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+

The Only Threat We Face from Jesus: Greater Peace and Love

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston

January 5, 2025

2 Christmas, C

Isaiah 61:10-62:3

Psalm 84

Matthew 2:1-12

King Herod feared that his power was going to be taken from him. He was king over Israel, but he was not accepted as much of a king by many because his Jewishness was in doubt by some. His family had been forcibly converted decades before, so there were questions. Was he truly Jewish in his heart, or was he just claiming to be Jewish because by doing so he got to remain as king. We don’t really know his heart, but we do know that his kingship was in question by some and his kingdom was under Roman rule, so his hold on power was not as strong as he would have liked. 

With this challenging political atmosphere, there suddenly arrived these foreign, mystic, astrologer type folks, these magi from the east, who came to Herod claiming the birth of a new Jewish king. Ok, it’s one thing if some of Herod’s subject claim a new king was born. He could just imprison them or kill them, but for people from another country to come to him claiming a new Jewish king has been born, well that means that potentially an entire other nation believes that Herod is no longer king of Israel, but that this new baby is now the Jewish king instead of Herod. 

Now, Herod was at least Jewish enough to know that the prophets had foretold the birth of a Messiah, one who would be the forever king to replace all other kings. Herod knew that this baby, whom foreigners were claiming to be King of the Jews, might have been this God-anointed forever-king, and rather than figure, “Cool, that’s God’s will; let’s go with this,” Herod wanted to keep his power and therefore wanted to kill Jesus. 

He lied to the Magi, telling them he wanted to pay homage to Jesus, and as we find just after the portion of the Gospel we heard today, Herod indeed tried to kill Jesus. Fear had a tight grip on Herod.

“Keep my power,” Herod thought. Even if it goes against God’s will. Even if I have to kill a baby to do it. “Keep my power.” 

Herod is, of course, not the only person to live in fear and do terrible things to try to keep his power. On new year’s day, a man killed at least 14 people in New Orleans, and he was trying to kill a whole lot more. We’re not sure what power he wanted to keep, but we can bet there was some kind of power he felt he or others no longer had. Terrorists kill to try to get power back from those they feel have taken it from them.

Look at our political elections where people routinely lie and intentionally just make stuff up in order to win elections and keep power. People in business spend countless millions of dollars to influence laws and regulations so that their businesses get to keep their power, their market share, their profit. People who are angry at another will fight, steal from, and even kill to keep or reclaim their power. 

Like Herod, when it comes to keeping our power, there seems no limit to what we humans are willing to do. “We wouldn’t kill babies, of course,” we tell ourselves, “not like Herod.” Well, if we lived in Herod’s day, raised by Herod’s parents, and in that precarious kingship like Herod, we may well have tried to kill Jesus just like Herod did.

For those who are still sure that they wouldn’t have done that, the point is not whose sin is worse than whose. The point is, all of us are in the grip of fear, and all of us fight against God’s will in order to keep our power. Every single person in this world fights against God’s will in order to keep their power, and even more importantly, this is the world, and we are the people God chose to save. 

There must be something pretty darn fantastic about us if God chose to save us in this world, as this world is, and as we are, constantly fighting God’s will to keep our power, God chose to save us, and to do so, God became one of us. 

Amidst all of our crud, and we’ve got a lot of crud, we must, at our core, be pretty fantastic indeed if God chose to become one of us. We lie, we cheat, we steal, and yet God sees something in us that is astoundingly beautiful. God sees something in us far more beautiful than we can know or see. I daresay, if we saw what God sees, then we might wouldn’t be so terrible to one another. 

Perhaps, if we saw what God sees in one another, then we wouldn’t be so keen to hold onto power or to wrest power away from others. We might forgive a little easier, be a little slower to anger, assume something better than the worst in others, if we could see just how wonderful God sees us all being. 

I have a feeling that if we could see what God sees, we’d be blown away by how much bigger and more beautiful this world is, how much bigger and more beautiful this life is than we can know and see. Our hearts would be filled with the love and peace of God, and we would no longer be afraid. Seeing this world and this life as God sees it, we would no longer be afraid of losing our power, because we’d see that all of our power is contained within God’s power. We would no longer be afraid even of losing our lives, because we would see that our lives are all contained within God’s life. 

That is the love and peace Jesus had as he lost all earthly power and as he lost his life on the cross. Jesus could see his power and his life bound up together within God’s power and life, and so Jesus was at peace. He wasn’t happy about being killed; he didn’t love it, but he was at peace. 

The times when we find Jesus seemingly not at peace are not the times when people tried to take his power, but the times when Jesus saw us taking one another’s power, treating one another terribly. That’s when Jesus wasn’t at peace, when he saw people harming one another. That’s because he sees us as we truly are. He sees the life and beauty within us that we are so often too blinded by fear to see. Where Jesus sees a beautiful and beloved brother or sister, we often see a threat, like Herod did.

A beautiful baby was born, the beauty of scripture was fulfilled, and a life of hope and promise was brought into this wonderful world, and all Herod saw was a threat. 

Jesus, of course, wasn’t a threat. He wasn’t a threat to Herod, to his rule, or to his power. Jesus wasn’t trying take any of that way from Herod. No, the only threat Jesus posed to Herod was that if he had still been alive when Jesus began his ministry, Herod might have heard Jesus’ teachings, seen Jesus’ miracles, believed in Jesus’ and changed his ways to follow the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus. I daresay, Herod would have found a great deal of peace and love if he had done that. 

Finding greater peace and love, that’s the only threat we face from Jesus as well. If we choose to believe in him, if we choose to follow him as the way, the truth, and the life, then we just might find greater peace and love within ourselves. Doing so will change our lives, change our ways. We may give up or give away some of our power for the sake of others. We may find peace enough not to constantly try to wrest power from others. 

Our lives do indeed change when we choose to believe in Jesus and follow Jesus. We begin to see others as he sees us. We begin to see the world as he sees it. Fear begins to lose its hold on us, and we fall instead into the arms of peace and love. That’s the threat that Jesus poses to us. No taking our place, no taking our power, just falling into the arms of peace and love.

Do not be afraid, for the Word has become flesh...

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
December 29, 2024
1 Christmas, C
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 147
John 1:1-18 

“[Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.”

When Jesus was born, the Word of God became human. The Word of God which spoke creation into existence became human. The word of God which gave the law of Israel became human. The Word of God which spoke through the prophets became human, and most importantly of all, the Word of God which is God became human.

When God became human, an angel of the Lord went to nearby shepherds and told them, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

That little baby, wrapped in bands of cloth, surrounded by family and no small amount of animals was God born among us as the human child, Jesus. The good news of great joy is that God became human and was born among us, as one of us, uniting all that we are in perfect union with God.

That’s good news of great joy, and yet we so often hear it told as remarkably bad news, don’t we. “If you don’t believe in Jesus, God’s gonna get you,” right? We do talk a lot about God’s judgement of the wicked, the unjust, and those who gain wealth by oppressing others. Thank God, God has judgement on such people.

Here’s the good news: even that judgement and that wickedness has been united to God in Jesus. That’s the whole point of the incarnation, of the Word of God becoming human; everything about us has been united to God. Nothing can separate us from God and God’s love. Amidst all the storms and crud of life all around us, we are perfectly united to God: in our faith, in our fears, in our kindness and in our sins. We are forever one with God through that baby wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

Now, I said earlier that Jesus, in the manger, was surrounded family as well as all the animals. I don’t just mean Mary and Joseph. As much as I love our manger scenes with more cows and sheep than people, as in a barn set away from the house, that was almost certainly not the case. The room where they were was attached to and part of the house where animals could be kept. They were probably at the home of a family member. So, Jesus was surrounded by Mary, Joseph, and other family members celebrating the birth of Mary’s firstborn son, and they were surrounded by animals.

Thinking of this manger scene of family and animals, I was reminded of Noah’s ark. The Manger, the birth of Jesus, was like a little ark, a little sanctuary amidst the flood of all the crazy that was going on around them. Rome was oppressing the Jewish people, there were fanatical religious leaders calling for armed rebellion, tax collectors and soldiers were extorting money from people, and as it turned out, the king of Israel was a crazy enough dude that he thought murdering babies was a good idea.

So yeah, life was like a terrible flood of crazy all around and in the midst of that flood, you had this ark, this manger in which God was born among us surrounded by loved ones and animals, a safe place from the storm, and a new beginning.

On that night, in that manger ark, our new life of perfect union with God began, and with that new life, God began once again God’s life of love among us. Remember that revolution of repentance I talked about last Sunday, Mary, singing her song of praise to God and of revolution on the earth? Remember, I said that God’s revolution for us is meant to change the crazy of the status quo not by violent revolution, but by the non-violent revolution of repentance? The next step is the non-violent revolution of love.

The Word of God became human because our union with God is what gives us the strength to love in the face of all of the crazy going on around us.

The strength to love in the face of oppression, the strength to love in the face of assault, the strength to love even in the face of murder and rape. That is the revolution of love that God gave us on that night when Jesus was born. We saw Jesus live out that revolution of love all the way through his death and into life everlasting beyond death.

We still see Jesus’ revolution of love being lived out among us in our world today. I think of the time after South African after apartheid. There was terrible violence and oppression during apartheid, and there was violence done in ending apartheid. Faced with this boiling rage among the people of South Africa, Nelson Mandella set up the Peace and Reconciliation Commission, and he asked Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu to lead the commission.

The commission offered amnesty for people involved in apartheid and in the violence done against apartheid. The commission sought truth from those who had harmed so many through their oppression and violence, and victims got to hear from those who had harmed them. The victims got to know that the perpetrators understood what they had done and see the humanity of their victims.

The work done through the Peace and Reconciliation Commission wasn’t perfect, and not everyone agreed with the work, but the work overall brought peace and reconciliation to a nation on the verge of collapse through conflict. Jesus’ revolution of love paved the way for the people of South Africa to move beyond the hurts of the past and find some peace amidst the hurt and hatred, amidst storms of the crazy of life.

Archbishop Tutu wrote:

To forgive is…a process that does not exclude hatred and anger. These emotions are all part of being human. You should never hate yourself for hating others who do terrible things: the depth of your love is shown by the extent of your anger.

However, when I talk of forgiveness I mean the belief that you can come out the other side a better person. A better person than the one being consumed by anger and hatred. Remaining in that state locks you in a state of victimhood, making you almost dependent on the perpetrator.

If you can find it in yourself to forgive, then you are no longer chained to the perpetrator.

Freedom and salvation. Freedom from sin, including freedom from the sins of others. That is the salvation of Jesus and Jesus’ revolution of love. Gathering with Mary and Joseph, with family, and with animals around the manger and the babe wrapped in bands of cloth, we can rest in that ark of freedom and salvation amidst the storms of life around us. The Word of God has become human, uniting us perfectly with God. All of our faith, all of our fears, all of our kindness, and all of our sins have been united to God. So, “Do not be afraid, for we have been brought good news of great joy for all the people: to us is born…in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord,” for the Word has become flesh and dwells among us.

Punk-Rock Mary

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
December 22, 2024
4 Advent, C
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-55

We just heard in our Gospel reading Mary’s words of praise to God, not only for placing Jesus to grow in her womb, but also praise to God for the upheaval God has planned for humanity. We call Mary’s words, “The Song of Mary” or “The Magnificat”, and I heard a comment last week that someone wished there was a punk-rock version of the Magnificat, and that seems to fit pretty darn well the whole idea of Mary’s song. The status quo ain’t quo, and God is not ok with how things are: the rich get richer while the poor struggle ever harder. 

That won’t stand in God’s eyes; there will be an upheaval, Mary proclaims. The lowly will be raised up, and the rich will be sent empty away. If that ain’t punk rock, or rap, or metal, or any kind of protest music, I don’t know what is. 

We’ve got these quiet, mindful, demure images of Mary, hands folded, piously looking heavenward: a dutiful little housewife with no real will of her own, other than to say, “You bet!” to the Holy Spirit impregnating her with Jesus. Hmm, let’s look at Mary for a minute.

She was likely about 14, the general age for marriage back then, and she was risking everything by saying “Yes” to God’s offer to have her be the mother of Jesus, the mother of God as a human being. She was risking her marriage as Joseph may or may not have believed and understood that she was bearing God’s son. She was therefore risking her life because if Joseph didn’t believe that she was bearing God’s son, she could have been killed for adultery, bearing another man’s child. If not killed, she was still risking being ostracized and outcast for dishonoring her family and bringing some unknown man’s child into the world with no real hope of land or security.

So, Mary was taking a big risk by saying “Yes” to God. “Let it be with me, your servant, according to your will,” she said to God, and she seems to have been pretty darn excited about it. Quiet, mindful, and demure? No, Mary was excited, faithful, and outspoken, and she spoke out about what God was doing in the world by becoming human and living among us. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,” she said, because she was so excited about what she knew what was coming.

She knew what the angel Gabriel had told her, that Jesus would be the son of God and that he would rule forever. Mary also seems to have known the scriptures because what Mary was describing in her punk-rock, rap, metal protest song was the kind of status quo smashing action that God had taken continually throughout the scriptures. 

Oppression of the poor laborers by the rich ruling class, yeah, that kind of stuff has never sat well with God, and we see throughout the scriptures God telling the people of Israel and other nations that a reconning is coming because of their oppression of the poor. ‘Oh, you’re very religious, and that’s great,’ God would say, ‘but when you have a society in which those at the top keep getting more and those at the bottom don’t have enough to live on, then by your actions you show that I’m not the one you’re worshipping.’ 

That was God’s complaint, over and over. There was outright idolatry too, but time and again, God’s big complaint against the people was that when their society became one in which the rich had more than they could ever need and the poor worked hard for not enough, then the people’s god had become something other than actual God. 

“But we worship you all the time,” the people say, and God says, “Yea, I don’t know you, for I was naked and hungry, without shelter, and you did nothing but stare with indifference and contempt.” That’s how Jesus said judgement will be, the same kind of reconning that God has brought throughout human history. 

So, when Mary sang, “God has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty,” she was being a punk-rock prophet. She was remembering what had happened over and over when God intervened in our world.

Now, we could look at Mary’s protest anthem as a song about class warfare, rich vs. poor, the rich losing the battle and the poor overtaking them in conflict. As a rock song, that would certainly sell a few albums, and the movie would be great to watch, but I’m not sure God would be all that delighted in such devastating a conflict. 

See, what we read about God and what we hear Mary proclaim is that God does not desire for one group to rise up and destroy the other. It happens a lot. An oppressive and powerful minority is eventually ousted as the oppressed rise up in violence against them. We recently saw this happen in Syria as the oppressive government was overthrown after over a decade of civil war.

Violent uprising is the way things tend to go after the oppressed have finally had enough, but I don’t think that’s what Mary was singing about. Punk-rock Mary was a revolutionary, but not a violent revolutionary. John the Baptist was in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth when Jesus was in the womb of Mary, and even in the womb, when John heard Mary speak, he leapt for joy.

The revolution that Mary was singing about was the kind of revolution that John started when he went into the wilderness baptizing people. Mary was singing about a revolution of repentance. That’s the kind of revolution we see God desiring throughout scripture, constantly warning the people that violent revolution is coming if you don’t repent of oppression. Violent revolution is coming, God warns, if your society doesn’t stop claiming to worship me while actually worshipping wealth and power. 

God’s desire is to break the cycle of violent uprising. God’s desire is revolution of repentance where the rich and all of society will turn away from their love of wealth and power and instead learn to love one another. That is what John proclaimed in the wilderness. That is what Jesus taught over and over again. That’s what Jesus gives us the power to do.

In our world today, we can’t go on as we are. A society increasingly ruled by wealthy oligarchs who push for rules to benefit themselves while almost fifty percent of people struggle to make ends meet. Society can’t go on that way.

So, we look to Jesus, to the revolution of repentance and love which he brought. We sing the song of punk-rock Mary, calling for and living for a revolution of repentance and love, rather than a violent revolution. That’s why Mary’s soul proclaimed the greatness of the Lord. God lifts up the poor and the oppressed. God turns our hearts to repentance and love to end oppression by breaking the cycles of violence and leading us to God’s kingdom of peace. 

Laying Down Our Burdens: Not a Religious Quest; Just Let Love Rule in Your Hearts

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
December 15, 2024
3 Advent, C
Philippians 1:3-11
Canticle 16
Luke 3:1-6

Lay down your burdens. That was at the heart of John’s call for people to repent and be baptized. Now, I know it didn’t sound that way with all of the “brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come” business, but laying down our burdens is ultimately what we are doing when we follow John’s call to repent and begin again.

Folks were coming to John from all around, and they were journeying far. This was not just a stop by your local curb mart a few blocks away. This was for some a days-long journey, a holy pilgrimage almost, and as they traveled, they carried heavy burdens with them. I don’t just mean the food and shelter they had brought for the journey.

Each person making that journey out into the wilderness to see John was carrying with them the burdens of their whole lives. All the things that were weighing on their hearts. Their sorrows. Their worries. Their fears. They carried all of these heavy burdens with them on the way.

Of course they were also carrying burdens they knew little or nothing about. Their selfishness. Their lack of concern for others. Their blindness to their own faults. Those were the burdens John was talking about when he called them, “vipers.”

You gotta love John. These people had traveled out into the wilderness to see him, and when they arrived, John didn’t welcome them and invite them to rest their weary souls. No, John called them a “brood of vipers.”

“Brood of vipers?” They thought, “But, but, but we’re the special people. We’re children of Abraham. We’re God’s wonderful, happy favorites. This baptism is just reaffirming how great we are, right? We’ve come to you for baptism to show how fantastic we are, right John?”

Nope, that was not John’s message. In fact, John asked everyone, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” I’m sure the one guy piped up, “Um, nobody? God’s wrath is supposed to be for everyone else?” John let them know in no uncertain terms that they too are liable to God’s wrath for all of those burdens they knew nothing about.

“Well, then what are we supposed to do?” They asked.

I love this question and answer, because you can see the wheels turning in their minds. They were probably thinking they needed to do some big religious gesture, like Baptism followed by some super prayer, fasting, altar sacrifice thing for the next six months. The people were like Naaman, the Assyrian, centuries before, who had leprosy and had heard there was a prophet, Elisha, in Israel who could heal him. When he went to Elisha to be healed, he expected he’d be given some grand and glorious quest, and instead, Elisha sent a servant and said, “Just tell him to go wash in the Jordan river.”

Naaman was angry because the healing process was so simple. “That’s not even a good river,” he said. “Ours are much better,” but folks convinced him to wash, and he was healed of his leprosy. Such a simple thing, wash and be clean.

For the people of Israel seeking John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, it was also really simple. “What are we supposed to do?” They asked. “Stop cheating people,” John said. “Stop stealing from others. A lot of you have more than you need; try giving some of what you have to others who don’t have enough. If you’re jealous of what others have, groovy, but threatening folks to get more out of them ain’t the way to go.”

What John had to say to people was very, very simple. You don’t need a religious quest. Just be kind to others, stop seeing them as your enemy, and let love rule in your hearts.

That’s the laying down of our burdens. We get so stressed out and worried about life that we forget very basic things like be kind to others and let love rule in your hearts. Like the folks who came to see John, when we get stressed, worried, and fearful, we get kinda dumb, and we have to be taught or retaught simple things like, “Don’t cheat people out of their money.” “Stop stealing from folks.”

Starting with that reminder, not to treat others badly, and taking note of how we have been, that is the beginning of laying down our burdens. When we lay down our self-reliance and care about others again, then begin to rely on God again, casting our worries upon God, rather than feeding our fears.

“Bear fruits worthy of repentance,” John said. That call is not just to come be baptized. Baths are great, don’t get me wrong. Ritual baths, also wonderful. Whether you just get some water sprinkled on your head or you get fully submerged in a pool or ocean of water, Baptism is wonderful. It marks a new beginning.

The call, however, is not just to mark that new beginning, ask for Jesus’ help, and then go on with life just as you had before. If we’re thinking that after baptism, “God’s gonna change things, even though I won’t,” that’s not gonna work. That’s like laying down our burdens, being washed from the grime of carrying them, and then just picking them right back up to continue on.

The call of John, and the call of Jesus today is to change how you live and to let God change your life. Lay down the burdens of fear and anger. Lay down the burdens of treating others badly. Then choose something different to carry.

Pick up the light load that Jesus offers. Different reactions than anger, a different mindset than all about me. The light load that Jesus offers is to rely on God, not on your own strength. The light load that Jesus offers is to be kind and caring towards others, not to be tough, and strong, and intimidating. The light load that Jesus offers is to be a person of peace.

There’s nothing huge or extraordinary about the light load that Jesus offers. You don’t need to become a Bible scholar. You don’t need to be the most Jesus-worshipping religiousy person in the room.

Repenting, laying down your burdens, choosing a different way, and letting God change your life, is actually really simple. Paul laid it out pretty well is his letter to the Philippians as we heard today.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:3-11)

When we know forgiveness, we know salvation.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
December 8, 2024
2 Advent, C
Philippians 1:3-11
Canticle 16
Luke 3:1-6

Have you ever felt guilty about something you did? Ever felt bad about hurting someone, even if they didn’t know it, you lied or cheated, and betrayed someone’s trust or love? Have you then ever been forgiven by the one you’ve harmed for the things you’ve done?

If so, then you know the immense release that comes with forgiveness. The healing that goes on inside of us when we are forgiven, and our guilt recedes, and a weight is lifted because the one we have harmed has restored us to being ok. We’re no longer wracked with guilt. We’re no longer separated from one another. We’ve been restored to the possibility of love between one another. That is salvation.

The problem we see that needs fixing, from the Eden onward, is our disconnection from God and disconnection from one another. As we hurt one another, we pull away from one another, we put up barriers and shields to keep us safe. We walk around with anger in our hearts, showing others that we’re tougher than are so they won’t hurt us. We walk around with fear in our hearts pulling away from others before they have a chance to hurt us.

We see one another as threats, knowing that we’re often right, that others are threats, but mostly because they see us as threats.

We compete with one another out of scarcity for money, jobs, food, shelter. Since we feel we can’t trust others, we tend to go for winner take all, the American Dream of being billionaires while others work for them without enough to pay rent. Even further disconnection.

In our disconnection and mistrust, we turn to drugs, sex, alcohol, and anything else we can in order to feel better or not to feel at all. Those things don’t help, but they disconnect us even further. Angry, afraid, disconnected lives, seeing others as enemies to be feared or conquered…does that sound to anyone like Hell on Earth? That's because it is.

Disconnection is the Hell on Earth we know all too well. Salvation, then, is reconnection, reconnection with God and reconnection with one another.

John the Baptist went out into the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and we are told that John did this so that people would know salvation through forgiveness of their sins.

Forgiveness brings us reconnection, and reconnection is salvation from the Hell on Earth that we so often live. When we are restored to one another through repentance and forgiveness, we’re no longer separated from one another, and we are restored to the possibility of love between one another. That is salvation.

When we know forgiveness, we know salvation. 

So, as followers of Jesus, our way of life is the way of forgiveness. Ideally, we follow the way of forgiveness because we actually know the healing and salvation that forgiveness bring. Some folks maybe don’t.

Some folks might say, “no,” to the question, have they ever felt guilty about something they did. Some may be too afraid to face it or admit it. Some are so self-absorbed that they fail to recognize the harm they’ve caused, and some may even be so self-important that they wouldn’t even care much about the harm they’ve done to others even if they did recognize it.

In any case, for folks who refuse to feel guilt or who won’t or are just too unaware to feel guilt, it may be hard to really understand the salvation given by God. Perhaps that’s why John’s baptism wasn’t just a baptism of forgiveness, but a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

With repentance, we first have to understand the harm we’ve done, actually care about those we’ve harmed. Then, we repent. We change our ways. We seek to make amends and bring healing where we can to those we’ve hurt. Repentance and then forgiveness of sins. That brings about healing and restoration. Repentance and forgiveness together are our way of life, the way of healing and love.

Unfortunately, it often feels like we’ve largely divorced repentance and God’s forgiveness from this life and made it all about avoiding punishment after this life. Then we’ve further made rules out of Jesus forgiveness. Don’t feel guilty about anything you’ve done in this life? No problem. Just believe in Jesus, and he’ll forgive you. Don’t believe in Jesus, but you seek to bring about healing through repentance and forgiveness? Well, too bad, since you don’t believe in Jesus, God is going to punish you anyway.

Here's the deal with Jesus and God’s forgiveness. Yes, God forgives us. Yes, we are given forgiveness through Jesus. Yes, we are assured of punishment for the wicked, and at the same time, yes, we get to rest secure in God’s love for us and God’s forgiveness of us. How do we fit God’s punishment of the wicked together with God’s forgiveness and love? We fit God’s punishment and God’s forgiveness and love together with trust and faith.

We trust in God’s punishment, because sometimes, when we don’t realize or don’t care about the people we’ve harmed, we need God’s punishment to give us a kick in the tail, and we need God’s forgiveness and love because that is where healing and reconnection happens. When we truly feel the weight of how we’ve harmed others, and we repent and seek amendment, we feel the release and healing of forgiveness, we have salvation here on earth.

God will one day restore all things, restoring this world so that there will be no more Hell on Earth; there will be no more of us harming one another and disconnecting from one another. One day we will all be restored, God will wipe away every tear from every eye, and we will live fully in the peace and love of restoration with God and one another.

In the mean time, God’s forgiveness and love gets to be lived. We get to live the gift of forgiveness choosing and working to release anger and hurt, to release the debt that is owed, and let forgiveness rule in our hearts. As we do, we know salvation.

God's Kingdom on Earth, Bound to the Cycles of Nature

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
December 1, 2024
1 Advent, C
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Psalm 25:1-9
Luke 21:25-36

We are currently smack dab in the middle of the dead time of the year. The nights are getting longer, and they have been for some time. With the longer nights, we’ve got less and less light each day. It’s the season of darkness and death. Now, in 21 days, it’ll be December 22, and that is the day of the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. After that night, the days start getting longer, the nights get shorter, the light returns, and while we’re still in this season of winter, this season of death, there’s this rebirth of life with the solstice and the light returning to the world. 

A couple thousand years ago, the winter solstice was on December 25, and that’s why that date was chosen as the day we celebrate Christmas. We celebrate the light of Jesus coming into the world on the day when the days get longer and light returns to the world. 

Every year this happens, a season of death, followed by the return of the light, leading to the season of rebirth and new life. That new life and rebirth is what Jesus was talking about when he said, “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” 

When the fig tree sprouts leaves, the fruit will be coming soon. New life, rebirth. Few of us farm or have a whole lot of knowledge about plants nowadays, so we could say, once the playoffs start, we know a new champion will be crowned soon. Of course, after the new champion, you get the dead season without baseball, football, basketball, or whichever sport you like. Then there’s spring training, the pre-season, and the whole thing starts over again. 

Whether the cycles of the sun and moon, the cycles of plants and nature, or even the cycles of sports teams, there’s a season of life, of death, of rebirth, and of new life. These cycles and seasons continue over and over, every year. Jesus was fully aware of this cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth when he told his followers that the kingdom of God would come like figs on a tree. 

God’s kingdom comes, God’s kingdom fades, and God’s kingdom comes again. Throughout the church, throughout our lives, throughout scripture, we see God’s kingdom coming and being lived for a time, and then we see God’s kingdom fade, not because God leaves, but because here on this earth with the cycles of nature in which we live, God’s kingdom is bound to the same cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. 

God’s full kingdom is beyond our physical world, beyond death and decay, and eventually, God’s kingdom will come fully and for all time. In the meantime, God’s kingdom comes over and over, joining with us in the cycles of our physical lives, and so God’s kingdom in our lives now lasts for a time, fades, and returns. 

How long till God’s kingdom is fully established and there will be no more cycles of death and life, but only life forevermore? No one knows. The writers of the Gospels and the writers of the letters of our scriptures, including Paul, seemed to think God’s kingdom would be fully established pretty quickly. They seemed to think Jesus would come again with the clouds within a few years. 

They were wrong, that’s ok. Look at the prayers they prayed, believing Jesus’ return was imminent. 

“And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you.” That was Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonian churches. May y’all abound in love for one another and for all, “and may [God] so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”

Would that that was our prayer for one another every day. May God increase in us love for one another and for all, and may God strengthen us all that we will be holy and blameless before God.

When Paul prayed that, he was planting seeds of prayer for those churches he had started. The cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth was happening in the Thessalonian churches even as Paul wrote his letter, and so rather than wait for the death of God’s kingdom within their churches, Paul was praying for new life within them. Paul was planting seeds of new life even before the old life had begun to decay. May God strengthen you all to be holy and blameless.

Now, we know we’re not going to be completely blameless before God. Paul knew the folks in the Thessalonian churches weren’t going to be completely blameless. Actual blamelessness before God was never the point. Strengthening in love, that was the point. God’s strength working in us that we may be holy, meaning that we may choose not the ways of hatred and violence we so often see and celebrate in the world, but that we would choose instead the ways of love, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice.

Paul’s prayer was that as the Spirit and kingdom of God began to decay within the church, new seeds would take root and new love, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice would grow in their place. 

Even with the new life and new seeds prayed into people’s lives, there is going to be death, and there is going to be waiting till the new life begins to bud. Such is the nature of all created things. So, part of the prayer for us is also a prayer for patience. 

With our patience and waiting, we have work to do. Like in the off season of sports, like working the ground and caring for plants during the winter, there is work we get to do as we wait for God’s kingdom to be reborn. Our work is to persevere, to build each other up in love. Our work is to comfort one another when discouraged or sorrowful, to encourage one another in faith and life. Our work is to pray without ceasing.

We pray that we will not lose heart as we wait for Jesus to come again. We pray that we will wait with patience for God’s kingdom. We pray that we will increase and abound in love for one another throughout the seasons of our lives. As God’s kingdom grows within us, as there is a fading of God’s kingdom within us, and as there is a rebirth of God’s kingdom within us, we pray always for love to rule in our hearts.