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

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

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

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

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

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

www.instagram.com/p/DWXKkdPEvua/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another...Everything Else Is Commentary

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
June 1, 2025
7 Easter, C
Acts 16:16-34
Psalm 97
John 17:20-26

“I ask…that they may all be one.” That was Jesus’ prayer for his disciples before he was killed. That was Jesus’ desire for his church. That is Jesus’ desire for the world, that people may be united to one another just as Jesus and God the Father are united to one another, that we all may be one. 

Imagine a world in which we are one. Imagine making decisions based on how they will affect ourselves and others. Imagine the world doing that, realizing that if we are one with each other, then when they hurt, we hurt. Imagine actually feeling and knowing the pain that we so often carelessly and unknowingly cause others. Imagine also knowing and feeling the joy we cause others. I daresay the world would be different if we truly acted and lived as though we were one. 

The world of not being one, well, that’s the world the in which we found Silas and Paul in our reading from Acts today. It was a world of slavery, oppression, violence, and unjust imprisonment. 

It all started with a couple of slavers who had young girl kept as their property so they could make money off of her. She wasn’t a business partner, not a person to them, certainly not one with them. She was just a useful thing to them, but when Paul and Silas freed her from the spirit that was possessing her, she was no longer of value to them, so they had Paul and Silas beaten and imprisoned. Once again, not exactly a world in which people saw themselves as one with each other.

Then there was the earthquake which opened the doors of the cells where Paul and Silas were being kept. The gaoler* who guarded Paul and Silas’ prison, thought they had escaped, and so he drew his sword and was about to kill himself...with a sword. How crazy is that? Never mind that the prison cells were only open because of a huge earthquake. Even nowadays, many insurance policies would call that an act of God, so any potential escape was very much not the gaoler’s fault, and yet, this man’s first instinct when he thought they had escaped was to kill himself.

That indicates to me that the people he worked for probably weren’t particularly kind or understanding. Knowing that he worked for Rome, we can assume their cruelty with almost certainty. Better to kill myself with a sword than face their wrath, this man thought.

The gaoler was on the outside of the prison, and yet he was bound in
chains, whereas Paul and Silas, sitting there in prison, were free. They were one with each other and with God. The gaoler was alone and fearful of the government that would kill him without a moment’s hesitation.

So then, when he saw that Paul and Silas had not left the prison, he asked them what he needed to do to be saved. “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household,” they told him, and after going to his house and telling them all about Jesus, “he and his entire family were baptized without delay.”

The gaoler and his family became even more one than they were before, and Paul and Silas, well, they went back to prison. You didn’t really think they were going to take advantage of the little mini-Gospel-jailbreak and let the gaoler be killed, did you? Of course not. That’s not what you do when you’re one with them. 

Then, the next morning, the authorities went ahead and released Paul and Silas, but the gaoler was the one who was freed. Even on the outside, he had carried his prison with him wherever he went.**  The gaoler’s chains were what: fear, isolation, working for an unjust Roman regime? We don’t know exactly what his chains were, but I think we can all recognize that he was bound in chains. 

Chains keep us separated from one another, afraid, bound, and alone. 

Jesus makes us one with one another. The gaoler was made one with Silas and Paul, one with his family, one with other believers he met. He was freed from his chains of fear and isolation.

What if the slavers had been freed of their chains and worked with the girl not as their slave, but as a business partner? What if Rome had been freed from their chains of domination and cruelty so that an earthquake opening prison doors wasn’t reason to be so afraid that death seemed the only option? That would have been a very different world. 

What about us? What are some of the chains which bind us and keep us separate from one another? Mistrust. Fear. Impatience and annoyance with others. Valuing success and achievement more than the people around us. Constant competition. 

How might we unbind those chains and become one? Well, Paul and Silas said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Believe in Jesus, and be freed from your chains. Believe in Jesus, and be one. 

Joining with Jesus and being freed from our chains, being one with one another, is Jesus’ prayer for us. It is our choice, then, to choose to follow Jesus and to strive for that unity with Jesus’ help. Jesus makes us one as we make a decision to follow him, trust in him, and live the way of life he taught. It is an everyday, all-day decision and striving on our part.

What does living that unity then actually look like? Well, Rabbi Hillel, who lived a little before Jesus, was once asked by a Roman to tell him the whole of the Jewish law. He said, “I will convert to Judaism if you will tell me the whole law while I stand on one foot.” So, everything about how the people of Israel were to live as God’s people while he stood on one foot, and Rabbi Hillel said, “Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole of the law. Everything else is commentary.” 

“Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole of the law. Everything else is commentary.” Well, if we don’t do to others what is hateful to us, we’ll stand a pretty good chance of being one with one another.

“Those who love me will keep my commandments,” Jesus said, and what was Jesus’ commandment? That we love one another. When we love one another, we love Jesus, and we become one.  

Now sadly, the world in which we live is still not a world in which most of us are one with each other, and yet Jesus’ prayer continues. We continue striving to be one, praying that same prayer that Jesus prayed, every day, all day, that we would be one with each other just as Jesus and God the Father are one.

“Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole of the law. Everything else is commentary.”

*"Gaoler" is the old English spelling of jailer. I've been reading so much fantasy writing 

over the last several years, in which the authors write gaoler, that 

writing "jailer" just looked wrong. Thank you for indulging me.

** “There is more than one sort of prison, captain. I sense you carry yours wherever you go.” 

– Chirrut Imwe, Rogue One

 

A Place Where People are Honored, Respected, and Loved

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston
May 18, 2025
5 Easter, C
Acts 11:1-18
Psalm 148
John 13:31-35

Love God, and love people. It’s just that easy, right? Love God, and love people. All of the commandments and all of the laws and ways of God really boil down to those two simple things. Simple, easy, until we actually try to start living it. 

Anyone ever felt like, “I love God, and because of that, I just can’t stand people”? Yeah, me to sometimes. People can be hard to love. That’s why it’s not easy.  Of course, the book of James points out that we can’t love God if we don’t love people. So…yeah, it might be that loving God isn’t always easy either. 

It takes work and commitment, loving someone. That means loving them when you don’t like them and staying committed to them at the times when you’d rather just turn tails and run. To make it even tougher, Jesus tells us to love even our enemies, and let’s face it, I have a hard time loving my friends sometimes, much less people I consider enemy, but there it is. Jesus tells us to love, like, everybody. By doing that, we show that we actually love God.

In the commandment we heard from Jesus today, however, he gives us a starting point with that love, making things potentially a little easier. “Love one another,” he said. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Love your fellow disciples; love your fellow followers of Jesus. Realizing there are disciples of Jesus all over the world, let’s keep it really simple. Love the people in your church.

That doesn’t mean don’t love everyone else, but particularly, as a start, focus on loving your fellow disciples in your church. Make sure your church is a community of love, a place and a people where others would see the love we have for one another and recognize that as the love of God. 

We’ve been hearing about the decline of church for decades now. More and more people are not going to church, more and more people are saying they don’t believe in any religion, and even among those who believe in Jesus, more and more are believing privately, choosing not to be a part of a church community. 

I wonder if part of that might be because the church hasn’t been a place where people truly love one another. I mentioned a couple weeks ago about things like people being shunned for backsliding. Think about the fighting we have in the Church over whose Baptism is the right kind of Baptism. We fight over how exactly salvation works, and we tend to divide over which groups disagree too much. We have some denominations claiming that other denominations aren’t really Christians. 

On a congregational level, I know people who have been gossiped about until they left their church, then came back and gossiped about others. I know churches that have divided and then fought over who got to keep the building. Hell, I even know folks who have fought over things like which flowers were the right ones to put in the church. 

Is it really that surprising that people see that and think, “Yeah, maybe not so much”? 

I don’t mean that people within churches should never fight. That’s not possible. People fight over things. Also, not fighting doesn’t equal love. Love is not just the absence of conflict. Love is striving together to work through conflict and come out stronger and even more committed to one another on the other side. 

Marriages that last 50 and 60 years don’t last because of a lack of conflict. Those marriages last because the couples are committed to staying together and working through the difficult times, sometimes the difficult years. Marriages last because couples are willing to let some things die in the marriage and see what is resurrected on the other side. It’s the same with the church.

A church where people love one another is not a place of fake love, of surface level pretending, and just being politely nice to one another. A church in which people love one another means actual love. That means when we don’t like each other, we choose to look for what is lovable about each other. When we disagree and harm one another, we work to be reconciled; we work to mend the harm done to the other and to heal our broken relationships. 

If anything, that’s what the church is meant to be known for. They will know you are my disciples, Jesus said, they will know you are my church because of how you love one another. Now, what if people saw and heard about churches being places like that? 

What if people saw and heard about churches being places where people weren’t shunned, but embraced? 

What if people saw and heard about churches being places where people honored and cared for one another?

What if people saw and heard about churches being places where people knew that if they did fight with someone, they would do the hard and beautiful work of making things right and healing any harm done?

What if people saw and heard about churches being places where people believed they would be respected and loved?

Anyone else feel a need for a place like that, a place where you know you will be honored, respected, and loved? I get the feeling there’s not a whole lot of that going around nowadays. Honor. Respect. Love. I get the feeling the world could use a lot more honor, respect, and love.

That’s why Jesus commanded us to love one another. Make your church a place where people are honored, respected, and loved. Make your church a place of healing. You need it, and those around you need it.

When we love one another inside the church, even loving the ones we don’t like, then we have a place we can invite others to for peace and healing. When people see they are being invited into a community of honor, respect, and love (love without conditions), then folks just might want to join that community of peace and healing. 

Everyone here needs peace and healing. Everyone here needs to be honored. Everyone here needs to be shown respect. Everyone here needs to be loved. That’s why Jesus made his church, that we might be a place where we choose, and strive, and commit to love one another every day. 

Walking with God in the Way of Love

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston

September 1, 2024
Proper 17, B
James 1:17-27
Psalm 15
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Hey guys, don’t think about kittens jumping around in front of a scared looking puppy. Stop, I said don’t think about it. No kittens jumping. No scared puppy. Keep it out of your mind.

Failures. Kidding.

It’s hard not to think about something when you’re focusing on not thinking about it. Ok, now think about Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel we just heard. ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ Spending time in worship can be really good for us, and the worship God truly wants is caring for one another. Loving one another. Think about someone in need and choosing to help them out. Think about a time you were in need and a kind and loving person came to your aid. I’m guessing you weren’t just thinking about cats and puppies anymore, were you?

Jesus said that the things that defile a person are the harmful things that come out of our hearts. Fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly, these selfish things that we do are what defile us, not doing our religion wrong. 

So, I could preach about not doing those things, talking about each one in detail, and saying “That’s bad; don’t do it.” The problem is that sometimes the harder we try not to do something, the more we fixate on it and the harder time we have not doing it. Don’t think of the kittens and the puppy, right? And as soon as I tell us not to, we start thinking about it. 

Jesus giving us this list of things not to do is important and teaching we often need to realize that these things are harmful, and there’s more to the story. Jesus didn’t just say, “This stuff’s bad; don’t do it.” Jesus gave us a way of life so that we would not just fixate on harmful behaviors and end up doing them anyway. The way of life that Jesus gave us is the way of love. 

Now, following the way of love is part of why there so many are religious practices. Religious practices, at their best, are meant to help train us, to keep us walking with God in the way of love, walking with one another so the thought of harming one another would go totally against who we are. Unfortunately, we often forget that, and religious practices end up being ways we try to please God. 

As far back as human history goes, people have had belief in one type of god or another, and along with all of our various beliefs about God or gods, people have continually sought ways to please God. People have tried to get God on their side against others. People have tried to gain God’s favor so that crops will grow or natural disasters won’t happen. In all sorts of societies, people have done all sorts of things to appease their gods. 

Folks have sacrificed animals and various food on altars. Folks have burned things, said particular prayers at particular times, cut themselves, had ritual dances, even left out milk and cookies. 

What we find over and over in scripture is that God was never all that interested in any of that stuff. 

In Jesus’ day, the some of the religious leaders were pretty adamant about doing everything they could to try to please God. We heard today about the Pharisees who even went beyond the actual laws that they were supposed to follow and said that Jesus and his disciples were displeasing God because they were eating without washing their hands. There were a lot of laws about washing, about being ritually clean before God, but washing your hands before you ate wasn’t one of those laws. By tradition, they had added hand washing to the ritual purity laws. 

On the one hand, it was really helpful in keeping disease down. As far as societal health went, handwashing was fantastic. It just wasn’t going to make you more or less righteous before God.

All of those rituals and religious laws weren’t bad, but folks could miss the point, thinking the rituals were there to please God, rather than to be helpful for the people. The practice of keeping the laws, of following the ritual, with a mind toward connecting with God and trusting in God, can be helpful. You’re training yourself to trust in God in all things. The rituals and laws are like daily practice of trusting in God, unless they become things you must do lest God be angry with you.

Look at modern Christianity, guilting people for not showing up for church on Sunday. No wonder people don’t want to come…as though coming to church pleases God in and of itself. Worshipping together is meant to be helpful for us, joining together with one another, taking some time to pause in the business and struggle of life, to rest together, connecting with God. That’s a good way to practice religion…and it’s not going to make God happy with us.

What is the religion that pleases God? Taking care of one another.

The more we take care of one another, the more we see the absolute beauty and divine worth of every human being. When we see one another’s divine worth and care for one another, then we end up not falling into those destructive ways Jesus talked about: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, and folly. Rather than not thinking about kittens and puppies, we focus on loving one another.

Those vices that Jesus mentioned are all about selfish pleasure seeking with no regard to the hurt we do to others. Gaining immense wealth with no regard to how it hurts others. Taking and taking and taking, with no regard for anyone else. Taking people’s things and livelihoods. Taking the truth from people. Taking life from people. 

All of these desires we have within us, and acting on these desires is what defiles us, Jesus says. Acting on our selfish desires with no regard for others is what makes us ‘stained’ by the world, as James says. 

Look at religious hypocrites, which we all are at times, but think about the big examples. Huge mega-pastor televangel-whatevers who have an enormous following. They’re great at showing how religious they are and demanding that same religious purity from others, and then they get brought down by some big financial or sex scandal. We tend to call such people hypocrites, but the real problem is not the hypocrisy, but that they were chasing after the wrong things in the first place. It’s not as though their super religiousness was stained by their misdeeds. The point is that all of their religiosity that looked so impressive never much mattered in the first place.  

They were hearers of the word and not doers, at least in part because of a focus on doing all of their religiousy stuff right, trying to please God (or at least show off about pleasing God), rather than simply trying to love and serve other people.

True religion, according to James, is to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Being here, following other religious practices is training to trust in God, to love ourselves, to love others. When we do that, those selfish desires which live within us tend to fade away. We love and care for others, and that makes our religion true. Loving and caring for others is the religion that pleases God.

We don’t need to make grand gestures to appease God. We don’t need to be super religious. Just go with the simple notion that we all matter, that we all are of divine importance, and treat one another accordingly.

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.”

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.