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 November 16, 2025 Proper 28, C 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Psalm 98 Luke 21:5-19
Do y’all remember when the world was going to end on New Year’s Day, 2000? Then again in 2012? There have been several comets that were supposed to bring about the end of the world. I remember two or three pastors with mathematical predictions that didn’t pan out. The Branch Davidians in Waco. There was the Left Behind fervor with the book series. That’s around nine or ten end of the world predictions, just in the last 30 years, just that I can remember.
All of them have been wrong, and all of them have led to people living as though the world was about to be no more, usually in some not great ways. I heard of folks buying the pollutingist big SUVs they could because the end was coming and polluting the world more would help bring it about. People have made end-time bunkers, spending untold amounts of time and money, isolating, staying away from others, because they believed the end was nigh. Some even had suicide cults where folks killed themselves at just the right moment as the world didn’t actually end.
God didn’t make this world for us to end it, and God didn’t make this world for us to suffer an apocalypse. God made us and made this world for us to live in it. “Be fruitful and multiply,” God said. Live in this world. Be blessed by this world. Give blessings into the world. That is God’s desire for our lives. Living is the point, living as though the sun will rise again.
So, as Paul pointed out in 2 Thessalonians, you can’t live if you don’t eat. See, there were folks in the church in Thessalonica who not only believe that the end was coming very soon, but they believed that the end had already happened. Some had stopped working because they misunderstood Paul’s message to them and thought that the end of the world and God’s full reign on earth had already happened. So, they stopped working.
Therefore, Paul wrote, “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” That was his advice to a church where some folks were living in a kind of end-time cult. Thinking that the world had already ended, they thought they didn’t need to work. Great! Paul was saying. Have them not eat as well as not work, and see which happens first: the end of the world, or hungry bellies and malnutrition.
As much as folks in the early church were expecting the end of days, they had to keep living as though the world was going to keep on turning.
You can understand, why some had this misunderstanding about the end of days. Paul himself thought that the end of days was coming in his lifetime, months, and then maybe years after Jesus’ resurrection. Paul even wrote in 1 Corinthians 7 that ideally, folks should stop making babies. Best way to be, Paul wrote, don’t have sex, just devote yourselves to prayer. That was Paul’s advice. No sex. Don’t make babies. Just devote yourselves to prayer.
He did make allowances. If you can’t not have sex, then at least only do it with your husband or wife, but best just not to have sex at all. He thought it was the end of days. Personally, I don’t know what not having sex has to do with the end of days, but for Paul it was a thing.
So, Paul went on, for those who were unmarried, it would be best to stay unmarried, so you could devote yourself to prayer. If you couldn’t keep yourself from having sex, though, then at least get married and have sex with just the one person.
Paul thought the end was coming very soon, and so his preference for the church was that everyone would stop having sex, just devote themselves to prayer, and of course, that would mean no more babies. Well, if that had happened worldwide, ain’t none of us would be here. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world, just the end of humanity.
Paul was wrong in his belief about when the end of the world would come. Paul’s advice about how to live an end of days life was actually not all that helpful because it wasn’t actually the end of days. The church in Thessalonica was wrong about their belief in the end of days, and since then, every end-time cult in the history of the world has been wrong. So far, the accuracy rate of all end-time predictions has been hovering really close to zero. Actually, it is zero. Even Jesus, to the extent that he thought the end was coming within his disciples’ lifetime was wrong, and Jesus admitted that he didn’t know when the end was going to be, that only God the Father knew.
The point is that end-time cults, as well as the early churches that Paul started were living as though the world was about to end. They were all living as though some terrible apocalypse was about to happen, but that’s not how and why God made the world.
God didn’t make this world and place us in it just for the world to end or for us to suffer a great apocalypse. God made this world for us to live in this world in joy and peace, to live in this world loving one another and loving this beautiful creation.
Now, I’ll admit, the end of the world is a lot of fun in fiction. Armageddon, Deep Impact, Independence Day, 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Moonfall, Greenland, The Core: all of these end-time movies and more are hugely fun and wildly entertaining. There’s the big rush to try to save the world or for some few people to live through the end of the world. It’s exciting, and pulse-pounding, and a great escape from the daily grind and actual worries about actual life.
Folks in these movies aren’t worried about where their next rent check is coming from, how farmers are going to grow food, what grocery prices are going to be, and if there will be enough to eat. For a few hours, watching these movies, we don’t have to worry about these things either. It’s the end of the world. We get to escape reality and imagine some apocalyptic future in which we just don’t have to worry daily life.
End of time predictions, end of time cults all have that same appeal. If it’s the end of the world, you don’t have to worry about much. You don’t need to work if it’s the end of the world. You don’t need to worry about food or anything else if it’s the end of the world.
End of time predictions, even those of faithful religious people are misguided from the start because they are all about escape. We may often want to escape, and who can blame us? There are terrible things going on in the world. So, we try to escape through lots of things. We try to escape through alcohol and drug use. We try to escape through sex. We try to escape through violence. Some try to escape through end-time cults, and some try escape through end of days religious movements. If we have enough money, we try to escape by building rockets to go to Mars and things like that.
God didn’t make this world for us to escape it. Whatever way we choose to try to escape, God made the world not for our escape, but for our living. The thing with the whole end-time, apocalypse deal is, we know that eventually all will be well. We are told in many places through scripture that eventually, God will put all things right, and so we can rest some of our hope that eventually, all will be well.
In the meantime, our hope is not in escape. Our hope is in God’s great love for humanity that we get to be a part of making things well. God has given us strength, courage, wisdom, hope, love, so that we can be a part of making things well in this world.
That was God’s gift to us in Genesis, to be a part of governing and caring for creation. God made us in God’s image and found us to be utterly delightful, and so God gave us power to help make things well. Then, God continued to give us even more gifts to help make things well. God gave the covenant and the Torah to the people of Israel. God gave us Jesus to teach us God’s ways and to join with us in every part of our lives. God called us beloved and gave to us over and over again so that we might be a part of making things well in this world, not to prepare for the end, but to prepare for the next turning of the earth. We get to work to make things well because the sun will rise tomorrow. God made us to live in this world in joy and peace, loving one another, healing one another, and loving and healing this beautiful creation.
The Rev. Brad Sullivan Lord of the Streets, Houston November 2, 2025 All Saints’ Sunday, C Ephesians 1:11-23 Psalm 149 Luke 6:20-31
My son, on Halloween afternoon, said he was going to eat all of his Halloween candy that night and make himself sick. I didn’t point out that he was going to get sick if he ate all of his Halloween candy, mind you. He said, “I’m going to eat all of my Halloween candy and make myself sick.” I asked him not to, pointing out that if he did that, I’d have to take care of him, so really, he’d just be making life difficult for me, not to mention that he’d feel terrible and regret the decision. Grudgingly, he agreed to have mercy on his dad and not eat all of his candy in one night.
So, my darling angel chose to care about someone else and get a little less pleasure for himself. What a saint, and truly isn’t that the way of the saints? How blessed are you who don’t eat all of your Halloween candy in one sitting, for you avoid a tummy ache, as well as your father’s displeasure. That’s from an older version of scripture.
Seeking a little less pleasure for yourself so you can care more about other people and not get a tummy ache. That really does sound like what Jesus was talking about in the blessings and curses we heard him give in our reading from Luke 6 today.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God…But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” Woe to you who eat all of your candy all at once and even take more of other people’s candy, so they don’t have as much and eat all of that too, but blessed are you who have just enough candy to enjoy and not get a tummy ache. It’s not the best analogy, but the point works.
Woe to you who have far more than you need and tend not to be all that bothered by the struggles of those around you. Woe to you who have far more than you need and end up relying almost totally on yourself and your money, seemingly without the need of anyone else.
That’s not how God made creation, for us to depend on ourselves alone with our stuff. We were made to depend upon one another.
So, Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” The kingdom of God is present when we are in love, and peace, and service with one another. When we are not rich, we kinda have to depend on one another, and Jesus calls that a blessing. Sharing what we have with one another, living with trust, and care, and concern for one another, that sounds like the kingdom of God. Sharing what we have with one another, living with trust, and care, and concern for one another, that sounds like the lives of the saints.
Put that way, being a saint sounds kinda good, and not terribly hard.
I knew a young man when I was a youth minister, many years ago. He said he didn’t want to be a saint because it seemed too much like work. There were too many things he thought he’d have to say “no” to. He felt there was too much pleasure that he wouldn’t get to have.
So, he went another way with things, sought a lot of pleasure real fast, ate all of his candy at once, and he struggled quite a lot for many years. He’s doing well now, and it took a lot of work with his parents and others to help get him back on track.
Unfortunately, when he was younger, he had this notion that being a saint was all about behaving well, being good, and not enjoying life too much. He had this notion that following Jesus was all about not going to hell and having to be miserable in this life to avoid hell. Trouble is, both those notions are wrong.
Following Jesus is not about avoiding hell or being miserable in this life. Jesus never said, “Be miserable, or God will be displeased with you.” Following Jesus is about living and receiving a life of love, peace, and kindness with one another. Following Jesus is about living with trust, walking with God, and having hope for life abundant even after we die.
Being miserable is not part of the bargain.
Being beloved and trusting how beloved we are, now that is part of the bargain.
Trust your belovedness, and then live in a way that brings love, peace, and kindness. Do not fear getting everything right. Just trust that you are beloved, and then live out that same love towards others. So, when Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God,” he wasn’t saying, “Make sure you’re poor so God doesn’t hate you,” Jesus’ teaching was more like, “Wait a sec, guys, you think you’re poor because God hates you? Look despite what others may say, you who happen to be poor are 100% beloved of God. Despite what others may say, you who are poor are not cursed by God. In fact, you who are poor are blessed by God, and the kingdom of God is yours to live, and love, and enjoy.
Also, if you’re terribly jealous of those who are rich, who look down on you and think of you as cursed, God’s got some words for them, and they aren’t going to enjoy those words.
Now, to be clear, there’s nothing particularly saintly about being poor, all by itself. Think of a guy who is angry and mean to everyone he sees, who then asks, “Do you think Jesus is cool with me? I mean, I’m a total jerk to everyone.” “Well, are you poor?” “Yeah.” “Ah, well then, you’re good. Don’t worry about it. Jesus is cool with you.”
Obviously, that’s not the case. You can be a hateful, mean, evil jerk, so long as you’re poor, of course not. Jesus wasn’t making a list of how to trick God into being on your side.
Jesus was teaching us to trust that we are beloved, and then to live out that same love towards others. Think about the people we consider saints in our lives.
I’m thinking of one of our kid’s teachers, Saint Rachel. She was so good with our kiddo and strove with him when he was having an enormously hard time. She may never be in a book of saints or have her face on a medallion in a Christian store, but our family will always be grateful for Saint Rachel.
When we talk about people in our lives and say, “She was a saint,” we’re talking about how they were with us, the impact they had on us, the kindness, caring, and love they showed. They weren’t perfect, but they were saints to us, living the love of God and making that love real in our lives.
That doesn’t mean perfection. It does mean habits and practices of doing good for others, treating other people as beloved. That’s part of what having faith in God is. We believe we are loved, and we let that belief be real enough to change our lives. See, we cannot separate what we believe from what we do. If we say we love God, but hate people, then we are lying to ourselves. We cannot claim to love God while hating people, and we cannot claim to love people while treating people terribly.
Having faith means we treat people well, and when we don’t treat others well, we work to repair any damage done. We see a beloved one whom we have harmed, and we work to help them heal. That’s having faith. Faith is not just what we believe with our minds, but also what we do with our bodies.
God became human. So, our human bodies and what we do with them matter immensely. When we seek too much pleasure for our bodies all at once, eat all the Halloween candy in one night, we get a tummy ache, the people around us suffer, and our faith suffers. Our ability to receive God’s love and then love others in return suffers. So, being a saint is about living a faith of belief and action. Being a saint is not about being perfect. Being a saint is about believing we are loved, as Jesus taught that we are. Being a saint is about living out that love towards others, as Jesus taught us to do, and being a saint is about practicing that belief and way of living.
Even as saints, we still get to have candy. We still get to enjoy life, and we get to do so with love and concern for others, trusting that we are loved.
