Then Stop Following Thieves and Bandits

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
April 26, 2026
4 Easter
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
John 10:1-10

In our reading from Acts, we heard today that in the early church, those who believed were together in joy with one another. What occurred to me was, we’ve got a lot of talk about belief within the church, and a lot of the belief people talk about is belief in punishment for those who don’t believe. Well, I say poopiedoo to that. Anyone can believe in punishment and fear, which is not exactly life. Those who were in that first church believed in life, not death. Let’s see what happens when we believe not just in punishment and death, but when we believe in life. 

Jesus is the gatekeeper and the gate for the sheep, he said. Just after the passage we read today from John 10, Jesus also said he is the good shepherd. Jesus is the one leading the sheep, leading his people, guiding us, keeping us safe. Others, he said, are thieves and bandits who try to harm the sheep

He was talking at the time about religious and political leaders. He was talking about people of empire, people who made very clear claims of who was in and who was out, people who often led by fear. Among the religious leaders, there were those who told people, “You’re no good.” Rather than seeing people as lost and in need of guidance, some of these religious leaders saw folks as no good sinners. Instead of bringing life, they just brought fear of punishment and death. Then you had the king and Roman emperor and governors who truly viewed other people as beneath them. Such is the way of empire, the way of thieves and bandits, the way of those who harm and destroy life.

Unlike them, Jesus is the gate and the gatekeeper. He actually cares about the sheep. He came that we may have life abundantly. Jesus leads us in ways that lead to life, love, peace, health for our bodies and souls. 

Now, he also said that as his sheep, we will not follow the voice of others. Well, he was saying this to some of those thieves and bandits, letting them know that the people he had healed, the people he had shown grace and love to, were not going to follow them any longer. They weren’t going to go back to being beaten down by religious leaders telling them, “You’re a sinner; you’re a sinner; you’re a sinner.” They weren’t going back to the in-group out-group way of empire. They weren’t going back to the way of being told to be afraid. They were going to continue to follow Jesus and live the kingdom of God. 

So, what about us? We hear Jesus’ voice leading us to live the ways of God’s kingdom, and I dare say we also go down harmful paths, following the voices of others. We’re still Jesus’ sheep. As he talked about in another parable in Matthew 18, sheep who wander away are still Jesus’ sheep, and he will leave 99 other sheep just to go find one of us who is lost.

So, we’re still Jesus’ sheep when we follow the voices of others, but we need to admit that we’re following the voices of others as if they were our shepherds. We need to admit that sometimes we follow thieves and bandits.

Now, I don’t necessarily mean others religious folk when I talk about following thieves and bandits. Today particularly, I’m talking about following after drugs, alcohol, and other addictions. When we’re addicted to drugs, we’re still Jesus’ sheep, and we need to admit that we’ve started following the drug dealers and the drugs themselves as our shepherds, rather than fleeing from them as the thieves and bandits that they are.

See, Jesus came that we may have life and have it abundantly. The drug dealers and the drugs themselves are thieves and bandits, taking life bit by bit, while getting wealthy off of it. 

I bring this up because last week, there was a man overdosed on the sidewalk just outside of here. He got NARCANned by EMS and taken to the hospital, and on the sidewalk where he had been, there was trash everywhere, empty beer bottles and beer cans, as well as four other men, stoned out, sitting on a wall, just like he had been, but slightly less near death. They were escaping life, like he had been, and I get that, the desire to escape. I think we all in some sense get that desire to escape when life is overwhelming. I spent a lot of time trying to escape life through alcohol, myself. It didn’t work. It wasn’t life abundant. It was barely living. 

Trying to escape life didn’t really work for the man who overdosed or the men on the wall last week either. Life still hit them, but it hit with them while dependent on the drug dealer’s poison. That’s not life abundant. That’s barely life at all. Such is life when we follow thieves and bandits as though they were our shepherd.

Full confession, I didn’t handle the situation well last week after the man was brought to the hospital. I had the other guys leave, and I cleaned up all the trash, which was fine, but I was pissed off and cussing at the guys as well, which was not fine. I was pissed off at the drugs and dealers leaching away at life, without the slightest thought or care as to how much damage they’re causing. I was pissed off at the trash lying around. I was pissed off that people are scared to come to church because of it. 

Telling the guys to go, clean up your trash and leave, well that was the right thing to do. Shouting and cussing at them wasn’t. They’re still part of Jesus’ flock, and they still deserve for people to honor their dignity, even if they’re not honoring their own dignity. 

The church is a hospital for people in need of spiritual healing, so it is the right place for people who are struggling with addiction. The church also has to be a safe place for anyone to come, and when people are stoned out of their minds, fighting, shouting, and leaving trash everywhere, that’s no longer a safe place for people to come. The church as spiritual hospital is no longer a place where people can come for spiritual healing when there is fighting, shouting, trash, and rampant drug use everywhere around it. 

To those who have been hooked on drugs, those whose lives are being taken from them bit by bit by thieves and bandits, keep coming to church, and give respect to others who are coming here as well. Come to church seeking the Good Shepherd. 

One thing the good shepherd does is drive away the thieves and bandits to protect the sheep. So, to the sheep whose lives have been stolen by the poison of drugs, keep coming to church. To the thieves and bandits who keep selling that crap, stay away until you stop selling that crap. To the thieves and bandits who are selling drugs, you are welcome once you stop selling the drugs, once you stop poisoning people for profit.

Now wait a minute, Pastor Sullivan, you said last week that the way of Jesus is to love your enemies, to bless those who curse you. You said to try having a meal together and to seek peace, for blessed are the peacemakers. How does that square with telling drug dealers only to come back once you stop selling your poison? Well, to any here who are selling drugs, let’s have a meal together. Come talk to me, and we’ll go have lunch, for you, too, are children of God, beloved sheep of Jesus’ pasture. 

Saying, “Come back once you’ve stopped selling drugs,” and at the same time saying, “Let’s have a meal together,” may seem contradictory, but remember, we aren’t people of empire. Empire says in absolute terms, you are either with us or against us. A gospel that believes in fear says you are either with us or against us. We aren’t people of empire. We are not people of a gospel of fear and threats. We’re people of a gospel of resurrection, a gospel of life. We’re people of peace. We’re people of meals together, meals of love and hope, meals of justice and peace, meals of reconciliation and forgiveness. 

That’s the way of Jesus as both our shepherd and as the gate and the gatekeeper. Jesus’ way is to keep the thieves and bandits out, so they no longer harm sheep, and Jesus’ way is to seek out those same thieves and bandits because they are also lost sheep. 

So, if you’re tired of life that is barely life, try staying away from thieves and bandits, in all of their many forms. If you are tired of hearing from others a gospel of threats, division, and fear, then stay away from thieves and bandits. They too are lost sheep, but so long as they follow the ways of destruction, they come only to steel, and kill, and destroy life. We are not meant to follow thieves and bandits. We are not meant to have our lives sucked away from us bit by bit.

Jesus is our gate and our gatekeeper to keep thieves and bandits from sucking away our lives. Jesus is our good shepherd, so that following him, we may have life and may have life abundantly. 

The Peace We Make & the Meals We Share

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
April 19, 2026
3 Easter
1 Peter 1:17-23
Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17
Luke 24:13-35

Cleopas and his companion didn’t recognize Jesus until they ate dinner together. Prior to that, they had walked together. They had talked about Jesus together. They had talked about the scriptures together. At no point during all of that time, however, did those two disciples recognize Jesus. Then, when they sat down and had a meal together, suddenly they realized Jesus was sitting with them. When they shared a meal together, they realized Jesus had been with them the whole day.

Something about having meals together is pretty important. When God freed the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, it began with a meal. Countless times, Jesus had meals with people. He ate with wretched and sinful folk, showing them during those meals a better way to live, helping to heal them as he did. Jesus’ last gathering with his disciples before his arrest was over the Passover meal, and he told them to remember him through the meals they shared.  

Author and Ph.D., Diana Butler Bass wrote a piece called “Maybe the Meal Is the Point,” and in that piece, she wrote that after Jesus’ resurrection: 

They never return to the cross. Jesus never took them back to the site of the execution. He never gathered his followers at Calvary, never pointed to the bloodstained hill. He never [gave glory to] the events of Friday. He never mentioned Friday. Yes, wounds remain, but how he got them isn’t stated. Instead, almost all the post-resurrection appearances — which are joyful and celebratory and conversational —take place at the upper room table or at other tables and meals.

https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-table

Dr. Bass went on to say that maybe the meal was the point. Many see it as simply the lead up to Good Friday, seeing Jesus last Passover meal with his disciples as simply a last meal before the important part on the cross.

What if we got that order of importance wrong? Dr. Bass asks. She sees that Passover meal that Jesus has with his disciples on Thursday as “the opening meal of the new age, in a community of mutual service, reciprocity, equality, abundance, generosity, and unending thanksgiving.”

https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-table

A meal is how Jesus described life in God’s kingdom. That goes for life now and life after death. God’s kingdom is seen as people sharing meals together. A great feast. A simple meal. Joining together to break bread with one another is life in God’s kingdom. So, that’s the meal Jesus had with his disciples on Thursday night before his crucifixion, and Dr. Bass sees that meal as one which declares God’s kingdom as a new kingdom living in this world, different from all the kingdoms of empire.

Now, by empire, I mean any great kingdom or institution which exerts power and dominance over others.

For the early Church, the biggest of these was the Roman Empire, and though the church was living the kingdom of God, the church didn’t try to destroy the Roman Empire. Instead, the church lived among it and beyond it. Even though the empire was going to be oppressive and control people’s lives, the church was going to be liberating, freeing people to love and serve one another. The church freed people not to live according to the rules of empire.

In the rules of empire, there are a few people are at the top, most of the people are at the bottom, and the power and authority of those at the top is inflicted upon those at the bottom. 

The church didn’t operate this way. Jesus had meals with people, and he didn’t care who sat with who. Jesus ate with people he wasn’t supposed to, according to the rules of empire, the rules of society which like to group the good people and the bad people, the worthy and the unworthy, the sinners and the righteous. Jesus didn’t go for that. He just ate with folks. He shared meals of God’s kingdom, all of God’s kingdom with all of God’s people. 

That’s how we’re called to be, living in the kingdom of God. For us in the church today, in the United States, we have a church that is meant to be separate from empire. The United States is not an empire like Rome was, but as a nation, it does follow many of the ways of power and dominance that mark empire. 

Empire says conquer your enemies. Bless those who curse you is not exactly the way of this nation. 

Empires says maintain your power over others, and use force to stay ahead if need be. Blessed are the meek; blessed are the peacemakers; and give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you; those things aren’t exactly the way of this nation.

The way of Jesus is different from the way of empire. That hasn’t stopped many Christians, however, from trying to tie the church to the nation and letting the way of empire be the way of church for them. Power, authority, control: these are the ways of empire that some in the church try to use as extensions of the nation. 

Forcing others to follow your beliefs wasn’t the way of Jesus. The way of Jesus was sharing a joyful Passover meal with his friends on Thursday. The way of empire came on Friday, forcing the will of the powerful and killing Jesus for doing his religion wrong. 

There are many times that parts of the church have fallen to the way of empire, choosing power, authority, and control over the ways of Jesus. There’s the obvious time when the church became the official religion of the Roman Empire, obviously choosing power, authority, and control. There are times when preachers start declaring power over other people, declaring who gets to go to Heaven and who will go to Hell. Pastors and preachers who tell us who will be damned are choosing the way of empire, rather than the way of Jesus. Jesus said not to ask who will go to heaven and who will go to the abyss. Rather, Jesus said to sit down and have meals together with people.

I was shown a video last week of a person who was upset that the Pope had gone to a mosque in Algiers and had paused for silent meditation while there. The Pope said to the head of the Mosque, “I thank you for these reflections and for these important words during this visit, from a place that represents the space that belongs to God, a divine and sacred space, where many people come to pray and to seek the presence of the Most High in their lives.” He expressed ‘hope that peace, justice, reconciliation and forgiveness would grow among peoples.’

http://vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-04/pope-leo-apostolic-journey-algeria-grand-mosque-algiers-dialogue.html

That’s what this person had a problem with. The Pope visited a Mosque, said a silent prayer, gave thanks for that house of worship, and gave hope for peace, justice, reconciliation, and forgiveness. The person who had a problem with the Pope’s visit noted that there had been killing of Christians by Muslims in the past and indicated that because of that, the Pope shouldn’t have been there seeking peace and honoring them.

Well, this person was giving great examples of the way of empire. Don’t forgive your enemies; keep seeing them as enemy decades and even centuries later. Stay away from them, unless you aim to conquer them. That may be the way of empire, but it sure as shootin’ ain’t the way of Jesus. Love your enemies. Bless those who persecute you. Try having a meal together and seek peace, for blessed are the peacemakers. 

We aren’t people of empire. We’re people of resurrection. We’re people of peace. We’re people of meals together, meals of love and hope, meals of justice and peace, meals of reconciliation and forgiveness. That’s how Jesus appears to us in the kingdom of God, in the love we have for one another, in the peace we make, in the meals we share.