“Nope,” Jesus said. Rather than bring death, Jesus transformed death into life.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston
October 20, 2024
Proper 24, B
Isaiah 53:4-12
Psalm 91:9-16
Mark 10:35-45

So, there’s an election coming up in a few weeks, and yes, I am encouraging you all to vote, and no, I’m not encouraging anyone to vote in any particular way. I’m bringing up the election because it is once again rather contentious, hotly contested, and there’s this feeling in the air of, “Holy Dear Lord Almighty Sweet Baby Jesus, if the right side doesn’t win, then the Kingdom of God will be destroyed, and Jesus will never return.”
 
That is, of course, not the case. Neither side winning is going to bring about the destruction of the Kingdom of God. The election may be important, but it ain’t that important. Not even the gates of Hell can prevail against the Kingdom of God, and the president and congress of the United States, as much power as they may wield, aren’t powerful enough to destroy or bring about God’s kingdom.
 
Our hope is not in whoever becomes president. As Jesus pointed out to his disciples in our Gospel lesson today, our hope is not in any human power or position. Our hope is in Jesus, in the unity with God and one another which Jesus has forged. The Word of God which spoke creation into existence became human, fully uniting humanity and divinity. God and humans are one, and nothing, not even a bad president can separate that unity.  
 
So, despite the terrible angst and seemingly large stakes of the upcoming election, our hope is in Jesus’ victory. His is the victory and power not of human governments, not of domination, or enforcing his will. Jesus’ victory is the power of service, surrender, and resurrection, transforming death into life.
 
That resurrection power of service and surrender is the power we live out when we live the life of the kingdom of God which Jesus taught us to live. In today’s Gospel reading, once again, Jesus taught us to wield resurrection power not through the might of ruling over others, but through loving and serving one another as we were created to do.  
 
When James and John sought great power from Jesus, he assured them that such power of ruling over others is not what makes us great in the kingdom of God. They wanted to sit one on his right hand and one on his left, and they weren’t thinking of life after this up in heaven. That idea was kind of a concept in Jesus’ day, but not the dogma we have now. The thought of, “Let me serve with you after I’ve died,” was almost certainly not in their brains.

No, James and John wanted earthly power to rule with Jesus as his co-world-dominating vice-presidents. They wanted power and might over other human beings, and that is simply not the way of the kingdom of God.
 
“You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you;” Jesus taught, “but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant.” That sounds a lot like Eden, being one another’s companions and helpers.  
That teaching that those who wish to be great must be servants in God’s kingdom is pretty darn similar to the teaching we heard last week with the man who had great wealth. Remember, he wanted to make sure that he had the best of everything in this world and this life, and also to make sure that he had the best of everything in the life to come. “Sure, Jesus, I care about others and hear you teaching that I can use my vast wealth to serve others and to make sure they have enough as well, but I really love my stuff more than I do other people.” He wanted an “all about me” salvation, making sure that he was going to be ok, and not thinking too much about the well-being of anyone else. That’s not salvation; it’s just selfishness.
 
Remember the man in the parable Jesus told who used his great wealth to make sure everyone who worked for him, had a living wage. He even went searching for more folks to work for him, even if only for an hour, to make sure that they had a living wage too. That’s greatness in God’s kingdom, using wealth as a servant, not as one to be served.
 
Greatness in God’s kingdom comes from using what God has given us for the benefit of others, not for ourselves to get even more, and greatness in God’s kingdom does not come by forcing the world to be how we want it to be. Even when we’re right, it’s not our world to force our will upon. Even if we’re right, forcing our will on others is being a tyrant, and Jesus expressly taught against being a tyrant. The world is not any of ours to rule, not even by proxy, electing the folks we think are the right ones to be in office. God’s kingdom and our hope do not come from us or through elected proxies on our behalf. No, our hope and God’s kingdom come from Jesus, from the unity with God that he gave and through the resurrection life that he continually gives.
 
Even so, a lot of us are going to be mightily disappointed the day after the election. Some will be angry. Some may be legitimately afraid because of who gets elected, and some will be afraid probably not so legitimately. Fear, anger, and angst are very human and understandable reactions to the changes and chances of this life. Reacting out of our fear, anger, and angst, are also understandable, and, those fearful and angry reactions go against the kingdom of God. Those fearful and angry reactions come from feelings of powerlessness, wanting power over a world that is not in our control.
 
That is the power that James and John wanted, and Jesus told them, “No.” That power is not the way of God’s kingdom.
 
Jesus teaches us instead to accept our powerlessness, just like he did before Pontius

Pilate. “I have the power to kill you or to save your life,” Pilate said. “Nope,” Jesus said. “I could command hosts of angels to save me and destroy you all, but I’m not going to do that.” Jesus could have brought death to thousands and saved his own life.  Instead, Jesus accepted the seeming power that Pilate held over him, and because of that, rather than just bring more death, Jesus transformed death into life.
 
So, what are we to do then with our fear, and anger, and feelings of powerlessness? Once again, we follow Jesus’ example and teaching. We give our fear and anger over to God. We ask God for the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We act out of the fruit of the Spirit, rather than the burning fire of our anger and fear. Let by the fruit of the Spirit, we can call and write our political leaders to let them know of our fear and anger. They probably won’t care, but we can.
 
We can let go our fear and anger, accept our powerlessness, and choose to love and serve one another because that is who and how we were made to be. Loving and serving one another is how we live the eternal life of God. Loving and serving one another is how we live the life of God’s kingdom.
 
Our hope is in Jesus, and our hope is in the resurrection life of service and surrender, loving one another, even loving our enemies, so that all things, even death itself, are transformed into life.   

"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. 

Being born of water, we become like water.

 The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets
May 26, 2024
Trinity Sunday, Year B
Romans 8:12-17
Psalm 29
John 3:1-17

 

The writer of the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tsu, is quoted as saying, “water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield.” As best I can tell, that quote is actually a couple ideas from the Tao put together, and the teaching holds simple truth. Water yields if you try to push it, moves around you if you jump into it, and yet, given time, water can wear away enough rock to form the Grand Canyon.

So, the teaching that “water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock which is rigid and cannot yield,” is meant to tell us to be like water. Water moves around obstacles in its way and still gets to where it’s going. Water flows into the deep places of life where other things cannot go, and water gives life.

If we can yield like water, then we can move around the obstacles in our lives without constantly fighting them. Flowing like water, without constantly trying to force our own way in the world, we find peace in the deep places of our lives, and if we can yield and flow, finding peace in God, then we will give life and love to the world.

Now, I am almost certain that Jesus did not have Lao Tsu’s teaching in mind when he said, “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” Jesus was talking about baptism when he talked about being born of water.

In baptism, there is a cleansing, a putting away of life lived according to one’s own way, trusting in oneself. There is instead, in Baptism, a trusting in God, living life according to that trust in God. There is a giving up of one’s own way and one’s own will, and there is a submission to God’s way and God’s will. That means we interact with the world differently.

Being born of water, we become like water. Accepting that the world is God’s and now ours, and putting our faith and trust in God, rather than in ourselves, we flow like water, without constantly trying to force our own way in the world. We find peace with God’s presence in the deep places of our lives. We yield to the flow of God’s love and give life and love to the world. Being born of water, we become “fluid, soft, and yielding, able to wear away that which is rigid and cannot yield.”

Being born of water and yielding to God, accepting life as it is, rather than we would force it to be, we are born of the Spirit, born of God’s Spirit. Now, this is not just some generic spirit thing. We believe in God’s Holy Spirit, who, along with the Father and the Son, is one God. We believe in this God who is a relationship of persons, three persons bound together so perfectly in love that they are one.

The Spirit of this three-person one-God is the Spirit of God that moved over the water of the Earth in creation, the Spirit of God that carried the Word of God through the prophets, the Spirit of God which the Word of God sent forth upon the Church at Pentecost. The same Spirit of God which blows and moves throughout all creation is the Spirit in which we are born.

Being born of the Spirit, we then become like Spirit, as Jesus said, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” When we are born of the Spirit, we live according to God’s will, rather than our own, which means we don’t force our will on others. We also don’t force what we believe to be God’s will on others. We live according to God’s will like water, or wind, fluid, soft, and yielding. We live God’s will and allow that to influence others over time, as water to a rock.

Living as water or wind, what gradual influence do we have in the lives of those around us? Well, if we are born of the Spirit and live according to the Spirit, then our influence would be by the Gifts of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That is what we would bring to the world.

Have you ever seen someone remain in control and even at peace in a situation that was awful and kinda nuts. Rather than making things worse and adding even more anger to a situation, they have brought peace, patience, and kindness to that situation, you’ve been left wondering how in world they did that. I’d say it was the gifts of the Spirit and the Spirit of God leading to God’s will in the world.

So, what is God’s will in the world? God’s will for us is to “do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God,” from Micah 6:8. God’s will for us is that we would “love one another,” from John 13:34. God’s will for us is that we would “put away…bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven [us],” from Ephesians 4:31-32.

Justice, mercy, love. When we see injustice, vengeance, and hatred, God’s Spirit leads us to bring justice, mercy, and love into those places. We cannot and do not, however, do this on our own. On our own steam, we tend to want to force the justice, mercy, and love, and when we try to force justice, mercy, and love violence and control of others, we end up bringing wrath, anger, and malice instead.

We bring justice, mercy, and love like water to a rock, changing it over time, doing only the part that God has for us to do. We do this work together with God’s Spirit, trusting not in earthly powers or authorities, or do we really think any political party through our government is going to bring about justice, mercy, and love? Do we really think any business or human institution is going to bring about justice, mercy, and love?

Governments, businesses, institutions, they can all do some good, sure, but that is not where our faith lies. In bringing justice, mercy, and love into the world, our faith lies in God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In bringing justice, mercy, and love into the world, our faith lies in God’s Spirit to guide us together into living justice, living mercy and living love. We strive, each of us in our own ways, guided and strengthened by God’s Spirit to bringing justice, mercy, and love into the world through how we live. Then, we influence others as we go to live according to same justice, mercy, and love of the Spirit of God.

Slowly, over time, trusting in God’s Spirt, God’s will, and God’s ways, we are called to be born of water and the Spirit, trusting not in our own flesh to force our way in the world. Born of water and the Spirit we are called to become like water which is “fluid, soft, and yielding, and yet will wear away rock.”

Jesus Wants Us to be Joyful…not Fearful, Lonely, Right, or Isolated.

Brad Sullivan

6 Easter, Year B

May 6, 2018

Emmanuel, Houston

John 15:9-17

Jesus wants us to be joyful…not fearful, lonely, right, or isolated.

Abide in my love, Jesus said, so that my joy may be in your and your joy may be complete.  Jesus had all sorts of emotions, just like every other human.  Anger, frustration, contempt.  Think about how Jesus was with the scribes, the Pharisees, the money changers, his own disciples at times.  Jesus was powerful in the extreme, and those emotions and ways of being, anger, frustration, contempt are powerful as well.  They were a part of Jesus and they gave him a nudge to start acting or doing things every now and then, and yet rather than choose to act and live out of those powerful emotions, he chose to live in the powerful weakness of love. 

The powerful weakness of love is so much more powerful than anger.  Love is so much more powerful than frustration.  Love is so much more powerful than contempt…and love often feels like weakness.  Love is vulnerable.  Love doesn’t force the other but offers, guides, leads the other, allowing the other not to follow.  Love allows for failure and is not coercive.  Love does not belittle or taunt.  Love allows for things not to go “my way”, allowing for the needs of the beloved over one’s own desires.  Love also trusts in the mutual nature of love such that the beloved will also reciprocate that love, trusting, not forcing. 

Jesus could have forced people to do whatever he wanted.  When push came to shove, however, he acted not out of his power, not out of anger, frustration, or contempt.  Jesus acted instead out of the powerful weakness and trusting nature of love, and he told his disciples to abide in his love, not in any of those other emotions or ways of being.  Abide in my love, Jesus said.

Abide in that which ultimately led Jesus to the cross…ok, my sales pitch isn’t really as good as his.  Jesus talked about joy, and love allowing our joy to be complete.  So, what keeps us from joy?  How about fear?  How about when, because of our fear, we choose to dwell not in love, but in anger, frustration, and contempt?  When we’re afraid, we feel weak, and we want to feel strong, so we often turn to anger, frustration, and contempt.  They are powerful, and so when afraid we act out of those things which make us feel powerful, but where do they lead?

To joy?  Not so much.  Dwelling in and acting out of anger, frustration, and contempt leads to hurt, resentment, loneliness, victimhood, maybe a sense of being right (in a me versus the world kind of way), and a profound lack of joy.  We may feel powerful, but we also feel more alone, more fearful, and worse about ourselves.  Such is the way of fear and dwelling in power to overcome our fear.

When we choose to abide in Jesus’ love, to make love our home, then we will in all likelihood be led to the cross, to that place of powerful weakness.  So when we abide in love and are led to the cross, what gets nailed to that cross?  How about being right?  How about our hurt and resentment?

Is anyone else here kinda good at hurt and resentment, at being hurt or let down by someone whom we deeply love, and then letting that hurt turn to resentment?  It certainly feels strong.  Walls up, weapons out, not going to hurt me again, but it never leads to anywhere good.  Greater fear and isolation, loneliness, victimhood.  It may feel right or righteous, but it certainly doesn’t lead to a place of joy.

Say you’ve got a mini, stay at home date night planned for after the kids are asleep, and your wife falls asleep again putting one of the kids to bed, and instead of your usual feelings of hurt at being stood up again on such an occasion for the exact same reason as usual, you choose instead to be happy for your wife because as tired as she is, she got to get some well needed sleep.  (As a top of my head, totally hypothetical example.)  Being happy for my wife led me to be joyful amidst the let down, and a little while later, she woke up anyway.

Jesus wants us to joyful, not fearful, lonely, right, and isolated.  Jesus wants us to be joyful, and so he taught us to dwell in his love.  We dwell in love, we let love lead us to the cross, and we put our hurt and resentment on that cross.  Then when someone we love lets us down, we can dwell in love for that person. 

When someone we love lets us down, rather than dwelling in hurt and resentment, we get to ask ourselves, “why did they let us down?”  Maybe they were overwhelmed.  Maybe life just happened.  Maybe they were doing their level best and reached a limit in what they could do.  Maybe in letting us down, they got something that they really needed, and so rather than being hurt, we can be happy for them.  We are talking about someone we love after all.  Maybe our hurt can turn to concern for them if it seems that their letting us down came from a place of limit or need on their part.  Out of concern, we get to act out of love on their behalf, our hurt and resentment transformed to gladness or concern for the other, and gladness or concern for the other are places of joy, expressed through love.

Abide in Jesus’ love, and we do get led to the cross, so that our fear and hurt may be transformed into joy.  Jesus said he wants us to abide in his love so that his joy may be in us and our joy may be complete.  I often think of Jesus as so serious and our religion so serious.  Anyone else?  Christianity is so serious, isn’t it?  Jesus died for our sins and rose that we may have life eternal.  Jesus lived and showed us his kingdom here on earth and taught us to live out his kingdom here on earth, loving, forgiving, caring for those in need.  It’s all so serious, and he was so earnest and serious in his teachings, so at times I tend to forget how darn joyous Jesus was.  He hung out with people.  He partied.  He took delight in children, and found joy and beauty in grass and birds.  He didn’t worry about daily struggles because in his kingdom, people take care of each other.  When visiting his friends Martha and Mary, it didn’t bother him that the house was a mess or that the meal wasn’t perfectly perfect and on time.  He was enjoying being with his friends. 

As much as we are earnest in our faith and are intended to take our faith seriously, Jesus didn’t tell us to abide in his love so that our earnestness and seriousness would be complete.  Abide in my love, Jesus said, so that “my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”

So what does joy look like?  Joy looks like forgiveness and compassion leading to a place of peace, of happiness and love for the other.  Joy looks like hope and being surrounded by love in the midst of sadness.  Joy looks like enjoying time with people in all of our imperfect glory.  Joy looks like being cared for and caring for others.  Joy looks like the sun coming up every morning and letting that be enough.  Joy looks like acceptance, accepting life for what it is and finding the peace, hope, and love in what life is, rather than constantly wishing for life to be something else. 

Joy looks like placing the power of our hurt and resentment on the cross and abiding in that place of love.  Jesus invites us into his joy, that his joy may be in us.  Jesus invites us to abide, to dwell in the powerful weakness of his love so that our joy may be complete.