Courage By Faith

I’ve transcribed this August 2019 sermon by Rev. Elder Dwayne Johnson, senior pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington DC. The message is particularly relevant during these violent and divisive times.

Courage and faith are intertwined.
Courage and faith cannot be separated.

Now more than ever, we are called to be a people of courage. In a world that is increasingly scary, in a world that breeds fear, in a world of so much toxic division; we are called to be a strong and courageous people. My hope is when we leave today, we will have some inner resources and some tools to go out into the world and to live with courage.

It takes faith to live with courage and it takes courage to live our faith.

They are connected and intertwined: a call for action. We are called to have the courage to live free. Free of the negative compulsions of ego and greed. The courage to live free of violence in a violent world. Free of violence and thought in word and deed.

We live in troubled times that threaten to overtake our souls. Yet, I believe that our souls — with love and with courage — are stronger than the forces that seek to overtake or overwhelm our souls. In fact, courage calls us to protect our souls. That’s part of what happens when we gather together and we sing praises to God and we have conversations with each other. We’re making each other’s souls stronger. We are protecting each other. We are having each other’s back. We are walking hope and courage for each other.

In this current season of disquiet, where do we go to be quiet? Beyond all the tweets and all the screaming and all the raging and all the noise; where do we go to be quiet and know that God is God? There’s many loud voices proclaiming that they are God, that they’re the one in charge, that they are the one with power. Our God is in charge. Our God is the one of power. Our God is the only God. And it’s in silence that we know that God is God.

Sometimes it takes inner courage to go to the place where God is God. Inner courage to resist the noisy forces around us and find that inner voice of love that reminds us of who we are and how to truly be free.

Hebrews 12:1-2 reminds us that we are called to run the race that is laid out before us. Now, this is spiritually running. Some cannot run physically and that is okay. Some of us run in our wheelchair. Some of us run in our beds. Some of us run on our back. Some of us run in our hearts and in our mind. The call is to move forward spiritually — living with courageous faith — knowing that every person has a place in that, every person has a gift.

We are encouraged by the great cloud of faithful witnesses that have gone before us. I’m glad that someone has already blazed the trail that we are on. Every Sunday, I look up into the right hand side of our sanctuary, and I see the niches from our columbarium, our memorial chapel. I see some of the faces up there. I see Twig in all of his artistic beauty; I see his big laugh. I see Judy. Before she walked into the sanctuary, she would always pause at the door and pray for those coming and going. I see the great saints right now with us today, cheering us on. Those who have courageously gone before us say “We did it and so can you. You may feel the fear, but don’t be afraid little flock, because you will make it just like we did. We are the great cloud cheering you on.” I am grateful for the MCCDC Hall of Faith fame, because they give us courage that we can live our call.

Hebrews 12 says to let go of the baggage and the distractions that trip us up. It seems to me that the greatest baggage and the greatest distraction really is fear. We’re called to look fear in the face and act anyway. We are called to focus our eyes on Jesus, the perfecter of our faith. Jesus goes with us and I want Jesus to walk with me, move with me, go with me, go with us, move with us, pray with us, sing with us, believe with us, live with us, be free with us, be courageous with us!

We are not alone. We have the perfecter of our faith. Jesus is the light of the world: exposing sadness, exposing fear, exposing all the lies. Jesus is the light that exposes and the life that lifts us up. One thing I love about this sanctuary is that it is a constant reminder of the light of Jesus. I see the light of Jesus bouncing off some of your foreheads today and it’s beautiful. I see the light of Jesus coming through our windows. The light of Jesus is everywhere: illuminating, guiding, encouraging. We have a faith and we have a leader of our faith — the perfecter of our faith — Jesus.

When I think of Jesus, I think about how his entire life was an invitation to courage.

Jesus called his followers then and now to do the right thing, even when the right thing is inconvenient. And honestly, most of the time, the right thing is inconvenient. It’s inconvenient to make time to study the lives of those who have lived courageous lives. One of the things I do to build courage in my own life is to think of courageous leaders who have gone before. I take time to study the works of Mahatma Gandhi and the works of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the works of others who help us all to know what it means to live strong. To study the principles of soul force. To study the lives of the saints. It’s inconvenient to make time to pray and to go to bible study. It is inconvenient, and yet it is our call. The inconvenient faith indeed is a joyful faith. It is the best way to live, though it’s not easy and it’s not convenient.

At MCCDC, we offer lots of inconvenient opportunities. Some of the inconvenient opportunities coming up are the Susan G. Komen Walk for the Cure: putting our faith into our feet and doing the inconvenient thing of getting up on a Saturday morning and putting on a pink tutu and going out in public. At the end of September, we have the Trans Equality Walk: another Saturday morning event that will not be convenient, and yet so powerful. Then in October, the Walk to End HIV and AIDS. So many inconvenient opportunities that yet are so powerful.

Jesus’ entire life was an inconvenient invitation to courage. Followers of Jesus in ancient times were living under the toxic power of the imperial rule of the Roman Empire. Each day, they faced the threat of weapons and arrest. And yet Jesus knew that the only thing greater than the force of Rome was the force of their faith: a courageous faith, centered in love. Their time is not that different from our time. They lived under the Roman Empire rule. We, too, live under empire. The only difference is that the technology has changed. Our technology, in fact, is more dangerous.

The message that Jesus gave to his early followers is the same message Jesus gives to us today: “Grow your faith, live your faith, be your faith.”

Because your faith is a force that is stronger than the forces of empire. MCCDC, we are here at this corner of Fifth and Ridge because we are taking a stand for love and against empire. In fact, we are greater than empire because the force of love is in us!

Jesus made it clear to his followers that they were not alone in their call to courage. Again, that is why we exist. So every Sunday, we can come to this place or we can get on livestream, and we can know that we are not alone.

We are not alone in the problems we face at work. We are not alone in the problems we might experience with our families. We are not alone in the divisions in our neighborhood. We are not alone. Jesus is saying that. And when Jesus was leaving, some of his followers said, “You’re going to leave us alone? Now what are we going to do? You’re the one that gave us our courage. And you’re going away!”

Jesus said to them — and Jesus says the same thing to us today — “I will ask the one who sent me to give you another companion, another helper, another light, another guide, and the one who I am sending will be with you forever.” The Holy Spirit companions with us in this journey, in the name of Jesus.

So this all sounds good, doesn’t it? You want to live a courageous life. I’m sure a few folks might be thinking “That sounds good, but how? How do I live the courageous life?” If this was a TED talk, I’d give you three to six ways to live the courageous life. But this is a message at MCCDC, so I’m going to give you one.

The way to become courageous is simply to do courageous things.

We can think about courage all day long, we can pray about courage all day long, we can talk about courage all day long, we can preach about courage until we’re blue in the face; but the only way courage grows is to do courage. Courage is like a spiritual muscle. Courage is one of the greatest signs of spiritual maturity. Yet courage does not happen until we do it. “So do the thing you think you cannot do.” That’s not my own word. That’s actually the word of Eleanor Roosevelt. As I said, I study the lives of courageous people who have gone before us: the Dr. Kings and the Gandhis of the world, and there are so many others. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote a spiritual biography, and in that she reveals that her courage came from her faith.

Eleanor Roosevelt had the courage to bring hope to the oppressed during a time when it was particularly dangerous. Even more dangerous than today, to be Black in America. She had the courage to face racism. When she went to break up the corporations and to stand with the unions, she faced death threats. She had a daily column where she wrote about what it means to live strong lives and often times she faced opposition for that. But she lived courage in word and in action. So this is what she says about courage:

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stopped to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror and I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

Is there something in your life where you need some courage right now?

Ask what the next action you need to take is, and that’s where the Holy Spirit will guide you. The Holy Spirit will just show you the next small step, whatever it might be. It might just be making a list, holding that list before the light of God’s power and love, in the light of Jesus, and then living through that list. Usually, it’s just one thing at a time: you do that thing and your courage will grow, and then do the next thing and your courage will grow, and do the next thing.

I am inspired by the great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us. I am inspired by people like Dr. King and Eleanor Roosevelt and others. And I am inspired by those who on this day, at this moment, are living with courage. I think of the courage of those in the #MeToo movement. Those who have the audacity to say “Me, Too. I will no longer be silent about abuse.” More than ever, we need to surround each other with the ability to say “me, too,” and to stand up and tell our stories and find courage growing as we tell the stories.

I think of those today who are gathered in the city of Hong Kong who are refusing to be owned by any government. Those who are resisting and standing forward. I’m encouraged by those today in Portland, Oregon who have the courage to silence the voices of white nationalism. Think about the ordinary and extraordinary people who — even at this moment as we worship together — are exercising courage somewhere and some place.

Ordinary people become extraordinary people when they say ‘yes’ to courage and ‘no’ to the forces that bind and the forces that oppress.

How can we move forward in courage? We move forward when we do it and we move forward when we know we are not alone. We move together by faith.

Sometimes courage is the worst, bringing out the best. Recently, the absolute worst happened and yet the best has come out. In El Paso, Texas, many died as bullets flew through a Walmart. And yet there was one whose wife was killed who had the courage to say “I need someone to stand with me and to grieve with me.” In a culture that really talks about individualism and doing things on our own and bolstering up our own strength; Antonio Bosco is one who said “I don’t want to bury my wife alone,” and he opened up his service for his wife to the entire community. The funeral home sent an announcement out, letting other people know, and soon they found out that the chapel would no longer contain the crowds, as people responded to his courage. They moved the service to the La Paz Faith memorial and spiritual center. (And there’s something in that name: La Paz means peace.)

What happened was described as a communal embrace. People said ‘yes’ to standing with Antonio, and they waited for hours in 100-degree temperature. People flew in from around the world to be there, to be community, to answer his courage with their presence. The line stretched around the block for hours. And flowers! At 500 flower arrangements, they quit counting. In the midst of desolation and violence and danger, flowers emerged. Speaking to who we are as a community, I believe that despite the violence around us, that there are more good people than violent people. Together, we can be a part of that force for good. Antonio’s response was very, very simple. He simply said, “I’ve never had so much love in my life.”

Courage: it opens the way to love.
Courage: it opens the way to hope.
Courage: it opens the way to empowered living.
Courage: it makes us the beloved community.

I believe that we can rise up as God’s beloved and courageous people, because faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Know today that what you have is what you need. Live your faith. Do the next right thing. Be courageous; think on these things. Amen.