Blessing In the Face of Cruelty

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
August 17, 2025
Proper 15, C
Jeremiah 23:23-29
Psalm 82
Luke 12:49-56

During the time of the kings of Israel, from King David all the way up to 700 years before Jesus was born, they had a series of good kings, and decent kings, and really terrible kings. The bad kings forgot about following God and God’s ways and instead began worshipping other gods and idols. They treated the people terribly with injustice, oppressing the lowly, and gaining wealth through lies and exploiting workers. Under their leadership, others did the same, and Israel became a place of injustice, exploitation, and oppression. 

The very worst of these bad kings was Ahab. Ahab was married to Jezebel, who was famous for her devotion to Baal, the deity of her native country. Ahab started worshipping Baal with Jezebel, and that led to all sorts of other atrocities. He even had a man killed because he wanted the man’s field. Never mind that he had no legal right to the field. He wanted it, so he killed the man and took it. 

Long afterwards, the prophet Micah told the people of Israel that they were doing the same things as when Ahab was king: injustice, oppression, exploitation. They weren’t worshipping Baal. Their words and prayers were worship to God, but by their actions, they were worshipping something other than God. It wasn’t called Baal, but it was something other than God. If you’re practicing injustice, oppression, and exploitation, you can’t be worshipping God, even if your words say you are.

So, Micah told the people of Israel they were living in a time just like when Ahab was king, and as a result, God was going to give them over to oblivion. They would work and produced nothing good. They would never be satisfied or filled. Children would rise against their parents, and their enemies would be members of their own households.

Well golly, that’s just what Jesus said in our Gospel reading today. “I’ve come not to bring peace, but division. From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

That was God’s judgment against Israel during the time when Micah was prophesying, and Jesus was declaring God’s same judgment for the same reasons. Jesus was declaring to the people of Israel, Y’all are living just like during the time of Ahab. Y’all are living with injustice, oppression, and exploitation. 

There will be division, Jesus was proclaiming, because of how so many in Israel were going along with oppression. Then, in addition to proclaiming God’s judgment, Jesus asked them how they could be so blind to the injustice of their leaders.

You can tell when it’s about to rain, Jesus said. How can you guys not realize you are living in the time of Ahab? How can you not tell that your leaders are sending you down paths of oppression of the lowly, injustice, and exploitation? How do you guys not get it? Jesus wondered.

When we have leaders who oppress people, who give unjust rulings and support unjust laws, who exploit workers to get as much wealth for the rich as they can, then we too are living in the time of Ahab. When we live in the time of Ahab, then we will live in a society that is divided. We will live in a society that can never get enough. We will live in a society that works constantly and yet finds mostly emptiness for all of our labor. 

That sounds kinda like today, and I find Jesus’ words are just as relevant now as they were when he spoke them. Divisiveness and emptiness are the judgements of God for a nation that lives with injustice, oppression, and exploitation. We have a nation deeply divided. We have so much emptiness in our lives. We strive for fame and fortune as for a lover, and we’re left empty because neither fame nor fortune can love us back. We strive for power and possessions as for a dear friend, and we’re left empty because neither power nor possessions can love us back.

We’re living in the time of Ahab, just as Israel was when Micah prophesied to them and just as Israel was when Jesus spoke to the people. So, what are we to do about living in a time of injustice, oppression, and exploitation? Are we to fight, and kill, and destroy leaders who are taking us down these dark paths? Of course not.

We are to follow the teachings of Jesus who taught us to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, and love one another as he loves us. When our leaders follow ways of injustice, oppression, and exploitation, how we treat one another matters even more. When there is cruelty from leadership, the love we practice is vital. When the powerful have disgust for the lowly, then compassion for one another is more needed than ever.

Where there is hatred, we are to live in love. Where there is discord, we are to bring about communion. Where there is darkness, we get to be light for one another. Where there is sadness and misery, we get to hold one another and cry together. 

We are to worship God in word and in action. We are to remember that when we follow paths of injustice, oppression, and exploitation, we can’t actually worship God, no matter what our words say.

 

So what do we do with our hatred, with our anger, with our desires for vengeance? We offer those desires to God as part of our worship. We say, “Here you go, God. Here is my hatred. Here is my anger. Here is my desire for vengeance. I don’t know what to do with it all, so I am giving it to you, and you can do with it whatever you know is right.”

We make offerings of praise and shouts of joy to God, and that is true worship. Just as our offerings of rage are true worship. That way, we give our rage to God and don’t take it out on one another.

We follow the teachings of Jesus to show our faith truly is in God and not in something else. We live the kingdom of God and follow our prayers and worship with actions that make our words true.

Throughout our lives, we’re going to have good leaders and bad leaders. We’re going to have leaders who seek justice and those who seek injustice. We are called to follow not the way of those leaders, but the way of Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life. Our leaders are not our God, and no matter how good or bad they are, no matter how much harm or healing they bring to the world, our calling as the church is to follow Jesus. Our leaders come and go. Jesus remains forever. Following Jesus, we seek justice. We seek to lift up the oppressed. We seek to help the exploited. 

In how we vote, in what we tell our elected leaders, in how we treat one another, in how we rise in the morning, and how we go to sleep at night, we seek justice. We offer love and mercy. We walk humbly with God. 

Without forgiveness, blessing, and love, the killing always starts again.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston

February 23, 2025

7 Epiphany, C

Genesis 45:3-11, 15

Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42

Luke 6:27-38

Jesus knew that Rome was going to destroy the nation of Israel. His people, his home, the land he grew up loving, Jesus knew that Rome was going to take it over, destroy the temple, and leave most of the Jewish people no longer living in their ancestral homes. He told of this coming calamity in Luke 21, and knowing that Israel’s enemies were going to destroy them, Jesus taught to “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

What about fight, kill, and destroy your enemies so they don’t destroy you? Wouldn’t that have been better for the people of Israel? Well, for a time, Israel did fight against Rome, and they had some victories and held out as long as they could. A full victory against Rome, however, was simply not something Israel was able to achieve. They were too few and without the discipline and tactics of the Roman army. 

Jesus probably knew this too, but losing a war was not why Jesus said to love your enemies and bless those who curse you. He didn’t qualify his teaching with, “If you know it’s a fight you can’t win,” then love your enemies. No, Jesus simply gave the teaching, “Love your enemies…bless those who curse you,” without qualification or exception. 

So, let’s look at his teaching a little bit. What about those who think you are worthless, stupid, and are prejudiced against you? We can certainly hate those people back. We’d be justified in hating them back, and initial anger and hatred toward those who hate us is exactly how we should feel. Of course we feel hatred toward those who hate us. Jesus teaches us not to stay in that place of hurt and hatred, however, because for one thing, when we hate those who hate us, we prove them right about us. Hating those who hate us, we justify their hatred, at least in their minds. 

Jesus teaches us instead to pray for our enemies and live in love towards those who hate us. By loving our enemies, we prove them wrong about us. Loving our enemies, we may even turn our enemies into our friends. Love your enemies, Jesus taught, and bring healing to the world. 

On the other hand, think about hating your enemies, choosing not to forgive. Think about unforgiveness and the hatred that comes from it. Think about Hamas and the killing and rape their hatred let to. They had legitimate grudges against their enemies, and yet their attacks haven’t turned out well for anyone, not the least for themselves. Thousands of Israelis killed, tens of thousands of Palestinians killed. Hamas’ hatred proved Israel right about them, and so Israel felt totally justified in killing over 50,000 Palestinians. Like Israel fighting against Rome 2000 years ago, Hamas wasn’t able to kill all their enemies, and they lost terribly.

At the same time, in Israel’s destruction of Hamas, they seem to have rather decidedly won. Gaza is destroyed, and most of Hamas’ military operations are gone, and yet, there are Palestinian children who will remember the bombs and the killings from Israel, and in a generation or two, they will likely rise up again against Israel just as Hamas has done, and the cycle of violence will continue. 

Even when we win against our enemies with hearts full of hatred and anger, we may feel at peace for a time, but our enemies have friends and children, and many who care about them, and they’ll remember the hurt we cause, and they will rise up one day. No peace. No healing. No bonds of humanity uniting people back together. No compassion. No mercy. Just hatred, violence, killing, and waiting for the day when the killing starts again. Without forgiveness, blessing, and love, the killing always starts again. 

“Love you enemies…and bless those who curse you,” Jesus taught. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” How lovely it would be if we’d simply trust Jesus and strive every day to do as he taught, but we don’t, partially because we get so caught up in our emotions, and partly because we’re not sure we trust Jesus. 

I know he said to love our enemies, but, well, I need revenge. I’m angry. I’m hurt. They don’t deserve me doing well unto them. They deserve vengeance. True, but we’ve only been at this human life thing for thousands and thousands of years, and violence and revenge has not yet brought the peace and healing we crave. We just keep believing The Adversary’s lies that vengeance will make us feel whole. It hasn’t yet. Vengeance just keeps the cycle of violence going without end.

So, what do we do with our anger and hatred? We give them to God. We offer our rage, our hatred, and our desires for vengeance to God, laying them at the foot of the cross, asking Jesus to do with them as he will. Do others deserve our vengeance? Sure. Let God handle it.

“Refrain from anger,” we’re told in Psalm 37. “Leave rage alone; do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil. Do not fret yourself because of evildoers; do not be jealous of those who do wrong. For they shall soon wither like the grass, and like the green grass fade away.”

Evildoers shall fade away. Ooh, does that mean God’ll kill them? Maybe. Maybe not. Perhaps instead of killing them, God will help them fade away from our lives. They’ll fade away from our thoughts and our hearts. As we trust in God, and as we join together and care for one another, those evil doers won’t affect us so much.

Think of two people, alone, living on the streets, without enough for an apartment. They’re angry and resentful and want justice for all the people in their lives that brought their misfortune upon them. Alone, they are simply angry and wanting revenge. Together, however, the two of them have enough for a small apartment. They try it. No more railing against those who put them where they were, but instead taking care of one another, letting the evildoers fade away. Instead of lives of fear and solitude, they join together in trust and love, and they find new life supporting one another. 

Let God give judgment to those who need it. Pray for them, for their well-being, and let them fade way so you are no longer consumed by them. Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High.” Mercy. Peace. Those sounds like great rewards to me.

As for our desires for justice, the thought that those evildoers deserve our vengeance, Jesus said, that God “is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” That’s weird. God is “kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” That’s weird because that now how we think things should go, and because we’re told that the ways of the wicked are doomed. “God is kind to the wicked,” and “the ways of the wicked are doomed.” How does that work together? Well, as you often hear me say, I don’t know. That’s God’s deal, and thankfully, these judgments aren’t ours to figure out. When we figure them out, we often end up following the ways of the Adversary, with cycles of anger, hatred, killing, leading to further anger, hatred, and killing. 

Break the cycle; Jesus taught. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful,” without qualification, without exception. Rather than proving your enemies right about you by hating them back, prove your enemies wrong about you by blessing them, loving them, and showing them mercy.