Pride Month

of Year 2024 is when I started participating in United Methodist activities on a regular basis. 

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, Pride Month commemorates years of struggle for civil rights and the ongoing pursuit of equal justice under the law for the LGBTQ community. 

Someone else explained Pride Month this way: Pride isn't about turning straight kids into queer kids. Pride is about not turning queer kids into dead kids.

Although I am not a member of the LGBTQ community, I do what I can to support that community. However, I have not always done so. 

For way too many years, I was under the influence of churches that condemn anyone who is LGBTQ. I was repeatedly told that being LGBTQ is a choice.

Then, one day in Year 2022, I had an epiphany, which the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines as “an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.” If I had been a cartoon character, then a light bulb would have lit up above my head.

It was then that I began asking these questions: If being LGBTQ is a choice, then why would anyone choose to be a member of a group that has historically been subjected to all sorts of verbal and physical abuse? Also, when did I ever choose my own sexual orientation?

I came to a conclusion that is expressed by a dog in a 1951 Looney Tunes cartoon:

It just don't add up. So, I began learning what scientists have to say about sexual behavior. For example, Nature magazine reports that same-gender sexual behavior has been witnessed in more that 1,500 animal species.

Tell me this: How can one claim that same-gender sexual behavior is un-natural when more than 1,500 animal species engage in such behavior?

What about Human sexuality? Well, biologist Dr. Jacques Balthazart reports that sexual orientation is largely influenced by biological factors. The last time that I checked, people are born with their biological factors. I find no biblical evidence that God punishes people for the way that they are born.

I grew uncomfortable as I continued to worship with people who condemn the LGBTQ community. So, in May of  2024, I decided to visit LGBTQ-affirming churches during Pride Month. 

On the first Sunday of June, I visited Meadowcreek United Methodist Church in Collinsville, OK. On the second Sunday, I visited First Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tulsa, OK. On the third Sunday, I visited First Presbyterian Church of Owasso, OK. The pastor of First Presbyterian told me that a new United Methodist congregation was meeting in the Owasso Sixth-Grade Center. 

Thus, on Sunday, June Twenty-third, 2024, I drove into the parking lot of Owasso's Sixth-Grade Center. That is when the United Methodist Church became stuck with me.

What prompted me to stay was the declaration that the Owasso congregation makes at the beginning of each Sunday morning service. That declaration is printed in every one of the church's bulletins. That declaration says, “We believe in the sacred worth of all God's people - you are affirmed, accepted and most certainly loved in this place!”

That statement tells me that the United Methodist Church affirms the Gospel as it is presented in the New Testament. As it turns out, the New Testament's Gospel is not necessarily the gospel presented by people who condemn the LGBTQ community. 

What I have witnessed is this: People who condemn the LGBTQ community are adding their own requirements to what is necessary for salvation. They are adding their own requirements to what is necessary for eternal life.  By doing so, these adders are trying to deny the spiritual salvation of LGBTQ members who have made a public profession of faith in Messiah Jesus.

These adders are quick to claim that a person cannot be a Christian and be a member of the LGBTQ community at the same time. Yet, that is not what the Gospel in the New Testament says. 

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 

John 3:18 says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned.” That word “whoever” is inclusive.  That word “whoever” leaves nobody out.

1 John 4:15 states, “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.” That word “anyone” is also inclusive. The author of 1 John goes on to say, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Critics of the LGBTQ community will cite Bible verses without realizing that they are citing the verses out of cultural context. Yes, people can read the Bible from cover to cover and still be naïve about the cultural context of what they are reading. Even seminary professors can do that.

I would like for the critics of the LGBTQ community to answer this question: How are we to explain LGBTQ believers in Jesus who display the fruit of the Holy Spirit and heterosexual believers who do not? Is that not what it means to know people by their spiritual fruit? 

We cannot stop critics of the LGBTQ community from being naïve. What we can do is to ask the Holy Spirit to soften their hearts and to enlighten their minds. After all, I used to be one of those naïve critics, and yet, here am I presenting an LGBTQ-affirming sermon.

Those of us who affirm the LGBTQ community may be in the minority of Christendom, but that does not mean that we are in the wrong.

The United Methodist Church has been promoting a campaign titled What If Love. Well, what if love prompts us to stick to a position that does not have majority support? What if love prompts us to do the correct thing even if the correct thing isn't popular?

The United Methodist Church affirms the place that LGBTQ Christians have within the family of God. So do I. That is why I joined the United Methodist Church.

Misogyny

is supported by some people claiming to be believers in Messiah Jesus, while other believers reject misogyny.

Is misogyny a biblical requirement for churches, or are modern preachers missing the cultural context of the Apostle Paul’s instructions?

In Paul’s instructions about women, he says, “I do not allow” instead of, “God does not allow.” So, can we deduce a limit to Paul’s restrictions on women?

When debating this issue, it is too easy for one to overlook the cultural context of Paul’s statements. Not only did Paul have to deal with the cultural expectations of the Jewish religious leaders, he also had to deal with the cultural expectations of the traditional Greek society as well as the expectations of Roman society. 

To quote historian and archaeologist Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, “We are not dealing with a single, monolithic Roman world but one differentiated through time, across religion and across social divides.” [Wallace-Hadrill, A.F. (1994). Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Princeton University Press.]

As one academian puts it:

"... Roman women were a balance between the extremes of other women who preceded them in antiquity: the Etruscans and the Greeks. Etruscan women were treated as equals to men in their society... Greek women were extremely oppressed in both the public and private spheres."

A Greek woman, by Lawrence Alma Tadema, 1869

From the PBS.org series The Roman Empire in the First Century:

"Not much information exists about Roman women in the first century. Women were not allowed to be active in politics, so nobody wrote about them. Neither were they taught how to write, so they could not tell their own stories.

We do know a little, however. Unlike society in ancient Egypt, Rome did not regard women as equal to men before the law. They received only a basic education, if any at all, and were subject to the authority of a man. Traditionally, this was their father before marriage. At that point, authority switched to their husband, who also had the legal rights over their children."

Judaism historian Tal Ilan explains the way that Jewish religious leaders thought about women:

"In post-biblical Jewish antiquity women were not viewed as equal to men or as full Jews. In this, Jews were no different from their various Greco-Roman, Semitic, or Egyptian neighbors. The difference lies in the explanation Jews gave to their views. All Jews of late antiquity considered women’s position in Judaism as determined by the injunctions of the Old Testament. Their subordinate position was viewed as emanating from Eve’s role in the creation narrative, both as created secondary and as guilty of the original sin.

Thus, the second century BCE Palestinian sage Ben Sira bitterly laments women’s role in bringing death to the world, referring to the incident in the Garden of Eden. A Jewish pseudepigraphic composition, usually referred to as the Book of Adam and Eve, greatly elaborates on this theme, constantly reiterating woman’s involvement in man’s fall, her guilt, and his accusations against her. Later midrashic literature continues in the same vein: women are eternally punished for their involvement in the original sin."

If you think that the biblical authors were never influenced by writings outside of Scripture, then think again. They were. For example, here is Matthew 2:23:

The statement “He will be called a Nazarene” is not in the Tanakh (a.k.a. Old Testament).

The book of Jude also contains a non-scriptural reference:

Was it possible for an Apostle to err on the side of cultural expectations? Yes, of course, as we discover when reading Galatians 2:11-12 (NIV):

"When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group."

Unlike Peter, Paul had to deal with the legal fallout should the fledgling Church needlessly run afoul of the Roman government. Not only were women in Paul’s day (in general) ill-prepared to teach Scriptures, putting them in authority over men could easily have caused a social uproar that would have brought the might of the Roman government into the situation. The Roman government would likely have punished the fledgling Church for causing the uproar.

Although men and women were spiritual equals in the messianic faith, it was unnecessary back then for women to be given positions of authority. So, Paul had a practical reason to restrict what women could do in the congregations under his authority.

Now, should Paul’s restrictions on women be in effect today? Are we supposed to punish the women who are alive today for something that Eve did? After all, through the prophet Ezekiel, God declares that he does not punish the innocent for the sin of the guilty.

"The word of the Lord came to me: What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ‘The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel." - Ezekiel 18:1-3 (NRSV)

It would be unwise to ignore the cultural context of any Bible verses that we cite. For example, consider what is stated in Joshua 10:12–13 (NIV):

"On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: 'Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.' So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day."

According to a literal interpretation of Joshua 10:12–13, the Sun circles around the Earth. Yet, we know from astronomy that the Earth rotates on its axis, thus creating the illusion that Sun circles around the Earth. So are we to declare that Joshua 10:12–13 is to be interpreted literally?

Yes, we need to take cultural context into consideration when citing Bible verses, including statements written by the Apostle Paul. In short, Paul lived in a society in which women were chattel, and Paul’s writings reflect that fact. Paul’s goal was to spread the Gospel, not to challenge the social order of his day. Had he done the latter, then he would have caused unnecessary harm to the fledgling Church.

So, is there a way to end the ongoing dispute about the role of women in the universal Church?

In pursuit of an answer, I keep five bits of reality in mind.

First, it is wrong to assume that women are somehow mentally or emotionally inferior to men. No, women aren’t that.

Second, the accuracy of a statement does not depend on the gender of the person who makes it. Logic is gender neutral.

Third, if in doubt about something that is not mandatory, then do not do it. The Bible does not mandate that women be given the role of pastor.*

Fourth, it is unwise to automatically accept whatever a pastor says even if the pastor is a man. Male clergy aren’t infallible when it comes to interpreting the Bible. Indeed, no man is the final authority on how to correctly interpret the Bible. No group of men or male-led institution is the final authority on how to correctly interpret the Bible.

Fifth, if a man and a woman have a disagreement about how to correctly interpret the Bible, then it is possible for the woman to be right and for the man to be wrong. The women of today aren’t ill-educated like the women of the Apostle Paul’s day.

As I have observed, some men claim to worship Messiah Jesus when they really worship their status as being men. Instead of promoting the Gospel, they promote their ideas of what men are supposed to be like. Masculinity is their real god.

In conclusion, each person has to live with his or her conscience. I do not know of anyone who is legally forced to belong to a church that has female pastors and elders. Where I live, churches are all-volunteer organizations.

Besides, one’s eternal destiny does not depend on who are the leaders of one’s church. Nor does one’s eternal destiny depend on one agreeing with everything that church leaders say.

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*I believe that we should be gracious toward people who are opposed to being led by a woman in the pulpit. Nobody on this side of the Grave has 100% perfect theology, not even people who accept women as pastors. Besides, one's eternal destiny does not depend on the person who occupies the pulpit.

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Side Note: Several modern-day theologians doubt that the Apostle Paul is the real author of 1 Timothy.

Politics

is defined by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle as being things pertaining to the City, with the City being what the ancient Greeks defined as a City.

Aristotle

Aristotle is quoted as saying, "Man by nature is a political animal." By that, Aristotle means that Humans are not naturally hermits. Thus, Humans must create rules by which they live with or next to each other without destroying each other.

Those rules taken together are what we call Politics.

I hate to admit it, but Politics and Religion become intertwined even when we try to avoid such from happening.

While viewing social media, I keep seeing people making strawman arguments about believers in Messiah Jesus who dare to support a political party that opposes efforts to turn the USA into a theocracy favored by those making the strawman arguments.

According to the strawman-makers, the Christian faith requires that all people in the USA be forced to conform to the ways that the strawman-makers interpret the Bible, and if one is opposed to that, then, according to the strawman-makers, one is not a Christian or one is an enemy of Christianity.

How are sincere believers in Messiah Jesus to react to the strawman-makers?

All that I know to do is to keep affirming just what the New Testament says about the gift of eternal life given to those who place all of their faith in Messiah Jesus.

In order to have the gift of eternal life, one does not have to force others to conform to the ways that one interprets all of the Bible.

The strawman-makers are adding requirements for eternal life that are not in the Gospel that is recorded in the New Testament.

1 John 4:15 (NIV) says, "If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God."

One reason why I join the United Methodist Church is because the UMC affirms 1 John 4:15.

The strawman-makers read that verse and then say, "Yes, but ..."

No, there is no "but" in the Gospel as recorded in the New Testament.

Having 100% faith in the Jesus of the Bible means believing in his death, burial and resurrection. It means believing that his shed blood makes permanent atonement for all of our sins, including the sins we may not know that we have committed.

The strawman-makers slander genuine believers in Messiah Jesus. 

Although they act like they do, the strawman-makers do not sit on the Great White Throne mentioned in Revelation 20:11, and they are not the harvesters mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 13:30, 39.

So, upon encountering strawman-makers, one need not worry. 

The strawman-makers can yell and bloviate all they want, but one's eternal destiny does not depend on them.

Child Sponsorship

works when the agency overseeing the sponsorship stays honest and accountable while actually using the majority of the money that it receives to aid children who are trapped in physical poverty.

Yet, in the USA at least, some people speak negatively about child sponsorship, as if it didn't do any good.

If you want to know the truth, then consider the following letter that a six-year-old girl named Ruth wrote to her sponsor in the USA:

“Dear _____________, I am very happy because in a far place called Oklahoma lives a person who loves me. I was sad because my father doesn’t think about my needs. [Ruth had been abandoned by her father.] When I receive your letters, my mother helps me to read them. I am happy for this. My mother smiles to see how I am happy. I accept your help. Thank you for your wish of being my sponsor. My mother and my sister greet you. God bless you. I send hugs and kisses to you. God bless you forever.”

At the age of 12, Ruth sent this particular letter to her sponsor:

“Hello my loved Dad. I hope your life is bright and that you have the best friendship with the best friend we can have, our good God. I am enjoying the project and learning from God’s Word. Please pray that God will bring prosperity to our project as I am not the only one here. There are many other teenagers and children who receive many benefits because of the great help you are giving us. I have to say bye. Remember that I love you and that you are my great support. Your daughter, Ruth.”


Yes, there have been plenty of bad apples involved with child sponsorship, but there are good apples as well.

I know so because I am the person who sponsored Ruth. I know directly from her and from other children how sponsorship works to rescue children from poverty.

Although I have never met her, Ruth is still in my life via Facebook, and she still insists that I am her real earthly father.

If you have any doubt about child sponsorship, then I will gladly tell you how to contact Ruth. She will gladly explain what sponsorship did for her.

Am I biased in favor of child sponsorship? Of course I am!

I have been sponsoring children through Compassion International since June of 1987. You have Christian recording-artist Amy Grant to thank for that. Her involvement with Compassion International is what led me to also becoming involved.

God might not direct everyone to sponsor a child, but don't let the nay-sayers discourage you from being a sponsor if you have the means to be one.

I am proud to be a Compassion sponsor. If I had not been one, then I would never have received the following photos from a girl living in Colombia:




Yes, those are photos of Ruth as she grew up.

Here is a photo of her taken in Year 2024:





For the record, Ruth is directly responsible for me meeting my late wife Maria Elena. Today, I sponsor a girl named Maria Elena who lives in the South American nation of Peru, which is where my late wife was born and raised.

Voice Actors

are fun to meet, especially those who provide the English voices of Japanese anime characters. Thus far, I have talked to 24 voice actors face to face, and I have repeatedly communicated with one through live-stream social media.

Right now, I have on my "want-to-meet" list the English voice of a cute mouse who wants to become a Human so that she can "eat lots of yummy Human food."  

I want to bless these voice actors somehow because their work helps to lighten the physical burden that I constantly carry. I watch their shows as way of temporarily distracting myself from the physical pain that I experience non-stop.

These particular people put a smile on my face, and I greatly appreciate it.

Proverbs 17:22 (NIV) says, "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."

Those of us who claim to be believers in Messiah Jesus should do whatever we can to give people something to smile about if just for a few minutes.

In Galatians 6:2 (NIV), the Apostle Paul writes, "Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."

Yet, we may not be able to detect the burdens that others carry. People can put on a fake happy-face when interacting with the public while crying on the inside.

Bearing the burdens of others doesn't mean going around saying "God loves you," even though that statement is true. 

We can lighten the load that others carry just by letting them know that they are valued.

One reason why I joined the United Methodist Church is because the UMC values members of the LGBTQ+ community instead of condemning them. 

No, I am not LGBTQ+. I just want to help bear the burdens of people who are. After all, LGBTQ+ Christians are real.

So, if you claim to be a believer in Jesus, then "think outside the box" and find ways to bless others by giving them something to smile about. 

Outwardly, they may be wanting to "eat lots of yummy Human food" while inwardly craving a word or an act of kindness from someone.

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness ..."*

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*Galatians 5:22, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Love

is a many-splendored thing according to a book, a movie, a song and a soap opera by that title. 

According to advertisements for the automobile brand, love is what makes a Subaru a Subaru. 

According to 1st John 4:8, God is love.

In the Japanese anime A Misanthrope Teaches a Class for Demi-Humans, love is what is sought by a character named Karin Ryuzaki.

Here is that show's plot as described by Wikipedia:

"Rei Hitoma, a reclusive man nearing thirty, has withdrawn from society after traumatic experiences dealing with human relationships. Seeking a quiet change of pace, he accepts a teaching position at a secluded all-girls school, only to discover that the institution's purpose is to educate demi-humans who wish to become fully human. Despite his aversion to people, Rei is tasked with instructing students who admire humans more than anyone else."

In the show, Mr. Hitoma meets Karin Ryuzaki when she is placed in his homeroom class at the start of his second year teaching at the school for demi-humans. Immediately upon their first meeting, Karin tells Mr. Hitoma that she loves him and that she wants to marry him.

On the day after, Mr. Hitoma has a private chat with Karin in order to set the needed boundary between the two. During the chat, Mr. Hitoma asks Karin why she allegedly loves him in particular.

She answers by describing what she witnessed the previous year when she saw Mr. Hitoma help another of his students named Sui Usami. 

Mr. Hitoma didn't help Sui with a school-related problem. He helped her with a personal problem that threatened to destroy the reason she was enrolled in the school in the first place. Whereas the school's principal offered a type of help that was safe, Mr. Hitoma understood that Sui needed the kind of help that was risky.

Karin witnessed how Mr. Hitoma helped Sui. He actually risked losing his job in order to aid Sui during the worst and most delicate moment in her life.

In John 15:13, Jesus says, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."

Mr. Hitoma didn't risk losing his life, but he did risk losing his job for Sui's sake. In short, Mr. Hitoma acted out the kind of love that Jesus mentions in John 15:13.

In the anime, Karin craves love. She wants to be cherished by a Human, which is why she wants to become a Human. So, when she saw Mr. Hitoma display godly love for a student, she decided that Mr. Hitoma was the kind of Human who should be her life-partner.

It is easy to claim that we are believers in Messiah Jesus, but if we make that claim, then we harm Jesus if we do not also display the kind of love that should make Jesus attractive to others, the kind of love that made Mr. Hitoma attractive to Karin.

I don't always succeed in displaying such love to members of my own family let alone to people I meet out in public.

For example, once I went into a pharmacy that I pass by whenever I travel to and from church services. While in the pharmacy, I spoke harshly to a pharmacy employee who was only doing his job. After I left, I realized the error of my action, and I felt guilt whenever I went into the pharmacy and saw the worker.

Finally, one Sunday morning before church, I went into the pharmacy to buy something, and I decided not to leave until I had confessed my sin to the employee and did what I could to make amends.

On another occasion, I sinned against my autistic son by being away from him at a time that was extremely important to him, and my sin was due to selfishness on my part. 

By doing what I did, I aggravated my physical disability to the point that I was in extreme physical pain, and I reacted to my son's distress by having extreme emotional pain. I was overwhelmed with so much pain and grief that I asked for a hug from two people whom I had just met. Shortly after, I sobbed as I drove home.

Devotion to Messiah Jesus should result in sorrow when one fails to love others the way that Jesus requires of those who claim to believe in him.

Anime

is a form of Japanese entertainment that is sometimes used to examine the Human condition.  One such anime is the show A Misanthrope Teaches a Class for Demi-Humans.

Here is a summary of the show's plot as provided by Wikipedia:

"Rei Hitoma, a reclusive man nearing thirty, has withdrawn from society after traumatic experiences dealing with human relationships. Seeking a quiet change of pace, he accepts a teaching position at a secluded all-girls school, only to discover that the institution's purpose is to educate demi-humans who wish to become fully human. Despite his aversion to people, Rei is tasked with instructing students who admire humans more than anyone else."

The first six episodes depict events taking place during a single school year. Toward the end of the year, the school's principal assigns a personalized task to each girl in Mr. Hitoma's homeroom class.

One of the girls is Kyōka Minazuki, who is depicted as being a perfectionist. The task assigned to her is a treasure hunt that requires her to use certain clues.

While the other girls complete their tasks,  Kyōka struggles to complete hers. When her classmates offer to help, Kyōka replies, "This my assignment to complete. So, I'd rather see it through to the end by my own strength and hard work." Later, she declares that she has no need for help from her classmates.

Eventually, Kyōka reaches a crisis point, at which time Mr. Hitoma explains to her that being Human includes acknowledging one's limitations and asking others for help when one cannot succeed alone. In response, Kyōka openly admits that she cannot complete her task alone and then asks her classmates to help her.

With all of the girls working together, Kyōka completes her treasure hunt, at which time the school's principal appears. The principal then reveals that the real task assigned to Kyōka was for her to act like a Human by acknowledging her limitations and asking others for help.

Because she has done so, Kyōka is granted graduation from the school, after which she will become fully Human.

Although this show is fictional, it depicts the way Humans act in real life. Like Kyōka, Humans can be stubborn to the point that they end up needlessly harming themselves. The Apostle Paul addresses this stubbornness in chapter 12 of 1st Corinthians. He writes this:

"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ... As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don’t need you!' And the head cannot say to the feet, 'I don’t need you!' ... If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."

The United Methodist Church willingly trains its laity to be servants because the UMC's clergy cannot successfully perform the work of the universal Church by themselves.

No, you do not have to be an ordained Christian minister to perform spiritual service either inside your congregation or outside it. As a UMC Lay Servant, I have discovered that I can perform ministry simply by giving encouraging words to people in need of such words.

One way that I do so is to encourage people who work in the voice-acting profession. I have met about two dozen voice-acting professionals, and I have heard and read their stories of how difficult it is for them to gain voice-acting roles. Thus, I want to bless them. 

Sure, I might be perceived by them to be a weirdo, but believers in Messiah Jesus should be weirdos in comparison to the way that Mankind often acts.

In the aforementioned anime, Rei Hitoma says that he hates Humans in general because of the bad ways that they treat each other. Sadly, he is correct about Mankind. Even people claiming to be Christians promote and practice ungodly thoughts and deeds.

Thus, I am reluctant to proclaim in public that I am a Christian unless my actions already indicate that I am a believer in Messiah Jesus. I don't always do a good job of doing that.

So, my constant prayer is, "Heavenly Father, please use me to bless others despite the flaws in my personality." I believe that is what the Old Testament prophet Micah is talking about when he writes the following:

"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

We have to walk humbly with God because the Human condition requires us to. As Kyōka Minazuki discovers in the aforementioned anime, being perfect isn't a Human trait.