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.
The Rev. Brad Sullivan Lord of the Streets, Houston December 21, 2025 4 Advent, A Isaiah 7:10-16 Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18 Matthew 1:18-25
When Mary ended up pregnant with a baby that wasn’t Joseph’s, he could have called for Mary’s death. Such was his right under Jewish law in Deuteronomy 22:23-27. Mary could have been stoned to death for being pregnant because she was engaged. Even if she had been raped, if she hadn’t screamed out loudly enough for someone to hear and stop the rape, she still could have been killed. We don’t know how often such killings took place in 1st century Israel, but we do know that Joseph had every right to have Mary killed. Some might even say he had a responsibility to fulfil the righteousness of the law, to have Mary killed. Joseph decided to go a different way.
He and Mary were probably both in their early teens, their marriage arranged by their parents, with Joseph and Mary still living with their parents at the time. So, when he found out she was pregnant with someone else’s baby, he could have, at the very least, called off the wedding. That was, in fact, what he planned to do. He would tell Mary’s family that since she was no longer a virgin and had been impregnated by another man, he would no longer accept her as his wife.
Had that played out, Mary would have likely continued living with her parents. She would have had her baby. Maybe one day she would have gotten married, though her prospects for security and a husband weren’t that great.
Then, of course, Joseph was visited by an Angel of the Lord who told him to take Mary as his wife because the child was given to her by the Holy Spirit, not by another man. Now, when Matthew wrote this story of Jesus birth, we find that it reminded Matthew of Isaiah 7:10-16, where the young woman gave birth to a son and the son was named, “Immanuel,” meaning God is with us.
Reminding us of that story, Matthew was telling us that God is with us in the birth of Jesus. God was with Mary as he chose her to become pregnant with Jesus and to raise him as her beloved son. God was with Joseph as he assured Joseph of his plan, that the pregnancy was God’s doing. God was also with Joseph before the angel visited him, when Joseph chose to let Mary go quietly.
If Joseph had had Mary killed, he would have fulfilled the letter of the law, but he would have missed God being with us, not to mention murdering an innocent young woman. Instead, Joseph chose to let Mary be, and God is with us.
God was with Mary when Joseph chose to simply let her go, rather than enforce upon her the full weight of the law. Even though she had seemingly broken the law. Even though she was engaged to him and gotten pregnant by some other dude, he thought, Joseph simply chose to let her go.
She won’t be a part of my life, he figured, and that will be that. There had been a civil contract between his and her families, one’s daughter and one’s son, and since that contract had been broken by Mary, the two were no longer going to be married. That was all. No death. No condemnation. No public outcry. God is with us.
Now again, some would say he should have publicly disgraced Mary. She had done wrong, and they needed to keep Israel pure from such immorality. How could they be God’s people if they allowed such terrible behavior as Mary the tramp getting knocked up by some random dude? If they allowed that, how could God be with them? If they allowed Mary and others like her to live, wouldn’t they be making God angry with them as a nation? How could God be with them if they did not follow God’s laws of purity and sexual morality?
That could have been Joseph’s response, but again, he went a different way. Joseph chose mercy, and as it turns out, God was with them because of that mercy. God is with us because of that mercy.
So, trusting that God is with us, even when people do things that are considered unrighteous and immoral, how might we follow the example of Joseph? How might we show mercy, too?
Well, Joseph thought Mary had committed sexual immorality, and we have laws being proposed and passed aimed at what some consider to be sexual immorality. I am thinking of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters who are being targeted by laws written to uphold some people’s ideas of Christian sexual morality. Repealing marriage equality. Preventing doctors from helping transgender people transition. What if, instead of writing laws against our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, people just let them be?
I’ve heard concern by some Christian preachers that God is angry with the United States for allowing LGBTQ people to have the same rights and freedoms as everyone else. That’s kinda like thinking Mary had to be killed to keep God from being angry with Israel. Turns out, despite what the law said, God wanted mercy, not murder.
Well, if we look to Joseph, his righteousness came not by enforcing the punishment of God’s law. Josephs’ righteousness came by showing mercy. Joseph’s righteousness came by simply letting Mary be. What if people who consider LGBTQ folks to be sinners just let them be, trusting that God is with us.
What if Christians in general didn’t force their ideas of morality on others, but simply let people be? Could we still trust that God is with us? That would be following Joseph’s example of righteousness, showing mercy, trusting that God is with us.
What about other ways that people might show mercy, trusting God is with us, rather than enforcing punishment for doing wrong? What about when we lose our tempers, wanting to shout at or fight with someone because they did something against us? We’re so pissed off, and we want to teach the, to make them know they were wrong, to admit it, and to make it right. We want punishment and justice.
That is presumably what an 18-year-old wanted when he stabbed his 16-year-old classmate in the neck, killing him. The 18-year-old couldn’t find his vape pen and was convinced the younger man had taken it. A fight ensued and because of that, one young man is dead, and the other is in jail, facing murder charges and decades in prison.
I don’t know what was going through his head at the time, but it’s a good bet it wasn’t mercy. A $21 vape pen, an assumption of theft, no mercy, and a young man is dead. That’s what could have happened to Mary. An engagement, an assumption of adultery, no mercy, and Mary would have been killed, but Joseph chose a different way, and God is with us.
Joseph choosing mercy was probably not an accident. He had probably been shown mercy himself, had been taught mercy. Vengeance is easy. All we have to do is listen to our emotions, get hurt, get upset, and do exactly what our emotions tell us to do. That’s what Cain did when he killed Abel. Be angry and do exactly what that anger says to do. That’s what Derek Chauvin did when he murdered George Floyd.
Vengeance is easy, and vengeance tends to rest on the idea that we’re alone. Vengeance is a fearful response that we have to take care of whatever problem ourselves. Judgment, justice, all up to us. Vengeance can also be a fearful response that if we don’t hurt the people we think are wrong, then God may hurt us. Neither of those were Joseph’s response. Joseph chose mercy and found that God is with us.
Mercy is taught and practiced. Mercy takes trust that God is with us, and so we don’t need vengeance.
For the young man who killed his classmate over a missing vape pen, mercy does mean that he’ll need to be in prison if he’s convicted, and that he’ll need to be shown mercy when he’s there, helped to heal, not just beaten down and punished forever.
God is with us. Always and everywhere. God became human so we would know that he is with us. God became human to show us mercy. Mercy helps heal the world. May we follow Joseph’s example. May we follow the way of God. May we show mercy.
The Rev. Brad Sullivan Lord of the Streets, Houston December 14, 2025 3 Advent, A James 5:7-10 The Song of Mary Magnificat - Luke 1:46-55 Matthew 11:2-11
So, John the Baptist doesn’t seem to have been overly happy when he had his disciples go to Jesus and ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jahn was in prison because Israel’s tiny, authoritarian, narcissistic king, Herod, had put John in prison for telling him the truth. Herod had married someone whom it was against the Jewish law for him to marry. When John told him that, Herod found John treasonous, and he wanted to have John killed immediately, but he chickened out and simply had him imprisoned instead. John was a political prisoner of a small and morally bankrupt king who even wanted to have sex with his stepdaughter, we find out later.
John was understandably pretty upset at this point. It was hard times for Israel under Roman occupation. There was trauma, constant stress and fear, and it seemed like the whole world was against them. In that time of trauma, stress, and fear, John had given everything, his whole life to the idea that Israel’s messiah was coming and that Jesus was this savior who would rescue Israel from Rome, who would rescue Israel from their terrible and corrupt king. Then, as it turned out, John was imprisoned by this terrible and corrupt king, Rome still ruled over Israel, and Jesus didn’t seem to be doing anything about it.
So, John wondered, “Have I been backing the wrong horse?” Is Jesus really the Messiah I have been claiming him to be? Have I been a fool, and am I here in prison for nothing? “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” John had his disciples ask Jesus. Behind that question was another question. “Are you gonna get me out of jail or not?”
Jesus answered by telling John’s disciples to tell John what they saw. In short, people were being healed, and behind Jesus’ answer was, “No, John. I am not going to break you out of prison.” The messiah has come, and you are not going to see some world altering, monumental shift in the balance of power and world order. In fact, if you’re not concerned with the lives of the people around you, you may not notice much at all that the messiah has come.
Jesus helped, he served, he saved people, but he didn’t rule over the earth as a good-natured tyrant. He didn’t kill. He didn’t destroy. He didn’t force others follow his way and his will. That wasn’t the way of the people of Israel. God didn’t force the people to follow his way and his will. God offered his way and his will to Israel and told them that things would be better for them if they followed.
Sometimes they did, and things were generally better. Sometimes they didn’t, and things tended to be worse. In the dark times, those who stayed true to who they were as God’s people were the ones who found the light.
So, when Jesus assured John that he wasn’t going to break him out of prison, and when Jesus told John that he was the messiah because people were being healed and the poor had good news brought to them, he was also telling John, remember who you are.
John didn’t spend his life training people to become merciless killers so they could destroy Rome and kill king Herod. John spent his life reminding people of who they were: God’s people. John ministered to people in the desert, reminding them to follow God’s will and God’s way. That was how he prepared for the messiah to come, helping the people of Israel walk faithfully with God. John prepared for the messiah to come by guiding people to love God, to love others, and to let all of their actions flow from those two great loves.
It should not have been a terribly great surprise then, that when the messiah did come, the way that he saved people was pretty darn similar. Love God. Love people. “What do you see, John? You see me loving God and loving people. With all the mighty power of God within me, you see me loving God and loving people. That’s how you know I’m the messiah.”
So, I can imagine John being disappointed. Perhaps he was expecting something different: fires and earthquakes, floods and wars, and other apocalyptic craziness. Jesus didn’t bring that. Instead, he assured John that he was the messiah because he was healing people and giving them the good news that God is with them, even in the bad times, and that was Jesus’ message for John as well. “God is still with you, John. So do not despair, and do not lose sight of who you are.”
When we are in the midst of despair, we can lose sight of who we are. During hard times, with trauma, constant stress and fear, during times when it seems like everything is going wrong in the world, like everything is against us, Jesus is reminding us not to lose sight of who we are. We are beloved. We are God’s beloved, and we are made to be loved by God and one another, and we are made to love God and to love one another. We are made to join together in healing the hurts of the world. That’s who the people of Israel are.
When Jesus told John’s disciples that he was healing people and bringing them the good news that they are God’s beloved, he was reminding John of exactly what John had been reminding others of when he baptized them in the wilderness. We are God’s people made to heal the hurts of the world. So no, John, don’t wait for another. Remember who you are.
Like the people of Israel, we too, as Jesus’ disciples, have been formed to help heal the hurts of the world. That’s hard to do in times of trauma, stress, and fear, feeling like everything is going wrong in the world or that the world is against us, and during those dark times, Jesus reminds us even more strongly to remember who we are: God’s beloved, made to love, made to heal the hurts of the world. During those dark times, we are reminded to seek help from Jesus, to stay true to who we are, trusting that we will find the light.
Even in the current darkness, our way is lit by love God and love people. That’s how we know where we’re going. That’s how we know Jesus is the messiah. We don’t need fires, earthquakes, wars, floods, or other apocalyptic craziness; we have quite enough craziness right now, thank you very much.
So no, we don’t need to wait for another. We can follow Jesus and do what he did.
We may not get what we’re hoping for. John died in prison, but he died being the light. He died remembering who he was, God’s beloved, formed to help heal the hurts of the world. Whenever and wherever that healing happens, the messiah is here, and the savior reigns. Even in the darkness, whenever and wherever healing happens, the messiah is here, and the savior reigns.
The Rev. Brad Sullivan Lord of the Streets, Houston December 7, 2025 2 Advent, A Isaiah 11:1-10 Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 Matthew 3:1-12
In the 1984 movie, Ghostbusters, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson played the heroes of the movie, the titular, “Ghostbusters.” They were three scientists and one brave man who joined up to get a steady paycheck, who fought ghosts together in New York. They were pretty good at it, caught a lot of ghosts and kept them locked away in their own custom containment unit.
Then, one of the city inspectors got upset with what they were doing, shut down the containment unit, releasing all the ghosts, and landing the Ghostbusters in jail. Then things went kinda wonky, and the mayor asked the Ghostbusters what they thought was going to happen. They described Biblical disasters: seas boiling, fire from the sky, 40 years of darkness, the dead rising from the grave, and then Bill Murray culminates their list of terrors with “dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!”
I bring this up because, one, wouldn’t you start a sermon by quoting Ghostbusters, and two, because that’s what I thought of when I read today’s passage from Isaiah. “The wolf shall live with the lamb,” and “the cow and the bear will graze together.” That’s crazy, and yet, Isaiah wasn’t mass hysteria brought on by ghosts, but peace brought on by God. Now to be fair to Bill Murray, “dogs and cats living together, [that would be] mass hysteria,” but the rest of it, the wolf and the lamb playing together, and the bear and the cow sitting down to a nice brunch, that’s how Isaiah described God’s peaceable kingdom.
We’ve got these beautiful images, crazy, but beautiful images of such a fantastic peace throughout the world that wolves even give up eating the yummy, yummy sheep. You ever had lamb chops? It would take divinely inspired peace for me to say that ain’t tasty any more, but those are the kinds of images Isaiah gives us for God’s peaceable kingdom.
“What’s God’s kingdom of peace going to be like?”, Isaiah asks us. It will be like a baby playing right beside a venomous snake with no fear of being bitten, because the snake would no more bite the baby than the baby would eat the snake.
Don’t try that at home.
Isaiah is giving us an image of what God’s peaceable kingdom could be like.
Now, we’re not going accomplish do this. We’re not actually going to be able to make bears eat grass or wolves frolic in the meadows with sheep. I don’t care how peaceful you feel, don’t anyone start the Rattlesnake-Nanny Childcare Center.
The image of the snake-baby-besties party is an image of just how deeply God intends to heal the world.
Remember the unfortunate events in Genesis 3? The serpent tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit which God told them not to eat, and as a result, the serpent would always be the enemy of Eve’s offspring. The serpent would bite our heals, and we would crush its head.
So, a baby playing around with a deadly snake? Yeah, that’s a reversal of Adam and Eve eating the fruit. A baby playing with a deadly snake is a reversal of the serpent tempting Adam and Eve in the first place. Isaiah’s images, which Bill Murray would call mass hysteria, are really a return to Eden. That is how much God intends to heal the world.
That is how much, one day, God will heal the world. It will be like Eden, once again, where we walk with God in the cool of the evening breeze. No fear. No worry. A life of love and being beloved. Being held. Being cared for. That’s what God will do.
With that return to Eden in mind, which God will accomplish, we now turn to John the Baptist, who said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
For us, my question is, “Repent of what?” Well, big picture, we have some pretty big ills in our society which need repentance. We have economic injustice, with the ultra-wealthy getting rich off of the labor of the working poor.
We have drug epidemics, gangs, organized crime selling poison to people, which is also economic injustice because the folks at the top of the drug game get rich by enslaving people at the bottom to the poisons, the drugs, they sell.
We have rents increasing so much that wages can’t keep up, so people are working hard and ending up on the street simply because they can’t make enough to afford a place to live.
Those are a few of the big societal ills of which we need to repent.
What about personally. Of what do we need to personally repent? In the face of all our societal ills, how about we repent of apathy and rage? We can get so angry at all the problems of our society that we get overcome by anger and turn to rage, leaving hurt and hatred in our wake. We can also become so overcome by the enormity of societal problems, that we choose to do nothing, because we can’t fix it, so why bother trying? Both that rage and that apathy, choosing to do nothing, are things for which we often need to repent.
Just because we can’t fix the world doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. We’re not going to achieve Eden, but that doesn’t mean we don’t strive for it.
Reading the latest Batman comic, Batman had to fight a basically unbeatable foe. After Batman won, Alfred was thinking about how he won, and he realized that for Batman, winning wasn’t the point because his fight was bigger than any war. His fight is “about doing what is right, no more, no less…He’s not fighting to win. He’s fighting to fight. The fight is the point. For home. For the people he loves.”
-Scott Snyder, Absolute Batman, Issue 14: Abomination: Conclusion, DC Comics, November 2025
That’s kinda like Jesus (minus the cape, and the cool weapons, and the massive violence). Jesus fought for a victory over sin and death. That’s an unbeatable foe, and yet Jesus won. Now Jesus won because he was God who became human, and as God, he united all sin and death to himself so that nothing can separate us from God. As a human being, Jesus trusted in God. Jesus trusted that one day, God’s victory would fully come to pass, and we would live together Isaiah’s vision of peace.
So, what was Jesus’ fight? To do what was right, no more, no less.
For us, too, as disciples of Jesus, we have a fight with sin and death, except that we don’t fight to win. Jesus has already won. We fight because it’s the right thing to do. We fight for one another. We fight for the people we love. We fight for people we don’t even know. We fight to live and spread as much of Eden as we can, knowing that we’re not going to win, and trusting that we don’t need to win.
We just need to fight with the tools of repentance and love. Love is our weapon which does not harm others. Love only does harm to sin and evil, by weakening it so that it no longer has a hold on us and on those we love. Fight sin and evil with love. That’s what John the Baptist called repentance.
Do you find that you are overcome by the sin and evil of the world? Do you find that rage and apathy lead your actions a lot of the time? Then set a new course for your life. Repent of anything that brings harm to others. Repent of anything that isn’t the way of love. If you don’t like where your life is headed, you’ve got to change what you do and how you do it. Let love be your weapon, a weapon which does no harm to others. Let love be your weapon, which does not insist that others follow you in love. Let love be your weapon, which is patient and kind. Let love be your weapon, which seeks not to blame everyone who is wrong around you, but seeks God’s help to change what is harmful within yourself.
Let love be your weapon so much so that a wolf living with a sheep, and a cow and a bear having a snack together actually seems possible. Let love be your weapon so much that a baby could play with a venomous snake and be fine (again, metaphor, don’t try that). Let love be your weapon so much that dogs and cats living together will still be mass hysteria, but you just won’t mind so much.
Repent, John said. Love. Let love be your weapon in the Batman/Jesus fight against sin and death, trusting that God has already won, so we don’t need to win. We fight simply because it’s the right thing to do. We fight for one another. We fight for the people we love. We fight for people we don’t even know. We fight to live and spread as much of Eden as we can, with no weapon except love.
The Rev. Brad Sullivan Lord of the Streets, Houston November 30, 2025 1 Advent, A Isaiah 2:1-5 Psalm 122 Matthew 24:36-44
“In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.” (Isaiah 2:2) Isaiah spoke those words of apocalypse to the people of Israel over 700 years before Jesus was born. These are words of apocalypse because they are words of revelation, of revealing. That’s what apocalypse or apocalyptic actually means, revealing. Isaiah was revealing something to the people of Israel, something which couldn’t be seen, couldn’t be known, and was nonetheless true.
Eventually, someday, at some point in the future history of the world, “God shall judge between the nations, and [the people] shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
This apocalyptic literature, this revealing tells us that eventually, all of our fighting on earth will end. God will bring about this end, and this end of all wars and fighting on earth will also be a new beginning, an age of peace, a time when all people will join together as one, living the lives of love which God created us to live.
There are many apocalyptic visions like this throughout scripture, and many of them describe cosmic, enormously destructive events. Earthquakes, wars, fires from heaven, dragons coming out of the sea. All of this destruction comes before the age of peace. There is a most definite ending before the new beginning. So, because of these cataclysmic, destructive scenes in apocalyptic literature, apocalypse has come to mean “end of the world,” but apocalypse actually means “a revealing.”
Apocalyptic visions show us things that cannot be seen, and they are often written in coded language, using wild images of beasts and monsters to talk about spiritual warfare and using wild images of beasts and monsters to talk about real world enemies. The great whore of Babylon in Revelation, for example, was probably talking about Rome.
So, images describing spiritual warfare which cannot be seen with our eyes. We get these fantastical images to describe it. The ultimate revealing of apocalyptic texts is, God wins. The forces of evil and darkness do not triumph over the light and love of God.
Apocalyptic stories are meant to give us comfort in times of suffering. The evils of wicked people may harm us right now, but God’s goodness will prevail. The wicked will be punished for their injustice and selfish cruelty, and the victims of the wicked will be comforted and healed. So do not despair too much over the evils of wicked men, and do not be overcome by their darkness. Continue doing the next right thing. Continue following in God’s ways. Continue following in the way of love and service, in the way of repentance and forgiveness. Eventually, all will be made right.
In all of the apocalyptic stories I have heard and read, that is the message I get. Despite whatever problems you face, despite the tyranny of evil men, continue following in the way of love and serving, repentance and forgiveness. Eventually, all will be right. That’s a rather beautiful and hopeful message and one that I am glad God has given us.
Beyond that basic message, I don’t have a lot of time for the apocalyptic stories of scripture. They’re really cool, don’t get me wrong: dragons, war, pestilence, the wicked cast down, the lowly raised up, angels at war, swords, fighting. It’s great stuff. My problem with the apocalypses in scripture is when people start trying too hard to figure them out.
What do all the details mean? What does this particular image represent? Has this already happened? Is it still gonna happen? Earthquakes! Volcanoes! Fighting among the nations! Oh my gosh, we have all of those things happening right now! Run for your lives; it’s the end!
As I’ve said before, people in every generation since Jesus’ resurrection have believed that the apocalypses of scripture have been about them and their time, and so far, every one of them has been wrong. The world keeps spinning. The sun keeps rising.
When we read apocalyptic texts in scripture and we become fearful of the end, then we’ve missed the point. Remember, Apocalypse means “a revealing.” These stories show us something of God’s ultimate victory over evil and darkness, a victory of love and light.
As Jesus talked about apocalyptic imagery, he talked about the coming of the Son of Man, and he said it would come suddenly and unexpectedly. “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” He was telling us all to be ready for the coming of Jesus, and he made an analogy to a thief breaking into a house. If you knew when the thief was coming, you’d be up and ready to stop him.
Ok, first thing, no, Jesus is not like a thief. Jesus didn’t use this image to make us afraid of Jesus coming like some horror movie villain with knives for fingers or a weird murderous doll. Jesus just meant that he would come at an unexpected time and so we should always be ready for God among us.
Always be ready. In other words, quit trying to figure out when it will be. Jesus said he didn’t even know, and if you’re trying to figure out when Jesus will come, you’re missing the point. It’s like cramming for an exam the night before, hoping to pass the test and learning absolutely nothing at all. The point of the class was not to cram for the test. The point of the class was to maybe learn something kinda cool.
We don’t try to figure out when Jesus will come so we can be really, really good for a few weeks or months ahead of time. That’s what we do as kids for Santa Claus.
“Have you been a good boy this year?” People would ask.
Uh, crap. Kinda, but it’s December tomorrow. I’ve got 24 days to be extra good to make up for the rest of the year.
Yeah, Jesus isn’t Santa Claus, and we don’t prepare for Jesus’ coming the way we prepare for Santa or cram for exams. See, in Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus told about the judgment of the nations, at the end of time, and Jesus said people were judged by how they treated Jesus when he came among them.
“Dude, you never came back,” the people all said. “We never saw you.” Jesus replied that actually, they had seen him, whenever they saw anyone in need. “Whatever you did to the least of the people among you, you did to me,” Jesus told them. “Whenever you ignored someone in need among you, you ignored me. Whenever you cared for someone in need among you, you took care of me.”
The lesson I take is this: if we’re waiting for Jesus to come back with clouds, and angels, and a big to do so that we can praise him and have a big Jesus rock star party with him, we’re missing the point. If we’re a little more afraid of Jesus coming back, and we’re trying to figure out exactly when it’ll be so we can spend a few weeks or months trying to get in his good graces, we’re missing the point.
“The Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour” because Jesus is already here among us, all the time. You want to know when Jesus is coming? The next time you have an opportunity to be kind to someone, that’s when Jesus is coming. We don’t always do this very well.
Yesterday, when I was in a hurry while driving, I hurried around a guy, and he had to wait for me to change lanes. As it turns out, he seems to have been having a terrible day already, because he was pissed. I mean driving up in front of me, breaking, swerving, and pulling up beside me at the light to cuss me out pissed. I didn’t cause all that, but I added to the darkness in his life that burst the dam of all that anger. I wasn’t expecting Jesus in the car next to me, it was just some driver I didn’t give a crud about. Turns out, it was Jesus, deeply in need of any kind gesture, and I ignored him, whipping around him in traffic instead.
So, as I said weeks ago, don’t prepare for Jesus’ coming by preparing for the end of the world. Prepare for Jesus’ coming by assuming the world is going to go on spinning and the sun is going to rise tomorrow. Be prepared for living. When’ll Jesus come back? Whenever you see someone in need.
As for all of those generations of people who all thought Jesus was coming again in their lifetimes, in their generations, I said they were wrong in assuming the end was coming, but they were also right. Jesus was coming in their lifetimes and in their generations. The great apocalypse, the great revealing, is that Jesus comes back among us all the time, in every human being you’ve ever seen.
The great revealing for how we are to prepare for Jesus, for how we are to prepare for the end, the great revealing is there’s always an ending and a new beginning. Sure, there will be an ultimate, final end and new beginning, and that is meant as encouragement for us, believing that evil and darkness will be destroyed by God’s love and light. That is a lovely revealing, but the great revealing is that we get to be the ending of darkness and the beginning of light in each other’s lives all the time. Every time Jesus is present among us, meaning anytime we see any other human, we get to bring them light and love to cast out the darkness and evil.
When the people of Israel came into the promised land after they had been freed from slavery in Egypt, God commanded them to take the first fruits of the food they were growing, and bring them to the altar of God to be given as an offering of thanksgiving. This offering was a reminder that God had been with the people from the beginning and that God brought them out of slavery in Egypt so that they could be a light to the nations. The offering also reminded the people that God gave the growth to their crops, so they were to give thanks to God from whom all life flows. The people planted and tended their crops, and God gave the soil and brought the rain so the crops could grow.
Radio broadcaster Paul Harvey once noted that “despite all our many accomplishments, we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.” If there were no plants on the earth, there would be no animals. If humans could not grow fruits, and vegetables, and grains, we would all die. So, we do indeed owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.
Giving thanks for the simple fact of food helps ground us because when we don’t give thanks, we tend to take things for granted. We don’t notice any of the blessings around us, and when we no longer notice blessings, we tend to fall into despair. If there’s nothing for which to be grateful, well then there’s nothing good in the world, and if there’s nothing good, well then everything is bad.
What do we do with the bad stuff in our lives? We tend not to like it that much, and we end up contemptuous and resentful of all the bad things in our lives. So, when we stop giving thanks, we tend to become contemptuous and resentful of everything in our life, even the good things.
It seems God really knew what he was doing when he told the people of Israel to give thanks for the first fruits of the harvest each year. Remain grateful so that you can remain joyful. Remain grateful so that you notice the blessings around you and don’t fall into despair.
There is also something particularly healing about being grateful for food, and I think it is this: food comes from the ground, from the earth, which is where we come from. We are connected to our food because we are connected to the earth.
When the people of Israel were wandering in the desert, God gave them manna to eat. It rained down from the heavens and the people gathered it every morning. It was described as the bread of angels. That’s pretty fantastic that God gave the people angelic food, and they didn’t even have to work for it. Every morning it just appeared, and the people quickly came to hate it.
Ok, on the one hand, guys, just be grateful. On the other hand, I think they grew to hate the bread of angels because it wasn’t from this world. They weren’t as connected to the manna as they were to the fruits of the ground.
There is something about real food that connects us to the earth and to each other. Meals eaten together connect our families and communities. Those meals, that food, connects us back to the earth, that six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains. Those meals then, that food, helps remind us of our connection to God from whom all life flows and from whom all love flows.
God loves us so much that he thought becoming human sounded like a pretty neat idea, so that God is connected physically to us, just as we are connected physically to the earth. Our sustenance, our food, is not only the physical food that comes from the earth, but also the physical connection to God which comes from Jesus.
“I am the bread of life,” Jesus said. “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Never be hungry and never be thirsty, Jesus said, even when we mess up, even when we turn away from Jesus, because we always get to turn back.
Jesus said that our work, the work which will bring us the bread of life, is to believe in Jesus. Well, that work that Jesus would have us do means believing in all of his life, and his teachings, and his death, and his resurrection.
Last Sunday, we heard about Jesus’ death in his crucifixion, calling out “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Forgive them for killing the bread of life. That’s love, right there, God’s great love for us. Not only did God give us six inches of topsoil and rain so that we can eat the physical food of this earth, God gave us the bread of life, the physical connection between us and God. In Jesus, God gave us a physical connection with God’s own eternal life, and when humanity tried to kill that physical connection between us and God, Jesus said, “Father forgive them.”
We can’t do enough bad to sever God’s connection with us in Jesus, and we know this because of Jesus’ resurrection. The resurrection tells us that God doesn’t give up on us, even when we give up on God. As a friend of mine, the Reverend Pete Nunnally said, “Even though we tried to kill God, God came back to us.”
That is the bread of everlasting life which we eat by believing, and we let that belief be real enough to change our lives.
“Do not work for the food that perishes,” Jesus said. Do not work, and strive, and fight just for things that’ll help you feel better for a moment or two. The next bit of cush will make you feel better for a short while, but it will also drain you of life. The next drunk will help you not care for a time, but it will also drive people away from you and make them push you away.
The police are making the rounds more and more on the streets of midtown, moving people off the sidewalks, removing people’s belongings, and forcing people to leave the area. On the one hand, it kinda sucks to take someone who has no place to live and force them to go away to somewhere else. On the other hand, when folks are using drugs, getting drunk and high, threatening men and harassing women so they no longer feel safe coming to church here, who could blame the police for making people move on?
I don’t say this to condemn, because as a recovering alcoholic myself, I truly do understand the pull and the chains of addiction. I understand using something to feel better and feeling like that thing will fill the hunger. I also understand how addiction harms one’s behavior, and I understand how addiction leads to anger, resentment, fear, and hopelessness.
I understand trying to fill a hunger with food that doesn’t satisfy, “food that perishes,” Jesus said, and I understand how dark life can be. I also believe that the true hunger we feel is not just to feel better. The true hunger we feel is for eternal life. The true hunger we feel is for connection with God and one another. The true hunger we feel is for love and belonging.
So, today I offer again what God has given us to fill our hunger, the bread of life which is Jesus. God became human to connect us physically with God’s own eternal life, and not even death Jesus’ death on the cross could sever that connection. “Even though we tried to kill God, God came back to us.”
No matter how often we turn away, God always invites us back. So for us, the antidote to our anger, resentment, fear, and hopelessness is not numbing out with food that perishes. The healing for our anger, resentment, fear, and hopelessness comes from the bread of life, and working for that bread, believing in Jesus. Our healing comes from believing in Jesus’ teaching and ways. Our healing comes from believing that Jesus is the eternal life of God joined physically, and our healing comes from letting that belief be real enough to change our lives.
So, on this day of giving thanks, we remember God’s gifts, and we remember the gift of gratitude itself, because without gratitude, we stop noticing the blessings around us, and we fall into despair. We give thanks today for the food of the earth, for that six inches of top soil and the fact that it rains, connecting our lives physically to creation. We give thanks for the bread of life. We give thanks for that physical connection to God’s eternal life, Jesus, whom we tried to kill and who came back to let us know that nothing can separate us from God’s great love for us and God’s eternal life.
The Rev. Brad Sullivan Lord of the Streets, Houston November 23, 2025 Proper 29 – Christ the King, C Jeremiah 23:1-6 Psalm 46 Luke 23:33-43
Jesus was killed by the Roman Empire as a heretic and potential insurrectionist. He had no political power and rejected political power when it was offered to him, both by Satan in his temptations in the wilderness and by Jesus’ followers when they wanted to make him king. He desired no earthly political power and taught no earthly political power for his followers. “You will be handed over to [the authorities],” he said, not you will become the authorities to deal out punishment and death to others.
Jesus’ church, therefore, remained a religious movement without great earthly authority for over 300 years. The church did not rule over others with political or governmental power. Rather, any authority or influence the church had came from the relationships of love and service they gave to others.
Jesus was the king of the church, and people followed his rule by living his teachings. Love one another. Pray for your enemies. Do not return anyone evil for evil. If you have more than you need, share generously with others. Live lives of prayer, service, and above all, love. That also includes having fun, enjoying life, working, being with friends and family. Love God, love people, and let everything else flow from that. However imperfectly Jesus’ followers lived that life of love, and they did live that way imperfectly, such is the church with Jesus as king. Love God, love people, and let everything else flow from that.
Then, in the year 380, Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire. At that point, I would argue that the Emperor of Rome usurped Jesus’ role as king of the Church, at least in an earthly sense. At that point, the Church had political power and authority to force others to follow its desires.
War, for example, was not the way of Jesus, but once the Church and the Empire were united, when Empire when to war, the Church went to war. Rather than love and pray for one’s enemies, the church began killing their enemies at the point of a sword.
Even after the fall of the Roman Empire the Church was often closely tied to the government in many nations with great political power and authority. It seems like the Church got used to ruling, and the power of the church remained tied to the power of the State.
When Christopher Columbus came the Bahamas, he claimed the land for Spain, and he decided to convert the people to Christianity. The conversions didn’t really take all that well, and over the decades, the King of Spain ordered forced conversions, and the Church complied. Believe in Jesus or be tortured and killed. That’s what the church looked like with an earthly king as its head: forcing people to believe in Jesus, destroying their religious sites, enslaving people, and killing those who resisted.
That’s a far cry from love God, love people, and let everything else flow from that. Forced conversions are not what God intended for us. Coerced conversions, making people terrified of what will happen to them if they don’t believe in Jesus, is not what God intended for us. Offering our belief to others that they may find the healing that we have found, that is what God intends.
Be a light, Jesus taught us. A light attracts people in the darkness. The light of a loving God amidst the darkness of hatred. The light of taking care of one another amidst the darkness of indifference. The light of hope amidst the darkness of despair.
Bringing light into darkness is kinda God’s deal. In the beginning, when the earth was nothing but a formless void, and darkness reigned everywhere, God said, “Let there be light,” and light shined into the darkness.
When God made humanity, God gave us some of God’s own power so that we could rule over creation and care for this wonderful earth. We’ve not always done a particularly good job of that, but we see God continuing to love us, continuing to walk with us, continuing to shine light into the darkness.
When God formed the people of Israel, God made them to be a light to the nations. Love God and love people, God taught. Be a light to others by how you live. If you loan someone money, don’t charge interest. Use what you have to help out someone in need, and trust that they’ll do the same if things are reversed. If you really want to please God, take care of the poor and needy among you. Care for the orphans and widows. If you’re really angry with someone, leave the vengeance to God, trusting God’s justice, even when it doesn’t happen on earth.
The people of Israel didn’t always follow God’s ways, and eventually they even asked for a king to lead them like the other nations. God warned them that the king would take all of the best of what everyone had for himself. The king would take their sons to fight in his wars and his daughters to serve him in his palace, and the people said, “Sounds great.”
So, the people rejected God as their king and decided to have an earthly king instead. It didn’t work out all that well, as you might imagine, but God loved the people of Israel enough to let them make that mistake. Then God continued striving with the people of Israel so that despite all of their very human screw ups, they could continue to be a light to the nations to this day.
When Jesus founded the Church, he called his disciples a light to shine in the darkness for all. “Love one another as I have loved you,” he told them. That is the light he wanted his disciples to shine, love for one another. Jesus wanted his disciples to attract others to them by loving one another, by being light.
Now, the church has screwed up plenty over the centuries, and through it all, Jesus has stuck with us. When the Church even went so far as to reject Jesus as king, and began relying on the power of the Roman Empire instead, things went pretty badly, and Jesus continued to strive with the church. Jesus continued loving humanity. Jesus continued shining as a light for us to turn to when darkness overcame us.
I’d love to say that the church no longer rejects Jesus as king, but we know that’s not true. Even without the tyranny of the Roman Empire or the genocidal expansion of colonialism, there are plenty of ways that pockets of the modern Church still reject Jesus as king. Think of the Ku Klux Klan, which claimed Christianity as their faith, and yet their king was not Jesus but themselves and fear of being displaced or devalued.
Think of Christian groups who use the government to try to force Christianity on others, rather than trying to attract others simply by being the light of love. They may think of Jesus as their king, but Jesus didn’t use a government or anything else to force his beliefs on anybody.
Think about Christian groups who are constantly threatening people with eternal torture if they don’t believe in Jesus. Conversions based on those threats aren’t forced conversions, but they are coerced conversions with a foundation of fear, rather than a foundation of Jesus. Fear is king in such pockets of Christianity with Jesus serving to alleviate that fear.
Forcing people to believe, scaring people into believing, using Jesus as a weapon to achieve some victory or another: pockets of the church that do these kinds of things have the wrong king in charge.
Jesus didn’t force anything on anyone. When push came to shove, he let himself be killed, rather than rise up in revolt against Rome. Jesus’ way was to let Rome do their horrible, oppressive, imperial stuff, and he and his disciples were going to be the church. In the darkness of Empire and authoritarianism, Jesus was king by living the light of love. Actually, Jesus lived the lights of faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of those lights was love.
That light of Jesus’ love still shines in the darkness. The great love that God has for us shines in the darkness, and our faith and hope, the light that shines in the darkness, is ultimately the great light of love.
