Defying Gravity (New Beginnings UMC)

Gravity is the theme for today and specifically defying gravity

as we've been looking through the musical Wicked and the the

movies Wicked. I mean, just a quick, this is

not to shame anyone for not having but but just how many

people have watched the either the the musical theater

production or the movies Wicked? Let me let me see hands.

OK, so so most folks, but not everyone.

So let me get just a little bit of background for those folks

who haven't seen it. The, the, the pivotal song and

anthem in in the the musical and the the movies is the song

defying gravity and Elphaba, who is labeled later the Wicked

Witch of the West, is faced with a decision.

There's bad stuff happening in ounces, bad policies, bad

ideologies, bad actions are happening.

And most folks are just kind of going along to get along,

getting along to go along and, and stay in favor with the

powers that be maintain their position and status and society

and the, the land of Oz. But the the primary evil doers

in the movies here is, is the wizard himself and the wizard's

assistant assistant, Madam Morable.

Some people might say that the wizard is Madam Morable's

assistant, but you can watch that and make your own decision

there. And they have labeled the

talking animals as a threat to society and the talking animals

have to be silenced. They have to be removed, they

have to be killed, they have to be imprisoned.

What they have to be made in some way to serve the human

beings as as objects rather than having a full position in the

the land of Oz as a whole. And Alphaba objects to this.

Other people object to it too, but they're afraid.

They're afraid of the powers of the Wizard and Madame Morible.

They're afraid of the police. They're afraid of losing status.

They're afraid of losing position.

And so some people are really gung ho.

Some people are just keeping their head down and their mouths

shut. And Alphabet refuses to do

either. And, and she says, I'm going to

resist this and, and sings this song defying gravity at the

point where she finally makes the decision, I'm willing to

sacrifice it all to do what's right by these other members of

our society that the talking animals, many of whom were her

friends. And, and gravity operates here

as a metaphor. And, and sometimes when you look

too closely at the metaphor and a good story, you can kind of

mess up the story. I'm not trying to do that, but I

think that the metaphor is worth looking at here because because

what Alphabet says she's doing is she's defying gravity.

This, this force that is pulling her and others to compromise, to

get along, to go along to, to, to engage in bad behavior.

Just because it's easier and natural to do that since

everybody else, everybody else is doing it anyway.

And, and that's kind of how gravity works in, in the

physical universe, gravity is the force exerted by any object

with mass against other objects with mass that are near it.

And the larger the mass of an object, the greater force it

exerts. And so we're drawn to the most

massive object in our immediate vicinity.

So you and I all have a little bit of gravity, but our little

bit of gravity means nothing compared to the gravity

gravitational force of the Earth.

So, so, you know, we don't bounce into each other because

of gravity. I do that to people because I'm

clumsy. But that has nothing to do with

gravity. The gravity that of the Earth,

this massive object that pulls us to itself, it's impersonal,

It's constant and ongoing. You know, it's it, it doesn't.

It's not like man Blevins, I hate Blevins.

I'm not going to let him fly. It's just, that's just how

gravity works. It's impersonal, it's constant.

There's no place you can go on Earth to escape the force of

gravity and, and, and to resist it requires conscious decision

and sustained effort. And Alphaba made a conscious

decision to resist this, this cultural gravity that she was

experiencing and escape that and do the right thing, freeing

herself, defying the gravity of the culture in which she was.

That's what Alphaba did. Alphaba defied the gravity and,

and, and she did it literally when she flew around in her

room. She did it figuratively when she

said no to the forces of the culture that were around her and

said, I'm going to do what I know is right in spite of the

destructive pressures. 1 might say sinful pressures of the

culture of the world around her to reject, exclude and and

devalue certain people within that society and alphabetified

gravity. Now, now I'm going to need.

Can I get a little extra volume? I'm going to show a clip and

this clip is very short and very soft.

So so give me give me. We might have to play it twice

to actually to get it, but but I'm my mind is weird.

I acknowledge that most people that know me recognize that in

me. I have a hard time watching the

movie Wicked and listening, particularly the song Defying

Gravity without thinking of The Godfather Part 3 and Michael

Corleone. And I don't know if you know who

Michael Corleone is. Wait, we'd ask this for, for,

for Wicked, who's who's here has seen The Godfather Part 3 about

the same number of people and the same people and we got movie

lovers here. That's for OK, so, so Michael

Corleone, we're going to see a short clip, maybe the most

famous lot, one of the most famous lines in all of movie

history. Here's Michael Corleone.

At this point in the sermon, we listened to Al Pacino as Michael

Corleone delivering his famous line from The Godfather Part 3.

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

Now back to the sermon. That's it.

Very short clip. Just when I thought I was out,

they pull me back in. Michael Corleone is talking

about the exact same dynamic that Alphabus sings about in

Defying Gravity. The social pressure that pulls

on us and demands conformity insists on conformity.

For Michael Corleone, what he's resisting is a criminal

underworld through which he and his family became wealthy and

powerful by engaging in lots of violence, lots of death, lots of

destruction, lots of other illegal activity.

And now, later in his life, Michael Corleone is trying to

free himself from that criminal underworld.

And every time he tries to get out, they pull him back in

Alphaba. Alphaba defied gravity, but

Michael Corleone kept getting pulled back in.

Why? Because Michael Corleone, He

wanted to be free of all of the negatives of the criminal

underworld, but he really didn't want to let go of the positives.

He wanted to keep the money and the wealth that his family had

amassed. He wanted to hold on to his

power and influence within the community.

He liked the status and position and privilege that came along

with it. And so he wanted to hold on to

those things while freeing himself at the same time.

And gravity doesn't work that way.

Michael Corleone learned what everyone who has ever

participated in a 12 step recovery program learns very

early on, that half measures avail us nothing.

And Michael Corleone was all about the half measures.

I want to let go of all of the negatives, but I want to hold on

to all of the perks and all of the positives.

It's like trying to fly to the moon.

I mean, flying the moon. Risky business, right?

You know, we, we, we lost some astronauts in that quest.

We nearly lost more. And you know, you're going a

long way away from the Earth, a long way.

We're really defying gravity getting way out there.

But if we had said, you know what, we could lose that, right?

Those spaceships as capsules and those, those men that are in

them, why don't we tie a cable to the capsule so that no matter

what happens, we can reel it back in?

Never would have gotten to the moon.

That's what Corleone was trying to do.

He wanted to stay tethered to the thing that he was also

trying to escape because he was unwilling to sacrifice the perks

and the positives to be free of the negatives.

Alphaba. Alphaba was.

There were no half measures. She was willing to put

everything at risk, to defy gravity and do right by the

people of the world around her. Even if it cost her status and

position, which it did. Even if it cost her reputation,

which it did. Even if it cost her wealth and

privilege, which it did. Even if it cost her most of her

human relate, most of her human relationships, which it did.

Even if it cost her all of those relationships, which spoiler it

didn't, And even if it cost her her life, which spoiler it

didn't. Almost, but not quite.

Almost, but not quite. But Alphaba was willing to risk

it all. She didn't have to sacrifice it

all, but she was willing to hold it all loosely.

And if she lost it, she lost it. Because the most important thing

to her was not holding on to the perks, but was doing the thing

that she knew was right, no matter the cost.

No matter the cost. So she defied gravity, where

Michael Corleone just got pulled back in.

What does it take to defy gravity?

It takes a mindset and activity like alphabet.

It takes sustained effort. It takes a conscious decision.

And it takes a willingness to hold everything loosely and put

everything at risk for the sake of doing right, of doing good,

of living the way that we know is right and good to live, no

matter what the cost. There is constant social

gravitational pull on our lives in this world.

Some of it we're aware of. Some of it like gravity.

Most of time we don't even think about, we don't even notice it

until we're trying to defy it. When we try to defy it is when

we discover that it's there. I learned when I was young that

there's some gravitational pulls that struggle and pull on me

and, and I was not even aware of them then, but at, at a certain

moment in high school, I became aware of them.

A little personal confession time here.

One of the things that pulls on me is a desire for approval from

people and authority. It's a, it's a gravitational

force that I have struggled with my whole life.

I didn't, well, that's not true because for the first part of my

life I was unaware of it. And you can't really struggle

against it until you're aware of it.

And, and, but it's, it's there approval from people in

authority. And I learned, I did learn very

on the way to get approval from people in authority is follow

the rules. Rule followers get rule

followers get told all throughout their schooling years

that you're a great leader. What they're really being told

is you're a great follower of rules and and that's a very

different thing from being a great leader.

I had that. I really began to become aware

of the problem of this because as like most kids, I also knew

that it's not a cool to snitch. Snitching is not a good thing.

And then one day early on at high school, I don't remember

the detail. I remember some irrelevant

details and I've forgotten most of the relevant details.

The, the, the, the irrelevant details was I was either walking

into or out of English class and and then my principal just

appeared as if out of nowhere. I don't know where he came from.

Suddenly he was right in front of me.

My back was against the wall and his face was this far from my

face. I'm not sure why I'm doing this.

I think he was shorter than me, but he was right there in my

face demanding that I snitch on someone.

And I caved instantly. Instantly there was no conscious

decision there. It was like, if you pushed me

off the building, I wouldn't have to decide to fall.

I would just fall. And that's what I did.

And that bothered me for years and years and years and years

afterwards because I thought, I'm not a snitch.

And I'm like, well, you snitched, how can you say you're

not a use? And it's that gravitational fool

pull. I was so inclined to please the

person in authority that I was unaware of the social pressure

that was on me. That and I've had to learn to

defy those kinds of things and it's still a struggle.

Still a struggle. I would if I got an e-mail today

from the Bishop saying, hey, I listened to your sermon 2 weeks

ago. It was wonderful.

I would feel way too good about that.

What difference does it make ultimately if it's the Bishop or

not? I would feel way too good about

that. That gravitational pull is still

there, but now I have enough awareness of it that I can make

decisions to defy it. Those kind of pressures are all

around us, whether it's it's social pressure to reject a

person at school or at work or in the community.

Might be social pressure to reject an entire group of people

for one reason or another at school or at work or in the

community. It can be pressure to engage in

illegal activity or legal activity that is really

destructive. The Jim Crow laws of the of the

South were a horrible form of social gravity that a lot of

people just went along with because that's just, well,

that's just how it is. I know people that kind of grew

up in that and they told me, we don't understand, Scott.

It wasn't racism. That's just how it was.

And it's like just how it was was racism, right?

The fact that we don't identify the gravitational pull is so

strong. And the people that defied that

gravitational pull, they paid dearly for that defiance, dearly

for it. And thank God they were willing

to pay that price because that's what it takes to defy gravity.

A willingness to sacrifice, a willingness to hold everything

loosely because you might lose it.

The original OG of Defier Defier of gravity is Jesus himself.

He did it literally walking on water, which is really, really

cool. But far more significantly is

that he did it socially, the pressures that he was under.

But from the very beginning, in his decision to become a human

and live on earth with us, Jesus began defying gravity.

He could have chosen to be born in a palace and wrapped in

silks, but who chose to be born to a poor family and wrapped in

rags? He could have chosen to be born

in a place where he would have been laid in a soft, beautiful

gilded bed, but he was laid in a feed box.

He could have chosen to please the religious authorities that

are around him and said, you know what?

If you want our approval and our blessing in your your mission

project here, Jesus, you need to reject those people and hang out

with us. And Jesus said, well, I'm going

to hang out with those people. If you want to join me, you can

come over here and hang out with them too.

He could have capitulated to the political authority that was

around him and said whatever he needed to say to get on Pontius

Pilate's good side or Herod's good side so that he wouldn't be

crucified. But he said, you know what?

You can't take my life from me because I give it freely.

Ha. And that's what he did from

beginning to end. Jesus defied gravity so much so

that when he gave up his life for us and they put him in a

hole in the ground and put a stone in front of the hole, He

still rose up. Define gravity, define.

And he offers us, invites us to join him in that.

And he offers us through his Holy Spirit, everything that we

need to defy gravity as well. All we have to do is sacrifice

everything, or at the very least, surrender everything and

hold it with an opening. Most of us aren't asked to

sacrifice everything. Few people, followers of Jesus,

have been asked to do that. Relatively few.

We call them martyrs. Most of us have not been.

But we're all asked to hold everything loosely and say

Jesus, whatever I need to, whatever needs to fall away in

order for me to rise up with you, it's OK.

It's OK. This was the decision that Alfa

faced and thank God, one of the one of the coolest heroes in in

in the literature and stories is is alphabet.

As she makes her decision to defy gravity, Allison's going to

come up and and and sing about that.

She's going to sing defying gravity for us.

And you might have to adjust. Just give Derek back there a

thumbs up or thumb down if you need more volume or less volume.

And, and, and, and what I'm hoping is, is that Alphabet's

anthem is our anthem too. All right, here we go.

At this point in the sermon, Allison Bradbury sang Defying

Gravity. She did a beautiful job with the

song and I wish I could include it here, but for licensing

reasons, I can't include it on this platform.

If you would like to hear Allison singing, check out the

same sermon on YouTube. Just search for CRSNB sermons

and click on the Defying Gravity sermon.

Please be aware though, that I don't have good tech for

recording live musical performances, so the audio

quality is not nearly as good on the recording as Allison was

live. You can also find Cynthia Revo's

version on YouTube and all major music platforms.

Now back to the sermon. Thank you so much.

Can I have thank you, thank you, thank you.

Oh, that's the third time Allison has sung that today, and

she sung it brilliantly all three times.

So, and, and that's it. That's it.

That decision, that decision to try to find gravity, to say,

even if I fly alone, here's the beautiful thing.

Sometimes it feels like when we're doing this, we're doing it

alone. But the Bible tells us we're

surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses.

So even if we can't see when we're defying gravity, we are

not doing it alone. We have others around us who

through the ages have made that same kind of decision.

And with the grace and the power of Jesus Christ, we too can

mount up on wings like eagles. We too can defy gravity.

We can resist the forces and the pressures and the world around

us to conform, to get along, to go along and instead choose to

live and love like Jesus lived and loved.

Define gravity in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen.