August 31st, 2025 - "Bible on Broadway - Hamilton: This Kid Is Insane!" - Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris

Matt Nelson: Welcome to the Sermon podcast from First United Methodist

Church in downtown Bentonville.

If you have questions related to what you hear today or just want to find

out more about the ministries of First United Methodist Church, please visit us

online at FUMCbentonville.org or check us out on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.

Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris: I've

gotta quit following all these talented people.

This is our last in the series, um, Bible on Broadway, and we're

doing Hamilton, and I will admit that I just completely blanked and

forgot to give you all a summary.

So you have history books, read them.

So we're gonna be looking at the story of Alexander Hamilton and the story of

King David and in here, and at 10 to 10 the title of the sermon will be, this

Kid is Insane, which I think we had a good example of just, just a minute ago.

Um, and then at 11 o'clock will be History Has Eyes.

I invite you if you don't wanna stick around, if you wanna watch later,

and you can see the second sermon as well as the second set of music.

And people have been asking me, am I gonna keep doing two sermons every week?

No,

no,

no.

This was really to match the energy of our musicians.

So expect starting next week to return to the old ways of doing things.

So to get us ready for today's reflection, we're gonna hear.

From second Samuel chapter seven, when the king was settled in his palace

and the Lord had given him rust from all his surrounding enemies, the

king said to the prophet, Nathan, look, I'm living in a cedar palace,

but God's chest is housed in a tent.

Nathan said to the king, go ahead and do whatever you're thinking

because the Lord is with you.

But that very night, the Lord's word came to Nathan.

Go to my servant David and tell him this is what the Lord says.

You are not the one to build the temple for me to live in.

In fact, I haven't lived in a temple from the day I brought

Israel out of Egypt until now.

Instead, I have been traveling around in a tent and in a dwelling.

Throughout my traveling around with the Israelites, did I ever

ask any of Israel's tribal leaders?

I pointed to shepherd my people.

Why haven't you built me a Cedar Temple?

So then say this to my servant David.

This is what the Lord of Heavenly forces says.

I took you from the pasture, from following the flock to be

leader over my people, Israel.

I've been with you wherever you've gone, and I've eliminated

all your enemies before you.

Now, I will make your name great, like the name of the greatest people on Earth.

I'm going to provide a place for my people, Israel, and plant

them so that they may live there and no longer be disturbed.

Cruel people will no longer trouble them.

As they had been earlier when I appointed leaders over my people Israel, and I

will give you rest from all your enemies, and the Lord declares to you that

the Lord will make a dynasty for you.

When the time comes for you to die and you lie down with your ancestors,

I will raise up your descendant, one of your very own children.

To succeed you and I will establish his kingdom.

He will build a temple for my name and I will establish his royal throne forever.

I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me.

Whenever he does wrong, I will discipline him with a human rod

with blows from human beings.

But I'll never take my faithful love away from him like I took it away from

Saul, whom I set aside in favor of you.

Your dynasty and your kingdom will be secured forever before me.

Your throne will be established forever.

Nathan reported all of these words and this entire vision to David.

Then King David went and sat in the Lord's presence.

He asked, who am I, Lord God, and of what significance is my family that you

have brought me this far, but even this was too small in your eyes, Lord God.

Now you have also spoken about your servant's dynasty in the future and

the generation to come, Lord God.

What more can David say to you?

You know your servant, Lord God, for the sake of your word, and according to

your own will you have done this great thing so that your servant would know it.

That is why you're so great.

Lord God, no one can compare to you.

No God except you.

Just as we have always heard with our own ears and who can

compare to your people Israel.

They're the one nation on earth that God redeemed as his own people,

establishing his name by doing great and awesome things for them by driving

out nations and their gods before your people whom you redeemed from Egypt.

You established your people Israel as your own people forever,

and you Lord became their God.

Now, Lord God, confirm forever the promise you have made about

your servant and his dynasty.

Do just as you have promised so that your name will be great forever.

When people say The Lord of Heavenly Forces is Israel's God, may your servant,

David's household be established before you because you, Lord of Heavenly forces,

Israel's God have revealed to your servant that you'll build a dynasty for him.

That is why your servant has found the courage to pray this prayer to

you, Lord God, you are truly God.

Your words are trustworthy and you have promised this good thing

to your servant now willingly.

Bless your servant's dynasty.

So that it might continue forever before you because you, Lord, God have promised.

Let your servant's dynasty be blessed forever by your blessing.

This is the word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Let us pray.

Lord, open our hearts, our minds, and our eyes that we might see and know

the word you have for us this day.

In your holy name we pray, amen.

So a few months ago I mentioned that I'd gotten a subscription to Masterclass,

and at that time I was doing the Steve Martin Comedy Masterclass.

See, I love how that always gets laughs.

It worked.

Currently I am in the Michael Lewis Masterclass, not to be confused with

our own Mike Lewis, who I saw at the back of the room just a minute ago.

Although I have learned much from Mike Lewis.

This Michael Lewis is the author of Moneyball, the

Blind Side In the Big Short.

And it has been wonderful to listen to him talk about his work and to talk

about the unifying theme of most of his work really is this idea of people

seeing possibilities where others don't.

When he followed the people through the big short, it was the ones that recognized

we were on the verge of an economic crisis and banked on that actually

became very wealthy as a result of it.

It was following Michael Orr and this shift in football that made his

particular position so valuable because they recognized that it protected the

quarterback or it was using statistics to.

Really recognize the value of players that people were

missing to build a winning team.

Perhaps he was inspired to look for those unexpected people because he

himself got Cs in English class, and yet he is now a bestselling author.

Certainly people would've missed him too.

We are looking at two figures today that as children might have easily been missed.

Alexander Hamilton was, as they say, born out of wedlock and orphaned on a

Caribbean island, and yet people on that island saw the possibilities that he had

and managed to get him to New York where he got a scholarship to attend King's

College, which is now Columbia University.

And as a result of those people who saw in him the possibility what he could

be, he became a founding father, has structured our banking system still today

and helps us understand so much of how we reflect on the value of the tension

between the states and the nation.

But he certainly didn't look the part, what he could do though.

It was cast a vision.

When we think about King David.

King David was the second of the kings for the nation of Israel.

The first one, Saul looked the part.

He was big.

He was a towering figure.

He is what the nation expected of a king, and yet he was an unsuccessful king.

David, on the other hand, was a pip squeak, scrawny little kid

who was the last in the line and who took care of the sheep.

And even as Jesse was bringing each child forward, as Samuel was there

to anoint the king, they kept not being the older brothers, so much

so that David wasn't even there.

They had to send for him.

And Samuel looked at him and said, that's the one.

Samuel looked with the eyes of God and saw in David all the possibilities

because in that small child was the gumption to defeat Goliath, become

king, and establish a dynasty.

There's much in these stories that speaks to the power of belief.

What belief can do for us.

Hamilton certainly believed in the possibilities of a new country,

but Hamilton had that belief because others believed in him first.

Hamilton had that belief because others believed in him.

First, he was a recipient of the possibility, and that made him be able

to envision possibility for so many more.

David was almost rabid in his belief in what God could do, but God saw him first.

God saw him first and saw those possibilities in him.

I've been thinking about what our kids see as possible this week.

People wonder sometimes how I prepare my sermons.

Really, there's more than one reason why I plan out my sermon

series months in advance.

It's because I'm always working on all of the sermons.

I'm looking for things, but when it comes down to actually sitting

down and writing them out, it's a, well, it's not, let's not gonna call

it the most academic experience.

Last night it was sitting in Tokyo house eating dinner.

And while I was there, three things were happening simultaneously.

Three things that spoke directly into this sermon.

One I had opened up Facebook and saw a post about a janitor whose

five children had gone tuition free to Boston College at the same time.

In the booth behind me, I heard a father telling his child.

What role he had played in the recovery when Katrina happened, and on the

television in front of me was an 11-year-old child talking about what it

was like to witness a school shooting.

I was thinking about that child who very eloquently reflected

on what she had been through.

She was able to talk very calmly and.

Effectively about what it was like going through a school shooting.

And I thought she could do that because she's been preparing

for this moment her whole life.

Y'all, God bless Gen Z.

How they get outta bed every morning?

I don't know.

And Jan Alpha right behind them.

I refer to Gen Z as the apocalypse generation because all they have

ever known these would be the kids that are born between 1997 and 2012.

All that generation is ever known is a world in apocalypse.

And if we're not careful, we're gonna give the same childhood to generation

alpha who's right behind them.

And Generation Beta sits right there in Kristen's lap, and we

could do the same thing to them.

Or we can stand up and see their possibilities and the first thing that

we can do is cast a vision for them.

That father, who was telling the story of what he did in Katrina recovery

and telling how this community, he was talking about how he worked for

Walmart and what Walmart did and what this community did, this community.

Miles and miles and miles away from any of the destruction.

How we came together in response to care for those who had need

that father shared with his child, the vision of who we could be.

And it reminded me of, you know, some of y'all know my son is without a job and

I'm trying to encourage him to get a job, but he really is not terribly motivated.

And again, I don't blame him.

What's he got to be motivated for?

Right?

And so I'm trying to tell him that we could be a different people.

So I said we were at his birthday dinner and I said, did you know

we, we balanced the budget once.

And he said, what?

I said, yeah, in the nineties we had a balanced budget.

He said, no, that's not possible.

And I was like, what?

Actually it is.

And I said, do you know how we did it?

And he said, how?

And I said, both sides work together.

He said, ah, now I really don't believe you, because he's never seen it.

But I told him it was possible.

I showed him what could be.

So we've gotta cast a vision for them of who we could be, and then

we have to believe in them enough for us to make the sacrifice.

So I gotta tell you about that story about the janitor, right?

Five kids who have all graduated from Boston College all have degrees,

varying levels of professionals, engineers, nurses, all of that.

Because Boston College, years and years and years ago made a commitment.

That any full-time employee who had children who qualified for admission to

Boston College would go tuition free.

So this man who worked the overnight shift as a janitor for 30 years sent all five

of his kids to Boston College because that college said These people matter.

We see a possibility of who they could be.

You might look at their father and see janitor.

We look at their father and see Father.

Committed who loves his children and wants the best for them.

And we a Jesuit people understand that our faith calls us to see in all of these

children the possibility of who they could be because we're supposed to look

with God's eyes and see that option.

We are the people of faith.

Y'all we're supposed to be putting on God glasses.

We're supposed to be looking at the world and acknowledging that

it is broken, acknowledging that there are problems, and seeing what

could be possible with God among us.

This is what.

We have to do, we have to do better by our kids.

We have to have a bigger and a better imagination.

We have to change here, there, and everywhere.

And we have to believe that it is possible.

And you know, I know it feels overwhelming, y'all.

I got my call to ministry.

Because of the school shooting that happened at the University of Arkansas

almost exactly 25 years before the hoax on Monday, almost exactly 25 years, you

think, I don't want a different world.

I was promised when I took this call, God told me I'd be able to work for

God's peace and it's gotten much less peaceful since I took this call.

Hmm.

And yet I know there's still a difference that can be made and it's still possible.

We could do better.

And that's why this church does things like Mental Health First aid.

That's why we have a therapist on site.

That's why we're gonna have a panel on understanding what trauma

does to how your brain thinks.

That's why we host a group of moms who works for changing

gun laws in this country.

That's why we take action because we believe it's possible.

Maybe we've given up on the Federalist Way.

It's kind of ironic the day I am talking about Alexander Hamilton.

Maybe we've given up on the federal government, but that doesn't

mean we can't change things here.

That doesn't mean there's not a possibility here.

We could still do something here and any life saved.

Is one more child who gets to grow into their possibilities.

Y'all, the kids in this church are insane.

I am so blessed and amazed by their giftedness and I

get to see it all the time.

And so do you.

They're performers.

They are worship leaders.

They are leaders of the greater church.

We have three that serve state leadership for the United Methodist Church.

Three, and they are sermon series designers.

Mm-hmm.

Y'all, I pride myself on how creative our sermon series are.

And it is clear that this one is everybody's favorite,

and I didn't do this one.

Our kids did this one, so let's give them a hand.

Right?

Thank you all for having us do this and then for rising to the

occasion and being part of it.

These kids deserve to be believed in.

And they deserve to have a vision of God's peace put before them.

And they deserve to be surrounded by people who are working

at living into that peace.

No matter how chaotic, no matter how destructive it gets around us

to continue to hold the line and continue to live in that peace.

Those are the people that we have to be for our kids so they can see

that something else is possible.

And if we do that, who knows?

Who knows?

Maybe one day Michael Lewis will write a book about us.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Matt Nelson: Thanks for listening to the Sermon podcast from First United

Methodist Church in downtown Bentonville.

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Grace and peace.