The Way of Cain: When We’re not Ready, and the Thief Takes Joy, Love, Peace, and Security

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
August 10, 2025
Proper 14, C
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Psalm 33:12-22
Luke 12:32-40

So, this is like the third or fourth week in a row where Jesus talked about the kingdom of God not being about being rich; the kingdom of God not about having lots of stuff; and the kingdom of God not about being against those we think are wrong, but rather being for other people. Once again, this morning we heard Jesus teach about giving to others, loving others, and finding the kingdom of God in that love of other people. Once again, we heard Jesus teaching that the peace and security for which we are longing comes not through our own power and position over others. We heard Jesus teaching that the peace and security for which we are longing comes from the love and support we give one another, asking the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, to come among us all day, every day and lead us into that love. 

With Jesus continuing these teachings over and over, some might get tired of hearing (or preaching) the same thing over and over. Then again, as often as we hear Jesus’ teaching to love others, not worry so much, and stop making our lives about getting stuff and power, as much as we hear that teaching, we still tend to forget it. So maybe it’s good that we’re hearing this for the third or fourth week in a row. It kinda seems like Jesus really wanted us to take this teaching to heart and to live his words. 

“Do not be afraid,” Jesus said, because God wants to give us the kingdom. God’s desire for us is to live the kingdom, and unlike all the kingdoms and nations on earth, God’s kingdom is not about having power over others, ruling over others, wealth, might, or anything like that. God’s kingdom is what things are like when we care for one another, seek justice, and live in love.

So, “Do not be afraid,” Jesus said, because God’s desire for us is to give us that kingdom of caring, justice, and love.

“Be dressed for action,” Jesus said, and “have your lamps lit.” Be ready to live the kingdom of God at all times, and things are gonna be so great when we do. It’ll be like the master of the house coming home and finding us all serving one another and saying, “Come on, let’s have a party together.” Good times, good news, God wants us to have and live the kingdom of love.

Then Jesus said this kinda fearful bit about being ready and knowing when a thief is about to come, because “the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” That kinda makes it sound like Jesus is the thief we have to be ready for, so be afraid because Jesus is gonna come.

That just doesn’t make sense, and it’s not what the text said. Jesus started this whole teaching by telling us not to be afraid. Then he told us that God is not a thief but the one who wants to give us the kingdom. So, be alert and be ready to receive the kingdom, anytime and anywhere God gives it to you. Be ready always to live God’s kingdom of love.

Well, the thief wants to take the kingdom of God from us so that we can’t live it, and the thief can be lots of things. Sometimes being so tired and so stressed that you just don’t have time for anyone’s BS, even if they don’t really have any BS, that can be the thief. Sometimes the worries of life destroy any hope or joy we have in the present moment, and that can be the thief. 

So, Jesus teaches of a strong need to remain alert and ready to live the kingdom of God. Being ready means prayer. Being ready means seeking and calling on the Holy Spirit. Being ready means giving our hurts and our faults over to God and asking God to give back only that which we need.

What happens, then, when we’re not staying alert and ready? What happens when we stop turning all that we are over to God, when we stop inviting the Holy Spirit, when we stop counting on God and instead take control and rely only on ourselves? The thief comes. When we’re not alert and ready, the thief comes and takes joy, happiness, love, peace, security. 

When we aren’t staying alert and ready, the thief takes the kingdom of God for which we are longing. The thief takes the kingdom of God which we have been living. 

Sin is ever present, lurking just outside, we’re told in Genesis 4. When we are living in love and charity with others, seeking the guidance and support of the Holy Spirit, living in the kingdom, even sin is still “waiting at the door ready to strike! It will entice you,” we’re told, “but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:7)

In Genesis 4:7 God was talking to Cain who was very angry that God had not accepted his offering of grains. Y’all remember Cain, one of Adam and Eve’s first two sons, Cain and Abel, and y’all remember that Cain killed Abel because God accepted Abel’s offering, the very best of his flock, and God didn’t accept Cain’s offering, the leftover crap grain that he had lying around. Cain got angry and jealous enough to kill his brother, all because God did not accept his offering of leftover crappy grains. 

It seems like Cain was living the kingdom of God until the thief came, and Cain wasn’t ready. Now, the thief didn’t come when Cain killed Abel. The thief had already been there. The thief came when Cain decided what offering to give to God.

Cain wanted the best for himself and gave whatever crap was leftover to God. That was where the thief took the kingdom from Cain. 

When people keep more than they need for many lifetimes and give some small percentage to charities, they are following the way of Cain. 

Andrew Carnegie - Steel Tycoon

“I have way more than enough for myself, way more than I need. Oh, others are suffering. Here they can have this leftover stuff that I don’t need. Here, they can have this piddling amount that I’ll never miss.” That’s the way of Cain, when we’re not ready and alert, and the thief comes telling us we’ll never be ok without more than we need and we need to keep the very best for ourselves and give whatever’s leftover to others.

I realized as I was writing this, that a lot of charitable giving is given in this very well-intentioned way. I’m not saying this to dig down on anybody. A lot of charity is given with a heart that truly cares for others, and yet so often we’re still following something of the way of Cain. Keeping far more than is needed. Giving largely what won’t be missed.

This is not because of evil hearts full of hatred and contempt. The reason we often give is because we care deeply about others. The reason we often give only what won’t be missed is that we still tend to place our security in our stuff and in our own power, and when we do, sin, in the form of fear, is waiting at the door, ready to steal the Kingdom of God away from us. By having us hold on to more than we need, trusting in ourselves and in our stuff, sin has us follow the way of Cain, taking from us the love, joy, and peace of kingdom of God.

 

So, Jesus teaches, “Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven.” Do not be afraid, for it is God’s desire to give you the kingdom. So, be ready, stay alert. Realize that sin is always at the door, ready to steal the kingdom away from you. Sin is always at the door, telling you to trust in yourself, and in your stuff, and in your own power. Sin is always ready to snatch love, and joy, and peace away from you. 

So, when we give to others, we don’t give only what we’ll never miss. We live lives of love and prayer, constantly seeking the help of the Holy Spirit that we may truly live for one another, giving the best of ourselves to one another, and receiving God’s kingdom as we do.

God's Kingdom on Earth, Bound to the Cycles of Nature

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston

December 1, 2024
1 Advent, C
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Psalm 25:1-9
Luke 21:25-36

We are currently smack dab in the middle of the dead time of the year. The nights are getting longer, and they have been for some time. With the longer nights, we’ve got less and less light each day. It’s the season of darkness and death. Now, in 21 days, it’ll be December 22, and that is the day of the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. After that night, the days start getting longer, the nights get shorter, the light returns, and while we’re still in this season of winter, this season of death, there’s this rebirth of life with the solstice and the light returning to the world. 

A couple thousand years ago, the winter solstice was on December 25, and that’s why that date was chosen as the day we celebrate Christmas. We celebrate the light of Jesus coming into the world on the day when the days get longer and light returns to the world. 

Every year this happens, a season of death, followed by the return of the light, leading to the season of rebirth and new life. That new life and rebirth is what Jesus was talking about when he said, “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” 

When the fig tree sprouts leaves, the fruit will be coming soon. New life, rebirth. Few of us farm or have a whole lot of knowledge about plants nowadays, so we could say, once the playoffs start, we know a new champion will be crowned soon. Of course, after the new champion, you get the dead season without baseball, football, basketball, or whichever sport you like. Then there’s spring training, the pre-season, and the whole thing starts over again. 

Whether the cycles of the sun and moon, the cycles of plants and nature, or even the cycles of sports teams, there’s a season of life, of death, of rebirth, and of new life. These cycles and seasons continue over and over, every year. Jesus was fully aware of this cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth when he told his followers that the kingdom of God would come like figs on a tree. 

God’s kingdom comes, God’s kingdom fades, and God’s kingdom comes again. Throughout the church, throughout our lives, throughout scripture, we see God’s kingdom coming and being lived for a time, and then we see God’s kingdom fade, not because God leaves, but because here on this earth with the cycles of nature in which we live, God’s kingdom is bound to the same cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. 

God’s full kingdom is beyond our physical world, beyond death and decay, and eventually, God’s kingdom will come fully and for all time. In the meantime, God’s kingdom comes over and over, joining with us in the cycles of our physical lives, and so God’s kingdom in our lives now lasts for a time, fades, and returns. 

How long till God’s kingdom is fully established and there will be no more cycles of death and life, but only life forevermore? No one knows. The writers of the Gospels and the writers of the letters of our scriptures, including Paul, seemed to think God’s kingdom would be fully established pretty quickly. They seemed to think Jesus would come again with the clouds within a few years. 

They were wrong, that’s ok. Look at the prayers they prayed, believing Jesus’ return was imminent. 

“And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you.” That was Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonian churches. May y’all abound in love for one another and for all, “and may [God] so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”

Would that that was our prayer for one another every day. May God increase in us love for one another and for all, and may God strengthen us all that we will be holy and blameless before God.

When Paul prayed that, he was planting seeds of prayer for those churches he had started. The cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth was happening in the Thessalonian churches even as Paul wrote his letter, and so rather than wait for the death of God’s kingdom within their churches, Paul was praying for new life within them. Paul was planting seeds of new life even before the old life had begun to decay. May God strengthen you all to be holy and blameless.

Now, we know we’re not going to be completely blameless before God. Paul knew the folks in the Thessalonian churches weren’t going to be completely blameless. Actual blamelessness before God was never the point. Strengthening in love, that was the point. God’s strength working in us that we may be holy, meaning that we may choose not the ways of hatred and violence we so often see and celebrate in the world, but that we would choose instead the ways of love, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice.

Paul’s prayer was that as the Spirit and kingdom of God began to decay within the church, new seeds would take root and new love, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice would grow in their place. 

Even with the new life and new seeds prayed into people’s lives, there is going to be death, and there is going to be waiting till the new life begins to bud. Such is the nature of all created things. So, part of the prayer for us is also a prayer for patience. 

With our patience and waiting, we have work to do. Like in the off season of sports, like working the ground and caring for plants during the winter, there is work we get to do as we wait for God’s kingdom to be reborn. Our work is to persevere, to build each other up in love. Our work is to comfort one another when discouraged or sorrowful, to encourage one another in faith and life. Our work is to pray without ceasing.

We pray that we will not lose heart as we wait for Jesus to come again. We pray that we will wait with patience for God’s kingdom. We pray that we will increase and abound in love for one another throughout the seasons of our lives. As God’s kingdom grows within us, as there is a fading of God’s kingdom within us, and as there is a rebirth of God’s kingdom within us, we pray always for love to rule in our hearts. 

“I love this plan; I’m excited to be a part of it!” - Mary, Teenager, Mother of God

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
December 20, 2020
4 Advent, B
Canticle 15 (Luke 1:46-55)
Luke 1:26-38

“I love this plan; I’m excited to be a part of it!” - Mary, Teenager, Mother of God

Christmas Card Design by Parker Fitzgerald

https://www.cleansingfire.org/.../a-contemporary.../

“Do not be afraid,” Gabriel said to Mary.  He said this in response to Mary’s rather non-plussed reaction to his initial salutation, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you,” to which Mary seems to have responded about how you might expect a young teenager to respond.  “Huh.  That’s a rather odd way of greeting me, but ok, let’s see what this guy has to say.”

“Do not be afraid,” Gabriel said to Mary, but Mary doesn’t seem to have been all that afraid.  Maybe she was a particularly brave and trusting young woman.  Maybe she particularly devout in her faith, and she does seem to have been pretty devout.  Maybe it was also a good thing that she was a teenager and still invincible like all teenagers are.  Had she been in her mid 20s, it might have been more of a cautious response.  “Ok, so what’s this gonna mean for me, and how’s this all gonna go?

“Well kiddo,” Gabriel would’ve responded, “not long from now, your ankles will swell, you’re gonna have a hard time sleeping and getting comfortable in general, you’re going to be in a lot of pain during the birth, and you’ll pee just a little bit every time you cough for the rest of your life.  Oh, and most of your family will at least initially thing you’ve cheated on Joseph and brought shame upon them, but hey this child is gonna be hugely important, so your parenting of him has to be…not perfect, but at least better than sub par.  So, hey, hey, it’s ok, don’t be afraid.”  

See, Mary didn’t seem to be afraid.  All the reasons why following God’s plan would be rather troublesome for Mary, those things didn’t get in her way.  The plan was pretty much for Joseph and her to get married and have some kids anyway, so Mary seemed rather thrilled at the whole idea.  Once Gabriel left, she sang a song about how great it was not only for her, but for all people, that the Holy Spirit was going to conceive a son in her womb.  Her response to Gabriel was not a timid, “Let it be with me according to your word,” but an enthusiastic, “Oh heck yeah, let it be with me according to your word.  This is fantastic.”  

See, teenager:  idealistic, trusting, ready to take on the world and know that is messed up, beautiful, and worth saving.  Mary understood that she was part of God’s kingdom on Earth.  She was part of God’s story of redemption, part of God’s story of restoration.  She was like Princess Leah in Star Wars, ready to take on the whole Empire, stand up to Darth Vader, and lie to his face because she believed in something greater than herself and saw herself as part of a larger story of justice, of ending oppression, of lifting up the lowly, and casting down the mighty.  

[God] has shown the strength of his arm, (Mary sang). He has scattered the proud in their conceit.  He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.  He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.  He has come to the help of his servant Israel, for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.

All of these things, God has done, Mary sang, in joy and excitement.  She knew, and trusted, and loved the God whom she served, and she couldn’t wait to be a part of God’s story and to see what God had in store for Israel and the world through her and her son.  She didn’t know exactly what was coming, but she knew redemption was coming.  She knew restoration was coming.  She knew wrongs were going to be righted.  She knew that God’s kingdom was coming.

She knew that God’s kingdom is a kingdom of love, a kingdom where God’s power is used to lift up the lowly, to feed the hungry, and to show mercy.  God’s kingdom is a kingdom of love in which our power and our wealth are used not to gain even more power and wealth for ourselves.  In God’s kingdom, our power and our wealth, whatever power and wealth we have, are used to lift up the lowly, to feed the hungry, and to show mercy.  

At Emmanuel, we are using what we have to lift up the lowly, to feed the hungry, and to show mercy.  We are helping to provide food for mothers and their children who are getting on their feet at Gracewood.  We got to help a couple of families this Advent through Angel Tree.  We are helping to provide food and shelter for people experiencing homelessness through Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church.  We’re helping children through our support of MAM’s back to school program.  We’re providing prayers and prayer quilts through the Daughters of the King and our sewing ministry.  We’re helping people recover and rebuild after disasters have destroyed people’s homes.  These are some of the many ways we get to be a part of God’s kingdom through our life at Emmanuel.  

At Emmanuel, in the year of COVID and social distancing, God is also proclaiming the good news of Jesus in twice daily online prayer, in weekly online worship, and in a live Nativity to a neighborhood who just had a new church move in.  In the crazy of the COVID, Emmanuel has chosen not to be afraid, but instead to be like the teenage Mary saying, “Oh heck yeah, let it be with me according to your word.”  

Do not be afraid, God tells us, for fear leads to turning away from God’s kingdom.  Fear keeps us small.  Fear keeps us focused on ourselves.  Fear tells us that we aren’t enough, that we don’t have enough, that we can’t do the right thing, that we won’t be ok. Now, we all have fears, and we all are afraid in various ways.  The key is not to let those fears rule our lives.  

Mary may well have had some fears of losing her family, of losing her husband, but her teenage brain saw the beauty of God’s kingdom, saw the light of God’s presence burning throughout creation and said to her fears, “Nah, it’ll be ok.”  So how do we get past our fears and keep that teenage brain gloriously excited about living God’s kingdom and saying, “Nah, it’ll be ok,” to our fears?

One way is to follow the advice of Jedi Master Yoda, to “Train [ourselves] to let go of everything [we] fear to lose.” Imagine living without those things that we fear to lose, and feel God’s presence with us even in that loss.  Jesus had the same advice for a young man who, like Mary, wanted to live God’s kingdom, but who also many possessions and was afraid to give them up.  “Go and sell all that you have, and then come, and follow me,” Jesus said, and the man walked away sad because he didn’t want to give up what he had.  His stuff, and fear of living without his stuff, kept him from living God’s kingdom.  He could not let go of that which he feared to lose, so he no longer had the teenage brain to see the beauty of God’s kingdom and say to his fears, “Nah, it’ll be ok.”

In this time of Advent, of preparation for Jesus always coming into the world, we are reminded to train ourselves to let go of everything we fear to lose.  We are reminded of Jesus’ teaching to let go of whatever is keeping us small and focused on ourselves.  We get to hear again the Angel Gabriel’s words, “Do not be afraid.”  

Do not be afraid of losing what you have in the service of others.  Do not be afraid of losing what you have in the service of God’s kingdom, for God lifts up the lowly.  Train yourself to let go of everything that keeps you from living God’s kingdom.  Spend time each day in prayer, seeking God’s will and way.  Pray over what you have and what you fear to lose, and pray that all of it may be used for God’s kingdom, whether by you or by someone else.  Talk and pray with others, your family and friends, seeking together how to follow God’s will and way, how to live God’s love, redemption, restoration, justice, and mercy.   

That is the way of God’s kingdom and the way of Mary who knew, and trusted, and loved the God whom she served and couldn’t wait to be a part of God’s story.  She saw the light of God’s fire throughout creation, loved God’s plan and was excited to be a part of it.  

“I love this plan; I’m excited to be a part of it.”  In addition to being a quote from Bill Murray in Ghostbusters, that is the response God is looking for when we catch a glimpse of God’s kingdom and our part to play in it.  Fear schmear.  “How is God calling me to be a part of God’s story of love, redemption, restoration, justice, and mercy?”  What makes my non-fearful Mary-like teenage brain say, “I love this plan; I’m excited to be a part of it,” and “Oh heck yeah, let it be with me according to your word?”

What Do We Give to God? Everything.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Emmanuel Episcopal Church

October 18, 2020

Proper 24, A

Matthew 22:15-22

What Do We Give to God?  Everything.

“Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”  Well, that shut the Pharisees up as they were trying to get Jesus in trouble.  See, being under the authority of Rome, no one in Israel could say they shouldn’t pay their taxes to Rome, to the emperor.  That kinda thing could get you in a lot of trouble pretty quick.  Then again, as an Israelite, you really couldn’t be boasting about giving money to a country whose leader claimed to be God.  

So, the Pharisees’ trap:  how could Jesus say to give financial support to a government that claimed divinity of their leader?  How could Jesus say to give financial support to a Roman society that ate exceedingly non-kosher and lived exceedingly not according to the ways of Israel?  How could Jesus say to give money to a government that kept soldiers garrisoned in Israel to keep Israel in line, no longer as a free nation?

The Pharisees thought they had Jesus pretty well caught in their trap.  I dare say, we often think we have each other similarly trapped when we talk about and question how people who say they love Jesus can vote differently that how we, or I, or you vote.

Sometimes the government doesn’t do what we believe is following the ways of God, and sometimes they do.  So, how we vote is important.  Our faith will likely influence how we vote, and our faith is going to influence some of us to vote one way and some of us to vote another.  Yet, in our convictions and in our faith, we often wonder, “How can anyone who claims to be a Christian vote differently than how I vote, as a Christian?”  Then, in our hubris, we lay for each other the Pharisees’ trap.  

Into that trap, Jesus said, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.”   

Jesus recognized that we live simultaneously in at least two kingdoms.  Jesus and all of Israel lived in the Empire of Rome, in the Kingdom of Israel, and in the Kingdom of God.  Whether Jesus liked living under Roman control or not, he accepted it as a reality that would not change without bloody, armed revolt, and even then, it probably wouldn’t change.  So, Jesus decided, or realized, or knew that he could live simultaneously under the authority of Rome and still live in the Kingdom of God.  

We too live in at least two kingdoms.  We live in the kingdom of The United State of America, and and we live in the Kingdom of God.  How do we live in these two kingdoms as faithful followers of Jesus?  Some would say that doing so depends on how you vote and that voting for a candidate who believes in something contrary to a teaching of Jesus is voting against Jesus.  I would say, that’s not what Jesus said.  Remember that in saying “yes” to paying Roman taxes, Jesus said “yes” to giving financial support to a government that was decidedly anti-Jewish.  Jesus said “yes to giving financial support to a government that did things with that money that Israel and Jesus himself really didn’t like.  In the difficult situation of paying taxes to the Roman government, Jesus said, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”

Remember also that before answering the Pharisees’ question, Jesus had them show him a coin which had the emperor’s likeness on it.  Jesus used the coin as a symbol, and not only a symbol of money.  The coin was a symbol of the Roman government and authority under which they lived, like it or not.  Notice, however, that he used no such symbol for God’s kingdom and authority under which they lived.  By having a symbol for Rome’s kingdom, Jesus showed that their kingdom was limited; God’s was not.

So how do we live in at least two kingdoms, one limited and one not?  What do we give to our government, and what do we give to God?  Well, we give to the government our votes.  We give what we owe for taxes.  We give our opinions to our elected officials, and we give our basic obedience to the laws they set forth.  Sometimes we also give our civil disobedience to the laws when those laws are unjust.  That’s a decent non-exhaustive list of what we give to our government, but what about God?

What do we give to God?  Everything.  I don’t mean that we should give God everything or we aught to give God everything.  I mean, whether intended or not, we give God everything.  

The kindnesses we give to the people we know and love, and the kindnesses we give to the people we hardly know are given to God.  Similarly, the hurt, contempt, and indifference we give to the people we know and love are given to God, and the hurt, contempt, and indifference we give to the people we hardly know are given to God.  Our votes even are given to God, and I daresay most of us are doing are darnedest to vote in a way that honors God’s kingdom, even when we vote differently from each other.  So, don’t let anyone tell you that vote goes against God’s kingdom or God’s way just because you vote differently than they do.  Do contemplate seriously how your vote does or does not follow the ways of God’s kingdom; realize also that by “God’s Kingdom,” I don’t mean particular religion or religious practice.  By God’s kingdom, I mean the beauty, light, and love of everything that is.  Everything we do is giving to God’s kingdom. 

Realizing that we give everything to God, the point is not to feel shamed or scared of messing up and giving God the wrong thing.  The point is to see the beauty of God’s kingdom all around us, to see the light and love of God’s kingdom all around us, and to let that beauty, light, and love transform us continually into beauty, light, and love, and then to live naturally out of that.  

Looking at all we have as part of God’s kingdom of beauty, light, and love, we see that everything we do and everything we give, and keep, and take is done in God’s kingdom to enhance or diminish the beauty, light, and love of God’s kingdom.  Again, as to any thoughts of shame or fear, we’re all going to take a lot of actions which diminish the beauty, light, and love of God’s kingdom.  God knows this, and God works to redeem those things.  Perfection is not what God asks of us; it never has been.  God asks that we work continually to align our motivations and our actions to accord with God’s will and God’s ways so that we make continual progress towards enhancing the beauty, light, and love of God’s kingdom.  

Now I can’t give every specific action of how we are to act to enhance God’s kingdom, but I can say, based on Jesus’ teachings, that the more we act as Lords over others, demanding our will and our way, assuming we know best for them, the more we diminish the beauty, light, and love of God’s kingdom.  On the other hand, the more we act as servants to others, and not as servants who are superior to others, but as true servants, the more we enhance the beauty, light, and love of God’s kingdom.  

See, God’s kingdom is in all of creation and through all of creation.  God’s kingdom is in and through and beyond all governments and political systems.  So yes, how we vote is part of what we give to God.  How we spent our money is part of what we give to God.  How we spend out time and how treat others is part of what we give to God.  What exactly do we give to God?  Everything.  

Sermon: Dance With the Demons

Brad Sullivan

Proper 14, Year C

August 11, 2019

Emmanuel, Houston

Luke 12:32-40

Dance With the Demons

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  We live with quite a lot of fear, don’t we?  Fears of all kinds and varieties. Economic insecurity, health issues.  Fear of loss. We have fears of violence, fears of natural disasters destroying what we have.  We have fears of the other political party gaining power (whichever political party that is for each of us).  We also have fears of not being good enough, worthy enough. Fears that someone might find out the truth about us.  We have fears of what the world will be like for our children and grandchildren.

These fears keep us striving against each other, trying to overcome each other, trying to make sure that if the world is not going to be ok, at least those I love and I will be ok.  In the midst of these fears, Jesus says, “Do not be afraid little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  It seems that our fears are nothing new, but they are the same fears which have been with humanity forever, and Jesus repeats what God has said throughout scripture, “Do not be afraid.”  Rather than overcome each other, let go of your fears and live in love toward each other.  “Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Live in love with each other, and trust each other.  For economic security, trust not only in yourself but also in those your love, your community and neighbors.  Give to others in their time of need, trusting that they will give to you in your time of need.  Rather than overcoming each  other, we live for and with each other.  That is life in the kingdom of God, and it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.

Lutheran Pastor David Lose writes:

I think the call – or at least one of the primary calls – of the church today is to become a place where people are so rooted in the promise of God’s good pleasure, reminded of their identity as God’s beloved children, and affirmed in their inherent self-worth and dignity, that they can, indeed, see all those around them as similarly beloved and deserving of self-worth, dignity, and God’s good pleasure. The question for a Christian..[is] discovering that as we give ourselves away in relationship and service we find a deeper sense of self than we’d imagined possible. We are born for community and find a sense of self and meaning and purpose as we trust God’s promises and give ourselves away in love.”

Give ourselves away in love.  That’s not an easy thing to do when we’re afraid of ourselves and those around us.  Our inner demons often keep us from giving ourselves away in love.  A friend of mine, Steve White, recently wrote, “Perhaps it isn’t actually about overcoming all your inner demons.  Maybe it’s about learning how to dance with them.”  That speaks to me not only of the fears we have about ourselves, but also the fears we have about each other.  What if we don’t need to fight against and overcome our inner demons, but rather learn to dance with them, to accept them as a part of who we are.  What if we also don’t need to fight against and overcome each other, but rather learn to dance with each other, to give ourselves away in love, to offer ourselves daily to God and join with each other in God’s divine dance, turning even our scars into something beautiful.  That’s life in God’s kingdom, and it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.

Fearing each other, we end up scattered and fragmented, continually knowing that we don’t belong.  We have folks who have felt like they can’t or don’t belong to the church because of their political beliefs.  I know I’ve made people feel this way at times, as have other church leaders, church members, and congregations.  The thing about our political views is, most people I know, on both sides of the political spectrum want the same thing: a just society which brings about the best way of life for the most number of people.  Their difference is simply the ways and the roles they believe the government should have in bringing about a just society.  They both have their religious beliefs tied up into that, and folks on both sides of the aisle believe in Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom of God. 

Here’s the secret:  The government is not how Jesus calls us to bring about God’s kingdom, even though it is the tool some would use to try.  God’s kingdom is given through God in partnership with us, with our living into God’s kingdom, and there is room in God’s kingdom for all of us.  All of us belong in God’s kingdom, and so we need not overcome each other, but learn to dance with each other, to give ourselves away in love. 

Rather than fearing that the other side may win, can we at least realize the while the other side may be wrong, it is still striving for the best system for the good of the most people?  Can we accept the consequences if it turns out our fears were right?  Can we trust in each other, rather than feeling threatened by each other?  Cane felt threatened by Abel, and so he killed him.  We hear of folks and have experience feeling threatened by each other and each others’ beliefs, so we attack each other verbally, sometimes physically, deriding each other, feeling that they want to destroy all that is good in our society, our country, and our world. 

"Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit,” Jesus taught, so that he will find you not asleep, but alert and ready.  Our fears and the ways we seek to overcome each other, feeling threatened by each other, are ways that we fall asleep.  We fall asleep to God’s kingdom and are alert only to our fears, to our inner demons.  We all have inner demons.  Our families have inner demons.  The church has inner demons.  Our cities, our state, and our nation have inner demons.  Keeping alert, staying awake and being alert is about not overcoming and striving against our inner demons and each other, but rather learning to dance together. 

If we learn to dance together, we may find that we are not asleep when the master of the house or the thief comes.  Whenever Jesus shows up in our lives (and it happens all the time), how wonderful if he finds us not trying to overcome each other, but instead learning to dance with each other, giving ourselves away in love.  Over time, we learn how each other moves and thinks.  We still step on each others’ toes, but we laugh about it.

Living into God’s kingdom, us giving of our abundance when folks are in need, receiving from others’ abundance when we are in need; living in that kingdom, we can live without fear of the other.  We can offer ourselves in love, and learn to dance together.  “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

The Most Powerful Force In the World

Brad Sullivan

Proper 25, Year A

October 29, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Matthew 22:34-46

The Most Powerful Force In the World

Becca Stevens is an Episcopal priest and the founder and president of Thistle Farms which she stared 20 years ago with five women who needed healing, survivors of abuse, trafficking, and prostitution.  She started with five women in a house called Magdalene, and there these five women found the healing power of love as they lived together, cared for each other, and loved their way back to wholeness.  After four years, Becca and the women of Magdalene House realized they also needed women to become economically independent to fully get their lives back, and so they stared making candles, oils, and other healing products.  Thistle Farms began, and the women who were survivors of the worst that humanity has to offer began operating this business, Thistle Farms, learning about running a business, while being healed themselves, and while generating revenue so that more women survivors could come and live in one of the houses for the two year program and also be healed. 

In the twenty years that Thistle Farms has been healing women and sustaining itself through the healing products they make and sell, Becca Stevens has found that “Love is the most powerful force for change in the world.”

That sounds a bit like what Jesus taught, doesn’t it.  Love God, and love people.  That is the only religion Jesus is really interested in us having.  When Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God and the close second is to love people, he was talking to the uber religious Pharisees.  They were like the extreme high church people of our day.  If there was a law, a rule, a rubric about their religious practice, they followed it absolutely to the t.  There was nothing particularly wrong about that except for what was in their hearts and the reasons why they were following the law absolutely to the t. 

See they were following all of their religious practice rules because they thought doing so made them righteous in God’s eyes.  They really wanted God to be pleased with them and they wanted to look good before God and others.  In other words, their extreme religious observance was mostly selfish and done with a misunderstanding of who God is and what God desires for us.  For a timely example, they’d basically turned God into Jobu. 

For those of you unfamiliar with Jobu, he was a small voodoo idol statue guy who made his cinematic debut in film Major League.  In the movie, the Cleveland Indians baseball team were dead last in Major League Baseball and they had a rather rag tag group of players, plenty of talent, but a little rough around the edges.  Pedro Cerano was their big heavy hitter and could hit a home run off of a fastball just about every time, but he couldn’t hit a curve ball.  So, he kept this little statue named Jobu in his locker, and he prayed to Jobu to help him hit the curve ball.  Not only that, he tried to please Jobu by leaving him offerings of cigars and rum, and as he told his teammates, “It’s very bad to drink Jobu’s rum; it’s very bad.”  Of course Jobu didn’t actually help him hit the curveball and in the end, he decided he would just hit the curveball himself.

The Pharisees had turned God into Jobu.  “Yea for us,” they thought, “We’re offering to God all of our proverbial cigars and rum; we’re following every religious practice, every single one, so that God will be pleased with us.”  They were even instructing others and even scaring them into trying to do the same so that God would not be angry with them.  In other words, “it’s very bad to drink Jobu’s rum.”  The Pharisees had forgotten that the point of the law, the point of all of their religious practices was not to please God, but rather to help heal their own hearts so that they might be better able to love others.

God doesn’t care about our religious practices.  As much as the law of Moses said that people had to sacrifice animals to atone for their sins, the prophets said over and over again, “Would you stop with that animal sacrifice stuff?  God doesn’t want it.  God doesn’t care.  He just wants you to treat each other well, to take care of each other, and to live lives of love.”  That’s like the new ultra-revised standard international version, but that was the message.  “I don’t care about this stuff.  I don’t care about these religious practices.  Just love each other.”

Love God, and love people.  If at any time, obeying a rule of the law forces you to act in a way that is not loving toward God or people, then break the law.  If at any time heeding the words of the prophets forces you to act in a way that is not loving toward God or people, then do not heed the words of the prophets.

So, if God really isn’t all that into religion, why do we have religion?  Why do we have these rituals and routines and ways of life?  Well, again I’ll turn to Becca Stevens with Thistle Farms.  The point of the ritual and the religion is to help us love God and love people.  In her book, Love Heals, Becca writes about the healing power of ritual.  She writes about her morning ritual including prayer which took years to work out what truly helped heal her heart each day.  She wrote that keeping this morning ritual got her ready for the day and helped heal her heart each day so that she could be more loving toward her family and everyone else she saw during the day.  She wrote that “[Keeping these rituals] might mean dinners are simpler, clothes don’t get folded as often, and you miss out on other activities, but for folks like me who can spin out and lose focus, morning rituals are grounding and essential.”  “We need some good old-time religious practices,” she wrote, “to infuse our lives so we can use the most powerful force - love - to heal our communities.”

Personally, I’ve found healing in old time religious practices, particularly in the last month or so by praying morning prayer each morning.  For years, my practice was to pray morning prayer by myself with a cup of coffee, and before having kids, this daily practice worked out pretty well, and there were a couple of years that I found healing every morning through these prayers.  Enter children, and I just couldn’t do it for a while. Still, that was my practice, morning prayer every morning, and I rarely followed that practice. 

Then there was Harvey and praying Compline each night via Facebook life, and those prayers and rituals and the community praying together.  One of our vestry members asked if we could do Morning Prayer as well, so the next morning I began praying Morning Prayer Monday through Saturday at about 6:00 each morning and inviting others to join via Facebook Live.  There has been a change in my life with this newly rediscovered ritual, especially because I’m getting to pray with others, even if they aren’t present at the time and they join in by watching later.  If that particular routine isn’t going to work for you, and it’s not going to be healing for everyone, then find another routine, some other old-time religious practice that does heal your heart.  Time to breathe, time to center in prayer, letting all that is pass by and simply be in the moment.  Look at the beauty of the earth, the trees, the sky, the beauty of the people around, giving thanks, feeling our connectedness, noticing the daily gift of the sunrise and sunset.  Breathe, be still, light a candle to cast out the darkness, pray through scripture and the words of Jesus.  Join with others in prayer.

Having routine and practices, religious rituals is a wonderful, healing way to live, not because God cares one whit if we pray morning prayer, but because these rituals help to heal our hearts, to reconnect us to the source of all life and love, the God who created all that is.  Then, with our hearts healed, we can live out that love toward others.  God cares about our healing and our love for one another quite a lot.  That’s why God would be pleased with our religious practices, that these rituals may heal us so that we will be better able to love.  

If we don’t follow religious practices, God’s not offended.  God is not Jobu upset that we didn’t offer him rum.  Rather, God offers us religious practices and rituals because God knows we’ll find healing by connecting to him each day, because God is love, and “love is the most powerful force for [healing and] change in the world.”