Rather Than What the Market Demands, Choose Justice, Mercy, Love, and Transformation.

 The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston

February 9, 2025

5 Epiphany, C

Isaiah 6:1-8, [9-13]

Psalm 138

Luke 5:1-11

Title

“From now on, you’ll be fishing for people,” Jesus told his first disciples. This has been interpreted by many as Jesus’ call for his disciples to be evangelists, sharing the good news of Jesus and getting folks to become Jesus’ disciples. So, I’m supposed to preach about how we’re all supposed to go out and be good evangelists and get people to believe in Jesus. 

When I’ve heard people talk about this kind of fish for people evangelism, the message that I’ve heard that people are to share often has very little to do with this life and has a whole lot to do with life after we die. So, there are often thinly veiled threats of God’s punishment or not veiled at all threats of God’s punishment, along with a get out of punishment free, Jesus card. Believe in Jesus. You just gotta believe. The whole thing is often kind of confused and leads to believers whose faith may be in Jesus, but whose lives are not transformed. 

It kinda follows the movies I’ve seen about Jesus where his disciples get so excited about fishing for people that they go around talking about the good news, and how great it is because of the good news, and y’all should believe because of the good news. There’s never really any explanation as to what the good news is, and audience members who haven’t been raised in the church are left wondering what in the world they were talking about. 

I find that a lot of our “fish for people” evangelism is equally confused, people feeling like they have to tell folks about Jesus to get them saved, but in that conversation, the actual person with an actual life is irrelevant. “You gotta get saved.” “But what about what’s going on in my life right now?” “You gotta get saved.”

So, that’s definitely one interpretation of what Jesus meant by “you’ll be fishing for people,” but I read a different interpretation last week which is fantastic and actually makes sense with the rest of Luke’s Gospel and the prophets that came before. “Fish for people” was an image used in Jeremiah, and Amos, and other prophets calling for justice, for an end to oppression, and for turning back to God’s ways of loving and caring for one another. 

In Jeremiah 16:16-17 God says he is sending fishermen to catch those who are not following God’s ways, who are following idols and violence. In Amos 4:1-2, God says those who oppress the poor and crush the needy will be taken away with fish-hooks. In light of Jeremiah and Amos, it sounds like Jesus was sending his disciples to call out oppression and to serve and heal the needy who were being crushed by the powerful.

Jesus sending his disciples to fish for people by working to help the poor and needy, and striving against oppression, that follows all that had come before in Luke’s Gospel. What did Mary sing when she was pregnant with Jesus? I’ll give you a hint: it wasn’t, “My son is going to be a get out of Hell free card with little or no impact on this life.” Mary’s song said, “[God] scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” Justice and mercy were the themes of Mary’s song. 

For centuries, the prophets had been preaching justice and mercy. “Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8) “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Hosea 6:6) “Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17) Then, when John the Baptist was proclaiming his baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, people asked him what they should do, and he told them to live lives of justice and mercy. 

So, when Jesus told his disciples, I’m going to have you fish for people, he was telling them, we are going to work for justice and mercy, and by working for justice and mercy, we are going to draw people closer to God and one another. We are going to live lives of love and transform people’s lives by how we care for them. We are going to transform people’s lives, and we teach others to do the same.

That work of justice and mercy, that work of love and transformation was for everyone, those who were wealthy and those who were poor. In one parable Jesus told, a wealthy man showed mercy, and a poor man did not, and the poor man was not let off the hook (or the fish-hook) just because he was poor. 

Justice and mercy, love and transformation, that’s God’s will for our lives. That’s always been God’s will for our lives. We see this in the earliest parts of scripture and when God formed the people of Israel and gave them the law. One law God gave was about gleaning. Gleaning was a practice in ancient Israel in which large landowners, farmers, would not take in all of the harvest. They would intentionally leave some of the grain, leave some of the fruits or vegetables out in the fields, so that the poor among them could come and take what had been left.

In other words, the wealthy intentionally took less than they could for themselves so that others might have enough.

If we look at modern-day gleaning, we could look at the owners of businesses and the executives of businesses. Owners are the shareholders, and they want to get as much as they can get from the profits of the company. Executives try to keep shareholders happy by earning as much profit as they can to give as much as possible to the shareholders. The executives also end up getting as much as they can in their salaries. The market demands that executives get huge salaries, because if one company didn’t pay as much, then another would pay more, and they’d get the best executives. So, salaries keep going up as companies compete for the best people.

Executives and shareholders get as much as they can out of the business, and folks on the bottom have not enough or barely enough to live on. That goes completely against the Biblical demands for justice and against the concept of gleaning. Modern-day gleaning would look like shareholders and executives intentionally giving themselves less than they could get so that those at the bottom could have more.

That’s the kind of thing Jesus and his disciples might preach when they went around fishing for people. For those at the top, you don’t need to take as much as you can for yourself, regardless of what the market demands. Choose to take less than you can, so that those at the bottom can have more and won’t be weeks away from eviction at any moment. 

Rather than choosing what the market demands, choose justice, mercy, love, and transformation. I think that’s what Jesus and his disciples would preach as they went fishing for people, and Jesus and his disciples would preach that message to all of us, not just to the wealthy. Even those with very little can oppress others. 

God, who created all that is, has been teaching us this for millennia. Choose justice, mercy, and love, rather than oppression. God knows how hard that can be for us, and so God became human. God became human to join with us in our oppression, both when we are oppressors and when we are being oppressed. God joined with us to strive with us and to help transform our lives. From lives of oppression to lives of justice, mercy, and love, God strives with us, joining us together with God and one another so that our lives might be transformed. That sounds like good news. Fish for people. Choose justice, mercy, and love, and allow Jesus to transform our lives.

If You Want to Sink, You First Have to Get Out of the Boat

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
August 13, 2023

Proper 14, Year A
Psalm 85:8-13
Romans 10:5-15
Matthew 14:22-33

 If You Want to Sink, You First Have to Get Out of the Boat

So, when Peter saw Jesus walking on the water toward them, he stepped out of the boat, and he sank. I know he walked on the water for a time, first, but once he noticed the waves and storm all around him, he became distracted by all of that, took his eyes off Jesus, and he sank.

Back in Seminary, we loved to joke about Peter because of how often he failed. He kept trying at things. “I’ll do it. Hey, I can do that, Jesus. Ooh, let’s build three booths,” and time and again, Peter kinda just bungled it all up. So, we see Peter failing a lot in the scriptures, and he becomes an easy target for our poking fun.

To be fair to Peter, I wonder if the reason we kept pointing out his flaws in Seminary was because by doing that, we got to ignore our own flaws and pretend that we wouldn’t have failings like he did once we really got into our ministries. Oh, we were so cute.

What’s great about looking at Peter is that as many times as he screwed up, he kept trying. Peter kept getting out of the boat trying to walk on water, like he did in our story today. He kept failing, and Jesus kept picking him up and putting him back in the boat. Despite his failure, he kept striving in his discipleship of Jesus.

He could have just decided to play it safe and stay in the boat. He could have just waited for Jesus to arrive. It would certainly have been easier, less embarrassing, less wet. Instead, he kept trying and often he failed, and then Jesus was there to help him up. That wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t gotten out of the boat.

If you want to sink, you first have to get out of the boat.  

A friend of mine, Erin Jean Warde wrote a book called, Sober Spirituality, in which she talks about getting sober and the joys sobriety has brought her. One of the chapters is called, “Reading the Big Book with a Box of Chardonnay.” The Big Book is the book of Alcoholics Anonymous. For years, Erin was wondering about getting sober, trying out some meetings, reading the Big Book, all while continuing to drink, even boxes of Chardonnay.

Some might say that she was failing at sobriety during those years, but that’s not really true. She was taking a page out of Peter’s book and stepping out of the boat. She kept sinking, over and over again, and Jesus kept pulling her back up and setting her back in the boat. Eventually, she didn’t sink. She stayed sober. If she hadn’t sunk all those previous times, however, if she’d stayed in the boat, she might still be drinking today. Instead, Erin got out of the boat and sank. She gave herself and her readers the freedom to fail.

That’s what Peter did. He gave us the freedom to fail. That’s what Jesus did when he picked Peter up and put him back in the boat. He gave him the freedom to fail. When Jesus picked Peter up, he said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” We’re not told how Jesus said this. Was it a rebuke? Was he scolding Peter? I like to think he was laughing with delight. “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Peter had been so excited, “Hey man, I want to walk on water too, call me out there.” That had to have given Jesus some delight, more than the delight he was probably already feeling walking on the water himself.

I imagine Jesus, having created the Earth and that very sea he was walking on, I imagine him full of delight, walking on the water thinking, “This is so cool!” Then to have Peter want to join him, to actually start walking on the water too, and then when Peter sank, I can see Jesus laughing like a parent whose kid had just ridden their bike for the first time for 20 feet and then fallen over. The kid jumps up, laughing, shouting, “I did it! I did it! Did you see?” The parent, laughing and excited, smiling says, “Wow, that was great, kid, why’d you stop?” Fail. Fall down. Keep riding; you’re doing great.

Jesus gave Peter the freedom to fail, and when Peter sank, Jesus picked him back up, gave him some pointers, and set him back in the boat to try again.

Jesus gives us the freedom to fail too. He’s not Darth Vader, angry and murderous with every failure.

I often hear people say, “I’m not perfect; I’m never gonna be,” and they’re almost lamenting the fact. It’s like they’re saying to God, “I’m sorry, Lord Vader. I know I suck.” To which I figure God replies, “Didn’t you read about Peter?”

We’re not supposed to be perfect. God doesn’t expect us to be. It’s a pretty good bet when we step out of the boat, we’re going to sink. God knows this, and God gives us the freedom and even encourages us to step out of the boat anyway.

In our discipleship of Jesus, we’re going to fail a lot. Jesus delights in our continuing to try, our continuing to sink, and his continuing to pick us back up and put us back in the boat to try again. In our discipleship, as we continue to follow Jesus and live his ways, we get to risk failure.

If you want to fail, you first have to get out of the boat.  

Walking On Water: The Martyr of Charlottesville

Brad Sullivan

Proper 14, Year A

August 13, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

Matthew 14:22-33

Walking On Water:  The Martyr of Charlottesville

Jesus was the Word of God which spoke all of creation into existence.  On some level, even subconsciously, I’d guess Jesus began to have some inkling of who he was.  I wonder if in his encounter with his disciples on the boat, Jesus just forgot for a minute that humans can’t walk on water.  He was tired; it had been a long day.   He’d gone away to be by himself to pray for a while after learning that his cousin, John the Baptist had been beheaded, and instead of getting a break, Jesus ended up teaching and multiplying food some somewhere around 10,000 people (including the women and children).  Finally, after all that, he sends his disciples across the sea in their boat while he gets to spend some time alone in prayer.

So, worn out, dog tired, Jesus spent time alone in prayer, and I think he might have been so caught up in his time with his Father, that he just totally forgot that people aren’t really that adept at walking on things that aren’t solid.  So, like Superman forgetting to put his glasses back on before going to the office, Jesus just starts walking on the sea out to his disciples.  Why not?  Why shouldn’t he walk on the sea?  He made the sea, after all.

So, he’s walking out onto the water, lost in thought, barely aware of his surroundings.  Eventually a storm comes, and he’s thinking, “eh, not too bad, I’ve made worse,” and then the disciples see him.  They’re terrified, and he realizes what’s going on.  He covers as best he can, saying, “Ok, guys, I know this looks weird, but it’s not what you’re thinking.  I’m not a ghost.  It’s just I; It’s just Jesus.”  That calms them a little, and then Peter’s like, “Hey cool, Jesus, can I come out and play?”  Perfect, Jesus thinks.   “You bet, Pete!  Come on!”

Then we all know what happens.  Peter walks on the water for a while, until he notices the wind and waves, and like Wiley Coyote walking off a cliff and staying aloft until he looks down, Peter starts to sink.  So, Jesus picks him up, gets them both into the boat and decides he’s had enough of his little wind storm, dials that down a bit, and tries to pass the whole thing off, real nonchalant,  “so what’s been going on, fellas?”

They start to get the idea pretty quickly that Jesus is more than a prophet, but the Lord of all creation, the one who actually made all of creation.  I’m guessing they got pretty excited at that point, excited and amazed at the wonder of it all.    

I get really excited when I think of the Word of God who spoke creation into existence becoming human and walking on this earth.  I love that God was human and walked on this very earth.  Whenever I start to take the world for granted, that very idea of God walking on this earth makes the whole creation hallowed again.

Then we get people treating creation like garbage.  We get people like the angry mob in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend deciding that only some parts of creation are hallowed, only some types of people are hallowed.  All people are made in God’s image.  All  of creation is hallowed, and yet, despite the beauty and sacredness of people and all creation, people will all too often de-sanctify creation by driving a car into a group of people, killing someone for thinking that racism isn’t a particularly good idea.

Imagine those folks holding a rally within these walls, declaring most of humanity damned.  Imagine people coming in here with shields and sticks and guns, ready and willing to physically harm anyone who disagreed with them.  Imagine that folks who disagreed with them did come in here and were beaten and killed.  That is exactly what happened in Charlottesville, because in God’s eyes, all of creation is hallowed.  Every place is a place of worship.  Everywhere Jesus looks and says, “This place is great; I remember making this place.  I remember speaking this place into existence, and I love this place.”  The same goes for every person on earth, yes, even the angry mob of people who assume that God hates most of the people he created.

Hatred and violence.  Shame and anger.  Assuming one type of person is better than another type of person.  Jesus was pretty darn clear that we are all the same in God’s eyes.  Jesus was pretty darn clear that he loves all people and he loves all of this beautiful Earth which he created.  He was also pretty darn clear that as much as he loves all people, there is no place in his kingdom for the kinds of thoughts and actions demonstrated by the angry white supremacist mob in Charlottesville.

Now, if we’re honest with ourselves, we all have hatred, anger, and violence within us too.  Everyone does.  The question is, what are we going to do with it, and what Jesus calls us to do, what he teaches us to do with our hatred, anger, and violence is not to act it out, not to act upon it, but rather to give it to him, to place it at the foot of the cross so that he can transform it into love.

That is often not done, however, and we have a world that is full of anger, hatred, and violence (as well as love).  So, what are we to do amidst such anger, hatred, and violence?  Well, let’s call the anger, hatred, and violence of the world storms and waves.  Then, let’s do what Peter did.  Amidst the storms and the waves, we look up and see Jesus coming to us, not where we expect, not in the quiet sanctuary, but right in the middle of the storms and waves, right in the middle of the hatred, anger, and violence.  Then, rather than waiting for Jesus to come to us in the safety of the boat, the sanctuary, we ask Jesus to summon us out into the storms and waves.  Rumor has it, he’ll say yes.  Then, like Peter did, we step out of the sanctuary and risk drowning in order to go and be with Jesus amidst the storms and waves.  We risk drowning, going out into the anger, hatred, and violence to be the light of Jesus within the storm.

Sometimes we’re not even entirely sure what we’re going to do there.  We want to bring the light of Jesus with us.  We want to live out the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus amidst the storms and waves, and it is darn scary.  We just may be killed if we go out amidst the storms and waves.  A 32 year old woman was killed in Charlottesville by a man who drove his car into a group of people who stepped out of the boat amidst the storm of anger, hatred, and violence to declare that anger, hatred, and violence have no place in this world.  This woman risked and gave her life to give witness to love rather than hatred.  That’s what we call a martyr, a witness.  I don’t even know if she was Christian, but I know she was amidst the storm, declaring the light of love for all, not just some.  She gave her life for that witness, and that is martyrdom.

Stepping out amidst the storms and waves of anger, hatred, and violence, we too will risk drowning.  We’ll risk our lives and well-being to live out and be the light of Jesus amidst the darkness of hatred, anger, and violence.  When Peter stared to sink, Jesus reached down and picked him up.  I’d like to say that his doing so is a guarantee that so long as we ask Jesus for help, we won’t be harmed, but that simply isn’t true.  Peter began sinking because he became overcome with fear of the storm and waves.  The call to Jesus keeps us from being overcome with fear, keeps us from succumbing to the anger, hatred, and violence ourselves.  The call to Jesus doesn’t guarantee that we won’t be harmed.  The call to Jesus keeps our hearts from falling into hatred, anger, and violence.  The call to Jesus keeps the darkness from overcoming the light of Jesus within us.

Truly to  be the light of Jesus amidst the darkness of anger, hatred, and violence, we truly do need to risk drowning, to risk not only our lives and well-being, but also to risk being overcome by the darkness.  In all likelihood, we will be overcome by the darkness at times, and in those times, we call out to Jesus to save us, to reach his hand out, pull us out of the storm and waves and put us back into the boat, the sanctuary.  Then, once we’ve recovered, we step out of the boat, amidst the storm and waves once again to risk our lives and well-being, to be the light of Jesus amidst the darkness of hatred, anger, and violence once again.

Risk is part of the deal to live as Jesus’ disciples.  We’ve got to risk drowning to walk out on the water with Jesus.  We also need to be able to see the beauty and sacredness of the people and creation all around us, even amidst the storm and waves.  We realize the waves are there, but don’t get too daunted by the waves.  Keep your eyes on Jesus.  Imagine the magic, the possibility, the wonder of seeing him walking to you on the water.  Imagine the magic, the possibility, the wonder of asking him if you can come out and play too, and Jesus saying ,”yes.”