Do You Feel Particularly Saved?

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
March 16, 2025
2 Lent, C
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Psalm 27
Luke 13:31-35

“Run, Jesus! Run for your life! Herod’s trying to kill you!” The Pharisees warned Jesus, and Jesus replied, “Aww, y’all are so cute.” That’s not an exact quote, a little poetic license, but the idea is there. The Pharisees were almost certainly lying to Jesus. They were the ones who wanted Jesus to stop his preaching, not Herod. Even when Jesus was arrested, Herod saw Jesus as a curiosity and sent him back to Pilate for judgment. 

So, the Pharisees wanted Jesus to stop preaching, they gave a B.S. death threat to get him to quit, and Jesus saw right through their lie, calling their bluff, saying essentially, “If Herod wants to kill me, here’s where I’ll be, and I’m not going to stop.” That much they understood. What they probably didn’t understand was that Jesus was telling them, “Not to worry, I am going to be killed shortly after I ride into Jerusalem.”

Jesus knew that continuing on with his preaching and healing ministry was going to get him killed, and yet, he persisted. He went to the cross, not hiding from it, knowing that his teaching and way of life was the very thing that was going to get him killed. He continued on, accepting the cross, rather than living as an enemy of the cross.

That’s how Paul referred to people who wouldn’t live according to the ways and teaching of Jesus, “enemies of the cross.” “Their minds are set on earthly things,” Paul wrote. The whole idea of the cross, of personal suffering for the sake of others is beyond them. So, while they may give to others, they won’t do so if it brings any personal suffering. 

“Take up your cross,” Jesus said. “Lose your life for my sake.” That doesn’t just mean physical death. Give up your egos. Give up our need to be right. Give up your need to be justified, compensated, avenged. Let those things go, seek God’s will, and say, “Father, forgive them.”

Living as an enemy of the cross, on the other hand, means choosing one’s own power to force one’s way in the world. Had Jesus been an enemy of the cross, he would have unleashed all the power of God to destroy those who would have killed him. Had be been an enemy of the cross, Jesus would have denied forgiveness and chosen wrath. Rather than forgive all, he would have chosen to justify himself and his way by condemning all who did not live according to his way. I’m pretty sure that would have been most, if not all of us. 

As an enemy of the cross, Jesus would have used his power to gain more power and still more power, not serving the poor and those in need, but punishing those who did not. As an enemy of the cross, he would not have made himself friends with sinners, but he would have joined with those who considered themselves righteous, and he would have joined in their self-righteous glory. He would have stayed in an ivory tower, looking down upon the lowly with scorn. As an enemy of the cross, Jesus would have considered things like empathy for other people a weakness, and weakness is something an enemy of the cross cannot abide.

An enemy of the cross would follow the temptations of the Devil, choosing power over others, forcing one’s will and one’s way on others. Even if that way is the way of Jesus, forcing that way on others is not the way of Jesus. Folks in the church did that to the indigenous people of this land, likely thinking that the indigenous people were enemies of the cross, never realizing that by forcing Christianity, they themselves were living as enemies of the cross. Might makes right? Not according to the way of Jesus. Might makes right is an enemy of the cross, and the way of an enemy of the cross leads to destruction.

Even with faith in Jesus, the way of an enemy of the cross leads to destruction. Even with faith in Jesus, the way of might makes right leads to destruction. Even with faith in Jesus, the way of coercion and forcing one’s will on others leads to destruction. Even with faith in Jesus, looking down upon the lowly and rejecting empathy leads to destruction.

Paul was clear in his letters, as was Jesus in his teaching, that faith, without the way of the cross, is dead. James actually wrote the words, “Faith without works is dead,” but you can see the truth of those words throughout Paul’s writing and Jesus’ teaching. 

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus said, “but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) “Imitate me,” Paul wrote, “and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.” (Philippians 3:17)

Our faith in Jesus is lovely and good, but without following Jesus’ way of life, our faith withers. Discipleship, walking in the way of Jesus is what give our faith life to transform our lives and the lives of those around us. 

Does that mean shouting at others about our faith? Nope. Loving, forgiving, helping, that is the way of Jesus, the way of the cross. When we follow the way of the cross, we give up our power and live as servants. 

Living as servants, following the way of the cross when we see so much in the world that needs fixing. Overcome by it all, we may find ourselves alone shouting into the darkness. We may find ourselves being tempted as Jesus was, seeking power to force our will on others, but that is living as an enemy of the cross. We shout in the darkness when we are overcome by the problems in the world, and then we join with others, building one another up in love. 

We leave our despair at the foot of the cross and accept the death that the cross brings. The many deaths that happen in our lives: the death of might makes right; the death of coercion and force; the death of scorn for others; even one day, our physical deaths. We accept the way of the cross, and we find salvation, dwelling under the shelter of Jesus wings, gathering us as a hen gathers her chicks. Salvation, dwelling together under Jesus wings, dwelling forever the in peace, love, and unity of God. That is the way of the cross.

Living as an enemy of the cross, is a life that is also seeking salvation, but it is a life of anger, a life of wrath, a life of fear. Living as an enemy of the cross is a life of choosing to get yours over others. To hell with anyone else, I’m gonna get mine. 

In times of following that path of “I’m gonna get mine,” do you feel particularly saved?

Do you, instead, feel alone and even more fearful of losing what you have?

That’s what the Pharisees felt, afraid of losing what they had, and so they wanted to silence Jesus. Jesus said, “No, I choose the way of the cross,” and Jesus invites us to live the way of the cross as well. Letting go our fears, accepting our many deaths, and joining with others in love, we find shelter in the shadow of Jesus’ wings, as he gathers us like a mother hen gathering her chicks. 

The Only Threat We Face from Jesus: Greater Peace and Love

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston

January 5, 2025

2 Christmas, C

Isaiah 61:10-62:3

Psalm 84

Matthew 2:1-12

King Herod feared that his power was going to be taken from him. He was king over Israel, but he was not accepted as much of a king by many because his Jewishness was in doubt by some. His family had been forcibly converted decades before, so there were questions. Was he truly Jewish in his heart, or was he just claiming to be Jewish because by doing so he got to remain as king. We don’t really know his heart, but we do know that his kingship was in question by some and his kingdom was under Roman rule, so his hold on power was not as strong as he would have liked. 

With this challenging political atmosphere, there suddenly arrived these foreign, mystic, astrologer type folks, these magi from the east, who came to Herod claiming the birth of a new Jewish king. Ok, it’s one thing if some of Herod’s subject claim a new king was born. He could just imprison them or kill them, but for people from another country to come to him claiming a new Jewish king has been born, well that means that potentially an entire other nation believes that Herod is no longer king of Israel, but that this new baby is now the Jewish king instead of Herod. 

Now, Herod was at least Jewish enough to know that the prophets had foretold the birth of a Messiah, one who would be the forever king to replace all other kings. Herod knew that this baby, whom foreigners were claiming to be King of the Jews, might have been this God-anointed forever-king, and rather than figure, “Cool, that’s God’s will; let’s go with this,” Herod wanted to keep his power and therefore wanted to kill Jesus. 

He lied to the Magi, telling them he wanted to pay homage to Jesus, and as we find just after the portion of the Gospel we heard today, Herod indeed tried to kill Jesus. Fear had a tight grip on Herod.

“Keep my power,” Herod thought. Even if it goes against God’s will. Even if I have to kill a baby to do it. “Keep my power.” 

Herod is, of course, not the only person to live in fear and do terrible things to try to keep his power. On new year’s day, a man killed at least 14 people in New Orleans, and he was trying to kill a whole lot more. We’re not sure what power he wanted to keep, but we can bet there was some kind of power he felt he or others no longer had. Terrorists kill to try to get power back from those they feel have taken it from them.

Look at our political elections where people routinely lie and intentionally just make stuff up in order to win elections and keep power. People in business spend countless millions of dollars to influence laws and regulations so that their businesses get to keep their power, their market share, their profit. People who are angry at another will fight, steal from, and even kill to keep or reclaim their power. 

Like Herod, when it comes to keeping our power, there seems no limit to what we humans are willing to do. “We wouldn’t kill babies, of course,” we tell ourselves, “not like Herod.” Well, if we lived in Herod’s day, raised by Herod’s parents, and in that precarious kingship like Herod, we may well have tried to kill Jesus just like Herod did.

For those who are still sure that they wouldn’t have done that, the point is not whose sin is worse than whose. The point is, all of us are in the grip of fear, and all of us fight against God’s will in order to keep our power. Every single person in this world fights against God’s will in order to keep their power, and even more importantly, this is the world, and we are the people God chose to save. 

There must be something pretty darn fantastic about us if God chose to save us in this world, as this world is, and as we are, constantly fighting God’s will to keep our power, God chose to save us, and to do so, God became one of us. 

Amidst all of our crud, and we’ve got a lot of crud, we must, at our core, be pretty fantastic indeed if God chose to become one of us. We lie, we cheat, we steal, and yet God sees something in us that is astoundingly beautiful. God sees something in us far more beautiful than we can know or see. I daresay, if we saw what God sees, then we might wouldn’t be so terrible to one another. 

Perhaps, if we saw what God sees in one another, then we wouldn’t be so keen to hold onto power or to wrest power away from others. We might forgive a little easier, be a little slower to anger, assume something better than the worst in others, if we could see just how wonderful God sees us all being. 

I have a feeling that if we could see what God sees, we’d be blown away by how much bigger and more beautiful this world is, how much bigger and more beautiful this life is than we can know and see. Our hearts would be filled with the love and peace of God, and we would no longer be afraid. Seeing this world and this life as God sees it, we would no longer be afraid of losing our power, because we’d see that all of our power is contained within God’s power. We would no longer be afraid even of losing our lives, because we would see that our lives are all contained within God’s life. 

That is the love and peace Jesus had as he lost all earthly power and as he lost his life on the cross. Jesus could see his power and his life bound up together within God’s power and life, and so Jesus was at peace. He wasn’t happy about being killed; he didn’t love it, but he was at peace. 

The times when we find Jesus seemingly not at peace are not the times when people tried to take his power, but the times when Jesus saw us taking one another’s power, treating one another terribly. That’s when Jesus wasn’t at peace, when he saw people harming one another. That’s because he sees us as we truly are. He sees the life and beauty within us that we are so often too blinded by fear to see. Where Jesus sees a beautiful and beloved brother or sister, we often see a threat, like Herod did.

A beautiful baby was born, the beauty of scripture was fulfilled, and a life of hope and promise was brought into this wonderful world, and all Herod saw was a threat. 

Jesus, of course, wasn’t a threat. He wasn’t a threat to Herod, to his rule, or to his power. Jesus wasn’t trying take any of that way from Herod. No, the only threat Jesus posed to Herod was that if he had still been alive when Jesus began his ministry, Herod might have heard Jesus’ teachings, seen Jesus’ miracles, believed in Jesus’ and changed his ways to follow the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus. I daresay, Herod would have found a great deal of peace and love if he had done that. 

Finding greater peace and love, that’s the only threat we face from Jesus as well. If we choose to believe in him, if we choose to follow him as the way, the truth, and the life, then we just might find greater peace and love within ourselves. Doing so will change our lives, change our ways. We may give up or give away some of our power for the sake of others. We may find peace enough not to constantly try to wrest power from others. 

Our lives do indeed change when we choose to believe in Jesus and follow Jesus. We begin to see others as he sees us. We begin to see the world as he sees it. Fear begins to lose its hold on us, and we fall instead into the arms of peace and love. That’s the threat that Jesus poses to us. No taking our place, no taking our power, just falling into the arms of peace and love.

We Don’t Have to Live That Way

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
July 14, 2024
Proper 10, B
Amos 7:7-15
Psalm 85:8-13
Mark 6:14-29

King Herod had a right rough time of it, didn’t he? He was king of an occupied nation; semi-autonomous, kinda; and he was supposed to be leading his people according to the ways of God, even as he was trying to keep Rome happy and the people from rising up against Rome. He of course, then had his courtiers and officials to placate, his influence to maintain, all of which was meant to help him lead his people well according to the ways of God…giving Herod the benefit of the doubt.

With the pressure of all of those forces upon him, Herod seemed to be straying a bit from the ways of God. He wasn’t supposed to have married his brother’s wife, but hey, he was king. He had a lot of pressures on him. He had to be given some slack with such a big job. Then, when his wife wanted John imprisoned, well, he had to go along with what she wanted. He couldn’t have a split in his royal household, could he? How would that look to Rome and to his courtiers and officials? So then finally, when he gave his oath to Herodias’ daughter for anything she wanted and she asked for John’s head, how could he refuse? He had the pressures of all of these forces weighing on him, and John was, after all, just one weirdo, poor-boy prophet with no power or stature to compete with the powerful people of influence all around Herod. 

So, he had John executed for peacefully speaking out against the crown, beheaded on the whim of a young alluring girl and her mom. Trying to lead his people well, amidst so many powerful forces and the pressure of everything weighing on him, he led his people further down the path of destruction, going ever further from the ways of God in order to keep his people free to follow the ways of God. Oddly enough, God wasn’t particularly fond of that approach.

As with kings hundreds of years before him, God wasn’t overly fond of the powerful oppressing the week for the sake of some perceived greater good. If only Herod could keep the powerful and influential happy with him, then he’d have power enough to do the right things for Israel. Rather than be a light to those powerful and influential people, showing them a better way, and maybe disappointing them, however, Herod chose injustice and oppression. 

In the days of the prophet Amos, kings of Israel had been doing the same thing, and God had had enough of it then too. Amos starts with God’s indictments against. The nations around Israel, followed by an indictment against Israel herself, for the injustice and oppression she had been living. We heard part of God’s words against Israel for her injustice through the prophet Amos today. “See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

The king and the priest weren’t real thrilled with hearing that, and they threatened Amos. John wasn’t the first prophet who was condemned for speaking out against the injustices and atrocities of people in power, and Herod wasn’t the first leader to bow to the pressure upon him and do terrible things. He certainly wasn’t the last.

So, what about us and our lives? I think most of us could find plenty of leaders and rulers nowadays and apply this lesson to them. We could find all sorts of Herods doing all sorts of terrible things, turning away from the ways of God and following the ways of injustice, oppression, and bowing to pressures all around. I’d further guess that folks all along the political spectrum could hear my words thus far and think I’m preaching against the particular politicians or candidates they don’t like. 

I’m not. 

I’m not preaching for or against our governmental powers. They all have their place in seeking justice and wellbeing for all, but when I look for how to heal damage from the Herods in our world beheading the John the Baptists in our world, I don’t look to our government because Jesus didn’t set up our government to live out God’s mission in the world. Jesus set up his church to live out God’s mission. 

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us and to all of God’s church to live out God’s mission of justice, peace, reconciliation, and love. 

The work is ours to do with God’s help. Our challenges in doing the work are many. The pressures on us all are many. Families to care for. Jobs. Places to live. Much to lose. Friends and co-workers, family, neighbors, whom we want to keep good relationships with, and living out the work of God’s mission of justice, peace, reconciliation, and love can have challenges for all of that.

Heck, I offered a prayer on Facebook last night, which I almost never do. At this point, I tend to reserve Facebook for the proverbial cat videos, just offering something lighthearted and fun. After the assassination attempt on former president Trump last night, I offered prayers for him, giving thanks that he was ok, prayers for all who were keeping people safe, prayers for those who had died, and even prayers for the shooter. Prayers for peace, for love, and for healing. 

I got one comment on the prayer, which noted that I hadn’t offered prayers after the hurricane and other recent events, and so I was turning Trump into an idol. Now, I understand what he was saying. There’s a lot of folks who seem to think that if their candidate doesn’t win, the world will crumble. That’s not why I was offering that prayer. It was not about supporting Trump or not supporting Trump. I offered the prayer because I wanted to help lead people in prayer, particularly with so much anger and animosity in the nation today.

When I offered that prayer, I wasn’t turning Trump into an idol. In fact, the man who tried to kill Trump turned himself into an idol. The gunman had pressure on him. He apparently thought a Trump presidency wouldn’t be good, and he felt the pressure of that so intensely, that he went Herod’s route. He felt the world would be terrible if it didn’t go the way he knew was right, and so he decided to force his way on the world. It's not his world. It wasn’t Herod’s world. It’s not any of our world.

Whoever wins the presidency, I’m pretty sure it’s still gonna be God’s world. Our faith is in God, not in any presidential candidate, not in any government, and certainly not in ourselves to force our will and our way onto the world. That would be to turn ourselves into idols, which is what Herod did.

Faced with pressures from Rome, pressures from his own people, pressures from his family, pressures from his officers and courtiers, Herod decided to kill a man so that he could keep his own power and influence to try to make as much of the world go the way he wanted as possible. 

Where do we find good news in this story of Herod’s self-idolatry? We find good news in Herod being a dark, opposite reflection of the good news. We realize, we don’t have to live as Herod lived. 

We look to Jesus who chose not to force his will on the world. With the pressure of Rome threatening Israel, Jesus chose not to start an insurrection. He knew Rome was going to destroy the nation of Israel, and he let it happen. He’d been offered power over all of the nations of the world in his temptation by Satan in the wilderness, and Jesus turned that power down. He wasn’t going to force his way on the world through violence, and destruction, injustice, and oppression. 

Jesus chose instead to live the way of love, the way of justice, mercy, peace, and reconciliation. Jesus worked to invite and influence as many people as he could to join him in living the way of love, in living the way of justice, mercy, peace, and reconciliation. His faith wasn’t in Rome or any governmental power. His faith was in God and the ways of love that are God.

For us, our faith is not in any governmental power. Fearful as many are, fearful as some of us may be, that the country is going to hell in a handbasket or that if one person or another gets elected that the country will go to hell in a handbasket, we don’t have to bow to that fear and those pressures as Herod did. We don’t have to make ourselves into idols.

We can instead follow the way of Jesus. We can accept that the wrong people just may get elected. We can accept that terrible things may happen to institutions that we love. Our faith in not in those institutions, and it isn’t our world to force our will upon. We are not God. Our faith is not in ourselves and our own power. Our faith is in God, and we get to live the ways of God, the way of love, of justice, mercy, peace, and reconciliation.