Revenge or Repentance? Rage or Remorse?

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
September 14, 2025
Proper 19, C
Exodus 32:7-14
Psalm 51:1-11
Luke 15:1-10

Revenge or repentance? Rage or remorse?

Every Sunday, we pray together a prayer of repentance, the confession of sin, we call it, and that prayer includes not just each of our individual sins, but how we as a whole body of people have fallen short, hurting one another, putting our fear and our anger out into the world. We confess that we have sinned.

Say, for example, two people get into a fight. They’re both in not great moods, one pisses the other off, and they start throwing punches. I’d like to think it’s got nothing to do with me, especially if I wasn’t anywhere near them and didn’t even know them, but that’s not how sin works. The truth Jesus teaches is that even if I didn’t know them, I still contributed to their fight. In John 15:5, Jesus calls us branches on a vine, so whatever we’re contributing to the world, we’re contributing to everyone. 

I may not know the two people who fought with one another, but I have put my hurt, and fear, and anger out into the world in countless ways and in countless people’s lives. I may not know these two people who fought, but I contributed to the hurt, fear, and anger in the world which helped lead them to fight with one another. When violence happens in the world, when sin happens, we’re all a part of it, whether we’re directly responsible for it or not.

So, when right wing political activist and provocateur, Charlie Kirk was assassinated last week, on the one hand, I had nothing to do with it; I didn’t even know who the guy was until after he was killed. On the other hand, I have contributed to the hurt, anger, and fear in our world which helped lead to his death. 

When tragedy strikes, when people are killed, we are all responsible because we all contribute to the hurt, fear, and anger in the world.

And so, I ask the questions, revenge or repentance? Rage or remorse?

Jesus talked about there being more joy in heaven for one sinner who repents than for 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Of course there’s no joy in heaven over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance because those 99 righteous persons are fooling themselves. “We need no repentance,” they tell themselves. “Yes, you do,” the world replies back. 

Jesus gave this teaching in response to some religious leaders who were angry that he was eating with sinners. Sinners, as opposed to those very religious leaders whom society said were pretty good guys, but who also contributed to the hurt, the fear, and the anger in the world. 

So, to show these religious leaders that they weren’t as perfect as they seemed to think they were, Jesus told the story of a shepherd who left 99 sheep in search of the one sheep that was lost. Jesus was showing the importance of the sinners, the importance of the folks those religious leaders would have written off as being no good. Jesus was also showing those religious leaders that they weren’t as high and mighty as they seemed to think.

They were like the 99, but wouldn’t those 99 sheep still need the shepherd to fend off wolves and keep them together and safe? Of course they would. If the shepherd left the 99 to go get the one sheep, maybe instead of saying, “that God we’re not like that one dummy,” the 99 ought to follow the shepherd. 

Jesus’ message to the religious leaders was, y’all are sinners just as much as these other guys I’m eating with. Y’all need repentance too.

The same is true for us in our response to tragedy and murder. We tend to want to blame the one who did it, to blame only the one who did it, unless that one is a part of a group we don’t like, then we get to blame the whole group. That puts us in the same place as the religious leaders, incensed that Jesus was eating with sinners. We rage and want revenge. They are the bad ones. They deserve vengeance.

Jesus’ response to us, when we rage and call for revenge, is to ask us instead to seek repentance and remorse. “Hold on a second, Jesus,” we say. “We had nothing to do with it.” “Yes, you did,” the world replies. We poured our hurt, our fear, and our anger into the world and them somehow thought that the world would not be full of violence and hatred. 

We fight for what’s best for us, paying no never mind to how that may harm others, and we think that the world should not be full of violence and hatred. We assume our beliefs and ways are right and the others are wrong and so we dismiss them as wrong, and we think that the world should not be full of violence and hatred. We condemn others for their sins, giving thanks that God has forgiven us for ours, and we think that the world should not be full of violence and hatred.

Repentance and remorse is the response to tragedy that Jesus calls us to, our repentance and our remorse for our part in all of the violence and hatred in every tragedy in the world. 

When schoolchildren are gunned down in their classroom. Revenge or repentance? Rage or remorse?

When a senator and her husband are assassinated in their sleep. Revenge or repentance? Rage or remorse?

When an unarmed black teenager is killed for ringing the wrong doorbell. Revenge or repentance? Rage or remorse? 

When our government makes of show of force, botches a raid, and leaves 76 people killed, including 25 children. Revenge or repentance. Rage or remorse?

When terrorists kill thousands, flying planes into buildings. Revenge or repentance? Rage or remorse?

The revenge and rage response to all of those is totally justified. Of course people rage and want revenge in the face of terrorism, assassination, and murder. Of course people want revenge. The rage and revenge that we have sought, however, has only led to more killing, to more mistrust, to more hurt, fear, rage, and revenge.

So, what kind of world do we want to live in? What kind of lives do we want to lead? Revenge or repentance? Rage or remorse?

In the face of tragedy, murder, assassination, terrorism, government brutality, Jesus calls us to repentance and remorse, because we are all the one, the lost sheep Jesus goes and looks for. We’re also all the 99, the ones who think we are righteous but who really need to follow the shepherd when he goes to look for the one. We need to ask ourselves when that one is lost, when tragedy strikes, what kind of world do we want to live in? What kind of lives do we want to lead? Revenge or repentance? Rage or remorse?

God forgives those who need it.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
March 30, 2025
4 Lent, C
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Psalm 32
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Context matters. With Scripture, as with anything context matters for determining the meaning of something. Taking bits of scripture out of context, we can get scripture to say all sorts of things. For example:

“God loves nothing,” rather, “God hates.” If I had a hankering to make up an angry, frightening story with scripture, taking words out of context, I might just say that. “God loves nothing. God hates.” See, context really does matter, because those words really are in scripture. Deuteronomy 16:22 really has the words, “God hates” right there together, but the verse is actually at the end of descriptions of idolatry and injustice, “things that the Lord your God hates.” That’s what scripture says; God hates things like idolatry and injustice. Context matters. 

Here's another one. “God loves nothing.” Ooh, way harsh, “God loves nothing,” and yes, you can pluck those words right out of scripture, from Wisdom 7:28, but here’s what it actually says, “God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom.” Again, context matters.

I bring this up because today we have a passage about God’s forgiveness. In the story Jesus tells, a young man basically tells his dad, “I wish you were dead, now give me my inheritance.” When the young man spends all of his money and ends up penniless, he goes home, begging his father’s forgiveness, and his father runs out to him, embracing him, and throwing a party because he came back. From that story, God’s forgiveness seems pretty vast and unending. 

Last week, however, I heard in a Bible study someone say that if you are a Christian and you turn away from Jesus, you can’t be forgiven of that. There’s no way to come back to Jesus if you have ever turned away. 

That is not our belief in the church. If you turn away from Jesus, yes, you can come back. That’s the whole idea of repentance. That’s what Jesus was showing us in the story he told. So, where have we gotten this idea that you can’t come back to Jesus if you are a Christian who has rejected Jesus? Well, this idea comes from scripture, but it comes from scripture without context.

See, in Hebrews 6:4-6, the writer says, “it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt.” Well, that seems pretty clear. If you believe in Jesus, and then you stop believing in Jesus, you cannot return to a belief in Jesus, and you cannot be forgiven. 

What about the context, though? 

The writer of Hebrews is writing to a whole church, a large group of Jewish Christians, and it seems as though this church is beginning to lose their faith in Jesus, wanting to continue in their Jewish faith apart from Jesus. The writer is trying to convince them that Jesus really is the way to go, and he writes about Jesus in a very Jewish way. He compares Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to the Jewish animal sacrifices on the altar. He talks about Jesus’ priesthood in the context of the Jewish priesthood. Additionally, he writes about turning away from Jesus in the context of the people of Israel turning away from God throughout the scriptures. 

Remember, he writes, how Israel would forsake God and God would forsake them until the next generation would return to God? So, he’s writing to them about Jesus in the same way, and yeah, he’s threatening them a little, but that threat is written to them for the purpose of keeping them from turning away from Jesus. The writer of Hebrews’ words aren’t a forever truth to Christians that if you believe in Jesus and then stop believing in Jesus, you can never be forgiven. 

Such a belief, that God can’t or won’t forgive you for turning away from Jesus, is in conflict with other parts of scripture, like James 5:19-20. “My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” James states very clearly that if you turn away from Jesus, you can turn back. 

The thought that you can’t be forgiven if you turn away from Jesus is also in conflict with the overall narrative of Scripture. The story of scripture is of God creating us, loving us, and constantly reaching out to us to heal us and guide us back to him. Grace, and love, repentance, and forgiveness are the themes of Scripture. 

Maybe that’s why Jesus taught about God’s forgiveness, over and over again. Jesus taught about God’s forgiveness in the story he told of the young man wanted his father dead, took and wasted his inheritance, and then came back penniless and filthy, begging for his father’s forgiveness. His father forgave him instantly, and then his older brother complained.

“He doesn’t deserve it,” the brother complained. “He turned away from you, while I’ve been here with you the whole time; he should never be forgiven.” When we start saying that folks can’t repent if they turn away from Jesus, we start sounding like the older brother in the story, complaining how unfair it is, that forgiveness should only be for those who deserve it.

Well, that definitely sounds like people claiming forgiveness for themselves, while also saying others are beyond God’s forgiveness. The religious leaders in Jesus’ day seemed to be claiming the same thing when they got upset with Jesus for hanging out with sinners. “Those are the wrong sorts of people. God doesn’t like them!” They seemed to think. So, Jesus told the story of forgiveness. 

God forgives, whether we want others to be forgiven or not. God forgives not just those who deserve it. God forgives those who need it. We all need the healing of forgiveness. So, God calls us to repent, because we need that too. 

How often do we hear repentance expressed as a threat, as if the point of repentance is to appease God’s anger. “Yeah, it’s time to repent. I gotta get God off my back again.” Such thoughts forget that the purpose of repentance is our healing and wholeness. We repent because we need it for our healing. Turn away from things that are causing harm. After all, we only repent of things that are harmful to ourselves and others. 

So, whatever else you’ve heard about repentance, whatever rules you’ve heard about God’s forgiveness, try setting aside those rules made by bits of scripture taken out of context, and remember instead the story Jesus told. A young man said, “Dad, I wish you were dead, because I want my inheritance now. Gimme my money. The dad did, and the kid left, only to return filthy and penniless, begging forgiveness, and his father ran to him, blessing him and forgiving him. 

God forgives. Over and over again. God forgives us. Whatever it is, however, many times it is, God keeps inviting us to repent, to turn away from ways that are causing harm and return to God’s will and God’s ways. Jesus invites all to return and receive God’s forgiveness, not just those who deserve it, but those who need it. 

Unflinching Self-Honesty and a Life Well-Lived

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston
March 23, 2025
3 Lent, C
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Psalm 27
Luke 13:31-35

So, the Roman governor, Pilate, had some Israelites killed, and then he took some of their blood and mixed it in with the sacrifices Rome was making to their gods. He turned people into human sacrifices, so not only was their death unjust and tragic, but then Pilate turned their death into a total affront to all the people of Israel. 

So, the questions would have come. Is God protecting us or not? Are we still God’s beloved, or were those people just really, really awful that God let that happen to them? That must be it.

So, Jesus asked them, “Do you really think they were worse than everyone else?” 

“Well, yeah,” the people thought.

“No guys, not so much,” Jesus responded. “We’re all liable to the same judgment, by God, not by Rome, and tragic death, like that, can happen to any of us at any time.” A terrible and corrupt governor in Rome decided to kill those Israelites, not God, and those 18 who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them, that was due to unfortunate engineering and less than ideal construction, not God deciding to kill them with a tower.

People die, all the time: sometimes after a long and beautiful life, peacefully dying in their beds; sometimes suddenly, violently, through horrible tragedy. That’s just the way it is.

This isn’t really a surprise to us. We know this. We see it all the time. As much as we may sometimes like to think or wish that the wicked die terribly while the good are blissfully eased into peaceful and expected death, we know this isn’t the case. Whether it’s Rabbi Kusher’s book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Rabbi Schusterman’s book, Why God Why?, or Rabbi Joel’s song, Only the Good Die Young, we seem to understand that tragic and early death can happen to anyone at any time. We seem to understand that the amount and quality of one’s sinfulness does not determine the amount of one’s suffering or violence and suddenness of one’s death. 

We know this, and yet, we often have thoughts and questions just like the Israelites did, who asked Jesus about the people Pilate killed. Sometimes we’re trying to justify ourselves a little bit and make ourselves feel safer. Maybe they were bad, or we wonder if they had done something wrong. We certainly hear preachers often talk about this, though usually directed at folks with political differences, religious differences, or even folks with the wrong brand of Christianity. That self-justification is bad enough. Perhaps even worse is when we can’t find anything objectionable in those who died, so we try to defend and justify God. “God needed a new angel.” More than that little kid needed his mom, are you kidding me?

Well, whether we’re claiming that those people were bad or that God was particularly in need of a new winged harpist that day, all of our justifications for tragic death are a basic fear response. We’re trying to make sense of the world, and we’re trying to make safe our own place within it.

“Yeah, that’s missing the point, guys,” Jesus says. Rather than trying to fool yourselves into thinking that the world makes sense and is always good, right and just; rather than try to fool yourselves into imagining your place in the world is safe from harm, realize that yes, indeed, tragedy can happen to anyone at any time. So instead of fretting your life away with false platitudes to boost your serotonin levels, accept life as it is, with all of its sometimes scary randomness.

Then, repent, and repent again, and then, for good measure, repent again, and after that, go ahead and have breakfast and keep going with your day, repenting continually as you go. That’s what Jesus told the people in response to their question about whether only the wicked died tragically. Stop worrying about that, y’all, and instead, “repent and return to the Lord.”

Now, I don’t believe this was a fearful, frightening message that you better repent or else, despite what we may have heard from popular Christian preachers. Jesus was not threatening the people to be good enough or repent well enough that no harm would come to them. Jesus’ call to repentance is not meant as a talisman against harm. 

Rather, Jesus’ call to repentance is a call continually to align our lives with the life and love of God. Doing so may not save us from the crazy whims of a despotic ruler, and being good enough won’t magically keep a poorly built structure from falling on us. What repentance does, what continually aligning our lives with the life and love of God does is allow us to truly live, a life of wholeness, a life of fruitfulness. Like the fruit on the fig tree Jesus talked about, like the fruit of the Spirit, repentance brings about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Those are the fruits we are seeking to grow in our lives. If our lives are long, ending peacefully in bed, we seek to grow the fruit of the Spirit, and if our lives are cut short, even violently, tragically, we still seek to grow the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. A life full of those fruits sounds like a life well-lived, whether long or short, a life well-lived. 

So, Jesus calls us to repentance, calls us to a life well-lived.

Repentance means looking deeply, being unflinchingly honest with ourselves, and seeing what defects of character, what ways we follow are bringing harm to ourselves or harm to others. Overindulgence, harshness, falsehood, malice, cruelty, frenzy, anger, resentment, hatred. We don’t eat these fruits in order to bring harm to the world. We eat these fruits because we are hurting and they make us feel better, at least for a little while. Anger, resentment and hatred make us feel strong. Overindulgence, harshness, and falsehood help us feel safe. Malice, cruelty, and frenzy make us feel in control.

So, we eat these fruits, and they destroy the fruit of the Spirit within us. Our overindulgence, harshness, falsehood, malice, cruelty, frenzy, anger, resentment, hatred: these things continually leach out of us into the lives of everyone around us. These negative fruits grow within us because of the ways we live which feed these fruits, these toxins, and so Jesus calls us to repent. 

Repent of the actions and ways in our lives that feed these toxins and cause them to leach out from us into the lives of others. What are those ways that feed these negative fruits? Of what do we each need to repent? Well, answering those questions is why we pray and look deeply into our lives with unflinching honesty. Then, we make a decision to turn from these harmful ways with God’s help. Our trust comes in believing that God actually does have something greater for us than our negative fruits bring. 

So, we are called to repent, over and over again, continually turning toward the ways of love, and hope, and faith. Repent of the ways that feed our anxiety and angst. Repent of the ways that feed our selfish overindulgence. Repent of the ways that fill our hearts with anger and resentment. Then, let God grow within us the fruit of the Spirit. 

With that fruit, we can be at peace, even amidst fear, even though death may come at any time. We seek the fruit of the Spirit. We turn to Jesus. We align our lives with his way of life and love, and we walk with him in a life well-lived.

Do not be afraid, for the Word has become flesh...

 The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston
December 29, 2024
1 Christmas, C
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 147
John 1:1-18 

“[Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.”

When Jesus was born, the Word of God became human. The Word of God which spoke creation into existence became human. The word of God which gave the law of Israel became human. The Word of God which spoke through the prophets became human, and most importantly of all, the Word of God which is God became human.

When God became human, an angel of the Lord went to nearby shepherds and told them, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

That little baby, wrapped in bands of cloth, surrounded by family and no small amount of animals was God born among us as the human child, Jesus. The good news of great joy is that God became human and was born among us, as one of us, uniting all that we are in perfect union with God.

That’s good news of great joy, and yet we so often hear it told as remarkably bad news, don’t we. “If you don’t believe in Jesus, God’s gonna get you,” right? We do talk a lot about God’s judgement of the wicked, the unjust, and those who gain wealth by oppressing others. Thank God, God has judgement on such people.

Here’s the good news: even that judgement and that wickedness has been united to God in Jesus. That’s the whole point of the incarnation, of the Word of God becoming human; everything about us has been united to God. Nothing can separate us from God and God’s love. Amidst all the storms and crud of life all around us, we are perfectly united to God: in our faith, in our fears, in our kindness and in our sins. We are forever one with God through that baby wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

Now, I said earlier that Jesus, in the manger, was surrounded family as well as all the animals. I don’t just mean Mary and Joseph. As much as I love our manger scenes with more cows and sheep than people, as in a barn set away from the house, that was almost certainly not the case. The room where they were was attached to and part of the house where animals could be kept. They were probably at the home of a family member. So, Jesus was surrounded by Mary, Joseph, and other family members celebrating the birth of Mary’s firstborn son, and they were surrounded by animals.

Thinking of this manger scene of family and animals, I was reminded of Noah’s ark. The Manger, the birth of Jesus, was like a little ark, a little sanctuary amidst the flood of all the crazy that was going on around them. Rome was oppressing the Jewish people, there were fanatical religious leaders calling for armed rebellion, tax collectors and soldiers were extorting money from people, and as it turned out, the king of Israel was a crazy enough dude that he thought murdering babies was a good idea.

So yeah, life was like a terrible flood of crazy all around and in the midst of that flood, you had this ark, this manger in which God was born among us surrounded by loved ones and animals, a safe place from the storm, and a new beginning.

On that night, in that manger ark, our new life of perfect union with God began, and with that new life, God began once again God’s life of love among us. Remember that revolution of repentance I talked about last Sunday, Mary, singing her song of praise to God and of revolution on the earth? Remember, I said that God’s revolution for us is meant to change the crazy of the status quo not by violent revolution, but by the non-violent revolution of repentance? The next step is the non-violent revolution of love.

The Word of God became human because our union with God is what gives us the strength to love in the face of all of the crazy going on around us.

The strength to love in the face of oppression, the strength to love in the face of assault, the strength to love even in the face of murder and rape. That is the revolution of love that God gave us on that night when Jesus was born. We saw Jesus live out that revolution of love all the way through his death and into life everlasting beyond death.

We still see Jesus’ revolution of love being lived out among us in our world today. I think of the time after South African after apartheid. There was terrible violence and oppression during apartheid, and there was violence done in ending apartheid. Faced with this boiling rage among the people of South Africa, Nelson Mandella set up the Peace and Reconciliation Commission, and he asked Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu to lead the commission.

The commission offered amnesty for people involved in apartheid and in the violence done against apartheid. The commission sought truth from those who had harmed so many through their oppression and violence, and victims got to hear from those who had harmed them. The victims got to know that the perpetrators understood what they had done and see the humanity of their victims.

The work done through the Peace and Reconciliation Commission wasn’t perfect, and not everyone agreed with the work, but the work overall brought peace and reconciliation to a nation on the verge of collapse through conflict. Jesus’ revolution of love paved the way for the people of South Africa to move beyond the hurts of the past and find some peace amidst the hurt and hatred, amidst storms of the crazy of life.

Archbishop Tutu wrote:

To forgive is…a process that does not exclude hatred and anger. These emotions are all part of being human. You should never hate yourself for hating others who do terrible things: the depth of your love is shown by the extent of your anger.

However, when I talk of forgiveness I mean the belief that you can come out the other side a better person. A better person than the one being consumed by anger and hatred. Remaining in that state locks you in a state of victimhood, making you almost dependent on the perpetrator.

If you can find it in yourself to forgive, then you are no longer chained to the perpetrator.

Freedom and salvation. Freedom from sin, including freedom from the sins of others. That is the salvation of Jesus and Jesus’ revolution of love. Gathering with Mary and Joseph, with family, and with animals around the manger and the babe wrapped in bands of cloth, we can rest in that ark of freedom and salvation amidst the storms of life around us. The Word of God has become human, uniting us perfectly with God. All of our faith, all of our fears, all of our kindness, and all of our sins have been united to God. So, “Do not be afraid, for we have been brought good news of great joy for all the people: to us is born…in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord,” for the Word has become flesh and dwells among us.

When We Know Forgiveness, We Know Salvation

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston

December 8, 2024
2 Advent, C
Philippians 1:3-11
Canticle 16
Luke 3:1-6

Have you ever felt guilty about something you did? Ever felt bad about hurting someone, even if they didn’t know it, you lied or cheated, and betrayed someone’s trust or love? Have you then ever been forgiven by the one you’ve harmed for the things you’ve done?

If so, then you know the immense release that comes with forgiveness. The healing that goes on inside of us when we are forgiven, and our guilt recedes, and a weight is lifted because the one we have harmed has restored us to being ok. We’re no longer wracked with guilt. We’re no longer separated from one another. We’ve been restored to the possibility of love between one another. That is salvation.

The problem we see that needs fixing, from the Eden onward, is our disconnection from God and disconnection from one another. As we hurt one another, we pull away from one another, we put up barriers and shields to keep us safe. We walk around with anger in our hearts, showing others that we’re tougher than are so they won’t hurt us. We walk around with fear in our hearts pulling away from others before they have a chance to hurt us.

We see one another as threats, knowing that we’re often right, that others are threats, but mostly because they see us as threats.

We compete with one another out of scarcity for money, jobs, food, shelter. Since we feel we can’t trust others, we tend to go for winner take all, the American Dream of being billionaires while others work for them without enough to pay rent. Even further disconnection.

In our disconnection and mistrust, we turn to drugs, sex, alcohol, and anything else we can in order to feel better or not to feel at all. Those things don’t help, but they disconnect us even further. Angry, afraid, disconnected lives, seeing others as enemies to be feared or conquered…does that sound to anyone like Hell on Earth? That's because it is.

Disconnection is the Hell on Earth we know all too well. Salvation, then, is reconnection, reconnection with God and reconnection with one another.

John the Baptist went out into the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and we are told that John did this so that people would know salvation through forgiveness of their sins.

Forgiveness brings us reconnection, and reconnection is salvation from the Hell on Earth that we so often live. When we are restored to one another through repentance and forgiveness, we’re no longer separated from one another, and we are restored to the possibility of love between one another. That is salvation.

When we know forgiveness, we know salvation. 

So, as followers of Jesus, our way of life is the way of forgiveness. Ideally, we follow the way of forgiveness because we actually know the healing and salvation that forgiveness bring. Some folks maybe don’t.

Some folks might say, “no,” to the question, have they ever felt guilty about something they did. Some may be too afraid to face it or admit it. Some are so self-absorbed that they fail to recognize the harm they’ve caused, and some may even be so self-important that they wouldn’t even care much about the harm they’ve done to others even if they did recognize it.

In any case, for folks who refuse to feel guilt or who won’t or are just too unaware to feel guilt, it may be hard to really understand the salvation given by God. Perhaps that’s why John’s baptism wasn’t just a baptism of forgiveness, but a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

With repentance, we first have to understand the harm we’ve done, actually care about those we’ve harmed. Then, we repent. We change our ways. We seek to make amends and bring healing where we can to those we’ve hurt. Repentance and then forgiveness of sins. That brings about healing and restoration. Repentance and forgiveness together are our way of life, the way of healing and love.

Unfortunately, it often feels like we’ve largely divorced repentance and God’s forgiveness from this life and made it all about avoiding punishment after this life. Then we’ve further made rules out of Jesus forgiveness. Don’t feel guilty about anything you’ve done in this life? No problem. Just believe in Jesus, and he’ll forgive you. Don’t believe in Jesus, but you seek to bring about healing through repentance and forgiveness? Well, too bad, since you don’t believe in Jesus, God is going to punish you anyway.

Here's the deal with Jesus and God’s forgiveness. Yes, God forgives us. Yes, we are given forgiveness through Jesus. Yes, we are assured of punishment for the wicked, and at the same time, yes, we get to rest secure in God’s love for us and God’s forgiveness of us. How do we fit God’s punishment of the wicked together with God’s forgiveness and love? We fit God’s punishment and God’s forgiveness and love together with trust and faith.

We trust in God’s punishment, because sometimes, when we don’t realize or don’t care about the people we’ve harmed, we need God’s punishment to give us a kick in the tail, and we need God’s forgiveness and love because that is where healing and reconnection happens. When we truly feel the weight of how we’ve harmed others, and we repent and seek amendment, we feel the release and healing of forgiveness, we have salvation here on earth.

God will one day restore all things, restoring this world so that there will be no more Hell on Earth; there will be no more of us harming one another and disconnecting from one another. One day we will all be restored, God will wipe away every tear from every eye, and we will live fully in the peace and love of restoration with God and one another.

In the mean time, God’s forgiveness and love gets to be lived. We get to live the gift of forgiveness choosing and working to release anger and hurt, to release the debt that is owed, and let forgiveness rule in our hearts. As we do, we know salvation.

Following God as Healing and Love (not a less scary alternative to torture)

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
April 14, 2024
3 Easter, Year B
Acts 3:12-19

Psalm 4
Luke 24:36b-48

Peter was pretty forthright with the folks to whom he was preaching, wasn’t he? This was a group of Israelites in Jerusalem, the folks who had condemned Jesus to death. He told them what they had done in condemning Jesus to death, admitted that they’d acted out of ignorance, and then he called on them to repent. Peter was doing exactly what Jesus had told him to do, proclaiming repentance and forgiveness of sins. 

With Peter and this group of fellow Israelites, Peter’s preaching made sense. It was appropriate. They had a shared religion, shared experiences, they knew something of one another’s stories. They had also just seen God heal a man through Peter’s ministry, and they were curious about how he was able to do that. Peter was saying that it wasn’t he who had healed the man, but Jesus working through him. From there, Peter was able to preach to them about Jesus.

There was shared experience between Peter and the people, and there was a question the folks had asked Peter; his talking to them about Jesus and calling them to repentance was in response to that question. He was also kind when he preached to them, not condemning them.

Nowadays, when I hear of folks telling others they need to repent, I often hear of it being done randomly, with contempt and anger. Someone sees another person, a stranger, doing something and they call them out, telling them they need to repent, or Hell is waiting for them. Not exactly our practice here, but I see it and hear about it. Randomly telling someone you don’t know that they are messing up and need to repent or else, that they need to believe in Jesus or else, is not proclaiming the Gospel. It’s an attack.

Such attacks are not following the preaching of Peter. Such attacks are not following Jesus’ command to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins. 

For one, Jesus very specifically told us not to make our own little determinations of who would be going to Heaven and who would be going to Hell. Every time someone does that, they’re placing themselves in the position of God, basically proclaiming themselves as God. 

Additionally, the Gospel of Jesus and the proclamation of repentance and forgiveness of sins is far from determining who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell. Such a simple who’s in and who’s out is not the faith of Jesus, not the point of the Gospel. A gospel of sin management determining where we go when we die is a fearful corruption of the Gospel of Jesus. 

How many people have been turned away from Jesus, have been turned away from the light and love of God because they haven’t been offered the love of Jesus. They haven’t been offered repentance and forgiveness of sins. All they’ve been offered is condemnation, threats of Hell, and a way out. 

The thing about Hell is, it may be eternal, but it also may be empty at the end of time, because Jesus is there as well, offering repentance and forgiveness of sins. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even Hell itself. So, any preaching or condemnatory attacks on people that focus on threats of Hell are putting Hell in the place of God. 

We are called to follow God not as a less scary alternative to torture. We are called to follow God because God is love and the way of love is the way we were created to live.

So, in calling people to repentance and proclaiming forgiveness of sins, we only start with that if we have a shared understanding, shared history, and actually know the folks we’re talking to. In calling people to repentance and proclaiming forgiveness of sins, we are not threatening punishment and then offering a way out. That’s coercion, not love. In calling people to repentance and proclaiming forgiveness of sins, we’re offering out of love, the way of Jesus because of the healing we’ve found in following the way of Jesus.

The people Peter talked to first saw healing. Desiring that healing, they then listened to Peter tell them about Jesus and the healing he brought. 

So, Peter’s first proclamation to the people was not given through his words, but through his actions. He healed a man, or rather Jesus healed a man through Peter’s ministry. Our first and best proclamation of Jesus is usually our own healing, how we live. We proclaim through out actions. 

We repent of our wrongs. We recognize the healing we need. We forgive others and forgive ourselves. When others see and become curious, then we can tell about how Jesus is the one who brought us healing. 

Then, we don’t need to convince anyone to follow Jesus. We don’t need to make the sale with them. We offer the healing we have found, the healing we have been given. We also need to be aware in making that offer, that the Gospel of Jesus has been corrupted by centuries of fear so when many people who don’t believe hear about Jesus, what they first hear is, you’re going to go to Hell if you don’t believe. Even if we don’t say that, people are going to hear it. 

If we don’t believe in that, if we don’t follow the “believe in Jesus or go to Hell” branch of Christianity, we can let folks know that we don’t believe that. If our faith is based not in fear of punishment but in the lived experience of healing and love, we can let folks know of the healing and love we have experienced. 

Healing and love is what we are offering when we tell people about Jesus. Healing and love is what we seek, the balm for our weary souls. Healing and love is what we proclaim when we proclaim repentance and forgiveness, first by living that healing and love, by living our own repentance and forgiveness. Then we can tell others about the healing and love we’ve found in Jesus, the healing and love of repentance and forgiveness when they see the healing in us, become curious, and ask how we have been healed.

Faded Away as Grass Into Mother Earth: Where New Life and New Possibility Await

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
December 6, 2020
2 Advent, B
Isaiah 40:1-11
2 Peter 3:8-15a

Mark 1:1-8

Faded Away as Grass Into Mother Earth:

Where New Life and New Possibility Await

When I hear of John preaching a baptism of repentance, images often come to my mind of a Hollywood version of someone shouting, “repent” to unsuspecting and rather baffled passersby.  The shouting is kinda lame, usually overacted, and is basically just some forced tone-setting for the film.  As for he crazed “repent” shouter, he’s kinda ridiculous, as if people changing their ways would somehow end the alien invasion which had just begun with space ships arriving and lasers firing.  So much for Hollywood’s version of repentance.  

Now, when John was in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism for repentance, he wasn’t trying to end an alien invasion.  Israel had been invaded, more or less, by Rome, but John wasn’t trying to end invasion with his calls to repentance.  He was also far less creepy than the Hollywood guy.  Rather than frighten unsuspecting people on the streets of New York, John was out in the wilderness, and people came to see him.  They actually liked and wanted to hear what he had to say. 

Rather than ending an invasion or scaring people, John’s call for repentance was less crazy, Hollywood, weirdo guy, and more “Comfort, O comfort my people…Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term…”  John was calling people into a life freed from the worst of themselves and into a life of hope, mercy, and love.  That is what the people went out into the wilderness to hear. 

A voice says, “Cry out!”  And I said, “What shall I cry?”

All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. (Isaiah 40)

Those are words of comfort.  In the great struggle and hectic nature of our lives, striving for so much, weighed down by the great importance of all we have to do, we are reminded that we are grass.  The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it.

Our efforts and striving are important to us and to those we love.  Our lives are important, but eventually, we will all fade as the grass.  We will become one with the earth once again, and someone else, some new grass, will grow in our place.  They will take the place on the earth that we once had. 

They will do their own striving while we rest, faded away as grass into mother earth, where all kinds of new life and new possibility await with the God of hope, mercy, and love who calls, “Comfort, O comfort my people.”  That is the kind of repentance that John calls for.  Rest.  Breathe.  Trust.  Let go the weight of your struggles.  Remember that you are grass, and be at peace.  

Repentance is not a call of anger and fear.  Repentance is a call of hope, mercy, and love which helps lead us to a place of peace.  

I heard the radio show, On Being, with Krista Tippett where she interviewed Bryan Stevenson an attorney who is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.  Mr. Stevenson began working for justice for people on death row, many of whom were incarcerated unjustly.  You may have seen the movie about him and his work called, Just Mercy, based on his book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.

In the interview with Krista Tippett, Mr. Stevenson talked about his work for justice and his way of viewing the world with hope, and mercy, and love.  Without hope, he said, we’re trapped where we are, unable to move beyond whatever has us stuck.  Without hope, we’re unable to move beyond injustice.  Without hope, we’re unable to move beyond the worst of who we are as people and as a society.

So hope is how we can begin to move beyond the worst of ourselves.  Then we need, mercy.  With mercy then, we can understand people as being more than the bad parts of ourselves.  Mr. Stevenson says, “Each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done.”  That’s the view of God towards us as well.  God offers us hope, sees us with mercy, and tells us that we are so much more than the worst thing we have ever done.  That’s the baptism of repentance to which John called people in the wilderness.  

Repentance means that with that hope and mercy, we then get to reckon with those worst parts of ourselves.  We have to reckon with the worst of ourselves because we can’t be free of those things, free of the worst parts of ourselves, if we don’t bring them with us when we come seeking mercy and redemption.  When we do bring those worst parts of ourselves with us on our journey of repentance, then we find God saying, those worst parts of you are grass.  “The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it.”  

With John’s hopeful and merciful calls to repentance, we find that we are loved and that we are lovable.  Repentance is not a scary, angry call from a lunatic.  Repentance is a call of love, calling us to turn from and let go of the ways that keep us down.  Repentance is a call of love to turn from and let go of the ways that keep us selfish (and therefore fearful).  Repentance is a call of love to turn away from and let go of the ways that keep us callous and unconcerned for others (and therefore fearful and contemptuous).  

Repentance acknowledges the fear and anger within us, and then repentance turns and lets go of that fear and anger.  Repentance frees us from the hopelessness which keeps us bound and stuck where we are, so that we then we find mercy and love from a God who does not define us by the worst things we have done.  We find instead a God who says, “Comfort, O comfort my people…” Rest.  Breathe.  Trust.  Let go the weight of your struggles.  Remember that you are grass, and be at peace.  

Then, we can live that peace.  Freed from that which binds us, freed from our shame, freed from the anxieties and fears of this life, we can look at this world through the eyes of hope.  See, there is anger, injustice, greed, exploitation, all sorts of terrible things in this world.  With hope, we can see that the world doesn’t have to stay that way, and we can see that there is so much beauty and light in the world as well.

Through repentance and hope, we can view ourselves, and others, and the world with mercy.  Mercy to see that those who do terrible, thoughtless, and callous things are also so much more than the worst things they have done.  Those we view with the most contempt need mercy and hope just like we do.

Then, with hope and mercy in our hearts, repentance leads us to love.  Having been loved by a just and merciful God, we are freed to love with justice and mercy.  We are freed to strive for justice and mercy.  Those places and people in our society in need of justice and mercy, the ones that grab our hearts and call to us, we are freed to strive for justice and mercy through God’s love.

That is the repentance to which John calls us, a repentance which allows us to strive for justice and mercy because we have been loved by a God who sees all of the crud and horribleness of our lives and deeds and says, “You are so much more than the worst things you have done.”  Through the repentance to which John calls us, we find a God who says,“Comfort, O comfort my people…”  Remember that you are grass.  “The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it.”  Rest.  Breathe.  Trust.  Let go the weight of your struggles.  Remember that you are grass, and be at peace.

That Someone Greater Is Jesus, and that Something Greater is Love

Brad Sullivan

3 Advent, Year B

December 17, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

John 1:6-8, 19-28

That Someone Greater Is Jesus, and that Something Greater is Love

So, John the Baptist really upset the uber religiousy folks of his time, didn’t he?  He was there, baptizing folks to testify to the Light of God, to lead people into repentance from the ways they were living that harmed themselves or others, and to prepare their hearts for the coming of God’s kingdom.  That sounds like a good thing, something folks could pretty well get behind, but the priests, the Levites, and the Pharisees, they were having none of it.  The priests and Levites were the ones with primary responsibility for the Temple worship, and the Pharisees were a group within Israel, focused on upholding the religious laws and rules of Israel. 

You might thing that such religious type folks would be glad to see someone taking their faith seriously, calling people to repentance, but not so.  The priests, Levites, and Pharisees were questioning John, basically wondering, “Who gave you the right or the authority to be out here baptizing?”  “Are you the Messiah, Elijah, the Prophet?  No?  Well then explain yourself.  What gives you the right or the authority to be out here baptizing folks?”  You can hear in their questions the fear that their power and authority might be questioned.  John wasn’t authorized by them, so there was this fear that their way of living and leading their religion was being questioned or even undermined. 

So, John responded, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.”  In other words, John was saying, “This baptism that I’m doing, guys, it ain’t nothing to get your knickers in a twist over.  You wonder about my authority and the things I’m doing…oh, just you wait.  I know you guys love the way you live out our religion and that you love having authority over our religion, but this whole salvation thing, God’s grace and favor, isn’t going to be only for you few uber religious types.  Truth be told, God’s grace and favor never was reserved only for you uber religious types.  God’s grace and favor is offered to all, and if you have your knickers in a twist because I offered a baptism of repentance to those you deem unworthy, just wait till God decides to sit down and eat with them.”

Ok, so I suppose if we’re being honest and fair, the way of the priests, Levites, and Pharisees to live and lead their religion was being questioned…

…and if we’re being honest and fair, we see this played out again and again in the church as well.  There was the reformation.  That was a pretty big questioning of how the Roman Catholic hierarchy was doing things.  Even now, today, we have a change going on in our religion.  Folks who want to love God and people but aren’t really religious. Some have been pushed out of the church (big C Church, worldwide) because of various ways of life which others within the church deem unworthy of Jesus.  Some have left the church because they have a passion for loving and serving people and they see the majority of the time, energy, and money of the church going almost exclusively to worship and building which serve the church primarily and others as an afterthought.  We see folks today within the church following news practices, old practices, new ways of living out our faith with a greater emphasis on serving others than on expensive, well-rehearsed and polished corporate worship. 

These changes, this turning around, this repentance, has left some of the traditional religious types none too happy.  There has been division and splintering.  Repentance, by its very nature, causes division. 

The fact that repentance causes division is not a bad thing.  John’s baptism caused, or revealed division.  That’s not a bad thing.  Such cause for or revealing of division is necessary.  It hurts, and it is ok, so long as it is followed by something or someone greater.  Someone greater than I is coming, John said.  Something greater than repentance is coming.  That someone is Jesus, and that something is love.

In Revelation chapter 2, [and now I’ve got your attention, right? Oh my God, preacher man’s gone to Revelation!  Now things are getting real.], in Revelation chapter 2, Jesus gave this message to the church in Ephesus:

‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false. I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first (Revelation 2:2-4)

The church in Ephesus, they were working on repentance.  They were trying to stop evildoers within their church from causing harm.  They had done well, Jesus was saying.  They had stopped some of the harm by those causing harm, but their repentance had led to division, and they had lost the love they had for each other.

Repentance will almost inevitably bring division, hurt, strife.  If we leave things there, we end up with fracture, splitting, us versus them, winners and losers, permanent division.  Repentance is good.  John’s baptism was good.  After John’s baptism, however, came someone greater, Jesus.  After repentance comes something greater, love.

Even in the midst of repentance, we need to make sure that the presence of love is what drives us.  With repentance, are we making ourselves clean of others, removing others so that we look or feel better?  Are we concerned with our own righteousness before God, or are we concerned with how well we love and serve others?  Remember, our righteousness before God has been taken care of by Jesus on the cross.  We’re not going to make ourselves any more righteous before God than Jesus already has.  His love for us is greater than our repentance.  In our repentance, we’re not seeking to be righteous before God.  In our repentance, we are seeking amendment of our ways and healing of our hearts so that we may more fully love others. 

Repentance is of course, not the only thing that can cause division within a church. Sometimes division is also caused by flood waters drowning a church building, and groups of people end up divided over how they want rebuilding to happen.  With rebuilding, just like with repentance, such divisions are inevitable.  We all care deeply for our church home, for what our church home is going to be and for how we are going to get there, and surprise, surprise, we’re all different.  I think Jesus is glad we’re all so different.  The body of Christ is as varied as humanity.  I think Jesus is glad that we care so deeply.  We are a caring and loving people, and we want our building back so that we can serve others in our community.  We’re still able to worship.  It’s not exactly our home, but we’re still able to worship. 

What we don’t have is our building as a resource to serve the needs of the community around us, and so I think Jesus is inspiring all of us to want to rebuild, to want to do so well, and to want to do so in a way that will serve not just our worship and fellowship needs, but will serve the needs of the community around us.  We all have different ideas, passions, and dreams for how we are to get there, and I think Jesus is glad for that too.  Only this Jesus would have against us, if we were to let those differing desires truly divide us and if we were to abandon the love which we had at first.

Our vestry has worked hard with the diocese to get us back into our building, and they have not done so in the exact way previous vestries might have.  Might, because we’ve never had this situation before.  Our current vestry has worked not in the way previous vestries might have, but in the way this vestry has.  What I have observed of the vestry and planning workstream tasked with getting us back into our building, is that they have worked faithfully, they have worked with integrity, and they have worked well.

This post-Harvey life is a season of forced repentance for us, a prolonged season of turning around, of changing our ways, because our church building was drowned.  We will not be what we were.  We will be something new, a new people by water and the spirit.  We will have division along with way, as is inevitable with repentance, but remember, we’re not seeking righteousness before God, but the healing of our hearts so that we may love more fully.  We must not abandon the love which we had at first, for something and someone greater than repentance is here binding us together.  That someone is Jesus, and that something is love.