August 10th, 2025 - "Bible on Broadway - Wicked: The Power of the Prophet" - 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 at First United Methodist Church, please visit us

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

Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris: You know, on a, a staff of 10 people.

I like to say that I'm the seventh or eighth best singer.

Thank you so much Alison.

That was amazing.

And you know we're gonna hear a lot more and thank you choir for all the

work that you're doing for this series.

And Matt, of course.

And I gotta give props to last year's confirmation class.

Which is who came up with and insisted that we do this series.

And so they have helped me design it and it has been a blast.

And so if you love this series, find a seventh grader in

this church and thank them.

If you hate it, blame me.

One other thing to share with you all, we are going to have

different music in both spaces.

So the nine o'clock and 10 10 will have, uh, different music that

they're preparing from those shows.

And 11 o'clock we'll be doing different music down here.

I already see that I have either some Bible nerds or some Broadway nerds

who are doing a whole morning of it.

Maybe they're Bible and Broadway nerds.

And you can do that because.

Nine and 10.

10 will have one sermon.

11 o'clock.

We'll have a different sermon through this series so you won't have to sit

and listen to the same sermon twice.

So nine o'clock and 10 10 heard live your weird, and you guys are about

to hear the power of the prophet.

If you can't make it to both and you wanna hear the music and or listen to the

sermon of both, obviously remember that we're on Facebook and YouTube as well.

Oh, and one more thing.

We are not going to give summaries of the musicals, you know, how the

list on the front of the bulletin of what musicals we're doing.

We will have these little descriptions though to help you

understand what the show is.

And obviously this one is based on the Wizard of Oz, but it's like the back.

Story of the Wicked Witch of the West, whose name is Alphabet in

the play, and then Galinda the Good Witch and how they stand up

to the wizard eventually together.

So we're gonna get in that frame of mind of the prophetic reality that

this calls for with this passage from Ezekiel chapter 12, in which Ray

Ezekiel 12 · chapter mention

could find no hymns that went with it.

It's a very odd passage, but it's apparently perfect for

blessing of the backpack.

So hear now the word of the Lord.

The Lord's word came to me.

Human one.

You live in a household of rebels.

They have eyes to see, but they don't see ears to hear, but they don't hear

because they're a household of rebels.

But you human one, prepare a backpack for going into exile.

In the daytime while they watch, go into Exile while they watch,

go out from your place to another.

Even though they are a household of rebels, perhaps they will understand in

the daytime while they watch Carry Your Backpack as if for exile at Twilight

while they watch Go out like those who are led out to Exile while they watch.

Dig a Hole through the Wall and take your backpack out through it while they watch.

Shoulder Your Backpack and carry it out in the dark.

Cover your face so that you can't see the land because I'm making

you a sign for the House of Israel.

So I did.

As I was commanded, I carried out my backpack like an exiles backpack

in the daytime at night, I dug a hole through the wall with my hand.

In the darkness.

I shouldered my backpack and carried it out.

While I watched in the morning, the Lord's word came to me.

Human one has the house of Israel.

The household of rebels asked you, what are you doing?

Say to them, the Lord God proclaims this concerns the prince in Jerusalem, along

with the entire house of Israel in it.

Say, I'm your sign, just as I have done so, it will be done to them.

They will go into captivity and exile their prints, will shoulder

his backpack at night and go out.

They will dig through the wall and lead him out through it, and he will cover his

face so that his eyes won't see the land.

But I will spread my net over him, catch him in my trap, and bring him to

Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans.

He won't see it, but he will die there.

As for all those.

Who are in league with him, I will scatter his helpers and all his troops to the

winds and let the sword loose after them.

They will know that I am the Lord when I disperse them among the nations and

scatter them throughout the lands.

But I will preserve a few of their number from the sword, famine, and plague, so

that they may confess all their detestable practices among the nations where they go.

Then they will know that I'm the Lord.

The Lord's word came to me.

Human one, eat your bread and trembling and drink your

water and anxious agitation.

Say to the land's people, the Lord God, proclaims to those living in Jerusalem

regarding Israel's fertile land, as they anxiously eat up their bread and

drink up their water and dismay the land will be emptied of everything in it.

Because of the violence of all who live there, the inhabited cities will be laid.

Waste the land left desolate and you will know that I am the Lord.

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.

When we think about our heart's desire when it comes to leadership,

I think that we all want leaders that we can serve alongside.

We all want leaders who see us and value us, and we all want leaders

who will protect us and especially protect the vulnerable among

usba Wanted this from the wizard.

She wanted to be seen beyond her green.

She wanted to be the wizard's right hand woman, and she wanted someone

who would not only value her, but who would protect the animals and those in

awes who are already being persecuted.

Ezekiel wanted leaders who would avoid the exile.

Ezekiel is already in exile when he is giving these words.

He was exiled about 11 years before Jerusalem fell, so he

is acting as a warning sign.

And he is begging, begging for a prince who will lead in a way that will

allow them to avoid exile, to protect what is distinct about the people, to

allow him to serve as a priest of God, which is who he was supposed to be.

That's his family line.

He was supposed to be a priest, and right as he would've stepped into the

role of priest, he gets exiled instead.

And a leader who would protect the people of Judah against Babylon,

Elphaba, and Ezekiel did not get their wish.

What do we need when the leaders fail?

We need a prophet.

A prophet identifies the failures of leadership, has the courage to name what

those failures are, and to call them out.

A prophet offers a message of truth when everything else seems like a lie and

gives a vision of hope of what could be.

And a prophet stands in direct opposition to the powers that be.

As I mentioned, right as Ezekiel should have come into his role as a priest,

he is exiled and cannot serve in that way, but what he can do is be a prophet.

And it turns out that Israel didn't need a priest.

Israel needed a prophet.

He was then called to deliver the word against Babylon, but also to call out

the failings of both Israel and Judah.

He is called to deliver God's words of truth.

He eats a scroll to represent how he will carry within him God's words of truth.

But he also gives a vision of great hope.

It is Ezekiel who stands with God as they look out over the valley of

Jezreel, which is littered with bones.

And God says to Ezekiel, do you think these bones can live?

And Ezekiel, instead of saying, no, that's crazy, God, he says, you know what?

I'm gonna watch what you can do.

And the bones rise up and they get flesh on them and they come back to life.

Ezekiel is willing to work alongside to see miracles happen and tend

to share that vision with the people that we may face death.

We may face desolation, but we will rise again.

As long as we turn our hearts, our minds, and our souls toward God, and Ezekiel

performs actions to share this message, to represent the realities of the people.

That's why we have this whole crazy story of Ezekiel crawling back and

forth through the wall carrying the backpack because they're cast out,

they're wandering, they're facing exile.

They're going to be forced through the walls of Jerusalem.

But within that, they can also reimagine what the structures could be.

Alphabet, when faced with the challenge of could she just grin and bear it and agree

to serve alongside a wizard that she knows has no power and that she knows is using

whatever bluff he has to oppress others.

When Glenda tells her, all you have to do is say you're sorry,

and you can have that role.

You can serve alongside the wizard like your heart's desire was.

And alphabet instead responds.

I don't want it.

No, I can't want it anymore.

And so she faces a crumbling empire that she sees ahead of everyone else,

and her moment, her sign through the wall is to defy gravity and fly and to

write in the clouds are wizard lies.

To tell everyone that there is no truth here.

That in fact.

This leadership they have leaned on is false and hollow.

She is significant.

In fact, she is the impetus to the resistance that ultimately

exposes the wizard as a fraud.

Ezekiel sends a message of Hope.

Alphabet exposes this false leadership, but what ultimately happens to them?

The prophet cannot be the leader.

Prophets are not kings.

Prophets are meant to shout in the ears of kings.

Think of Samuel Warning, Saul of Nathan, warning David, of all the prophets

in our biblical books, warning the Kings, it is the nature of the role,

the ones who tear down the system.

It cannot be the ones who build it back for while They get the attention of why

this is needed, while they expose the reality and the sickness in the system, it

costs them dearly to expose that reality.

Ezekiel never goes home.

An alphabet is cast into exile.

It's ultimately the place for prophets.

Prophets are ultimately in the exile.

Ezekiel only prophesize from the banks of the Chaba River, and he does so for 22

years, for 11 years before the fullness of the exile in 11 years following the exile.

But we have no record that he ever makes it home.

Elphaba Alphabet recognizes that Glinda is actually more trusted.

And better able to lead the people once the wizard is exposed as false.

And so in order for Oz to move forward, she melts,

she disappears, she goes into exile never to return.

Prophets lead us through the worst times.

The times when it's hard to even imagine that it can get any better.

But ultimately, once they see the change happen that they call for, they have

to hand their authority over to the ones who can represent the shiny new

future because their message is too much tied to a corrupt and unjust past.

But there is hope for them too, because even though it seems as though

things are not for the better, the truth is they change the people.

They change the leaders.

They change the way things are ultimately for good.

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.