our God is a God of revelation. Bonhoeffer says that in order to know God, you've got to be a disciple of Christ. Gutierrez says to know God, you've got to be on the side of the poor. Thurman says if you want to understand God, you've got to know the disinherited. That Cohn says if you want to understand God, you've got to know it's a God of liberation. And Dolores Williams says, if you want to understand God, you've got to know the marginalization of women so that you can learn what it means to be a womanist. That these theologians are always speaking about the diversity of understanding our God.

1:13:45 But I say this, that does the church, specifically the church in the space known as America, serve an expansive, unknowable, knowable God who causes us discomfort and forces us to grow and face our frailty, brokenness, and bigotry. Let me say it this way, that if you come in contact with God, it shouldn't always be hallelujah. Sometimes it's got to be, Lord, forgive me. That you will confront God and realize your own brokenness and your perspective can be destructive to the human personality. But I would say that maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe the church serves a doctrine about God that keeps us safe from confronting our bigotry and infantile theology. Maybe in this country, we prefer religious performance with ecclesiastical garments instead of walking with Christ as a disciple clothed in the garments of lifelong humility.

1:15:01 Our theology must evolve. Evolve. Yes, yes. It's called to evolve. God's godness always stays the same. But our understanding of God continues to expand because the more we learn and experience and witness, we gain a greater glimpse, but still only a fraction of the God we serve. When I was a child, I thought as a child, I acted as a child, I behaved as a child, but when I decided to grow up, I had to put away some childish things. everyone's theology should evolve or at the very least your assumptions should be confronted I may share that one of our brilliant and young children and students here at Trinity a young lady by the name of Sonny who is a part of our children's church and also a part of our dance ministry Sonny is a tremendous student and also loves math and loves art and when she started sharing about the fact she was learning math, she would talk about that she now knows what two plus two is. But it moved from two plus two to subtraction and then division and then multiplication and now fractions. And now she has an understanding of the basis of what we now would call algebra.

1:16:24 It was not that she put away what she first learned, but all of a sudden it began to expand and her understanding of math began to evolve, just as her art began to evolve. She learned how to just simply take a pencil and sketch and some crayons, but then she learned about perspective and depth of field and all of that. Her understanding of art began to evolve. And there is a wonderful book entitled The Widening of God's Mercy by Christopher Hayes and Richard Hayes, Father and Son, that talks about their journey of understanding that our God, not our God stays the same, but our understanding of God begins to shift, that they begin to understand that God's mercy is ever widening. And so it brings me to this. If I may get into some holy mischief today, dive into some good trouble. I'm just going to get into some trouble today. I'm fine. I'm going to get some trouble today. Let me make a few statements that will certainly get me into trouble with some people. Let me say it here that we serve an inclusive God who loves God's people, God's creation, and wants to see humanity flourish and function with moral agency and moral imagination rooted in Christ. But if I'm truly honest, our inclusive God that we serve an inclusive God but but the church is exclusive there is a clash a disruption I believe that happens when the inclusive God encounters the exclusion of the church another way to say it is that uh when uh folk who follow Christ bump into church folk you'll get it when you go home the inclusive god is a is problematic for uh american exclusive church the inclusive god is problematic for the american exclusive church and if i may be so bold and borrow from the work of dr jeremiah a right jr he says that the black church has participated

1:18:33 in harming black people who do not fit the heteronormative frames of orientation okay i'm to keep getting into trouble, so let me go farther here. Let me put it this way. James Baldwin, without a doubt, is one of the greatest writers to ever walk on this soil called America. Yet, he would not. He would be excluded from the church and considered outside of God's love, care, anointing, and blessing. You still missed it. Bayard Rustin, without a question, one of the greatest community and civil rights organizers to be born on this soil of North America. Yet, those in the church would say that he's outside of God's love, caring, anointing, and blessing. You're still missing it. Audrey Lord, without argument, is one of the most gifted cultural critics to ever live in the space we call America. But because of her orientation, there are those in the church that would say she is outside of God's care and anointing. You're still missing it.

1:19:30 Langston Hughes, without dispute, is the poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance and the dean of poetic craft for black America, but would be excluded by churches and considered to be outside of God's love, anointing, and blessing. Pauli Murray, without debate, one of the greatest lawyers and ministers to ever walk in America. It was Thurgood Marshall who had to study her work, and now even today, the legal defense fund of the NAACP has to study what she does. But she would be considered to be outside of the love of God by some. You're still missing it. Alvin Ailey, without a doubt, the greatest choreographer in America. But many will say that he walks outside of the love of God. The church will co-opt people's gifts, but then reject their humanity. All right. Still missed it. Let me say it this way so you understand what I'm saying.

1:20:38 I've never seen I've never seen a preacher, never seen a church, never seen a preacher that practices exclusion, that is always talking stuff from the pulpit. I've never seen a preacher return a tithe from anyone from the LGBTQIA community. You'll take the gift, but then reject their humanity. We serve an inclusive God, but we worship in exclusive churches. The Southern Baptist Convention.

1:21:25 Yeah, them. the Southern Baptist Convention Reverend Rice in 2026 had a vote to say that women cannot preach they need to be silent in the church in 2026 obviously they never consulted God because the last time I checked my Bible the first one at the tomb who showed up to find out that Jesus was resurrected was a sister and the sister had to go tell the brothers that Jesus was resurrected, which means the first Easter sermon was preached by a...

1:22:28 For many of our churches, to be same gender, loving, any letter in the alphabet is to be invisible. So let me get into more trouble. Don't send me no emails. Don't do that. I'm going to say what I'm going to say, and I'm standing ten toes down on what I'm going to say. All right? Say what I'm going to say. The Bible, listen to what I'm saying. The Bible does not have any scripture that speaks to same-gender attraction as we know it today, co-equal consenting adults. The term homosexuality was added to the Bible through a mistranslation of the New Revised Standard Version in 1946. I did not say the Bible does not speak about sex.

1:23:27 I said it does not speak. There's no scripture that speaks to same gender attraction as we know it today. As we must understand that I'm not saying that it does not speak about sex, but it does speak about does not speak about same gender attraction. As we know it and understand it today as consensual co-equal people, there is an there is in scripture unequal exploitive relations that it speaks of, but not what we are talking about today. But there's somebody going to send me a note and say, Reverend, it's an abomination. Well, I'm glad you brought that up. It's interesting that people want to lift up one scripture, but then drop other scriptures. So the last time I checked, when you quote Leviticus and bring that up, you then jump over where it says you shouldn't eat pork. So you still got ham hocks in your greens, eating pork chops on the weekend, but then you want to lift up one scripture.

1:24:37 Or then you jump over the scripture about eating shrimp. You still go into Red Lobster, getting your fried shrimp, barbecue shrimp, your shrimp po' boy, whatever. even in scripture it says that you should not wear mixed fiber clothing that that is an abomination but no one stopped wearing polyester or spandex or anything else we hold certain scriptures up and then we make the claim that we're being biblical We are selective and we are exclusive, but we are not Christ-centered. In all of the gospel, Christ does not exclude or marginalize or hurt God's people. If I may quote Dr. Jeremiah Wright in his book, Good News from 1995, he says it this way, quote, My Bible does not say, for God so loves some of the world or most of the world that he gave his only begotten son that any heterosexual who believes in me, my Bible says all the world and whosoever, not those I like, whosoever, not those who like me, whosoever, I refuse to limit my God, to lock God into my cultural understanding.

1:26:04 because culture is fickle and culture is often wrong. Culture was wrong about slavery. Culture was wrong about women. Culture was wrong about Africans. Culture was wrong about Indians. And culture was wrong about our Christ. I refuse to limit my God, to lock my God into little cultural prisons, no matter how comfortable those prisons may feel. Exclusion is rooted in our humanity, not in what is holy. So let me get to the scripture here. You shall love the Lord your God with what? All your heart. With all your soul. And with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.

1:27:01 And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. And Jesus is communicating to a group of fundamentalists, if I may translate it, Pharisees. And Jesus is operating as the midrash or interpreter of scripture, pushing back fundamentalism. Because fundamentalism always functions with a level of certainty and says, I'm right, you wrong. And he's telling church folk, you know the scripture, you can repeat the scripture. And that is what a lot of people can do.

1:27:58 You're good at quoting, but not understanding meaning. But not the heart of scripture. And Jesus is trying to let them know that in order for you to understand scripture, if you don't get the fact that you love the Lord, your God, right, you can't understand anything else. And if you can't get loving your neighbor and loving yourself, well, let me help you out. It's easy to say, I love the Lord, that you can shout in church, I love the Lord. But if you really want to love the Lord, Scripture is saying, you've got to learn how to love your neighbor. But before you can love your neighbor, you've got to know how to love yourself. If you can't love your black self, you can't love your neighbor.

1:28:56 If you can't love who you are, you can't love the person next to you. Is there anyone in here? Do you know we are called to love ourselves? So Jesus, Jesus is performing hermeneutical surgery. For those who do not, that seminary term, hermeneutical, hermeneutic simply means interpretation. Everyone brings an interpretation to bear. How you were raised, what you were taught. Jesus is giving a new hermeneutic. To look at Scripture through the lens of love. So stop trying to quote until you first understand the greatest commandment and look at Scripture through the lens of Jesus. He's giving a new hermeneutic. He's raising this question because often, especially in America, we have a hermeneutic of harm and certainty.

1:29:56 That's how we got here. I'm not talking how you got here this morning. I'm talking that's how we got to America was a hermeneutic of harm and certainty. There were those who believed that those people of African descent were people who needed to be in chains. It was a hermeneutic of harm and certainty. The idea of manifest destiny that you are to take the land of indigenous people is a hermeneutic of harm and certainty. That women should not preach. That they should be silent is a hermeneutic of harm and certainty. What is happening in Gaza is a hermeneutic of harm and certainty. That there are those theologically who are saying that we are to bomb, we are to harm. Over 21,000 children who have died as a result.

1:30:57 A hermeneutic of harm and certainty. And Jesus is pushing back on this hermeneutic of harm and certainty. Because when you function with certainty, you don't need God. Let me help you out. Faith is not certainty. Because if you have certainty, you don't need faith. Because if you're certain, it's not faith. Faith is risk. Faith is trust. Faith means I'm not sure what's going to happen. but I trust in my God and so we must have a hermeneutic not of certainty but Jesus is raising the question of having a hermeneutic of curiosity curiosity is a hermeneutic that says you know what I've been listening and I want to raise some questions and it is already it is okay to raise questions in reference to your faith growth and development and there is one person in the Bible that speaks of this idea a person by the name of Nicodemus Nicodemus shows up at night to have a conversation with Jesus.

1:32:03 And I know preachers are always beating him over the head. He showed up at night and whatnot. But at least Nicodemus showed up to have a conversation with Jesus. He said, I've been hearing about what you've been saying. And I want to know what I need to do to transform my life. Jesus talks to him about the idea of being born again. And we don't hear from Nicodemus. until the time that Jesus dies. And tradition says that Nicodemus was one of the pallbearers that take him to his grave, that something happened in that conversation. A hermeneutic of curiosity. When you move from harm and certainty, you move to a hermeneutic of curiosity. But then when you're a hermeneutic of curiosity, you will move to a hermeneutic of liberation. Thurman talks about the idea of the ethic of love as he began to question some of the theology that had been presented to him, he listened to one of the greatest theologians in his life by the name of his grandmother.

1:33:07 And learning what his grandmother had said and doing an examination of Jesus, he then began to understand that Jesus is for those who have their backs against the wall and began to develop a hermeneutic of liberation. Well, I'm about done, y'all. I'm going to let y'all go. I've gotten into enough trouble today. But can I share with you what Jesus was saying as he's saying here are the two greatest commandments. This one, that you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and spirit. That you must love your neighbor as yourself. He's saying simply this, a very simple thing that I give to you. He's saying God created us. in other words being different is not deficient he's saying that God created us when you have this understanding that God has created us that it says in scripture that we are all knitted in our mother's womb that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and that means that James Baldwin is fearfully and wonderfully made Bayard Rustin is fearfully and wonderfully made Audrey Lord is fearfully and wonderfully made. Langston Hughes is fearfully and wonderfully made. Pauli Murray is fearfully and wonderfully made. Alvin Ailey is fearfully and wonderfully made. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Your neighbor is fearfully and wonderfully made. The one behind you is fearfully and wonderfully made. The one in front of you is fearfully and wonderfully made.

1:34:43 We are fearfully and wonderfully made, created by our God. But then Jesus is not just telling us that we are created, but when you understand that we are created by God, we understand that God loves us. God's love doesn't have a period next to it. God's love doesn't have a comma and says, but a conjunction next to it. It extends to all. You are loved. You are worthy. You are gifted. You are welcome in this house. When you know that we have been made in the image of God, you will not try to place yourself on the throne of God, talking about who has the right to the love of God. We've been made by God, and God loves us. When we learn how to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, our mind, our spirit, and learn to love our neighbor as ourselves.

1:35:46 But finally, I must give you this, that when you know that God creates us and know that God loves us, then you find out that our Christ redeems us. Redeems us all. Not redeems some, but redeems everybody. And if I may close with a story from Dr. Wright once again. Dr. Wright's book shares some good news. Dr. Wright tells the story of Tony Campolo, sharing the experience of a friend of his who was a pastor in a small church near a funeral home. Whenever somebody died who did not have a church home, the funeral director would call the local pastor, Dr. Campolo's friend, to come to the funeral and officiate. One day the mortician called the minister and asked him to officiate for the home going of a man who was gay, who died of AIDS. When this young pastor arrived at the funeral, he witnessed 20 men sitting upon the pew staring blankly into space.

1:36:49 They barely greeted him. They never changed their expressions. At the cemetery, they stood there motionless, silent, frozen, and bewildered by the death of a friend at the height of the AIDS pandemic in America. Dr. Wright states that after the casket was lowered and the preacher turned to leave, he looked back and they were still standing there saying nothing, just staring, bewildered, and silent. Finally, one young man spoke up and asked the preacher to read the 23rd Psalm. According to Tony Campolo, he said these words. When I got up this morning to come to this funeral, I was looking forward to somebody reading the 23rd Psalm. I figured that's what they are supposed to do at a funeral, read the 23rd Psalm. So he read the 23rd Psalm.

1:37:43 The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not walk but then when he got to yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Dr. Wright shares the story that he stayed over an hour this young pastor as 20 men stayed at the graveside as he read passages of scripture Dr. Wright then shifts as in his writing and gives his own experience of having to share passages of scripture at funerals to those who have been infected and affected by hiv and those who had full-blown aids he shared you said scripture for those who are born with a different orientation the scripture hits different i paraphrase what he says he said scripture hits different when you use it over time to hit people over the head scripture hits different But for those who've been marginalized, harmed and excluded, broken and bruised, for those who've been left on the margins, when they hear the word of God, something happens in their spirit.

1:38:57 And Dr. Wright says that he now has to read scripture. It reads and sounds different. He says for those who've been marginalized, when you say Psalm 27, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Dr. Wright then goes on to say, I thought about a friend of mine who was gay and claimed. That verse 10 hit him different. When he said this, he said, When my mother and my father forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Psalm 34 says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise will continually be in my mouth. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. Psalm 37 says, Fred not thyself because of evildoers.

1:39:54 Neither be thou envious against workers of iniquity. Psalm 46 says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Psalm 51 says, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according unto thy multiple tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 90 says, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place of all generations. Psalm 91 says, he that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. But Dr. Wright says, when he went on to say that the men in the story and many other like them are hungry for the word of God.

1:40:55 They know they can't get the word in most churches. And many churches are too busy trying to exclude people. But if I may, as I close, to say this here, that God created us, God loves us, and our Christ re-