It often seems easier to find illustrations of what not to do when it comes to goodness as public integrity, than those of where it lived out. So as people of faith, our challenge is to reclaim goodness as public integrity. As disciples of Christ, we are called to be known not for what we oppose, but for the goodness we practice; to be recognized by our neighbors as people whose words can be trusted, whose commitments endure, whose compassion is public, and whose integrity reflects God’s love.
June 14, 2026
Hope in Bloom: Practicing Spiritual Gardening
Part 6: “Goodness as Public Integrity”
Psalm 15
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Psalm 15
O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
Those who walk blamelessly and do what is right and speak the truth from their heart; who do not slander with their tongue and do no evil to their friends nor heap shame upon their neighbors; in whose eyes the wicked are despised but who honor those who fear the Lord; who stand by their oath even to their hurt; who do not lend money at interest and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved.
Goodness as Public Integrity Psalm 15
“O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?”
This is how Psalm 15 begins. It begins with a question which the wider church has been trying to answer for years and years. It begins with a question which the wider Church has been trying to control for generations. You see, since the founding of the church, faith leaders have rightly assumed that there were certain standards one must keep, certain behaviors, certain words or phrases which showed the wider world that one was a person of faith, behaviors like loving God with all our heart, mind and soul AND loving our neighbors as ourselves. Certain words or phrases like we understand that the Body of Christ is diverse in race, color, gender and sexual orientation and because of that as people of faith, we seek unity, not uniformity. For generations, faith leaders have rightly assumed that these certain behaviors, these certain phrases would shape our faith practices and in doing so, when someone encountered this particular person, the other person would KNOW that this person was a person of faith. And this would be TRUTH regardless of faith tradition because in all faith traditions, there is a standard, a baseline if you well, for that faith tradition. For Christians, examples of that baseline would be the cross, the Table and the sanctuary. For the Jews, the start of David, the Torah, and the synagogue. For Muslims, the crescent moon, the Koran and the Mosque, just to name a few because as we know there are thousands of religions around the world. And in each of these religions, there is some sort of baseline, some sort of standard which shapes the practices and beliefs of that particular religion.
Except over the years, this baseline, specifically speaking to the Christian tradition because that is our context, this faith baseline, has become more of a measuring stick. And if one doesn’t measure up to these standards, it is assumed, okay preached in pulpits and on street corners, if one doesn’t keep these standards then there is no way that person or group of people is or was going to get into heaven.
Now the ironic and sad thing about this baseline of faith, this baseline which has become a measuring stick is who actually gets to say what is right and what is wrong. Who actually gets to decide what exactly is this baseline of faith? In the Christian tradition, we have had council after council to determine the answer to this question, the first one being the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD which condemned the belief that Jesus was created by God and not fully divine. It also established the Nicene Creed, affirming Jesus’s full divinity, and determined that Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. There was also the Council of Constantinople (381 AD which expanded the Nicene Creed to clarify the divinity of the Holy Spirit, definitively outlining the doctrine of the Trinity. There was the Council of Ephesus (431 AD) which condemned the idea that Christ was two separate persons—one human, one divine). It also declared Mary to be Theotokos (“God-bearer” or Mother of God). For the Church with ties to Christianity, there have been council after council determining what is right in regards to the standards of practice, the latest one being in 1962-1965, the Second Vatican council, which modernized the Roman Catholic Church, by updating liturgy (permitting mass in local, vernacular languages instead of Latin), promoting ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, and redefining the role of the laity.
And in spite of the many, many, many church councils which have met to determine what is right in regard to the standards of faith, wars, church splits, hateful and hate-filled propaganda have all happened and corrupted these baselines. There have been so many fights and arguments in the wider Church over who gets to decide what actually is right or wrong regarding these baselines of faith, that they have become boundaries as to who gets into heaven and who doesn’t. They have been used as walls to say who is in and who is out. And we aren’t talking about these wars, these church splits, these hateful and hate-filled propaganda which happened 100 years ago or 500 years ago, although they did. That’s why we have Protestant Reformation. That’s why we have the split between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church.
No, I’m also talking about current events. These wars, these splits, these hateful and hate-filled propaganda is still happening today…all in the name of God. Just this past week, the Southern Baptist convention voted again to restrict women preachers. Just this past week, the Department of Defense released a list of “correct” Christian religions and guess what, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), our very denomination, didn’t make the list. Yet here I stand as a woman preacher. Yet here we are as a congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) gathering to worship our God.
See what I mean. Our standards for faith have become measuring sticks, have become sticks to beat people over the head with, have become sticks to use and abuse because at one point, those standards of faith were things like don’t drink, don’t cuss, don’t smoke, don’t murder, don’t take the Lord’s name in vain, you know God’s top 10 list. Now those standards for faith have become… don’t be gay, don’t be transgendered, don’t be a minority, don’t come home here as refugees, don’t practice a Christianity that doesn’t line up with white supremacy.
And yet, when we look at Psalm 15 which again asks the question about who may abide in God’s tent, who may dwell on God’s holy hill, none of that stuff is mentioned. No creed, no doctrine, nor a religious test. Instead, it offers a vision of the character of the person who can live close to God. It tells us that person is known by how they live among their neighbors. The person who lives close to God is known by their love. The person who lives close to God practices a faith which reflects a holiness inside and out, reflects a faith where inner convictions and outward actions match. Psalm 15 tells us that the person who lives close to God practices a faith which is not measured only by what we believe but by how our beliefs take shape our public life as well.
The interesting thing about Psalm 15 is that it is a call and response psalm. The psalmist asks the question but someone else replies. Many interpreters have argued that the person who replies is someone in religious leadership because this psalm was used in the liturgical setting. It was used as a call to worship to help the people get in the right frame of mind when they entered into the Temple.
However, it is also argued that the one who replies to the psalmist is God, that it is God who tells the psalmist who may enter into God’s house. It is God who lists the standards of faith. It is God who reminds everyone once again that God is God and we are not.
Notice in God’s reply, when God is naming the standards for our faith, God does not say anything about perfection. Notice that God does not say anything about sitting there and not causing problems. What God does say is that the person who can dwell in God’s house is one who reflects God’s character. Someone who walks in wholeness, who speaks the Truth, not just goes along with popular opinion, someone who honors human dignity, someone who makes justice, who loves kindness and who walks humbly with their God….everything we see embodied in Jesus of Nazareth, the very one we have proclaimed as our Lord and Savior.
Now, I fully admit this would be a great time for a sermon illustration but like I shared earlier this week that probably the hardest thing about this sermon was finding an illustration, that I had more examples of what not to do when it came to goodness as public integrity than I did of seeing it lived out. So I guess the challenge for us as people of faith is to reclaim goodness as public integrity, that as disciples of Christ, we are called to be known, not for what we oppose, but for the goodness we practice. Just imagine… if our neighbors recognized us as people whose words can be trusted, whose commitments endure, Whose compassion is public, whose integrity reflects God’s love? Now that’s how we answer the question of who can abide in God’s house, who can reside on God’s hill. May we become that kind of community—a people who dwell with God by living faithfully with one another. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, June 14, 2026 – Goodness as Public Integrity Psalm 15.
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