The Dawn of a New Resistance: Words of Intentional Division in a Time of Apathy

The Dawn of a New Resistance:  Words of Intentional Division in a Time of Apathy

*Sermon Delivered on August 28, 2022 at Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas

+Tried to clean it up as best I could…but this is a transcript.

Thank y’all. Good morning. Man…you know, it’s usually hot in this sanctuary, but I can tell you when I said I was going to wear this robe, I forgot about that. It is definitely warm up in here.  I’m thankful for my son. I got so many kids. I forget their names. My son Quinley and my daughter, Madeleine, are here with me and I think everybody else should be watching at the house unless they have my wife tied up hostage by now. We actually have three more children and my wife is Emily. She’s a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. And that is how we got here in the first place. How I got to y’all…is that I came to the thrift store.

I am a big thrifter…my wife says too big…nevertheless, I joined you all here on a Sunday morning. Honestly, I am constantly doing so much speaking, talking, counseling, doing all this stuff during the week…that I was looking for a place where I could be relatively anonymous, which is why none of y’all got a chance to talk to me until recently.

I always wanted to get here about 15 minutes late and leave about 15 minutes early. Well, one day Kurt (former pastor who died unexpectedly about a month back) came back to me and started talking and he kept on prying and I kept on resisting. I didn’t wanna say a whole lot. And then he finally asked me, what do you do? And I said, well, I’m a theologian, a minister, an activist.

And I do all these different things. And, he said, well, what do you think about the United Methodist church? And I said, well, I hate the United Methodist Church. And he, you know what he said…this is when this is when I knew that Kurt and I were going to get on well…he said I do too from time to time.

Oftentimes, we find ourselves in these institutions, these churches, these different ideologies, these different places of normativity. And we think we are defined by such things. We oftentimes forget that we are defined by our creation, whose we are, who we are, where we are going. I’ve entitled my sermon, The Dawn of a New Resistance. Y’all are gonna have to forgive me. I’m an old Baptist preacher and we’re used to preaching, you know, 45 minutes to an hour. And you know, y’all’s 15 minutes, well that’s just the introduction most of the time. So if y’all get up and start walking out, I’ll know I’ve gone on too long.

The Dawn of a New Resistance. Our scripture comes to us from the Book of Revelation. I think that Revelation has a lot more to teach us than just scary stories of the end of time. I think it has a lot to teach us about how we function, how we should live, how we should breathe, how we should think, how we should have our being in this time.

The Dawn of a New Resistance. We live in a time in which we spend a lot of time trying to save institutions, trying to protect denominations, trying to protect the old way of doing things. We spend a lot of time thinking about how we can protect our buildings, how we can protect these wonderful edifices, because we have been told if we protect the institutions, if we protect the buildings, if we protect all of these things, then somehow we are working for…protecting…Jesus.

I like to talk about the difference between that, which is normal and that which is Queer. The normal way of doing things is to keep up again, the institution, the normal edifices, all of these things that we have been taught that we need and that we have to have. You see, Jesus came to teach us a Queer way of doing things.

Here is this man roaming around in the desert with a bunch of smelly guys saying crazy things, choosing to hang out with crazy people and saying that a new world was upon us. You see, I believe that the old ways were and are passing away.

A new heaven and a new earth, which means an old heaven and an old earth are passing away. You see, John describes the, the great, holy city. Coming out of the sky, out of the heavens. And it’s interesting to me, when I think about who, who is this holy city? No offense…but I asked my wife…and she said it definitely isn’t Little Rock Arkansas…but I do believe that the people of God are a holy city standing against the normativities that often drain our souls. These normatives that are again, our institutions, our edifices, but also our injustices. You see, when we refuse to change, things tend to stay the same.

You know, here in Little Rock, I’ve been particularly concerned about our murder rate. Yeah, we are on track for a hundred homicides this year, 60, I think believe it was 64 last year, a hundred this year. I asked Mayor Scott a few weeks ago. I said, I said, what are we gonna do about this? And a lot of times in these elections, you know, they’ll say, he’ll say something to the degree of, well, at least I’m not Steve Landers.  Well, I don’t care who, who is, who…I don’t care if your name’s, you know, Teddy, Freddy or whatever…I’m concerned about these homicides. You see the people of God exist beyond the, they exist in this space of a new city, a new people…defined by right and wrong not by political parties…candidates…or ideals. The new city are those standing in resistance to the old ways, standing in resistance to a culture that is defined by violence.

So often, we get so concerned with protecting the way things are…protecting our institutions…protecting our buildings…protecting the way things were..that we forget to live into the way things can be.

I know here at Quapaw Quarter, this is an interesting time.  To be quite frank, I’ve never been in a church on a Sunday morning and found out that the pastor had passed away. That sounds like a horrible joke we would’ve learned at seminary. But at the same time, I do not believe in death without resurrection.

I do not believe in death without resurrection. You see John tells us that this holy city, that we are gathering this holy city, this holy beautiful people are coming together. Who is going to be the, forerunners of the indwelling and the presence of God.

What can Quapaw Quarter be? You see, God has gathered this group of people together, not to, you know, be defined by all this stuff…not to keep up all this stuff.  What would you be if it was all taken from you right now?  What would you be if it all disappeared? What would you mean to this neighborhood? If all of this was gone, what would you mean to Little Rock? If all of this was gone…if it  are you defined by this building by this amazing edifice by all of these beautiful stain glass windows? Or are you defined as being a holy people of God who is ushering in the very presence of God?

Well, the scripture says that when God comes that God will dwell amongst the people and God will wipe every tear from their eyes. You see, God is wiping away your tears. God is not wiping away the memory of Kurt by no means, but wiping away the tears. So that you may take the teachings of Kurt and those who have come before and push into this new space, this new space where you are the holy city ushering in the very presence of God.

I am tired of hearing about not just here…but in general…about the death of institutions, the death of, of people, the death of spaces, as if there is no power in the name of Jesus. Listen folks…there is power in the name of Jesus…and it’s not a power of death…it’s the power of life. So the question becomes…is the power of death ruling in this space or is the power of life ruling in this space?  This is a fundamental question that will help determine what your future looks like.

I believe that God is making all things new. I look around and I see all of these various colors of equality. I believe that we are moving to a newer world…one in which those who do not accept L G B T Q equality will be not just outside of the will and message of God…but will be outside of any rational understanding of what a church actually is. I don’t believe that you can be a church and exclude people. We are sitting here in a day and age in which we continue to experience and see racial injustice in this city. I don’t believe that you can be a church and not lead the way for racial justice. We are quickly moving in a direction here in Arkansas of being a capital of injustice. Things seems to be getting worse and worse. Every time I look at the news there are new stories of hate and inequality. You cannot be a church and fail to fight against such things.

Somebody told me to make sure I talk about Jesus this morning. And I always wanna say, well, these flags of LGBTQ equality tell the story of Jesus. Jesus said, what you have done to the least of these you have done to me.

This is an amazing church with amazing people with amazing potential of being a beacon of hope to this city. You see, I didn’t pick just anywhere to sit on, sit in the back row and not talk to anybody.

I enjoyed this space from the moment I came in and you know, this is kind of a no frill space. You know, this, it, ain’t got a rock band up here and there ain’t, you know, actors swinging in from the, from the ropes to illustrate sermons…and celebrities filling the pews…and all those kinds of things. But this is a place with a sweet spirit, a willingness…I believe…to be forerunners of God.

But the question is, are we prepared for God to start making all things new? Are we prepared for what comes after L G B T Q equality?  Are we prepared for all of the ways that God wants to break us down to build us up…to expand our hearts and minds? Are we prepared for the things that we can’t even conceive of yet? Are we prepared for the people that we can’t even conceive of walking through these doors?  People are coming that need a refuge from injustice.  How big is your love?  How far are you willing to go?

There is no limit to the love of God.

I want you to think about how can this space that you’re sitting in can be used. How far are you willing to go for this space to be used? How would y’all feel about opening the doors and letting all the homeless folks sleep on the pews at night? Whoa, now that starts getting a little scary for some people. And the reason that starts getting scary is because you start imagining shit…. What if people start burning the church down? What if some of ’em start having sex over here in the corner? And what if this? And what if that? And what if this, instead of asking what if this, and what if that in a negative way, maybe we need to start asking what if this and what if that in a positive way, Jesus said what you’ve done to the least of these you’ve done to.  Wouldn’t be beautiful to ask Jesus to spend the night every once in a while?

You see when God shows up, God doesn’t necessarily follow our rules. God doesn’t necessarily keep our sensibilities. God doesn’t necessarily follow the same worn paths that we are accustomed to.

I want you to know, and I want you to be reminded this morning. And if you leave here with anything, I want you to remember, God is making all things new, all things, new, all things new.

If somebody came in here and said, I am offended by these stain glass windows and their depiction of a white Jesus…white apostles. Are we prepared to have that conversation?

God is making all things new, all things new.

I do a lot of work on the death penalty and I have a lot of contact with persons around the country before they’re executed. And I led a vigil in Oklahoma just this past week for a gentleman by the name of James Coddington…who was ultimately executed.  Why do churches say they are opposed to the death penalty and do nothing to stop it?

We say that we’re opposed to the death penalty, but most of the time we don’t talk about the death penalty. We say that we are for racial equality, but we don’t talk about racial equality. We say we’re for L G B T Q equality. And you know, I know there’s a couple folks here who make sure that L G B T Q equality is talked about in this space, but oftentimes we don’t talk about L G B T Q equality in the ever expanding ways that it needs to be talked about.

I believe that a society is judged by those whom the society has determined doesn’t matter. I believe that Christ said that he will always stand with those whom we say don’t matter. And so I hope…as we proceed into the future…and as I proceed back to my back row. I hope that this will be a church that finds its starting point where society has placed its ending point. That finds its place of forward thinking where society is stuck in backward thinking.

This church should be judged by L G B T Q folk…black folk…immigrants…people on death row…disabled persons. I could go on and on. That’s the judgment of whether or not this is actually a church, not how well you keep up this building…these edifices. Not whether you’re opening up the doors on Sunday morning to have services…but how you are engaging this moment where God is bringing about a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth where God is making all things new.

I know that these have been some difficult weeks for this church, but I also know that moments of difficulty is where God tends to show up and show out. So I want you to open your minds and open your hearts and know that some wild things are about to start happening.

Are you ready for a new movement of God? Are you ready to be the people of God? Are you ready to be a new creation? Let go of all that would hold you back.  Open the doors.  Let love reign.  Be the holy city that God has called you to be.

And I wouldn’t be an old Southern preacher if I didn’t say… AND all of God’s people said, AMEN.