Lazybones

Imaginary Fables

Songs of Hope #4:  "Imaginary Fables" is about the ways we get stuck inside our own heads and the people and relationships which help get us back out.  Please like and share.  Blessings be upon you.

St. Francis / Serenity

Songs of Hope #3: This is a collection of songs I've written which bring me hope and peace. In "St. Francis / Serenity," I combined The Prayer of St. Francis and The Serenity Prayer with a melody I wrote, as these prayers bring peace to my heart. May they bring peace to your hearts as well.

The Good Old Days

Songs of Hope #2: "The Good Old Days" is about looking back at our lives, the good and the not so good, and realizing that even the bad parts were not as bad as we thought. They often held a lot of blessings. May you find hope and peace with this song. Please share if you do.

Light On The Horizon

Songs of Hope #1: "Light on the Horizon" is the first in a collection of songs I have written which I am recording and sharing during the coronavirus quarantine/social distancing. More to come. Blessings and peace be upon you.

Baptized In the Name of Conservative? Liberal? Any Particular Ideology or Political Belief?

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Emmanuel Episcopal Church

January 26, 2020

3 Epiphany, A

Isaiah 9:1-4

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Matthew 4:12-23

Baptized In the Name of Conservative?  Liberal?  Any Particular Ideology or Political Belief?

Jesus prayed for his disciples, for his church, for all of us, that we would be one, united together in love.  Paul then appealed to the church in Corinth that they would stop having division among them.  They were dividing over which preacher they liked better, which church leader had baptized them.  That may seem a little familiar to us when we think in terms of denomination.  I’ve heard folks say, “I was baptized Episcopalian…or Baptist, Roman, Lutheran, Methodist, and on and on.  We were of course baptized into Jesus, not into any particular denomination.  

Jesus is our unity and love binds us together, and yet we still let things divide us.  Issues, arguments, labels.  We weren’t baptized in the name of conservative.  We weren’t baptized in the name of liberal?  We weren’t baptized in the name of any particular stance on any particular issue.  We were baptized in the name of Jesus, and our faith and reliance on him is what unites us.  No issue is greater than our faith and reliance on Jesus.  He is our way, for his is the way of love, the way of grace, the way of seeking God’s will before our own and surrendering our wills to the will of God.  There is peace and freedom in that surrender, trusting in one so much greater than ourselves, trusting in a God of love who is everywhere around, among, and within us.

God is completely present to every one of us, and that is another aspect of our unity.  No one of us is closer to God than any other of us.  Some may be more habitual in prayer, more practiced in turning our wills over to God, but our access to God is absolutely the same for all of us.  There is no division or distinction within the church over who has greater access.  God doesn’t have a bandwidth problem.

Still, when someone asks me to pray for them, I often hear, “You’ve got the direct line to God.”  I think some of y’all know this and for some this might be news, but we’ve all got the direct line to God, or were Lance and I baptized in the name of “priest” rather than Jesus?  Clergy have no more direct line to God than anyone else.  There is no division of distinction or position within the church.  

See, Lance and I were privileged to get to study for three years at Seminary.  It was a privilege, a joy.  We love this stuff.  The scriptures, church history, theology, ethics, music, liturgy, prayers, partying like the guys in Animal House.  We had a privilege to get to spend time studying and learning about our faith.  None of that makes us any closer to God than anyone else.  Nor does it make us particularly better at ministry than anyone else.  The study and the priesthood gives us a particular role within the structure of the church, namely, “minister to the ministers.”  All of everyone in the church are the ministers.

Who did Jesus choose for his disciples and first ministers in the church?  It wasn’t the folks who were privileged enough to spend years studying religion.  He chose regular people, fisherman, a tax collector.  They were Jesus’ ministers, folks just like every single person here.  Our ministries and gifts vary, but every one of us is a minister of Jesus.  

Who here has ever comforted a friend, family member, classmate, colleague when that person was hurting.  If you ever have comforted someone else, you have been doing ministry.  If you’ve ever prayed with someone or eased someone’s burdens, you’ve been doing ministry.  If you have ever shared the fact that you find strength and hope in your faith and surrender to God, you’ve been doing ministry.

There is unity in the church because we are all ministers in the church.  We are ministers of Jesus, and our ministry is to help set each other free from all of the things which bind us.  Freedom from that which binds us is what Jesus gives us.  “For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.” That’s from Isaiah 9:4.

About 2700 years ago, Israel had made an alliance with Assyria, and things did not go well for Israel under this alliance as they became dependent upon Assyria and alliance became more like oppression.  So, Isaiah is telling the people that this alliance will not continue and they would be freed from the oppression of the Assyrians.  The people sought God, surrendering again to God’s will, trusting in God, and freed them from the rather poor decision their leaders had made in turning their will and their lives over to the Assyrians rather than God.  That was salvation.  They were a people no longer oppressed.  They were freed.  That freedom from what binds us is the freedom Jesus gives us, and we find unity in Jesus because we all need freedom from something.   

Sadness, not as a passing emotion over a particular situation, but sadness so deep that we are plagued by it daily, hourly.  Sadness which began with some event or situation but which has taken over and now holds us captive, our minds and emotions no longer able to move past whatever event or situation began the sadness.  Jesus would free us from that oppressive sadness, offering to take the burden from us, as we let go, turn our will back over to God, and trust that God will heal our hearts, even if we can’t imagine being healed.

Hopeless, as we see a world around us not as we would have it be, and the problems are too great for us to do much of anything about them.  Jesus would free us from that hopelessness, offering to take the burden from us, as we let go, turn our will back over to God, and trust that this is God’s world, not ours, and while we cannot change the whole world, God has given each of us ways to bring healing into the world. 

God makes each of us his ministers.  Noticing those around us, choosing to care, to bear one another’s burdens, we are all ministers of God, and God has no bandwidth problem.  We all have that same direct line to God.  

We’re united, one in God, one in Jesus, one in love.  We are all one in our need to be set free from burdens that oppress us, and we are all one in finding salvation, finding freedom from those burdens through Jesus, casting our burdens upon him and turning our wills and our lives over to him.  No other issue or belief is greater than that.  

The freedom that Jesus gives, freedom from whatever binds us?  No other belief or issue should cause us to be divided into camps or factions, not when we all get to be ministers of Jesus’ freedom from bondage.  We’re a diverse bunch of folks, with all sorts of political beliefs and backgrounds, cultures, and ideologies, and that’s just within Emmanuel.  Worldwide, we’re an extremely varied group of people, but we’re not baptized into any of those political beliefs, backgrounds, cultures, or ideologies.  We’re baptized into Jesus, into the freedom from bondage that he gives, and we are all ministers of that freedom, all ministers of Jesus.

Sermon: Dance With the Demons

Brad Sullivan

Proper 14, Year C

August 11, 2019

Emmanuel, Houston

Luke 12:32-40

Dance With the Demons

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  We live with quite a lot of fear, don’t we?  Fears of all kinds and varieties. Economic insecurity, health issues.  Fear of loss. We have fears of violence, fears of natural disasters destroying what we have.  We have fears of the other political party gaining power (whichever political party that is for each of us).  We also have fears of not being good enough, worthy enough. Fears that someone might find out the truth about us.  We have fears of what the world will be like for our children and grandchildren.

These fears keep us striving against each other, trying to overcome each other, trying to make sure that if the world is not going to be ok, at least those I love and I will be ok.  In the midst of these fears, Jesus says, “Do not be afraid little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  It seems that our fears are nothing new, but they are the same fears which have been with humanity forever, and Jesus repeats what God has said throughout scripture, “Do not be afraid.”  Rather than overcome each other, let go of your fears and live in love toward each other.  “Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Live in love with each other, and trust each other.  For economic security, trust not only in yourself but also in those your love, your community and neighbors.  Give to others in their time of need, trusting that they will give to you in your time of need.  Rather than overcoming each  other, we live for and with each other.  That is life in the kingdom of God, and it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.

Lutheran Pastor David Lose writes:

I think the call – or at least one of the primary calls – of the church today is to become a place where people are so rooted in the promise of God’s good pleasure, reminded of their identity as God’s beloved children, and affirmed in their inherent self-worth and dignity, that they can, indeed, see all those around them as similarly beloved and deserving of self-worth, dignity, and God’s good pleasure. The question for a Christian..[is] discovering that as we give ourselves away in relationship and service we find a deeper sense of self than we’d imagined possible. We are born for community and find a sense of self and meaning and purpose as we trust God’s promises and give ourselves away in love.”

Give ourselves away in love.  That’s not an easy thing to do when we’re afraid of ourselves and those around us.  Our inner demons often keep us from giving ourselves away in love.  A friend of mine, Steve White, recently wrote, “Perhaps it isn’t actually about overcoming all your inner demons.  Maybe it’s about learning how to dance with them.”  That speaks to me not only of the fears we have about ourselves, but also the fears we have about each other.  What if we don’t need to fight against and overcome our inner demons, but rather learn to dance with them, to accept them as a part of who we are.  What if we also don’t need to fight against and overcome each other, but rather learn to dance with each other, to give ourselves away in love, to offer ourselves daily to God and join with each other in God’s divine dance, turning even our scars into something beautiful.  That’s life in God’s kingdom, and it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.

Fearing each other, we end up scattered and fragmented, continually knowing that we don’t belong.  We have folks who have felt like they can’t or don’t belong to the church because of their political beliefs.  I know I’ve made people feel this way at times, as have other church leaders, church members, and congregations.  The thing about our political views is, most people I know, on both sides of the political spectrum want the same thing: a just society which brings about the best way of life for the most number of people.  Their difference is simply the ways and the roles they believe the government should have in bringing about a just society.  They both have their religious beliefs tied up into that, and folks on both sides of the aisle believe in Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom of God. 

Here’s the secret:  The government is not how Jesus calls us to bring about God’s kingdom, even though it is the tool some would use to try.  God’s kingdom is given through God in partnership with us, with our living into God’s kingdom, and there is room in God’s kingdom for all of us.  All of us belong in God’s kingdom, and so we need not overcome each other, but learn to dance with each other, to give ourselves away in love. 

Rather than fearing that the other side may win, can we at least realize the while the other side may be wrong, it is still striving for the best system for the good of the most people?  Can we accept the consequences if it turns out our fears were right?  Can we trust in each other, rather than feeling threatened by each other?  Cane felt threatened by Abel, and so he killed him.  We hear of folks and have experience feeling threatened by each other and each others’ beliefs, so we attack each other verbally, sometimes physically, deriding each other, feeling that they want to destroy all that is good in our society, our country, and our world. 

"Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit,” Jesus taught, so that he will find you not asleep, but alert and ready.  Our fears and the ways we seek to overcome each other, feeling threatened by each other, are ways that we fall asleep.  We fall asleep to God’s kingdom and are alert only to our fears, to our inner demons.  We all have inner demons.  Our families have inner demons.  The church has inner demons.  Our cities, our state, and our nation have inner demons.  Keeping alert, staying awake and being alert is about not overcoming and striving against our inner demons and each other, but rather learning to dance together. 

If we learn to dance together, we may find that we are not asleep when the master of the house or the thief comes.  Whenever Jesus shows up in our lives (and it happens all the time), how wonderful if he finds us not trying to overcome each other, but instead learning to dance with each other, giving ourselves away in love.  Over time, we learn how each other moves and thinks.  We still step on each others’ toes, but we laugh about it.

Living into God’s kingdom, us giving of our abundance when folks are in need, receiving from others’ abundance when we are in need; living in that kingdom, we can live without fear of the other.  We can offer ourselves in love, and learn to dance together.  “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”