Trusting in God, Neither Tame Nor Tidy

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets

June 16, 2024

Proper 7, Year B

Job 38:1-11

Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32

Mark 4:35-41

“The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?’” (Job 38:1) Well, Job and Job’s friends were the ones who darkened counsel by words without knowledge. When things first went really badly for Job, his family had been killed, his land and livelihood destroyed, his friends sat quietly with him for days. At that point, they were being great friends. Then they stared opening their mouths, telling Job all the self-righteous platitudes that they knew. They kinda had to because without that, there wouldn’t have been a story. 

See, Job was written as a story meant to be told to give lessons. It’s probably not a true story. So, the story is set up with God and Satan, “The Adversary,” making a wager about whether or not Job, who was a righteous man, would curse God, if all he had was taken away. Satan figured he would, God figured he wouldn’t. This opening to the story shows right off the bat that the tragedy which happened to Job was not because he was sinful. He was absolutely righteous, and tragedy still struck him.

A prevailing thought among some religious folks is that if you’re bad, bad things are gonna happen to you, and if you’re good, good things are gonna happen to you. Right off the bat, the story of Job tells us that ain’t true. 

There was also the question of praising God, and why wouldn’t Job praise God? He’d been blessed beyond measure and never had the slightest reason not to praise God. In the end, with everything taken from him, Job didn’t curse God, but he did put God to the test. Job’s question was basically, “How could you possibly let this happen to me, God? Do you have any justice at all?”

With God’s reply, Job realized that his simplistic view of the world didn’t hold water. As Moshe Greenberg points out on the website, “MyJewishLearning.com,” Job had been so fortunate his whole life, he had never even considered why people who had suffered tragedy might praise God. Before tragedy struck him, Job had been right there with his friends claiming to understand God and God’s world. They all figured Job was blessed because he was righteous, and others who weren’t as blessed as Job were obviously less righteous than Job. Through Job’s experience of loss, Job, his friends, and we the readers see that the world is not so simple as good people are blessed and bad people are cursed. We are shown the fact that there are terrible things that happen to people, and it is not necessarily God’ will or the people’s fault that those tragedies happen. Bad things happen. Period. Through the story of Job, we’re able to face the reality that the world and God’s actions in the world are far more complex than we like to imagine. 

God’s favor is not always seen in life going well. Tragedy is not understood as God’s punishment for sin. We might shouldn’t boast too greatly about our knowledge of how exactly God works in this world, lest like Job and his friends, we darken counsel by words without knowledge. 

As I’ve said before, our brains crave certainty and for things to fit in nice, tidy categories, with everything making easy, understandable, rational sense. Unfortunately for our poor little brains, God doesn’t tend to fit into our comfortable little boxes of easy, understandable rationality. We want God tame and tidy, and God just isn’t tame and tidy.

So, here are some of the tame and tidy platitudes we like to use for God. “Something bad or good happened because God needed it to happen.” “They were bad, so God was judging them.” “God has a reason he put you through that tragedy.” “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.” 

All of these platitudes point to some aspects of truth about God that we’re given in scripture, and all of these platitudes are darkening counsel by words without knowledge. These simple statements we use to define how God works in the world are ways we try to make sense of our world and try to make sense of God. Unfortunately, these platitudes are also ways we try to control God, to keep God tame and tidy so we can keep some feeling of control over a world we neither control nor understand.

Defining how exactly how God works in the world according to our understanding is ultimately a form of rebellion against God, because we aren’t admitting our lack of knowledge and our powerlessness. By claiming to know how the tame and tidy God works, we’re seeking power and knowledge over God which we do not possess. 

Then, as if that isn’t enough, we often claim to know how God’s judgment works not only on earth in this life, but into eternity as well. 

How often do we hear people talking about who will be going to Hell when they die? We’ve got whole doctrines in the church defining who goes to Heaven, who goes to Hell, and exactly how that all works. That work is darkening counsel by words without knowledge. Scripture specifically tells us not to ask such questions, Romans 10:6.

See, the thing is, we don’t know exactly how God’s judgment and mercy work, and we don’t need to. We aren’t taught to understand exactly how God works. We are taught to trust in Jesus and follow his ways. 

Why? Why are we taught to trust in Jesus? We see in today’s Gospel story and our story from Job, why we would trust in Jesus. At the end of Job, Job is reminded that he doesn’t really know what he’s talking about because he wasn’t there when God made the seas and determined just how far they would stretch, what their limits would be. The seas obeyed God’s voice in creation.

Then, in our story from Mark, we hear about the seas obeying the voice of Jesus. A windstorm arose as Jesus and his disciples were in a boat on the sea, and Jesus basically said to the seas, “Shut up! Quiet down. Be at peace,” and the seas obeyed Jesus’ voice.

“Were you there when I laid the foundations of the earth?” God asks Job. In our Gospel reading, we find that Jesus’ answer to that question is “yes.” “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Jesus’ disciples asked. He was the one who laid the foundations of the earth and told the seas, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther,

and here shall your proud waves be stopped.”

We’re taught to trust in Jesus because unlike all of our tame and tidy versions of God, Jesus actually is God and actually did lay the foundations of the earth. So, rather than try to keep God in our tame and tidy boxes of understanding like Job and his friends did, we are encouraged to marvel at God with awe and wonder, as Jesus’ disciples did. 

Rather than trusting our tame and tidy understandings of God, we are asked to trust in God, to trust in God’s goodness, as unfathomable as that sometimes is. We’re called to trust in God’s love which extends far beyond and is much wilder than we can conceive of. 

We are called to accept our limitations. We’re called to accept our lack of knowledge. Rather than put our trust in doctrine which is often used to explain why we are right and others are not, rather than put our trust in that tame and tidy doctrine, we are called to put our trust in God who is neither tame nor tidy. We are called to put our trust in God who is good and loving. 

Who is this Jesus, that even the winds and the seas obey him? I can’t tell you exactly, but I can tell you that I trust Jesus. I trust him for being there when the foundations of the world were laid, and I trust him for his goodness and his love.  

"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. 

Divided Houses, A Particularly Human Stupidity, and God’s Antidote

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
June 9, 2024
Proper 5, Year B
Genesis 8:3-15
Psalm 130
Mark 3:20-35

When Adam and Eve were in the Garden, they heard God walking toward them in the cool of the evening breeze. That should have been a wonderful sound. Birds chirping, the rustling of leaves, God’s feet on the grass, the soft shifting of soil. Rather than a beautiful sound of the beloved in a beloved place, however, the sound of God walking toward them was an unwelcome and frightening sound, because they had just betrayed God.

They had decided that they wanted to be more like God, that they wanted God’s power. They wanted to dominate creation as it’s rulers and masters, rather than be a part of creation, accepting that it was God’s, not theirs. This was a house divided against itself, Adam and Eve divided against themselves. They were one with God. So, when they decided they wanted to take God’s place and move God, a little to the side, they were also moving parts of themselves out of the way. Their war was not just with God but with themselves, and the house divided against itself fell.

So, when the scribes said Jesus had a demon and was casting out demons by the ruler of demons, Jesus pointed out that obviously that couldn’t be true because Satan wouldn’t be stupid enough to divide his house against itself. 

No, that stupidity of working against ourselves and casting down our own houses seems to be a particularly human kind of stupidity. 

Here’s a great idea, let’s betray one another. Let’s decide we want stuff and be willing to kill one another in order to get that stuff. Let’s decide that a desire for sex is worth assaulting another human and just using their body; who cares about the person? When we’re really frustrated, angry, and scared, let’s decide that it’ll be a really good idea to get a gun and shoot some people, rather than accepting the fact that things aren’t always going to go our way. 

Let’s also decide that since we want to make sure to keep the power and money we have, it’ll be a good idea to oppress others, keep wages down, lie, cheat, and steal, and pass laws to make what we do legal. 

In order to make sure the world continues to work in ways that make us comfortable, let’s make sure that people we find objectionable don’t have the same rights as we do. 

Because our religion is so messed up that we’ve taken the truth that God has redeemed us and that nothing can separate us from God, and we’ve replaced that truth with, if you don’t believe in Jesus in just the right way, God’s gonna torture you forever; since our religion is so messed up that fear of eternal torture by the God who is love has become the foundational understanding of our faith, let’s make sure to stir up enmity and strife and subjugate others to our will to make sure the angry torture-god-thing doesn’t get too torture happy with us.

Let’s blame this group for the world’s troubles and then expect someone else to fix it, and then blame that group for things not getting better. That sounds like a good idea. 

In all of these and so many other ways, we decide over and over that turning against one another sounds like a pretty neat idea. We decide over and over again that we’re going to further divide the house against itself and then rage against others when the house falls. 

Yup, as Jesus points out, that’s a particularly human kind of stupidity. Satan ain’t near dumb enough for that. Only we are. 

So again, when the scribes, heard about Jesus casting out demons, they decided to use that as an opportunity for division. Rather than join together in joy and peace because demons were being cast out and people were being healed, uniting the house of God, they decided it would be a good idea to divide the house of God, claiming that healing and love were coming from a place of evil.

They wanted not to lose their power. They wanted not to lose their understanding of how God worked within their religion. So, when they heard God walking toward them in the cool of the evening breeze, it was a threatening sound, rather than a beloved sound of the beloved coming near.

Unfortunately, that’s pretty typical of humanity, that kind of human stupidity, but fortunately, God knows about our particularly human stupidity. Jesus knows precisely about how we divide against one another, and Jesus still thought it was a pretty neat idea to join with us in every aspect of our lives so that not even our house dividing dummy-headedness can separate us from God. 

So, what did Jesus do? Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to dwell among us and within us so that as much as we may work to divide ourselves against ourselves, the Holy Spirit is striving with us and inviting us to be united and live together as one. That’s the invitation and the way of the Church.

As the church, our invitation is to stand for each other. We strive for peace among one another, and we each do everything in our power to keep that peace. Then, realizing we don’t have enough power to keep peace among ourselves, we constantly seek God’s help to unify us and restore peace when our reactions would divide us and break peace.

So, when we’re bothered by someone, we work not to react, and we ask for God’s help. When we do react, and they react back, we let others help calm the situation, and we ask for God’s help. Rather than shouting, we quiet down and allow peace to reign. 

When we’ve broken the peace, we recognize that we may have to step back and be away from a community or be away from some people for a little while, and we ask for God’s help. We choose to be ok with stepping away for a time, letting things cool down, rather than insisting on our own way and turning the house against itself. 

As Jesus’ church, healed and seeking to make peace among one another, we also seek to soothe the sufferings of the world around us, with one another as members of the church. When we see problems in the world, it’s easy to rage against and blame others, and sometimes we’re even right. Rather than rage against the ones we blame for the problem, however, as the church we ask what we can do to help. 

When people brought folks to Jesus who were possessed by demons, Jesus didn’t start a preaching campaign against Satan for putting demons in people. He didn’t start blaming people for allowing the demon in. Jesus cast out the demons. When confronted with things as terrible as demons, Jesus didn’t stir up hatred and strife. Jesus healed people. Rather than divide the house even further, Jesus united the house. 

We are the church, called and empowered by God to be a house united. 

There are so many problems and divisions in the world, and we’re not going to fix all of them. We can’t end that particularly human stupidity of being divided against ourselves, meaning we’re not going to end all human division. As the Talmud states, “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”

We cannot end all human division. We can, however, seek God’s help to remain united as a church, here among each other, united in this time and in this place. We can then take that unity with us into the world, and, with God’s help, we can bring some of that unity and healing to others as we go. That is who we are as God’s church. Then, when we hear the sound of God walking towards us in the cool of the evening breeze, we can welcome it as a beloved sound of the beloved coming near.

May God Keep for Us that which We Do Not Need.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
June 2, 2024

Proper 4, Year B
Deuteronomy 5:12-15
Psalm 81:1-10
Mark 2:23-3:6

Creator of the planets and their courses, you created the Sabbath as one day in seven for all. Having invited us to rest, to breath, to pause; now, encourage us to rest our demands on others, listen in the place of speaking, and pause our impact upon the cosmos. You make the sabbath to universally benefit humanity and all creation. We give thanks for this benevolent provision that enables us to experience a life with you that is well lived in the shadow of your wing. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

That’s a prayer from our bishop, Andy Doyle. “God makes the sabbath to universally benefit humanity and all creation.” We are invited to rest, to give rest to others, and to give rest to creation itself. 

We need rest, and yet in today’s world, we seem to pride ourselves on how much we work and how little we rest. New York is called “the city that never sleeps.” The same could be said for Houston. In fact, you could say we live in a world that never sleeps.” Businesses are interconnected across the globe, so while some sleep, others in the same company are busy at work. The company itself, the business itself, never stops. The work never stops. 

Even in the same city, some work while other sleep. We’re grateful for this when hospitals are open in the middle of the night, and we also notice that when we are trying to sleep, there are always cars going by, planes overhead. Our society doesn’t rest. 

Nature, our nature, our bodies, the world itself needs rest. We need sabbath, a true letting go of all of our work, laying down our burdens and truly resting in God’s embrace. 

God’s commandment that we keep the sabbath is given for our healing. Isaiah 30:15 tells us, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

In Deuteronomy 5:15 God told the people of Israel, “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.” “Keep the sabbath,” God commands, because we are not meant to work constantly to amass great wealth for our overlords, like Israel did as slaves in Egypt. We are meant to work, and to rest. We are meant to work for all of our benefit, not just for some, and we are meant to rest for all of our benefit, to live together in unity and love.

Sabbath is more than a rule to be followed. Sabbath is a way of life. Rather than the way of death, the way of constant work and business, sabbath is a way of life, a way of healing. So, it makes sense that Jesus healed on the sabbath. 

When Jesus and his disciples were making their way through the grain fields, they ate some of the grain, and the religious leaders cautioned that they were breaking the sabbath. There were very specific rules about how the sabbath was to be observed, rules about what constituted work and what didn’t, rules about how far from home one could walk. Rules, to make sure people kept the sabbath appropriately. 

Jesus’ basic response to the religious leaders was, “Guys, y’all are missing the point.” See, sabbath rest can’t be lived out the exact same way for all people at all times. Situations come up in life where the sabbath must be broken in order to fulfill the purpose of the sabbath, healing and rest. The sabbath is a blessing given to humanity, not just one more rule that we have to follow.

So, when a man needing healing on the sabbath, Jesus didn’t turn him away. He healed the man, which is the point of the sabbath. Jesus broke the religious leaders’ rules of the sabbath, and yet he was keeping the sabbath. Holy rest for healing. Allowing others to rest and be healed. Allowing creation itself to rest and be healed.

In our world today, many of us simply can’t take one whole day as a sabbath rest, much less can we all take the same sabbath day. Our society simply doesn’t work that way anymore. We give thanks for those who work while others sleep, and we pray that they may find sabbath rest as well.

See, Jesus didn’t make his church so that we each follow all the right rules all the time. Founding the perfect community with the perfect system of rules has never worked in the history of the world. Jesus wasn’t silly enough to think it was going to work just because he said so. No, the church isn’t a bunch of people meant to follow all the right rules to constantly stay on God’s and each other’s good sides. 

The church is a people trusting in Jesus, following in his way as best and imperfectly as we can. The church is a people trusting in Jesus’ grace and forgiveness for all the times when we don’t. The church is a people who offer that same grace and forgiveness to one another. The church is a people of healing, a people who seek and offer sabbath rest.

The church is a people who have decided to lay our burdens down weekly, daily, so that our bodies, our minds, our souls can receive the rest we need. In our sabbath rest, we lay our burdens down, not just anywhere. We lay our burdens down into God’s hands so that God can carry our burdens for us while we rest in God’s healing love. 

Then, when we take our burdens back up, some we might just leave with God entirely, because some burdens aren’t truly ours to bear. There’s a prayer I pray some nights in which I thank God for the day that is past and then offer to God all of the day that is past. The good and the bad, my successes and failures, I offer to God that I may rest that night in peace. Then, I pray that when morning comes, God will give back to me that which I need and hold on for me that which I do not. 

For our strength and salvation is not given through our own might and power, nor for ourselves alone. We are granted sabbath rest as a gift both to receive and as a gift to grant to others. We are granted sabbath rest as a gift for creation itself for we are all united together, and as each of us rests, so does creation rest as well. “In returning and rest we shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be our strength.”

So, I offer to us all the sabbath prayer that I pray some nights as a prayer that can be prayed not only at night, but at any time. Any time we need to rest from our burdens, we can offer all of our lives to God, for God to hold them for a time, and then when that time of sabbath rest has ended, we can ask God to give back to us that which we need and hold on for us that which we do not. 

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 Isn't Anyone's Personal Savior

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets

May 19, 2024
Pentecost, Year B
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

“When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together…All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”

They were all sorts of different people, a large, disparate group of people from all different backgrounds, different cultures, different norms and ways of life. They were gathered together already, and the Holy Spirit united them even further.

That was Jesus’ prayer for his disciples fulfilled, that they would be one, as Jesus and the Father are one. Remember, that God, by God’s very nature, is a community of relationship, three persons bound together so perfectly in love that they are one. When Jesus prayed that we would be one as God is one, Jesus was praying that we would live into the image of God in which we were made. 

We are made for community, for loving and supportive relationships. So, when Jesus formed the Church, Jesus formed us as a community of people, a bunch of different and odd collection of people who were made one with one another through the Holy Spirit. 

What that means, among other things, is there is no such thing as a solitary Christian. 

We hear a lot about personal salvation, but that’s not really a thing. Jesus isn’t anyone’s personal savior. Jesus is our savior, all of our savior. We have a challenge in understanding this partly because the people who translate the Bible into English mostly seem not to be from Texas. What I mean by that is, they don’t use the word “y’all.” 

Most of the time, when Jesus said, “you,” he was actually saying y’all. It’s a plural form of you that he used. In our passage today, Jesus said, “[The Advocate will come], whom I will send to y’all…” In the sermon on the mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are y’all when people revile y’all and persecute y’all and utter all kinds of evil against y’all falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for y’all’s reward is great in heaven.”

Jesus does talk about God repaying each one of us according to our individual deeds. What each person does, really does matter. At the same time, salvation is not a solitary affair because the kingdom of God dwells in community.

How are we doing as a community? How do we each act towards others? Last week, there was a man sitting on the sidewalk as cars were driving quickly by. Another man was worried about him and wanted him to be safe. “Get up! Get up!” He shouted. “Stop sitting there! What are you doing? Get up!” Well, the guy got up, but he thought he was being attacked. I asked what was going on and found out that the guy who was shouting was just concerned for him, so I suggested that next time, he kneel down and gently ask the guy to get up for his safety. He realized how his shouting seemed like an attack, rather than a help, and he apologized. The two went away good with each other instead of at odds. The kingdom of God was the result, rather than two people angry at each other. Our individual actions help bring about or break apart community.

What each one of us does matters, not for our individual salvation, but for all of our salvation. Jesus formed the Church not to make a bunch of individuals personally saved, but to save a bunch of individuals by making us one.

This is the church, and I don’t mean a location. I don’t mean a building. This is Jesus’ gathering of his disciples. Not all who are here may be disciples of Jesus, and all are welcome here, even if not a disciple of Jesus, and this gathering of people is Jesus’ church.

That means we have some ways of life we follow so that we may be one. When we’re here gathered for worship, we follow the way of love and respect. This time and gathering for prayer and worship is meant to be a time of peace and unity. We’re not here as a bunch of individuals out for ourselves. We’re here as the church, made one by the Holy Spirit. 

Then, we carry that unity with us as we go. We continue to pray for the Holy Spirit to make us one. Unity and community is what we are made for and a big part of how we are healed through Jesus. 

A big challenge we find with our brothers and sisters experiencing homelessness is the lack of supportive community. Life on the streets is tough, and even once someone gets an apartment through The Way Home housing programs, life can be tough due to isolation. Imagine living on the streets with a group of people who have become your friends, and then you have an apartment, which is great, but it’s also over an hour bus ride from everyone and everything you know. You no longer have any community, a difficult time getting a job due to transportation issues, and so you have a roof over your head, but you are an island, isolated and alone. 

We see this with some, not all, but some of our parishioners who get housed. Saved from the streets, but saved in isolation, and that isolation simply doesn’t work. Like with Jesus, personal salvation isn’t really a thing. 

Being saved from God who is angry at us for breaking rules isn’t really what Christianity is about. When we sin, we do things that isolate ourselves. We hurt others and push them away. We care about ourselves to the exclusion of others, climbing ladders and leaving others beneath us. We isolate in addiction, desperately trying to cope with the problems in our lives and in our world, and we are left, once again, alone, even if surrounded by people. 

Loneliness and isolation are hells from which Jesus saves us. His prayer for us was that we would be one, just as he and the Father are one. Then, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to continue to form us as one. As disparate people from all over with different cultures and backgrounds were formed into one body at the birth of the church, so are we continually being formed as one body through the same Holy Spirit. Such is our salvation, no longer individuals tossed to and fro by the changes and chances of this life. We are made one body to live together in unity, raising each other up when we fall, and living not only for our sakes alone but for Jesus who died for us and rose again, whose body we have become. 

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.