Sermon preached by Rev. Wesley King on Sunday, May 17, 2026
All right, let's see.
Y'all seen the news lately? Front page, baby. Front page. Someone saw that story and said, "How's it going at Vine Street? What's it like?" And I said, "I'm having a blast." And they said, "Having a blast making TikToks?" I said, "Maybe. Yes. People like those TikToks. Thank you very much. But it's way, way more than that." I said, "I'm having a blast doing ministry with these folks." I told them — did you know that during the ice storm just a couple months ago, Vine Street was the only church that was able to stay open and house those unhoused guests that evening from Room in the Inn? The rest couldn't do it because of lack of power or lack of people. Did you know that? I said, "Did you know that Vine Street gave away $30,000 in their community ministry grants this past year to local nonprofits and ministries and charities? $10,000 more than they did last year." I said, "Did you know that Vine Street has been a long-standing supporter and founder of Disciples Divinity House and Institute, and that Margie and I met with them and we fed them and we listened to their stories and their journeys? We built relationship with them, and now we have three Vandy interns starting in the fall." Those TikToks may grab people's attention, but it's what they see when they look deeper into who Vine Street is that hooks them.
In the paper, Margie says, "How do we make history?" By that, I mean, how do we make sure that people know our history and continue to make history? Quinn said, "To know our past is to know the blueprint for our future. To know our past is to know the blueprint for our future." So today, as we celebrate Pentecost, the birthday of the church, I'm hoping that we can look at what the big-C Church has done in the past and let it be a blueprint for us as we move forward.
For those who are unaware, let me recap the Pentecost story. It happens in Acts chapter 2, and Luke tells it this way:
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. And suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one of them heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked, "Aren't all of these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of them hears in their own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome — both Jews and those who have converted to Judaism — Cretans and Arabs — we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"
But this year, our Pentecost theme from the general church really centers around Micah 6:8, a verse that is probably very familiar to everyone here, but I think it warrants a little bit of context. The prophet Micah in chapter 6 — the opening lines place the speaker on their way to the temple, preparing to worship God. The worshipper approaches God ready to bow down and present an offering. And we watch this imagined sacrifice begin to escalate. First, ordinary burnt offerings; then young calves of high value; then these extravagant gifts like thousands of rams and oil — the sort of offerings that only a king could provide. And the progression reaches its most extreme point when the suggestion of offering one's own child comes up. But then in verse six, the literary voice shifts, and the worshipper is reminded that none of these sacrifices are what God actually desires. Instead, God requires a life that is marked by justice, steadfast kindness, and humility.
And so leading up to this week, I've been holding this newness of Pentecost — the day in which the Holy Spirit takes charge and leads God's people to walk in the way of Christ, building the church and making disciples. And I've been holding that God's call is so simple: to do justice and love mercy and walk humbly. But what are these two passages saying to us now? We've heard them both before, but how do they merge together? And I want you to hold those two stories in tandem during this sermon.
This weekend, I've been hosting, with my boss the Reverend Dr. José Martinez, a new church summit — a gathering of regional ministers and new church pastors where we came together to dream and imagine what the future of our church looks like. If you didn't know, we have 195 new churches within the Disciples of Christ, otherwise known as Churches in Formation, and that's all across the US and Canada. And within those new churches, there are 17 different languages. In fact, some of the fastest growing traditions within the Disciples are Chuukese-speaking and Spanish-speaking churches. Feels a little bit like our Pentecost story.
And it was so encouraging to hear these stories of how God is working in their midst, working in so many different ways. For example, in Memphis — Christ City Church, which began in 2010 as a non-denominational congregation aimed at young adults, specifically in the Midtown neighborhood of Memphis. In its early years, Christ City Church embraced a more evangelical theology. But over the years that began to evolve and shift, specifically around the role of women in ministry, and by 2018 they had embraced an egalitarian approach to ministry. And while that shift prompted several of their neighboring faith communities to cut ties with them, it also laid the groundwork for them hiring their first female pastor, Pastor Mandy, who was their executive pastor.
That same year, they began to rent space from Central Christian Church, which is a Disciples congregation in Memphis. And they articulated eight core principles: choosing presence, seeking health, cultivating spirituality, embracing justice, engaging culture, creating beauty, showing mercy, and pursuing all that God calls them to. These practices have since shaped the congregation's identity, guiding their members to see themselves as co-laborers in God's work of renewal on earth. And in 2023, they also became an open and affirming congregation.
But as Central's congregation and membership was dwindling, Christ City was thriving. This new church was thriving. And so Central gifted their building to Christ City. The hospitality that they experienced from Central Christian touched Pastors Jamon and Mandy and prompted them to attend the Disciples regional assembly in Tennessee — in Memphis — in 2024. The same regional assembly where I told Margie that I want to come work with her. And at that regional assembly, I got the honor of sitting at lunch with them and hearing their story and their journey. And I connected them with new church ministry and I connected them with other congregations that have similar stories and similar journeys. And a year later, they joined us. They joined the Disciples. And they are one of three new churches coming out of Memphis in the last year. And there's more on the way. I got to share that special story with folks this weekend at the summit about how God is moving in Memphis.
But speaking of Memphis — I spent much of last week at the Capitol as our state legislature carved up Memphis's voting voice. After so many of our state's leadership jumped at the opportunity to appease President Trump's request to redraw the maps, the Tennessee legislature successfully gerrymandered Memphis — our state — once again, just like they did to Nashville back in 2022. And it's true, yes, that both political parties have redrawn maps for their own political gain. That is true. But this was different. This targeted Black and brown voters. This dismantled key parts of the Voting Rights Act. This disparaged a part of our state that our legislature has already had a target on for a long time. And I watched these men and women sneer and laugh in the faces of young and old Black and brown faces — as I watched this man who claims to follow Jesus, who should be clothed in righteousness, drape a Trump flag over him, laugh in their face, and walk into the rotunda. And while these lawmakers have maintained that this is about partisan opportunity, their colleagues have constantly reminded them that within their privileged power grab, they are disparaging and mistreating a history of mistreatment of Black and brown folks that they are seemingly conveniently forgetting.
State Senator London Lamar said that her son will have fewer rights than her grandmother did.
At the end of that session — when they voted, and we knew how they were going to vote, and they voted how we thought they would — I was standing outside the Capitol waiting for the final demonstration of that day. And this man walked up the stairs wearing a shirt that said, "In Memphis as it is in Heaven." And I got a little emotional, because while the majority of folks don't even fully realize what happened over just 72 hours, I was there. And I heard story after story after story of people sharing how their grandparents had to fight just to be able to vote — how they had to guess the number of marbles in a jar just to be able to vote. And now their district was being carved up so that their voice in Congress was being diluted.
I've been holding these two experiences — these two stories — in tandem this week, trying to figure out what they mean. How do they coincide? How do they merge? How do they fit together? And then I read the words of Reverend Beth Patillo, someone local to Nashville, someone who has done so much for our church. And she said that the day the church was born was the day that the church became prophetic. The day that the church was born was the day that the church became prophetic. She writes that a deeper understanding of Micah 6:8 empowers today's church to enact its own prophetic witness, which works for all human flourishing.
One of the things that drew Christ City Church to the Disciples was our commitment to justice. Christ City's pastor said that justice is about everybody being able to get what they need. He said, "Joining the Disciples of Christ is making clear for us as a church what we want and what we want to be a part of."
And likewise, in Luke's story from Acts 2 — after the crowd had admonished those who were speaking with tongues of fire, speaking different languages, thinking that they were drunk with wine — Peter stands up and quotes the prophet Joel, saying, "I will pour out my Spirit, and your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young will see visions and your old will dream dreams."
The day the church was born was the day that the church became prophetic.
The other chapters in Micah list many ways that humanity has failed to do justice. In chapters 2 and 3, the powerful had oppressed the powerless. The laborers had been exploited. The courts had been corrupted. But the central theme of Micah chapter 6, as Reverend Patillo says, is a reversal of the people's understanding of God's expectation for them — that God doesn't want rams, God doesn't want calves or oil. God wants justice and mercy and loving kindness and humility.
Micah addresses people who are preparing to enter the temple for worship. In our Pentecost story, something similar is happening, both figuratively and literally. So paraphrasing Reverend Patillo: Pentecost marks a shift. God's people now include all those from across the world who hear and who respond to what the Spirit is doing — who hear and respond to what the Spirit is prophesying. Micah's escalating list of sacrifices easily parallels our own attempts to negotiate with God. Across Micah's time, the day of Pentecost, and our own Sunday gatherings, the answer remains unchanged: God does not desire material things that we can offer, but instead, in every age, God seeks transformed behavior — of justice and mercy and humility — which is the truest act of worship.
These stories remind us that the church is called to live prophetically. Reverend Patillo says that to do justice is to practice the fairness and equity captured in the Hebrew mishpat. To love kindness is to embody the covenantal love and loyalty expressed by hesed. And to walk humbly is to enter a way of life that resists exploitative power and embraces faithful obedience to God. This is exactly the kind of life that we see in the early church — something that our Restoration and Stone-Campbell ancestors sought to return us to. When believers held their possessions in common, when they cared for the widows and the orphans, when they bore witness to the resurrection and shared meals together in their homes, they were taking the first steps toward becoming a community shaped by the prophet's call to do justice, kindness, and humble devotion to God. Micah's words become a reminder to ensure that we do — within and outside these four walls — what is truly called of us to do. And it's also a good measurement: are we doing that, or are we just offering burnt sacrifices? Are we doing justice? Are we loving kindness? Are we walking humbly with God? Or are we just doing what's comfortable and what's easy?
Pastor Jim at Christ City Church says that their aspiration is to be a church for the future that is still grounded in their knowledge of the past. And that quote reminded me so much of what Pastor Margie said in the paper — that to know our past is to know the blueprint for our future.
Like the day of Pentecost, this church has had tongues of fire in our past. This church has prophesied in our past. This church has planted numerous new churches and ministries across this city, many of which are still standing — including the Disciples Divinity House and Institute, which has been training leaders for almost a hundred years. This church has stood for peace amidst war when it was very unpopular. This church has supported the desegregation of our schools and their bathrooms and the lunch counters when it was very unpopular, claiming that all people have a place here in God's church and at God's table. This church has affirmed the need for mental health when it started the Insight Counseling Center that now has 10 locations across Middle Tennessee. When other churches are building barriers around the table, this church has said that all are welcome at the table — no matter who you are, no matter what — because it's Christ's table, not ours. When churches not too far from here are doubling down that women do not belong in the pulpit, this church saw the gifts and the calling and the talents of this young woman and said, "Come and lead us." When other congregations can't get over who I share this ring with, this church said to me, "We see you and we hear you. Come and share your gifts with us."
The blueprint is here, friends. Our history is that of doing justice and loving mercy and walking humbly with God. We only need to follow where the Spirit is moving and going now.