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 October 4, 2026 Proper 22, A Isaiah 5:1-7 Psalm 80:7-14 Matthew 21:33-46
All Along the Watchtower – Bob Dylan
“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief.
“There’s too much confusion; I can’t get no relief
Businessmen they drink my wine, and plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.”
“No reason to get excited,” the thief he kindly spoke.
“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke,
But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate.
So, let us not talk falsely now. The hour is getting late.”
All along the watchtower, princes kept the view,
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants too.
Outside in the distance, a wildcat did growl.
Two riders were approaching and the wind began to howl.
So, with our readings from Isaiah and Matthew both being about a vineyard and a watchtower, my mind, of course went to Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower, which, while certainly taking imagery from our Isaiah reading, probably has absolutely nothing to with these readings. Still, I’m listening to the song through the lens of these readings.
There is this feeling in the song, of impending doom, and the two people in the song are reacting to it. First, you’ve got the joker, wanting to get out, fearful for what’s coming, while also denying that he had anything to do with it. He’s lamenting that businessmen are drinking his wine, as if he wasn’t the one who had given it to them.
Then, you’ve got the thief who is lying to the joker. “No worries,” he’s telling him. “Life isn’t a joke. Our fate is not to be destroyed. All will be well.”
Then we see the truth that the joker fears and the thief denies: the business of the calm before the storm. The princes know their end is coming. Preparations are being made by the women and servants, the wildcat, the riders, and the wind are the creeping chaos soon to enter in and overtake them all.
Travis Roe / Grand Canton Watchtower, 2012 / cbsnews.com/pictures/captured-in-a-flash/2/
Impending doom while some deny it, others fear it, and none are able to admit the part they played in bringing that doom to them. Now that sounds like our Isaiah reading.
God had planted a vineyard, and rather than the grapes he was expecting, the vineyard grew wild grapes. The vineyard, of course, was the nation of Israel, and the grapes were the people of Israel. They were meant to live as one people, disciplined, following the ways of life God had given them. They were more than a collection of individuals, they were a people, living together as many and yet as one, and as one people, they had a particular way of life with some things they just weren’t going to do.
At my son’s marching band competition yesterday, it occurred to me that being together as one is how things were for us in my high school band. We were all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds, but once we put that band uniform on, we were one. We got to goof off and mess around like normal high schoolers, until we put that uniform on. Once it was on, we were one. At marching band competitions, we didn’t only march together on the field. We marched together in the parking lot from the busses to the practice area. Then, we marched together from the practice area to the field for the show.
Lots of other bands would walk around, la-da-dat-da-dah, in any old way, just a bunch of individuals wearing the same band uniform. We marched as one, all at attention, all in formation, all in step together. We didn’t act like all those other bands. We weren’t just a bunch of individuals. We were a band together as one.
That unity of spirit and purpose is how Israel was meant to be, and yet time, after time, after time, they stopped going after God’s ways and they started acting like the nations around them. They were meant to be a light to those very nations, which means there were some things they just weren’t going to do, and yet time and again they chose to follow the ways and the gods of those other nations, doing those very things they weren’t meant to do.
Cheating one another, oppressing workers, living in selfishness and fear, murder, rape. Those are not the ways of the people of Israel. They were formed by God to love one another and care for one another as though they were one people, not just a bunch of individuals walking around, la-da-dat-da-dah, in any old selfish way they wanted, and so in Isaiah, God was declaring impending doom. Wildcats growling, riders approaching, wind howling.
“Restore us!” The people cried. We heard that in the psalm. We’re sorry, we repent, we turn back, but it was already too late. There was no real desire to live in love with one another, just to avoid punishment.
See, when repentance is only to avoid punishment, only to avoid the chaos to come, but there’s no real desire to follow in the ways of love, that’s not real repentance.
God calls us to repent of the ways we are selfishness and seek our own pleasure regardless of the harm to others. Selfish pleasure-seeking, regardless of the harm to others is how you get a gang rape at Cornell University. All the facts aren’t known yet. From what we’ve heard so far, what began as consensual sex between two people became consensual sex between three people as another guy joined in. Then, as more guys entered the room, the sex became non-consensual with the young woman who said no many times and was so drunk and drugged out that she couldn’t really consent anyway. Pleasure seeking without regard to the harm to others. Joining in with a gang of other guys having sex with a barely conscious woman.
Now, finally, the truth is coming out, and the guys who thought they were just having some fun and got away with it are now walking along the watchtower with wildcats growling, riders approaching, and the wind howling.
There are some things, that, being a disciple of Jesus, you just don’t get to do. The rape part is hopefully obvious, but even before non-consensual, actual rape, there’s joining in as a group of guys having sex together with one woman. The big group sex party is something that as followers of Jesus, we just don’t get to do, if for no other reason than even if it begins consensually, it is far too easy for it to become non-consensual and for it not to stop once it does because people’s sex drives are often far too powerful for them to control well.
So, as a people, formed by God to be a light to those around us, there are things that we just don’t do. There are the obvious ones like cheating one another, oppressing people, living in selfishness and fear, murder, rape, but there’s also all the less obvious things that can lead to cheating, oppression, selfishness, murder, and rape.
If you’ve got a terrible temper and you know you can’t control it, then you don’t get to put yourself into situations where there’s likely to be a fight and you just might end up hurting or killing someone. If you know you can’t stop yourself from harming others when you drink or use drugs, then you don’t get to drink or use drugs.
We make these decisions not to avoid God’s punishment or wrath. We make these decisions so that we won’t harm others. We make these decisions not to do some things so that we might live lives of love and care for others. When we don’t, we see the consequences. Women are raped, people are murdered, workers are oppressed, violence is called justice, and we see these things happening every day.
Now I’m not a prophet like Isaiah, pronouncing God’s doom the nation or any group of people within the nation. What I am doing is calling us to seriously the dangers of our selfish ways without regard to the harm to others. I am calling us to take seriously that we are called to be one people, unified like my marching band, and once we put that uniform on, once we put Christ on, there are some things we’re just not going to do because of how those things can harm others.
I’m also calling us to remember that when we have been going against God’s ways and we have been following ways of selfishness and harm to others, God lets us repent when we truly want to. God may not remove every consequence of our previous actions. We may still hear the wildcats growl, we may still see the riders approaching, we may still hear the wind begin to howl, but when we truly repent and want to heal the damage we’ve caused, God allows us to turn around and be a light, to seek a life of love and care for others.
The Rev. Brad Sullivan Lord of the Streets, Houston September 27, 2026 Proper 21, A Ezekiel 18:1-4,25-32 Psalm 25:1-8 Philippians 2:1-13 Matthew 21:23-32
So, which is the one who was obedient, Jesus asked, the one who said, “Nah, I ain’t doing what you asked,” but then went and did it anyway, or the one said, “You bet, Sir, I’m happy to,” and then blew it off? Obviously the one who screwed up at first but then actually decided to do what he was asked, as opposed to the one who sounded all perfect, and nice, and wonderful but did nothing.
Obvious question on Jesus’ part, obvious question still today, how do we follow God? By saying the right things, by worshipping in a real pretty manner, but then kinda blowing off all of Jesus’ teachings the rest of the time? Or, what if we don’t worship all that well, or we don’t worship at all, or all of the other things that we are taught to do, but then we realize, “That’s actually a pretty good way of life, I think I’m going to follow that.”
What if we end up turning away and going down a totally different path than what Jesus wants us to go down, but we realize that and turn back again and say, “You know what, I’m going to follow you now.”? Well, Jesus seems to be pretty darn happy about that, cause we don’t follow a faith of perfection. We follow a faith of second chances, and like, third, and fourth, and nineteenth chances.
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ,” Paul wrote, looking at the idea of obedience, that Christ became obedient even to the point of death. Now, with that, I’ve heard, ever since I was a little kid, I’ve heard folks talk about if someone had a gun to your head and said, “Deny Jesus,” would you deny Jesus? That was our test of faith, right, if we could see ourselves staying true and saying, “No, I believe in Jesus, even if someone’s gonna shoot me,” well then I’m a faithful person.
Lovely, but not likely. The biggest challenge to that idea is that is simply isn’t very likely for us, and on the other hand, if that unlikely event were to happen and you deny Jesus, you’re in really good company. That’s what Peter did when he had a proverbial gun to his head. He was probably going to be killed if he told people, “Oh yeah, I know Jesus” when Jesus was being arrested, and Peter denied him. Then, later he turned around again and followed, became the rock upon which Jesus founded his church.
Peter said, “No, I will not go work in your vineyard,” and then he went and did it anyway. Peter’s faith, Peter’s following Jesus wasn’t perfect, but it was persistent, and he continued on with the second and third chances.
We get to say “Yes” after we say “No”, because our is a faith of repentance when we mess up and striving again. To be fair, we’re expected to mess up. Otherwise, what’s the point of Jesus? God knows we’re going to mess up, so we’re not supposed to be perfect. We’re encouraged to try again, to turn around again when we realize we’ve been messing up.
That’s what Jesus was talking about with the religious leaders when they were asking him, “Who the heck are you in here preaching and teaching? You’re not one of the religious leaders here. You’re some carpenter’s kid from that sparrow-fart town of Nazareth.” Jesus basically responded, “Well, is my teaching bad?”
So, Jesus asked them about John the Baptist because there was a challenge that they hadn’t been reaching the people that John was reaching. They hadn’t been reaching the people Jesus was reaching. They seemed to maybe be writing them off, instead of continuing to try to reach them.
John came with this baptism of repentance, and the religious leaders weren’t having any of it, because it wasn’t part of their faith. It wasn’t part of their tradition. This was some new upstart thing, and they weren’t going to go and be baptized by this dude named John just because he said to do it. Who the heck was he?
What they saw, however, was people from all over coming to be baptized. What they saw was people from all over who wanted to draw near to God, who wanted to follow in God’s ways, and they were seeing this as an opportunity to turn around, to start over, and do that.
So, what the religious leaders could have done was say, “Even though this is not a part of our religious tradition, it seems to be doing something good, so let’s see where this leads. Maybe let’s even go and, whatever, I’ll get baptized. That’ll be fine.
Instead, they wrote it off, they pushed it away, and they continued to push away, it seems, all the people who had gone for that way of repentance. So, in this way, they were leading some of the people, but they weren’t leading the people who weren’t perfect enough. They needed to be leading the people to this way of repentance, and say, “No, you’re not perfect. Yes, you’re screwing up, so let’s try again. Let’s see if we can turn things around again.”
That’s what John was doing. That’s what Jesus was doing, and that’s what the religious leaders seem not to have been doing.
With our faith today, we sometimes may find that we are really excited about Jesus, sometimes even angrily excited about Jesus. We’ve heard people tell us and tell others all sorts of terrible things that are going to happen to us because we don’t believe in Jesus right. They do, but how are they living? Has love entered their hearts? What about encouragement, love, or sharing the Spirit, compassion, and sympathy? That’s what Paul named as the ways of the church when we follow Jesus. Encouragement, love, sharing the Spirit, compassion, and sympathy.
Anger, being really pissed off, putting people down: those aren’t in there. That’s not how we follow Jesus. Those are the things we repent from, and we get to because we’re not meant to be perfect, we’re meant to be persistent in our faith.
So, Jesus’ example here of saying “No” and then saying “Yes”, that’s kinda our M.O. That’s just kinda how we work. We say “No” to Jesus a lot. When I was on the call with the guy with the customer service, and…this whole situation, and I wasn’t quite shouting, but I was close, and I was definitely cussing, that was me saying “No” to Jesus.
Saying “Yes” to Jesus is realizing I did wrong and I need to do better next time. Saying “No” to Jesus is when we are terrible to each other. Saying “Yes” to Jesus is when we go back to that person and try to fix it. We let that person know, “I was wrong.” That’s saying “Yes” to Jesus.
Saying yes to Jesus is when we’re here at worship, and when we claim to love him, and when we get excited in the Spirit and everything we have here, but then we can be like that second son who said, “You betcha, Dad, I’ll go help,” and then blew it off, when we leave these doors (or go into breakfast), and immediately start being jerkies to each other.
Saying to doing “Yes” is hard. It’s not an easy thing to do, and so persistence means when we say no again, we end up saying yes again. We offer our apologies, we offer, “I did wrong; I messed up.”
Not perfection, but persistence in saying, “Yes.” That’s the way of Jesus. That’s the way of God throughout scripture, that Gods people try to follow in his ways, the ways of encouragement, they ways of love, the ways of sharing the Spirit, the ways of compassion and sympathy, of caring for one another. Then, turning around again when we screw up, over and over again, because God knows we will, and so we seek persistence, not perfection.
The Rev. Brad Sullivan Lord of the Streets, Houston September 20, 2026 Proper 20, A Jonah 3:10-4:11 Psalm 145:1-8 Matthew 20:1-16
Jonah had nothing but the utmost contempt for the people of Nineveh. They weren’t Jewish. They didn’t follow God’s laws. They seemed to be really rotten people. So, when Jonah was told by God to go and prophesy to the people of Nineveh to get them to repent, to change their ways, Jonah flat out said, “no.”
That’s a pretty ballsy move. I mean, we all say “no” to God a lot, but we’re largely saying no to teachings from the words of scripture. We’re saying no to words that were spoken and written thousands of years ago. I’m not excusing that, but Jonah had God speaking directly to him, and he still said “no” because he had so much contempt for the people of Nineveh. He just wanted to God kill them, but he knew God was merciful, and he knew that if he prophesied to the people of Nineveh that they would repent and God wouldn’t kill them, so he just said no and went somewhere else to force God to kill the people of Nineveh.
Jonah’s contempt. God’s compassion.
Kill them all; I don’t like them.
Eh, they’re human beings; let’s try to help them out.
Contempt. Compassion.
Jonah’s not the only one to have contempt for others and say no to God. We all do. Bless those who curse you. Forgive your enemies. Love your enemies. I mean, Jesus said those things, sure, but he probably didn’t really mean it all the time. Maybe the writers just got it wrong. Maybe I’ll just wait to forgive them till God sends them to hell.
In all these and countless other ways, we are all like Jonah, with contempt for others, running away from what God told us because we’d really rather have God just punish those people.
The thing is, God still might, and he taught us to forgive. Bless, forgive, and pray for your enemies, and it will be like pouring burning coals upon their heads. Ok, this I can get behind. Follow God’s command for forgiveness and still they get bushwhacked.
Yeah, that’s not quite the heart God calls us to have either. Rather, God calls us to have a heart that cares for and even breaks for our enemies.
God taught Jonah this lesson with the tree God made to give Jonah some shade and then killed the next day. Jonah was so upset about the tree, and God understood, “Dude, I get it man. You’re so sad about the tree that you didn’t make and didn’t love that just gave you a little shade, so maybe you get that I’d be sad about the destruction of a whole city of people whom I did make and do love? You get that, Jonah, you little dufus?”
Who knew God was so snarky, right?
Hey Jonah, try to get your heart to break for the people of Nineveh just like it did for that tree. The healing nature of compassion, rather than the destructive nature of contempt.
We see this same lesson of contempt over compassion in the story Jesus told of the laborers in the vineyard. See, the laborers who worked all day had contempt on those who only worked a few hours and got paid the same. Never mind that what they got paid wasn’t getting any of them rich. They were getting paid what they needed to survive, not minimum wage, which is crap, but a living wage. They had what they needed.
So, they laborers who worked all day knew that if the ones who only worked a couple hours only got paid for a couple hours work, they wouldn’t have enough to live on. If they had only been paid for a couple hours work, they would eventually starve, and the laborers who worked all day seemed ok with that. Once they knew they were getting paid the same, they had contempt on the laborers who were only able to work a few hours.
“Who cares if they’re gonna die? They don’t deserve what I got.” That’s the destructive nature of contempt. They had contempt for the other laborers; they had contempt for the landowner, just like Jonah had contempt for the people of Nineveh and for God. The laborers didn’t make the vineyard, they didn’t own the land, and yet they were contemptuous of the landowner for his generosity. “I don’t want you to be generous or have compassion. I want those other workers to die rather than get the same as I have.”
The destruction of contempt, rather than the healing of compassion.
Imagine if these laborers knew they were all going to get paid a full day’s wage working for this guy. Contempt would have made them all say, “No one get there to the end of the day and he’ll still pay us all for a full day.” I bet the landowner would have caught wise on that one, but what if the workers had said, “Ok, we’re all going to get paid a full day’s wage, so how about we rotate? Some of us work a full day one week, then others work the full day the next week.”
See, if they had compassion on one another and cared about each other’s’ wellbeing, not just their own, they could have worked together so everyone could have done well.
Compassion, rather than contempt.
Now, looking at Jesus’ parable, the landowner having compassion, making sure all the workers had enough, rather than the bare minimum not to actually get by, I wish I was preaching this to billionaires and CEOs. However, the lesson of compassion, rather than contempt, is still a lesson for all of us, and like with Jonah and the laborers who worked all day, compassion rather than contempt is not easy lesson to learn.
I mean, it sounds great and all, and I figure most of us want to live with compassion, but I can think of 4 times in the last week alone that I’ve felt and acted contemptuously toward someone, and that’s just the real people that I interacted with. If we include billionaires and politicians and what not, my contempt is up to like 17 times a day, or an hour? In two of the real life cases, I was able check back with the person, make amends, and tell them I was wrong. Two of the cases, I may not ever be able to.
In each of these, I will say that I did move from contempt towards compassion. That’s a step in the right direction. We’re not gonna get it right all the time. That’s why God sometimes sends a whale, like he did with Jonah, to swallow us up and take us where he wants us to go when we’ve just told God no to his face.
“Remember compassion,” God says.
“Yeah, no. I want to hurt this guy.” Sometimes we need a pretty swift reminder. So, remember this: God is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love for all of humanity. We are made in God’s image, so being full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, that is the core of who we are.
Showing compassion is how God made us to be, and can be one of the hardest things we do. Showing compassion is also one of the strongest things we do. The anger and contempt we have for others feels like strength, but it’s really just our weakness and fear having a temper tantrum. Real strength comes from showing compassion, being slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
That takes practice, too, and prayer, like much of anything worth doing, but we’re not practicing something outside ourselves or beyond ourselves. Practicing compassion and mercy is practicing at being our true selves. Practicing being slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love is practicing being our true selves.
Contempt is when we’re getting outside of ourselves and letting fear dominate. Compassion is a return home, and so, whenever we feel contempt, that’s when Jesus is calling us. “Come home.” Set aside the anger, set aside the fear and contempt, and come home to compassion, mercy, and steadfast love.
The Rev. Brad Sullivan Lord of the Streets, Houston August 30, 2026 Proper 17, A Romans 12:9-21 Psalm 26:1-8 Matthew 16:21-28
“There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” That’s what Morpheus said to Neo the 1999 sci-fi film, “The Matrix.” In the movie, humans were struggling to be freed from machine overlords, and humanity was waiting on a savior, The One. Morpheus was looking for this savior, and he was firmly convinced that Neo was the one. At one point, after Neo did some truly amazing things, Morpheus again said how he believed Neo was The One. Neo again protested, and Morpheus said to him, “Sooner or later, you’re going to realize just as I did, there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” You may not know exactly where this is leading, Morpheus was saying, but you can walk the path you are meant to walk, regardless.
As I read today’s Gospel, I have a lot of questions, particularly around Jesus telling his disciples that some of them would not taste death before they saw the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Was he talking about when Jesus would return in the clouds with great majesty, bringing in this new paradise on earth? If so, he was wrong, because that hasn’t happened in 2000 years, much less in the disciples’ lifetimes.
Did Jesus mean they would see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom because they were going to see him riding into Jerusalem on a donkey to much fanfare and praise, because they did see that. A week after he rode into Jerusalem, of course, he was executed as an enemy of the state, so maybe Jesus meant that they would see him come into his kingdom, but that his kingdom was not some great seat of governmental power that they thought it was. I kinda like that, but it also feels like a stretch.
So, maybe Jesus meant they would see his resurrection, that rising from the grave with everlasting life was Jesus coming in his kingdom. Many of Jesus’ disciples did see him after being resurrected, and that’s certainly amazing and wonderful and far greater than riding a donkey into a city, but Jesus said the Son of Man would “come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he [would] repay everyone for what has been done.”
That just straight up ain’t happened yet. So maybe he did mean his resurrection when he said they would see him coming into his kingdom and the whole coming with his angels in the glory of his Father thing was something else? I don’t know. Like I said, I’ve got a lot of questions on this one. I’m not sure what I believe about Jesus coming with his angels in the glory of his Father and his disciples not tasting death before they see him coming in his kingdom.
I could try to come up with an exact answer that suits me, and fits all the pieces together, and defines everything exactly. I’ve seen it done, but those answers, fitting everything together perfectly, tend to leave me cold. They kinda sorta make sense-ish of what Jesus said, if you don’t ask too many questions, but they tend to feel like an unskilled writer tying up loose ends in a script. You end up with something that’s definitely, almost a movie but the kind that you’d wait till it was out of theaters to watch and then just decide to skip entirely.
The other reason I don’t tend to come up with an exact answer that suits me, and fits all the pieces together, and defines everything exactly is that I don’t really need to. “There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”
In the midst of all my questions, I don’t really know the right answers, but I choose to believe in Jesus’ resurrection, nonetheless. I believe Jesus was showing us that life does not end in death, but that life is transformed in death into something else, that we will all continue living together after our deaths. I find that beautiful. It gives me hope.
Morpheus - "The Matrix", 1999
Even not knowing how it all works, believing in Jesus’ resurrection gives me a path to walk, a path of hope, peace, and trust. I may not know exactly where the path will lead or how it all goes, but “there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” Knowing the path can lead to that really bad b-movie thing I was talking about earlier. Walking the path, well, that’s pretty much what Paul was writing about in Romans 12:9-21.
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
That’s some of the highlights. Paul shows a path of hope and peace, a path of trust. Now, full disclosure, Paul seems to have thought that the end was coming very quickly, that Jesus would return any minute. So, you could see Paul’s advice as being, “Eh, since it ain’t gonna be too long, you can put up with some suffering for now.” That may be what he was thinking, but my question there is, if Paul had thought that Jesus wasn’t coming with his angels in the glory of his Father for at least 2000 years, would he have given the same advice. I think so, because as much as he thought Jesus was returning any minute, his hope was in Jesus’ resurrection, in life after death. So, Paul taught a path of hope, and peace, and trust. Paul walked that path, and he taught the churches to walk that path as well.
Hope. Peace. Trust.
That is a decidedly different path than Peter was on when he rebuked Jesus. Peter thought he knew the path he wanted to take. He thought he knew the path he wanted Jesus to take, a path of power and glory. So, when Jesus said that he was going to be arrested, beaten, killed, and on the third day raised, Peter rebuked Jesus for being on what he thought was the wrong path. Power, glory, destruction of enemies, that’s the path Peter thought Jesus should have been on.
Now, they hadn’t been walking the path of power, glory, or destruction. Peter had been with Jesus for years, watching Jesus walk the path of hope, and peace, and trust, and yet, somehow Peter still thought the path they were on was power, glory, and destruction.
“You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things,” Jesus told Peter. Peter assumed he knew the end, power and glory, and so he was ignoring the actual path they were walking. That continues to happen quite a lot in the church. Sometimes followers of Jesus know how things should be, and they are so determined for things to be that way, that they leave the path of hope, peace, and trust in order to force their way in the world.
They form groups based on political beliefs to try to force things to be the way they think Jesus wants them to be. They try to pass laws to force others to conform to their morals or beliefs. They want Jesus’ kingdom here on earth, and they try to make it happen, but the path they end up walking is the path of power, glory, and destruction.
That wasn’t the way of Jesus, it wasn’t the way of Paul, and even Peter abandoned that way of power and glory after Jesus’ resurrection. They all walked in the path of hope, peace, and trust. That’s the way of the church.
I want to walk that path, except of course in the times when I don’t because I want to walk the path of power, glory, and destruction, because I want my way and I know how things should be, and I’m angry, or I’m frustrated, or whatever else it is. Jesus tells us to take up our cross as we follow him, and we put onto that cross what that cross represented for Rome: power, glory, and destruction. We put on to that cross our desires to force our way in the world and crucify those with Christ so that we can then walk with Christ in the path of hope, peace, and trust.
We don’t know exactly where that’s going to lead in this life. We seek to bring healing and love as we walk the path of Jesus. We crucify our desires for power, glory, and destruction, forcing the world to be how we want, and we don’t know when or how the path will end. We do know we can’t force Jesus’ kingdom on the world. We can’t force Jesus’ kingdom to come. It isn’t ours to bring about. So, when will Jesus’ kingdom fully come? Where exactly will walking the path of Jesus lead? We don’t know, but we don’t need to know. We don’t need to know the path. We just need to walk it.
The Rev. Brad Sullivan Lord of the Streets, Houston August 16, 2026 Proper 15, A Isaiah 56:1,6-8 Psalm 67 Matthew 15:21-28
I was on a radio show a couple of weeks ago on 90.1, KPFT. The show is called, THNX, spelled T-H-N-X, and the host, Rand Mintzer was interviewing me and the Rev. Laura Mayo, senior minister of Covenant Church Houston. The topic of the show that night was “Faith in Today’s World.” Rand was looking at the challenges people are facing and the struggles so many are having while a very few are exceedingly, mind-numbingly wealthy. He asked about how our faith relates to these struggles, and he asked how we and our congregations are able to maintain hope amidst such disparity and injustice.
Rev. Laura talked several times about Amos – pointing out that it’s pretty short (only 9 chapters), and is fantastic when it comes to talking about the justice God desires.
Hear this, you who trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, 5 saying, “When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel heavier and practice deceit with false balances, 6 buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and selling the sweepings of the wheat.” (Amos 8:4-6)
Here, you had folks keeping the sabbath; they were following the law, not working on the day of rest. Unfortunately, they were like beasts lying in wait to pounce on their prey. Once the sabbath was over, they overcharged for grain and wheat, they lied and cheated to make extra money, and through all of that, they robbed the poor.
In modern times, you could say they kept wages low while increasing prices so they could keep more profits for themselves. They weren’t breaking laws enough that you could really catch them, and by all outward appearances, they looked like fine, upstanding people, but they trampled the needy and brought ruin to the poor of the land.
In our reading from Isaiah 56 today, we heard God calling people to “maintain justice, and do what is right,” and to “keep the sabbath, and [not] profane it.” As we saw in Amos, keeping the sabbath and maintaining justice are tied together for God. Doing religious practices right doesn’t matter if we don’t treat people with dignity and respect. Following religious rules to keep ourselves in God’s good graces may even count against us if we are adding to the hurt and harm in the world.
Folks that oppress others and harm others tend to divide people up into categories like the worthy and the unworthy. These fine, upstanding people are worthy of honor and respect. These lowly schlebs, well, they’re not worthy of much of anything, are they? It’s easier to exploit people and oppress workers when you don’t see them as worthy. It’s easier not to care about the harm you are causing others when you don’t see them as worthy.
Jesus taught his disciples something about worthiness in his conversation with the Canaanite woman in the story we heard today.
On the surface, we have Jesus telling this woman, who just wanted to have her child healed, that she was a dog and not worthy to have anything from him, especially not something as grand as healing of her child. That is decidedly different, however, from how Jesus usually treated women and how Jesus usually treated people who came to him asking for healing. Jesus usually gave honor and respect and chose to show mercy to people, relieving their suffering.
When the Canaanite woman shouted at Jesus to heal her daughter, he first ignored her, and his disciples asked him to send her away because she was bothering them. Rude. Talk about not seeing her as worthy, Jesus said that he was not sent for her kind of person, but only for the people of Israel. In other words, “You aren’t worthy.”
So, the woman decided to spar with Jesus. Since she wasn’t worthy, she knelt down before Jesus and asked again for Jesus to heal her daughter. At that point, Jesus called her a dog, once again, not worthy of him or his mercy. The woman came right back with “Even the dogs eat the crumbs under their master’s table.”
That was a rather brilliant move on her part. I can see her getting angry and shouting at Jesus at this point. “I’m not a dog! How dare you call me a dog! My daughter is sick, and you need to heal her! You’re horrible! You ain’t no healer or good person! You’re the devil!” Well, he might have seen that like a dog barking angrily at someone, and Jesus could have been proven right, that she was just a dog, not worthy of him.
So, rather than take offence at Jesus calling her a dog, the woman basically said, “Ok, fine. I’m a dog, but I’m still a human being.” That revealed her dignity.
I’ve heard this referred to as sparing between the woman and Jesus. Perhaps he was sparing with her to teach his disciples a lesson? Perhaps she brought him up short. He had just said that what defiles us is not what our particular religious practices are, but what we do to one another, how we treat one another.
Well, Jesus wasn’t treating the woman well at first, and through their sparing, Jesus was shown to believe what he taught. He helped the woman out.
He also revealed her human dignity. Through their sparing, she didn’t deny being a dog, she just took his insult and turned it right back around. Even the dogs eat the crumbs. Again, “Ok, fine. I’m a dog, but I’m still a human being. You want to give me crumbs? I’ll take crumbs.”
That revealed her human dignity far more than if she had shouted back at him. Dogs bark and bite. She did not. She talked calmly and reasoned with Jesus. In admitting to being a dog, she showed that she was far from actually being a dog. In agreeing that she was a dog, her humanity was revealed.
That’s like Jesus’ teaching about turning the other cheek and not resisting an evil person. (Matthew 5:39) She didn’t resist his evil sounding words. She turned her cheek, offered herself the same insult again and exposed the inhumanity of calling her a dog in the first place.
It really was brilliant, and I can see Jesus’ excitement. “Dude! She’s doing exactly what I taught!” I can also imagine the whole conversation between them being a way that Jesus took the opportunity to teach his disciples. “Here’s what turning the other cheek is all about, and here is what it means to treat people with dignity and respect.”
So, through all of that, her dignity was revealed and her suffering was relieved. Jesus showed that the way of God is not to some people worthy and some people unworthy. The way of God is not to practice religion and look good to others while oppressing workers, trampling the needy and bringing ruin to the poor of the land. No, the way of God is to care for all and to reveal the dignity and relieve the suffering of people some may consider to be unworthy.
Revealing dignity and relieving suffering is our way of life at Lord of the Streets. That’s our mission. “Reveal dignity and relieve suffering, through ministries and relationships with people facing homelessness.” As I said last week, that’s the mission for everyone who chooses to be a member of Lord of the Streets (and for everyone who chooses to be a partner and supporter of Lord of the Streets). That’s our mission in each of our lives, and that’s our mission as a church community.
That mission is also how we can find faith and hope in today’s world. We strive to reveal one another’s dignity and to relieve one another’s suffering. That is the true life of our religion. Like Amos said, like Isaiah said, like Jesus said, revealing dignity and relieving suffering is how we show that we truly love God, that we live our religion. Recognizing all people as worthy of honor and respect, love and belonging, that’s how we find hope and faith in today’s world.
The Rev. Brad Sullivan Lord of the Streets, Houston August 9, 2026 Proper 14, A 1 Kings 19:9-18 Psalm 85:8-13 Matthew 14:22-33
“Dude, if I called you out of the boat to take a stroll on the water with me, did you really think I was going to let you drown?” Ok, so that’s a bit snarkier than what Jesus said to Peter, but I think it really gets to the heart of the question, don’t you? Jesus had called Peter out of the boat in the middle of the sea to take a stroll on the water with him, and when Peter got afraid and began to drown, Jesus picked him up, put him in the boat and said, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
That’s actually a pretty good question. Why did Peter doubt? He saw Jesus, walking on the water. When Jesus called him out of the boat, Peter started out walking on the water just fine, but then he got afraid when he saw the wind and the waves. So, of course, Peter doubted because he was afraid. With fear of drowning foremost in his mind, I can imagine Peter having two questions. Could Jesus keep him walking on the water, and would Jesus keep him walking on the water. In other words, Peter was doubting Jesus’ ability and his good will.
Maybe that sounds familiar.
Sure, Jesus is powerful and all, but can he really help with this? I can see Peter wondering just how far Jesus’ powers extended. If a wave knocked Peter ten feet away from Jesus, would the floaty, water-walking awesomeness still reach him? Then there’s the question of Jesus’ intentions. What if Jesus was secretly angry with Peter and had only called him out of the boat to trick him? What if Jesus actually wanted him to drown and figured this way he could make it look like an accident?
That may sound nuts, and it is nuts, but Peter wouldn’t have been the first to question God’s power or good will. When the people of Israel were hungry and thirsty in the desert after God freed them from slavery in Egypt, they cried out, repeatedly in Exodus and Numbers, “What the heck, God? Did you bring us out of Egypt just so we could die in the wilderness?” The people were hungry and thirsty, so of course they began to doubt. Could God bring them food and water in the desert? Would God bring them food and water in the desert? Spoiler, but God did.
Photo by Sebastian Bill on Unsplash Text inspired by Despair.com
So, as much as some may like to dis Peter a little bit for his lack of faith, he was in pretty good company in questioning the power of Jesus and the good will of Jesus. Truth be told, Peter was in pretty good company with all of humanity in being afraid and wondering, “Is this really gonna work?” Of course, Peter was afraid. He was walking on top of the water in the middle of a stormy sea. If he hadn't been afraid, he would have been in a coma. I don’t care how much faith he had, his fear response was going to take over. There’s no shame in that.
We all have a fear response. For some of us, it’s kinda mild, and for some of us, our fear response is huge. Now, that’s supposed to be a good thing, protecting us from actual threats, but we often become afraid over things that feel like threats or remind us of threats, even if we’re not really in danger. Just the wrong thing will hit, past trauma will get triggered, and the fear response takes over. So, we get afraid, sometimes very afraid, and once that fear takes over, we may just start to sink. Even if we have great faith, we may start to sink when fear hijacks our brains.
There’s no shame in that, and the fact that fear takes over doesn’t mean we don’t believe well enough. No matter how well we believe, that fear response may hijack our brains, and we may begin to sink. That’s ok. It happens. So, when it happens, when we’re overcome with fear and we begin to sink, Peter has shown us what to do. Turn our fear over to Jesus and ask for his help. Trust in Jesus and allow our fears and doubts to quiet down so that love, hope, and faith can lead us.
Now, that doesn’t mean everything is always going to turn out great, if only we trust in Jesus enough. Jesus did tell us that even if we have great faith, bad things may still happen to us. People are still people, the world is still the world, and no matter how faithful we are, life’s slings and arrows may still hit us.
The work of the church is to continue in the ministry and mission Jesus has for us, even when we are hit by life’s slings and arrows. We are to offer our fears to Jesus, trust in the mission and ministry Jesus has for the church, and remember Jesus’ message, “Dude, if I call you out of the boat, do you really think I’m going to let you drown?”
In our life at Lord of the Streets, Jesus has given us a mission, and our mission is to relieve suffering and reveal dignity by rebuilding lives through ministries and relationships with people facing homelessness. That’s how Lord of the Streets lives out Jesus’ mission of love, hope, and faith: relieve suffering and reveal dignity by rebuilding lives through ministries and relationships with people facing homelessness.
That’s the mission for everyone who chooses to be a member of Lord of the Streets (and for everyone who chooses to be a partner and supporter of Lord of the Streets). So, for everyone here, that’s all of our mission if we choose for it to be. We help one another out, we build relationships together, healthy relationships where we support each other and build each other up in love.
I was talking to a member last week. He was homeless and now has a place to live near here, and unfortunately, there’s a lot of drugs where he lives and not a lot of love, hope, and faith. So, I suggested that he start offering some of that love, hope, and faith. Invite some neighbors to meet together, pray together, have fellowship together in ways that don’t involve drugs. Ask Jesus to let that grow and bring love, hope, and faith to his apartment building and drive out the drugs and despair.
The man I was talking to hasn’t stepped out of the boat on this one yet. That’s ok, it’s a fearful prospect. Jesus’ message to him is, “Dude, if I call you out of the boat, do you really think I’m going to let you drown?” If he does begin gathering a community of love, hope, and faith to drive out the drugs and despair, I really don’t think Jesus intends for that to fail.
I’m having to listen to that same message right now as well, “Dude, if I call you out of the boat, do you really think I’m going to let you drown?” We’re in the midst of renovating our building at Lord of the Streets, and at the same time, our A/C went out. This is all happening as we’re working to expand our ministries to help folks get off the streets and stay housed. We’re working to build greater community of love, hope, and faith at Lord of the Streets, so that community can spread, so that folks do get housed, like the man I mentioned earlier, they can continue to build greater love, hope, and faith wherever they are.
Well, with all the crud going on with our building and the A/C going out right as this is starting to begin, I’m seeing a lot of wind and waves, and it’s hard not to get afraid and start to sink. So, what I’m trying to do is listen to Jesus’ message, “Dude, if I call you out of the boat, do you really think I’m going to let you drown?”
What I’m trying to do is believe that Jesus has this ministry for Lord of the Streets, and even though things are a pain in the tail right now, it’s gonna get better. We’re gonna get through this, and we’re going to have this ministry of connection and relationships. We’re going to have this ministry of being able to join together, and grow together, and support one another together, and not only get housed but stay housed and have these communities of love, hope, and faith so the church continues to spread, not only in our building, but in all the buildings where we end up living.
So, what do we do with our fear of drowning in the meantime?
Well, we keep on praying. We keep on, every day, saying, “Lord, grant me love, and hope, and faith. Guide me. Guide us. Guide your church into the mission and ministry you have for us at Lord of the Streets.
Then, when we do get knocked down by the slings and arrows of life, because we will, we continue to trust that even though resistance happens, Jesus’ mission ain’t gonna fail. What did Jesus say? “The gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Any one of us may get knocked down. Any one of us may get hurt, but we’re a part of something bigger than ourselves. We’re a part of Jesus’ mission of love, and hope, and faith, and nothing is going to stand against that, as we live that out together, and step out of the boat, and listen to Jesus’ words. “Dude, if I call you out of the boat to walk on the water with me, I ain’t gonna let you drown.”
