Welcome to our worship service for January 31, 2021.
My name is Danny Bradfield. My pronouns are he, him, his. I’m pastor of Bixby Knolls Christian Church, and I am blessed and honored by your presence with us for today’s online worship service. Even though we continue to be physically separated, these services are a reminder that we are not alone.
We're pretty casual around here...but today I decided to wear a tie… because today, we at Bixby Knolls Christian Church celebrate 75 years of ministry! That’s right - today, we “level-up.” We’re now three-quarters of a century old!
It was on the last Sunday of January in 1946 that our first worship service was held. As far as I know, we haven’t missed a Sunday since, which means today is our 3,915th consecutive Sunday worship service, and I’m so glad you’re here to share this day with us.
Love for our neighbor compels us to continue worshiping online only. At some point later this year, if conditions allow, we hope to have a big, in-person celebration. But the fact that we are not able to gather in-person today does not diminish the joy and the gratitude we feel for having reached this very special day.
In the midst of our celebration, we do not forget the many injustices and sorrows of this world. We do not forget the lives lost to COVID-19; or the ongoing oppression and injustice our nation commits against people of color; or the sinful, immoral economic inequality that exists in our nation; or that climate change poses a very real threat to humanity; or that discrimination against women, immigrants, trans people, gays and lesbians still exists.
We do not forget that God calls us to fight against these evils in our society.
But it is good and proper for us to celebrate the joys in our life, and to celebrate with gratitude to God. This week in Liberating Love, a daily devotional by Sandhya Jha, I read that in a time such as this, “when so much evil is afoot, celebration and thanksgiving are acts of resistance against evil forces, empires of destruction, and cultures of violence and hate.”
So even as we continue working to bring God’s justice into the world, let us also celebrate the ministry of Bixby Knolls Christian Church.
I’d like to remind you that at that first worship service 75 years ago, a statement was read in which this congregation affirmed its commitment to the whole community. This church was not founded solely for the benefit of its members, but for the benefit of those who are not members.
That statement also affirmed that though this congregation is in covenant with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), it welcomes anyone - Disciple or not - to participate in the life of the congregation.
75 years later, our commitment to our community - and the inclusive, affirming nature of our worship - continue.
For the past two decades (or so) one thing that has guided our congregation has been our mission statement, which is “to seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.” This statement is the first thing you see when you go to our church website, BixbyKnollsChurch.com.
It is, of course, based on Micah 6:8, which is part of the reading we just heard.
Micah (who wrote the book that bears his name) was a prophet, whose heart and mind were closely aligned with the heart and mind of God.
Prophets had this passion and this connection which allowed them to feel what God was feeling. Knowing that there were things happening that God was not OK with kept the prophets from sleeping at night. And in Micah’s society, there was a lot going on that God wasn’t OK with.
In Micah’s time, there was great economic prosperity - but only those at the top were benefitting. Only the 1% got to enjoy the nation’s wealth. They knew how to game the system, and the system was skewed in their favor.
So while the rich were living it up, the poor were languishing. They did not share in the nation’s success. They were left out. They were suffering.
As a prophet, Micah knew this was wrong. Micah knew God was offended by such an economic system.
So, like a savvy reddit user, Micah went into action. Micah stood up for the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden. Micah told the elite how immoral they were, because of the unjust economic system they had created. He said that God was especially upset with them.
Now, when you confront the privileged & powerful, the privileged & powerful are going to try to discredit you.
One of the privileged & powerful people sent a message to Micah, saying: “OK, Mr. Smartypants. Fine. What should we do? What is it that God wants? Should we offer to God a thousand rams, or ten thousand rivers of oil? Or maybe you think we should offer up our very own children, our first-born sons, to God?”
And Micah messaged back: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what is required!”
And yes, it’s true… God has told the people. The law, the prophets, all bear witness to what God wants.
Later, Jesus would bear the same witness.
What is required - Micah said - is to seek justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.
What does this mean?
To seek justice means to seek what is right.
To love kindness means - among other things - to seek what is right for your neighbor, and especially for your most vulnerable neighbor. The poor that you have been oppressing - stop oppressing them, and instead, seek what is right for them! That’s what love does.
To walk humbly means we admit that we are still growing. Still learning. It means that we allow room for doubt as well as for belief.
Seek justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly.
One of you asked me this week about liberation theology, so I’m going to talk about that for a minute, because liberation theology is theology that seeks justice.
Traditionally, the starting place for theology in western Christianity has been in seminaries and universities; but liberation theology - taking its cue from prophets like Micah - starts with the poor, the disenfranchised people of the earth. According to liberation theology, that’s where you start. That’s where you start to understand God.
Liberation theology insists that God has a preferential option for the poor. That’s a phrase you hear a lot in liberation theology: “God’s preferential option for the poor.”
The world says: “Look at the rich and famous! Look at the winners! Look at the people at the top!” But liberation theology points out that, in the Bible, the focus is on the people at the bottom. The poor. The outcasts. The least of these.
Liberation theology began in Latin America. People like Gustavo Gutierrez, a Peruvian priest who visited my seminary when I was a student, and spoke to my class - I remember him saying to us that he was not ordained to be minister of liberation theology - he was ordained to be a minister of the gospel. But of course, when we read the gospel, we do see that preferential option for the poor, over and over and over again.
Oscar Romero became a liberation theologian, almost by accident. As he became aware of the situation of the poor and the oppressed in his country of El Salvador, he became an outspoken advocate on their behalf… until he was assassinated one day while presiding at mass.
From there, other forms of liberation theology emerged. African American liberation theology explores the gospel through the lens of Black oppression in the United States. Feminist liberation theology explores the gospel, using the oppression of women as a starting point. Queer liberation theology explores the gospel from the point of view of oppressed sexual minorities.
And since Jesus said that he is present in the least of these, each of these forms of theology is a true, legitimate way of understanding the gospel. Eventually people began to understand that what has been called “traditional” theology is actually male, european theology, because it starts from the point of view of male European scholars, and later, American scholars.
Liberation theology began in the 20th century, but it’s not so different from what Micah preached. Those who came to Micah asking “What does God want?” had an understanding of God that was rooted in their privileged lifestyle. Micah flipped that around, pointing out that true theology, and true worship, starts among the underprivileged, the poor, the least of these.
Until you direct your attention to them and do what is right by them, you will fail to offer to God the worship God desires. Do you want to understand God? Start by understanding the situation of the poor and the oppressed, and do what you can to show God’s love to them.
Another way that many churches try to approach gospel and a life of faith is through written belief statements. Many congregations have a long list of faith statements that covers almost every conceivable thing, from creation and evolution, to sexuality, to the virgin birth, to how scripture should be understood and interpreted. And it is expected that every member of that congregation agrees with all those statements of belief.
But walking humbly - as Micah says - means not assuming you have all the answers. It means questioning some of those beliefs. Loving kindness and walking humbly means questioning how those beliefs help (or hinder) the love one shows to one’s neighbor.
I don’t recall Jesus ever saying, “Follow me, but first here’s a set of beliefs you have to agree to…” I do remember Jesus saying: “Follow me - and love your neighbor.”
Which means that - contrary to popular belief - a heretic isn’t someone who fails to believe certain things; a heretic is someone who fails to love.
There is no way I can say everything that can be said about Micah 6:8 in one sermon. I think I’ve already made a bit of a jumbled mess of things! There’s so much.
So I encourage you - in your time of silent prayer and meditation - to ponder these things; what does it mean to seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly in our world?
Don’t worry about getting answers right away. Walking humbly often means just dwelling with the questions. Walking humbly means that, after pondering and thinking and praying, you say to yourself, “these are good questions. I’ll ponder them some more next time.”
This is a very deep, next-level type of theology. The new book by Brian McLaren titled “Faith After Doubt” really helps explain this deeper way of doing theology. As you work through figuring these things out, questioning, wondering, it may feel like much of what you learned in the past needs to be taken apart, and put back together in a whole new way.
Unfortunately, a lot of churches don’t encourage that kind of thinking. They don’t want you to take anything apart, much less put it back together in a whole new way. And a lot of people end up leaving the church because they can’t find a place that will allow them to go deeper, and explore their questions, their doubts, their wonderings.
They need a place, a community, that will sit with them in their questions and even their doubts, and to ponder with them the deeper meaning of things.
Bixby Knolls Christian Church (I think) is on its way to being such a place.
Over the past 75 years, Bixby Knolls Christian Church has itself grown and evolved. I know that in my time here, which is almost 13 years now, we have sought that next-level way of thinking, that next-level way of doing ministry, and that next-level way of pondering the mysteries of God.
We know that it’s about more than just saying “I believe” to a written set of statements. It’s about truly pondering and questioning and figuring out: How can we best seek justice in our world today? How can we best love our neighbor with kindness? How can we walk more humbly with God?
I am thankful for a congregation that encourages my own theological and spiritual growth, a congregation that encourages all who are a part of it to engage in their own next-level way of growing in faith.
It is a way of being a church and doing the work of ministry that really does lead us to seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly. This journey is never-ending. I’m thankful to be on that journey with you; and I’m excited to see where it leads us next.
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