The Peace We Make & the Meals We Share

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
April 19, 2026
3 Easter
1 Peter 1:17-23
Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17
Luke 24:13-35

Cleopas and his companion didn’t recognize Jesus until they ate dinner together. Prior to that, they had walked together. They had talked about Jesus together. They had talked about the scriptures together. At no point during all of that time, however, did those two disciples recognize Jesus. Then, when they sat down and had a meal together, suddenly they realized Jesus was sitting with them. When they shared a meal together, they realized Jesus had been with them the whole day.

Something about having meals together is pretty important. When God freed the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, it began with a meal. Countless times, Jesus had meals with people. He ate with wretched and sinful folk, showing them during those meals a better way to live, helping to heal them as he did. Jesus’ last gathering with his disciples before his arrest was over the Passover meal, and he told them to remember him through the meals they shared.  

Author and Ph.D., Diana Butler Bass wrote a piece called “Maybe the Meal Is the Point,” and in that piece, she wrote that after Jesus’ resurrection: 

They never return to the cross. Jesus never took them back to the site of the execution. He never gathered his followers at Calvary, never pointed to the bloodstained hill. He never [gave glory to] the events of Friday. He never mentioned Friday. Yes, wounds remain, but how he got them isn’t stated. Instead, almost all the post-resurrection appearances — which are joyful and celebratory and conversational —take place at the upper room table or at other tables and meals.

https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-table

Dr. Bass went on to say that maybe the meal was the point. Many see it as simply the lead up to Good Friday, seeing Jesus last Passover meal with his disciples as simply a last meal before the important part on the cross.

What if we got that order of importance wrong? Dr. Bass asks. She sees that Passover meal that Jesus has with his disciples on Thursday as “the opening meal of the new age, in a community of mutual service, reciprocity, equality, abundance, generosity, and unending thanksgiving.”

https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-table

A meal is how Jesus described life in God’s kingdom. That goes for life now and life after death. God’s kingdom is seen as people sharing meals together. A great feast. A simple meal. Joining together to break bread with one another is life in God’s kingdom. So, that’s the meal Jesus had with his disciples on Thursday night before his crucifixion, and Dr. Bass sees that meal as one which declares God’s kingdom as a new kingdom living in this world, different from all the kingdoms of empire.

Now, by empire, I mean any great kingdom or institution which exerts power and dominance over others.

For the early Church, the biggest of these was the Roman Empire, and though the church was living the kingdom of God, the church didn’t try to destroy the Roman Empire. Instead, the church lived among it and beyond it. Even though the empire was going to be oppressive and control people’s lives, the church was going to be liberating, freeing people to love and serve one another. The church freed people not to live according to the rules of empire.

In the rules of empire, there are a few people are at the top, most of the people are at the bottom, and the power and authority of those at the top is inflicted upon those at the bottom. 

The church didn’t operate this way. Jesus had meals with people, and he didn’t care who sat with who. Jesus ate with people he wasn’t supposed to, according to the rules of empire, the rules of society which like to group the good people and the bad people, the worthy and the unworthy, the sinners and the righteous. Jesus didn’t go for that. He just ate with folks. He shared meals of God’s kingdom, all of God’s kingdom with all of God’s people. 

That’s how we’re called to be, living in the kingdom of God. For us in the church today, in the United States, we have a church that is meant to be separate from empire. The United States is not an empire like Rome was, but as a nation, it does follow many of the ways of power and dominance that mark empire. 

Empire says conquer your enemies. Bless those who curse you is not exactly the way of this nation. 

Empires says maintain your power over others, and use force to stay ahead if need be. Blessed are the meek; blessed are the peacemakers; and give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you; those things aren’t exactly the way of this nation.

The way of Jesus is different from the way of empire. That hasn’t stopped many Christians, however, from trying to tie the church to the nation and letting the way of empire be the way of church for them. Power, authority, control: these are the ways of empire that some in the church try to use as extensions of the nation. 

Forcing others to follow your beliefs wasn’t the way of Jesus. The way of Jesus was sharing a joyful Passover meal with his friends on Thursday. The way of empire came on Friday, forcing the will of the powerful and killing Jesus for doing his religion wrong. 

There are many times that parts of the church have fallen to the way of empire, choosing power, authority, and control over the ways of Jesus. There’s the obvious time when the church became the official religion of the Roman Empire, obviously choosing power, authority, and control. There are times when preachers start declaring power over other people, declaring who gets to go to Heaven and who will go to Hell. Pastors and preachers who tell us who will be damned are choosing the way of empire, rather than the way of Jesus. Jesus said not to ask who will go to heaven and who will go to the abyss. Rather, Jesus said to sit down and have meals together with people.

I was shown a video last week of a person who was upset that the Pope had gone to a mosque in Algiers and had paused for silent meditation while there. The Pope said to the head of the Mosque, “I thank you for these reflections and for these important words during this visit, from a place that represents the space that belongs to God, a divine and sacred space, where many people come to pray and to seek the presence of the Most High in their lives.” He expressed ‘hope that peace, justice, reconciliation and forgiveness would grow among peoples.’

http://vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-04/pope-leo-apostolic-journey-algeria-grand-mosque-algiers-dialogue.html

That’s what this person had a problem with. The Pope visited a Mosque, said a silent prayer, gave thanks for that house of worship, and gave hope for peace, justice, reconciliation, and forgiveness. The person who had a problem with the Pope’s visit noted that there had been killing of Christians by Muslims in the past and indicated that because of that, the Pope shouldn’t have been there seeking peace and honoring them.

Well, this person was giving great examples of the way of empire. Don’t forgive your enemies; keep seeing them as enemy decades and even centuries later. Stay away from them, unless you aim to conquer them. That may be the way of empire, but it sure as shootin’ ain’t the way of Jesus. Love your enemies. Bless those who persecute you. Try having a meal together and seek peace, for blessed are the peacemakers. 

We aren’t people of empire. We’re people of resurrection. We’re people of peace. We’re people of meals together, meals of love and hope, meals of justice and peace, meals of reconciliation and forgiveness. That’s how Jesus appears to us in the kingdom of God, in the love we have for one another, in the peace we make, in the meals we share.

Denying Jesus? Loving One Another? How Do We Choose to Follow?

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
April 2, 2026
Maundy Thursday
Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14
Psalm 116:1, 10-17
John 13:1-17, 31b-35

So, I know we don't actually talk about Peter denying Jesus, after his arrest, until tomorrow, on Good Friday, but I'm skipping ahead a little bit in the story because there are many ways we get to deny Jesus throughout our lives. Sure, there’s the obvious stuff like saying, “I no longer believe in Jesus,” but what about the less obvious ways where we deny Jesus by how we choose to follow Jesus? 

I know that sounds strange, denying Jesus by how we choose to follow Jesus, but what about when we choose to follow Jesus by praying against all of the evil ones whom Jesus is going to send to damnation? It’s one thing when hurting or angry to pray against people, and Jesus hopefully comforts us in those prayers, and we get to give that hatred and anger as our offering to God. Then, Jesus reminds us to pray for the healing of our enemies, and we follow as Jesus’ disciples by offering that sometimes difficult prayer of blessing and God’s will upon even our enemies. 

So, praying against our enemies to get our anger out, that’s one thing, but what about when we pray for the eternal damnation of our enemies with the absolute conviction that we are right and that Jesus truly is going to condemn those evil ones? That’s when we are denying Jesus, because we are praying and believing completely against how Jesus taught us to pray and believe. 

Pray for your enemies. Bless those who persecute you. Don’t judge others as worthy of eternal damnation; we’re all a bunch of screw ups here, what the hell do any of us know. Those were the teachings of Jesus, so when we claim to know better and to pray in ways and judge people in ways that Jesus expressly told us not to, we are denying Jesus.

www.instagram.com/p/DWXKkdPEvua/

What about when we declare that a war is being fought in Jesus’ name? Jesus, who said, “Put your swords away,” when enemies came to arrest him. Jesus who chose to be killed rather than summon hosts of angels to kill his murderers. Jesus who said, “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword,” aka, war and killing people actually aren’t terribly great ideas. When we declare a war is being fought in Jesus’ name, we are denying Jesus, denying who he is and what he taught. 

What about when we look at others with contempt or even indifference. You don’t matter; your needs don’t matter; I have everything I need, and if you’d just work harder, you would too, but you’re too lazy; I deserve my good things and you deserve your bad things; you’re not worth my time or effort. When we treat other people that way, we are denying Jesus who said, “Whatever you have done to the least of these, you have done to me.”

What about when we determine that any of our success and wealth that we get through our success and wealth-making efforts are all thanks to Jesus blessing us for our faithfulness? As much as we may be trying to give praise and glory to God, when we claim all of our riches and success are because we are particularly faithful to Jesus, we are actually denying Jesus, who never promised us success or wealth as a reward for faithfulness. No, when we claim God’s favor on us for being more successful and wealthier than others, we’re actually just claiming to be better than others, not only in our own eyes but also in God’s eyes. 

Jesus didn’t say people will know we are his disciples by how strong our belief is in him. Jesus didn’t say people will know we are his disciples by how holy and righteous we are. Jesus certainly didn’t say people will know we are his disciples by how rich we get through all our rich-getting efforts, claiming that Jesus is the one blessing us with riches. 

No, Jesus said people will know we are his disciples by how we love one another.

To illustrate this point, Jesus took the role of a servant during his last Passover meal with his disciples. He washed their feet and told them that if they didn’t let him wash their feet, they had no share in him. Not letting Jesus wash their feet was denying Jesus. Then, Jesus told them to wash one another’s feet, meaning they should serve one another. They should love one another and live out that love by actually, physically caring for one another. 

Of course, we’re not very good at caring for other people if we are not cared for ourselves. So, Jesus told his disciples, you gotta let me wash you first. Be good sheep that you may be good shepherds. If we don’t let Jesus care for us and then assume we’re gonna care for others, we’re denying Jesus just as surely as Peter did after Jesus was arrested. 

Love one another, Jesus taught. That’s how we proclaim Jesus in the world, by loving other people. Eventually we may get to tell folks that we believe in Jesus, if they ask, if they want to know, but our proclamation is first about loving other people. Our proclamation is not first about evangelizing other people or saving other people; Jesus already took care of that. Our proclamation is first about loving other people, continuing to live the healing love that Jesus lived. Our proclamation is to draw near to Jesus to be loved by Jesus in prayer, in rest, in scripture, in service, in fellowship, in adversity, in joy, and in sorrow, we draw near to Jesus to be loved by Jesus and to share that love with others. 

Then, in those times when we do deny Jesus, because we all do, we repent. We return to the love of Jesus to share that love. When we deny Jesus by deciding which humans are bad and deserving of damnation, we return to Jesus with humility, choosing to see them as beloved, not damned. When we deny Jesus by deciding that our enemies or those others that we view with contempt are not worthy of Jesus’ love, we return to Jesus with humility, choosing to see Jesus in those other people, respecting their dignity. When we deny Jesus by determining that our blessings are due to our great faithfulness (and therefore other less-blessed people must not be as faithful), we return to Jesus with humility, choosing to trust Jesus not because of our success or failures but because Jesus showed us the way of love.

In Jesus, God said, I choose to join with you in every part of your lives, including being hated, tortured, and killed. Such is God’s love for us, and so Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you.”