Defying Gravity (Rock Springs UMC)

OK, our scripture reading today is Luke chapter 2 verses one

Luke 2 · chapter mention

through 20. In those days Caesar Augustus

issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire

Roman world. This was the first census that

took place while Carinius was governor of Syria and everyone

went to their own town to register.

So Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea

to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house

in line of David. He went there to register with

Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting

a child. While they were there, the time

came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her first

born, a son. She wrapped him in clothes and

placed him in a Manger because there was no guest room

available for them, and there were shepherds living out in the

fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks.

At night. An Angel of the Lord appeared to

them, and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were

terrified, but the Angel said to them, do not be afraid.

I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the

people. Today in the town of David, a

Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord.

This will be assigned to you. You will find a baby wrapped in

clothes and lying in a Manger. Suddenly a great company of the

heavenly host appeared with the Angel, praising God and saying,

Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to

those on whom His favor rests. When the angels had left them

and gone into the heaven, the shepherd said to one another,

Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened

which the Lord has told us about.

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who

was lying in the Manger. When they had seen him, they

spread the word concerning what had been told them about this

child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherd said

to them. But Mary treasured up all these

things and pondered them in her heart.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for

all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as

they had been told. May the Lord add His blessing to

the reading and the hearing of His Word.

We're talking about gravity today.

One of the maybe the most famous anthem that comes out of the

stage musical Wicked and the two movies Wicked and Wicked for

Good is the song Defying Gravity.

Now, gravity is a beautiful metaphor and I don't want to

destroy the story by by focusing too much on the metaphor.

But this morning we're talking about this metaphor.

And in the movie Alphaba, who is becomes labeled the Wicked Witch

of the West. Alphaba is defying gravity.

She does it literally. So we get a visual metaphor in

the movie itself where she's on her broom and flying, literally

defying gravity. But the more significant element

of that is the social gravity that she faces.

Now, gravity itself, you know, without getting, again, getting

too far into the sciency stuff, gravity is a force that is

constant. It's related to mass.

Gravity is the force that draws all things in an area toward the

object of greatest mass. So the earth is the greatest, is

the object of greatest mass in our immediate vicinity, and we

are drawn to that. And the greater the mass of the

thing, the stronger the force of gravity acts upon that thing.

So, so, you know, a big ball of lead has more mass than a

feather pillow. So it's drawn more forcefully

toward the Earth. And that's gravity.

It's, it's an, it's an impersonal force.

It doesn't negotiate. It doesn't act malevolently.

It's not trying to do something bad.

It's not trying to do something good.

It just is. And it's a constant force.

And to escape gravity requires a constant force in the opposite

direction. It requires sustained effort

and, and a strong determination to do that.

Now, think about, you know, it's been a long time since we have

sent human beings to the moon. But think about that.

If when we had sent those Apollo rockets and, and space ships to

the moon, we had tied a rope to them to make sure that they

wouldn't get off, you know, wouldn't go too far, we could

make sure we got them back. We got a big cable, a big rope

tie, so we could pull them back, and they never would have made

it there. To escape gravity, to defy

gravity, you have to be willing to let go of anything that

tethers you to the Earth. That's what Elphaba did.

Elphaba defied gravity not just by flying on her broom.

She defied gravity because she was willing to sacrifice

everything to escape the destructive, dare I say, sinful

gravitational pull of the world in which she lived.

It wasn't a physical force like the gravity of Earth that that

keeps us from being flung off into space.

It was a social force. And in that context, the, the

social force that that was most permanent, pernicious, most

awful, most sinful, if you will, was, was a force being driven by

the not so wonderful and not at all amazing Wizard of Oz and his

chief assistant, Madame Morrible.

And, and their concern was, and the concern of others in ounces

was that all of these talking animals were dangerous.

They posed a threat. They need to be silenced.

They needed to be put to work. They needed to be made useful

servants of us rather than having their own voice to do

what they want to do and teach and lead and, and shape things

how they would like to shape it. They had to be silenced or

killed or contained or driven out.

And lots of people were joining in.

And all of the social pressure said if you want to advance in

ounces, you have to support this agenda.

You have to support this program.

If you don't support it, you're going to get ostracized.

You'll get cut out, you'll lose everything.

And that was the choice Alphabet had to make.

Would she betray her friends who were some of whom we're talking

animals, and get go along to get along and and get status and

achieve status within the Kingdom of Oz?

Or would she defy that social pressure and do the right thing

by speaking the truth and helping her friends?

Elphaba chose to defy gravity and it cost her.

It cost her friendships, it cost her status, it cost her position

it it nearly cost her her life. Spoiler sorry if you haven't

seen it. She had to give up near and and

she had to risk every significant relationship that

she had and give up most of the significant relationship she had

in order to do what she knew to be the right thing.

She knew it in the core of her she defied gravity.

It wasn't a one time decision. It was a sustained effort and

she was willing to let go of everything to do it.

Now I'm a strange person. There's going to be no argument

on that. I'm surprised I didn't get at

least one Amen out of the crowd on that.

I know I'm strange because I have a hard time watching the

Wicked movies and particularly listening to the song Gravity

without thinking of The Godfather Part 3 and Michael

Corleone. All right, I need I need you to

this next clip. It's very short and it's very

soft. Can you can you give me a lot of

volume on this one? But then we have to make sure we

turn it back down when when Allison sings because her track

is really loud. All right, Michael Corleone,

many of you will recognize this. At this point in the sermon, we

listen 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, very famous

line though. Just when I thought I was out,

they pull me back in. Michael Corleone is talking

about the exact same thing that Alphaba sings about when she

sings about defying gravity. This social force, this social

pressure that tries to hold on to us and keep us in

destructive, broken, dysfunctional, sinful kinds of

ways of thinking and acting and behaving as individuals and as

groups. And Michael Corleone wanted to

get out. He wanted to get free.

He was the head of a of a criminal mafia family and he

wanted to get out. He wanted to legitimize the

family businesses. He wanted to escape the criminal

element of what he was doing, but he also wanted to like a

spaceship trying to fly to earth with a cable to make sure it

didn't drift off into space. He wanted to hold on to the

perks and the benefits. He knew that his wealth had been

gained through criminal activity, but he didn't want to

risk his wealth and getting out of crime.

He knew what he knew his his power was was was how he had

gotten wealthy, how he had led the family, but he didn't want

to give up his power. He didn't want to give up his

status. He didn't want to give up his

position. He didn't want to give up the

perks of the criminal life. He just wanted to give up the

risks of the criminal life. Half Measures is what Michael

Corleone did. He was unwilling to let go of

the benefits of the bad things in order to escape that

gravitational pull. And so we couldn't escape.

Every time he tried to get out, they pulled him back in.

Why of Michael Corleone was learning what those in chemical

addiction recovery programs have known for years, that half

measures avail us nothing that that a partial effort to escape

gravity. The the desire to escape the

gravitational pull without being willing to risk everything that

comes along with giving into that pull without willing to

give all of that up means you'll never escape and you'll never

get free. And that's what happened to

Michael Corleone. He just kept getting pulled back

in. What does it take to defy

gravity? What it takes is a sustained

effort in the opposite direction of the gravitational force.

It takes energy. It takes determination.

It takes 110. Well, I like that phrase.

No one can give more than 100%. It's not possible.

So you know, there you go. Takes 100% effort.

Are willing to let go of everything, even the perks that

come along with the bad behavior, even the positives,

even the benefit. Because there's always perks and

positives that come along with bad behavior otherwise no one

would do them. I have said for years we don't

have to have any laws telling people don't hit yourself in the

head with a hammer because no one does that because there's

nothing good that comes from it. We don't have to have any laws

saying you're not allowed to eat cat poo out of the litter box.

I have that law with my dogs because they're dumb.

I love my dogs, but they eat cat poo.

We don't need that for people. There's no positives.

The stuff that the reason why we have to have laws and

consequences and punishments for bad behavior is because there's

good things that sometimes come from bad behavior.

And if we want to let go of that personally and socially, we have

to be willing to give up those perks as well as the downsides.

A sustained effort in the opposite direction.

This is what Jesus was talking about when he said if you want

to be my disciple, you need to deny yourself, take up your

cross and follow me. It's not a pretty metaphor to

take up your cross. When Jesus said it, everyone

understood that meant you were on your way to die.

You were willing to give up everything to follow Jesus.

To let go of everything to follow Jesus is why I said

things like if you want to follow me, if you want to love

me, you have to hate. Hate everyone else doesn't mean

have a nasty attitude toward everyone else.

It means being willing to let go of every other relationship in

your life in order to follow me. It's why Jesus preached the

Sermon on the Mount and he said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all

y'all religious folks out there. You want to preach against

adultery, but you want to entertain lustful thoughts for

the people around you. You want to preach against

murder, but you want to live in resentment and anger toward the

people around you. You want to preach against

greed, but you want to accumulate wealth on the side.

You want to preach against hypocrisy, but you do your

religious deeds, all of them out in public, so you get the praise

of the people around you. Half measures will avail you

nothing. You let go of all of it, or

you're not really letting go of any of it.

It takes a sustained effort, a conscious decision to do that.

Elphaba was able to do that, to risk it all.

Ultimately, she didn't have to sacrifice it all.

Very few of Jesus's followers ultimately have to sacrifice it

all. We call those people martyrs.

Most followers of Jesus are not martyrs.

But we have to be willing to hold it all loosely.

So those perks, if in our effort, and it takes effort to

follow Jesus, these things have to fall away.

They fall away because if we're holding tight on to them,

they'll just pull us right back down to the ground, right back

down to all of the same destructive patterns and habits

and systems and cultures that we thought we were escaping and

said we wanted to escape. It takes sustained effort in the

opposite direction. The good news is, is that Jesus

is the OG defier of gravity. There's my vain attempt at

trendy language. The OG defier of gravity Jesus

was doing. He walked on water.

He literally defied gravity, but in his life he defied all of

that social pressure. The story of the birth of Jesus

is so beautiful partly because we see that Jesus was born not

into fabulous wealth, not into great privilege and position and

and glory and honor. But he was born to a poor family

and a poor part of town didn't even have a bed, had to be laid

in a feed box at his birth, not wrapped in silks and fine linen.

But but swaddling clothes is just a is just an old English

way of saying strips of cloth got rags to wrap Jesus in and

swaddle him in. He was willing to let go of

wealth and power and privilege and position.

He was willing to let go of the social pressure to do great and

dramatic things and, and, and, and cow people into following

him, intimidate people into following him.

He was willing to to resist the social pressure that said, you

know, Jesus, you should really under only hang out with these

good, respectable religious folks and not those people over

there. And Jesus said, these are the

people I came to hang out with. If you want to join me, you're

welcome to come over here with me.

He was willing to let go of and suffer all the social

consequences, let go of all of the social perks in order to

defy gravity. And Jesus was so good at defying

gravity that he couldn't even be kept in a grave with a stone Rd.

over the entrance. He still rose up.

He still rose up. And he invites us to follow him.

And it seems at times impossible, there is such social

pressure on us in the world to conform to the world's way of

thinking on so many different ways, whether it's rejecting

this person or that group, whether it's pursuing wealth as

a means of securing our peaceful and, and hopeful future, whether

it's what all of these different pressures that are out there.

And Jesus says, I want you to live in my Kingdom and think my

way and treat people the way I treated them when I was with you

here. Even if it costs you your life,

even if it costs you your job, even if it costs you your

position, even if it costs you respectability.

All of these things let go of and defy gravity like I did.

That's the choice that we have and that's the choice that

Elphaba made. I'm going to invite Allison.

She's going to come up and she's going to sing Defying Gravity

for us. I am, again, I'm an ignorant

person as well as being strange and I this was one of the few

songs that I'd heard before I first saw the musical Defying

Gravity. I love this song.

I didn't pay close enough attention to it.

I I, I called Alice and I said, hey, could you sing Defying

Gravity for us? She says, I, I can sing that.

And then she said, you know, that's a duet, right?

I'm like, no, no, I didn't. No, I'd only seen the movie and

the stage musical. Somehow it had missed the fact

that two people were singing. I said, how's that going to

work? She said, I'll work it out.

Boy, did she work it out. This is great.

So Allison is going to sing Defying Gravity for us and then

we'll talk just a little bit more.

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. Wow again, wow.

By God's grace, that's we can do that.

We can. Well, we can't do that.

Allison can do that, but we can do that.

We can defy gravity and and no force, no power can ever bring

us down. We will, like Prophet Isaiah

said, we will mount up on wings like eagles, run and not grow

weary, walk and not fate. Soar above, defying the gravity

that wants to pull us back in because of our Lord, our Savior,

Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit, which gives us all that we need

to do that. It takes work, it takes

sustained effort, it takes a decision, it takes a willingness

to hold everything loosely and sacrifice whatever needs to fall

away. And we can defy gravity too.

In Jesus name, Amen. Amen.