Living as though the Sun Will Rise Again

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
November 16, 2025
Proper 28, C
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Psalm 98
Luke 21:5-19

Do y’all remember when the world was going to end on New Year’s Day, 2000? Then again in 2012? There have been several comets that were supposed to bring about the end of the world. I remember two or three pastors with mathematical predictions that didn’t pan out. The Branch Davidians in Waco. There was the Left Behind fervor with the book series. That’s around nine or ten end of the world predictions, just in the last 30 years, just that I can remember.

All of them have been wrong, and all of them have led to people living as though the world was about to be no more, usually in some not great ways. I heard of folks buying the pollutingist big SUVs they could because the end was coming and polluting the world more would help bring it about. People have made end-time bunkers, spending untold amounts of time and money, isolating, staying away from others, because they believed the end was nigh. Some even had suicide cults where folks killed themselves at just the right moment as the world didn’t actually end.

God didn’t make this world for us to end it, and God didn’t make this world for us to suffer an apocalypse. God made us and made this world for us to live in it. “Be fruitful and multiply,” God said. Live in this world. Be blessed by this world. Give blessings into the world. That is God’s desire for our lives. Living is the point, living as though the sun will rise again.

So, as Paul pointed out in 2 Thessalonians, you can’t live if you don’t eat. See, there were folks in the church in Thessalonica who not only believe that the end was coming very soon, but they believed that the end had already happened. Some had stopped working because they misunderstood Paul’s message to them and thought that the end of the world and God’s full reign on earth had already happened. So, they stopped working.

Therefore, Paul wrote, “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” That was his advice to a church where some folks were living in a kind of end-time cult. Thinking that the world had already ended, they thought they didn’t need to work. Great! Paul was saying. Have them not eat as well as not work, and see which happens first: the end of the world, or hungry bellies and malnutrition.  

As much as folks in the early church were expecting the end of days, they had to keep living as though the world was going to keep on turning. 

You can understand, why some had this misunderstanding about the end of days. Paul himself thought that the end of days was coming in his lifetime, months, and then maybe years after Jesus’ resurrection. Paul even wrote in 1 Corinthians 7 that ideally, folks should stop making babies. Best way to be, Paul wrote, don’t have sex, just devote yourselves to prayer. That was Paul’s advice. No sex. Don’t make babies. Just devote yourselves to prayer. 

He did make allowances. If you can’t not have sex, then at least only do it with your husband or wife, but best just not to have sex at all. He thought it was the end of days. Personally, I don’t know what not having sex has to do with the end of days, but for Paul it was a thing. 

So, Paul went on, for those who were unmarried, it would be best to stay unmarried, so you could devote yourself to prayer. If you couldn’t keep yourself from having sex, though, then at least get married and have sex with just the one person. 

Paul thought the end was coming very soon, and so his preference for the church was that everyone would stop having sex, just devote themselves to prayer, and of course, that would mean no more babies. Well, if that had happened worldwide, ain’t none of us would be here. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world, just the end of humanity.

Paul was wrong in his belief about when the end of the world would come. Paul’s advice about how to live an end of days life was actually not all that helpful because it wasn’t actually the end of days. The church in Thessalonica was wrong about their belief in the end of days, and since then, every end-time cult in the history of the world has been wrong. So far, the accuracy rate of all end-time predictions has been hovering really close to zero. Actually, it is zero. Even Jesus, to the extent that he thought the end was coming within his disciples’ lifetime was wrong, and Jesus admitted that he didn’t know when the end was going to be, that only God the Father knew. 

The point is that end-time cults, as well as the early churches that Paul started were living as though the world was about to end. They were all living as though some terrible apocalypse was about to happen, but that’s not how and why God made the world.

God didn’t make this world and place us in it just for the world to end or for us to suffer a great apocalypse. God made this world for us to live in this world in joy and peace, to live in this world loving one another and loving this beautiful creation. 

Now, I’ll admit, the end of the world is a lot of fun in fiction. Armageddon, Deep Impact, Independence Day, 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Moonfall, Greenland, The Core: all of these end-time movies and more are hugely fun and wildly entertaining. There’s the big rush to try to save the world or for some few people to live through the end of the world. It’s exciting, and pulse-pounding, and a great escape from the daily grind and actual worries about actual life. 

Folks in these movies aren’t worried about where their next rent check is coming from, how farmers are going to grow food, what grocery prices are going to be, and if there will be enough to eat. For a few hours, watching these movies, we don’t have to worry about these things either. It’s the end of the world. We get to escape reality and imagine some apocalyptic future in which we just don’t have to worry daily life.

End of time predictions, end of time cults all have that same appeal. If it’s the end of the world, you don’t have to worry about much. You don’t need to work if it’s the end of the world. You don’t need to worry about food or anything else if it’s the end of the world. 

End of time predictions, even those of faithful religious people are misguided from the start because they are all about escape. We may often want to escape, and who can blame us? There are terrible things going on in the world. So, we try to escape through lots of things. We try to escape through alcohol and drug use. We try to escape through sex. We try to escape through violence. Some try to escape through end-time cults, and some try escape through end of days religious movements. If we have enough money, we try to escape by building rockets to go to Mars and things like that.

God didn’t make this world for us to escape it. Whatever way we choose to try to escape, God made the world not for our escape, but for our living. The thing with the whole end-time, apocalypse deal is, we know that eventually all will be well. We are told in many places through scripture that eventually, God will put all things right, and so we can rest some of our hope that eventually, all will be well.

In the meantime, our hope is not in escape. Our hope is in God’s great love for humanity that we get to be a part of making things well. God has given us strength, courage, wisdom, hope, love, so that we can be a part of making things well in this world. 

That was God’s gift to us in Genesis, to be a part of governing and caring for creation. God made us in God’s image and found us to be utterly delightful, and so God gave us power to help make things well. Then, God continued to give us even more gifts to help make things well. God gave the covenant and the Torah to the people of Israel. God gave us Jesus to teach us God’s ways and to join with us in every part of our lives. God called us beloved and gave to us over and over again so that we might be a part of making things well in this world, not to prepare for the end, but to prepare for the next turning of the earth. We get to work to make things well because the sun will rise tomorrow. God made us to live in this world in joy and peace, loving one another, healing one another, and loving and healing this beautiful creation. 

Sharing the Music that Is in Us

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets
March 17, 2024
5 Lent, Year B
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-13
John 12:20-33

Sharing the Music that Is in Us

Jesus’ response to the news that some Greeks were looking for him seems odd. Really, most of Jesus’ responses to people in John’s Gospel seem odd. In this case, his disciples tell him some Greeks are looking for him, and he says, “The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.” 

Just before this, Jesus had come into Jerusalem, and huge crowds had been cheering for him. While he was riding into town, the Pharisees looked to one another and said, “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the whole world has gone after him.” The fact that some Greeks had come to speak to Jesus seems to confirm what the Pharisees said. “The whole world has gone after [Jesus].” As much as they’d wanted to keep the whole Jesus movement from spreading, the cat was officially out of the bag and there was no stopping it now.

They were right. Early church had no buildings or organized support. They could not worship in the synagogues, nor in the Roman temples, and yet the church, spread like wildfire. People believed in Jesus. They trusted him. They found healing in Jesus. They found love. So, they ministered to others out of that same love, offering that same healing. 

As God had said through the prophet Jeremiah, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God. I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” People were loved, forgiven, and healed, and God’s law, God’s love, was written on their hearts. 

See, there’s hearing and learning about the way of God’s love, and then there’s living the way of God’s love. As a musician, I think about the practice that goes into playing songs, getting them fully under your fingers and into your voice. You practice, and practice, and practice, and eventually, you leave the practice room, and you play the songs for others. There’s risk in that, risk in offering that music to be received by others, but it’s also a beautiful offering. When you’ve worked at it so the music is written in your heart, then it’s a beautiful offering and sharing of song and story. 

I saw Guy Forsyth play a show last week, and boy does he play. He practices a lot, and then he risks the stage. He plays those songs written in his heart, and his risk is worth it. His connection to the audience is beautiful. The stories he tells through his music, the human connection he brings, receiving his offering of music is healing.

When the music is written in your heart, then you can play, you can risk, and that brings healing and love to the world.

That healing and love is what happens when the Gospel of Jesus is written in our hearts. We leave the practice room, we risk, we play, and that brings healing and love to the world. 

Jesus talked about the risk of playing the Gospel. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,” he said, “it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

Early followers of Jesus risked for the sake of the healing and love of the Gospel. They risked being kicked out of their synagogues, and they were kicked out of their synagogues. Gentiles risked being ostracized, and they were. 

The Gospel of Jesus demands risk. It demands being booed off stage, and if we are, ok. We practice some more, we allow the love and healing of Jesus to be written even more fully in our hearts, and we risk again. We risk not only for our sake, but for the sake of others.

We risk being peacemakers. We risk connection with one another. We risk offering the faith that is in us. We risk trusting in Jesus and following in his ways, rather than holding on so tightly to our lives out of fear of loss, that we end up hurting others and ourselves in the process. 

Our futures are uncertain. Jesus told us they would be. Following Jesus means risking that uncertainty. Jesus risked everything for our sake, for the sake of all people. “’Now is the judgment of this world;” Jesus said, “now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.” (John 12:33)

How did Jesus know that he would be raised and lifted up from the earth after he was crucified? My guess is he didn’t know it. He believed it. How did Jesus know that he would draw all people to himself? My guess is he didn’t know it. He believed it. How did he know that people wouldn’t simply forget, not believe, or ignore his life, message, and resurrection? My guess is he didn’t know it. He believed it. Jesus believed that people would receive his offering, receive his way of love and forgiveness. Jesus believed that people would receive the healing he offered and that they would then risk as he did to offer that same healing of forgiveness and love to others. 

Jesus believed in God, in forgiveness and love, and because of that belief, he risked everything for the sake of all humanity. He invites us, then to risk as well, for the sake of his Gospel and for the sake of humanity. Jesus invites us to risk for the sake of people who may hear, receive, and live the forgiveness and love of Jesus through the risks we take. Jesus invites us to risk forgiveness and love of others.

If we just talk about Jesus’ forgiveness and love to others, just tell people about it, then we’re really still in the practice room. If we mostly talk about Jesus’ Gospel, then I’m not sure it’s truly written on our hearts yet. When we live Jesus’ forgiveness and love, that’s when Jesus is written on our hearts. When we truly forgive and love others, that’s when we’re risking. Living Jesus’ forgiveness and love is when we’re out of the practice room and on stage, offering our music to others, making that connection, sharing the beauty and healing of the music that is in us.