Because the World Needs Something Different (Modern) - Sermon Transcript

Well, greetings everyone and welcome to worship at First United Methodist Church here in Dallas, Texas.

In case you forgot where you were or weren't quite sure where you were.

Apparently it was a rough day yesterday for a lot of people, at least in college football.

So, if that's you, I do apologize.

I won't dwell on that too much, but...

 I guess Thursday was kind of a rough day, too, if you're a football fan in the state of Texas.

But anyway, we won't dwell on that.

I'm Reverend Phil Dickey.

I'm one of the associate ministers here.

Specifically, the associate minister of missions, advocacy, and discipleship, or the MAD minister, if you want to have something for short.

 I'm thrilled to be here with you and to have the opportunity to bring a word this morning.

This is my second time to preach in this church.

I got to preach here in February as well, but this is my first time officially on staff preaching.

So grateful for this opportunity, grateful for this chance.

Would love the opportunity to connect with you after the service and just introduce myself more thoroughly and get to know who you are.

We are just grateful that you have taken the opportunity to come and worship with us here today at

 First United Methodist Church of Dallas.

So we here at First UMC have a mission statement that says, we magnify God's love for all people by creating space for belonging, purpose, justice, and joy.

And right now we are in the midst, this is week two of our stewardship campaign, our stewardship season here at the church.

 And we keep reiterating this mission statement because we really believe it, right?

We don't just put words on a page because they're fancy there and they look fancy and look good, even though our communications department does a phenomenal job of that.

But we want to keep reiterating this idea of a mission statement to you because we want to embody it and figure out how do we live out this reality.

And so I've been reading over this mission statement over and over again, thinking that eventually I'm going to memorize it because I'm on staff here and I'm a pastor and I should probably memorize what our mission statement is.

 but I still have it written down here just in case because I don't want to forget it.

But what really caught me this week as I was reading it over and over again was this idea of magnifying God's love.

Somebody say magnify.

 I'm a preacher that likes to have a little bit of interaction here.

So when I say, say magnify for me.

Yeah, we're going to magnify, right?

We're going to magnify God's love.

And I don't know if Mitchell did this intentionally whenever he divvied up the sermon series, but I really kind of feel like our text this morning leads to this idea of specifically that those four words, right?

Of belonging, purpose, justice, and joy.

We're going to focus a little bit on the justice aspect of those four things.

And

 And again, it could be that he just really mapped it out well and knew he was going to be gone this Sunday, and I was going to be preaching this mad minister, right, mission advocacy and discipleship.

Not really sure if that was his intention, but it's worked out that way, and so praise God for that.

But before we dive into the text, I want to give you a little background and a little history on what we're going to be reading.

So we're going to be reading out of 3rd Isaiah.

And all of you good United Methodists are like...

 wait, I know Methodist, but I don't remember there being three Isaiahs in the Old Testament.

Well, that's not, you were correct.

There's only one Isaiah, but the common kind of academic scholastic understanding of Isaiah is that there's actually three of them.

They were all compiled into one prophetic word, one prophetic book in the Bible.

And so we're going to look at the third section, which the first one,

 was really focused on, like First Isaiah really focuses on pre-Assyrian takeover of the Northern Kingdom.

So sit with me here, right?

We're gonna do a little bit of history lesson.

I love to teach, I preach occasionally, I really prefer to teach, so I'm gonna do my best to preach here, not just teach, but

 just buckle up with me for a second here.

We're gonna do a little history lesson.

So you had David, right?

You had King David, then you had King Solomon.

And after Solomon's reign, the kingdom split into two.

You had a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom.

The northern kingdom being Israel, the southern being Judah.

And we have all these histories of the different kings and rulers of those specific areas.

But a lot of what we get in the Old Testament, especially in the prophets, were

 these warnings of if you don't do this, then this will happen, right?

If you don't live this way, then you will be overtaken by X, Y, and Z. And so the first 39 chapters really focus on this idea of if you don't live such a way, you are gonna be overtaken by the Assyrian Empire.

The Assyrian Empire was a threat and actually ended up then taking over and destroying and ransacking the northern kingdom of Israel.

So then a couple hundred years later, the southern kingdom falls to Babylon.

 And so what we get in chapters 40 through 55 is we get right after the Babylonian Empire falls to King Cyrus of the Persian Empire.

And so that specific section, 2nd Isaiah, really focuses on, okay, but what do we do now, right?

We've had both our northern and southern kingdoms have fallen.

We've been a people that have been displaced.

Like you hear about this idea of exile, if you've heard of the Babylonian exile, right?

 The people were literally taken out of Jerusalem.

A lot of the prosperous folks were literally exiled out of the space.

They've lost their place.

The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon.

So they've been a displaced people, a scattered people.

And so second Isaiah really focuses on, okay, that's all coming to an end.

How are you going to reestablish yourself?

 And so then third Isaiah, where we pick up here in chapter 58, it really starts in 56, is really all about you are back in your space now.

You're back in your place.

Who now are you going to be?

And how are you going to be?

How is it that you will establish yourself?

And how, if I can impose our mission statement, is it that you will magnify God as the people of God in your place?

 So that's a little bit of the preface that gets us to our text this morning.

So we're going to put up on the screen the words here.

I'm going to read you two verses before we get to this just to kind of ground you in what's happening here.

Because the people got really good at performing what it meant to be the people of God.

We're going to magnify God by doing specific things really, really well.

And this idea of fasting comes up.

 And so in verse three of chapter 56 it says, why do we fast God but you do not see?

Why humble ourselves but you do not notice?

Now I'm sure nobody can relate to this, right?

Like you've never done anything and just thought like, oh, why do I keep doing this and there's no response to it?

Why God do you leave me here?

Just continuing to try to do all these things and have no response from you.

Why can't I hear from you?

Why can't I get a message from you?

Do you not see me working tirelessly to magnify you?

 And then it goes on in verse 3 to say, look, you serve your own interests on your fast day and oppress all your workers.

Okay.

You fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.

Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.

So this, again, prefacing now with a text up on the screen.

Do we have text?

Do we have text this morning?

We do.

Hey, there we go.

So starting in verse 6.

 Is not this the fast that I choose, right?

Instead of this fasting that they have been doing, is not this the fast that I choose?

To loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke.

Is not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin.

 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up quickly.

Your vindicator shall go before you.

The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call and the Lord will answer.

You shall cry for help and he will say, here I am.

If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger and the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

 then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.

Let me say that again.

If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness

 and your gloom be like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you continually, satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong.

You shall be like a well-watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt, right?

This is the temple, right?

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt.

You shall raise up the foundations of many generations.

You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

 for the word of God in scripture, for the word of God among us, and for the word of God within us.

Thanks be to God indeed.

Friends, will you pray with me?

Holy one, open our eyes and our ears.

Open our hearts and our minds that we may indeed receive a word from you this morning and know how it is that you would call us to respond.

In the name of Jesus, the prophet, we pray.

Amen.

 When I was going through, or considering ordination, maybe I was going through the process of ordination, I sat with our bishop and the bishop said, all these young preachers wanna get up and preach a prophetic message, but at some point they gotta realize that you can only spend prophetically what you've earned pastorally.

Woo!

Somebody groaned out there, woo!

You can only spend prophetically what you have earned pastorally.

I have been here a month, I have not earned much pastorally from you, so I'm gonna tread lightly.

 I'm going to tread lightly with the recognition that you are always welcome to come to me and have a further conversation about this.

So whatever I say today, whether it rubs you the wrong way, whether it rubs you in a problem, like whatever it is, you are welcome to come and have a conversation because I am here to be a pastoral presence to you.

And I hope that we together may be a prophetic witness to the city of Dallas, to our state of Texas, to our country as a whole.

So

 As we dive in here on this text, what I wanted to highlight just for a little bit this morning, just spend a few minutes reflecting on is something that is often referred to in this text as a covenantal conditionalism.

Isn't that a fun word?

Covenantal conditionalism.

I'm not gonna make you say that because it's kind of a tongue twister.

Covenantal conditionalism.

You see these if-then statements.

If you do this,

 then this will happen.

Now what I want to reiterate, if you hear anything this morning, make sure it's this.

These if-then statements have nothing to do with God loving you.

That's the given.

God always loves you no matter what.

And I almost said but.

This isn't a but, this is an also.

And also.

 If you want things to be different than the way they are, then it's going to require something of you.

If you want your light to shine, then you have to live a specific way.

Feed the hungry.

Care for the afflicted.

This is the covenantal conditionalism that we find here in this text.

And friends, I have to say that

 We as the church, and hear me in this idea of the church universal, we have a bit of a branding issue going on right now.

Can I get an amen from anybody here?

When I walked in this morning to our church, there was somebody with a billboard, like a sign, across the street at a different church.

Doesn't need to be said which church that was, but they were protesting some of the things that are happening at the church across the street.

We have a brand issue.

 Why do we have a brand issue?

Because for far too long, friends, we in the church, the Christian name, the brand of Christianity, has been associated and known for not what we do in our communities, not how we show up to feed those who are hungry, not how we clothe those who are naked, not how we offer shelter to those who are unhoused.

But so often, we hold a ruler of, well, have you read your Bible?

 Right?

Have you had a quiet time?

Have you done X, Y, and Z in terms of a personal piety?

And don't hear me saying that personal piety is not a good thing.

We here in the United Methodist Church celebrate our beloved John Wesley, right?

The unintended founder of our Methodist movement.

And John Wesley was a huge fan of personal piety.

When I say personal piety, I mean those acts that you do as an individual.

Fasting being one of them, right?

Why is it, God, that I do this fasting and you do not hear me?

 Wesley believed and professed that there is no such thing as personal holiness apart from social holiness.

What do I mean by that?

That yes, that is important that you fast, and of course it's important that you have scripture study and daily practices that you do that nurture your soul as an individual, not but again, and also that you show up socially to care for your neighbor as well.

 It's as simple as that idea of loving God and loving your neighbor.

They are not two different things, they are one and the same.

You love God as much as you love your neighbor.

We have a branding issue because for so often we have been associated with who it is that we exclude rather than who we include.

We've been known for our big beautiful buildings, thanks be to God, what a beautiful building we sit in to stay, right?

 while also there are people on the streets that don't have a place to be sheltered at all.

Y'all hear me when I say this text haunts me, right?

Because I, as I stand here and profess things to you, am guilty of these as well, right?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry?

I say this because I'm not sure the last time I shared my bread with the hungry.

 Now, I've enjoyed a lot of lovely meals, but it's not often with those who are really hungry.

You ever been really hungry?

I remember David Timothy who ran the Supermobile downtown.

I don't know if it still exists.

It might still exist.

I don't know.

David Timothy, one time we were serving with youth when I was doing youth ministry, and he said, you know, when you're hungry, the only thing you can think about is where you're going to get your next meal.

I don't know the last time I was really that hungry.

 or that I shared a meal with somebody who was really that hungry.

So hear me when I say this text haunts me because it says after that, bring your homeless poor into your house.

Now, my wife knows this text haunts me all the time because we have a guest room in our house.

And yes, it's grandma's room, right?

And we're so grateful that grandma comes and occupies that room occasionally, but for the 90% of the time that grandma's not there,

 It sits on my heart that there are neighbors around the corner from our house that sleep under the streetlight.

And I can justify all day long about why, you know, I don't bring unhoused neighbors into our house and my family and kids.

And I can do mental gymnastics to get to all these places, right?

And yet it still tears at my soul that we aren't known as a people

 and as a church, and as the church, universal, as people who live into what this passage here in Isaiah is calling us to really look into, this covenantal, this covenantal conditionalism.

Because I am not okay with the way the world is right now.

Anybody feel that?

Mm-hmm.

I wanna believe that it can be different.

I don't wanna, I believe that it can be different.

 And I believe that it can be different because of everyone sitting in this room, because of everyone that's joining us above.

And I believe that we have the power and ability to make change in this world.

Last week, I should've told you I was gonna do this, but I'm gonna put you on the spot, Alex.

Last week, we're doing adult confirmation class, and Alex is in there, and I know, I should've warned you.

I should've at least asked permission, but hey, is it okay if I share this story?

Great, thanks.

 Alex said, it makes me really sad when non-profits do a better job than the church does.

And it was specifically around the way that things like the Y do a great job of providing space for kids and allowing parents to have a minute.

Or providing programming that parents can come do things and then take care of it.

And we try, we do good things here at the church and we provide opportunities and we had a whole long conversation about that part of it and then the conversation continued.

 And don't hear me saying that I'm not grateful for nonprofits that do incredible work.

In the city of Dallas, there are so many incredible nonprofits that do work, that do feed our people that are hungry, right?

Thank you, North Texas Food Bank.

Thanks be to God for North Texas Food Bank.

Thank you, Austin Street Center for housing our neighbors.

 And friends, I wanna thank them and then I'm not gonna let you and I'm not gonna let me abdicate our responsibilities to live out what the text is calling us to this day.

Because yes, we can partner with them and we're going to.

And also, you have a role to play.

You have a role to play in this covenantal conditionalism, in this idea of we can dream up a better world

 And then we can take that first step into figuring out how we're gonna play a part in making that better world happen.

When it comes to our unhoused neighbors, it may seem like, again, mental gymnastics, we can say all day long that we have empty rooms in our houses and all this.

This hit so close to me,

 Back in 2014, the last class I took at Perkins School of Theology when I was studying to get my masters to then go on to become a clergy person, the last class I took was an immersion course in the Holy Land.

And so after spending a week studying in Jerusalem at a progressive Orthodox Jewish think tank, let that one all settle in,

 We stayed in Jerusalem, we studied in Jerusalem.

The next week, we went and stayed in Bethlehem.

And for those who aren't aware, Bethlehem is on the other side of the border, right?

Bethlehem is in the occupied West Bank.

Bethlehem is in Palestine.

 And part of what we did while we were there was we did some more studying and we did some sightseeing and tourism and so all these different things.

But one opportunity one night we had was to go and have dinner with a Palestinian Christian family.

We split up into different groups and went to different homes.

And the group that I was in, we would have great dinner, great conversation.

And then it came up during the conversation that one of our, I think one of my classmates said like, we just haven't seen people on the streets.

Are there no homeless people in Bethlehem?

And our hosts kind of looked almost confused like,

 No.

Why would there be homeless people?

Why would there be people in the streets?

To which then we were like, what do you mean?

What happens when people don't have, and they were perplexed because they said, well, here in Bethlehem, if people don't have a place to go, you take them in.

 Now, Bethlehem's not the size of Dallas, right?

I think it's roughly 30,000 people in the actual city of Bethlehem, but that's not a small city either, right?

They were just perplexed by this idea that in the United States, if there's people that sleep on the streets, you don't just take them into your house.

That is a way, that's a choice that we make, right?

 we make a choice, whether that's individually or collectively as a city, to say that we're gonna allow people to continue to sleep on our streets.

The census that we do, there's a yearly census that's done, in 2025 it said there are about 3,500 unhoused people in Dallas and Collin County.

3,500 people.

Those are our neighbors, friends.

 Those are the same people that are creating the image of God just like you and I. And we can talk about homeless solutions, and we will.

We're going to.

And the partners that we have and the ways that we're gonna respond as a church, those are conversations that we're gonna have very soon.

But hear me when I say

 This text is not meant to make you just feel guilty, right?

We don't read this and say, oh, we're terrible.

This text is an invitation.

If you want things to be different,

 then you get to act differently.

You get to make different decisions.

You get to be a part of the solution that says, we're not okay with anybody sleeping on our streets.

We're not okay with anybody being hungry.

We're not okay with any families being separated.

We're not okay with live streaming executions.

 I shouldn't have to say this out loud, but friends, this is the reality that we live in today.

And so if you want to see a different reality, then the invitation is, why church?

Because nonprofits are gonna continue to do a really great job, and we're gonna continue to support the work that they do and a really good job.

But to me, why church is because this is who we are called to be as a people.

 as they went back and rebuilt the temple, and as they went back and rebuilt after being exiled in Babylon, they had a decision to make.

Are we going to be the people that are really good at fasting?

Really good at our personal piety?

Yes, we are.

And also, we're going to be a people that says, we're not going to be okay with hungry people.

And we're not going to be okay with our friends being unhoused.

 We have a choice to make too, my friends.

I invite you to join us in being the church.

This is why I'm a part of the church, this is why I continue to be a part of the church, is because this is what I believe we're called to, to a better reality and a better world.

May it be so.

Amen.

We're gonna put a couple of reflection questions up here on the TV, and I hope that you'll just take a minute to just sit with those questions, because

 Again, this isn't about guilting you into something.

This is an invitation into being a part of something that brings about a better reality.

And friends, we're going to do it together.

We're going to do it together.

So I invite you to reflect.