We Aren't Meant to Dwell in the Grave - New Life & Being Home

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
April 5, 2026
Easter
Colossians 3:1-4
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Matthew 28:1-10

Yesterday, I was reflecting on Good Friday, on the crucifixion of Jesus, and while I often feel rather somber or a little sad when thinking on Jesus’ death, I instead felt a sense of gratitude for Jesus’ crucifixion. Gratitude and peace, rather than the emotional turmoil of cry night. Now, if you haven’t heard me mention cry night before, that’s the night at various youth camps, or even adult camps, where the leaders get all the youth to cry about all the bad things they’ve done and how they were the ones who killed Jesus. 

Ok, the idea of taking our sin seriously is a good one, and leading people to repentance for their sin, helping people see the damage they have done, also good. Emotionally manipulating tired teenagers to ensure a tearful response to Jesus’ crucifixion and death, however, may not be the best approach in the world. Also, while tears, sorrow, and guilt are totally appropriate responses to Jesus’ crucifixion and death, they are not the only appropriate responses. 

Yesterday, on Holy Saturday, thinking of Jesus in the tomb, I felt a profound sense of gratitude. Jesus died to join with us in death. God experienced death to join with us in death. So, I felt gratitude, rather than guilt. When my dad died, he was not alone in death. God was with him in death because in Jesus, God died a human death so that even in death, we are joined with God.

So today, on Easter Sunday, as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, returning to life from the dead, I find that I can trust Easter because of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. I can trust in Jesus’ resurrection because Jesus joined with us in death. I can trust in new life after death because Jesus walks with us in death.

At the same time, with resurrection life, we don’t really dwell on the death. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb, and the angel who was there told them, to go take a look at see that Jesus wasn’t there, but after that, they weren’t supposed to hang around the tomb, turning it into a shrine, and praising God there. No, they were told to go away from the place of death, meet Jesus, and live new life. 

“Jesus died for our sins.” “Jesus died for our sins.” “Jesus died for our sins.” We hear that over and over, and yes, that is true, but what’s really important is Jesus lived. Jesus came back from the grave to keep on living. So, we are not meant to dwell in the grave. We are meant to live. Beyond the grave, past the grave, after all the many deaths in our lives, Jesus’ resurrection tells us to mourn death for a time and then to leave the tomb behind and move forward into new life.

Now, what will that new life look like? Well, resurrection after our physical deaths, new life in God’s eternal kingdom, end of time type resurrection, we’re talking joy, bliss, huge banquet, surrounded and enveloped in love, tears no longer will fall type of new life. 

Regarding our lives, here on earth, we suffer various deaths throughout our lives, and the new life of resurrection happens for those deaths too, and that’s going to look different for all of us, each time that new life happens, but there are some things that seem to mark the new life of resurrection.

When Mary Magdalene and the other Mary left the tomb, they were filled with joy at the news Jesus had given them. New life of resurrection is marked with joy. That doesn’t mean that the two Marys, happy for the rest of their lives. Even after they saw Jesus, they had times of sorrow in their lives. The new life of resurrection is still life. There will be times of happiness, times of sorrow. 

In fact, former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, said, “God doesn’t want us to be happy.” See, of God wants us to be happy, then we deserve happiness, and happiness becomes an end in itself. Rather than happiness as a result of relationships, or achievement, or growth, we desire happiness just because we want to feel happy. 

That sounds like addiction. Archbishop Williams noted the problem of expecting happiness from anything and everything in our lives. Relationships are supposed to make us happy. A concert or a game is supposed to make us happy. Then if it doesn’t, we end up resenting it. After 10 years of marriage, does that person make you happy? Well, one, it’s not their job to make you happy, so really asking, “Does this person make me happy?” is the wrong question. A better question would be, after 10 years of marriage, do you feel at home? That’s joy, and joy rumbles along underneath in our lives, even with challenges and trials on the surface. 

So, a resurrection life is a life marked with joy, and a life marked with joy is a life marked with hope, with love. A life of joy is a life which accepts sorrow not as the end or the final way we will feel, and a life of joy does not expect happiness to be the way we will feel all the time. A life of joy finds fulfillment in relationships, feeling at home. A life of joy is a life of hope and love, feeling at home during times of happiness and sadness.

Another mark of the new life of resurrection is that there are barriers that are no longer present in the new life. In the new life of resurrection, the two Marys were the first apostles. The first two people Jesus appeared to and sent to tell about his resurrection were Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, as Matthew calls her. In the new life of resurrection, women were leaders in the church, until men decided they didn’t want that, relegated women to lesser roles and determined since Jesus was a man, only men could lead the church. They were looking to the old life of power struggle and one group trying to be more holy and more blessed than the other.

In the new life of resurrection, we are all blessed by God because we are all made in God’s image, and we have all been united to God through every part of our lives through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Truth is, we know from scripture that we already were all blessed by God, we already were all made in God’s image, and we already were all united to God. We just wouldn’t believe it. In the new life of resurrection, Jesus invites us to accept our blessedness, to accept the image of God in which we are made, and to accept our unity with God and one another.

Finally, in the new life of resurrection, there is unexpected blessing. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went from the tomb in joy because the angel had told them that Jesus had been raised from the dead, and suddenly, unexpectedly, Jesus met them, showed them that he truly had been raised, told them not to be afraid, and placed on them the mantle of apostles to the apostles. Unexpected blessing.

That meant letting go of the past, letting go of their former life and embracing this new life of apostle to the apostles. That meant a death for them, a death of their old life in embracing their new life. 

For us, whenever a loved one dies, whenever the path we thought our life would take dies, whenever the assumed future that we think we will have dies, we are encouraged to let go of the past, to let go of our former life, learn to embrace our new life. 

A young man I know is headed down a dark path of addiction and stealing, and it may already be too late for him to avoid jail. His parents have had to call the police as he keeps stealing from them and despite all their good efforts, he just keeps at it. For them, the death is letting go of the thought that they can help their son get off this path when he simply won’t choose to get off. For them, the death is accepting that their son may end up spending time in jail and may end up spiraling even further after that. For them, this means letting go of whatever future they thought they would have with their son and accepting the future that will come because of their son’s actions. 

What will new life look like? They don’t know, and they are mourning. They are looking to the future with hope of some kind of resurrection, with no expectation of what that will be, and right now they are mourning. 

We get to mourn. We get to return to the tomb, just as the Marys did, but we don’t stay in the tomb. We don't stay with cry night. We move forward into the life of resurrection that is coming. It may take longer than three days, and it won’t be happy all the time, but new life after death can be joyful. New life of resurrection is a life with joy rumbling beneath the surface. New life of resurrection is a life in which we look around after a time and realize, “I’m home.” New life of resurrection is life in which some of who we were and the ways we knew were right may not be anymore, and the new life of resurrection is life in which we find unexpected blessing. 

Unexpected blessing like God choosing to die with us so that we are not alone even in death. Unexpected blessing like Jesus being resurrected so we can look to the future with hope and joy. Letting go of the past, releasing our fear of death, we can embrace the new life of resurrection and find that we are home.

"That's All" - Locking Jesus Out (and letting him back in)

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston

May 25, 2025
6 Easter, C
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
Psalm 67
John 14:23-29

So, I’m gonna talk today a little bit about demons, which is always tons of fun, and it may seem kinda weird because there weren’t any demons in our Gospel reading today. It was really all about Jesus making his home with us, and I’m gonna get to that, but thinking about Jesus making his home with us make me also think about other things that make their homes with us.

Anger can make its home with us. Violence can make its home with us. Fear and resentment can make their homes with us. We have all sorts of things that can make their homes with us, and that got me thinking about what Jesus said in Luke 11:24-26.

When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it passes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ On its return, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there. And the final plight of that man is worse than the first.

A demon leaves someone, comes back, finds the place looking swell and figures it’ll invite some friends and really have a party in there.

Ok, so let me clarify what I mean about demons making their homes in us. I’m not talking about full on Exorcist kind of demon possession. I think Jesus was, and what he said also works with lesser demony-type things. I’m talking about some of our desires or emotions, ways of life which really harm us, and we just can’t quit. Get what I’m saying? I don’t want everyone leaving here saying, “The priest said I’ve got demons in me.”

When Jesus talked about demons making their homes with us, again, think about us choosing ways of life that harm us. Let’s say you wake up in the morning, you’re in a foul mood for whatever reason, and you choose just to stay in a foul mood, if you even think about it at all. So, now you’re grouchy, and you’re angry, and you’re taking it out on everyone around you. Let’s call that grouchy anger a demon. You keep nursing it; you keep feeding it, and eventually it just becomes part of who you are. Sure, you’re occasionally happy sometimes, but basically, you’re just a pissed off, bitter, angry person. I’d call that something like a demon that has taken up residence. 

At some point, you decide to kick the demon out. “I’m tired of being grouchy and angry all the time,” you say. So you decide to put on a cheery disposition. You smile, you have some optimistic thoughts, and for a couple of days, you’re feeling better. Then one bad thing happens, and now not only are you pissed off and grouchy because of the bad thing that happened, but you’re also pissed off and grouchy because being cheerful didn’t work. In fact, it made everything worse because you’re just as pissed off and grouchy as you were before, but you were also hoodwinked by all that damn smiling optimism. 

That sounds like what Jesus was talking about, with the demon leaving, then coming back with a bunch of his buddies to make things even worse than before. We hear people talking about fighting our inner demons. That’s what I mean, and boy howdy, we can have a lot of those. I’ve mentioned anger, grouchiness, violence. What about addiction to drugs, alcohol, sex? What about thinking the world is against you, what my dad called, “having a chip on your shoulder”? God, I hated it when he said that. He was right. I did have a chip on my shoulder, and it was based in fear and insecurity. Again, we’ve all got our inner demons that we struggle with.

Jesus said in our Gospel lesson today, “Those who love me will keep my word, and I will come and make my home with them.” “Those who love me will keep my word, and I will come and make my home with them.” That sounds a whole lot better than angry, lusty, fearful, spiteful demons making their home in me. “Keep my word,” Jesus said, “and I will come and make my home with [you].”

Here's where the altar call happens, right? Come up here, proclaim that you want to keep Jesus’ word, and all will be well from here on out, right? Nah, see keeping Jesus’ word is not a one-time deal. Jesus said he’d make his home with us. That’s an everyday kinda deal. We’re following in Jesus’ ways as best we can, not perfectly, but we’re trying, and Jesus is with us, staying in our house, in our selves. Then we see something we want to do that we know Jesus is going to say “no” to, so we ask Jesus if he’d like to just take a walk for a little while, stretch his legs, and when he gets around the block, we lock him out. 

Now, when we do that, and we all do that, Jesus ain’t gonna force his way back in. The demons will. They don’t knock. They just force their way in and say, “Piss off, this is my house now” Jesus doesn’t do that. Jesus knocks and says, “What’s going on? You wanna let me back in.” 

Well, we’ve kicked Jesus out, we’ve followed ways that we know are harmful for us, so at this point, the house is already a wreck. Even without any major terrible demons coming in, it’s pretty messy. We’re not sure we wanna let Jesus in. We’re kind of ashamed. At the same time, things have been kinda fun. We’re not sure we wanna give things back over to Jesus just yet. Tell you what, Jesus, let me have my way for a while, and you come one back whenever I want you here. Thanks so much.

I’m not saying Jesus won’t come back when we treat him like that. Rumor has it he will, but when we kick him out and lock him out, we do tend to let in a lot of demons. We do tend to hurt ourselves. We do tend to hurt others.  

So, the suggestion Jesus has instead is that we keep his word, we keep his ways, we seek his guidance and follow his teachings, and he will come and make his home with us. In God’s kingdom, Jesus has many dwelling places, and we are those dwelling places. 

Jesus is resurrection and life, and Jesus offers to dwell within us. Jesus is love and peace, and Jesus offers to dwell within us. Jesus is way, and truth, and life, and Jesus offers to dwell within us.

Way, truth, life, love, peace, resurrection: those all sound pretty good, a far cry from the various demons we often invite in. So, rather than give an altar call and ask people to come here and commit to keeping Jesus’ word and ways, let me offer this. Make the altar call every morning. Every day we decide to trust Jesus enough to follow his ways. Every day we chose Jesus’ way, truth, and life. Every day we choose Jesus’ love, peace, and resurrection. 

Every day we do well; every day we mess up; and every day we return again to that altar call and invite Jesus in, committing to keep his word as best we are able. Some days we’ll be more able than others, and Jesus will reward our efforts by making his home with us. 

Some days, we may kick Jesus out, and even then, Jesus will be outside, ready to come back in when we’re ready to unlock the doors and welcome him back in. So, “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says, “and do not let them be afraid.” “Peace I leave with you; my peace own I give to you.” For, “those who love me,” Jesus says, “will keep my word, and I will come and make my home with them.”

"That's All" - Locking Jesus Out (and letting him back in)

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
May 25, 2025
6 Easter, C
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
Psalm 67
John 14:23-29

So, I’m gonna talk today a little bit about demons, which is always tons of fun, and it may seem kinda weird because there weren’t any demons in our Gospel reading today. It was really all about Jesus making his home with us, and I’m gonna get to that, but thinking about Jesus making his home with us make me also think about other things that make their homes with us.

Anger can make its home with us. Violence can make its home with us. Fear and resentment can make their homes with us. We have all sorts of things that can make their homes with us, and that got me thinking about what Jesus said in Luke 11:24-26.

When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it passes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ On its return, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there. And the final plight of that man is worse than the first.

A demon leaves someone, comes back, finds the place looking swell and figures it’ll invite some friends and really have a party in there.

Ok, so let me clarify what I mean about demons making their homes in us. I’m not talking about full on Exorcist kind of demon possession. I think Jesus was, and what he said also works with lesser demony-type things. I’m talking about some of our desires or emotions, ways of life which really harm us, and we just can’t quit. Get what I’m saying? I don’t want everyone leaving here saying, “The priest said I’ve got demons in me.”

When Jesus talked about demons making their homes with us, again, think about us choosing ways of life that harm us. Let’s say you wake up in the morning, you’re in a foul mood for whatever reason, and you choose just to stay in a foul mood, if you even think about it at all. So, now you’re grouchy, and you’re angry, and you’re taking it out on everyone around you. Let’s call that grouchy anger a demon. You keep nursing it; you keep feeding it, and eventually it just becomes part of who you are. Sure, you’re occasionally happy sometimes, but basically, you’re just a pissed off, bitter, angry person. I’d call that something like a demon that has taken up residence. 

At some point, you decide to kick the demon out. “I’m tired of being grouchy and angry all the time,” you say. So you decide to put on a cheery disposition. You smile, you have some optimistic thoughts, and for a couple of days, you’re feeling better. Then one bad thing happens, and now not only are you pissed off and grouchy because of the bad thing that happened, but you’re also pissed off and grouchy because being cheerful didn’t work. In fact, it made everything worse because you’re just as pissed off and grouchy as you were before, but you were also hoodwinked by all that damn smiling optimism. 

That sounds like what Jesus was talking about, with the demon leaving, then coming back with a bunch of his buddies to make things even worse than before. We hear people talking about fighting our inner demons. That’s what I mean, and boy howdy, we can have a lot of those. I’ve mentioned anger, grouchiness, violence. What about addiction to drugs, alcohol, sex? What about thinking the world is against you, what my dad called, “having a chip on your shoulder”? God, I hated it when he said that. He was right. I did have a chip on my shoulder, and it was based in fear and insecurity. Again, we’ve all got our inner demons that we struggle with.

Jesus said in our Gospel lesson today, “Those who love me will keep my word, and I will come and make my home with them.” “Those who love me will keep my word, and I will come and make my home with them.” That sounds a whole lot better than angry, lusty, fearful, spiteful demons making their home in me. “Keep my word,” Jesus said, “and I will come and make my home with [you].”

Here's where the altar call happens, right? Come up here, proclaim that you want to keep Jesus’ word, and all will be well from here on out, right? Nah, see keeping Jesus’ word is not a one-time deal. Jesus said he’d make his home with us. That’s an everyday kinda deal. We’re following in Jesus’ ways as best we can, not perfectly, but we’re trying, and Jesus is with us, staying in our house, in our selves. Then we see something we want to do that we know Jesus is going to say “no” to, so we ask Jesus if he’d like to just take a walk for a little while, stretch his legs, and when he gets around the block, we lock him out. 

Now, when we do that, and we all do that, Jesus ain’t gonna force his way back in. The demons will. They don’t knock. They just force their way in and say, “Piss off, this is my house now” Jesus doesn’t do that. Jesus knocks and says, “What’s going on? You wanna let me back in.” 

Well, we’ve kicked Jesus out, we’ve followed ways that we know are harmful for us, so at this point, the house is already a wreck. Even without any major terrible demons coming in, it’s pretty messy. We’re not sure we wanna let Jesus in. We’re kind of ashamed. At the same time, things have been kinda fun. We’re not sure we wanna give things back over to Jesus just yet. Tell you what, Jesus, let me have my way for a while, and you come one back whenever I want you here. Thanks so much.

I’m not saying Jesus won’t come back when we treat him like that. Rumor has it he will, but when we kick him out and lock him out, we do tend to let in a lot of demons. We do tend to hurt ourselves. We do tend to hurt others.  

So, the suggestion Jesus has instead is that we keep his word, we keep his ways, we seek his guidance and follow his teachings, and he will come and make his home with us. In God’s kingdom, Jesus has many dwelling places, and we are those dwelling places. 

Jesus is resurrection and life, and Jesus offers to dwell within us. Jesus is love and peace, and Jesus offers to dwell within us. Jesus is way, and truth, and life, and Jesus offers to dwell within us.

Way, truth, life, love, peace, resurrection: those all sound pretty good, a far cry from the various demons we often invite in. So, rather than give an altar call and ask people to come here and commit to keeping Jesus’ word and ways, let me offer this. Make the altar call every morning. Every day we decide to trust Jesus enough to follow his ways. Every day we chose Jesus’ way, truth, and life. Every day we choose Jesus’ love, peace, and resurrection. 

Every day we do well; every day we mess up; and every day we return again to that altar call and invite Jesus in, committing to keep his word as best we are able. Some days we’ll be more able than others, and Jesus will reward our efforts by making his home with us. 

Some days, we may kick Jesus out, and even then, Jesus will be outside, ready to come back in when we’re ready to unlock the doors and welcome him back in. So, “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says, “and do not let them be afraid.” “Peace I leave with you; my peace own I give to you.” For, “those who love me,” Jesus says, “will keep my word, and I will come and make my home with them.”

Because Sometimes, We Kinda Suck…

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church
May 7, 2023
5 Easter, Year A
Acts 7:55-60
1 Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14

Because Sometimes, We Kinda Suck…

“While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died.” As he was actively being killed by an angry mob with rocks, Stephen prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

We see the absolute worst and the absolute best of humanity right there. We see a man who was so full of love and hope, that he did not fight against the mob or kill in order to save his life. He was at peace during his murder, praying forgiveness on his murderers. We also see a violent and angry mob worked up into a lathered frenzy so crazed that they gleefully murdered a young man because he believed something different than they did. 

In this moment of our history, we see humanity’s enormous capacity for good, for selflessness, and for love. At the same time, we see our brutality and mindless rage, and end up having to reckon with the fact that humanity is so hurting and broken that when God became human, it only took us 30 years to kill him. God, who is love, became human, and we killed him in 30 years.

So, we humans are pretty fantastic, and we also kinda suck.

Still, we have the fact of God becoming human. Knowing that we would kill him, God still thought it was a pretty good idea to join with us in our humanity. God thought it was a good idea to become one of us, to join with us in every aspect of our humanity, including our death, and God thought it was a good idea to join with the absolute worst of humanity by allowing us to perpetrate the very worst of ourselves against him. God joined with our lives, our deaths, our goodness, and our hurts and atrocities. Despite the fact that we often suck, God still thinks that we’re also pretty fantastic. God thinks we’re worth saving. 

So, Jesus told his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said, because he was going to prepare a place for us to bring us home. 

Our home is unity with God and unity with one another. 

Where’s that? Thomas wanted to know. Where is this home with God and one another? Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 

Follow in my ways, Jesus was saying. Follow in the ways of forgiveness and love, and you will find your home with God and one another. 

Follow in my teachings, Jesus was saying. Follow in the truths I have taught you, and you will find your home with God and one another. 

Follow in my life, Jesus was saying. Follow me and trust in the life I give, the resurrection life I have given, joining humanity and divinity. 

God thought we were fantastic enough that God became one with us, and Jesus is telling us to trust in that unity with God and then follow and live, recognizing God in every person around us. 

What about if we don’t believe that, however? What if we don’t believe that God is in every person around us? Well, what we believe seems to be less important than how we treat one another. In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus said that whatever we do to one another we do to him. The people in the story Jesus told didn’t believe that they were one with God. They weren’t following Jesus or seem to believe in Jesus. Those who treated others with compassion, respect, healing, and love were told basically, “Welcome home.” 

Treating others with compassion and respect is the way home Jesus talked about. Treating others with healing and forgiveness is the way home Jesus talked about.

Treating others with mercy and love is the way home Jesus talked about.

Come home, Jesus says, to unity with God. Come home to unity with love. Come home to the life we saw Stephen live in our reading from Acts, who even in the face of death, did not kill, or shout, or condemn, but offered forgiveness and love to those who were killing him. Stephen was home already, and after he died, he continued living at home with God.

That is the life Jesus offers us, the peace and healing that Stephen had. 

Just in the last two weeks, we’ve heard of how many murders? Dozens? Some within blocks of here, some near, some far away. How many countless others have there been that we don’t even know about? When I said earlier that humanity often sucks, we know that already. We know that all too well. 

God knows that too, and that’s exactly why God became human, because God sees us. God sees the goodness of humanity along with our brokenness, and God knows we need healing. God knows we need healing of our hurt and our fear. God knows we need healing of our anger and despair. God knows we need healing from our rage and brutality. So, God joined with all of that, so that even at our worst, Jesus is there with us saying, “Come home.”

Come home to peace. Lay aside your anger. Lay aside your need to vengeance. Bring me your hurts, Jesus says, and follow me home to healing. Bring me your anger, Jesus says, and follow me home to forgiveness. Bring me your despair, Jesus says, and follow me home to peace. Bring me your fear, Jesus says, and follow me home to love.