"How long, O Lord, will there be such strife in the world?" We Ask. "How long, indeed?" God replies. "How long, humanity? How long?"

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
July 27, 2025
Proper 12, C
Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)
Psalm 138

Luke 11:1-13

There’s something terribly wrong with the world*, isn’t there? Terrorists kill thousands, and so others respond by killing hundreds of thousands. Folks want as big a return on investment as we can get, and if that is done by paying people poverty wages or worse, well…it’s not really my fault, that’s just how the market works.

Those poor people on the streets are unsightly, let’s put them in jail or drive them far from here, and what happens to them after, that’s their problem. I’m hurt and angry. It feels like that’s all I’ve ever been, and I’m just going to keep taking it out on everyone around me because I really don’t know a what else to do. Most of what the church has ever done is just threaten me with Hell, so to Hell with them too.

We care about people in the abstract (in general), but when it comes to sacrificing our own comfort and security, taking on suffering ourselves for the sake of others, our caring often becomes even more abstract (less). That goes for churchy disciples of Jesus, too. 

How often when I (or others) talk about Jesus’ teachings on economic justice do folks blast it as woke socialist teaching? It’s not. It’s just what Jesus said. “Sure,” folks will counter, “but you can’t apply Jesus’ teachings to our economy, or how we invest money, or how we pay people.” Ok, but that’s just like what the people of Israel kept saying when the prophets kept telling them, “Y’all are sunk because of you exploit the poor and seem to love economic injustice.” Saying you can’t apply Jesus’ teachings to the economy is to place love of wealth above love of people and to place economic might as an idol above God. 

How often do I then hear people agree with the very same teachings of Jesus, the teachings about economic justice, so long as they can pretend that those teachings are only about what happens when we die, and not about economic and social justice in this world and in this life? A lot, very often, that happens.

Yes, there is something terribly wrong with this world, and recognizing that fact, we find a deep longing for people actually to care about one another.

I was saddened last week over the death of Ozzy Osbourne, and I bring him up, one because I love his music, and two because he was one who shared this deep longing for people actually to care about one another. Despite what lots of right-wing fundamentalist preachers have shouted over the years, Ozzy was a Christian. He was a flawed dude, but he was also a dude who despaired at the horrible things we humans do to one another. He wrote songs calling out our human atrocities and longing for hope, longing for people actually to care about one another.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2014, they asked about his faith, and in part of his answer, he said,

My idea of heaven is feeling good. A place where people are alright to each other. This world scares the shit out of me. We’re all living on the tinderbox. It’s like there’s some maniac somewhere trying to devise a new means of destruction. It always amazes me that mankind always goes to find the biggest, powerfullest means of destruction before they find anything good. It’s always the negative things they find first. Since I’ve had kids I’ve thought, ‘What are we leaving these people? Nothing.’ What a future we’ve got for mankind.

He was torn down by how terribly wrong this world is, and he wrote about that in his music, which was aggressive and violent sounding, but like most angry music, it wasn’t meant to harm others but to heal them. “I’d rather have people get rid of their aggression at an Ozzy concert,” he said, “than by beating some old lady over the head and running off with her purse. [The concerts, the music are] a release of aggression.”

  

“How long, must we keep on waiting?”** He wrote in one of his later songs, Diggin' Me Down. That song in particular makes me think of the lament Psalms, like Psalm 13. How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will I have grief in my heart day after day? Look at me. Answer me. How long will the enemy triumph?

The Psalms is a lament and a question, challenging God to answer because there is something terribly wrong with the world, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

“How long, O Lord,” and I think there are times when God’s answer may well be, “How long, indeed?” How long will you people continue to hurt one another. How long will you continue to seek all the best for yourself pretending like it’s not hurting anyone else? How long will you continue to go it alone, taking your violence and anger out on everyone around you. How long, humanity? How long?

Knowing all that is terribly wrong with the world, when Jesus’ disciples asked him to pray, he taught them “The Lord’s Prayer,” as we call it, and there are two things I’d like to point out from his teaching. One, knowing all that is terribly wrong with the world, Jesus taught us to pray for God’s Kingdom to come and for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. 

If we’re praying for God’s kingdom to come, that also means that we’re gonna be working towards it. Remember that Pope Francis said, “You pray for the hungry, then you feed them. That’s how prayer works.” Well, regarding the Lord’s Prayer, you pray for God’s kingdom to be lived out here on earth as in Heaven, and then you live out God’s kingdom here on earth. That’s how the Lord’s Prayer works. 

You pray for people to care about one another and be loving towards one another, and then you actually start doing that. You pray for economic justice, and then you actually start living it. You pray for an end to hatred and vengeance, and then you actually start loving and forgiving people.

Jesus taught that our actions are meant to match our prayer. Jesus also taught that we don’t try to live out God’s kingdom all by ourselves. We are to ask the Holy Spirit constantly to help us. He told the story of the guy who kept beating on his friend’s door asking for some bread because another friend had just showed up at midnight. Weird story, please don’t do that to people. Wait six hours till the morning, your hungry friend ain’t gonna die. 

What Jesus said was that this persistence in prayer was for the Holy Spirit. The guy in the story eventually gave some bread to his jerky friend just to shut him up. “How much more,” Jesus said, “will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.”

God gives the Holy Spirit for the church to live out God’s mission of reconciliation and love. God gives the Holy Spirit for the church to bring some kindness and caring into this world, rather than the anger and aggression we so often face.

There is something terribly wrong with this world, and that terribly wrong this is the spirit of the Adversary: us vs. them, me vs. you, fear and anger, get all I can regardless of who it hurts or how it hurts them. The spirit of the Adversary is rife in this world, and we don’t even recognize it. We see the spirit of the Adversary, and we say, “I need a good return on investment, and that’s just how free markets are supposed to work. We’re supposed to get vengeance on our enemies. I’m hurting and in need, and to hell with anyone who gets in my way.”

That spirit of the Adversary is what is terribly wrong with this world, and God has given us a different Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, so that we might no longer be against one another but for one another. God has given us the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, so that we might live out God’s kingdom of economic justice, mercy, forgiveness, and love here on earth, right now, as it is in heaven. 

How long, O Lord? How long will we continue not to ask for the Holy Spirit or to ask selfishly? How long will we keep God waiting? Ask for the Holy Spirit, Jesus taught us, all day, every day, so that we might follow the Advocate, rather than the Adversary, and live out God’s kingdom here on earth, as in Heaven. 

*And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? 

Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression.

― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

** Digging Me Down, Ozzy Osbourne

https://youtu.be/nqAmREzj6nA?si=Tgjt1yWllbcX9KO2

We follow Jesus because we know the alternatives.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston

June 29, 2025

Proper 8, C

Galatians 5:1,13-25

Psalm 16

Luke 9:51-62

  

So, discipleship of Jesus determines how we live our lives. It means giving up some of our desires for something even greater. It can take us time and practice, fits and starts to really start following Jesus well as his disciples, and like anything worth doing, we keep at it, even when we mess up on the way.

Look at Jesus’ disciples in the story we heard from Luke 9. Back in Luke 6, Jesus had told his disciples to love their enemies and bless those who curse them. Then, we heard today that when some folks rejected Jesus and his teachings, two of his disciples, James and John, were very zealous, and they wanted to call down fire from Heaven and kill them all. “Lord, those people rejected you. They’re our enemies now, right? We don’t like them. Let’s kill them all” No, guys, Jesus said. That’s not the way.

James and John were Jesus’ disciples, but they really weren’t understanding what his way of life truly meant. “Love your enemies.” Ok, sure, but we should also kill all our enemies, right?

See, they wanted to gratify their desires for revenge and their feelings of self-righteousness. “Those guys rejected Jesus. Now we’re angry. We’ll feel better if we destroy them.” They probably would have felt better, too, more powerful, less afraid, like nothing could stop them or harm them, but that’s not the way of Jesus. Power, revenge, killing, seeking what we want for our sake, regardless of the cost to others…that’s the way of Satan, the adversary, and those who live according to such ways, Jesus said, aren’t fit or ready for the kingdom of God.

After Jesus rebuked James and John, we heard three stories of people who wanted to be Jesus’ disciples, but they didn’t want to change; they didn’t want to give up their own desires. They weren’t ready to let go of some of their own power and control for the sake of others.

“Lord, I want to follow you,” one guy said. Ok, sounds good, but realize your true home will be the kingdom of God, so all other homes you make in this world will be secondary.

See, if we follow Jesus, then our allegiance is first to Jesus, and our home will not be a nation, nor a flag, nor a political party. Our home will not be a gang, nor a family, nor even ourselves. Now, we don’t have to divorce ourselves of our families. We get to still love and live with them. We get to care about our nation. We get to and should care about ourselves.

When any of these come into conflict with following Jesus, however, we don’t get to rest in those things and chose those ways over the ways of Jesus. Our homes aren’t in our nation, our flag, our political party. Our homes aren’t in a gang, our family, or even in ourselves. Our homes are in Jesus, the ways he taught, and the faith he kept.

“Lord, I want to follow you,” another man said, “but first I want to bury my parents.” Ok, his parents probably weren’t dead yet. He was likely worried that following Jesus was just going to be too messy. His parents may not've liked the idea of him following this weird upstart preacher from Nazareth. "Just give me 20, 30 years tops, Jesus, and then I'll absolutely follow you."

Jesus’ response to him is basically, “Why wait?” Do you think your parents won’t want you to follow Jesus? Do you fear your friends or others around you will think you are soft or weak if you follow Jesus’ ways instead of their ways? Would it be difficult or uncomfortable to let people know that you’re no longer into vengeance, that you truly believe Jesus’ teachings about love your enemies and bless those who curse you?

Finally, there’s they guy who said, “Lord, I want to follow you, but let me say goodbye to my family first.” Hold up, guys. You can’t look backwards if you’re going to plow a field. The plow would go all over the place instead of in a straight line, and you’d mess everything up. Besides, you don’t need to say goodbye. You don’t need to sever ties with your family, or your friends. You can follow Jesus and still love your family and friends. If they reject you, so be it, but you needn’t leave them forever. You don’t need to say “to hell with them” or ask fire to come down from heaven and consume them just because they’re not following Jesus.

Jesus was letting folks know that the world is pretty screwed up, and the time to follow him is right now. You may not be ready, but at least start; at least try. James and John and the rest of the disciples, they all screwed up. They weren’t exactly ready, but they tried. They kept at it. Why? Why follow Jesus? Well, we know the alternatives.

We know what happens when we ask fire to come down from heaven. We drop bombs. We make enemies. We simply can’t kill enough people to make ourselves safe. There are always people who care about the folks who are killed, and they’re always going to want revenge. We’re not really making ourselves safe when we drop bombs. We’re just passing the danger on to future generations. Love your enemies doesn’t sound so stupid when we really think about it.

We follow Jesus because we know the alternatives. We know what happens when we have several thousand billionaires in our country with more wealth than 99% of all other people in the nation. We end up with 40% of everyone in our nation struggling to get by, living in poverty, and weeks away from homelessness at any time.

We know what happens when we do all we can to increase the wealth of the rich while doing less and less to bring the poor out of poverty. We end up with the kind of economy we have now, with a shrinking middle class, thousands of billionaires, and 40% of Americans being weeks away from homelessness at any moment.

That’s what happens when allegiance to nation, party, economic ideals, and desires for more come before following Jesus. Several thousand billionaires with 40% of Americans at risk of homelessness every day. 40% of Americans struggling to get by, struggling in school, constantly stressed, worried, fighting, angry. That’s the result of placing wealth, and party, and even some conception of our nation ahead of following Jesus.

Following Jesus means giving up our selfish goals, our selfish desires, and even our self, Jesus said, in order to live in a way that serves others. Geddy Lee, Canadian singer and bassist for the band, Rush had something to say about living in a way that serves others. In his recent book, "My Effing Life," he said of Canada, “Sure, we pay more taxes than many others do, but I prefer to live in a world that gives a shit, even for people I don't know.” A wealthy man happy to pay a large percentage in taxes because he understands and cares about how much that helps others. He’s not even a disciple of Jesus, but he’s certainly following Jesus’ ways in that.

Following Jesus determines how we live our lives. It means giving up some of our selfish goals, our selfish desires, and even our self, for something even greater: the kingdom of God in which we do give a shit about others, even people we don’t know; the kingdom of God in which we love and follow Jesus by loving and caring for others. Following Jesus can take time and practice, in fits and starts, and like anything worth doing, we keep at it, even when we mess up on the way.

But God, I Wanted You to Hurt Them, Not Care for Them!

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
September 24, 2023
Proper 20, Year A
Jonah 3:10-4:11
Psalm 145:1-8
Matthew 20:1-16

But God, I Wanted You to Hurt Them, Not Care for Them!

“But God, I wanted you to hurt them, not care for them!” That’s Jonah’s complaint against God over the people of Nineveh. Jonah was a prophet sent by God to tell the people of Nineveh to turn from their harmful ways and follow God’s ways instead. Jonah didn’t want to go there because he wanted God to kill all the people of Nineveh, and he knew if he went there, they would repent and God would show mercy.

So, when God took him to Nineveh on the Whale Express, he preached to the people, and they repented, and then Jonah began to sulk. “I wanted you to hurt them, God, not care for them.” Jonah was displeased because God’s love for humanity was too much for Jonah’s taste. “It’s great that you love me, God, but you’re not supposed to love those other ones. I don’t love them. I don’t care about them, so you shouldn’t either, God.”

If we’re really honest, Jonah’s contempt for humanity tends to show up in all of us, even if in less obvious ways. The people we won’t forgive. Our “my way or the highway” mentality. The irredeemable people we know are on the outs with God. Sometimes our contempt for humanity is even less obvious than that. Jesus illustrated this in his teaching about the Kingdom of God with his parable of the laborers in the vineyard.

In Jesus’ parable of the Kingdom of God, people who only worked an hour got paid the same as people who worked all day. That’s not fair, we may cry, and we’d be right. It’s not fair. God doesn’t seem all that concerned with our notions of fairness. God seems concerned about people, the healing and well-being of all of us and of all people.

All of the people in Jesus’ parable needed enough to live on, and so they each received the usual daily wage. That wasn’t making anyone rich. The daily wage was enough to live on. So, when folks who worked only an hour received the usual daily wage, they were receiving just enough to live on.

Well, it’s still not fair, we may say, so let’s look at where our notions of fairness get us. If the folks who only worked for an hour only got paid for an hour’s worth of work, they’d have had about an eighth of what they needed to live. If they kept on with only an eighth of what they needed, they’d soon enough be starving and dead.

The landowner had enough for that not to happen. He was able to pay all of his workers enough to live on, even those who were only able to work for an hour. Is it fair? No, but the other option for the people who could only work an hour is eventually just to let them die.

That’s where our notions of fairness get us. You can’t live off only an eighth of a day’s worth of wages. So we see, our notions of fairness actually hold people in contempt just as much as Jonah did with the people of Nineveh. “I wanted you to hurt them, God, not care for them” Jonah was thinking. Then the laborers in the vineyard were thinking, “It’s not fair that those who only worked an hour got paid for a full day’s worth of work.” The possibly unconscious reality was then, “I don’t care about them, and neither should you, God. If they die, they die.”

We may not actually think that last part, but our notions of fairness leave us with the contemptuous mentality of “If they die, they die.” That’s the economic reality of those upset about fairness.

Jesus’ parable of the kingdom of God is about economic justice, because economic justice seeks to care for people and heal people. Remember, that’s the whole point of the gospel, for God to heal us and for us to heal each other. So, in God’s kingdom, we use what we have for the well being of others.

The wealthy landowner needed workers, and the workers needed enough to live on. The landowner could have only paid an eighth of a day’s wage for those who only worked an hour, and that’s probably what would happen most often in our economy. The landowner got to save some money by only paying them for the hours they worked. They weren’t owed anything else, and anyone who complained could easily be replaced by someone else the next day.

That’s often how our economy works, but that’s not how the kingdom of God works. If all who call themselves Christian were really serious about living the kingdom of God, people would be paid what they really need, not just what employers can get away with paying them. Of course, not all employers do that. Many employers do pay what people need, but a great many do not, and a great many people get extremely wealthy while their lowest paid workers are in poverty.

That’s not the kingdom of God, and for those who think Jesus’ parable is all about getting into heaven when we die, don’t kid yourselves. Saying this parable is all about life after death is definitely a convenient way of ignoring the economic justice that is taught in this parable, but getting to heaven when you die is not what Jesus was teaching. The parable wasn’t a metaphor for life after death. Jesus was talking about life here on Earth and God’s continued desire for us to treat one another with love and to create a society in which we care and use our riches generously.

If you look at the acts of Jesus and his other teachings, he was continually healing the poor and sick, those who had been left with only an eighth day’s wage, and he was continually telling those with great wealth to give what they had to the poor.

Pretending that this parable is not about economic justice is just one more way to ignore the fact that our apathy towards others and our desires for “fairness” would leave many people dead, and in fact, our apathy and unthinking ways do leave many people dead.

“But God, it’s not fair that those who only worked an hour got paid for a full day’s worth of work.” Well, if we paid people what the really needed, not just for the amount they were able to work, wouldn’t that lead to apathy? Many would argue that, saying, “God’s economy wouldn’t work. I’ll bet the next day, in Jesus’ parable, no one showed up to work until the last hour.” Well, I’ll bet the landowner had a fix for that.

Notice the people who only worked an hour wanted to work, and the landowner was happy to hire them. If folks had showed up at the last hour, unwilling to work until then, I have a feeling he wouldn’t have hired them. God’s economy works. We just have to be willing to care about one another as much as God does. We have to be willing to let go of our ideas of fairness. We have to be willing to let go of our apathy towards one another and our contempt towards one another. Then, we will see “justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24) Then, “all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” (Isaiah 52:10). Then, we will see God’s kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

Of Journeys and Justice: Staying the Course In Discipleship

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church
August 16, 2023
Proper 10, Year A
Isaiah 55:10-13
Psalm 65: (1-8), 9-14
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9,18-23

Of Journeys and Justice: Staying the Course In Discipleship

Twelve years before being arrested for sitting in the whites only section of a bus, Rosa Parks was already working for civil rights. After she was arrested, it would then be another nine years before most racial segregation was made illegal with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Another year for the Voting Rights Act, and then three more years before the Fair Housing Act.

For 25 years and more, Rosa Parks was striving for civil rights, and it was over 20 years before she saw large-scale, national results. The same is true for countless civil rights leaders and workers who still continue on to this day. They were and have been committed to the cause, and they changed the world.

Imagine if Rosa parks had given up after 12 years, finally deciding, “To heck with it. Bus driver tells me to move, I’ll move.” The world would not have changed the way it did. She was committed to the cause, and despite setbacks and discouragement along the way, she stayed committed to the cause of civil rights. She didn’t get excited for a while and then quit. She didn’t get distracted or give in because it was difficult. She stayed and changed the world for the better.

That’s the kind of discipleship Jesus is talking about in the parable he told in our Gospel reading today.

Jesus’ parable was about a guy spreading seeds to get plants to grow, and he was just tossing the seed about, and when it landed on good soil, it grew and produced a huge harvest. Jesus said that the seed was the word. If we think of that as the Word of God, then the seed is Jesus. The seed of Jesus has been cast, and when it lands on good soil, it produces a huge harvest.

Now, I’ve often heard and thought of this parable as being about how each individual receives Jesus. If our hearts are in the right condition, meaning the soil is good, then we receive Jesus and we gain great faith in him.

I think there is truth in that understanding, and another understanding is that the growth of the seeds is about our discipleship. When our hearts are in a good place, when the soil is good, then we become committed in our discipleship, and from that discipleship, even more disciples are grown or raised up. As the group of committed disciples grows, then the ways of Jesus grow stronger in the world. As the group of committed disciples grows, the way of healing grows. The way of peace grows. As the group of committed disciples grows, the way of love and compassion grows.

Of course, as Jesus told the parable, a lot of the seed falls on poor soil, or is snatched away, or is choaked out by other things. Think about starting to grow as a disciple of Jesus, and the ways of Jesus start conflicting with ways of life we’re used to. Jesus said bless you enemies, and we’re often used to cursing our enemies and trying to get back at them. Think about when that conflict comes, and we just go with what we’re used to. We strike back at our enemies, and our discipleship of Jesus is diminished. Our commitment to Jesus’ ways starts to fade.

What about when we are following in Jesus’ ways, and things don’t get better all that quickly? Our lives haven’t changed dramatically for the better right away, and the world around us certainly hasn’t gotten miraculously better just because we’ve started following as a disciple of Jesus. Think about when things don’t get noticeably better fast enough, and so we quit. Nothing really changes, there is no great harvest, and even 20 years later, there is still no huge, societal change for the better. That’s like the seed that falls on the rocky path. We get excited about Jesus and the gospel, but that excitement doesn’t last long, and we’re quickly back to just how we were before.

That’s how things would have been for the Civil Rights Movement, if Rosa Parks and others had quit even several years into their work because they just weren’t seeing changes come fast enough. Remember, it was twenty years of work by Mrs. Parks before she saw change on a national scale.

Twenty years of staying the course with only modest gains to show for it. At the same time, those twenty years brought forth a huge harvest of other people who became fully committed to the cause of Civil Rights. If Mrs. Parks had been lukewarm in her commitment and work, the movement wouldn’t have grown. Others would not have joined. There would have been no great harvest.

When Jesus told his parable of the sower and the seeds, he was encouraging his disciples to stay committed to their discipleship, to stay committed to their faith, to stay committed to the ways and teachings of Jesus. He was telling his disciples that if they stayed committed to their discipleship, then they would help grow more disciples, and amazing, world-altering things would happen.

What are our hopes and dreams for our lives and for the world around us? How about less violence and theft? How about justice in economic practices so that people aren’t forced out of their housing, just so investors can make some easy money? How about people loving and caring for one another, more than just looking out for self-interest?

I’d say we’ve got a ways to go on those things, those kinds of changes for the better can happen. Our part is to stay committed to the ways of Jesus, to stay committed as his disciples. When we do that, God brings forth growth far more than we can imagine. As we stay fully committed disciples of Jesus, changing our lives to live as he taught, God brings forth growth of even more fully committed disciples, and the changes for the better start to happen.

Like with the Civil Rights Movement, it takes time, decades, even, and lukewarm discipleship or giving up when it is difficult or it isn’t going fast enough isn’t going to make and change or grow any fruit. Changing our lives to follow Jesus’ teachings and way, and then fully committing, with God’s help, God can bring forth God’s kingdom on earth. Fully committing as disciples of Jesus can produce world-altering fruit in our lives and in all of society around us. So, despite hardships, discouragement, temptations all around, we stay the course as Jesus’ disciples, and God brings forth an enormous harvest.