6/21/2026 - "Prophets, Pauses, and Possibility" - Rev. Anthony Spearhart

6/21/2026 - "Prophets, Pauses, and Possibility" - Rev. Anthony Spearhart

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So before I begin this morning, I'd like to make a little bit of a confession. So Tyler and I went to see the Lion King last night at the Arnoff in downtown Cincinnati. So I'm going to try very hard today to not commingle the pride lands and the kingdom of God. But I'm not making any promises. Because as it turns out, both stories have something to say about listening for a voice that calls us forward. There are a few phrases more closely associated with the United Church of Christ than this one. I first encountered those words at a pride parade in Columbus in 2013. It was a rainbow banner carried through the crowd that said, God is still speaking. And nearby there was a woman holding a sign that said, I'm sorry for how the church has treated you. I did not have the language for it then, but something in me recognized the gospel in that moment. Not as exclusion, not as a closed door, but as welcome, as healing, as possibility. Those words became more than a slogan, they became a doorway. And that is the thing about this phrase. It sounds simple, but it is actually a very bold confession of faith. To say God is still speaking is to say that God has not gone silence. It is to say that the Holy Spirit did not retire after the last page of Scripture was written. It is to say that the divine is still meeting people in prayer, in community, in grief, in joy, and sometimes in places we did not expect to find God at all. And let me say this clearly: believing God is still speaking does not mean we take Scripture less seriously. I would argue it actually means we take Scripture seriously enough to wrestle with it, to ask questions, to seek context, to listen for the spirit breathing through ancient words into present-day lives. As Carl Barth famously said, I take the Bible too seriously to take it literally. I love that, because the answer to weaponized scripture is not less scripture. The answer is deeper scripture. And when we read scripture deeply, we discover that God is still speaking. That phrase is not something we impose on the Bible. It's something we find throughout the biblical story. And that is certainly true here in John 16. Jesus is preparing the disciples for a season of uncertainty. They're anxious, they're confused, and afraid of what lies ahead. And into that moment, Jesus says, I still have many things to say to you. But you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, the Spirit will guide you into all truth. I love that Jesus says, I still have many things to say to you. Not you already know everything you need to know, not you will never have reason or cause to wrestle again, not there are no more questions to be answered, but I still have many things to say to you. There's more, more wisdom, more guidance, more truth to unfold. The good news in John 16 is that Jesus does not abandon confused disciples. Jesus gives them the spirit, the spirit who guides, the spirit who teaches, the spirit who keeps leading the community into deeper truth. And that promise raises a question for us. If God is still speaking, are we still listening? Isaiah gives us this beautiful and challenging word from God. Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing. Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? Now we need to be careful here, because Isaiah is not saying the past does not matter. In fact, the people hearing these words were shaped by memory. They knew the stories of God's faithfulness. They remembered the Exodus. They remembered the God who made a way through the sea where there seemed to be no way forward. The problem is not memory. The problem is when memory becomes a prison. The problem is when the way God moved yesterday becomes the only way we believe God can move tomorrow. Isaiah is not saying forget what God has done. Isaiah is saying do not let even your holiest memories keep you from seeing what God is doing now. The good news in Isaiah 43 is that God can still make a way when the old maps no longer work. God can make rivers in the deserts. God can bring life where we assumed only loss remained. So these two scriptures together give us the heart of the message. Jesus says, There is more I still have to say. God in Isaiah says, I am doing a new thing. And the question for us becomes, are we still listening? Because listening is not always easy. The world is loud, fear is loud, grief is loud, change is loud. Sometimes even our certainty can become loud. Sometimes we become so convinced we already know what faithfulness looks like that we stop listening for the Spirit's next word. But the practice of sacred listening is deeply human. Across cultures, across generations, and across faith traditions, people have made space to listen for wisdom beyond themselves. And perhaps that is the question that's before us. Not only what did God say long ago, but also what is God saying now? And that question brings us to Peter. Peter is one of my favorite disciples because Peter is so wonderfully human. He's bold and then afraid. Faithful and then confused. He gets it beautifully right one moment and painfully wrong the next. In other words, Peter is a lot like the church. In Acts 10, Peter goes up on the rooftop to pray. And let's not rush past that. Before anything changes, Peter pauses. Before there is new understanding, there is prayer. Before there is a prophetic word, there is stillness. Before Peter speaks, Peter listens. And while he is praying, Peter receives a vision that challenges everything he thought he knew about who belonged and who did not. Three times the vision comes, three times Peter resists. Three times the spirit pushes beyond the boundaries Peter thought were fixed. And perhaps that is the hardest part of listening. Sometimes the hardest voice to quiet is not fear. Sometimes the hardest voice to quiet is the voice that says, But this is how I have always understood faithfulness. Peter is not being asked to stop caring about God. He is being invited to understand God more deeply. He's being invited to see that God is already moving beyond the lines he thought could never be crossed. And that is often how the still-speaking God works. Opening what we thought we settled, stretching what we thought was certain, expanding what we thought was complete. Soon Peter is invited to the home of Cornelius, a Gentile, a person Peter would once have considered outside the circle. And there the meaning of the vision finally becomes clear. Peter says, I truly understand that God shows no partiality. Now that is a prophetic moment. Not because Peter predicts the future, but because Peter listens deeply enough to recognize what God is already doing. God is wider in this moment than Peter imagined. God's welcome is larger in this moment than Peter expected. And God is already at work beyond the boundaries Peter inherited. Already speaking, already blessing, already drawing the circle wider. And that is what prophecy so often is not fortune telling, but spirit-led truth telling. The courage to name what God is revealing, the courage to say out loud what love, grace, and justice are making visible. And that is where the gifts of the Spirit matter. Because the still-speaking God is not only speaking to the pastor. Let me say that again. The still-speaking God is not only speaking to the pastor, the divine is not whispering into one person's ear while everyone else waits for instructions. The Spirit has been given to the whole body, to the community, to each and every one of us. Some of you already recognize that voice. Others may not be so sure. And that's okay. Let us wonder together. Let us practice together. Because the divine speaks to each one of us personally and uniquely. The work is learning how to recognize that voice. Learning to test it in community. Learning to ask whether it sounds like divine love, whether it leads towards mercy, justice, healing, humility, and life. The Spirit gives wisdom. The Spirit gives knowledge. The Spirit gives prophetic courage. And that means the church is called to become a discerning community. And this brings us to another example in Acts 15. By this point, Peter's experience has become the church's question. How do we honor what has been handed down while making room for what the Spirit is revealing? So the church gathers, they pray, they listen, they share what they have seen. And then they write one of the most remarkable sentences in the New Testament. It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and us. I love that line because it's not, it seemed good to me, not this is what one person decided, but it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. That is communal discernment. That is the church together. The church listening together. The good news in Acts 15 is that the church does not have to choose between tradition and transformation. The Spirit helps us honor the faith we receive while making room for the new thing that our God is doing. And friends, I think that matters deeply for us because this is not just Peter's story. It's not just the early church's story. It is a reflection of what it means for us to be a still-speaking church in this time, in this community, and in this season of ministry together. We gather here beginning something new together. And beginning something new does not mean forgetting what came before. It means trusting that the same God who was faithful then is still faithful now. The same spirit who guided anxious disciples in John is still guiding disciples today. The same God who made a way for exiled people in Isaiah is still making ways in wilderness places today. The same spirit who interrupted Peter in prayer is still interrupting the church with grace today. And the same spirit who helped the early church discern together is still calling communities like ours into deeper faithfulness. So here is the good news. God is present. God is speaking. God is calling. God is creating. God is revealing. God is making a new way. And God is widening the circle of grace. And God is calling Lakeview United Church of Christ into deeper love, wider welcome, courageous justice and faithful possibility. And there is something powerful within us and among us, not something we manufacture or control, but something we receive. The Spirit of truth, the breath of God, the wisdom of Christ alive in the body of the kingdom of God. The Spirit helps us listen when the world is loud. The Spirit gives us wisdom when the way is unclear. The Spirit gives us courage to name where love, justice, healing, and mercy are calling us next. And if that gift has been given to us, then we have to lean into it. Lean into prayer. Lean into discernment, lean into holy listening, and lean into the possibility that God may still have more to show us than we are ready to bear all at once. And dare I say it, maybe the next gospel is being written here today. The next living chapters of good news. Not written with ink on parchment, but with compassion in our choices, courage in our welcome, and love in our life together. Maybe the next gospel is not something we ride alone, maybe the next gospel is what the Spirit writes through us and within us. So our call is simple. Practice listening. Pause before reacting. Pray before deciding. Honor the past without becoming imprisoned by it. Pay attention to where God is already moving. And this when the Spirit reveals a wider welcome, a deeper justice, a truer love, and a more faithful way forward, may we have the courage to say yes. And that's what it means to be a church of prophets. Pauses and possibilities. Prophets, people willing to listen deeply, boldly, and speak truthfully. Pauses, moments where we quiet the noise long enough to notice what God is doing. Impossibility, the courage to trust that God is still speaking, still creating, revealing, and making a way. So, Lake View, let's lean in together. The Spirit has been given, God is speaking. And the next chapter of the gospel will not wait for permission. It is already rising in the room. The Spirit is still speaking, a new thing is springing forth. Do you perceive it? Then let's listen. Listen for the voice of divine in Scripture, listen for the voice of the divine in community. Listen for the voice of the divine within your own soul. For the one who called the prophets, the one who inspired the disciples, the one who is making all things new is still speaking today. And as one wise lion once reminded us, you are more than what you have become. Remember who you are. Amen.