The Possibility and Reality of the Goodness within Us

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
July 13, 2025
Proper 10, C
Deuteronomy 30:9-14
Psalm 25:1-9
Luke 10:25-37

Yeah, I got this. I don’t need any self-reflection, no need to evaluate my life, my actions. I know the commandments of God. I know Jesus’ ways. Since I know them, I must be following them, right? I was baptized; I claimed my discipleship years ago, whenever that was, so I’m good. I’m perfectly fine in my faith and my walk with God.

That’s a rather haughty approach to one’s faith and way of life. I did this at one point, I still know what I did, so I should be great. That’s like the star pitcher of a baseball team saying, “I used to practice a lot. I still know all the principles of a good curve ball and slider. No preparation needed for this game. I’m good.”

That seems to be the attitude of the man who asked Jesus about inheriting eternal life. “Yeah, I know the commandments. ‘Love God. Love my neighbor.’ I’m pretty nice to the folks living around me. Kinda bare minimum effort. I should be good, right?” 

It seems like maybe he wanted to squeak by and be in God’s good graces, without actually having to care all that much about others. Follow the rules, and I’ll be fine. I’ll follow the rules and make God happy, or at least not angry with me, so I can stay in God’s good graces, inherit eternal life.

That’s kinda missing the point, isn’t it. Follow God’s commandments just enough to keep God off your back, and call that eternal life? Keep God happy or at least not angry, and call that eternal life?

The priest and the Levite in Jesus’ story were doing just that. They had important work to do, important temple work to do, important religious work to do, to make God happy. I’m being a little unfaith with the whole “make God happy” thing, but when we feel like our religious duty is what makes God happy…These guys were working to make God pleased not only with themselves but with all of Israel, so they had important work to do. 

Because of that important work, they ignored this beaten and possibly dead man. Again, partially because they had to stay ritually clean in order to do their work, so if this guy was bleeding, they couldn’t touch him because then they couldn’t go to the Temple to do their work. So, what were they to do? 

They had to make God happy, or at least not angry, so they had to ignore this guy and go do the important Temple work…darn it, I guess they were missing the point again. 

That’s not Jesus’ way.

To think that we’re doing important work for God’s service while ignoring people who are hurting.

Then, you’ve got this Samaritan, who actually takes care of this guy, and Jesus said, ‘Well, that’s the one who’s your neighbor, so love him.’ Now, that’s a tall order because the Samaritans were among the most hated people amongst the Israelites. The Gentiles, the non-Israelites, they weren’t really any good, but meh, who cares. The Samaritans, though, it’s like the worst rival in a football game, except instead of just the players duking it out on the field, the fans attack and maybe not kill, but at least beat half to death. 

So, the fact that Jesus said that a Samaritan was the one who was a neighbor to the beaten man, he was talking about the worst of the worst, the lowest of the low. He wasn’t doing any of the good religious stuff to keep God happy. He just took care of the guy who got beaten up, and it turns out that’s the neighbor that the man Jesus was talking to was told to love as himself. 

I saw the new Superman movie, loved it, and like with so many Superman stories, the reason I loved it isn’t just because he’s an awesome superhero with heat vision, and X-Ray vision, and ice breath, and super strength, and he can fly…and he has a cool cape. I love all of that too, but what I really love about Superman is he gives us a glimpse into the best version of ourselves. Superman gives us a glimpse into what we could be, and I don’t mean the strength and the flying, although the cape would still be nice.

What I mean is, Superman has an almost irrepressible belief in the goodness and worth of people. He knows we often don’t show our goodness, but he believes it’s there. Then, Superman takes his optimism about humanity, and he takes all of his power, and he chooses to serve and love humanity. Rather than rule over us as a god, which he totally could, Superman chooses to serve and love humanity, and in that love and service, he inspires others to the same. He shows us our best nature and inspires us to live that same love and service for each other. 

That sounds a lot like Jesus. He could have ruled over us as the God he is, and instead he chose to love and serve people as he walked among us. Jesus showed us the best of our natures. Jesus taught us the best of ourselves. Jesus is the possibility and the reality of the goodness dwelling within each one of us. Jesus inspires us to live into that same love and service of others, which is what he was teaching this lawyer with the story he told of the Samaritan, the hated one who chose love and service.

https://youtu.be/GUAj9O0gxsQ

Go and be like that hated one, rather than some religious person, being religious to make God happy. Living into the possibility and the reality of goodness dwelling within each one of us, that is what makes God happy. Living into the goodness, the possibility and the reality of that goodness is also what God’s eternal life looks like.

What did we hear in Deuteronomy? The Word is very near to you, in your hearts, in your selves. That eternal life of God is within us, and we can live that eternal life when we live like that Samaritan did, that hated one. 

“What must I do?” The man asked. Well, keep the commandments, except that this guy saw them as rules to be followed, a list to be checked off. That’s not what the commandments are. They aren’t a checklist to make sure we keep God happy or at least not angry with us.

The commandments are a guide for us that we can live into the possibility and reality of the goodness within us. 

Now, I gave that Superman analogy, that Superman shows us the possibility of the goodness within us. It’s a little unfair because Superman is basically invulnerable, so it’s got to be a little bit easier to keep your cool when someone is being a jerk and punches you in the face, because it doesn’t hurt at all, and it breaks the others guy’s hand, so instant vengeance. 

We don’t have that invulnerability, but we do have resurrection. We do have Jesus telling us over and over again, “Do not be afraid.” Trust in God, for “the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.” The Word and eternal life is not just waiting for us after this life. The Word of God and eternal life are here in this life.

“Go and do likewise,” Jesus said to the lawyer. Experience eternal life now. Join with God. Seek God’s help always. Everyday, live into the possibility. Live into the reality of the goodness within. 

 

...because we don't have to be perfect

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
July 6, 2025
Proper 9, C
Galatians 6:(1-6)7-16
Psalm 66:1-8
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

People tend to really like the idea of perfection, and at the same time, we have terrible problems with perfection. Perfection is not really for us, and we’re not particularly good at perfection. We just can’t really achieve it, and yet we often try to strive for perfection, and it often leads us off the rails. 

Perfection is unrealistic. It’s unobtainable.

Our desires for perfection do tend to make us fight amongst each other, though. Whoever is closer to perfection gets more money. Whoever is closer to perfection is seen as not only worth more, but also more worthy of anything and everything good in life. Look at the latest bill brought by President Trump. Those with the greatest economic output get the greatest benefit by his bill, while those with the least economic output get harmed the most by his bill. The president’s bill follows the lie of perfectionism, that the best are worth the most and the worst are worth the least. 

That runs completely counter to Jesus’ teaching and completely counter to God’s view of human worth. All are worthy, not for being more or less perfect; all are worthy simply for being. We are all God’s children, and we are all equally worthy of love and belonging, honor and respect. We are all worth the same human dignity, regardless of how nearly perfect or drastically imperfect we may seem. 

How do I know this? Two things: Jesus’ teaching and Jesus’ death on the cross.

Look at Jesus’ teaching. In Matthew 20, Jesus told a parable of a landowner who had a vineyard and went out to get laborers to work in his vineyard. Early on, he found some folks who worked all day, and he told them he’d pay them a living wage. Later in the morning, he found some others to work part of the day. Again he found others to work starting at noon, then mid-afternoon, and then he finally found folks who were still looking for work and hadn’t been hired. He hired them to work just for an hour.

At the end of the day, he paid everyone the same. All received the same living wage, which is what they all needed to survive. Those who had worked the full, perfect day were outraged that they hadn’t received more than those who had only worked the woefully insufficient one hour. They weren’t perfect; they don’t deserve as much. 

Not so, the landowner said. They were only able to work an hour, but they had to live a full 24 hours each day. They were just as worthy of getting to live as those who had been able to work all day. Our ideas of perfection and worth based on productivity run totally counter to Jesus’ teachings.

What about Jesus’ death on the cross? Did Jesus die for the worthy or for the unworthy? He died for all: worthy, unworthy, greater, lesser, middling. Jesus died to join all of humanity’s sins and mistakes with God. We’re told in Hebrews that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice to atone for humanity’s sins, and we’re told that Jesus made the perfect sacrifice because we couldn’t make the perfect sacrifice. 

If we look at the prophets, though, we also find that God didn’t really want all these sacrifices. God wanted us to treat one another like the landowner did in Jesus’ parable. God wanted us to bear one another’s burdens and to live the law of love for one another. We were never going to be perfect at it, and God never expected perfection from us. We’re human. We’re screwed up. We can’t be perfect, and God knows that. 

So, God became the perfect sacrifice for us, essentially telling us, “Y’all, the perfect sacrifice has been done, it’s finished, once for all, so you don’t need to do any more of this sacrifice things on an altar type stuff. The sacrifice is done, and it was perfect. Y’all don’t need to be. So, stop worrying about being perfect, and get on with loving one another. Get on with bearing one another’s burdens. Get on with treating one another as equally worthy of love and belonging, honor and respect.” 

Jesus was that perfect sacrifice for us not because God needed it, but because we did. We thought we had to be perfect. We couldn’t be, and God finally said, “Guys, I’ll just do it for you because you can’t be perfect, and you don’t need to be.” God stepped in to help us because our self-sufficiency was not enough.

That continues in all of our lives, Jesus joining with us to help us when our power and our self-sufficiency is not enough. We’re not meant to be in this life alone, and we’re not meant to be perfect. We’re meant to share this life with others, and we’re meant to seek help from God. 

With that help, we can then accomplish what we can’t do on our own. With God’s help, we can be in greater unity and love with one another and do together what we can’t do on our own. Then, for all those times when we hurt one another and screw up, God has already made amends for that so we can make amends with each other. 

We don’t have to become right with God. We are, so we can get on with the business of loving one another. 

That’s a lot of the message that Jesus told his disciples to go and preach to others because the world was pretty messed up, and the world is still pretty messed up. People still need that message that we don’t need to be perfect, that it’s not the great who are worthy and the not great who aren’t worthy. We’re all worthy, and any law or supposed gospel that preaches that only those who produce a lot, or work a lot, or are worth a lot of money, are the ones who are worthy…any gospel or law like that is completely anti the Gospel of Jesus. 

So, we get to go out and proclaim this message to others. What did Jesus say about those who didn’t want to hear it? We heard last week that his disciples wanted to rain fire down upon them, and Jesus said, “no.” When people don’t hear it, we say, “ok,” and we go. We leave them, hopefully, in peace. We don’t lose ourselves in rejection and get upset. We let our peace remain. We take our peace with us, and we go on to bring peace to others, and if they don’t accept it, that’s ok. We don’t force them. We just say, “peace be upon you,” and we go, because even our sharing of the Gospel doesn’t have to be perfect.

I’d love to say I have a good ending to this sermon, but I don’t, and it’s actually not even finished, but I figure that’s ok, because it doesn’t have to be perfect.