 the book of Acts begins and ends with boldness. When the Holy Spirit comes upon the early followers of Jesus in the beginning of the book of Acts, it says they were filled with the Spirit and they spoke the message of God with. And we come to the end of the book of Acts and they've had a lot of ups and downs, a lot of persecution, a lot of division. I know that religious people today can't identify with that. A lot of arguments, a lot of trouble, but guess what? Their boldness is still intact. The book of Acts ends like this. Paul is in prison. He's under house arrest in Rome. And people are coming and going to meet him. They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening explaining about the kingdom of God and from the law of Moses and from the prophets. He tried to persuade them about Jesus. Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe. They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made his final statement. He kind of, his PR firm would have not have been happy with him at this moment. He basically gets impatient with a bunch of people who don't really get what he's trying to say. And so he says, Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through the Isaiah the prophet, go to this people and say, you will ever be hearing but never understanding. You will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become callous. They hardly hear with their ears. They've closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them. It's not, it's basically saying God is still speaking and you people aren't listening. And so he basically says, you guys aren't listening. I'm gonna speak to other people. So for two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house, welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. Now, listen, I know that for some of you to imagine being imprisoned under house arrest, by the way, not strictly speaking for his faith, really he was under house arrest because he'd made an appeal to the Supreme Court of the Roman Empire. Because he had been speaking a message of religious inclusion. His message had been, God loves everybody, no exceptions. And there was a group of religious extremists of his own religion who were pretty big on the exceptions. And so they had basically formed a lynch mob to get him out and the Roman government had to step in to protect him from religious extremists of his own religion. And so he made this appeal, now he's under house arrest. I don't know what you call that, but it's complicated. Let's just say it that way. And I know for some people to be under arrest doesn't sound like without hindrance. But let me tell you something, hindrances are in your mind. If you think you're hindered, you'll be hindered. But Paul didn't see it as hindrance. Paul saw it as opportunity. He kind of saw it as he got a really good perch in the capital city of the empire to get out a message. And so he spoke with boldness. Now listen, I know it's very hard to imagine. You all are fast. I don't even know what I need to say now. I feel like I can just go and you all will get it. I know it's hard to imagine living in a time of great danger with a lot of violent religious extremists around a time of disagreement and division where there's an unstable dictator in power. I know it's hard to imagine. But brothers and sisters, the house is on fire and it's time to wake up and get bold. This is not, do you all remember, you know how sometimes they break into the radio and TV stations and say this is a test of the emergency broadcast system. This is only a test. If this were an actual emergency, brothers and sisters, this is an actual emergency. This is a time for boldness. And I think it's time for progressive people of faith to get their boldness back. Look, the truth is, if this scripture had been written about a whole lot of religious people today, it would read, for two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and laid low. He remembered when nostalgia, the good or the old days of the 1950s and complained continually about his current state of affairs with lots of moral superiority and no commitment to make a difference. Religious nostalgia is not the same as boldness. Brothers and sisters, can I tell you something? Religious liberals and religious conservatives have something in common. They're nostalgic for days that are never coming back. So it's time, brothers and sisters, for us to get our boldness on and to wake up to the current situation. Listen, if we wanted to talk about how we lost our boldness, we could go on and on. There'd be a lot to talk about. We could talk about the success of the Protestant mainline in the 20th century, a pretty remarkable success. It begins with a social gospel movement in the early part of the century. Such a phenomenal success. Every issue it addressed, it had success on. We could talk about the success of the Protestant mainline in helping the nation get through two world wars. Not an easy thing to do in the mid part of the 20th century. We could talk about the amazing success after World War II of addressing the civil rights movement, of addressing issues of women's equality and eventually LGBT equality. Remarkable success of the Protestant mainline in at least addressing those issues, although we know we've still got a long way to go. Do I get an amen? We could talk about the fact that as the center of American society, the Protestant mainline occupied a place of privilege and centrality to be a UCC person in New England in the middle part of the 20th century was like being a Southern Baptist in Georgia or Alabama today. You were at the center of your culture's power, but guess what folks, there was a shift. You're not in the center anymore. The big tall spire mocks the actual reality. It's not your fault. You don't have to feel ashamed. Times have just changed. It's a different world. And so what a whole lot of people have done for the last 50 years is first they were in denial about their loss of cultural centrality and now they've been in depression about it. You go through the stages of death, you can get angry and depressed. Eventually you've got to accept it. That's a past reality and guess what? Hindrance is in your mind. Decline is in your mind. Nostalgia is in your mind. This could be a moment of phenomenal opportunity if we get over that kind of cultural shift. We could talk about the fact that the Protestant mainline had great clarity about what it is not. Fundamentalists, can I tell you? Fundamentalists have great clarity about what they are and what they're for and the rest of us have great clarity that we're not fundamentalists. Brothers and sisters, we got to get beyond that. We've got to get beyond that and rediscover what we're for. Look, can I tell you, I think the biggest reason that we have a boldness deficit in a lot of our congregations is because we're walking on eggshells. I'm about to tell an uncomfortable truth. Are you ready? Here it is. This is true across denominations and almost every congregation. There's a small number of people who are holding everybody else hostage with some money. And what happens is everybody's afraid that if we offend one or two people, one or two families, if we say something they don't like, then we're gonna go out of business. And can I tell you something? No one who's walking on eggshells has ever been bold. You don't boldly, I mean, that's not a bold, that's not bold movement there. And then I think we've got a major sense of confusion about what the church is for. We haven't got clear yet what the church is for and we'll come back to that. And there's many other causes we could talk about, but listen, brothers and sisters, if we want to get our boldness back, I just think it involves a couple of things. It involves rediscovering our core message. That's so important. I'm gonna come back to it at the end. And then it means recognizing that the house is on fire, that this is an actual emergency. We have an environmental crisis on our hands, brothers and sisters, and right now the political people in power are in unbelievable denial about the reality of the environmental crisis that we face. And brothers and sisters, if we just step back and say the sea levels are gonna rise and billions of people are going to be displaced by famine and sea level rise, the climate is changing, if we say that and we say what does that mean, 10 years out, 20 years out, 30 years out, can I tell you something? The refugee crisis out of Syria, which has an environmental component that a lot of people don't know about, but the refugee crisis out of Syria is nothing compared to the refugee crisis to come because if we don't deal with the emergency of our climate. Now, here's the irony. To deal with the issue of climate starts with the issue of values, what is important? If the earth is only important to give gold and oil and coal, if its only value is what you can extract from it, then you build one kind of economy. But if you actually believe, as my dear friend Jim Antal actually believes, and I think he's right, and I think we should all believe this, he says this on good authority, the earth is the lords and the fullness thereof, that we are only renters and lessors of the environment, we're never its ultimate owners, that the earth doesn't just belong to the people who are living now, but is there for our children and great-grandchildren for a hundred generations to come and beyond, if we actually believe that, then we have a set of values that are the values that are necessary for planetary survival. If we believe that we are not the masters of the earth, but the stewards of the earth. If we believe what Genesis one and two say that we're here to take care of the earth, not to exploit it. If that's true, then brothers and sisters will get bold because we'll start organizing and engaging with the environmental emergency. Listen, I want to tell you something, if the churches don't do it, we are, I'm looking for the right word, you can fill in the blank. We're in deep, deep, deep, I'm looking for the right word, you can fill in the blank. We're in trouble, brothers and sisters, right now we need people of faith to step forward on this, and we can do it. This group of people could lead the way in the nation. I want to tell you a quick story. I was at the gathering when Sir John Houghton, who is the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the largest scientific endeavor in human history where he met with religious leaders in the United States. And during one of the breaks, I said to him, and he was trying to brief them and help them say that climate change is real, we have a global environmental crisis, it's an actual emergency. And the resistance to what he said was stunning. Everybody agreed he was right, they just didn't believe they could actually get churches mobilized to do anything about it because people are walking on eggshells because of a few people in each congregation who are holding everybody hostage, right? And so I went out in the hallway and I was talking to Sir John, I said, you're a man of great patience. And Sir John said, I have no choice. Here's what he said. He said, the United States, five or 6% of the world's population, 30% of the world's pollution. He said, whatever the rest of the world does, gets discounted by 30% if the U.S. doesn't do its part. Said, but the U.S. won't make a change unless the Republican Party makes a change and the Republican Party won't make a change unless evangelical Christians make a change and evangelical Christians won't make a change unless Southern Baptists make a change. He said, basically the future of the planet is held hostage by American Southern Baptists. This is why I have no choice, but to be patient and to be bold. And brothers and sisters, we gotta get serious. We gotta take the lead. We gotta, as people of faith, we've gotta say this is our problem. We've gotta engage the crises of prejudice, segregation, and scapegoating. We've gotta take seriously the challenge that every person has dignity, no exceptions. Every person. Listen, you might wish that political parties believe that, but people of faith better believe that. People of faith like the people in this room, can I tell you something? A whole lot of religious people, they use their religion to make exceptions. We've gotta use our faith to remove the exception. And so listen, there are people who are afraid, hate crimes are happening. And we don't know where this thing's going. We don't know if the hate crimes are going to increase. There's a resurgence of white Christian nationalism, white supremacy, racism. And look, it's gonna take people of color and white people of conscience joining arms and working together to bring about change. It's going to take thousands of uncomfortable conversations with both gentleness and boldness. Boldness without scorn. And it's people like us who can have those conversations. Look, we're gonna have to engage the underlying engines that are behind so many of these other problems, which are issues of economic injustice. The fact that as a famous politician, one of the true things this politician said is that the system is rigged. But it's rigged to keep funneling money to the people who have the most. And it's rigged to keep using the labor of the poorest and most vulnerable people, not to make them better off, to keep them right where they are, but to make the people at the top better off. That's called economic injustice. I have read the Bible, God is against it. So people of faith, listen, people of faith, people of faith, we've gotta get organized, engaged on these issues. And if we do, it's going to require boldness. We'll find boldness we never knew we had. Listen, can I tell you something? A lot of people are upset that many of our churches have a lot of people over 55, over 60, over 65. Can I tell you one of the most encouraging things in the entire world to me right now? It's how many old people are really ticked off. They didn't work hard all their lives to watch the world and the country go down to hell in this handbasket, right? They're really, really upset. And if we can mobilize those people, they're gonna sit down and have a talk with their children and their grandchildren. And these people, if they got bold, stuff could happen. And so, again, you can say we got a lot of older people. That's really a hindrance. Hindrance is in your mind. You get some older people who get bold. Older and bolder is a good combination. And if we do, I believe that progressive people of faith could rediscover the E word. When I say the E word, I hesitate to say it, but I gotta be bold. Listen, folks, evangelism is not just for evangelicals anymore. And here's what I mean. Listen, you don't have any business going and knocking on doors and telling people they're going to hell unless they join your religion or that God doesn't love them unless they join your religion. We don't need that stuff. But can I tell you something? There is a movement building. It's a movement for justice. It's a movement for joy. It's a movement for peace. There's a movement building. It's a movement of the spirit. It's a movement that says the earth matters. It's a movement that says all people matter, no exceptions. It's a movement that says that God has a preferential option for the poor. And if we start that, if we're part of that movement, you better believe we wanna invite other people to become part of the movement. And if we were to understand all those little white buildings in all the New England towns as centers of organizing for a spiritual movement to actually save the earth, that's a movement worth inviting people to join. But listen, it all begins with rediscovering our core message. And I wanna just say this briefly, but I think it's so important. Listen, I know that Jesus has been kidnapped by religious fundamentalists. I know he's been brainwashed and tortured and put in front of TV cameras and made to say things he doesn't actually believe. I know that an identity theft has happened, an identity theft of Jesus. And it's time for people like us to liberate Jesus, to get him away from the people who've kidnapped him and to let him speak his bold message of revolutionary love once again through us. And I wanna, and so here's what I want you to see. When you see the words Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to understand that is a profoundly political statement, maybe more political than theological, for Paul to say that in the city of Rome and AD 62 or whatever it was. Lord is the word for Caesar. Lord Caesar, Curios Kaiser. He doesn't speak about Curios Kaiser, he speaks about Curios Jesus, Lord Jesus. Lord means the supreme authority. It was primarily a statement to say, Jesus's Lord is to say, Caesar is not. Caesar's not the ultimate authority. Now take that and apply it to our situation with the people who claim ultimate authority in our situation. Can you understand why to say Jesus actually was right and these other bozos are wrong? This is an important time to make a statement like that. You know, I know this isn't in any of the creeds, but I personally think one of the most important statements of faith is Jesus was right. When Jesus said loving your neighbor, which includes the stranger, outsider, outcast, and enemy, that that's what matters most. Right along with loving God, I think he was right. And to say Jesus is the supreme authority, a nonviolent man who taught revolutionary love. And to call Jesus the Christ, you understand the word Christ means liberating King. It's not just Jesus last name, it means the one who's here to liberate from the oppressive powers that are running the show now. And this is a statement of a revolutionary love movement that's here to make a positive difference. We don't hate anybody, we don't scorn anybody, we don't wanna hurt anybody, we wanna set people free. And in that way, this message is a message that we need today. Jesus and the kingdom of God. Now look, we all know that word kingdom doesn't work today because it makes people think of damsels and distress and castles and fire-breathing dragons, but the word in Jesus' day meant the largest reality we can think of is a kingdom. So a transforming reality of God, a new economy of God, a love economy of God, a new ecosystem of God, whatever language we wanna translate it into, brothers and sisters, that is our core message. And it's something to be bold about. I just have to close by telling you a story. I was a pastor for 24 years, I was a church planner and pastor for 24 years and when I left the pastor 11 years ago, I was faced with this decision, do I actually want to go to church? It was like the first time I wasn't being paid to go to church in 24 years. And I didn't have to make that decision by first Sunday because I was flying from America to Australia and I actually crossed the international date line from Saturday to Monday. So I didn't have to make that decision. But the next week I was in Sydney and I had the day off and my wife was with me and we decided we could play hooky for one Sunday. So we didn't go to church that Sunday, we walked around Sydney. And if you've been to Sydney, Australia, there's a neighborhood called The Rocks. It's like nice little shops and it's a nice little place. So we're walking around, the weather was perfect. It was just an incredible day. And often the distance I hear live music, I don't know why it is but live music recharges me. I love, like if it's an accordion player on the street, I'll just be putting money in there. I just love live music. We ate in the restaurant last night, they had an accordion player. Like normally accordion wouldn't be my double tea, but if it's live I love it. And I hear a lot of music. And so literally my wife and I are just following our ears through this little maze of dead end streets and we come to a dead end street and there's a band set up and they're playing American jazz music. And I love jazz and it turns out it's a band from the US. And they're playing in this little corner and we go and buy some lunch and sit down in a little chair. And it was just ideal. It was like an advertisement for tourism, Sydney. And I snuck up, I wanted to take a picture and I snuck up behind the band. Can you see this lady with her little baby? She starts dancing with a little baby. You know, grownups don't feel too free with their bodies unless they have a baby in it. So she does. And then pretty soon this old guy, I'm kind of guessing he was a homeless guy just by the way he looked, but he's not dressed real well, looks a little scruffy and he gets up and he starts sort of doing this, right? Going back and forth with the music. And then this old lady gets up and they start sort of busting a few moves together. And Grace and I, the couple at a table, a little table for two right next to us, we can't help it over here. And the husband said, come on, let's do it. He said, no, I don't want to. No, come on, we should. I don't have the right shoes. No, come on. So he gets her up and can you see, I just happened to get him in the corner. These are like professional ballroom dancers. Like they are just making moves and they're having a blast. Well, within 10 minutes, 50 or 100 people are up dancing. It's just a moment of freedom. Now when I took this next picture, I didn't realize what was about to happen. But I just went up to get a picture and I didn't realize, see this little boy here. So Grace and I were sitting at the table, next to this table for two, on the other side is a table for like eight and there's a large family there. And this little boy, shortly after I took this picture, I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but he's a boy with special needs. And he is up there just in trance with the musicians. And a few minutes after this, while this couple is busting their moves, he takes his binoculars and he holds them up like a trumpet and starts running like this. And he closes his eyes and he's like right in front of the stage. And he's like just oblivious to everything and he's just going like this. Well, the sax player in the band notices this and jumps off the stage and stands next to him and starts playing sax like this. And the little boy's eyes are closed so he doesn't see it. He's still going. The trumpet player jumps off the stage, gets on the other side of it. He's just going like this, just in his own little world. Now at this moment, I'm sitting back in my chair and the father and mother are embarrassed. Like, and the mother's saying, should I go get him? Should I go get him? The father's saying, he's having fun, don't worry. And the grandfather goes to stand because they aren't sure how he's going to react when he realizes all the eyes are on him because he's got some special needs. So he opens his eyes, he sees the sax player, he sees the trumpet player and he starts going like this. I see this look of joy on his face. And all I can tell you is, I have tears running down my face. My wife is like, she doesn't get choked up a lot. She reaches over, takes my hands and says, Brian, it's the kingdom of God. Space was created. Everybody mattered, no exceptions. And brothers and sisters, there's so much trouble in the world. We don't have time to have pathetic religious arguments. We don't have time to bore people because we've done it for a hundred years. We don't have time to pacify people. We've got to get people fired up. It is a time for boldness.