Mercy, Judgment, and Grace

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
February 2, 2025
4 Epiphany, C
Hebrews 2:14-18
Psalm 84
Luke 2:22-40

To free those who are held in slavery by the fear of death, that’s why we are told in Hebrews today that God became human. Jesus, who is God living among us as a human being, shared all parts of our lives with us, including death, so that death itself has been joined to God. “Do not be afraid,” we hear God telling us. Do not be afraid even of death, because when we die, we continue to be joined together with God, our lives changed from one form of life to another. 

Do not be afraid God became human as an act of mercy for us all. Hebrews states that Jesus is the sacrifice of atonement for our sins. Our sins are ways of disconnection, ways we harm one another, ways we harm ourselves. As we attack, and harm, and hurt one another, we put up barriers and become more and more isolated, more and more disconnected from one another, and more disconnected from God. So, Jesus is the sacrifice of atonement for our sins, our ways of harm and disconnection. Atonement means “to make one.” 

Jesus makes us one with God and each other in his sacrifice of atonement for our sins. Jesus does this on the cross by uniting not only our death to God, but by uniting even our sins to God. All of our disconnection from one another has been united to God in Jesus’ sacrifice of atonement. 

Why did God do this? Because we are God’s children, and God loves us and offers us mercy, rather than what we necessarily deserve.

There’re a couple of ways I can look at what we deserve for the harm we do to others. 

We tend to hurt other people because we have also been hurt. We hurt others our of stress, isolation, and fear. As we hurt others, they hurt others, and they cycle continues on and on, forever. 

So, on the one hand, we hurt others because we are first victims of being hurt. We need mercy. On the other hand, we’re still responsible for the hurt we inflict on others. We deserve judgment.

There’s a singer-songwriter named Mary Gautheir, and she wrote a song called, Mercy Now. She was asked about this song in an interview with Sarah Silverman, and she said the song began during a time when she was feeling pretty sorry for herself. She was having trouble in her music career and feeling she wasn’t getting what she deserved. When she talked about it with a friend, who said, “Well Mary, considering all your past behaviors, I’m not sure you really want what you truly deserve, do you?” She thought about it and realized, “Nope I don’t particularly want what I deserve; I’m good thanks.”

Then she thought about others. What if everyone got what they deserved based on the worst days of their lives? What if churches got what they deserved based on the worst days of their life? What if America got what it deserved based the worst days of its life.

She thought, rather than all of us getting what we deserve, what we really need is a little mercy. That’s what God offers in Jesus’ sacrifice of atonement for our sins. God offers mercy by joining all of our beauty and all of our crud with God.

Now we can, of course, spit in the face of God’s mercy, say we deserve it, that God has to give it to us, and with contempt, demand what we think is ours, and I’d say, “Good luck with that.” 

God’s mercy is a gift offered, a gift which we receive, not demand. God’s mercy is given freely because we need it, because we do harm others out of our own harm. God’s mercy is also tied to God’s judgment, because as much as we are victims of sin, and harm, and hurt, we are also perpetrators of sin, and harm, and hurt. God’s mercy comes as we recognize that, as we realize the hurt we’ve caused and actually care about those we’ve harmed. 

God knows, we do deserve judgment for our sins, the hurt we’ve cause, and God knows we need mercy. 

So, I’m going to finish by singing Mary Gauthier’s song, Mercy Now.

Mercy Now
Mary Gauthier

My father could use a little mercy now.
The fruits of his labor, fall and rot slowly on the ground.
His work is almost over, it won’t be long, he won’t be around.
I love my father, and he could use some mercy now.

My brother could use a little mercy now.
He’s a stranger to freedom; he’s shackled to his fear and his doubt.
The pain that he lives in, it’s almost more than living will allow.
I love my brother; he could use some mercy now.

My church and my country could use a little mercy now.
As they sink into a poisoned pit that’s going to take forever to climb out.
They carry the weight of the faithful who follow them down.
I love my church and country; they could use some mercy now.

Every living thing could use a little mercy now.
Only the hand of grace can end the race towards another mushroom cloud.

People in power, they’ll do anything to keep their crown.
I love life, and life itself could use some mercy now.

Yea, we all could use a little mercy now.
I know we don’t deserve it, but we need it anyhow.
We hang in the balance, dangle ‘tween hell and hallowed ground,
And every single one of us could use some mercy now.
Every single one of us could use some mercy now.
Every single one of us could use some mercy now.

May God Keep for Us that which We Do Not Need.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
June 2, 2024
Proper 4, Year B
Deuteronomy 5:12-15
Psalm 81:1-10
Mark 2:23-3:6

Creator of the planets and their courses, you created the Sabbath as one day in seven for all. Having invited us to rest, to breath, to pause; now, encourage us to rest our demands on others, listen in the place of speaking, and pause our impact upon the cosmos. You make the sabbath to universally benefit humanity and all creation. We give thanks for this benevolent provision that enables us to experience a life with you that is well lived in the shadow of your wing. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

That’s a prayer from our bishop, Andy Doyle. “God makes the sabbath to universally benefit humanity and all creation.” We are invited to rest, to give rest to others, and to give rest to creation itself. 

We need rest, and yet in today’s world, we seem to pride ourselves on how much we work and how little we rest. New York is called “the city that never sleeps.” The same could be said for Houston. In fact, you could say we live in a world that never sleeps.” Businesses are interconnected across the globe, so while some sleep, others in the same company are busy at work. The company itself, the business itself, never stops. The work never stops. 

Even in the same city, some work while other sleep. We’re grateful for this when hospitals are open in the middle of the night, and we also notice that when we are trying to sleep, there are always cars going by, planes overhead. Our society doesn’t rest. 

Nature, our nature, our bodies, the world itself needs rest. We need sabbath, a true letting go of all of our work, laying down our burdens and truly resting in God’s embrace. 

God’s commandment that we keep the sabbath is given for our healing. Isaiah 30:15 tells us, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

In Deuteronomy 5:15 God told the people of Israel, “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.” “Keep the sabbath,” God commands, because we are not meant to work constantly to amass great wealth for our overlords, like Israel did as slaves in Egypt. We are meant to work, and to rest. We are meant to work for all of our benefit, not just for some, and we are meant to rest for all of our benefit, to live together in unity and love.

Sabbath is more than a rule to be followed. Sabbath is a way of life. Rather than the way of death, the way of constant work and business, sabbath is a way of life, a way of healing. So, it makes sense that Jesus healed on the sabbath. 

When Jesus and his disciples were making their way through the grain fields, they ate some of the grain, and the religious leaders cautioned that they were breaking the sabbath. There were very specific rules about how the sabbath was to be observed, rules about what constituted work and what didn’t, rules about how far from home one could walk. Rules, to make sure people kept the sabbath appropriately. 

Jesus’ basic response to the religious leaders was, “Guys, y’all are missing the point.” See, sabbath rest can’t be lived out the exact same way for all people at all times. Situations come up in life where the sabbath must be broken in order to fulfill the purpose of the sabbath, healing and rest. The sabbath is a blessing given to humanity, not just one more rule that we have to follow.

So, when a man needing healing on the sabbath, Jesus didn’t turn him away. He healed the man, which is the point of the sabbath. Jesus broke the religious leaders’ rules of the sabbath, and yet he was keeping the sabbath. Holy rest for healing. Allowing others to rest and be healed. Allowing creation itself to rest and be healed.

In our world today, many of us simply can’t take one whole day as a sabbath rest, much less can we all take the same sabbath day. Our society simply doesn’t work that way anymore. We give thanks for those who work while others sleep, and we pray that they may find sabbath rest as well.

See, Jesus didn’t make his church so that we each follow all the right rules all the time. Founding the perfect community with the perfect system of rules has never worked in the history of the world. Jesus wasn’t silly enough to think it was going to work just because he said so. No, the church isn’t a bunch of people meant to follow all the right rules to constantly stay on God’s and each other’s good sides. 

The church is a people trusting in Jesus, following in his way as best and imperfectly as we can. The church is a people trusting in Jesus’ grace and forgiveness for all the times when we don’t. The church is a people who offer that same grace and forgiveness to one another. The church is a people of healing, a people who seek and offer sabbath rest.

The church is a people who have decided to lay our burdens down weekly, daily, so that our bodies, our minds, our souls can receive the rest we need. In our sabbath rest, we lay our burdens down, not just anywhere. We lay our burdens down into God’s hands so that God can carry our burdens for us while we rest in God’s healing love. 

Then, when we take our burdens back up, some we might just leave with God entirely, because some burdens aren’t truly ours to bear. There’s a prayer I pray some nights in which I thank God for the day that is past and then offer to God all of the day that is past. The good and the bad, my successes and failures, I offer to God that I may rest that night in peace. Then, I pray that when morning comes, God will give back to me that which I need and hold on for me that which I do not. 

For our strength and salvation is not given through our own might and power, nor for ourselves alone. We are granted sabbath rest as a gift both to receive and as a gift to grant to others. We are granted sabbath rest as a gift for creation itself for we are all united together, and as each of us rests, so does creation rest as well. “In returning and rest we shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be our strength.”

So, I offer to us all the sabbath prayer that I pray some nights as a prayer that can be prayed not only at night, but at any time. Any time we need to rest from our burdens, we can offer all of our lives to God, for God to hold them for a time, and then when that time of sabbath rest has ended, we can ask God to give back to us that which we need and hold on for us that which we do not. 

“If I apologize well enough, then you won’t punish me, right, God?”

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
September 10, 2023
Proper 18, Year A
Psalm 119:33-40
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20

“If I apologize well enough, then you won’t punish me, right, God?”

Jesus taught us to forgive, over, and over, and over. As far and long as there is vengeance, that is how often we are taught to forgive. Boundless forgiveness.

Then we have Jesus today saying that if someone sins against you, talk with them about it, and if they won’t listen to you, bring a couple others to talk about it with you, and then if they won’t listen to you, take it to the church leaders, and if they still won’t listen, have them be excommunicated, like a gentile or tax collector, no longer a part of the community.

That sounds pretty harsh; we need to realize, however, that gentiles and tax collectors were the very people Jesus and his disciples reached out to in order to bring them into the community. If someone is no longer a part of the community, we’re to seek their restoration so they can be part of the community again. There is forgiveness even in removing someone from the community, boundless forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the way of Jesus because healing is the way of Jesus. Everything Jesus does and teaches is for our healing, even letting people be no longer a part of the community. “Let them be” like a gentile or tax collector, Jesus said. “Let them be” because that is the path they have chosen.

If someone sins against a person and refuses to acknowledge it, refuses to make amends and be reconciled, then they are kicking themselves out of the community. When everyone is fractured and against one another, there is no community, so by refusing to admit their fault, make amends, and reconcile, a person is either declaring the other to be outside or themselves to be. You can’t have community without reconciliation.

So, Jesus said, “let them be.” If someone wants to be not a part of the community, then let them, and remember, even that is for our healing.

So, what healing do we need when we refuse to admit our faults, make amends, and be reconciled to others. We need healing from anger, pride, resentment, and fear…these are what fill us when we refuse to admit our faults. Then, we end up blaming everyone and everything else around us. Our anger, pride, resentment, and fear end up growing and harming everyone around us as well as ourselves.

If we’re going to keep our hurts from leaching out and harming others, we need to take responsibility for our actions. Rather than spending our time looking at others’ faults, we need to be willing to look at our own faults. We need to admit to ourselves, to God, and to others the harm we have caused. There can be no healing unless we do.

That’s a tough pill to swallow, and I believe it is made even more difficult because of the fear at the root at the root of much of the Christian faith. We talk of Jesus’ boundless forgiveness, but we also hear a lot about threats of Hell, threats of eternal torture by the God who is love. Fear of eternal torture has been a part of our theology for centuries, and while we need to take God’s judgment seriously, a faith based on fear of eternal torture is not the faith of Jesus and is not a faith that leads to healing.

A faith based on fear of eternal torture and personal salvation from that torture leaves us with little room for grace toward others, grace toward ourselves, seeking forgiveness, and loving one another. Community is lost in each person’s quest to avoid eternal torture.

Personal avoidance of punishment is not the salvation Jesus has in mind for our healing. Rather, Jesus offers us union with God and one another, a community of love. The Church’s mission is “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.”

The salvation of Jesus would have us focus not on avoidance of punishment, but on love of God and of one another. The community of love and grace, how well we treat others, seeking and offering grace, forgiveness, and reconciliation, that is the salvation of Jesus lived out in our lives. Heaven or Hell? We’ve got plenty of that here already. There’s plenty of Hell every day in our lives and the lives of those around us. That’s the primary Hell Jesus is saving us from, healing our lives and having that healing follow us even after the grave.

So then, with that healing in mind, with our focus on grace and forgiveness, on love and community, admitting our faults to God and to one another isn’t so terrible a burden. Admitting fault and seeking forgiveness becomes not about avoiding punishment, but about living in love with one another. Admitting our faults and seeking forgiveness is not a deal we make with God. “If I apologize well enough, then you won’t punish me, right, God?”

No. Admitting our faults and seeking forgiveness is part of restoring ourselves to unity with God and one another. The next part of being restored to unity is making amends to others for the wrongs we have done and changing how we live. Jesus shows us grace, forgiveness, and restoration that we might live that same grace, forgiveness, and restoration.

When we cease caring about restoration to God and one another, we begin living outside of Jesus, and Jesus lets us do that. If we want not to be part of a community of love and restoration, Jesus lets us not be. Remember, the church is not a group of individuals avoiding punishment. The church is a community of grace and love.

If we don’t want to live in a community of grace and love, we don’t have to. If we do want to live in a community of grace and love, then we do have to let go of our anger; we do have to let go of our pride; we do have to let go of our resentment, and fear. That’s the reconciling community and life Jesus offers us. A life without fear, a life of joy, a life of reconciling love for one another.

Jesus offers us release from the burden of carrying all the harm we have cause others. Admitting our faults, admitting the harm we have done is a relief and a release, a laying down of a heavy burden. Might there be consequences when we admit what we’ve done? Sure. There is also grace, forgiveness, and love. There is healing. It takes time. It can be grueling, and it is worth it. The healing of grace, forgiveness, and love, the healing of a community of love, that’s salvation.

The Status Is Not Quo

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church

May 28, 2023

Pentecost, Year A

Acts 2:1-21

John 20:19-23

The Status Is Not Quo

In the spoof super-villain/super-hero show called, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the villain, Dr. Horrible, is an awkward, fairly likeable guy, who sees lots of problems with the world and wants to fix them. At one point, he has a kind of successful, somewhat botched heist in which he stole gold bars from a bank. Being a super-villain, he stole the gold bars with a teleportation device, and it worked, except that it turned the gold into this grey, sludgy goo. Rather defensive, he says that what he does is not just about making money, it’s about taking money. Kinda Robin Hoodie, I guess. He says it’s about “destroying the status quo because the status is not quo. The world is a mess,” he says, “and [he] just needs to rule it.” So, he seems to kinda want to fix things, but of course being a villain, his methods aren’t exactly great. He’s trying to join the Evil League of Evil, he fights (and loses) against his nemesis, Captain Hammer, and he creates various teleportation devices, freeze rays, and death rays.

That line that he says about “destroying the status quo because the status is not quo,” however, is what really gets me…laughing and thinking about the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. 

The world is a mess, and the Holy Spirit comes, not to rule it like Dr. Horrible, rather the Holy Spirit comes to help humanity heal it. Recognizing that the status is not quo, the Holy Spirit comes not to destroy, but to heal the status quo.

We heard in John’s Gospel that Jesus breathed on the apostles, and they received the Holy Spirit to continue the work Jesus had done. They received the Holy Spirit to continue Jesus’ mission in the world because the world was a mess and in need of healing. Unlike Dr. Horrible, however, they weren’t going to rule the world. They weren’t going to force the changes they desired upon the world. That wasn’t Jesus’ way. 

Remember when a woman was caught in the act of adultery, and a crowd was going to stone her to death? Jesus wasn’t having it. Now, the people were following the law that they knew; adulterers were to be stoned to death. Nevermind that they conveniently forgot about the guy who was a part of the adultery. “Who cares about him; let’s just kill the woman,” seems to be their mentality. 

So, they decide to stone the woman to death, and in modern times, we don’t use rocks to kill people; rocks have been replaced with bullets. So they crowd of angry people are going to fix some of the mess in the world by pulling out their guns and shooting this woman, and before they do, Jesus says, “Wait a sec, y’all. If you want to shoot this woman, that’s fine, but how about you only do it if you’ve never sinned. If you’re perfect, if you’ve got no reason why someone might come shoot you at some point, then go right ahead, fire away.” Jesus wanted to change the status quo because the status was not quo.

Of course, all the people put their guns away and left. The crowd wanted to force the change they wanted to see in the world, and Jesus pointed out that by their way of forcing change, they would just as easily be the ones being shot next for something they’d done wrong. 

Jesus brought about change in the world through healing, through grace, forgiveness, and love. The woman and the crowd then got to offer change in the world through that same grace, forgiveness, and love. The world was a mess, and Jesus sought to heal it.

This story, of course, happens in the context and backdrop of Ancient Rome which occupied and ruled Israel at the time. Rome thought the world was a mess too, and they, like Dr. Horrible, didn’t want to heal it; they just wanted to rule it. So Rome ruled much of the world, they did destroy the status quo wherever they went. If they liked what you did and how you did it, then you could rather peaceable be part of Rome. Most of the time they didn’t like what you did or how you did it, though. They felt that you were a mess so they decided to rule you with an iron fist, and if you didn’t fall in line, if you were too different, too weird, didn’t fit into what and how they wanted people to be well, they’d just kill you to force and coerce obedience. 

That’s not the way of Jesus. Forcing change through coercion, fear, pulling out guns and killing the ones we don’t like…that’s the way of Rome. Jesus’ does see that the world is a mess and that the status is not quo, and Jesus’ way is to heal the world, to heal the status quo through grace, forgiveness, and love.

So, on this day of Pentecost, we’re remembering the coming of the Holy Spirit to bring others into Jesus’ way of healing the world. Pentecost is often called the birthday of the church, and it kind of is, although Jesus’ church had been gathered for some time as Jesus was there with them. This was kind of the beginning of the church after Jesus had ascended. The Holy Spirit came upon the apostles and a whole crowd gathered around heard them talking in their own native languages. 

Disparate people united by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of living Jesus’ mission in the world. As Bishop Doyle points out, the story is not really about the birthday of the church, but “of sending, of going, of being empowered with gifts for the journey and being unmoored from our appointed seats at the table to a world hoping for light in the midst of a shadow. Pentecost is NOT about the birth of a church; it is about the ever-expanding reign of God and the Good News of the Gospel of God in Christ Jesus outside our church boxes and upper rooms and actively spreading into the world around us.”

Pentecost is about the Holy Spirit recognizing that the world is and the status is not quo, and then inviting us into God’s mission of healing the world. Of course, the Holy Spirit also sees that the status is not quo within each of us, and so the Holy Spirit offers to heal and change us, rather than have us force our change on the world. 

The people gathered around the Apostles didn’t force them to speak in other languages. The Holy Spirit made that change, and the people heard what the apostles said in their own language. Rather than force change, the Holy Spirit made the change within the people. 

I saw a kind of bumper sticker saying the other day, saying that sometimes God doesn’t change your situation because God is instead changing you. My first thought was, “Oh, cute.” Then I saw a friend’s comment on that, saying that God is not a vending machine, but a coach. Yup, that rings true. Rather than helping us force our change on the world, God sees that the status is not quo within us, and God offers the Holy Spirit to heal us so that we can help heal the world. 

The world is indeed a mess, and as much as we may want to rule it, doing so just leads to the way of Rome and angry mobs, the way of guns, and force, and coercion. The Holy Spirit, instead, guides us with grace, forgiveness, and love. The Holy Spirit sees that the world is a mess, sees that the status is not quo, and then the Holy Spirit heals the status quo within us and invites us to join in healing the status quo in the world.