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+

A Squadron of Inner Demons

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
St. Mark’s, Houston
June 22, 2025
Proper 7, C
Luke 8:26-39

When Jesus cast the legion of demons out of the man in Gerasa, his healing was far reaching. The man was back in his right mind, no longer a danger to himself, no longer a danger to those around him. His community was healed because they no longer had the crazy demon-man just outside of town, afraid he may come and harm them at any moment. His community was then further healed because the man told everyone what Jesus had done for him.

This is the kind of healing I’d say all of us and everyone we know can experience, because all of us are struggling with our own inner demons. Now, I don’t mean full-on Exorcist kind of demon possession. I do believe that sometimes people are full-on possessed by demons, like the man who had a legion of demons in him, which Jesus cast into the pigs, and I believe Jesus has the power to cast out those demons. Powerful as they may be, Jesus is God, but what I’m talking about here is not that kind of demon possession. Please, no one go out from here saying, “the preacher said I’m possessed by demons.”

I’m talking about what we call our inner demons, our lesser angels. Think about things within us that keep us isolated, harming others and ourselves. Ways that we choose to be right and angry, rather than in love and charity with others. How we hold on to grudges and let that poison eat away at us, slowing harming those around us too. Think about the contempt we have for others, the fear we let lead our lives, and the huge amounts of time and money we spend numbing and trying to feel better.

We may not have a legion of full-on demons possessing us, but I’d guess most of us at least have a decent sized gang or a small squadron of inner demons messing with our lives. I can hear our lesser angels shouting, “What have you to do with us, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Don’t torment us. Just leave us alone so we can torment people.”

I see a lot of people who as far as I know aren’t possessed by demons, but their lesser angels, their inner demons are going strong. Fear from past hurts cause us to lash out in all kinds of ways. Where I work, I see a lot of this among Houstonians who are experiencing homelessness. Past trauma, combined with the trauma of being homeless and a profound lack of sleep and safety. Some folks have the additional challenges of mental health struggles and addiction.

There’s a crud ton of inner demons I see every day, and whether the inner demons are cause by trauma, homelessness, mental illness, or even the daily stress of a regular, working, with a home kind of life, our inner demons tend to do the same things to us that the legion was doing to the man in Garasa. We’re not exactly living among tombs, but metaphorically, sometimes we are, our inner demons keeping us from good relationships and community, leaving us in darkness.

Well, as we heard in our Gospel reading today, Jesus brings light into our darkness. For the man with the legion of demons, the first thing that happened was that Jesus was there with the man. Then, Jesus had a conversation, not just with the man, but with the demons; he knew exactly what he was dealing with. Then, he cast them out and brought light into the man’s darkness.

For us and our inner demons, the first thing to do is invite Jesus in. Ask for Jesus’ help in healing us and bringing light into our darkness. Then, have a conversation with Jesus, telling him everything that’s going on. We call this confession, being totally honest with God about ourselves. God knows all of it anyway, so we might as well tell the truth, trusting in God’s compassion and love for us. Then, offer to God all of your inner crud, handing all of your inner demons over to Jesus. Ask Jesus to hold them and heal them, to hold and heal you.

Then, commit or recommit to walk in Jesus’ ways. Like the man with the legion of demons, our healing goes far beyond ourselves as we bring greater light into the world. We bring healing to others as we are healed. Our anger turns to peace and forgiveness, our fear turns to trust and acceptance, our desires to be right turn to love and charity. Then, do it again, over and over, every day, continually seeking healing from Jesus.

The world could use more of that: peace and forgiveness, trust and acceptance, love and charity. That’s living out Jesus’ mission for the church, for us to be healed that we may help bring healing to others, to a world full of inner demons, bringing love and light.

It Isn't Just a Flesh Wound

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
June 8, 2025
Pentecost, C
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
John 14:8-17 (25-27)

 

Our bishop has said, “God has a mission, and God’s mission has a church.” Well, God’s mission is to unify humanity with God and with one another, and we are God’s church. God has formed us to live out God’s mission of unity and reconciliation. More accurately, we are part of God’s worldwide, one church, which God has formed to live out God’s mission of unity.

Anglican, Episcopal, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Mennonite, Church of Christ, and countless other church groups, we may argue amongst ourselves, and some of us may say others of us aren’t really Christian, but despite our objections, we are one church throughout the world. We are one Body of Christ, all formed to live out God’s mission of unity and reconciliation.

Of course, we believe that the unity of God and humanity happened a couple thousand years ago when God became human with the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God united physically with every aspect of our lives, so that we are fully united with God, and nothing can change that. Nothing can separate us from God because God has become human in Jesus Christ.

So, since that mission unity with God is done, accomplished, and finished, what is left for the church to do? Well, as I said before, God has formed the church to live out that mission of unity. God has formed the church to live the truth that we are one with one another and with God.

When we don’t live into that truth, when we don’t live as though we are one, we are deceiving ourselves.

In the movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, King Arthur is on a quest to search for the Holy Grail, and in his travels, he comes across a fearsome knight who picks a fight with Arthur. It wasn’t the best idea, Arthur makes quick work of him and when the knight won’t yield, Arthur cuts off the knight’s arm. Then, when the knight claims it’s just a scratch, Arthur cuts his other arm off. Then the knight starts kicking Arthur, and Arthur says, “You’ve got no arms left.” “Yes, I have,” the knight replies. “It’s just a flesh wound.”

Eventually, Arthur cuts off both of the knight’s legs as well (because he still kept trying to fight Arthur), and the knight says, “Alright, we’ll call it a draw.”

So, the knight saying that his arms being cut off was just a flesh wound, that was nuts. Even more nuts was that he seemed to actually be trying to convince Arthur that he still had arms. He seemed to actually believe his own lie, but alas, saying that he still had arms didn’t change the fact that they had both just been cut off.

In a similar way, when we deny that we are one with one another, we are lying to ourselves. When we say this part of the church or that part of the church isn’t really the church, then like the knights, we’re cutting off our arms and legs and claiming it’s just a flesh wound. This goes beyond the church as well. When we harm or dismiss any human and claim that it doesn’t hurt us, we’re like that crazy knight. 

We can think that we can harm others without harming ourselves, but those lies we tell ourselves don’t make the harm any less true. The arm being cut off will never just be a flesh wound.

We are meant to live and acknowledge the truth that we are one. Anything else is a lie.

So, how does the church live out God’s mission? Well, we stop lying to ourselves. We stop pretending that we aren’t unified. We may not like other parts of the church, but as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 12, that’s like a human body where the mouth tells the eyeballs they don’t belong. That’s a pretty stupid thing for the mouth to say, almost as stupid as one denomination telling another they aren’t really a part of the church.

I mean, I get the mouth not liking the eyeballs. To a mouth, eyeballs are just really weird. No teeth, no tongue, strangely spherical, and to eyeballs, I’m sure the mouth is equally strange. Wet without being sad, smelly, can’t see a damn thing. It’s like the Baptists and the Catholics; the two could hardly be more different, but either one saying the other doesn’t belong, well, that’s just dumb.

And, one part of the church telling another part it doesn’t belong is a lie, denying God’s mission of unity, rather than doing the hard work of living out God’s mission of unity.

Now, why do I think God’s mission of unity is hard? Well, a cross, three nails, and a crown of thorns. God’s mission of unity ain’t easy. Easy is seeing the people we don’t like and just giving in to our disgust. Easy is letting anger turn to hate. Easy is saying, they’re weird, they’re different, they’re sinners, and they’re going to hell. The lie that we aren’t one is easy. The lie that God is angry with them but not at us is easy. The lie that we follow Jesus, each one of us for our own personal salvation, and not as a part of one another, that lie is easy, as easy as saying my arm is still here when it has clearly been cut off.

Realizing and trusting that our own personal salvation has already been accomplished and that we are now meant to live out that salvation in and through one another, that truth is harder than the lie, but that truth also gives life. Just like Jesus dying on the cross was hard, but his death gave life.

So, to help us with the hard work of living out God’s mission of unity and reconciliation, God sent the Holy Spirit to unite us, to guide us, and to strengthen us so that when we don’t have enough to live God’s mission, God’s Holy Spirit can work for us, strengthening, guiding, and uniting us as one, because that is what we are. That is the work Jesus accomplished. That is the mission of God’s church which we are invited every day to live.

Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another...Everything Else Is Commentary

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
June 1, 2025
7 Easter, C
Acts 16:16-34
Psalm 97
John 17:20-26

“I ask…that they may all be one.” That was Jesus’ prayer for his disciples before he was killed. That was Jesus’ desire for his church. That is Jesus’ desire for the world, that people may be united to one another just as Jesus and God the Father are united to one another, that we all may be one. 

Imagine a world in which we are one. Imagine making decisions based on how they will affect ourselves and others. Imagine the world doing that, realizing that if we are one with each other, then when they hurt, we hurt. Imagine actually feeling and knowing the pain that we so often carelessly and unknowingly cause others. Imagine also knowing and feeling the joy we cause others. I daresay the world would be different if we truly acted and lived as though we were one. 

The world of not being one, well, that’s the world the in which we found Silas and Paul in our reading from Acts today. It was a world of slavery, oppression, violence, and unjust imprisonment. 

It all started with a couple of slavers who had young girl kept as their property so they could make money off of her. She wasn’t a business partner, not a person to them, certainly not one with them. She was just a useful thing to them, but when Paul and Silas freed her from the spirit that was possessing her, she was no longer of value to them, so they had Paul and Silas beaten and imprisoned. Once again, not exactly a world in which people saw themselves as one with each other.

Then there was the earthquake which opened the doors of the cells where Paul and Silas were being kept. The gaoler* who guarded Paul and Silas’ prison, thought they had escaped, and so he drew his sword and was about to kill himself...with a sword. How crazy is that? Never mind that the prison cells were only open because of a huge earthquake. Even nowadays, many insurance policies would call that an act of God, so any potential escape was very much not the gaoler’s fault, and yet, this man’s first instinct when he thought they had escaped was to kill himself.

That indicates to me that the people he worked for probably weren’t particularly kind or understanding. Knowing that he worked for Rome, we can assume their cruelty with almost certainty. Better to kill myself with a sword than face their wrath, this man thought.

The gaoler was on the outside of the prison, and yet he was bound in
chains, whereas Paul and Silas, sitting there in prison, were free. They were one with each other and with God. The gaoler was alone and fearful of the government that would kill him without a moment’s hesitation.

So then, when he saw that Paul and Silas had not left the prison, he asked them what he needed to do to be saved. “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household,” they told him, and after going to his house and telling them all about Jesus, “he and his entire family were baptized without delay.”

The gaoler and his family became even more one than they were before, and Paul and Silas, well, they went back to prison. You didn’t really think they were going to take advantage of the little mini-Gospel-jailbreak and let the gaoler be killed, did you? Of course not. That’s not what you do when you’re one with them. 

Then, the next morning, the authorities went ahead and released Paul and Silas, but the gaoler was the one who was freed. Even on the outside, he had carried his prison with him wherever he went.**  The gaoler’s chains were what: fear, isolation, working for an unjust Roman regime? We don’t know exactly what his chains were, but I think we can all recognize that he was bound in chains. 

Chains keep us separated from one another, afraid, bound, and alone. 

Jesus makes us one with one another. The gaoler was made one with Silas and Paul, one with his family, one with other believers he met. He was freed from his chains of fear and isolation.

What if the slavers had been freed of their chains and worked with the girl not as their slave, but as a business partner? What if Rome had been freed from their chains of domination and cruelty so that an earthquake opening prison doors wasn’t reason to be so afraid that death seemed the only option? That would have been a very different world. 

What about us? What are some of the chains which bind us and keep us separate from one another? Mistrust. Fear. Impatience and annoyance with others. Valuing success and achievement more than the people around us. Constant competition. 

How might we unbind those chains and become one? Well, Paul and Silas said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Believe in Jesus, and be freed from your chains. Believe in Jesus, and be one. 

Joining with Jesus and being freed from our chains, being one with one another, is Jesus’ prayer for us. It is our choice, then, to choose to follow Jesus and to strive for that unity with Jesus’ help. Jesus makes us one as we make a decision to follow him, trust in him, and live the way of life he taught. It is an everyday, all-day decision and striving on our part.

What does living that unity then actually look like? Well, Rabbi Hillel, who lived a little before Jesus, was once asked by a Roman to tell him the whole of the Jewish law. He said, “I will convert to Judaism if you will tell me the whole law while I stand on one foot.” So, everything about how the people of Israel were to live as God’s people while he stood on one foot, and Rabbi Hillel said, “Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole of the law. Everything else is commentary.” 

“Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole of the law. Everything else is commentary.” Well, if we don’t do to others what is hateful to us, we’ll stand a pretty good chance of being one with one another.

“Those who love me will keep my commandments,” Jesus said, and what was Jesus’ commandment? That we love one another. When we love one another, we love Jesus, and we become one.  

Now sadly, the world in which we live is still not a world in which most of us are one with each other, and yet Jesus’ prayer continues. We continue striving to be one, praying that same prayer that Jesus prayed, every day, all day, that we would be one with each other just as Jesus and God the Father are one.

“Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole of the law. Everything else is commentary.”

*"Gaoler" is the old English spelling of jailer. I've been reading so much fantasy writing 

over the last several years, in which the authors write gaoler, that 

writing "jailer" just looked wrong. Thank you for indulging me.

** “There is more than one sort of prison, captain. I sense you carry yours wherever you go.” 

– Chirrut Imwe, Rogue One