For the Hurt, the Blessed, and the Damned was years in the making.

From college and campus ministry, through seminary, and into parish ministry, I became increasingly aware of the damage done by some theologies within the church: specifically, the "Believe in Jesus or to go Hell" theologies. Knowing people who turned away from the church and from God because they'd been lambasted by such theologies, I decided to address those beliefs head on and  look deeply at scripture, rather than simply ignore the tricky passages.

My goal was and is to bring healing to folks who have been harmed by those older, even foundational theologies, and to help free people from those theologies - people who don't believe in "believe in Jesus or go to Hell", but also don't know how they can't believe in them without ignoring much of scripture. 

May you find peace and healing in the pages of this book, and may you help bring that healing to others.

Peace and love,

Brad+

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.

Our Enemies' Sin Placed on Our Own Crosses

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
April 7, 2024
2 Easter, Year B
Acts 4:32-35
Psalm 133
John 20:19-31

 Our Enemies' Sin Placed on Our Own Crosses

Did you notice that when Jesus revealed himself to his disciples after his resurrection, they didn’t recognize his face? Jesus was standing there among them, “Peace be with you,” he said, and then he showed them is scars. That’s when they rejoiced at seeing him. The disciples didn’t recognize Jesus until he showed them his scars. 

That tells me, not only did God chose to be wounded to join us in our woundedness. God also chose to keep those wounds. God chose to keep those scars.

See, the whole idea with the incarnation, the whole idea with God becoming human, is that God joins with us fully in our humanity. So, even after Jesus was raised from the dead, he was still human. God chose to remain human in Jesus because we remain human. God chose to keep the scars inflicted by humanity because we still have the scars inflicted by one another. 

Just as the disciples didn’t recognize Jesus’ face, we encounter people every day whom we don’t know, people whom we don’t recognize, but if we were to hear their stories, their brokenness and their hurt, we’d recognize their scars. Different situations, different factors, different lives, but we all have scars, and we know each other and have compassion on one another because of our scars.

Jesus, raised among us, could be any one of us. The crucified God, raised to new life, living in each of us. The crucified God joining in our scars, joining in our hurts, joining in our suffering and our doubts. The fact of our suffering is why God chose to suffer. The fact of our suffering is why Jesus’ final command to his disciples was that they should love one another. 

Then, Jesus’ first command upon being raised was “Forgive the sins of any.” Now, his command was given in the form of this conditional statement, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Jesus was not, of course, conferring power upon a few to begin a religion of sin management. Jesus was telling his disciples the truth about forgiveness. 

If we retain one another’s sins, they are retained. If we hold on to one another’s sins, we continue to wound one another. The scars deepen, with anger and resentment, and the damage is made worse. Notice that Jesus gave his disciples the command to forgive just after showing them the scars in his hands and side. Jesus was showing them the cost of a lack of forgiveness, the cost of holding on to one another’s sins. The cost of unforgiveness was Jesus’ life. The cost of unforgiveness is all of our lives.

A profound lack of forgiveness, and the anger, fear, and violence that goes along with not forgiving, is why humanity decided to kill God, to kill love, when love became human. A lack of forgiveness kills love.
So, Jesus showed them his scars and commanded them to forgive. 

Jesus was showing them and us true life, eternal life, God’s own life dwelling within us. Life continues on even after death, so we need not fear. We need not fear death for there is new life after death.

Forgiveness can feel like death. How can we live without our anger? How can we live without holding on to the pain? How can we live without holding on to our desires for vengeance against those who have hurt us? The truth is, there is a kind of death in forgiveness, and that death looks like crucifixion. 

When Jesus was crucified, he took the sin of the world with him on the cross to forgive all of us. Following his example, Jesus taught us to take up our own crosses. Take up our own crosses and bring upon them the sins of others against us. Take upon our crosses our anger, our fear, and our desires for vengeance so that we might be able to forgive as God has forgiven us.

Yes, there is death in forgiveness, and as Jesus showed us, there is new life after forgiveness. Of course, that new life can also scare us. The new life scares us because we can’t imagine living without our anger, our fear, and our desires for vengeance. Who will we be without them? Who will we be if we let go of our hurt and our desires for vengeance? 

Jesus’ scars show us that we will still be ourselves. That’s how the disciples recognized Jesus. When we put to death on a cross our anger, fear, and desire for vengeance, we are able to forgive, we find new life in forgiveness, and we find ourselves changed. We find ourselves healed. We find that appear different than we were, and we find that we are still ourselves, and we bear the scars to prove it. 

It's ok to forgive. It’s ok to let go. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus said. Let God’s spirit breathe new life into you. Be a new Adam. Be a new Eve. Let God’s new life heal you, and fear not. You will still be you. Accepting God’s Spirit, being healed and having new life, does not erase the past. Accepting God’s Spirit and placing the sins of others against us on a cross brings new life into the world. This new life is the life of love. The life of love is life that is changed, healed, and bears the scars to prove it. 

I’d like to end with a poem written by our bishop, Andy Doyle, about Jesus’ resurrection and his scars.

I am the nonbeliever,
the skeptic 
even a deceiver

I am the two faced Christian 
the Sunday morning faithful
and the weekday scornful

No,
Jesus
You 
Touch my wounds
seen and unseen
feel the broken skin of my hands
worked to the bone

see my broken legs
tired of the weight of the world
my pierced side 
from the back stabbers knife

I am the man 
the woman 
the child
who calls in the night
silently cries out
and weeps for loss

Give me faith
because I cannot touch

Give me faith
because I cannot feel

Give me faith 
because I cannot see

Give me faith

I am not the blessed
but the damned
the lost
and the weak

You are the one I seek
help me hear your words
your invitation
your grace

help me Lord Jesus
see my reflection 
in your wounds
my hope in your death
my life in your resurrection
~ C. Andrew Doyle

Sharing the Music that Is In Us

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
March 17, 2024
5 Lent, Year B
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-13
John 12:20-33

Sharing the Music that Is in Us

Jesus’ response to the news that some Greeks were looking for him seems odd. Really, most of Jesus’ responses to people in John’s Gospel seem odd. In this case, his disciples tell him some Greeks are looking for him, and he says, “The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.” 

Just before this, Jesus had come into Jerusalem, and huge crowds had been cheering for him. While he was riding into town, the Pharisees looked to one another and said, “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the whole world has gone after him.” The fact that some Greeks had come to speak to Jesus seems to confirm what the Pharisees said. “The whole world has gone after [Jesus].” As much as they’d wanted to keep the whole Jesus movement from spreading, the cat was officially out of the bag and there was no stopping it now.

They were right. Early church had no buildings or organized support. They could not worship in the synagogues, nor in the Roman temples, and yet the church, spread like wildfire. People believed in Jesus. They trusted him. They found healing in Jesus. They found love. So, they ministered to others out of that same love, offering that same healing. 

As God had said through the prophet Jeremiah, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God. I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” People were loved, forgiven, and healed, and God’s law, God’s love, was written on their hearts. 

See, there’s hearing and learning about the way of God’s love, and then there’s living the way of God’s love. As a musician, I think about the practice that goes into playing songs, getting them fully under your fingers and into your voice. You practice, and practice, and practice, and eventually, you leave the practice room, and you play the songs for others. There’s risk in that, risk in offering that music to be received by others, but it’s also a beautiful offering. When you’ve worked at it so the music is written in your heart, then it’s a beautiful offering and sharing of song and story. 

I saw Guy Forsyth play a show last week, and boy does he play. He practices a lot, and then he risks the stage. He plays those songs written in his heart, and his risk is worth it. His connection to the audience is beautiful. The stories he tells through his music, the human connection he brings, receiving his offering of music is healing.

When the music is written in your heart, then you can play, you can risk, and that brings healing and love to the world.

That healing and love is what happens when the Gospel of Jesus is written in our hearts. We leave the practice room, we risk, we play, and that brings healing and love to the world. 

Jesus talked about the risk of playing the Gospel. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,” he said, “it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

Early followers of Jesus risked for the sake of the healing and love of the Gospel. They risked being kicked out of their synagogues, and they were kicked out of their synagogues. Gentiles risked being ostracized, and they were. 

The Gospel of Jesus demands risk. It demands being booed off stage, and if we are, ok. We practice some more, we allow the love and healing of Jesus to be written even more fully in our hearts, and we risk again. We risk not only for our sake, but for the sake of others.

We risk being peacemakers. We risk connection with one another. We risk offering the faith that is in us. We risk trusting in Jesus and following in his ways, rather than holding on so tightly to our lives out of fear of loss, that we end up hurting others and ourselves in the process. 

Our futures are uncertain. Jesus told us they would be. Following Jesus means risking that uncertainty. Jesus risked everything for our sake, for the sake of all people. “’Now is the judgment of this world;” Jesus said, “now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.” (John 12:33)

How did Jesus know that he would be raised and lifted up from the earth after he was crucified? My guess is he didn’t know it. He believed it. How did Jesus know that he would draw all people to himself? My guess is he didn’t know it. He believed it. How did he know that people wouldn’t simply forget, not believe, or ignore his life, message, and resurrection? My guess is he didn’t know it. He believed it. Jesus believed that people would receive his offering, receive his way of love and forgiveness. Jesus believed that people would receive the healing he offered and that they would then risk as he did to offer that same healing of forgiveness and love to others. 

Jesus believed in God, in forgiveness and love, and because of that belief, he risked everything for the sake of all humanity. He invites us, then to risk as well, for the sake of his Gospel and for the sake of humanity. Jesus invites us to risk for the sake of people who may hear, receive, and live the forgiveness and love of Jesus through the risks we take. Jesus invites us to risk forgiveness and love of others.

If we just talk about Jesus’ forgiveness and love to others, just tell people about it, then we’re really still in the practice room. If we mostly talk about Jesus’ Gospel, then I’m not sure it’s truly written on our hearts yet. When we live Jesus’ forgiveness and love, that’s when Jesus is written on our hearts. When we truly forgive and love others, that’s when we’re risking. Living Jesus’ forgiveness and love is when we’re out of the practice room and on stage, offering our music to others, making that connection, sharing the beauty and healing of the music that is in us.

A Serpent to Kill the Lizard Brain

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
March 3, 2024
4 Lent, Year B
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
John 3:14-21

A Serpent to Kill the Lizard Brain

So, imagine you are in a desert, the wilderness, with a few hundred thousand of your closest friends. You get to spend most of your day not hunting or growing crops, or really having to do too much work at all. You’re not worried about what you’re going to have to eat each day because food falls from Heaven each morning and settles on the ground like dew. You’ve worked on some housing and shelter, but otherwise, if you want to spend the day playing the lute or pipe and singing and dancing, you pretty much get to because God has taken care of your needs. 

Then, you start to cry. “We don’t like this food! We’re gonna die!” That’s what was going on with the people of Israel in our story from Numbers today. “We don’t like this food (that you give us every day, God)!  We’re gonna die!”

I think of children on a long car ride, kinda hungry, pretty bored, rather uncomfortable. They probably don’t actually think they are going to die of hunger, boredom, thirst, etc. If they were to think long and hard enough about how they’re actually doing, they might admit that really, they’re just uncomfortable. Listening to the anguished cries of those moderately hungry, bored, and uncomfortable children, however, it sounds like they are indeed in the last throws of starvation and death.  

To be fair to such overly dramatic children, I’ve heard plenty of adults make similar anguished cries of, “This is terrible; we’re all gonna die,” when really they were just uncomfortable or not overly happy with how things were going.  

So, back to the people of Israel, how did they go from being uncomfortable and bored to “We don’t like this food! We’re going to die!”? 

Well, it has to do with the way our brains work. There’s the thinking part of our brain, the frontal lobe, which realizes, “Yeah, no I guess I’m really not about to die; I just need a snack; I’m good.” There’s also a lower part of our brain, which I call “Lizard Brain” which has your basic fight or flight function. Lizard Brain sees a threat or a perceived threat, and it starts getting us a little more anxious, a little more agitated. Lizard Brain doesn’t know that the hunger we feel isn’t actually life threatening. Lizard Brain just knows “hunger bad!” As we go, if Lizard Brain starts to get really scared, it initiates lockdown, a fight or flight response to the real or perceived threat. The thinking part of our brains is actually shut down, and we begin acting and even making decisions based on this lowest lizard part of our brain which simply says, “There’s a threat: Eliminate or Run?”

We see this all the time with road rage, with people screaming at a cashier, with family members shouting at each other. When people say something in the heat of an argument that they instantly regret and don’t really mean, or when they’re in an argument and start making stupid arguments that they later realize they don’t even believe, that’s when Lizard Brain has taken over.  

That’s the condition of our brains. We really don’t like being uncomfortable, we’re not overly fond of anxiety, and we absolutely hate uncertainty. Our brains want resolutions to problems quickly so our world makes sense and we feel safe. 

When situations or things register in our brains as uncomfortable or possibly threatening, Lizard Brain starts to raise its little lizard head. For the children, uncomfortable in the car on the long drive, the lack of comfort brings Lizard Brain to the fore, the fight or flight response kicks in, and you get the anguished cries of children who have just had a snack and yet are starving…to death.  

So, we have the situation in Numbers in which the people of Israel were railing against God for bringing them out of Egypt just to die of hunger in the wilderness. They were in the desert, they were nomadic, and they were really tired of the miserable food God kept giving them every day, which, by the way, tasted awesome. The people of Israel were dying of hunger because they were tired of the food. Israel was not afraid of dying, even though they claimed they were. Israel was on a long car ride: uncomfortable, anxious, and full of uncertainty about the future: three things which Lizard Brain hates.  

As a response, God sent serpents among the people. That seems a bit much as a response to complaining, and certainly not something I would recommend parents do on the car ride. So, other than God being angry and wanting to hurt the people who had slandered him with lies about his mistreatment of them and them being near the point of death, what might have been going on with this serpent attack?

I had this idea that what if the serpents were a little less literally poisoning and killing people and a little more poisoning the people’s minds as the serpent did in the garden of Eden? With that idea in mind, I checked with my favorite Rabbi, and one of the coolest people I know, Annie Belford. She pointed me to commentary by 11th century Rabbi Rashi who wrote about this passage from Numbers: 

God said, as it were: Let the serpent which was punished for slanderous statements come and exact punishment from those who utter slander. — Let the serpent to which all kinds of food have one taste (that of earth; cf. Genesis 3:14 and Yoma 75a) come and exact punishment from these ingrates to whom one thing (the manna) had the taste of many different dainties (see Rashi 11:8) (Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 19).  

Like the serpent in Eden, the people of Israel in the wilderness were telling slanderous lies against God, that he was killing them, making them starve to death.  In fact, God had cared for them and sheltered them and kept them safe and well fed, but Lizard Brain was taking over in the people and so they made their anguished cry of, “We’re gonna die.”

Then, whether God sent serpents which actually killed them with literal venom, or if the serpents were killing them with more deceit and lies, God had Moses set up a bronze serpent for the people who were bitten to look upon and be healed.  

Now, this bronze serpent was not like Medusa in reverse. It wasn’t magic, as though if it happened to cross into someone’s line of sight, suddenly they were all better. It wasn’t an idol or a god to bring healing. The bronze serpent worked as people looked upon it and realized, “That’s what I’ve become. I’ve become as the father of lies, trusting my own anxiety and Lizard Brain rather that trusting in God who has freed us and kept us safe.” They would look upon the bronze serpent with true repentance, let Lizard Brain quiet down for a few moments, and the serpent would kill the lizard.

“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so [was] the Son of Man [lifted] up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Part of why Jesus was lifted up is to help us silence Lizard Brain when it rears its little lizard head and then help us return to trust in God and peace in our hearts. Rather than becoming the father of lies, trusting in the darkness of all our anxieties and fears, we look to Jesus, and we believe again that we are children of light. 

Of course, like the serpent which Moses raised, looking to Jesus is more than a passing thought of, “Yeah, yeah, Jesus…” whenever we’re freaking out. Looking to Jesus is a practice, a habit, that transforms our whole way of life. We believe that in Jesus, God has become one with us, one with every aspect of us, including our sins, so that no matter what, we are one with God. We believe that this life is not the end, but even after our bodies die, we continue on, alive, in union with God and one another. We let that belief change how we live, how we approach life, how we approach adversity, times when we are uncomfortable, anxious, and uncertain.

We develop habits and practices of prayer and meditation, of scripture reading, of silence and breathing, of daily turning our wills and our lives over to God. Looking to Jesus in all we do, meditating on the light and life of Jesus, trusting in our unending union with God, we practice these habits over and over and over, trusting in God for our lives and our deaths. Then, when Lizard Brain does take over, because Lizard Brain will still take over sometimes, we use our well-established practices to call us back from the lies of the lizard, the lies of the serpent, and we find peace to trust in Jesus once again, to trust that we are God’s, and no matter what, we are one with God in this life and in the life to come.

Removing the Marketplaces from Our Bodies

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
March 3, 2024
3 Lent, Year B
Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 19
John 2:13-22 

Removing the Marketplaces from Our Bodies

So, what was the deal with the animals and the moneychangers in the temple, and why did Jesus drive them out? Animals were supposed to be there as people brought them for sacrifices. Animal sacrifice was part of the religion of Israel since the time of Moses; people would offer many different kinds of sacrifices to God, many of which involved animals. Of course, originally, the animals were ones which you brought yourself, but, it seems that not everyone had animals. Society had changed in the centuries since Moses and the priests had first established animal sacrifice, so if people didn’t have animals of their own, they were available for purchase.

The moneychangers as well, were kind of a good thing. Israel was under Roman occupation, and people had to use Roman coins, but they couldn’t use those coins in the Temple. So, the people could change out their Roman coins for Jewish coins.

That all sounds pretty legit, so what was Jesus so upset about?

Well, perhaps it’s that they had all the trappings of Temple worship, but the Temple worship was kinda corrupted. For centuries, God had had problems with Israel’s worship. Their sacrifices were always before God, and yet true love and compassion for one another was often missing in those sacrifices. Dot every “I” and cross every “T” with your Temple worship, but if it doesn’t change your heart, then who cares. Just like when the Word of God spoke through the prophets, Jesus saw worship that was an end in and of itself, rather than a means to life of greater unity and love. Jesus wanted the Temple to be a house of prayer for all, a place of life and community. Jesus wanted the Temple to be a place like Eden, where people could walk together with God in the cool of the evening breeze.

Instead, the Temple had become a place where money that could have gone to help those in need was going to purchase animals to kill on an altar to supposedly make God happy. As the prophets wrote time and time again, sacrifices don’t make God happy. Supporting and caring for one another as we were created to do, as we did in Eden, that’s what makes God happy.

God becoming human as Jesus is meant to grant us a life more like Eden, where we walk together with God in the cool of the evening breeze. Healing and unity with God and one another is the Gospel. At various times and in various ways, has that Gospel of healing and unity with God and one another been corrupted, like Temple worship was? I’m gonna go with yes.

Last week I talked about name it and claim it preaching, a Christianity which promises power and riches through belief in Jesus. That turns God into a giant ATM. Insert faith here; receive power and riches here. That’s not real life. That’s not the Gospel; it’s a gospel corrupted.

Additionally, the Gospel of Jesus, who heales us and restores us to unity with God and one another, that Gospel of healing has often become known as a gospel of sin management. Do right, or else. Of course, we’re all gonna do wrong, but don’t do too wrong. Jesus loves you, but you better not mess up too much, or after you die, you’re going to be tortured, forever. Jesus loves you, but if you’re not quite sure and don’t quite put your faith in Jesus enough, then you’re going to be tortured, forever.

Yes, that is a gospel that has been corrupted. Believe in Jesus or be tortured forever is a faith that has gone radically off the rails and is full of money changers and animals that need to be driven out of the Temple. Never don’t be afraid, and be judgmental of people around you is a faith corrupted, full of money changers and animals which need to be driven out of the Temple.

Of course, the Temple we’re talking about here is the faith itself and the Temple of our bodies. Life is hard, and we carry all of those hardships in our bodies. Why do you think healing was such a part of Jesus’ ministry? Our bodies carry all of our hurts. Our minds carry every scar. Our hearts beat with every pain we’ve ever felt. Our bodies are temples of God’s presence, and for us fully to love and live God’s presence within our bodies and among one another, our bodies need healing. Our temples need cleansing.

That healing and that cleansing comes from love. Love drives out the moneychangers and the animals from our bodies so that we may walk with God and one another in the cool of the evening breeze.

And yet, our bodies are often a marketplace, aren’t they. Things are sold to us, increasingly marketed to our specific bodies. There’s plenty of good stuff out there, don’t get me wrong, but our bodies are more than places for people to hock their wares. Our bodies are sacred and beautiful even without those body enhancing whatevers are out there.

Our bodies also become marketplaces when we become transactional in one another’s eyes. What can you do for me? How can you, your body, serve my needs?

What about when we get into religion. My god doesn’t want this thing happening. Your body is doing that thing. Somehow, I need to control your body to make my god less angry.

Our bodies become marketplaces, ways for us to get what we want out of others.

Does this transactional approach to one another’s bodies displease God? Yes! Zeal for God’s temple will consume Jesus. Zeal for how we treat one another’s bodies will consume Jesus.

So, what needs to be driven out of our lives so that we no longer treat one another’s bodies like marketplaces? What needs to be driven out of our bodies to bring about healing for us? What needs to be driven out of our bodies so that we may help others heal?

To find out, we can ask, where do we cause hurt? Where do we cause harm? What hurt and harm within ourselves are we trying to soothe? Then we can seek healing for ourselves. That usually means help from others. Healing our hurts, healing our scars, healing the pain within. That also means seeking help from God. As Psalm 51:17 tells us, “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Seeking God’s help and healing of our hurting bodies and broken spirits, that is our bodies’ temple worship.

What needs to be driven out of the temples of our bodies so that our temple worship will be the worship that God desires? What hurt and brokenness do we need to offer to God so that we may find healing and walk with God and one another in the cool of the evening breeze?

Acceptance, and The Advocate

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
February 25, 2024
2 Lent, Year B
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Psalm 50:1-6
Mark 9:2-9 

Acceptance, and The Advocate

Peter was rather less than pleased with Jesus when Jesus told them all that he would be arrested and killed. Peter wanted Jesus’ rise fame and power to be meteoric and unending, and it seems that he wanted to be right there at the top of the heap with Jesus in Peter’s world conquering fantasy. Jesus assured Peter and the rest of his disciples that Peter’s desires for greatness and his denial of suffering was not the way of the Gospel nor of the kingdom of God. Peter was setting his mind on human things, flights of fancy, rather than on divine things.

So, nowadays if a preacher wants to preach that everything is going to be great, and you’re going to be wealthy and successful, name it and claim it, manifesting whatever it is in your life that you want, that preacher is officially setting his mind on human things, flights of fancy, and not on divine things. Such preaching feels good for a time. Name it and claim it preaching gives us a shot in the arm, and we’re happier, for a few hours or maybe for a few days, imagining the great stuff that’s going to come our way, if only we believe, and pay the preacher his due. Pay a little to the preacher now, and you’ll get a lot in the future. Such preachers are often pretty damn wealthy, and as to the return on people’s manifest riches investments, it seems to work out about as well as the lottery.

In short, such name it and claim it preaching is a bunch of hooey, a way for some preachers to sell momentary happiness with false future dreams of easy street.

Peter wanted a “manifest only good things” kind of preaching from Jesus. Peter wanted easy street, and Jesus was having none of it. “Those who want to save their life will lose it,” Jesus said. It’s just like back in Genesis in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were pretty happy with things. The trees, and fruits, and animals were all great. Everything was wonderful, except they wouldn’t choose acceptance over that one thing God said not to do.

“Gee, God, thanks so much for everything. All our needs are cared for, we especially love each other. I mean, damn, you done well. It’s just that, I mean, we appreciate everything we’ve done, but we really want that one particular piece of fruit you said not to eat. We need it. We want it. We won’t be satisfied with life until we have it.

So, God let them take it. They got what they wanted, but they lost the life they had. Shamed and disconnected from one another, disconnected from God, everything in life was harder. Wanting to deny and overcome any limitations on their lives, they ended up with enormously more limitations than they’d had before. Wanting to be masters over the world, supplanting God’s place in some ways, they ended up with a world that would not bend to their whims, but would fight against them and resist them.

The more we seek to control everything and everyone around us, the more we find the world and all around us fighting and resisting our efforts. Some gain power enough to force others to their will for a time, but at the cost of love, at the cost of trust, at the cost of darkness and despair flourishing in a world that should be filled with light. Easy street is paved on the backs of other people’s hardships. Such was Peter’s desire for greatness and power, a life free of suffering and sadness.

Suffering and sadness are part of life; we can’t escape them. That’s what Jesus was saying. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

Jesus accepted what was going to happen to him, his arrest, crucifixion, and death. In the face of suffering and sadness, Jesus didn’t pray to some preacher to manifest power and riches. No, Jesus prayed for acceptance. He accepted his death, and he also accepted his resurrection. Death was not the end for Jesus, nor is it the end for us. Jesus’ acceptance of his death and resurrection brought light and life into the world. Jesus’ acceptance of his death and resurrection brought hope into the world, not the false hope of riches and easy street paved on the backs of others. Jesus’ acceptance of his death and resurrection brought true hope of life in unity with God and one another.

Remembering that hope is not always easy. In the face of real challenge and tragedy, holding on the hope of Jesus’ resurrection can be elusive for us. We rage against the problems of the world. We don’t want to accept the suffering of the world, and we certainly don’t want to accept our own suffering. Things aren’t right. How could accepting them possibly be right?

Suffering and sadness are part of life; we can’t escape them. Acceptance doesn’t mean, however, that we do nothing. Jesus’ acceptance and love means we strive to help alleviate each other’s suffering and sadness. That’s being advocates for each other, guided by the Holy Spirit, the Advocate. We also set our egos aside so that we’re not raging against all of the problems we face and the problems we see in the world.

To rage against everything that is wrong is to be an adversary, guided by Satan, whose name literally means Adversary. That’s what Peter was doing. He rebuked Jesus because he didn’t want the suffering and sadness to happen. He raged, guided by the Adversary, and so Jesus responded, “Get behind me, Satan!”

Last week, I was at the City Council meeting to comment on the expansion of the Sidewalk Ordinance which allows people to be ticketed for laying down, sitting, or putting their things on the sidewalk during the day. I went there to speak against the ordinance, as an adversary. Before I spoke, however, I listened members of council raise issues of how the ordinance hurt folks who are homeless, and I heard Mayor Whitmire encourage the members to look into Haven for Hope in San Antonio for helping folks who are homeless further in Houston.

So, rather than speak against the ordinance, I spoke as an advocate for all who are homeless, basically reiterating the points council already made, sharing a story of someone who had been harmed by the ordinance, and urging them to make working on homelessness one of their top priorities, noting that the city has done tremendous work, and homelessness is far from solved.

Seeing the suffering and sadness of so many, I wanted to rage against the ordinance, telling them they were wrong for having it, but that wouldn’t have done a lick of good. Being an adversary, following the way of Satan, all I’d have done would have been to make enemies and add darkness to the world. There was no manifesting my desires, no naming and claiming.

Instead, accepting the sadness and suffering of the ordinance, I spoke as an advocate, following the Holy Spirit. That’ll bring better and more lasting help in the long run. “Be still before the LORD,” Psalm 37:7-9 tells us. “Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him. Do not fret yourself over the one who prospers, the one who succeeds in evil schemes. Refrain from anger, leave rage alone; do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil.”

Manifesting one’s desires of glory and riches over and against everyone else in the world, is the flip side of the coin of fretting ourselves over the ones who prosper. I do it every day. That’s something I continually need to give up, choosing instead to follow the way of Jesus, the way of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate. Accepting that suffering and sadness are part of life, we can choose to pray for love, striving with one another, just as we were created to do.

Like Jesus, we can pray for acceptance both of death of resurrection, for the light and life of Jesus. That’s not the false hope of glory and riches, easy street paved on the backs of others. Acceptance of death and resurrection is the true hope of life in love and unity with God and one another.