It Isn't Just a Flesh Wound

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
June 8, 2025
Pentecost, C
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
John 14:8-17 (25-27)

 

Our bishop has said, “God has a mission, and God’s mission has a church.” Well, God’s mission is to unify humanity with God and with one another, and we are God’s church. God has formed us to live out God’s mission of unity and reconciliation. More accurately, we are part of God’s worldwide, one church, which God has formed to live out God’s mission of unity.

Anglican, Episcopal, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Mennonite, Church of Christ, and countless other church groups, we may argue amongst ourselves, and some of us may say others of us aren’t really Christian, but despite our objections, we are one church throughout the world. We are one Body of Christ, all formed to live out God’s mission of unity and reconciliation.

Of course, we believe that the unity of God and humanity happened a couple thousand years ago when God became human with the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God united physically with every aspect of our lives, so that we are fully united with God, and nothing can change that. Nothing can separate us from God because God has become human in Jesus Christ.

So, since that mission unity with God is done, accomplished, and finished, what is left for the church to do? Well, as I said before, God has formed the church to live out that mission of unity. God has formed the church to live the truth that we are one with one another and with God.

When we don’t live into that truth, when we don’t live as though we are one, we are deceiving ourselves.

In the movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, King Arthur is on a quest to search for the Holy Grail, and in his travels, he comes across a fearsome knight who picks a fight with Arthur. It wasn’t the best idea, Arthur makes quick work of him and when the knight won’t yield, Arthur cuts off the knight’s arm. Then, when the knight claims it’s just a scratch, Arthur cuts his other arm off. Then the knight starts kicking Arthur, and Arthur says, “You’ve got no arms left.” “Yes, I have,” the knight replies. “It’s just a flesh wound.”

Eventually, Arthur cuts off both of the knight’s legs as well (because he still kept trying to fight Arthur), and the knight says, “Alright, we’ll call it a draw.”

So, the knight saying that his arms being cut off was just a flesh wound, that was nuts. Even more nuts was that he seemed to actually be trying to convince Arthur that he still had arms. He seemed to actually believe his own lie, but alas, saying that he still had arms didn’t change the fact that they had both just been cut off.

In a similar way, when we deny that we are one with one another, we are lying to ourselves. When we say this part of the church or that part of the church isn’t really the church, then like the knights, we’re cutting off our arms and legs and claiming it’s just a flesh wound. This goes beyond the church as well. When we harm or dismiss any human and claim that it doesn’t hurt us, we’re like that crazy knight. 

We can think that we can harm others without harming ourselves, but those lies we tell ourselves don’t make the harm any less true. The arm being cut off will never just be a flesh wound.

We are meant to live and acknowledge the truth that we are one. Anything else is a lie.

So, how does the church live out God’s mission? Well, we stop lying to ourselves. We stop pretending that we aren’t unified. We may not like other parts of the church, but as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 12, that’s like a human body where the mouth tells the eyeballs they don’t belong. That’s a pretty stupid thing for the mouth to say, almost as stupid as one denomination telling another they aren’t really a part of the church.

I mean, I get the mouth not liking the eyeballs. To a mouth, eyeballs are just really weird. No teeth, no tongue, strangely spherical, and to eyeballs, I’m sure the mouth is equally strange. Wet without being sad, smelly, can’t see a damn thing. It’s like the Baptists and the Catholics; the two could hardly be more different, but either one saying the other doesn’t belong, well, that’s just dumb.

And, one part of the church telling another part it doesn’t belong is a lie, denying God’s mission of unity, rather than doing the hard work of living out God’s mission of unity.

Now, why do I think God’s mission of unity is hard? Well, a cross, three nails, and a crown of thorns. God’s mission of unity ain’t easy. Easy is seeing the people we don’t like and just giving in to our disgust. Easy is letting anger turn to hate. Easy is saying, they’re weird, they’re different, they’re sinners, and they’re going to hell. The lie that we aren’t one is easy. The lie that God is angry with them but not at us is easy. The lie that we follow Jesus, each one of us for our own personal salvation, and not as a part of one another, that lie is easy, as easy as saying my arm is still here when it has clearly been cut off.

Realizing and trusting that our own personal salvation has already been accomplished and that we are now meant to live out that salvation in and through one another, that truth is harder than the lie, but that truth also gives life. Just like Jesus dying on the cross was hard, but his death gave life.

So, to help us with the hard work of living out God’s mission of unity and reconciliation, God sent the Holy Spirit to unite us, to guide us, and to strengthen us so that when we don’t have enough to live God’s mission, God’s Holy Spirit can work for us, strengthening, guiding, and uniting us as one, because that is what we are. That is the work Jesus accomplished. That is the mission of God’s church which we are invited every day to live.

Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another...Everything Else Is Commentary

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
June 1, 2025
7 Easter, C
Acts 16:16-34
Psalm 97
John 17:20-26

“I ask…that they may all be one.” That was Jesus’ prayer for his disciples before he was killed. That was Jesus’ desire for his church. That is Jesus’ desire for the world, that people may be united to one another just as Jesus and God the Father are united to one another, that we all may be one. 

Imagine a world in which we are one. Imagine making decisions based on how they will affect ourselves and others. Imagine the world doing that, realizing that if we are one with each other, then when they hurt, we hurt. Imagine actually feeling and knowing the pain that we so often carelessly and unknowingly cause others. Imagine also knowing and feeling the joy we cause others. I daresay the world would be different if we truly acted and lived as though we were one. 

The world of not being one, well, that’s the world the in which we found Silas and Paul in our reading from Acts today. It was a world of slavery, oppression, violence, and unjust imprisonment. 

It all started with a couple of slavers who had young girl kept as their property so they could make money off of her. She wasn’t a business partner, not a person to them, certainly not one with them. She was just a useful thing to them, but when Paul and Silas freed her from the spirit that was possessing her, she was no longer of value to them, so they had Paul and Silas beaten and imprisoned. Once again, not exactly a world in which people saw themselves as one with each other.

Then there was the earthquake which opened the doors of the cells where Paul and Silas were being kept. The gaoler* who guarded Paul and Silas’ prison, thought they had escaped, and so he drew his sword and was about to kill himself...with a sword. How crazy is that? Never mind that the prison cells were only open because of a huge earthquake. Even nowadays, many insurance policies would call that an act of God, so any potential escape was very much not the gaoler’s fault, and yet, this man’s first instinct when he thought they had escaped was to kill himself.

That indicates to me that the people he worked for probably weren’t particularly kind or understanding. Knowing that he worked for Rome, we can assume their cruelty with almost certainty. Better to kill myself with a sword than face their wrath, this man thought.

The gaoler was on the outside of the prison, and yet he was bound in
chains, whereas Paul and Silas, sitting there in prison, were free. They were one with each other and with God. The gaoler was alone and fearful of the government that would kill him without a moment’s hesitation.

So then, when he saw that Paul and Silas had not left the prison, he asked them what he needed to do to be saved. “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household,” they told him, and after going to his house and telling them all about Jesus, “he and his entire family were baptized without delay.”

The gaoler and his family became even more one than they were before, and Paul and Silas, well, they went back to prison. You didn’t really think they were going to take advantage of the little mini-Gospel-jailbreak and let the gaoler be killed, did you? Of course not. That’s not what you do when you’re one with them. 

Then, the next morning, the authorities went ahead and released Paul and Silas, but the gaoler was the one who was freed. Even on the outside, he had carried his prison with him wherever he went.**  The gaoler’s chains were what: fear, isolation, working for an unjust Roman regime? We don’t know exactly what his chains were, but I think we can all recognize that he was bound in chains. 

Chains keep us separated from one another, afraid, bound, and alone. 

Jesus makes us one with one another. The gaoler was made one with Silas and Paul, one with his family, one with other believers he met. He was freed from his chains of fear and isolation.

What if the slavers had been freed of their chains and worked with the girl not as their slave, but as a business partner? What if Rome had been freed from their chains of domination and cruelty so that an earthquake opening prison doors wasn’t reason to be so afraid that death seemed the only option? That would have been a very different world. 

What about us? What are some of the chains which bind us and keep us separate from one another? Mistrust. Fear. Impatience and annoyance with others. Valuing success and achievement more than the people around us. Constant competition. 

How might we unbind those chains and become one? Well, Paul and Silas said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Believe in Jesus, and be freed from your chains. Believe in Jesus, and be one. 

Joining with Jesus and being freed from our chains, being one with one another, is Jesus’ prayer for us. It is our choice, then, to choose to follow Jesus and to strive for that unity with Jesus’ help. Jesus makes us one as we make a decision to follow him, trust in him, and live the way of life he taught. It is an everyday, all-day decision and striving on our part.

What does living that unity then actually look like? Well, Rabbi Hillel, who lived a little before Jesus, was once asked by a Roman to tell him the whole of the Jewish law. He said, “I will convert to Judaism if you will tell me the whole law while I stand on one foot.” So, everything about how the people of Israel were to live as God’s people while he stood on one foot, and Rabbi Hillel said, “Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole of the law. Everything else is commentary.” 

“Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole of the law. Everything else is commentary.” Well, if we don’t do to others what is hateful to us, we’ll stand a pretty good chance of being one with one another.

“Those who love me will keep my commandments,” Jesus said, and what was Jesus’ commandment? That we love one another. When we love one another, we love Jesus, and we become one.  

Now sadly, the world in which we live is still not a world in which most of us are one with each other, and yet Jesus’ prayer continues. We continue striving to be one, praying that same prayer that Jesus prayed, every day, all day, that we would be one with each other just as Jesus and God the Father are one.

“Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole of the law. Everything else is commentary.”

*"Gaoler" is the old English spelling of jailer. I've been reading so much fantasy writing 

over the last several years, in which the authors write gaoler, that 

writing "jailer" just looked wrong. Thank you for indulging me.

** “There is more than one sort of prison, captain. I sense you carry yours wherever you go.” 

– Chirrut Imwe, Rogue One

 

"That's All" - Locking Jesus Out (and letting him back in)

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
May 25, 2025
6 Easter, C

Lord of the Streets, Houston

Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
Psalm 67
John 14:23-29

So, I’m gonna talk today a little bit about demons, which is always tons of fun, and it may seem kinda weird because there weren’t any demons in our Gospel reading today. It was really all about Jesus making his home with us, and I’m gonna get to that, but thinking about Jesus making his home with us make me also think about other things that make their homes with us.

Anger can make its home with us. Violence can make its home with us. Fear and resentment can make their homes with us. We have all sorts of things that can make their homes with us, and that got me thinking about what Jesus said in Luke 11:24-26.

When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it passes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ On its return, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there. And the final plight of that man is worse than the first.

A demon leaves someone, comes back, finds the place looking swell and figures it’ll invite some friends and really have a party in there.

Ok, so let me clarify what I mean about demons making their homes in us. I’m not talking about full on Exorcist kind of demon possession. I think Jesus was, and what he said also works with lesser demony-type things. I’m talking about some of our desires or emotions, ways of life which really harm us, and we just can’t quit. Get what I’m saying? I don’t want everyone leaving here saying, “The priest said I’ve got demons in me.”

When Jesus talked about demons making their homes with us, again, think about us choosing ways of life that harm us. Let’s say you wake up in the morning, you’re in a foul mood for whatever reason, and you choose just to stay in a foul mood, if you even think about it at all. So, now you’re grouchy, and you’re angry, and you’re taking it out on everyone around you. Let’s call that grouchy anger a demon. You keep nursing it; you keep feeding it, and eventually it just becomes part of who you are. Sure, you’re occasionally happy sometimes, but basically, you’re just a pissed off, bitter, angry person. I’d call that something like a demon that has taken up residence. 

At some point, you decide to kick the demon out. “I’m tired of being grouchy and angry all the time,” you say. So you decide to put on a cheery disposition. You smile, you have some optimistic thoughts, and for a couple of days, you’re feeling better. Then one bad thing happens, and now not only are you pissed off and grouchy because of the bad thing that happened, but you’re also pissed off and grouchy because being cheerful didn’t work. In fact, it made everything worse because you’re just as pissed off and grouchy as you were before, but you were also hoodwinked by all that damn smiling optimism. 

That sounds like what Jesus was talking about, with the demon leaving, then coming back with a bunch of his buddies to make things even worse than before. We hear people talking about fighting our inner demons. That’s what I mean, and boy howdy, we can have a lot of those. I’ve mentioned anger, grouchiness, violence. What about addiction to drugs, alcohol, sex? What about thinking the world is against you, what my dad called, “having a chip on your shoulder”? God, I hated it when he said that. He was right. I did have a chip on my shoulder, and it was based in fear and insecurity. Again, we’ve all got our inner demons that we struggle with.

Jesus said in our Gospel lesson today, “Those who love me will keep my word, and I will come and make my home with them.” “Those who love me will keep my word, and I will come and make my home with them.” That sounds a whole lot better than angry, lusty, fearful, spiteful demons making their home in me. “Keep my word,” Jesus said, “and I will come and make my home with [you].”

Here's where the altar call happens, right? Come up here, proclaim that you want to keep Jesus’ word, and all will be well from here on out, right? Nah, see keeping Jesus’ word is not a one-time deal. Jesus said he’d make his home with us. That’s an everyday kinda deal. We’re following in Jesus’ ways as best we can, not perfectly, but we’re trying, and Jesus is with us, staying in our house, in our selves. Then we see something we want to do that we know Jesus is going to say “no” to, so we ask Jesus if he’d like to just take a walk for a little while, stretch his legs, and when he gets around the block, we lock him out. 

Now, when we do that, and we all do that, Jesus ain’t gonna force his way back in. The demons will. They don’t knock. They just force their way in and say, “Piss off, this is my house now” Jesus doesn’t do that. Jesus knocks and says, “What’s going on? You wanna let me back in.” 

Well, we’ve kicked Jesus out, we’ve followed ways that we know are harmful for us, so at this point, the house is already a wreck. Even without any major terrible demons coming in, it’s pretty messy. We’re not sure we wanna let Jesus in. We’re kind of ashamed. At the same time, things have been kinda fun. We’re not sure we wanna give things back over to Jesus just yet. Tell you what, Jesus, let me have my way for a while, and you come one back whenever I want you here. Thanks so much.

I’m not saying Jesus won’t come back when we treat him like that. Rumor has it he will, but when we kick him out and lock him out, we do tend to let in a lot of demons. We do tend to hurt ourselves. We do tend to hurt others.  

So, the suggestion Jesus has instead is that we keep his word, we keep his ways, we seek his guidance and follow his teachings, and he will come and make his home with us. In God’s kingdom, Jesus has many dwelling places, and we are those dwelling places. 

Jesus is resurrection and life, and Jesus offers to dwell within us. Jesus is love and peace, and Jesus offers to dwell within us. Jesus is way, and truth, and life, and Jesus offers to dwell within us.

Way, truth, life, love, peace, resurrection: those all sound pretty good, a far cry from the various demons we often invite in. So, rather than give an altar call and ask people to come here and commit to keeping Jesus’ word and ways, let me offer this. Make the altar call every morning. Every day we decide to trust Jesus enough to follow his ways. Every day we chose Jesus’ way, truth, and life. Every day we choose Jesus’ love, peace, and resurrection. 

Every day we do well; every day we mess up; and every day we return again to that altar call and invite Jesus in, committing to keep his word as best we are able. Some days we’ll be more able than others, and Jesus will reward our efforts by making his home with us. 

Some days, we may kick Jesus out, and even then, Jesus will be outside, ready to come back in when we’re ready to unlock the doors and welcome him back in. So, “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says, “and do not let them be afraid.” “Peace I leave with you; my peace own I give to you.” For, “those who love me,” Jesus says, “will keep my word, and I will come and make my home with them.”

A Place Where People are Honored, Respected, and Loved

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston
May 18, 2025
5 Easter, C
Acts 11:1-18
Psalm 148
John 13:31-35

Love God, and love people. It’s just that easy, right? Love God, and love people. All of the commandments and all of the laws and ways of God really boil down to those two simple things. Simple, easy, until we actually try to start living it. 

Anyone ever felt like, “I love God, and because of that, I just can’t stand people”? Yeah, me to sometimes. People can be hard to love. That’s why it’s not easy.  Of course, the book of James points out that we can’t love God if we don’t love people. So…yeah, it might be that loving God isn’t always easy either. 

It takes work and commitment, loving someone. That means loving them when you don’t like them and staying committed to them at the times when you’d rather just turn tails and run. To make it even tougher, Jesus tells us to love even our enemies, and let’s face it, I have a hard time loving my friends sometimes, much less people I consider enemy, but there it is. Jesus tells us to love, like, everybody. By doing that, we show that we actually love God.

In the commandment we heard from Jesus today, however, he gives us a starting point with that love, making things potentially a little easier. “Love one another,” he said. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Love your fellow disciples; love your fellow followers of Jesus. Realizing there are disciples of Jesus all over the world, let’s keep it really simple. Love the people in your church.

That doesn’t mean don’t love everyone else, but particularly, as a start, focus on loving your fellow disciples in your church. Make sure your church is a community of love, a place and a people where others would see the love we have for one another and recognize that as the love of God. 

We’ve been hearing about the decline of church for decades now. More and more people are not going to church, more and more people are saying they don’t believe in any religion, and even among those who believe in Jesus, more and more are believing privately, choosing not to be a part of a church community. 

I wonder if part of that might be because the church hasn’t been a place where people truly love one another. I mentioned a couple weeks ago about things like people being shunned for backsliding. Think about the fighting we have in the Church over whose Baptism is the right kind of Baptism. We fight over how exactly salvation works, and we tend to divide over which groups disagree too much. We have some denominations claiming that other denominations aren’t really Christians. 

On a congregational level, I know people who have been gossiped about until they left their church, then came back and gossiped about others. I know churches that have divided and then fought over who got to keep the building. Hell, I even know folks who have fought over things like which flowers were the right ones to put in the church. 

Is it really that surprising that people see that and think, “Yeah, maybe not so much”? 

I don’t mean that people within churches should never fight. That’s not possible. People fight over things. Also, not fighting doesn’t equal love. Love is not just the absence of conflict. Love is striving together to work through conflict and come out stronger and even more committed to one another on the other side. 

Marriages that last 50 and 60 years don’t last because of a lack of conflict. Those marriages last because the couples are committed to staying together and working through the difficult times, sometimes the difficult years. Marriages last because couples are willing to let some things die in the marriage and see what is resurrected on the other side. It’s the same with the church.

A church where people love one another is not a place of fake love, of surface level pretending, and just being politely nice to one another. A church in which people love one another means actual love. That means when we don’t like each other, we choose to look for what is lovable about each other. When we disagree and harm one another, we work to be reconciled; we work to mend the harm done to the other and to heal our broken relationships. 

If anything, that’s what the church is meant to be known for. They will know you are my disciples, Jesus said, they will know you are my church because of how you love one another. Now, what if people saw and heard about churches being places like that? 

What if people saw and heard about churches being places where people weren’t shunned, but embraced? 

What if people saw and heard about churches being places where people honored and cared for one another?

What if people saw and heard about churches being places where people knew that if they did fight with someone, they would do the hard and beautiful work of making things right and healing any harm done?

What if people saw and heard about churches being places where people believed they would be respected and loved?

Anyone else feel a need for a place like that, a place where you know you will be honored, respected, and loved? I get the feeling there’s not a whole lot of that going around nowadays. Honor. Respect. Love. I get the feeling the world could use a lot more honor, respect, and love.

That’s why Jesus commanded us to love one another. Make your church a place where people are honored, respected, and loved. Make your church a place of healing. You need it, and those around you need it.

When we love one another inside the church, even loving the ones we don’t like, then we have a place we can invite others to for peace and healing. When people see they are being invited into a community of honor, respect, and love (love without conditions), then folks just might want to join that community of peace and healing. 

Everyone here needs peace and healing. Everyone here needs to be honored. Everyone here needs to be shown respect. Everyone here needs to be loved. That’s why Jesus made his church, that we might be a place where we choose, and strive, and commit to love one another every day. 

Apostles of Forgiveness

 The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston
April 27, 2025
2 Easter, C
Acts 5:27-32
Psalm 118:14-29
John 20:19-31

Jesus talked a lot about forgiveness. He gave us parables about the forgiveness of God, like in Matthew 18:15-20 with a parable about guy who owed 2000 lifetimes’ worth of wages and was forgiven all of his debt. Jesus taught his disciples that as far and as long as there is vengeance in the world, that is how far and how long you are to forgive. Then, Jesus showed that he actually meant what he said when he forgave his murderers in the act of killing him. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

Sure, they didn’t know that they were killing God incarnate, but I think he meant that they didn’t know that their killing him, even just as a regular human being, their killing him was wrong. I know that because “Jesus didn’t count equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself,” and Jesus taught that whatever we do to the least among us, we do to him. 

Father, forgive them, because they just don’t get that killing other people is wrong. Forgive them, even though they’re incurring over 2000 lifetimes’ worth of debt. Forgive them because they just don’t get it; they just don’t understand the horror of what they’re doing.

Then, when Jesus was raised from the dead and met with his disciples, he said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” just as he had received the Holy Spirit in his baptism, and he told them that he was sending them just as he had been sent by God the Father. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them,” he said. “If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

If you forgive sins, they are forgiven. If you retain sins, they are retained.

This has become a bit of a power play in parts of the Church, hasn’t it? Some folks believe that priests, standing in for Jesus, proclaim people as being forgiven or not forgiven. Jesus did say, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” So, there you have it; if you don’t forgive, they’re not forgiven.

Is that really what Jesus meant, though? If you select few proclaim my forgiveness, then I have forgiven someone, and if you don’t proclaim my forgiveness, it is because I have not forgiven someone? Is that really what Jesus meant? Maybe. Then again, maybe not.

Remember just how darn much Jesus forgave and how seriously Jesus took forgiveness. He taught his disciples to forgive for as far and as long as there is forgiveness in the world. I don’t know that he’s then going to say, “Oh, by the way guys, I’m often not going to forgive, and you’ll know when, so you can retain the sins of some people.” Nah. Not so much.

“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven.” If you, or I, or anyone forgives the sins of any, they are forgiven. When you forgive someone, that person is freed and so are you. So, don’t worry about whether or not Jesus will forgive; I’m pretty sure we’ve seen that he already has. Instead, focus on your forgiveness, the forgiveness you give others. Your forgiveness is real. Your forgiveness is true. Your forgiveness is healing and life-giving.

At the same time, realize that your lack of forgiveness is just as real and just as true. Your lack of forgiveness is harmful and deadly. “If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” You get to keep that poison, if you choose, slowly killing you and those around you. Even though Jesus has forgiven, our lack of forgiveness can still harm us and kill us.

So, forgive, Jesus told us. As the Father sent Jesus to forgive, so does Jesus send us to forgive, at least that’s what the story says.

How do we know that Jesus really did send us to forgive? How do we know that Jesus was even right in his commands for us to forgive? We often don’t want to forgive. We often feel like people don’t deserve forgiveness, and we’re probably right. They probably don’t. When it doesn’t feel like people deserve forgiveness, or even ask for forgiveness, how do we know that it really is ok to forgive? How do we know that it really is the right thing to forgive?

Well, the short answer is, we don’t. We don’t know that forgiveness is the right thing. We’re asked to believe.

Thomas didn’t know if it was Jesus he was seeing. His fellow disciples had seen Jesus, and Jesus showed them his scars. Then, when they told Thomas about it, he didn’t believe, and said he wouldn’t believe until Jesus showed him his scars. Then, when Jesus offered to show Thomas his scars, Thomas said, “No, that’s not necessary. You are my Lord and my God.” Thomas didn’t see what his fellow disciples saw, and yet he believed. His fellow disciples saw even more, and they believed. Mary Magdalene, the first apostle, saw Jesus outside the tomb, and she believed. 

We have their stories, and we are asked to believe, and we are also asked to believe Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness. We are asked to believe that we are Jesus’ apostles of forgiveness, sent by Jesus to forgive.

So, how’s that work? Does being sent as apostles of forgiveness mean that if someone kills someone we love, we should just say, “I forgive them, so just let them go kill again?” Of course not. We can forgive and still have people in prison. Safety and keeping others from harm is still a thing, but what about forgiveness and even release when someone is sorrowful for what they’ve done and has repented? Might forgiveness involve advocating for their release from prison? Might that be part of the life-giving healing Jesus had in mind? 

I read a story published in People magazine about a man who did advocate for the release from prison of his brother’s murderer. Kimyon Marshall was 15 years old back in 1998, when he killed Ruben Cotton over a pair of tennis shoes. Ruben’s older brother, Darryl Green, was torn apart by grief and anger at his brother’s killing, for which the murderer, Kimyon, received a life sentence. Over the next decade and a half, Darryl struggled with his anger and struggled for purpose, even though successful in his career. “Although Kimyon was the one behind bars,” he said, “I was in my own prison, a prison of hatred.” After 15 years, Darryl and his father agreed that it was time to forgive Kimyon. So, they went to his resentencing hearing, and they heard his remorse, and they advocated for his release.

At the hearing, Darryl shook Kimyon’s hand. They both cried, and Darryl said to him, “You’ve been known for taking a life, now let’s go save some lives together.” From there, they started an organization called, “Deep Forgiveness” which works with young people, helping them break free from cycles of violence. 

They have been doing this work together for years now, and forgiveness is still work for Darryl, but he said that “Once you forgive, you’re now able to unlock the key to your own prison cell.” As for Kimyon, he says that when he received the gift of freedom from Darryl’s family, he was able to give back to the community and work to save lives.

That’s the power of forgiveness. Darryl and his family retained Kimyon’s sins for 15 years, and those sins were retained. Then, they were ready to forgive him his sins, and his sins were forgiven. What came next was healing and life-giving. A man and his brother’s murderer, reconciled, working together to bring forgiveness and life to the world. That’s resurrection. That’s the gospel of Jesus lived out among us. That’s two men believing in the forgiveness of Jesus and then living as Jesus sent them to live, as apostles of forgiveness.

So we are asked to believe and live as well. Jesus said when we retain people’s sins, they are retained, and indeed they are. We keep that poison and remain imprisoned ourselves until we’re able to forgive, and that takes time. Then, when we forgive people’s sins, as Jesus sent us to do, they are indeed forgiven. We are apostles of forgiveness, sent by Jesus to forgive, just as Jesus was sent by God the Father to forgive, and when we do, we are freed, and there is healing and new life.

https://people.com/darryl-green-deep-forgiveness-man-forgave-brothers-killer-exclusive-7506937

New Heavens & A New Earth: Some Beautiful Nonsense

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
April 20, 2025
Easter Sunday, C
Isaiah 65:17-25
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Luke 24:1-12

“I am about to create new heavens and a new earth,” God said in Isaiah 65. “Be glad and rejoice forever.” Jesus was raised from the dead, and we saw something of this new heavens and new earth. Life that is not ended in death. Death that has lost its terror because death has become a gateway from life to life. Such is the new heavens and the new earth that God promises and gives us a glimpse of on Easter, with Jesus’ resurrection.

To some, it may sound like nonsense. Sometimes even to me it sounds like nonsense, except that God creating something new is the story throughout scripture, a story of hope. New heavens and a new earth sounds like hope, hope rooted in God’s creative love for us and for all that God has made. “Behold,” Jesus says in Revelation 21:5, “Behold, I am making all things new.” 

So, the new heavens and the new earth are what God has in mind for humanity, which sounds amazing. The idea of a new heavens and a new earth is captivating for humanity, so much so that we have countless sci-fi films about living on other planets and what the mysteries of the galaxies may hold. We’ve been to the moon, sent a probe out beyond our solar system, and we’ve had robots land on Mars so we can explore the mysteries of our neighboring planet. 

Now, we even have talk of people colonizing Mars. There are ideas of setting up bases where people can live, and there are even ideas of eventually terraforming the planet to make it habitable for people. Those are the dreams of some of humanity, that our new heavens and new earth will be the red planet. Ok, on the one hand, that sounds really, really cool: making a whole new planet where people can live and getting to travel there on a spaceship. That’s like all of the coolest sci-fi movies. 

On the other hand, however, colonizing Mars as a new planet for humanity to live on, sounds like nonsense to me, not because it’s not possible. I’m sure it’s possible to colonize a dead planet and make it habitable for humans. I mean, we live in Houston where we have about one and three-quarters seasons throughout the year, so I figure we can make just about any place habitable. 

The idea of making Mars a new earth for humanity sounds like nonsense to me because we’re already wrecking the earth we’ve got. The idea that after the Earth is wrecked, humanity will have another place to go, a new paradise for humanity that we’ve created on Mars, nonsense. That truly does sound like science fiction. Colonizing Mars is nonsense because of the almost certain reality that the only people who would get to go to this new earth, this new paradise, are the extremely rich and those with skills necessary for them to survive. 

That’s how things tend to work on this earth already. The extremely wealthy have more than they need for many lifetimes, while in the same economy, others work hard, remain in poverty, and become homeless. So, humanity’s idea of a new heaven and new earth is probably gonna follow the same pattern.

God making a new heaven and a new earth, however, means God is making something truly different. Some rabbis understood this new heaven and new earth to mean that God was bringing about a new social and world order: new rulers in the heavens, new rulers on earth, rulers who would follow in the ways of justice, mercy, and love. 

We seem to have had a taste of that in the early church, a new order with new leaders. The first apostles in the church, the first people Jesus appeared to after his resurrection, were women. “Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them” were the first apostles in the church, and they went to the male disciples of Jesus and told them that Jesus had been raised from the dead. A new way, with women as the first apostles and the men becoming apostles too, although, when the men heard what the Mary and apostles had to say, their “words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” 

Now, that part sounds less like new heavens and a new earth and more just like the status quo, but things were different for a while. There were early churches that were led by women, and in the earliest days of the church, we did see people living together in harmony, caring for one another, not seeing the privileged as blessed and the poor as burdens. For a while, there was something new in the church. It didn’t last, but it was a taste, a taste of things to come. 

Jesus rose from the grave as a promise to us all that life does not end in death, but there is new life after death. There is something new, something beautiful, something truly to hope for, and not just for the rich and powerful among humanity. God’s new heavens and new earth are something truly new, truly different, where justice, mercy, and love truly are the ways we live. That new heavens and new earth of justice, mercy, and love, that is the resurrection life that Jesus promised us when he was raised from the tomb. 

God became human as Jesus of Nazareth. He preached justice, mercy, and love. He healed people and lived justice, mercy, and love. Because of that humanity decided we needed to kill him, and as we did, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them.” When God became human, we killed him, and God said, “I forgive you,” and I am going to show you the beginning of a new heavens and a new earth.

I realize that like colonizing Mars, that may sound like nonsense, because it’s hard to wrap our minds around, but a friend of mine named Carrie wrote, “even if you will never be able to wrap your mind around the Resurrection, Easter is the promise that impossibly good things can happen after (and even in the midst of) terribly bad things. Terribly bad things are happening…right now, everywhere. We do nonsensical things like dye chicken eggs that somehow are associated with a rabbit. None of these things make sense, but neither does Easter. The world is completely upside down right now. [We] could use the promise of some nonsense that maybe, every valley will be exalted and every mountain and hill made low,” that there will be new heavens and a new earth, a new life that will never end, a life of justice, mercy, and love.  

When We Help and Give Love to Folks in Need, We Have Jesus with Us

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston

April 6, 2025

5 Lent, C

Philippians 3:4b-14

Psalm 126

John 12:1-8

“You always have the poor with you,” Jesus said. I’ve often heard this said with a kind of fatalism. You’ll always have the poor with you so, there’s not a whole lot we can do; we wish it were different, but eh, we can’t really help. So, “You will always have the poor with you,” ends up being used as an excuse not to worry too much about poverty and those who suffer from poverty. The poor will always be with us, so just accept it and move on.

Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what Jesus meant when he said, “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” Jesus taught extensively about caring for the poor. Jesus taught folks with wealth to live off of less so that those with little would have more. Jesus even taught that those at the top, in modern times, the CEOs and shareholders, should choose to earn less for themselves so that those on the bottom of the pay scale could earn more. 

So, when Jesus said, “You always have the poor with you,” he did not mean, “Meh, don’t worry about ‘em.”

Jesus was talking to Judas who was making a good self-righteous show, pretending to be upset about how much money Mary had spent on the perfume she was using to anoint Jesus. It was a huge amount of money, about 10 months’ worth of minimum wage, and she was using it all in one go to anoint Jesus’ feet. So yeah, fair point, that’s an extravagant expense, but as John tells us, Judas didn’t actually care about how the money could have been used on the poor; he just wanted to be able to keep more money for himself.

So, when Jesus responded, “You always have the poor with you,” he was telling Judas, “Dude, I know what you’re really on about, and if you actually care about the poor, like you say you do, I highly recommend doing something about it.” In fact, Jesus was commanding Judas to care for the poor. “You always have the poor with you,” was a paraphrase of Deuteronomy 15:11, “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land’”.

Yes, Judas, you are commanded to care for the poor and needy in the land, so stop lambasting Mary, stop stealing, and start using what you have to care for those in need. In fact, Judas, not only do you always have the poor with you and should therefore care for them, but you do not always have me. 

Ok, on the one hand, Jesus was obviously speaking about his upcoming arrest and crucifixion. When Jesus was killed and then when he ascended into heaven, his friends and disciples truly didn’t have him there with them anymore. He continued and continues now to dwell in our hearts, in our very souls and bodies, and yet, Jesus is not walking among us physically, at least not in the way he was a couple thousand years ago. 

In Matthew 25:31-46, however, Jesus did say that whatever we do to the least among us, we do to him. We do have Jesus with us among the very poor and needy whom Jesus commanded Judas to care for. By not caring for others among us, we push Jesus away. 

So, anytime someone dismissively says, “You always have the poor with you,” and therefore figure there is nothing we can or should do about it, they are ignoring Jesus and pushing Jesus away. By words and actions that care only for the wealthy and do nothing for the poor and needy, people reveal the truth of Jesus’ statement, “you do not always have me.” When we push away, trample on, and ignore the poor and needy among us, we push away, trample on, and ignore Jesus and find his words are true. We don’t have Jesus with us. 

So, the truth is, we always have the poor with us; we always have people in need among us, but depending on how we treat them, we don’t always have Jesus. 

So, what are we then to do with the hugely expensive bit of perfume that Mary used up in one sitting to anoint Jesus’ feet. Well, it may not have been the best use of money ever in the history of the world, but Jesus meant a huge amount to their family. Beyond that, they seemed to have some idea of Jesus’ importance beyond just a family friend, and Mary wanted to honor and bless Jesus, and draw near to him in this act of pure love. 

Giving of ourselves to spend time with Jesus, never a bad idea. That’s part of what Paul was saying in his letter to the Philippians when he wrote, “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Paul had been one of the absolute best at his religion, and I don’t think there’s really a contest about being better than others at religions, but even so, Paul was the GOAT at his religion, and he gladly let all of it go when he came to know God as a human being, Jesus. 

Mary had this hugely expensive bit of perfume, and she got rid of all of it, used it all at once, in order to be near and offer love to Jesus. 

Now, don’t let anyone fool you into giving them all your money for some Jesusy, religious, whosadeewhatsit. “Send us $1000 and all your prayers will come true.” “Support our ministries with all you’ve got, and God’ll give it back to you with interest.” The only folks what get rich off things like that are the preachers.

No, when we give all that we have to draw near to Jesus, we’re giving our lives, our wills, desires in order to follow Jesus more fully. Sometimes we do give money to support ministries, and we do give money to help others in need, and when we’re helping those other people, we are drawing near to and loving Jesus. 

Realize too that when we give things up in order to draw near to and love Jesus, they’re usually things that we find we’re just fine without. Paul didn’t regret giving up his number one religious guy card, and Mary didn’t regret using all of that perfume on Jesus. She found afterwards that she didn’t need it anymore. 

When we help others in need, we tend to find that we didn’t really need whatever it was we gave up in order to give that help. We find instead that we have spent time with Jesus in those moments, and it was well worth it. We’ve always got folks in need among us, and when we help and give love to folks in need, we have Jesus with us as well.

God forgives those who need it.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
March 30, 2025
4 Lent, C
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Psalm 32
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Context matters. With Scripture, as with anything context matters for determining the meaning of something. Taking bits of scripture out of context, we can get scripture to say all sorts of things. For example:

“God loves nothing,” rather, “God hates.” If I had a hankering to make up an angry, frightening story with scripture, taking words out of context, I might just say that. “God loves nothing. God hates.” See, context really does matter, because those words really are in scripture. Deuteronomy 16:22 really has the words, “God hates” right there together, but the verse is actually at the end of descriptions of idolatry and injustice, “things that the Lord your God hates.” That’s what scripture says; God hates things like idolatry and injustice. Context matters. 

Here's another one. “God loves nothing.” Ooh, way harsh, “God loves nothing,” and yes, you can pluck those words right out of scripture, from Wisdom 7:28, but here’s what it actually says, “God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom.” Again, context matters.

I bring this up because today we have a passage about God’s forgiveness. In the story Jesus tells, a young man basically tells his dad, “I wish you were dead, now give me my inheritance.” When the young man spends all of his money and ends up penniless, he goes home, begging his father’s forgiveness, and his father runs out to him, embracing him, and throwing a party because he came back. From that story, God’s forgiveness seems pretty vast and unending. 

Last week, however, I heard in a Bible study someone say that if you are a Christian and you turn away from Jesus, you can’t be forgiven of that. There’s no way to come back to Jesus if you have ever turned away. 

That is not our belief in the church. If you turn away from Jesus, yes, you can come back. That’s the whole idea of repentance. That’s what Jesus was showing us in the story he told. So, where have we gotten this idea that you can’t come back to Jesus if you are a Christian who has rejected Jesus? Well, this idea comes from scripture, but it comes from scripture without context.

See, in Hebrews 6:4-6, the writer says, “it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt.” Well, that seems pretty clear. If you believe in Jesus, and then you stop believing in Jesus, you cannot return to a belief in Jesus, and you cannot be forgiven. 

What about the context, though? 

The writer of Hebrews is writing to a whole church, a large group of Jewish Christians, and it seems as though this church is beginning to lose their faith in Jesus, wanting to continue in their Jewish faith apart from Jesus. The writer is trying to convince them that Jesus really is the way to go, and he writes about Jesus in a very Jewish way. He compares Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to the Jewish animal sacrifices on the altar. He talks about Jesus’ priesthood in the context of the Jewish priesthood. Additionally, he writes about turning away from Jesus in the context of the people of Israel turning away from God throughout the scriptures. 

Remember, he writes, how Israel would forsake God and God would forsake them until the next generation would return to God? So, he’s writing to them about Jesus in the same way, and yeah, he’s threatening them a little, but that threat is written to them for the purpose of keeping them from turning away from Jesus. The writer of Hebrews’ words aren’t a forever truth to Christians that if you believe in Jesus and then stop believing in Jesus, you can never be forgiven. 

Such a belief, that God can’t or won’t forgive you for turning away from Jesus, is in conflict with other parts of scripture, like James 5:19-20. “My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” James states very clearly that if you turn away from Jesus, you can turn back. 

The thought that you can’t be forgiven if you turn away from Jesus is also in conflict with the overall narrative of Scripture. The story of scripture is of God creating us, loving us, and constantly reaching out to us to heal us and guide us back to him. Grace, and love, repentance, and forgiveness are the themes of Scripture. 

Maybe that’s why Jesus taught about God’s forgiveness, over and over again. Jesus taught about God’s forgiveness in the story he told of the young man wanted his father dead, took and wasted his inheritance, and then came back penniless and filthy, begging for his father’s forgiveness. His father forgave him instantly, and then his older brother complained.

“He doesn’t deserve it,” the brother complained. “He turned away from you, while I’ve been here with you the whole time; he should never be forgiven.” When we start saying that folks can’t repent if they turn away from Jesus, we start sounding like the older brother in the story, complaining how unfair it is, that forgiveness should only be for those who deserve it.

Well, that definitely sounds like people claiming forgiveness for themselves, while also saying others are beyond God’s forgiveness. The religious leaders in Jesus’ day seemed to be claiming the same thing when they got upset with Jesus for hanging out with sinners. “Those are the wrong sorts of people. God doesn’t like them!” They seemed to think. So, Jesus told the story of forgiveness. 

God forgives, whether we want others to be forgiven or not. God forgives not just those who deserve it. God forgives those who need it. We all need the healing of forgiveness. So, God calls us to repent, because we need that too. 

How often do we hear repentance expressed as a threat, as if the point of repentance is to appease God’s anger. “Yeah, it’s time to repent. I gotta get God off my back again.” Such thoughts forget that the purpose of repentance is our healing and wholeness. We repent because we need it for our healing. Turn away from things that are causing harm. After all, we only repent of things that are harmful to ourselves and others. 

So, whatever else you’ve heard about repentance, whatever rules you’ve heard about God’s forgiveness, try setting aside those rules made by bits of scripture taken out of context, and remember instead the story Jesus told. A young man said, “Dad, I wish you were dead, because I want my inheritance now. Gimme my money. The dad did, and the kid left, only to return filthy and penniless, begging forgiveness, and his father ran to him, blessing him and forgiving him. 

God forgives. Over and over again. God forgives us. Whatever it is, however, many times it is, God keeps inviting us to repent, to turn away from ways that are causing harm and return to God’s will and God’s ways. Jesus invites all to return and receive God’s forgiveness, not just those who deserve it, but those who need it. 

Unflinching Self-Honesty and a Life Well-Lived

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston
March 23, 2025
3 Lent, C
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Psalm 27
Luke 13:31-35

So, the Roman governor, Pilate, had some Israelites killed, and then he took some of their blood and mixed it in with the sacrifices Rome was making to their gods. He turned people into human sacrifices, so not only was their death unjust and tragic, but then Pilate turned their death into a total affront to all the people of Israel. 

So, the questions would have come. Is God protecting us or not? Are we still God’s beloved, or were those people just really, really awful that God let that happen to them? That must be it.

So, Jesus asked them, “Do you really think they were worse than everyone else?” 

“Well, yeah,” the people thought.

“No guys, not so much,” Jesus responded. “We’re all liable to the same judgment, by God, not by Rome, and tragic death, like that, can happen to any of us at any time.” A terrible and corrupt governor in Rome decided to kill those Israelites, not God, and those 18 who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them, that was due to unfortunate engineering and less than ideal construction, not God deciding to kill them with a tower.

People die, all the time: sometimes after a long and beautiful life, peacefully dying in their beds; sometimes suddenly, violently, through horrible tragedy. That’s just the way it is.

This isn’t really a surprise to us. We know this. We see it all the time. As much as we may sometimes like to think or wish that the wicked die terribly while the good are blissfully eased into peaceful and expected death, we know this isn’t the case. Whether it’s Rabbi Kusher’s book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Rabbi Schusterman’s book, Why God Why?, or Rabbi Joel’s song, Only the Good Die Young, we seem to understand that tragic and early death can happen to anyone at any time. We seem to understand that the amount and quality of one’s sinfulness does not determine the amount of one’s suffering or violence and suddenness of one’s death. 

We know this, and yet, we often have thoughts and questions just like the Israelites did, who asked Jesus about the people Pilate killed. Sometimes we’re trying to justify ourselves a little bit and make ourselves feel safer. Maybe they were bad, or we wonder if they had done something wrong. We certainly hear preachers often talk about this, though usually directed at folks with political differences, religious differences, or even folks with the wrong brand of Christianity. That self-justification is bad enough. Perhaps even worse is when we can’t find anything objectionable in those who died, so we try to defend and justify God. “God needed a new angel.” More than that little kid needed his mom, are you kidding me?

Well, whether we’re claiming that those people were bad or that God was particularly in need of a new winged harpist that day, all of our justifications for tragic death are a basic fear response. We’re trying to make sense of the world, and we’re trying to make safe our own place within it.

“Yeah, that’s missing the point, guys,” Jesus says. Rather than trying to fool yourselves into thinking that the world makes sense and is always good, right and just; rather than try to fool yourselves into imagining your place in the world is safe from harm, realize that yes, indeed, tragedy can happen to anyone at any time. So instead of fretting your life away with false platitudes to boost your serotonin levels, accept life as it is, with all of its sometimes scary randomness.

Then, repent, and repent again, and then, for good measure, repent again, and after that, go ahead and have breakfast and keep going with your day, repenting continually as you go. That’s what Jesus told the people in response to their question about whether only the wicked died tragically. Stop worrying about that, y’all, and instead, “repent and return to the Lord.”

Now, I don’t believe this was a fearful, frightening message that you better repent or else, despite what we may have heard from popular Christian preachers. Jesus was not threatening the people to be good enough or repent well enough that no harm would come to them. Jesus’ call to repentance is not meant as a talisman against harm. 

Rather, Jesus’ call to repentance is a call continually to align our lives with the life and love of God. Doing so may not save us from the crazy whims of a despotic ruler, and being good enough won’t magically keep a poorly built structure from falling on us. What repentance does, what continually aligning our lives with the life and love of God does is allow us to truly live, a life of wholeness, a life of fruitfulness. Like the fruit on the fig tree Jesus talked about, like the fruit of the Spirit, repentance brings about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Those are the fruits we are seeking to grow in our lives. If our lives are long, ending peacefully in bed, we seek to grow the fruit of the Spirit, and if our lives are cut short, even violently, tragically, we still seek to grow the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. A life full of those fruits sounds like a life well-lived, whether long or short, a life well-lived. 

So, Jesus calls us to repentance, calls us to a life well-lived.

Repentance means looking deeply, being unflinchingly honest with ourselves, and seeing what defects of character, what ways we follow are bringing harm to ourselves or harm to others. Overindulgence, harshness, falsehood, malice, cruelty, frenzy, anger, resentment, hatred. We don’t eat these fruits in order to bring harm to the world. We eat these fruits because we are hurting and they make us feel better, at least for a little while. Anger, resentment and hatred make us feel strong. Overindulgence, harshness, and falsehood help us feel safe. Malice, cruelty, and frenzy make us feel in control.

So, we eat these fruits, and they destroy the fruit of the Spirit within us. Our overindulgence, harshness, falsehood, malice, cruelty, frenzy, anger, resentment, hatred: these things continually leach out of us into the lives of everyone around us. These negative fruits grow within us because of the ways we live which feed these fruits, these toxins, and so Jesus calls us to repent. 

Repent of the actions and ways in our lives that feed these toxins and cause them to leach out from us into the lives of others. What are those ways that feed these negative fruits? Of what do we each need to repent? Well, answering those questions is why we pray and look deeply into our lives with unflinching honesty. Then, we make a decision to turn from these harmful ways with God’s help. Our trust comes in believing that God actually does have something greater for us than our negative fruits bring. 

So, we are called to repent, over and over again, continually turning toward the ways of love, and hope, and faith. Repent of the ways that feed our anxiety and angst. Repent of the ways that feed our selfish overindulgence. Repent of the ways that fill our hearts with anger and resentment. Then, let God grow within us the fruit of the Spirit. 

With that fruit, we can be at peace, even amidst fear, even though death may come at any time. We seek the fruit of the Spirit. We turn to Jesus. We align our lives with his way of life and love, and we walk with him in a life well-lived.

Do You Feel Particularly Saved?

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston
March 16, 2025
2 Lent, C
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Psalm 27
Luke 13:31-35

“Run, Jesus! Run for your life! Herod’s trying to kill you!” The Pharisees warned Jesus, and Jesus replied, “Aww, y’all are so cute.” That’s not an exact quote, a little poetic license, but the idea is there. The Pharisees were almost certainly lying to Jesus. They were the ones who wanted Jesus to stop his preaching, not Herod. Even when Jesus was arrested, Herod saw Jesus as a curiosity and sent him back to Pilate for judgment. 

So, the Pharisees wanted Jesus to stop preaching, they gave a B.S. death threat to get him to quit, and Jesus saw right through their lie, calling their bluff, saying essentially, “If Herod wants to kill me, here’s where I’ll be, and I’m not going to stop.” That much they understood. What they probably didn’t understand was that Jesus was telling them, “Not to worry, I am going to be killed shortly after I ride into Jerusalem.”

Jesus knew that continuing on with his preaching and healing ministry was going to get him killed, and yet, he persisted. He went to the cross, not hiding from it, knowing that his teaching and way of life was the very thing that was going to get him killed. He continued on, accepting the cross, rather than living as an enemy of the cross.

That’s how Paul referred to people who wouldn’t live according to the ways and teaching of Jesus, “enemies of the cross.” “Their minds are set on earthly things,” Paul wrote. The whole idea of the cross, of personal suffering for the sake of others is beyond them. So, while they may give to others, they won’t do so if it brings any personal suffering. 

“Take up your cross,” Jesus said. “Lose your life for my sake.” That doesn’t just mean physical death. Give up your egos. Give up our need to be right. Give up your need to be justified, compensated, avenged. Let those things go, seek God’s will, and say, “Father, forgive them.”

Living as an enemy of the cross, on the other hand, means choosing one’s own power to force one’s way in the world. Had Jesus been an enemy of the cross, he would have unleashed all the power of God to destroy those who would have killed him. Had be been an enemy of the cross, Jesus would have denied forgiveness and chosen wrath. Rather than forgive all, he would have chosen to justify himself and his way by condemning all who did not live according to his way. I’m pretty sure that would have been most, if not all of us. 

As an enemy of the cross, Jesus would have used his power to gain more power and still more power, not serving the poor and those in need, but punishing those who did not. As an enemy of the cross, he would not have made himself friends with sinners, but he would have joined with those who considered themselves righteous, and he would have joined in their self-righteous glory. He would have stayed in an ivory tower, looking down upon the lowly with scorn. As an enemy of the cross, Jesus would have considered things like empathy for other people a weakness, and weakness is something an enemy of the cross cannot abide.

An enemy of the cross would follow the temptations of the Devil, choosing power over others, forcing one’s will and one’s way on others. Even if that way is the way of Jesus, forcing that way on others is not the way of Jesus. Folks in the church did that to the indigenous people of this land, likely thinking that the indigenous people were enemies of the cross, never realizing that by forcing Christianity, they themselves were living as enemies of the cross. Might makes right? Not according to the way of Jesus. Might makes right is an enemy of the cross, and the way of an enemy of the cross leads to destruction.

Even with faith in Jesus, the way of an enemy of the cross leads to destruction. Even with faith in Jesus, the way of might makes right leads to destruction. Even with faith in Jesus, the way of coercion and forcing one’s will on others leads to destruction. Even with faith in Jesus, looking down upon the lowly and rejecting empathy leads to destruction.

Paul was clear in his letters, as was Jesus in his teaching, that faith, without the way of the cross, is dead. James actually wrote the words, “Faith without works is dead,” but you can see the truth of those words throughout Paul’s writing and Jesus’ teaching. 

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus said, “but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) “Imitate me,” Paul wrote, “and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.” (Philippians 3:17)

Our faith in Jesus is lovely and good, but without following Jesus’ way of life, our faith withers. Discipleship, walking in the way of Jesus is what give our faith life to transform our lives and the lives of those around us. 

Does that mean shouting at others about our faith? Nope. Loving, forgiving, helping, that is the way of Jesus, the way of the cross. When we follow the way of the cross, we give up our power and live as servants. 

Living as servants, following the way of the cross when we see so much in the world that needs fixing. Overcome by it all, we may find ourselves alone shouting into the darkness. We may find ourselves being tempted as Jesus was, seeking power to force our will on others, but that is living as an enemy of the cross. We shout in the darkness when we are overcome by the problems in the world, and then we join with others, building one another up in love. 

We leave our despair at the foot of the cross and accept the death that the cross brings. The many deaths that happen in our lives: the death of might makes right; the death of coercion and force; the death of scorn for others; even one day, our physical deaths. We accept the way of the cross, and we find salvation, dwelling under the shelter of Jesus wings, gathering us as a hen gathers her chicks. Salvation, dwelling together under Jesus wings, dwelling forever the in peace, love, and unity of God. That is the way of the cross.

Living as an enemy of the cross, is a life that is also seeking salvation, but it is a life of anger, a life of wrath, a life of fear. Living as an enemy of the cross is a life of choosing to get yours over others. To hell with anyone else, I’m gonna get mine. 

In times of following that path of “I’m gonna get mine,” do you feel particularly saved?

Do you, instead, feel alone and even more fearful of losing what you have?

That’s what the Pharisees felt, afraid of losing what they had, and so they wanted to silence Jesus. Jesus said, “No, I choose the way of the cross,” and Jesus invites us to live the way of the cross as well. Letting go our fears, accepting our many deaths, and joining with others in love, we find shelter in the shadow of Jesus’ wings, as he gathers us like a mother hen gathering her chicks. 

Faith, not a Formula: Following the Advocate

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
March 9, 2025
1 Lent, C
Romans 10:8b-13
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Luke 4:1-13

In Bible study this week, we talked about following the ways of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, rather than following the ways of the Adversary, whose name is Satan. During our disagreements in Bible study over what we thought a passage meant, we’d sometimes respond by telling another person they are wrong, and our way of believing is right. Oddly enough, arguments would ensue, some back and forth variation of I’m right and you’re wrong. Now, if one of the two people was right, then then other one may well have been wrong, but when we get into those arguments, we’re working against one another, following the way of the Adversary, Satan. 

We could simply offer our own beliefs, not against the other person, not declaring them wrong, but simply offering what we believe. That’d be more of a Holy Spirit kind of way, not speaking against you, just advocating for what I believe. That way, we remain united, even in our differences, as opposed to a church that is fractured and torn apart.

A fractured church is what we see in Paul’s letter to the Romans. The church in Rome was made up of both Jewish followers of Jesus and Gentile, non-Jewish, followers of Jesus, and those two different groups seem to have been at odds with each other, both telling the other that they were wrong. “You have to be Jewish if you really want to follow Jesus,” the Jewish Christians said, and the Gentile Christians responded, “We don’t do all of that law of Moses stuff that you do, because we just believe in Jesus, so our faith is better.”

Well, Paul was having none of it. “Ain’t none of you got a leg up on the other, guys.” To the Jewish followers of Jesus, Paul was pointing out that the law was fine, but why would they demand it of anyone, when they still needed Jesus in addition to the Law. Then, to the Gentile Christians, Paul was pointing out that they were no better than the Jews, if anything, maybe a little worse off, because everything to know about God was right there to be understood in creation all around them, and yet they had made idols to worship instead of God. 

So, Paul’s basic argument is, “Y’all are both doing fine, and you don’t need to follow Jesus in the exact same way.” The different ways we all follow Jesus in the church now are all pretty good because we are all so very different. With all of our differences, we all still share this idea that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead. That’s what Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome to let them know that even though they were very different, what united them was Jesus. Jesus is Lord and God raised him from the dead.

With Paul’s writing of unity within the church, there has been a temptation whittle his writings down to a simple formula. One, “confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord,” and two, “believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.” Then, “you will be saved.”

I’ve heard these words talked about as the right way to believe in Jesus and that anything those words will lead you to destruction. So, we’ve got fighting within the church as people take Paul’s words and turn them into something he didn’t intend. We use Paul’s words to say to different kinds of Christians, “I’m right, and you’re wrong,” and we let the Adversary tear the church apart. 

We don’t quite go to war with different parts of the church the way we used to. Christians killing Christians over which type of Christian you were. Heck, there were even times in some parts of the church where making the sign of the cross over yourself in the wrong way could get you killed. 

Nowadays, our attacks tend to be more verbal, Facebook, shaming, and maybe that’s not as destructive as killing people, but we’re still harming one another terribly out of this feeling that “I’m right and you’re damned.” 

This all comes out of fear and a resulting need for certainty. What if they’re right? Does that mean I’m wrong, and if I’m wrong, is my salvation in question? So, we give into the temptation for certainty, rather than faith, and the opposite of faith is certainty. Doubt goes along with faith, because we don’t know with faith. We choose to believe. Certainty, on the other hand, leave no doubt, and therefore no faith. So, in our quest to alleviate fear, we choose certainty over faith. We fight with one another, because nothing helps certainty more than an out group (I must be saved because they aren’t), and we end up following the ways of the Adversary, Satan, rather than the Holy Spirit.

When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, we like to think that it was easy for Jesus not to be tempted, thinking about Jesus being God, but we gotta remember, Jesus was human. You bet Jesus was tempted. He’d been out there for 40 days. He was hungry, so when Satan said to turn bread into stone, you bet Jesus wanted to do it. One, he could have, just used his God-powers and poof, magic bread, but The Adversary was the one challenging him to do so. Giving into that temptation, Jesus would have been following the way of the Adversary, telling God, “I no longer trust you. You’ve kept me here, safe, for 40 days, and now, I no longer trust you.” 

Then, when Satan told Jesus he’d give him power and authority over all the kingdoms of the world, you bet that was tempting. Think of what Jesus could do with all the people of the world under his control. He could make the nations and the people do as he wanted. ‘You want to seek injustice? Too bad, you’re not allowed. You want to oppress your workers and ignore the needs of the poor among you, well, I won’t let you, because I’m in charge now.’ 

Everything Jesus preached and taught, he could make people do, except, of course, he’d have to worship the Adversary first, and then he’d have to follow the way of the Adversary. He’d be fighting against anyone and everyone who didn’t want to do as he said. What would happen when people said, “no.” Would he drive them out of town? Take all of their money? Just kill them? Yea, that wouldn’t have worked out so well, Jesus following the way of the Adversary.

So, Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil, choosing instead to trust in God, knowing that God was absolutely for him. 

That is the trust Jesus offers for us to have as well because Jesus is absolutely for us, and Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, the Advocate to be for us as well. God is 100% for us, not like Satan, the Adversary, who is against us and leads us to be against one another.

God gives us the Holy Spirit to be our Advocate, that we may be each other’s advocate as well. Rather than fear leading us to the temptation of certainty, God’s love for us can lead us to the trust of faith. With that trust, trusting that God is for us, we don’t need others to be wrong for us to be right. We can let other Christian groups and denomination believe and practice their faith as they do without having to prove them wrong. 

That even goes for the weird denominations (and I think we all know which denominations we all think are weird). I know which ones I think are weird and wrong, and that’s for me not to share, but to give over to God, and say, “Here you go, Lord. I think they’re weird, but that’s my problem, not theirs, and I’m going to give that to you and ask that you grant me your Spirit, that I may be for them and not against them.”

That’s what Paul was encouraging the Christians in Rome to do. The Jewish Christians thinking the Gentile Christians were weird and the Gentile Christians thinking the Jewish Christians were utterly baffling, Paul was writing them to let them know that their unity was in Jesus, and Jesus was for them both. Weird, crazy: groovy. God is for us, and so we can be for one another. In our fears and our temptations for certainty, we can trust God’s love and be for one another, following in the ways of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. 

Walking In the Glory of God

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston
March 2, 2025
Last Epiphany, C
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
Luke 9:28-43a

If you’ve ever had a “mountain top” experience or been astounded at the greatness of God, then you may have some idea of what Peter, James, and John felt up on the mountain with Jesus or what the crowds felt after witnessing Jesus heal the boy with the demon. Awe, wonder, hope, joy, peace? Sometimes people have these blow your socks of kinds of experiences of some great encounter with God where they feel or see something miraculous in the world. Sometimes it’s a sudden spiritual awakening, a massive awareness of God’s presence and the guidance of God’s Spirit. 

Now, I say sometimes because these experiences of God don’t happen all the time, and they don’t happen for everyone. Peter, James, and John were up on the mountain witnessing the full divinity of Jesus shining through. It was a massive encounter with God, and it only happened to those three guys. None of Jesus’ other disciples ever saw that, and even for Peter, James, and John, it was only once, and it was very brief. Once the encounter was over, they went back down the mountain to continue their lives. They couldn’t stay on the mountain forever basking in the glory of God. 

So, what did they do when they went back down the mountain? They went about their daily lives, probably not basking in the glory of God, but they certainly were living in the glory of God.

See, Peter, James, and John were thoroughly Jewish, as were Jesus and all of Jesus’ disciples. So, when they went back down the mountain, they continued living the Torah. Torah is the first five books of the Bible, and Torah is the written law given to the people of Israel through Moses. So, when I say that Peter, James, and John lived the Torah after they came down the mountain, I mean they lived the way of life given to them by God.

Torah is more than just a bunch of laws. Torah is the way the people of Israel came to know God and to walk alongside God. Torah is understood by some rabbis to be created by God before all else and that creation itself was made through Torah. So, when Jews live according to the ways of Torah, they are coming to know God through that way of life, quite literally living in the glory of God throughout their daily lives. That’s what Peter, and James, and John did when they came back down from the mountain. While no longer basking in God’s glory, they were living in God’s glory every day as they lived and walked in the way of Torah.

Now for us who are not Jewish, who are followers of Jesus, we don’t live according to Torah. Many of us have heard of the 10 Commandments, and we follow them more or less; I’d recommend more than less. Instead of following all of the laws of Torah, however, we follow Jesus and seek to walk in his ways. When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, with Moses and Elijah next to him, God’s glory shone through Jesus himself, as the living embodiment of Torah, the living embodiment of the Law and the Prophets. What some rabbis say of Torah, Paul wrote of Jesus. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created…”(Colossians 1:15-16)

So for us, when we walk with Jesus, seeking to live according to Jesus’ teachings and ways, we are walking in the glory of God as well. Very few of us may have mountain top experiences, grand encounters of God’s miraculous presence, and yet we can still walk daily in the glory of God. When we trust in Jesus and follow in his ways we come to know God more and more. Like the Jewish people coming to know God through Torah, we come to know God through Jesus, through his life and teachings.

For an example, Jesus taught not to seek revenge, but rather to pray for our enemies and bless those who curse us. When we do so, we can find peace, giving our anger over to God. We also find life in Jesus’ teaching because when we don’t seek revenge, we have a better chance of not being killed. Last week, a 17-year-old was shot and killed by some fellow students in a pickup truck. The groups of teens had gotten into an argument the day before, and then, rather than letting it go, praying for his enemies, and giving his anger over to God, the teen and his friends began the fight again, and the young man was killed. When we say Jesus’ ways are ways of life, sometimes we mean that very literally.

Refrain from anger, leave rage alone, and instead, pray for your enemies and bless those who curse you. Following in those ways of Jesus, we come to know God, and we find life. Jesus said we find our lives by losing our lives, and this is part of what Jesus meant. Letting go of anger, forgiving others is a way of letting go of our life, letting go of our desires and trusting not in ourselves, but in Jesus and in Jesus’ resurrection. Letting go of our lives also means literally letting go of our lives believing that life continues on even after death. Letting go of our lives doesn’t mean that we seek death, but that we accept death and no longer fear death. Accepting and losing our fear of death, we may find forgiveness and blessing our enemies to be easier too. In all of this, we walk daily in God’s glory, coming to know God through Jesus.

Now, following in Jesus’ ways is not an automatic thing. Like most things in life, we can’t just say we’re gonna follow Jesus and then, poof, it happens. We gotta train, and practice to daily follow in Jesus ways.

So, we have the season of Lent, which begins this Wednesday. Lent is a season of prayer, a season of turning our lives back around towards God’s ways, and a season of giving things up in order to strengthen ourselves. We give things up for Lent to train ourselves to tame the desires of the flesh. By giving something up during the 40 days of Lent, we learn to master our desires, seeking God’s help in little things so that we become stronger to follow in God’s ways when it really matters. 

When temptations come for us to fight or get revenge. When temptations come for us to feel better or numb out in harmful ways: drugs; casual sex; drinking to oblivion. We practice resisting temptation during Lent so we become used to giving our harmful desires over to God and taming our flesh. The trust comes that if we give up those ways, if we give up always satisfying the desires of the flesh, then we can be strengthened for greater love and peace, walking with God, and knowing God. Note that giving into our desires doesn’t make us terrible people, giving into our desires usually does harm us and harm others, and then we find we’re walking in darkness, rather than God’s glory.

So, what are the ways of Jesus in which we want to walk? I’d say the baptismal covenant pretty well tells us how to walk in Jesus’ ways. We promise, with God’s help, to join with others in learning and following Jesus’ teachings, to pray together, and to enjoy life together. We promise, with God’s help, to turn away from ways of harm and destruction, and to return to God when we realize we’ve gone down those destructive paths. We promise, with God’s help, to live and talk about the life we have found in Jesus and the way of love which we follow. We promise, with God’s help, to love all people, realizing God dwells in all of us, and so we will seek justice and peace, honor and respect.

We don’t exactly need a mountain top, massive encounter with God to realize that walking in the ways of our baptismal covenant, walking in the ways of Jesus, we will find greater life and love than when we follow in the ways of our anger and our desires for vengeance. Following in the ways of Jesus will bring greater life and love than when we follow the desires of our flesh with no regard to the harm it may cause ourselves or others. 

That may sound good here, but the challenge is to trust in Jesus’ ways beyond here, in the moment, when we really want revenge or the desires of our flesh. That’s when the true trust comes that we will find greater light and life denying the desires of our flesh, denying ourselves and following instead the teachings and way of Jesus. That trust and will bring us life, walking daily in God’s glory. That trust and faith also brings peace amidst our fears as we believe that even death is not the end, but that life continues on in Jesus’ resurrection, living forever in the glory of love of God.