WEBVTT 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:19.000 [BLANK_AUDIO] 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:23.320 You know what, I'm gonna start here, so I'm gonna begin somewhere a little more 00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:28.440 gentle, not because what's happening in the world right now is gentle, but 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:31.680 because I think how we enter the conversation matters. 00:00:31.680 --> 00:00:41.880 And we live in a moment where everything feels very reactive. 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:47.200 Everything's urgent, everything demands a take. 00:00:50.860 --> 00:00:52.760 And you guys know me, I'm not gonna not say something. 00:00:52.760 --> 00:00:56.520 [LAUGH] 00:00:56.520 --> 00:01:02.560 But what I don't want to do today is simply add more adrenaline 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:04.760 to the community that's already tired. 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:11.720 So instead, I wanna help us maybe understand something a little deeper. 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:15.920 We'll ask some questions today. 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:22.200 Maybe give some framework to how we can navigate through the world right now. 00:01:26.160 --> 00:01:32.600 The first question I wanna ask is, why do moments like 00:01:32.600 --> 00:01:36.920 the ones we keep experiencing land so 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:39.800 differently for different people? 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:45.080 What are moments like the ones we keep experiencing land so 00:01:45.080 --> 00:01:50.000 differently on different people, why do we experience these things differently? 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:53.640 What does some people move immediately toward naming harm, while others 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:57.960 instinctively move towards silence or explanation or 00:01:57.960 --> 00:02:05.960 defense, not to excuse harm, not to avoid accountability? 00:02:05.960 --> 00:02:12.160 But so that we can become the kind of community that knows how to move 00:02:12.160 --> 00:02:17.560 toward repair instead of getting trapped in endless cycles of outrage, 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:24.440 despair, division, I want us to kind of take a breath. 00:02:24.440 --> 00:02:27.960 If you were here last week, I didn't come at this in that same posture. 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:34.400 And some of the anger in the frustration has not gone away, but 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:41.640 I'm trying to reposition, reposture myself and I think maybe we can do this together. 00:02:43.640 --> 00:02:49.960 A lot of you guys know this, I am a 20-year college student. 00:02:53.440 --> 00:03:02.360 I am, I'm actually, I'm back in school, I'm on my second semester back in college. 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:04.960 I'm a senior, but I've been a senior for a very long time. 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:07.560 >> [LAUGH] 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:10.480 >> Yeah, thanks man. 00:03:10.480 --> 00:03:17.120 Monty said senior citizen, which is how I feel in most of my classes right now. 00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:20.480 >> [LAUGH] 00:03:20.480 --> 00:03:24.720 >> Half the professors I'm older than, I'm like, and they got PhDs. 00:03:24.720 --> 00:03:29.400 I'm like, okay, but I'm back in school. 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:34.280 I went back to school for psychology and I'm always going to love psychology, 00:03:34.280 --> 00:03:36.560 but I really fell in love with it, you guys know this. 00:03:37.920 --> 00:03:43.080 So a lot of studying that I'm doing right now is, just on psychology, 00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:49.640 on how our brains work, how our minds work, how we enter into life and relationships. 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:56.720 I actually, this week, had a meeting with one of my professors, 00:03:56.720 --> 00:04:00.240 who's a research PhD that's at the school. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:05.060 And he's, he does research on like positive social psychology, 00:04:05.060 --> 00:04:12.160 empathy and kindness and compassion, yeah, that's the first semester I was there. 00:04:12.160 --> 00:04:17.160 I got asked to help in a lab, which is like a, like really, it's an honor. 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:20.320 I think they're just like, this guy's old, so he might actually focus. 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:26.480 But the first lab, and I'm still in this lab, but 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:33.240 the professor, her psychological, or her psychology focus is on relationships, 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:35.820 on intimate relationships, but on the negative sides. 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:42.400 So it's very dark, and I'm not a dark person, that's just not. 00:04:42.400 --> 00:04:46.000 So it's an interesting place for me, and 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:54.120 I'm also the only guy in the entire lab, which is real weird. 00:04:54.120 --> 00:04:57.680 So they say like negative things and then they just look at me and I'm like, yeah, 00:04:57.680 --> 00:04:58.880 that's my people. 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:07.800 But this other lab that I was meeting with a professor this week, and 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:13.480 he's doing some work with an organization called the Templeton Trust in England. 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:22.560 And they're doing this really cool research on how our idea of who God is. 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:28.040 And the characteristics of God affect how we see not only ourselves with the world, 00:05:28.040 --> 00:05:32.880 and from a psychological, like empirical study, like how is this affecting people? 00:05:32.880 --> 00:05:36.880 If we see God as a punisher, as someone who is constantly a judge and 00:05:36.880 --> 00:05:41.080 there to catch us when we do something wrong, how does that affect us? 00:05:42.120 --> 00:05:47.040 If we see God as a loving God, a caring God, a compassionate God, how does that affect us? 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:49.760 If we're kind of caught between, how does that affect us? 00:05:49.760 --> 00:05:52.900 And he was like, do you think this is something you want to be in? 00:05:52.900 --> 00:05:58.000 Like you'd be in too, it's like, yes, that's why I'm here. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:03.740 So, I say all that to say, you're going to get some psychology today. 00:06:03.740 --> 00:06:06.000 But I think it's good. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:11.440 Because one of the things that psychology has helped me see, I think more clearly, 00:06:11.440 --> 00:06:15.320 is that we don't experience reality directly. 00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:22.720 We experience it through lenses, through our nervous systems, through our stories, 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:28.400 through our communities, and whether we realize it or not through our image of God. 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:39.440 What we believe God is like, like quietly shapes what feels faithful to us when things break. 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:49.920 There's a moment in the gospels where Jesus names this kind of dynamic with real clarity. 00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:54.920 And we miss this, I think, a lot. 00:06:54.920 --> 00:06:58.840 But I want to read it to you, and we'll keep going through this. 00:06:58.840 --> 00:07:03.840 John 5, verse 39, it says, 00:07:03.840 --> 00:07:08.440 "You have your heads and your bibles, constantly. 00:07:08.440 --> 00:07:11.920 Because you think you'll find eternal life there. 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:15.040 But you miss the forest for the trees. 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:18.680 These scriptures are all about me. 00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:22.600 And here I am, standing right before you. 00:07:22.600 --> 00:07:26.680 And you aren't willing to receive from me the life you say you want." 00:07:29.400 --> 00:07:31.800 I think this line should stop us. 00:07:33.720 --> 00:07:37.160 Jesus isn't criticizing their devotion to Scripture. 00:07:37.160 --> 00:07:41.000 He's speaking to some religious elite, people that know the Word, they know the Scripture, 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:43.800 they're well versed. 00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:47.000 And I don't believe he's criticizing their devotion to Scripture. 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:52.040 I think he's saying something far more confronting to them. 00:07:52.040 --> 00:07:57.560 You can be immersed in the text and still miss the living presence 00:07:57.560 --> 00:08:01.080 of God standing right in front of you. 00:08:01.080 --> 00:08:08.840 You can become so focused on the forest, and you miss the tree in front of you. 00:08:12.440 --> 00:08:18.520 The tree that is its beauty, its suffering, its dignity, the thing right in front of you, you miss it. 00:08:21.640 --> 00:08:26.680 Or another way to say it, you can be focused on protecting the crowd 00:08:28.440 --> 00:08:29.880 and completely miss the face. 00:08:33.640 --> 00:08:38.280 In this theme, it runs through Jesus' life, religion obsessed with categories, 00:08:38.280 --> 00:08:42.600 systems and order, Jesus is obsessed with faces and people. 00:08:44.600 --> 00:08:49.400 And it connects directly to the story, in fact we talked about it last week. 00:08:50.440 --> 00:08:55.960 In Mark 8, verse 23, Jesus heals a blind man. 00:08:55.960 --> 00:08:58.440 And he doesn't in the two stages, we talked about this, 00:08:58.440 --> 00:09:03.800 after the first healing of this blind man, and again, if you missed the last week, 00:09:03.800 --> 00:09:06.040 this is the only time that Jesus heals someone twice. 00:09:08.520 --> 00:09:16.360 So he heals this blind man, he spits on the man's eyes and he puts his hands on him. 00:09:18.680 --> 00:09:20.920 And Jesus says, do you see anything? 00:09:23.400 --> 00:09:28.920 And the guy looks up and he said, I see people, but they look like trees walking around. 00:09:30.680 --> 00:09:34.120 Once more, Jesus puts his hands on the man's eyes, then his eyes were opened, 00:09:34.120 --> 00:09:36.600 his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 00:09:37.160 --> 00:09:41.240 Jesus sent him home saying, don't even go into the village. 00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:48.280 He heals him, he's not blind anymore, but it's distorted. 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:55.720 It's partial sight, and Jesus doesn't shame him for that, he touches him again, 00:09:55.720 --> 00:09:57.400 and then the man sees clearly. 00:09:59.640 --> 00:10:03.000 Again, we talked about last week, but I think the story tells us something important, 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:08.920 that clear vision is often the process, and Jesus is patient with people 00:10:11.160 --> 00:10:12.920 who are still trying to learn how to see. 00:10:14.520 --> 00:10:22.360 I think for a lot of us, a lot of Christians, we see people as trees right now, 00:10:23.480 --> 00:10:35.160 as categories, as we see it, system. We're not seeing clearly. There's another story 00:10:35.880 --> 00:10:40.280 that's super similar, that we see kind of the same dynamic play out, but we see a little bit 00:10:40.280 --> 00:10:46.120 more perspectives happening here. And John 9, there's this man, he's born blind, 00:10:47.160 --> 00:10:52.920 and the disciples immediately asked Jesus. They say, as he went along, he saw a man 00:10:54.440 --> 00:11:00.840 blind from birth, his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who send this man or his parents 00:11:01.480 --> 00:11:02.680 that he was born blind? 00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:13.000 It's a system question, it's a category question, like what messed up in this person's life that 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:20.680 made them be blind? Was it him, his actions, was it his parents? Something had to have made this 00:11:20.680 --> 00:11:28.440 happen. Jesus, what happened? And Jesus completely rejects the premise entirely, 00:11:30.280 --> 00:11:37.560 he just heals the man. He doesn't answer that question. In fact, he heals, I mean, he says, 00:11:37.560 --> 00:11:43.240 all right, we'll get into it. But then the religious leaders enter the story. So he heals the man, 00:11:43.240 --> 00:11:47.400 he doesn't answer the disciples' questions. Now the religious leaders find out about this, 00:11:48.840 --> 00:11:52.520 which is probably why in the other story, Jesus said, don't even go into the village, just go home. 00:11:53.560 --> 00:11:55.720 You don't want to deal with this, trust me. 00:11:59.880 --> 00:12:04.520 So the religious leaders, they enter the story because Jesus had healed this man on the Sabbath. 00:12:06.120 --> 00:12:12.360 So they interrogate the man. So they interrogate his parents. In fact, when they're talking to his 00:12:12.360 --> 00:12:16.520 parents, they're like, look, he's a grown man, ask him the question. We're not trying to get in 00:12:16.520 --> 00:12:26.120 trouble here. They argue about Sabbath law. They're so focused on these rules that they miss this 00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:32.440 person standing right in front of them. A human being whose life has just completely changed, 00:12:32.440 --> 00:12:41.240 has been, his sight has been restored. And they asked the man, was this man a sinner? What do you 00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:46.120 think? They're asking this guy about Jesus now. I mean, he healed you on the Sabbath. That is a sin 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:53.080 under our law. Is he a sinner? And the man who just had his life changed is standing in front 00:12:53.080 --> 00:12:58.680 of these religious people trying to explain or answer their questions. He's like, these are 00:12:58.680 --> 00:13:08.280 stupid questions. He finally says, whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know, 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:20.600 I was blind, but now I see. And you know what they did? They expelled him. They said, get out of here. 00:13:21.800 --> 00:13:26.360 There was no celebration. There was no, because they're missing the humanity, 00:13:28.920 --> 00:13:35.480 because they're stuck in the system. Later, Jesus tells these same religious elite, 00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:43.640 if you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. But now that you claim to see your blindness 00:13:43.640 --> 00:13:51.080 remains, yeah, you don't see clearly, but you think you do. And that's the problem. 00:13:54.840 --> 00:14:01.720 Jesus is saying the danger isn't blindness. The danger is thinking that you see clearly when you 00:14:01.720 --> 00:14:17.080 don't. It's because religious blindness doesn't come from ignoring scriptures. It actually comes 00:14:17.080 --> 00:14:27.960 from obsessing over systems while missing people. So here's what I want us to understand deeply. 00:14:28.920 --> 00:14:40.280 Blindness usually isn't born out of cruel meanness, cruelty, cruelty. Man, there's my 00:14:41.800 --> 00:14:50.360 every once in a while, my little country accent. What's the other one I say? Oh, that ruined it. 00:14:55.240 --> 00:15:01.560 Nate Barghatsy, a comedian in this traveling right now, just saw one of his newer kind of ads. 00:15:01.560 --> 00:15:08.760 He's coming to San Antonio, I think next month. I tried to get tickets. They're crazy. It's like 00:15:08.760 --> 00:15:18.040 900 bucks. But the joke that I saw, he was like, you know, we use this word in the south, 00:15:20.680 --> 00:15:26.840 oh, I'm gonna change my old. He's like, you think like a community college in the south, 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:35.240 like that would be one of the first things we fix. Like, oh, I'll oil. It's all. Anyway, 00:15:36.520 --> 00:15:42.120 sometimes it happens to us. Let's go back. Religious blindness doesn't come from ignoring 00:15:42.120 --> 00:15:46.520 scripture. It comes from obsessing over systems while missing people. 00:15:49.400 --> 00:15:57.800 It's not born out of wanting to be mean. It's born out of fear, out of longing for belonging, 00:15:59.800 --> 00:16:06.040 and out of identity protection. Which is why moments like the ones we keep facing 00:16:07.880 --> 00:16:13.320 don't just test our politics. They test like our formation. They test our identity. They test 00:16:13.320 --> 00:16:21.640 who we are. So I'm gonna offer us some framework today, hopefully. Not as a debate tool. 00:16:23.880 --> 00:16:29.160 I mean, y'all know I'd love to win arguments, but this isn't what this is about. This is not 00:16:29.160 --> 00:16:36.040 a way for us to win an argument, but it has kind of a formation practice. Something we can return 00:16:36.040 --> 00:16:40.920 to again and again, because this will not be the last time we experience this. 00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:49.000 So I've got five questions that when something happens, when we come to something, when the 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:55.720 time calls for it, we can look at and ask these questions. And there are formational questions 00:16:55.720 --> 00:17:00.600 for us as believers who say that we believe in this person called Jesus. 00:17:03.160 --> 00:17:10.680 And they should be good questions for us to ask to see how we see things that happen 00:17:12.760 --> 00:17:18.280 in our culture, in our lives, and how we respond to them. So number one, 00:17:20.680 --> 00:17:29.080 what kind of God do I assume is behind my instinct right now? Something happens and you have an 00:17:29.080 --> 00:17:40.360 instinct. You respond. What kind of God is behind that instinct? Who is God that is behind the instinct 00:17:40.360 --> 00:17:43.960 that I'm having? It's kind of where everything starts, right? Like, 00:17:46.520 --> 00:17:55.960 if you were formed to believe God is easily offended, obsessed with order, aligned with power, 00:17:58.360 --> 00:18:00.120 then silence feels faithful. 00:18:04.360 --> 00:18:13.400 Naming harm kind of feels dangerous. But if God looks like Jesus, then moving toward the wounded 00:18:15.800 --> 00:18:23.880 or interrupting systems of harm, protecting the overlooked that that feels like repair, 00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:28.520 it feels faithful, even when it costs us. 00:18:31.240 --> 00:18:36.600 So this question should help us slow down enough to notice which God is actually shaping our reflexes. 00:18:38.520 --> 00:18:49.080 How are we seeing things? Number two is what is faithfulness required here? Silence or repair? 00:18:51.320 --> 00:18:55.240 Because silence is not neutral. It is a choice. 00:18:57.800 --> 00:19:10.040 Sometimes silence is wisdom. There's a proverb that is 24-5, I want to say. 00:19:12.840 --> 00:19:22.280 It says, "When a fool speaks, don't engage." I'm paraphrasing here. When a fool speaks, 00:19:22.280 --> 00:19:26.600 don't engage with them because it makes you look like a fool. And then the next verse says, 00:19:27.800 --> 00:19:32.040 "If a fool speaks, correct them because you don't want to allow that to happen." 00:19:34.600 --> 00:19:39.480 But the Bible is super clear. Obviously. 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:47.560 Nah. Proverbs, it's a wisdom book. These are choices you get to make. 00:19:48.920 --> 00:19:54.520 What do I do when a fool speaks? Sometimes wisdom is silence. 00:19:55.640 --> 00:20:00.040 Other times wisdom is correction or repair. 00:20:03.080 --> 00:20:07.560 Sometimes silence is just protection of comfort. 00:20:10.840 --> 00:20:17.640 Jesus was quiet at times, but honestly he was never quiet when people were being dehumanized. 00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:28.520 Repair, it always costs more than silence and that's why it's tough. It requires humility, 00:20:29.480 --> 00:20:33.080 listening. It requires change. 00:20:35.720 --> 00:20:40.760 And it's why systems that benefit from status quo almost always prefer silence. 00:20:43.560 --> 00:20:47.320 We don't want to break or lose our comfort. 00:20:50.360 --> 00:20:54.200 Third question, "Am I prioritizing intent or impact?" 00:20:59.080 --> 00:21:05.880 Intent protects identity. I didn't mean to. We're not like that. 00:21:09.800 --> 00:21:15.080 He didn't mean to do that. He didn't even know it was there. 00:21:17.800 --> 00:21:25.960 Someone else did it. Anyway, intent protects identity. I didn't mean to. We're not like that 00:21:26.760 --> 00:21:34.920 impact protects people. This hurt. This harmed people. 00:21:37.160 --> 00:21:42.280 Jesus consistently centered impact, especially for those with the least power. 00:21:44.600 --> 00:21:51.560 Not because intent doesn't matter, but because impact tells the truth about reality. 00:21:55.560 --> 00:21:59.240 And listening to impact requires this emotion that we keep talking about. 00:22:02.440 --> 00:22:08.040 The humility to admit that the world is bigger than my perspective. 00:22:13.480 --> 00:22:21.480 Is it my worry about intent or impact? Question four, "What's at risk for me if we name this clearly?" 00:22:24.360 --> 00:22:30.360 It's where things get honest. What's often asked or what's often at risk isn't theology really. 00:22:31.560 --> 00:22:39.320 It's belonging. It's reputation. It's access. It's certainty. It's power. 00:22:41.480 --> 00:22:44.280 Naming harm can feel like risking your place in the crowd. 00:22:47.480 --> 00:22:56.760 Again, helps us here because when we experience awe, it loosens our grip on ego. 00:22:56.760 --> 00:23:02.040 Jonathan Hite says that the emotion of awe is the counterweight to ego. Why? 00:23:02.040 --> 00:23:07.720 Because it changes our perspective. It makes us realize that we are in a much bigger place 00:23:07.720 --> 00:23:15.320 than just us. That things are much more connected. That other things, the bigger picture matters more. 00:23:17.480 --> 00:23:22.280 So it loosens our grip on ego and it reminds us that we are held by something larger than 00:23:23.560 --> 00:23:24.680 other people's approval. 00:23:30.280 --> 00:23:35.560 Five, "If Jesus were standing with the harmed, what would he need from me?" 00:23:38.520 --> 00:23:50.840 Not a statement, not a defense, not a perfectly worded post, but presence, protection, and repair. 00:23:53.800 --> 00:24:02.040 Faces before crowds, people before power, every single time is how Jesus enters the world. 00:24:04.280 --> 00:24:11.080 And now, with that framework in place and these five questions, we need to talk about what just 00:24:11.080 --> 00:24:17.720 happened. Because this isn't theoretical, right? This is life in reality right now. 00:24:19.880 --> 00:24:20.440 This week, 00:24:26.040 --> 00:24:32.600 the President of the United States shared a video that included a racist depiction 00:24:33.480 --> 00:24:36.120 of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, 00:24:39.720 --> 00:24:44.680 placing their faces on the body of apes. 00:24:47.720 --> 00:24:52.200 And I've seen it. I've seen people try to explain the other video. 00:24:53.320 --> 00:24:57.240 That was the portion that was in this video that was shared from this account. 00:25:00.280 --> 00:25:08.360 And it was shared like midnight. So if there's an intern sharing things on his personal account 00:25:08.360 --> 00:25:18.920 at midnight, somebody needs to get checked. Or, or there's a history that we can look at that 00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:28.760 shows us that this is what he does. This image is not harmless. 00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:38.360 It's not funny. It carries a long, violent, dehumanizing history. 00:25:41.800 --> 00:25:47.080 There's been no apology, no repair, no owning of harm. 00:25:51.880 --> 00:25:56.760 And what has been just as disturbing, if not more so from me, 00:25:58.520 --> 00:26:00.920 has been the response from large portions of the church. 00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:08.920 You know, that's where I always, that's where I live. I live in this world. So that's what we're 00:26:08.920 --> 00:26:18.360 doing. Right now, the response has been minimizing, trying to explain, spiritualizing, or staying silent. 00:26:21.080 --> 00:26:22.840 So let's apply the questions. 00:26:25.080 --> 00:26:27.640 What kind of God is shaping these reactions? 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:31.640 A God who prioritizes power over people? 00:26:33.720 --> 00:26:36.360 A God who protects reputation instead of dignity? 00:26:38.040 --> 00:26:41.320 A God who is more offended by disruption than by racism? 00:26:44.360 --> 00:26:46.600 And it's not the God that is revealed in Jesus. 00:26:49.480 --> 00:26:52.280 What does faithfulness require here? Silence or repair? 00:26:54.120 --> 00:27:01.320 Jesus was not silent. Never when people were dehumanized was he silent. Ever. 00:27:02.920 --> 00:27:06.120 Silence in moments like this, they don't create peace. 00:27:09.560 --> 00:27:14.840 It protects comfort for a select group. 00:27:18.040 --> 00:27:23.880 Repair, it requires courage and humility and listening to those who were harmed. 00:27:29.320 --> 00:27:31.400 Are we prioritizing intent or impact? 00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:39.880 Intent keeps the crowd intact. Intent keeps our group good. 00:27:41.640 --> 00:27:45.720 Impact, it centers the face of the harmed. 00:27:47.640 --> 00:27:50.600 And Jesus always chose the face every single time. 00:27:54.360 --> 00:27:56.840 So what's at risk if we name this clearly? 00:27:58.440 --> 00:28:01.640 From any churches and pastors, the answer is painfully obvious. 00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:15.480 Influence, donors, access to power, crowds, the group, the big show. 00:28:16.760 --> 00:28:20.280 And here's the hard truth. When protecting the crowd matters more than protecting people, 00:28:20.920 --> 00:28:23.320 we've already drifted far from the way of Jesus. 00:28:28.760 --> 00:28:30.680 And I get it. I've got to be honest. 00:28:32.760 --> 00:28:36.200 We've been here nine years now, pastured for nine years. 00:28:36.200 --> 00:28:41.720 I saw a post yesterday on, I forgot what it was on, threads or X or something. 00:28:42.600 --> 00:28:46.680 Where a guy was like, "If your church is 10 years old and it's still 100 people, 00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:50.200 you're doing something wrong." I was like, "Oh, thanks." 00:28:53.960 --> 00:28:56.280 Thanks. I don't even know we're 100 right now. 00:28:59.240 --> 00:29:02.840 Now that what I loved was seeing other friends of mine that were commenting like, 00:29:02.840 --> 00:29:03.880 "What are you talking about?" 00:29:10.680 --> 00:29:17.000 For nine years, we've pastored. And I can tell you for a lot of that time, 00:29:19.160 --> 00:29:23.880 as a pastor, as a person leading an organization and a group, 00:29:25.320 --> 00:29:32.040 I did have to make decisions. I do. I have to make decisions on what affects all of us. 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:37.240 And part of those decisions were, "How do we stick around? How do we stay here?" 00:29:38.840 --> 00:29:43.320 One of the realities is money is part of that. We don't ever talk about it. 00:29:44.840 --> 00:29:46.280 But it is. We have to pay bills. 00:29:47.960 --> 00:29:51.800 I got to pay to fix a water fountain that flooded the front of the church yet last week. 00:29:54.360 --> 00:29:59.560 I got to fix a door that somebody ran through to steal cameras on the side of our building. 00:30:00.280 --> 00:30:03.320 I got the cameras back. I just got to pay for a door. 00:30:05.960 --> 00:30:12.840 So the money, we do this, like spend time and try to focus on this and do things. 00:30:12.840 --> 00:30:17.640 And so there's salaries that are involved. And the reality is, for quite a while, 00:30:19.560 --> 00:30:25.880 we had to kind of navigate that. Most of you guys know, last year, most of the money left. 00:30:27.560 --> 00:30:33.560 Because we made some decisions on really who we were going to allow to be here and who we were not. 00:30:35.240 --> 00:30:39.400 Which is mind-blowing. And when that happened, the money left. 00:30:40.280 --> 00:30:46.200 So for the last year, we've been able to survive and pay bills. But nobody's getting paid to do this. 00:30:48.040 --> 00:30:50.440 But it's been a year where I felt like I could actually breathe. 00:30:52.520 --> 00:30:59.240 Now, I say that to say, and let's put this in perspective, we're in a huge church. 00:30:59.240 --> 00:31:03.880 We don't have a ton of bills and people. So I understand, I really do. 00:31:03.880 --> 00:31:10.120 I understand the weight of, if I say this, I lose everything. 00:31:12.680 --> 00:31:22.840 But it doesn't excuse it. It doesn't. Because if we're going to be faithful to Jesus, 00:31:24.440 --> 00:31:30.920 then repair is always the answer. Then entering into spaces and being courageous 00:31:30.920 --> 00:31:42.360 to speak when people are dehumanized is the way of Jesus. 00:31:45.320 --> 00:31:51.400 The last question is, if Jesus were standing with the harmed, what would he need from us? 00:31:53.400 --> 00:31:58.040 Not explanations, not justification, not silence dressed up as wisdom. 00:31:58.760 --> 00:32:02.200 He would need us to see, to speak, and to repair. 00:32:04.600 --> 00:32:06.840 Faces before crowds, people before power. 00:32:09.480 --> 00:32:15.800 So I'll say this plainly, without hesitation, what we are witnessing right now from large 00:32:15.800 --> 00:32:21.960 portions of the evangelical church is not the faith of Jesus. It is the religion that crucified 00:32:21.960 --> 00:32:33.880 him. And if Jesus was never unclear, or Jesus was never unclear about where he stood in moments like 00:32:33.880 --> 00:32:48.200 this, that's what got him killed. There's a woman in the Christian tradition 00:32:50.760 --> 00:32:59.640 who understood this deeply. Her name is Dorothy Day. Dorothy Day was a Catholic activist who spent 00:33:00.200 --> 00:33:06.600 her life among the poor, the forgotten, the one's religion often talked about, but rarely stood with. 00:33:08.600 --> 00:33:13.560 She didn't build a brand. She didn't chase influence. She chose presence. 00:33:15.640 --> 00:33:21.720 And she once said something that still refuses to let us off the hook. 00:33:23.640 --> 00:33:28.200 I really only love God, as much as I love the person, I love the least. 00:33:37.480 --> 00:33:44.520 That's not sentimental. That's not safe. That's a woman who understood that faith is not proven. 00:33:44.520 --> 00:33:49.320 And what we claim to believe about God, but at who we are willing to see, 00:33:49.320 --> 00:33:53.800 protect, and stand beside when it cost us something. 00:33:59.400 --> 00:34:04.360 Dorothy didn't focus on protecting the crowd. She paid attention to the face right in front of her. 00:34:07.560 --> 00:34:15.320 There's another story where Dorothy worked a lot with very poor, houseless people. 00:34:17.640 --> 00:34:22.360 And someone came to her and was like, "Why are you? Why do you do this?" This reminded me of you in 00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:27.640 Valerie. "Why do you do this?" And I can't remember the exact quote, but she basically says, 00:34:27.640 --> 00:34:32.760 "If I can't see Jesus in this person, I can't see Jesus in anyone." 00:34:36.520 --> 00:34:41.320 If Jesus were standing with the harm, the harmed, what would he need from us? 00:34:47.880 --> 00:34:56.040 He would need for us to stand up for the hurting and the harmed and call out systems that cause harm. 00:34:59.880 --> 00:35:13.080 Racism is never okay, especially when you say you're a Christian, especially. 00:35:15.880 --> 00:35:17.800 That post would have gotten most of us fired. 00:35:22.440 --> 00:35:31.640 So would felonies, but this is exactly why I keep talking about this emotion of all, 00:35:31.640 --> 00:35:40.760 like why I think we need this. Not to calm ourselves into apathy, but to keep us human enough to tell 00:35:40.760 --> 00:35:48.600 the truth. Psychology tells us that awe, it lowers our cortisol levels, it brings it down our stress, 00:35:48.600 --> 00:35:57.320 it widens perspective, it softens our defensiveness, it actually brings us out of this need for certainty. 00:35:59.720 --> 00:36:06.680 awe doesn't make us passive, it makes us resilient. It pulls us out of the crowd mentality and brings 00:36:06.680 --> 00:36:20.280 us back to the face. I'll slow this down enough to see the beauty, the pain, and the dignity 00:36:21.640 --> 00:36:33.800 of the face in front of us. Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel captured this idea beautifully. 00:36:35.400 --> 00:36:42.360 Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. Get up in the morning and look at the world in 00:36:42.360 --> 00:36:50.040 a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal. Everything is incredible. Never treat 00:36:50.040 --> 00:37:02.120 life casually to be spiritual is to be amazed. I don't think this is naive, this is just disciplined 00:37:02.120 --> 00:37:12.360 attention. This is allowing awe to be the driving force of our lives. It's a refusal to let cynicism 00:37:12.360 --> 00:37:22.520 steal our humanity. It's the same life that Paul speaks about in Romans 8 when he says this, 00:37:23.080 --> 00:37:28.680 I love how Eugene Peterson translated this in the message. This resurrection life you received 00:37:28.680 --> 00:37:36.840 from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expected, greeting God with a child 00:37:36.840 --> 00:37:42.600 like what's next, Papa? God's spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. 00:37:43.800 --> 00:37:52.360 And we know who he is and we know who we are, father and children. This is awe, this is freedom. 00:37:53.720 --> 00:37:58.520 It doesn't pull us out of the harm and the things that we're going through in the reality of life 00:37:58.760 --> 00:38:06.120 but it gives us perspective. It allows us to see that I'm not here to protect my ego 00:38:07.320 --> 00:38:16.040 or my comforts. We are here for each other and so when someone is hurting or when a group of people 00:38:16.040 --> 00:38:24.840 are hurting then we step in just like Jesus did. Paul says the same thing in Galatians 5-1, 00:38:24.840 --> 00:38:30.600 I've got a tattooed on my hand. Freedom doesn't mean self-protection, it means love. 00:38:33.640 --> 00:38:39.320 Paul in Galatians says let me be clear, the anointed one has set us free, not partially 00:38:39.320 --> 00:38:45.960 but completely and wonderfully free. We must always cherish this truth and stubbornly refuse 00:38:45.960 --> 00:38:53.800 to go back into the bondage of our past. This is supposed to be a life of freedom. 00:38:55.320 --> 00:39:01.880 Religion tries to trap us back into certainty and rules and if we allow that to happen then we lose 00:39:01.880 --> 00:39:06.840 our freedom. If freedom, it was for freedom we've been set free. 00:39:08.840 --> 00:39:13.480 This is the life that I believe emerges when we see God through the lens of Jesus. 00:39:13.480 --> 00:39:19.400 So it's not anger, it's not despair, it's grounded, it's courageous, it's hopeful freedom. When you see 00:39:19.400 --> 00:39:25.800 when you see people that fought back against injustice they were fighting back against injustice 00:39:25.800 --> 00:39:35.480 because they understood what freedom should look like. And as Christians that's where we should be 00:39:36.280 --> 00:40:01.080 always, but when we don't push back against harm from power or harm from systems 00:40:03.960 --> 00:40:14.600 that I don't believe we're doing the work of Jesus, and I don't want us because this is the 00:40:16.520 --> 00:40:22.360 potential for me. I don't want you either to be in a place where anger and frustration and 00:40:23.240 --> 00:40:31.240 just hopelessness is where we live. I told you last week Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that 00:40:32.040 --> 00:40:38.200 stupidity is not an intelligence thing, it is a social thing that his theory of stupidity was when 00:40:38.200 --> 00:40:46.280 we give up our decision-making, when we give up our understanding, when we give up our ability to 00:40:46.280 --> 00:40:54.520 think and to reason we have entered into stupidity. And stupidity is being captive to something else, 00:40:54.520 --> 00:41:00.920 to a power or a structure that is controlling us. And he said that you cannot reason or logic 00:41:00.920 --> 00:41:09.880 someone out of stupidity because reason and logic and truth have different definitions 00:41:09.880 --> 00:41:20.520 they are defined by whoever the captor is. But what we can do and what I believe Jesus did 00:41:21.720 --> 00:41:31.720 was love people out of stupidity. And not in a passive way, but in a way that continues to point 00:41:31.720 --> 00:41:42.840 out faces and doesn't allow people around us to just see structure or systems we have to pull in the 00:41:42.840 --> 00:41:52.760 humanity. So here's the invitation for this week. Practice these questions. Not online, not online 00:41:52.760 --> 00:42:03.160 at first. Not with strangers, but start with yourself. When something happens and you have an 00:42:03.160 --> 00:42:11.240 instinct, what arises in you? Notice it. Notice which image of God is being activated. Notice where 00:42:11.240 --> 00:42:20.280 might widen your vision, change your perspective instead of narrowing it. Because the reality is 00:42:20.280 --> 00:42:31.400 this will not be the last time. We don't have to keep responding the same way. I don't believe 00:42:31.400 --> 00:42:41.160 our nervous systems and our bodies can handle it. So I think this is the way we step 00:42:41.160 --> 00:42:52.200 back and we stay human. It's how we resist blindness. It's how we keep choosing love in a world that 00:42:52.200 --> 00:43:04.520 keeps testing us. So as you go this week, see faces, choose repair and stay open. 00:43:09.400 --> 00:43:17.400 And always arsenal. Go love well because that's who we're made to be. I love you guys. 00:43:20.760 --> 00:43:28.760 Stay strong. Stay strong. Let's love. I love you guys. We'll see you next week. 00:43:39.400 --> 00:43:41.400 Bye.