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 25, 2026 Proper 25, A Leviticus 19:1-2,15-18 Psalm 1 Matthew 22:34-46
So, I remember watching American Idol years ago; my friends and I would watch, and our favorite part of the show, by far, was the beginning, when people were auditioning to be on the show. We got to watch some good auditions, great feedback. Even better was when we got to watch the mediocre auditions, and the very best were the horrible auditions, because then we really got to laugh at and make fun of people.
Simon Cowel was the mean judge, and he was brutal, in how he tore into people. The really, really bad ones, those were easy pickings for him, but even the so-so singers, he could just be flat out cruel in how he tore them down. That was all part of the show, all part of the fun, and we all just ate it up.
Several seasons in, though, it finally started to dawn on me that we were being entertained with cruelty, and we were a part of that cruelty. It was fun and funny, we thought, and whatever it did to the people we were being cruel to, eh, it didn’t really matter, it’s not like we knew them. They were just TV people.
The problem is, it did matter. Whether just people on TV or not, they were people, and they didn’t deserve cruelty. Whether they could sing well or not, they were people, and they didn’t deserve cruelty.
Another problem was, being cruel to one another became more and more just a standard part of how we treated people. To be fair, cruelty hardly started with American Idol. Cruelty to people is as old as humanity.
Crucifixion, lynching, beating people, raping people, schoolyard bullying, laughing at people because of the shape of their bodies, mocking people for not being strong or good at sports, embarrassing people who aren’t as smart as others. Yeah, cruelty has a very long and damaging life in the history of humanity. The cruelty in that TV show, American Idol, is just one way that showed me how much cruelty is part of our daily lives. We seek cruelty as entertainment today, just as surely as people sat watching folks get crucified or lynched. We seek cruelty as entertainment as surely as kids laugh when a bully attacks another kid, or as adults laugh when we now see politicians and their supporters mock and assault people on the other side.
Cruelty is certainly a part of us, and we often find cruelty fun, when it’s directed at someone else. We’re not so fond of cruelty, of course, when it’s directed back at us. Perhaps that’s because being cruel is not how we were made to be.
When God made humans, God made us to be helpers, supportive of one another. We were made for love, for kindness, to be respected and cherished, to be cared for by one another. That’s who we are. God’s image, the image of love, that’s who we are.
There is also a part of God’s image which is judgment. Of course, God judges us when we are cruel to one another, when we harm one another, but God’s justice is always tempered with God’s mercy. That’s why God’s judgment is considered just, and God’s judgment is to be longed for, as we hear in Psalm 119.
God’s judgment and God’s mercy are tied together, and since we are made in God’s image, we have judgment and mercy tied together in us as well. Sometimes we tend to overdo it with the judgment though. Ok, we often tend to overdo it with the judgment, and too much judgment without grace or mercy, that’s how we get cruelty.
If you’re wrong and I’m hurting, and I start judging you without mercy, when then I just get to start unleashing all my hurt and hatred onto you. I become cruel because I’m judging without mercy.
Well, knowing how we often turn to cruelty, God shows us mercy, and God teaches us to love our neighbors as ourselves. That’s pretty much the whole of scripture, right there. Love God, love people.
So, how exactly does that work. I mean, I can say the words, love my neighbor as myself, and I may even mean it, but what does that actually look like? For starters, how do we love ourselves?
I think it’s a generally true statement that we want what’s best for ourselves. I figure we don’t want to suffer. We don’t want to be insulted, looked down on; we don’t want to be hoodwinked, swindled, attacked, insulted, or cheated.
We do want to be respected. We do want to be treated kindly. We want to be cared for and cared about. We want to be cherished. We want to be loved.
So, that’s how God teaches us to love our neighbors. God teaches us to love the people around us by what we do to them and by what we don’t do to them.
I don’t want to suffer, but do I make others suffer? I don’t want to be insulted or looked down upon, but do I insult and look down on others? I don’t want to be hoodwinked, swindled, attacked, insulted, or cheated, but do I do those things to others?
I do want to be respected. I want to be treated kindly, cared for, cherished, loved. Do I treat others that way?
Love your neighbor as yourself. A bit more of that passage from Leviticus says:
You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
A couple things there. One, reprove your neighbor. I had to look up reprove. I thought it meant to tell your neighbor when he’s doing something wrong, and it does, but reprove means to do so with kindness. Reprove is a kindly intent to correct someone. Judgment with mercy. Not cruel, but kind.
That’s how we want to be treated. That’s how we want to be loved. So, that’s how God has told us to treat and love others. If someone’s going off the rails onto a path that is going to be really harmful to them and to others, we should at least try to help point that out, but only if we’re going to do so with kindness. If there’s belittling or shame, well, then we’re probably not going to listened to because that feels like cruelty. So, we reprove one another with kindness and love.
We offer suggestions, and we ask if we can give them. That’s kindness. “Hey, you’re doing this wrong.” That’s not kindness. That’s just judgment without mercy. That’s American Idol, and crucifixion, lynching, beating people, raping people, schoolyard bullying, laughing at people because of the shape of their bodies, mocking people for not being strong or good at sports, embarrassing people who aren’t as smart as others. Judgment without mercy.
We were made for so much more beauty than that. We were made for life, not death; for kindness, not cruelty. We were made for love. Love is God’s commandment to us. Love is God’s very life all around us. Love is the entirety of our religion, summed up in two short sentences. Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Years ago, I was at workshop, seminar thing. I think it was about teaching kids about Jesus. There was this one part where they showed a bunch of books and asked what was wrong with all of these book titles, and some people noticed that a lot of the books mentioned kids being happy, and they thought that was the problem. No, sorry guys, even Christian kids get to be happy. The problem was actually that they were all books about young kids and nothing about teenagers, but what I remember was how much people missed the point. It was as if they tried to make their kids happy, then they would be missing out on Jesus. I don’t know.
The other thing I really remember was this one guy (I have no idea what he was there to talk about), who began his talk by telling the audience that he had gotten married, which was lovely, and I’m sure he had prayed for God to show him the right woman to be his wife, and he told us all that on their wedding night, he kissed her for the very first time.
They’d been dating and everything for, I don’t know, months, years, and he was boasting that he had remained pure and kept her pure. They had not even so much as kissed until they were married. I don’t know what they hell else he talked about, but that story was this wonderfully gross display of virtue signaling and purity culture. If he didn’t want to kiss his girlfriend until they were married, great, more power to him, but boasting about that in a conference where we’re talking about raising our children to believe and follow Jesus, he’s pretty well saying, “and this is what your kids ought to do, too.”
It was virtue signaling, saying, “I did so well with my virtue and purity, so you should, too.” It was pretty gross, all a part of this purity culture thing where you’re not supposed to do certain things, usually around sex, in order to stay pure for Jesus. Well, of course then, if you do have sex, or apparently even kiss someone, before you’re married, then you’re impure and you get to feel bad about yourself.
from "Young Frankenstein"
The purity culture thing misses the point entirely. I suppose if the only two options are, “Don’t even kiss someone until you marry them,” or “Have as much sex as you want, with as many people as you want, consequences be damned,” then I guess don’t kiss until you’re married is the better of those two options, but that’s not about purity before Jesus. That’s about not causing harm.
The “Have as much sex as you want, with as many people as you want, consequences be damned” option isn’t a bad option because it makes you impure. It’s a bad option because it’s going to cause a lot of harm. If you’re having sex, risking pregnancy, with no intention of raising a baby, then you’re causing harm. If you’re having sex and you don’t care at all about the person you’re with, they’re just more fun than doing it alone, that’s causing harm because the other person is no longer a person. They’re just a thing to make you feel good.
So, the virtue signaling, purity culture thing misses the point entirely because our purity before God is not what’s at stake. The reason what we do with our bodies matters is because people matter, and our bodies matter, and how we treat ourselves and other people matters.
What the hell does this have to do with whether or not Jesus was allowed to pay taxes to the emperor? The Pharisees, in their virtue signaling and purity culture, were missing the point. The purity culture they brought up to Jesus wasn’t about sex, but about whether or not they paid taxes to the emperor, and like with most virtue signaling, it was all a bunch of bunk, trying to make themselves look good so Jesus looked bad.
See, when they asked Jesus if it was lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not, it wasn’t just a question of how much we love or hate the IRS. The Roman Empire had taken over the nation of Israel, and they demanded Israel pay them taxes. Well, the people of Israel didn’t love that, and some could make the claim that if you paid your tax to the emperor, it was like you were worshipping the emperor.
The Roman Emperor was seen as a god (not by Israel), and the Roman Emperor’s head was printed on the coins, so the coins themselves were like little idols to the false god, the Roman Emperor. So, if you then paid your tax to this false god with this idolatrous coin, then it could be said you were worshipping idol. On the other hand, if you said it was illegal to pay taxes to the emperor, well, that would be open rebellion against Rome, and you could be killed.
So, they tried to get Jesus in this gotcha moment of Jesus either being an idolater or in rebellion against Rome. Jesus digs deep into their question, showing that they have completely missed the point.
Pay your taxes to Rome, don’t pay your taxes to Rome? Well, if you don’t Rome’s just gonna kill you, so yes, just pay your taxes. No, none of the people of Israel liked paying taxes to Rome. Rome had conquered them and completely sucked. They were vicious and cruel, so no, Israel didn’t love paying taxes to Rome, but they kinda had to, otherwise they’d be killed.
Regarding the whole idolatry bit, Jesus had them pull out the coin, pointing out that they were carrying around that very piece of idolatrous money. So quit with the virtue signaling and purity culture, guys. I’m not an idol worshipper for paying taxes, neither are you.
Give to Rome the things that are Rome’s, Jesus said. Pay your dang taxes with that dang idolatrous coin.
Give to God the things that are God’s, Jesus said. Even under Roman rule, we still get to be the people of Israel; we still get to be God’s people. So, give Rome that coin, and God your life, your allegiance, your daily actions, and all you do with other people.
If you’re trying to signal how virtuous you are, God doesn’t care. If you decide to show how virtuous you are by not paying taxes to Rome, great. You’re throwing your life away and not doing a bit of good for anyone else. How about, quit with virtue signaling, and instead just pay your taxes, and then live a life of love and peace, a life of forgiveness and mercy, a life of honoring and valuing the people around you. Those are the things Jesus was saying we should give to God.
If someone back then wanted to make a grand gesture, showing their devotion to God by not paying taxes to Rome, great. They’d have been killed and not have actually done a lick of good for anyone. Virtue signaling, just kinda selfish and dumb.
If you want not to kiss your girlfriend or boyfriend until you get married, great, more power to you, but that’s not going to make you pure before God. Trying to be pure before God is missing the point. Is what we’re doing dishonoring ourselves and dishonoring others? Is what we’re doing harming ourselves or harming others? That’s the kind of stuff we’re not supposed to be doing.
So, kissing someone before you get married or not, who cares? Having all the sex we can, with all the people we can, not caring about the person, or the harm, or the possible pregnancy, or the disease, or any of that, yeah that’s harmful. That’s the stuff we’re not supposed to do, not because it keeps us pure for God, but because not doing so causes less harm to people.
Being a good little pure, virtuous person is not what we give to God. Are we living lives of love and peace towards ourselves and others? That's what we give to God. Are we living a life of forgiveness and mercy towards ourselves and others? That’s what we give to God. Are we living lives of honoring and valuing ourselves and others? That’s what we give to God.
Are we doing it perfectly? Hell, no. That’s not the point. If we start getting into perfect or not, we’re getting into virtue signaling and purity culture, which is just selfish masquerading as righteousness. We don’t try to be perfect. We try to be loving and peaceful. We try to be forgiving and merciful. We try to honor and value people. We give those things to God, and we ask God to do the rest.
The Rev. Brad Sullivan Lord of the Streets, Houston October 11, 2026 Proper 23, A Isaiah 25:1-9 Psalm 23 Matthew 22:1-14
Right now, we have our government planning a public execution, live-streamed, of a man who killed soldiers at Fort Hood. Now, whether the man deserves to be killed or not (pretty easy to say he does), is not the issue when it comes to live-streaming is execution. The defense being given is, well, he murdered soldiers, and therefore he deserves death, and he deserves to have his death live-streamed so that people will fear what happens when you cross the line.
The question is not really “what does he deserve”, but “who are we going to be as a people?” Are we going to be a people who delight in killing? Are we going to be a people who delight in revenge? Are we going to be a people who delight in death as entertainment?
I’d say, as disciples of Jesus, our answer is pretty clearly “no”. As disciples of Jesus, we don’t get to delight in death. As disciples of Jesus, we don’t get to delight in killing. As disciples of Jesus, we don’t get to make public executions entertainment. We don’t get to have a spectacle of violence and vengeance.
As I said last week, when we put on Christ, we take on a way of life, and there are some things we just don’t get to do anymore. Bringing popcorn and a Coke to a public execution is one of those things we just don’t get to do.
They guy in the parable Jesus told about the wedding banquet, the guy who ended up without a wedding garment, who was thrown out into the outer darkness, he seems like the kind of guy who would have brought the popcorn and Coke to a public execution.
Looking at this story, we’ve got this man’s town that had just been burned down. The king had invited all these guests to his son’s wedding banquet, and they all said, “Yeah, thanks a lot. We don’t want to come.” So the king tried again, and he sent his servants, and they invited everyone again, and the people of the town who had been invited to the banquet, instead of just going (what else do you have to do on a Friday night?) or just saying “no” again, some of them decided to kill the king’s servants.
You invited us to a wedding banquet. We’re going to murder your servants in return. I have images of Sodom and Gomorrah, where, rather than show hospitality to these strangers who came into the town of Sodom, they said, “We’re going to rape and kill you. Come on man, let’s go. We’re going to rape you all night long to show you we’re in charge, rather than show you hospitality.” Cruelty was the way of Sodom, and in this city that Jesus is talking about in his parable, it seems that cruelty is the way there, too.
“We want you to come to a wedding banquet.”
“Yeah, we’re just going to rape and kill your servants instead.”
If we look at the parable in that sense, we have this city that is so corrupt that their people would rather rape and murder than feast together. So, the king destroyed the town, burned it down, and then there were a few people who were left, those who had not been invited initially, those who no longer had a town, and the king brings them in. He says, “You’re my honored guests. You weren’t a part of that murder, so you’re now the members of my kingdom”, and you’ve got this one guy who wouldn’t wear the wedding garment, as though to say, “I’m actually kinda good with the murder that we just did. So, send me back. I’d rather be a part of murder-rape town than your fancy feast.”
So, he was sent out where he seemed to want to go, back to the murder-rape village. See, putting on the garment of Christ as these other villagers did, they put on this wedding garment, they put on this new way of life, meant that there were things they no longer got to do. They had a new identity. They were no longer a part of murder-rape town. They were a part of this kingdom of feasting, this kingdom of love together.
Now, having said that, putting on Christ is not a threat. “You better not get a toe out of line, or else you’ll be cast into the outer darkness.” That’s not what Jesus is saying here. Putting on Christ doesn’t mean we’re constantly afraid of backsliding, whatever the hell that is.
Putting on Christ means we are putting on a way of life, and that way of life is marked by love and kindness. The way of Christ is marked by forgiveness and mercy. The way of Christ is marked by valuing and honoring human life.
So, when we see one another not honoring and valuing human life, it’s kinda like seeing that guy without the wedding garment, but we’re not going to throw that person into the outer darkness. We don’t need to threaten that person with eternal torture. Threats of hell are not the ways of those who have put on Christ. Threats of hell are not loving or kind. Threats of hell are not forgiving or merciful. Threats of hell are not honoring and valuing human life. Threats of hell just let me ignore my own tattered and crummy garment by noticing how much worse yours is.
A challenge with the parable Jesus told, is that we sometimes get afraid when we hear this parable, wondering, “What if I don’t have a wedding garment? Oh gee whiz. Well, if I don’t have a wedding garment, I might get thrown into the outer darkness, and I sure don’t want that.” So, we end up with a really easy way to ensure that we have the wedding garment, that I have the wedding garment.
What’s the easiest way to make sure I have a wedding garment? Make sure I identify someone else who doesn’t, and if that person is different from me, well then since they don’t have the wedding garment, then I must have the wedding garment, so I’m good.
That’s not honoring or valuing human life either, and that’s not what Jesus meant with this parable. Putting on Christ, like having that wedding garment means there are ways of life that we get to follow, and there are ways of life we don’t get to follow. If it’s going to be that I get to hurt someone else in order to feel good, well, that ain’t a part of the way of Christ. That could also mean that I get to threaten this person with hell so I feel better about my salvation. That ain’t the way of Christ.
So, the questions to ask are not, “Am I doing good enough for Jesus not to throw me out, or are they doing bad enough that they will get thrown out?” No, the questions to ask are, “Is what I’m doing kind? Is what I’m doing loving? Is what I’m doing filled with forgiveness and mercy? Is what I’m doing honoring and valuing human life?”
If yes, then we’re probably living with the garment of Christ, and if no, we’re probably not. Which means we get to turn around, and change our ways, and put back on that garment of Christ.
Now, there’s another way of looking at this parable. This is a way of, instead of seeing the king as God, we could see the king as a crazy, mad, lustful, powerful king who decides he’s going to burn down an entire town because a few people killed his servants. He’s not just going to go get those few people, because now he’s angry, and he’s going to burn down the entire town, even though most of the people, they just didn’t want to go to his wedding banquet.
That’s crazy. That is a despicable ruler. So then, this crazy king who burned down an entire town for the sake of a few people (and because the others didn’t want to come and eat his food), he gathers up those who are left alive, terrified at what’s just happened, and brings them into his castle, and they all just go along with it.
They’re not saying, “Um dude, you just slaughtered our people. We’re not going to follow you now.” No, they just go along with him and say, “Ok, cool. You just killed everybody, and I don’t have a house to go back to, but…sounds great. I’ll be a part of your kingdom now." Except for this one guy who wouldn’t put on the clothing of an oppressive government, who wouldn’t put on the clothing of an oppressive empire just to be ok. He wouldn’t conform to the ways of a mad king.
Well, looking at it that way, that’s also the kind of thing that God demands of us. We’re not going to conform to the ways of craziness and awfulness in the world just so we can get along easier with whatever group or people we fell is in charge. It doesn’t need to be a government. If there’s a group of people we kinda belong to, and they’re going along the ways of hatred and harm, not kind, and not valuing human life, and we just go along with their ways because it’s easier than saying “no”, then we’re just putting on the garment of the mad king, rather than showing up and actually saying, “No, I’m not going to live that way. Y’all are wrong. If you kick me out of your group, so be it. This is wrong.”
The way of the wedding garment, whichever way we look at this parable, we’re looking at the ways of Christ. The ways of Christ are love and kindness, forgiveness and mercy, honoring and valuing human life. That means that even when someone has killed others, even when someone has come onto a military base and murdered soldiers, maybe that person needs to die, but that doesn’t change who we are.
We are not a people that enjoys killing others. We are not a people that finds it fun to watch someone else’s death. We are a people that values human life, and so when this man is being executed, the way of the Church is not to watch with popcorn and a Coke. That neither honors nor values human life. That shows no mercy, or forgiveness, or kindness, or love. That shows contempt. That shows once again, “Ha, ha! I’ve got the wedding garment, and you don’t!”
Instead, the way of the church, when that man is executed, is to pray for those whom he killed, and to pray for their families. The way of the church is to pray for the soldiers who are given the task of killing this man. The way of the church is to pray for this man being executed, for we are taught to pray even for our enemies, not to delight in their suffering, but to pray that they too, may find the forgiveness, mercy, and loving-kindness of God.
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.
