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.  

Even When the World Tells Us Not To

Brad Sullivan

Easter Sunday

April 1, 2018

Emmanuel, Houston

John 20:1-18

Even When the World Tells Us Not To

Happy Easter y’all, as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, his victory over death, and the fullness of his great love for us.  I love that God joined with us even in death, and then in Jesus’ resurrection, God has shown us the full measure of his grace towards us.  We get to share in his eternal life and love, forgiveness and reconciliation. 

That’s the nuts and bolts of our faith, we get to share in God’s eternal life and love, forgiveness and reconciliation.  I absolutely love our faith, our faith in Jesus and in his resurrection, and I also keep hearing more and more folks who nowadays think we’re kinda nuts for believing in Jesus, or even for believing in a God at all, and that’s fine.  To be fair, I don’t know if our faith is true; I can’t prove it, but I love it, and I choose to believe.  We choose to believe that there is a God who made us and loves us, frees us and redeems us.  We choose to believe that despite our brokenness, God will never quit on us.  That is what Jesus’ resurrection means.

God will never quit on us, and yet believing that, we still tend to quit on each other with a fair amount of regularity.  I know Lent is over y’all, but such is our condition, our lot in life, that we tend to quit on each other, which is why we need Jesus’ grace and resurrection life in the first place.  We start off liking one another and then, we often end up stopping our relationships or letting them slip away.  Sometimes it feels like we’re supposed to quit each other for various reasons, such as the insurmountable problems and irreconcilable differences that we face like how we voted in any one single election, our beliefs about those whom we think God may or may not be pleased, how we choose to spend our money, raise our kids, or even how we dress.  These are some of the insurmountable barriers that we raise and differences that we face for which we end up quitting each other.

Some in the world may say that division over these differences is ok, but Jesus not so much.  We’ve always had differences, reasons why we choose to erect barriers between ourselves and others, but God shows in Jesus’ resurrection that he loves us for who we are, and he wants us to love each other for who we are.  Republican.  Democrat.  Lesbian.  Gay.  Bisexual. Transgender.  Queer.  Atheist.  Muslim.  Jew.  Christian.  Fundamentalist.  Conservative.  Liberal.  Radical.  Black.  White.  Latino.  Asian.  Legal.  Illegal.  Tree hugging, gun loving, gluten free, home-school, hippie.    

We have so many labels now, we have a hard time even coming up with enough words to accurately label everyone we see.  Maybe that’s a good thing.  Maybe that will force us to love each other based on grace and Jesus’ love and resurrection, rather than just by seeming similar enough with some folks to kinda like each other ok.  Jesus was raised from the dead to reconcile us to God and each other.   His final commandment to his disciples was to love one another, regardless of our stripes, our skin, our labels, our ethnicity, sexuality, beliefs, or legal status.  Middle class, high class, low class, no class?  “Love one another,” Jesus said. 

People are starving for love, even for an ounce of love.  People are going to go where they are loved and accepted.  Jesus’ resurrection says, “you are loved and accepted,” and yet people often don’t feel loved and accepted in the church, and so they go elsewhere for love and acceptance.  We’ve seen this happening as people are leaving the church in droves.  Ideologies?  Beliefs?  Various social activities?  Folks can adapt pretty well to many different beliefs, so long as they are loved, and people will stay where they are loved.  I’ve often heard adults say they are no longer sure about the faith, but they love the people and community of their church and so they stay.  I think Jesus is ok with that. 

Lack of faith?  Unsure about Jesus and his resurrection?  No problem.  A loving community can hold a person through doubts and lack of faith.  Hopelessness?  We can hold a hopeless person in love, and their hope can be restored.  That’s why above all else, Jesus commanded us to love each other. That is why Paul wrote that love is greater even than faith and hope, why John wrote that we cannot claim to love God if we do not love each other. 

Jesus commanded that we love one another as he loved us, as he loved his disciples. He loved them so much that the first thing he did once he was raised from the dead was to talk to Mary, assure her that he was alive, and to have her spread the good news to the rest of his disciples.  Jesus loved his disciples and loves us to the end, and that is the gospel news for us - however messed up we are, Jesus keeps on loving us, and it’s really not because we’re perfect or even good enough.  Think about how often Jesus could have and maybe even should have chosen to quit his disciples, get rid of them, and start over with some better ones.

Jesus was transfigured before them, and Peter pipes up, “Hey Jesus - let’s make some booths!”  “Seriously Pete, that’s your response?  Yeah, ok, we’re done, just um, you stay here, build a transfiguration theme park, something like that.  I’m outta here.”

Then there was the time James and John said, “Um, Jesus, we know you’re busy with this whole upcoming death thing, whatever that is, but we want to sit at your right and left hand when you’re all powerful and glorious in majesty.  We kinda think we deserve it.”

“Oh, so you’ve been listening intently to all that I’ve been saying and teaching over the years.  You’ve really taken none of it in at all.  Great.  Tell you what, go to the next town over, about 4 miles away. Get a couple of chairs so you can sit on either side of me, and we’ll wait right here.  No, don’t dawdle, just go and do not look back.”

What about everyone else, the sex workers and thieves, the refuse of society with whom Jesus so often hung out?  “Yeah, you guys are really disgusting and foul, I think I’m just going to leave.”

Jesus didn’t do that.  He stuck with them.  Just like God keeps staying with us and choosing to love us.  Despite our continued brokenness, God sticks with us.  That’s the resurrection life, which Jesus invites us to share.  Do the hard work of continuing to choose to stay together, and do the hard work of continuing to die daily to self so that you can share in his resurrection, not because people are perfect or even good enough, but just because people are, and just because you can choose to love one another.  In Jesus’ resurrection, he shows us that we can love and forgive each other; it’s ok.  We’re allowed to, and we need to.   

We need love.  That’s what Jesus resurrection is ultimately all about, God’s unwavering love for us.  God is love, and love how Jesus wants us to be with each other.  That’s the resurrection life.  We are Jesus’ beloved, the one’s for whom he sent Mary to say, “Jesus is raised from the dead,” and so we get to keep loving each other as he loves us.  Even the weirdoes and the uber conservatives.  Even the crazy hippie liberals and straight laced conformists.  Even the sex workers and thieves.  It is ok for us to love those whom others may feel are unlovable.  It is ok for us to love each other despite how messed up we all are.  It is ok for us to believe in Jesus and find hope in his resurrection.  We get to do that despite what others may say.  Who cares if people think we’re nuts?  Our faith tells us to love each other.  Jesus sticks with us and wants us to stick with each other, to share in the joy and the love of his resurrection.  We have his permission to do so, even if the world tells us not to.  

Why Are We Here? For Proclamation

Brad Sullivan

Easter Vigil, Year A

April 15, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

Matthew 28:1-10

Why Are We Here?  For Proclamation

What are we doing here?  It’s Saturday night on a long weekend.  We could be out on the town; or staying at home, relaxing; or watching the new Star Wars preview for the 17th, 18th, and 19th times no YouTube.  Instead we’re here in church, doing much the same thing and in the same place where we are going to be tomorrow morning.  We’ve spent the last 40 days of our Lenten journey preparing for this night.  As Jesus spent 40 days in the desert preparing for his ministry and death, as his disciples spent three years with Jesus preparing for their new life in him, we have been preparing.  We’ve been learning from Jesus, learning to follow in his way.  We’ve been working at re-membering, at joining ourselves back to him.  We’ve been learning to rely more and more on Jesus through our Lenten journey.

Not so tonight.  Tonight is different.  What are we doing here tonight?  Tonight we are proclaiming:  “The tomb is empty and Jesus is risen.”  That is what Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph did on the day of Jesus’ resurrection.  Theirs was the first joy of proclamation. 

They had gone to the tomb, and the tomb should have smelled of decay, of blood and sweat, and death, but it didn’t.  The tomb was empty, and rather than decay, the tomb smelled of new earth and rock, clean and pure.  It smelled of new life and new creation, for that is what the empty tomb was, new life.

On the first day of the week, the same day when God proclaimed, “Let there be light,” an angel of light rolled back the stone of Jesus’ empty tomb and showed the women the new life and new creation that had been brought about through Jesus’ death and resurrection.  They saw the new light and new life that God had created once again, and then they went.

They went to proclaim Jesus’ resurrection, and Jesus met them on the way.  The new life and new creation itself met them, and he smelled of Eden, of earth and trees, of grass and fruit, of life and spring.  Seeing him was like seeing the sun rise on a beautiful field after a long, dark, frightful night.

They saw him, and they touched him, this new creation, and then they began their proclamation, the proclamation of the church that has continued on ever since and continues on this very night, across the whole earth, and in this very room.  The proclamation of Jesus’ resurrection, of new life and new creation continues on in our lives of service, of prayer, of conversation, and love.  The proclamation of Jesus’ resurrection continues on in each person who is baptized in his name.

The act of cleansing, of washing away darkness and following in Jesus’ light is an act of proclamation that the tomb is empty.  Blood, and death, and decay have been washed away and transformed into new earth, new life, new light.  That is what we are here to do tonight, to continue the proclamation, that God has taken the darkness of the world and said once again, “Let there be light,” for the tomb is empty, and Jesus is risen.