Poppy Seeds and Drowning Trees

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
October 5, 2025
Proper 23, C
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4
Psalm 37:1-10
Luke 17:5-10

“Increase our faith,” the disciples commanded Jesus, and Jesus said, “No.” Strange, huh? How often was God pleading with the Israelites to have more faith? How often did Jesus say things like, “Do not doubt, but believe”? You’d think of all things that they would ask for, faith is one that Jesus would say, “Sure, man, more faith, deeper faith, all the faith you want, you got it!” That’s not what happened, though. He told them, “no.”

What Jesus was really telling his disciples was, “You don’t need more faith. You just need to do well and trust with the faith you’ve got.” 

That’s how the disciples had chosen to live, trusting Jesus and living as though his teachings really were the best way of life for them…until Jesus said ‘forgive people, like, a lot.’ That’s what Jesus had taught them just before they said, “Give us more faith!”

These are the same folks who had been healing people and casting out demons in Jesus’ name. Jesus told them to go do that, and they were so excited. They didn’t cower down and say they weren’t ready or not strong enough in faith. They went out boldly, healed the sick, and cast out demons like Buffy the Vampire Slayer on speed. They came back and were swapping stories, so excited.

Then, weeks or months later, Jesus taught them to forgive people who wronged them, not just once or twice, but over and over. Forgive people, Jesus taught, a lot, because people are kinda messed up, and they keep messing up, and as often as they do and then turn around and try to make things right, Jesus taught to forgive. Over, and over, and over, forgive people. 

Suddenly the disciples were saying, “Forgiveness, eh, eh, are your sure about that one, Jesus? Yeah, maybe I don’t trust you that much after all, but thanks a ton. It’s been great, loved casting out demons, don’t think I have enough faith in me for forgiveness, though.”

So, Jesus told them, no. You’re not getting more faith. You’re not getting more belief. What you have is enough. He told them that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to a tree, “Hey Tree, go throw yourself into a lake,” and the tree would pull its own roots out of the ground, walk over to the lake, and throw itself in. 

Now, I don’t think Jesus meant that we would or could actually do this. As a kid, I wondered, “Why can’t I make a tree throw itself into a lake? I guess my faith isn’t good enough?” I don’t know, maybe I only had a half a mustard seed or just a poppy seed of faith. 

No, Jesus doesn’t mean that we’re failures in faith if we can’t actually make a tree walk to its death in a lake. Jesus was using this kinda weird image to illustrate the point that his disciples didn’t need more faith to forgive people as he was teaching. Whatever small amount of faith they had was sufficient. What they needed was faithfulness. 

What they needed was to trust Jesus and be faithful to what he taught. Then, their faith would grow. Like not by faith alone, but also by faithfulness. That’s what we heard in Habakkuk. The righteous live by their faith, or really by their faithfulness. 

The disciples thought they didn’t have enough faith. Perhaps they doubted and so thought they couldn’t be faithful because of their doubt.

The opposite of faith, however, is not doubt. Jesus talked about faith the size of a mustard seed. That ain’t a lot of faith, which means you’re going to have doubt. In fact, you can’t have faith without doubt. Doubt goes hand in hand with faith, and we wrestle with it.

Mother Theresa, for example, was hugely faithful to God’s calling on her to care for orphaned children in Calcutta, India. She devoted her whole life to those children, and throughout her life she had faith and struggled with deep doubt. She wrestled with it, and Jesus didn’t grant her more faith. The faith she had was sufficient, and she remained faithful with even that small amount of faith. 

So no, the opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is certainty. I don’t need faith to know that two plus two equals four. I need faith to believe that the people in my life who love me actually love me. I mean, I’m pretty sure they do, but I can’t read their minds. I trust them. Love is based on trust, on faith, and faith requires humility enough to admit that I don’t know everything, and I’m going to trust anyway. 

Through my wrestling with faith and doubt, I too wanted more faith, until I realized that what I really wanted was certainty. I’d so often heard people talk about their faith as certainty. Pastors would say they know their faith is true beyond any doubt, and I could never get there. I finally realized that I could never know with certainty, but I also realized I love God becoming human and joining with us physically in every part of our lives, and I love it so much that I choose to believe it. I still don’t know. I still have doubt, and I choose to believe anyway.

I admitted this to a group of pastors during a Bible study one day, and there was stony silence in the room. Finally, one of them said, “Well yeah, I have doubts just like you’re talking about, but I’d never admit that to my congregation.” There was agreement throughout the room by the rest of the pastors who all wrestled with doubts but who put on a show of having certainty in their faith. 

That means that those pastors were all lying to their congregations. They would never admit having doubts. They were pretending to have certainty that they didn’t have, and they were leading their people to think that they had to have certainty too. That means that these pastors were inadvertently leading their people away from the humility of faith and toward the pride of certainty.

Certainty says, I must be right. I am so certain that I am right, that I won’t even question it. You disagree with me. You, therefore, are not only wrong, but terribly, stupidly, sinfully wrong. 

The pride of certainty is not faith. That sound like how a lot of religious and political discourse goes nowadays? Behind certainty is the sin of pride. I am right. I know better. I am so important. I can put myself in God’s place. God said not to eat this fruit in the Garden of Eden, but I know better. I will do it anyway and place myself above God. 

Jesus said have faith the size of a mustard seed. Well, I’m going to do better than that. I’m going to have huge faith, certainty with no doubts. There’s pride there. Something is hard to believe or do, so I’ll go with certainty, rather than faith, and I’ll make sure that anyone who disagrees gets put in their place because despite what Jesus said, faith isn’t enough for me. I need certainty. 

No you don’t, Jesus said. Just have a little bit of faith, and follow that faith up with faithfulness. Trust in my ways, Jesus taught us, even when you’re not sure. Set yourself aside and trust in Jesus’ ways and teachings as we walk this life together. When I don’t think forgiveness is right, ‘cause it sure doesn’t feel right, I’m going to assume I don’t know everything. I’m going to trust in Jesus instead.

Faith is humble enough to believe in something, knowing that you’re not sure, and even not being sure, choosing to give yourself over to this belief. Faith says, I will give my heart to this belief. I will choose to live as though this faith is true. I will choose to live as though the teachings of Jesus really are the best way of life for me. I will let go of the certainty of self and humbly accept this little amount of faith, and follow where it leads.

"Smells Like a Big Smile and a Lobotomy"

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
June 16, 2024
Proper 6, Year B
2 Corinthians 5:6-17
Psalm 92:1-4,11-14
Mark 4:26-34

Lord of the Streets

 

I have a candle in a metal jar which I often light when writing sermons. The scent is soothing and helps me set aside that time and place for focusing on God’s Word and how the scriptures impact and lead our lives. So, I light this candle, and on the outside of the candle, it says, “Positivity Depresses Me.” (https://www.davproco.com/products/positivity-retro-stripe-funny-candles) 

Once I saw that written, I knew the candle was for me. That’s absolutely my sense of humor, and it hits home just a bit for me. Positivity depresses me.

Now, the truth is positivity doesn’t actually depress me. False positivity does. When people start spouting off little quips and sayings about how wonderful things are, totally divorced from the challenges of the world, yeah, that bothers me a bit. But, true positivity, a hopeful outlook even with the problems all around us, I love that kind of positivity.

It's the positivity of embracing the good in our lives and accepting that bad that we can’t change. Embracing the good while accepting the challenges of life, builds me up and tends to spread, kind of like the Kingdom of God.

Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed, a tiny little nothing of a seed, which grows into a large plant. The thing about mustard plants is, they can also be considered to be like weeds. They grow and spread pretty quickly, and once they are rooted, they are frightfully difficult to destroy. Mustard plants aren’t always welcome near other plants because they can quickly take over areas of soil and box out the other plants.  

The kingdom of God can be like that. Deeply rooted in God and hard to destroy. The kingdom of God can spread quickly and thrive in new areas. Like with mustard plants, the seeds of the kingdom spread, and when they take root in new areas, they thrive because of their deep grounding in God.

The kingdom of God also spreads and thrives because, unlike depressing false positivity which ignores the problems of the world, the kingdom of God plants itself in the midst of the challenges and problems in our world and it lives out the true positivity of hope, accepting that there is bad in the world, much of which we can’t change, while also embracing the good in our lives.

The kingdom of God also spreads and thrives because it doesn’t force others to change. A mustard plant doesn’t make everything around it become mustard. It lives with the other plants around it.

Now, some people might see the kingdom of God as a weed because people don’t always want the hope, faith, and love that come with God’s kingdom. That’s ok. The kingdom doesn’t force them to. When we chose to be planted as God’s kingdom in places and communities in our lives, we don’t need to force others to become as we are, and we don’t need to coerce them with fear and threats of Hell. That’s not love. That’s abuse, and when people are converted to Christianity out of fear of Hell, that’s coercion, and the kingdom of God may not be the result.

When we are deeply rooted in God and living our faith and the way of Jesus, then the kingdom of God spreads as people see the healing and peace within us and decide they want what we have.

So, what does kingdom living look like? A life deeply rooted in God, in faith, hope, and love looks like the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. When we plant ourselves and remain deeply rooted in God, then God gives the growth of those fruits. We plant ourselves in communities and with people, we remain deeply rooted in God, and God gives the growth of the kingdom.

Of course, one thing to consider is that in the places where we would plant ourselves to sow seeds of God’s kingdom, God is already there. So, if we plant ourselves as a mustard seed among any group of people or place in this world, our job is not to bring them Jesus. Jesus is already there, bidden or unbidden, known or unknown.

When we plant ourselves as a mustard seed, our job is to live the kingdom of God. We are to stay deeply rooted in Jesus. We are to stay deeply rooted in God’s Word, deeply rooted in prayer, deeply rooted in our faith, deeply rooted in one another.

Then, when darkness and sadness get us down, as they will, our way is to let others be light and joy for us. When we plant ourselves with others, to spread God’s kingdom, we are to be true to ourselves and live God’s kingdom, and we are to let God give the growth.

We don’t know how it’s gonna happen, or when, or even if. We let God give the growth, and we release the outcome to God.

In spreading seeds of the Kingdom of God, we don’t do coerced conversions. We don’t do forced conversions. We don’t even force everyone to come to church. We are the church. When we plant ourselves out in the world, staying rooted in God, we are the church out in the world as Jesus intended.

We don’t need to preach to be the church. No, to be the Church in the world, we need to actually live as the church. We need to live the gifts of the Spirit. We show people God’s kingdom by how we live, then we can talk about Jesus. We can let people know about the growth Jesus has given in our lives.

If we know the freedom of releasing our anger and our desire to force our way in the world by letting go and allowing God to give the growth, then we can let people know about that freedom. If we know the comfort and companionship of living the kingdom of God, kingdom of then we can let people know about that comfort and companionship. If we know the peace of being rooted in God, then we can let people know about that peace.

We don’t spread the kingdom of God just by talking about Jesus, especially if we’re not living as disciples of Jesus, deeply rooted in our faith. Talking at people about Jesus without showing them Jesus in our lives seems like false positivity, the kind of positivity that’s kinda depressing. The words are good, but possibly disconnected from our lives.

The kingdom of God spreads when we live deeply rooted in our faith and then spread the true positivity of hope amidst suffering, of accepting the challenges of life while embracing the blessings. Living the faith, hope, and love of the Kingdom of God and planting ourselves out in the world, God will give growth, and the peace of God’s kingdom will spread. 

A Woman Made Bread, and Jesus Said, "This Is My Body"

Brad Sullivan

Proper 12, Year A

July 30, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

A Woman Made Bread, and Jesus Said, “This Is My Body”

Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to “yeast that a woman took and mixed in with tree measures of flower until all of it was leavened.”   Bread.  The kingdom of heaven is like bread, the yeast mixing with the flour, helping it all grow together, the hands of God working to knead the dough and bake it, transforming it from something gooey and inedible, to something delicious and life-giving.  God gives life and forms people in the Kingdom of Heaven, transforming us from one thing into another.  Like God took clay and formed it into Adam’s body and transformed it into a living being, so did a woman knead and shape dough to make bread, which Jesus took, and broke, and gave to his friends and said, “this is my body.”

We are called the Body of Christ live here on earth, as we believe in Jesus, recognize him moving in our lives, and as we seek to live out his Kingdom here on earth.  We’re called to be bread, our separate lives transformed into something greater and life-giving, yeast mixed with flower and water, kneaded, shaped, and leavened into a large loaf of fresh baked bread.   Think for a second about the smell of fresh baked bread; it smells so good, makes you hungry, even if you’re not, you smell that bread, and you want some.  That’s what the Kingdom of God is like.  When we see or hear about the Kingdom of God really being lived out here on earth, we want to go there, we want to be a part of it.

Really living out the kingdom of God here on earth takes time and effort, just like it takes time to and effort to make bread.  It takes time and effort to mix the ingredients together, to knead the dough, and then it takes God’s transformation, the ingredients literally becoming something else as they are baked together.  That’s life in God’s Kingdom:  time, effort, mixing, and God’s transformation.

Life in God’s kingdom, truly living our God’s kingdom takes time.  It takes time for people to form relationships with others, time to get to know our neighbors.  Life in God’s kingdom takes effort.  It takes effort for people to join with others in their communities to serve others, to pray together, to strive together for justice and peace: seeking and serving Christ in all people, respecting the dignity of every human being, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. 

Life in God’s kingdom also takes mixing.  For the kingdom of Heaven to work, the yeast doesn’t just sit on the counter and watch the woman make the bread.   The yeast moves in and  around and interacts with the flour, the yeast and flour joining together with each other, changing each other, becoming something different than the two were separately.  In the kingdom of God, we take time and effort mixing our lives with the lives of others.  We work.  We strive.  We meet people, and we see where Jesus is moving in their lives.  We join with them:  the movement of Jesus in our lives joined with the movement of Jesus in their lives.  When we take this time and effort to mix our lives together, Jesus works to knead the dough, like a woman who kneaded and shaped dough to make bread, which Jesus took, and broke, and gave to his friends and said, “this is my body.”

I read an article last week which was about this kind of Kingdom work, people mixing together and forming bread.  The article from gravityleadership.com, was titled “How to Shift Small Groups to Missional Communities”  For those unfamiliar with the term, mission communities are groups of people within a larger body of the church who “are committed to growing closer to Jesus, doing life together, and joining God’s work in the world.  In other words, missional communities embrace worship, community, and mission as a holistic life of discipleship.” 

The thrust of the article was that missional communities are different from small groups and that in order to live God’s kingdom, we need to shift some of our small groups into missional communities.  The article points out that many churches have done pretty well at gathering their large worshipping communities into smaller groups which pray together, and study scripture, and get to know each other more deeply through their faith.  The small groups take a large community in which some people know hardly anyone, and they give places where people can grow together in deep relationships with one another.  The article went on to say, however, that often these small groups grow stale, continually looking for the next book or next study, and the mission and work of Jesus gets left undone.  Even with a good focus on formation and sharing faith together, reaching out to others beyond themselves is often left out of these small groups.  The yeast remains on the counter, watching the flour from a distance, not mixing and allowing the woman’s hands to form them into bread.

To be fair, the yeast is always ready for the flour to come to it.  We, the church, want people to come here.  We have become a largely attractional community, waiting for folks to come through the doors of the church building and join us in worship.  While we do outreach here and have mission trips which are all good things, those efforts are not usually part of our daily lives and the communities in which we live.  Rather, much of our life in the church is a part of this attractional model:  come to church to be a part of these outreach efforts here. 

With the attractional model of church, we’ve also done Sunday school pretty well for those who are here.  If you come to church on Sunday, you can be formed in the stories of scripture and the faith of Jesus.  If you can’t come to church on Sunday, you’re kinda left on your own.  Folks can watch Joel Osteen on TV, but there’s not actual interaction, actually community with real people, watching something on TV.  We have not been really faithful to Jesus’ calling for us to go out into our communities and form disciples of Jesus there.

Now, that sounds like evangelism, which the Episcopal church has not historically been overly well known for.  We can share our faith within communities within the church, but going out?  That sounds like less than happy street corner people.  Let me be very clear:  a faithful, yet less than happy person on a street corner, threatening strangers to believe in Jesus isn’t yeast mixing with flour; it’s rat poison.  Truly being yeast that gets up off the counter to mix with the flour means mixing with others in our communities, living life together, and thereby allowing Jesus to transform us into bread.  Evangelism is not generally done with strangers.  Evangelism is done with people we know and people we have gotten to know.  Evangelism is done in community, not by ourselves.  Becoming bread, becoming the kingdom of God means we live out our faith in community with others, going out together in our communities to serve others and likely to be served by them as well.  That is what missional communities are, what the church was always intended to be.

The article, “How to Shift Small Groups to Missional Communities”,  gave three steps toward transforming a small group into a missional community which has an outward mission:

• Start a conversation with your existing small group about joining God’s work in your community. If you are not currently part of a small group, prayerfully make a list of people you can invite in on the conversation.
• Discern mission as a group by making a list of areas in the community that God might be inviting you to step into. This could be a place like your neighborhood, [joining with others to regularly and consistently help at a non-profit or community home], or a people group that you feel especially called to serve and love.
• Develop some rhythms to support your life together that includes regularly seeking God, connecting in community with one another, and engaging your shared mission together.

Prayer, Worship, Service.

[Finally], as you step into mission as a community, think presence more than projects. How can you be intentional and consistent in being present among a group of people as a community? Then simply keep noticing where God is at work and join him there!

Now, I’d love to give an exact, step by step process for becoming a missional community with a simple beginning, middle, and end, but the Kingdom of God doesn’t work like that.  What exactly a community is going to look like, what exactly the community mission work will be depends on what needs there are in each of our communities.  What are our passions, and were do the needs of our communities meet the passions of our hearts?  A missional community could join together to serve together, regularly, at a non-profit or a community home/shelter.  A missional community could join together and get to know their neighbors and serve them when in need.  Then that person might join the missional community and serve with them when someone else is in need. 

A missional community, like the Body of Christ, like the Kingdom of God, is not a project that can be easily drawn up, pre-formed, modeled, and packaged for easy assembly.  Missional communities, the way of the kingdom of God, requires work, effort, mixing together, dreaming and praying together with guidance from Jesus.  Missional communities are going to be different everywhere because the needs and the people are different in each community. 

Our part is to be formed as bread, to be yeast, to mix with our communities, to really get to know the communities in which we live, to notice what the needs are, to notice where Jesus is already at work, and then to be willing to be changed by mixing our lives and the work of Jesus with the lives and work of Jesus within others in our communities.  Then we become the Kingdoms of God. 

When we take this time and effort to mix our lives together, Jesus works to knead the dough, like a woman who kneaded and shaped dough to make bread, which Jesus took, and broke, and gave to his friends and said, “this is my body.”

https://gravityleadership.com/small-groups-missional-communities/