Sheep Don't Actually Fight Wolves, You Know

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
June 21, 2026
Proper 7, A
Jeremiah 20:7-13
Psalm 69: 8-11, (12-17), 18-20
Matthew 10:24-39

So, my family and I were watching the movie “Wake Up Dead Man” last weekend. It is the third of the “Knives Out” movies, murder mysteries with the Holmesian detective Benoit Blanc. In this one, the mystery revolved around a very angry priest who was constantly preaching fire and brimstone sermons about the sheep and the wolves. He believed the church were the sheep, the world were the wolves, and the church had to fight like hell to overcome all of the wolves out there. He saw sin all over the place; he saw it infecting the church, saw wolves infecting the church, and so his approach was to call out the sins and drive out the wolves, and fight. Always fight. Things may not have turned out overly well for him; I can’t say for sure.

The idea is cute, though, sheep verses wolves, with the sheep fighting like hell against the evils of the wolves in the world. I think it would make a good cartoon movie, maybe, but sheep don’t actually fight wolves. The shepherd keeps the sheep safe from the wolves. I think that’s part of why Jesus called us sheep. We’re not supposed to fight the world. 

The Gospel is not the church against the world. The Gospel is Christ for the world. Jesus is for the world, and Jesus proclaimed good news for the world, the good news that “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” 

Then again, we get our reading from today in which Jesus said, 

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

So, how is that good news, and what does family members being against one another have to do with the kingdom of heaven that has come near? Well, the kingdom of heaven is God’s way of love, lived out among us, and yet Jesus said he came to bring a sword. Ah crud, I guess no more love. No, obviously not. God is love, and God became human as Jesus, so Jesus was the very love of God living God’s way of love in the world, and God’s love for us is absolute. 

That is good news for the world that desperately needs to hear good news. Sadly, like with the priest in the movie, there is a lot of anger and hatred coming from the church to the world. There are a lot of people in the church thinking they need to fight the world because Jesus said he came to bring the sword, and so there is anger and hatred being dressed up as if it were the love of God. Sheep being told to fight the world, family members being told to fight one another, rather than love one another and show the healing love of God.

That was so much of Jesus’ proclamation, showing people love. He healed folks, ate with folks, cast out demons, and raised up the lowly. Jesus shared the good news of the kingdom of heaven by living the kingdom of heaven, then he told folks about the kingdom of heaven and that they could live it too.

Then, Jesus also promised that even as we live the love of the kingdom of God, we will still be harmed in this world. When he said family would rise up against family, son against father, mother against daughter, mother-in-law against son-in-law (no surprise there), everybody against everybody in a family, he wasn’t telling his disciples, “You must reject your family.” Jesus was warning his disciples that when they went out and started proclaiming the kingdom of God, their family members reject them because they were going to think them heretics. So, be ready for that, Jesus was telling them, and don’t turn against them. Just be ready for the fact that they might turn against you, and when they do, continue to offer them love. 

That may have meant leaving home, in the disciples’ case. Whoever loves their family more than me is not worthy of me, he said, so if the disciples’ families said to them, “If you walk out of this house following that Jesus fella, then you just keep on walking,” then, Jesus was saying, you may have to say goodbye. 

People may reject you for following Jesus’ ways and teachings, and if they do? Go out and shout on a street corner, “Y’all are all sinners, and you’re going to…’”. No, he just said, if people reject you, go to someone else.

People today may want nothing to do with the way of love or a Gospel that preaches and lives the way of love. Ok, they don’t have to. Our job is not to treat them as wolves, and fight them, and force them to accept Jesus. Sheep tend not to stand up against wolves. They tend to walk the other way, which is what Jesus said go on to somewhere else if they won’t accept you. 

Even so, we…no, I won’t say we. I often become a wolf, particularly when something has just really upset me, and I’m really angry. In traffic, I’m almost always a wolf. My daughter actually said she’s afraid when I drive (ok, sorry sweety, I’ll do better). I will say that after 48 years of life, being a wolf has thus far never been really helpful for me, getting so angry that I’m against whoever it is. 

Just a couple weeks ago, Monday morning, my coffee mug got stolen from Lord of the Streets, when we were inside, just before a meeting, someone stole my coffee mug. I don’t know who did it, but whoever it was, my gut instinct, my natural way of doing things was to get really angry with the person and hold on to that grudge and become Captain Resentment. I’m really good at that, which is basically a way of becoming a wolf. Instead, I thought to myself, “What am I going to do if I find out who took it? Am I going to go punch the guy? Am I going to do anything about this to try to get my coffee mug back? No, I’m not. Well then, it’s not worth harboring a resentment over.” 

So, I just let it go. I mean sure, it still bothers me, but alright, I’m out a handy way to hold my coffee. I’ll live. My gosh, I was close to becoming a wolf over something as simple as a coffee mug, but then I chose a different way. That’s the way of Jesus and the way of love in the world. That’s the way of being a sheep in the world.

Now, if we look at the church and how we do things in the church, we have a really good history of becoming wolves, and we have a really good history of being sheep. Our challenge is to continue to strive to be sheep, and what that means is first and foremost we stick to Jesus and we follow in his ways. 

We daily reflect, daily look back. “Am I following in Jesus’ ways? Am I being a sheep, or am I turning against people and insisting that they follow Jesus’ ways? Do I become a wolf about how I want them to?” That’s not being a good sheep to our shepherd.

If we really want to proclaim the kingdom of heaven, then we’re often going to lay aside our desires for how we want the world to work, and we’re simply going to sit at Jesus’ feet and try to follow him, try to find that peace and that love that he gives so that we can offer it to others.

We live out the kingdom of heaven, then, by bringing others in, and welcoming others in, finding out who they are and sharing love with them that they may share love with us too. This is something the Episcopal church has done pretty darn well in the last, well, often, but particularly in the last 50 years or so. 

Women used not to be able to preach, teach, or be priests or bishops. You could polish the silver, but otherwise…Then the Episcopal Church realized we don’t really see that as the way of the Gospel. We don’t see that as a way of sharing love, and so women became priests and bishops in the church and became fully members of the church. 

More recently, our LGBTQ brothers and sisters became fully members of the church. They have been able to be married and to become priests and bishops in the church. This has been not without contention. Some parts of the church want nothing to do with that, and others fully embrace it. What we’ve done a really good job of, as the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Texas is say, “Groovy cool. We don’t all have to embrace that.” 

We don’t all have to live out our way of life in exactly the same way. So, the communities within the church that have felt that full inclusion of LGBTQ members is their way, they’ve gotten to do that. Those who have not, have not had to. 

The problem still, is that so often these different groups within the church have still become wolves, as family rising up against family. “Those are the wrong ones, and they are just horrible, hateful, awful people.” “Those are the wrong ones, and they don’t care at all about doing things right or following scripture.” “Bring the sword of Jesus and turn against them!” We become wolves and fight with one another in the church, when we’re called to be sheep, when we’re called to do our darnedest to follow Jesus as our shepherd and offer that way of love to others. 

We offer the way of Jesus, the way of love to others as best we see it and understand it, and sometimes those others don’t see it the way we do, and so we’re just told to wipe our feet as we leave. If they’re wrong, God’s gonna deal with it. We get to show them the way of love because we’re not wolves. We’re sheep, and Jesus is our shepherd. 

With other churches who do things differently, ok. I don’t have to be right. They don’t have to be wrong. They’re following the way of love the best they can in a way that works for them, as are we. The church is pretty darn big, and there are a lot of different ways that we can live together. We don’t have to force each other to live the way of love exactly the same way. 

Jesus said to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of heaven has come near. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, Jesus told his disciples. Go, and proclaim the kingdom of heaven by healing people, by loving people. Let that way of healing and love be your proclamation. 

So, we today in the church, we often want to become wolves towards those other ones, whoever they are, for doing things wrong and sometimes terribly wrong, but we aren’t called to become wolves. We aren’t commanded to rise up as family member against family member. We’re warned that those conflicts may happen, and when they do, we’re called to love. We’re sometimes called to walk away. We’re called to seek to heal others, with Jesus as our shepherd, not our own wants, desires, angers, and fears. We cast those upon Jesus and ask that he will lead us as his flock, as his family, sharing the way of love. 

Crying Our Anger Into Sorrow, and Our Sorrow Into Love

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
October 15, 2023
Proper 23, Year A
Philippians 4:1-9
Psalm 23
Matthew 22:1-14

Crying Our Anger Into Sorrow, and Our Sorrow Into Love

“How did you get in here without a wedding garment?” The king asks. Jesus told a story about a king who invited people to a wedding banquet for his son. The invitees didn’t show up, so God sent servants into the streets, and they invited any random people they could find. Then, with the wedding feast going great, the king sees someone without a wedding garment and kicks that person out for not wearing a wedding garment.

Like last Sunday, we have Jesus giving a parable of the kingdom of God, and like last week, we may be tempted to assume an easy interpretation of Jesus’ parable with an in-group, an out-group, and ourselves, of course, being with the in-group. Such cut and dried, easy interpretations certainly make our brains happy, and placing ourselves on the side of the in-group makes our brains even happier. Jesus didn’t tell this parable, however, just to make certain people’s brains happy.

Jesus’ parable speaks to the complexities and challenges we face in this life in which the good guys and bad guys, the in-groups and out-groups, aren’t quite as easy to determine as we’d like. Also, if we take Jesus’ parable seriously, we need to take seriously the reality that we’re often in and between both groups.

The nation of Israel is about to begin a ground invasion into Palestine because a week ago, Hamas slaughtered over 1300 Israelis. Hamas’ actions were those of a terrorist group, not a legitimate government. What Hamas did was unconscionable, so it seems pretty easy to determine who the in-group and the out-group is in God’s kingdom, right?

Then we look at how Israel has continually pushed Palestinians off of their land since the formation of Israel. We look at the people Israel has killed, the oppression of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. From that perspective, it seems pretty easy to determine who the in-group and the out-group is in God’s kingdom, right?

Nope. As much as our brains would like the simplicity of it, we can’t just easily say, “You guys are the ones who refused to go to the wedding banquet, and you guys are the ones who God went out and sought who did come to the banquet.” We find instead, that both groups are often the one at the wedding feast who refused to wear a wedding garment.

See, the person without the wedding garment was again no easy solution for determining an in-group and an out-group. The wedding garment represented living life according to God’s will and God’s ways. The person in Jesus’ parable who was kicked out for not wearing a wedding garment was one who wanted all the joys and pleasures of life in God’s kingdom but who refused to live according to God’s will and God’s ways. They really wanted the feast and the great food, but they didn’t want to care all that much about others. They didn’t want to trust in God. They didn’t want to change their ways of life when they heard God calling them to, and so they created their own misery and suffering or continued their own misery and suffering.

The person who refused the wedding garment shows us that what we do in this life matters. Regardless of our faith, the way we treat one another matters. If we’re going to take Jesus’ parable seriously, we don’t just get to place ourselves among the in-group. We have to admit that we are the ones who refused the king’s invitation and didn’t come to the banquet. If we’re going to take Jesus’ parable seriously, we also have to acknowledge that we are the second group of people whom the king then invited who did come to the wedding banquet. If we’re going to take Jesus’ parable seriously, we also have to admit that we’re often the ones who come into the banquet without a wedding garment.

No amount of being in God’s in-group can change that. No amount of being part of team Jesus or team anything else can change the fact that how we treat one another matters.

We’re all messed up sinners in need of grace. We’re also all beloved and wonderful people made as blessed by God in order to be blessings to others. So, how do we bless others in the face of the horrors of terrorism and war like we see in Israel and Palestine?

Well, a way not to bless others is to simply choose a side and feel righteous. We can stir up strife against the other, hoping our team will win. We can add discord and division to the lives of people around us because of a conflict happening on the other side of the world, but that’s not wedding garment kind of life. It’s easy, and it may feel good, but it’s not being a blessing to anyone. Besides, we can each do nothing to change the outcome of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Responding with division and strive, will only add more harm to the world, while helping the side we like not at all.

The best we can do is to respond with love, prayer, compassion, and kindness. We can respond with sorrow. We can respond with anger, when that anger is tempered by tears into love.

Many are going to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, pick a side out of their anger, and decide they don’t like Jews, or they don’t like Muslims. Muslims in our country are already fearful for the attacks they are going to receive, and Jews in this country are fearful for the attacks they are going to receive by people upset about a conflict on the other side of the world. That’s responding with anger, not love. Love doesn’t make an easy determination of an in-group and an out-group. Love sees the horrors around us, sheds bitter tears for the tragedy of human hatred and contempt, and then love chooses to love people.

That’s the best response we can have. That’s wedding garment response. Paul knew this when he wrote to the church in Philippi. Knowing there is strife and horror always around us, Paul encouraged the people with these words.

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in [Jesus], and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)

“This Is the Way” (sorry, but it fits)

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
St. Mark’s, Bellaire
August 27, 2023
Proper 16, Year A
Psalm 138
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20 

“This Is the Way” (sorry, but it fits)

So, I’ve been a huge Star Wars fan since I was a little kid. 

When I moved into my office at Lord of the Streets, I brought my Mandalorian Naboo Starfighter LEGO set and the rest of my LEGO Star Wars sets first. The Darth Vader helmet looking over me on the wall. Then I eventually brought in the crosses for the walls and my ordination certificate. 

So, right now is a really good time to be a Star Wars nerd. We've got the new Ahsoka show on right now, the Mandalorian before that. Baby Yoda, or as dorks like me know him, Din Grogu is from the Mandalorian show, and a catch phrase of the show is, “This is the Way.” That means the Way of the Mandalorian, a group of warriors and protectors, and the Way they follow is their code, their Way of life.

So, being a huge Star Wars nerd, I’ve been trying not to use “This is the Way” in a sermon or even in everyday conversations, and until today, I’ve been mostly successful.

Today, however, it just fits as Jesus told Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Looking at the ideas of the keys and the binding and loosing, Jesus was talking about how we live out God’s kingdom on Earth. For the people of Israel, living out God’s kingdom was and is tied to how they live out and follow God’s laws. Following God’s laws is often referred to as walking in the way of the law.

Over the centuries, Rabbis have determined how the laws will be binding on people, and even which laws are binding on people’s lives and which are not. For Orthodox Jews, there are more laws that are binding on them than for Reform Jews. Their leaders have determined which laws are binding and how the laws are binding.

In Jesus’ day too, the religious leaders determined how the laws were to be lived out, and we know Jesus often disagreed with them, even saying in Luke that some were locking people out of the Kingdom because of how they were enforcing God’s laws. Think of last week, when the Pharisees insisted that Jesus’ disciples were doing things wrong by not washing their hands before eating, and Jesus was having none of it, saying that the point of the laws was not to follow them for the sake of following arbitrary rules, but the point of the laws was to heal us so that we would live in the way of love, the way of mercy, and the way of justice.

Justice, mercy, love…this is the Way of Jesus.

So, disagreeing with the religious leaders of the time over how and which laws were to be binding on people, Jesus told Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” In other words, Peter and the apostles were given the authority to determine which laws were to be binding on the people and how they were to be binding. Peter and the apostles were to determine how people were going to walk in the Way of Jesus.

Very early on, in the book of Acts, we see the apostles determine that for the non-Jewish followers of Jesus, the laws of Israel were mostly not binding. Gentiles didn’t have to become Jewish in order to walk in the Way of Jesus.

Over the centuries, we’ve continued to have leaders determine what ways of life are binding on us in order to walk in the way of Jesus. We have our church councils, our prayer book, our church constitution, and our bishops who determine our Way in the Episcopal Church.

Our way is to walk in justice, mercy, and love. Our way is to spend time daily in prayer, to spend time daily in the scriptures. Our way is sacramental, having ordinary things become ways that God is being encountered in our world in countless ways. Our way is to forgive, to serve, to make do with less so that others may have what they need. Justice, mercy, and love.

 Of course, for any of us to truly walk in the Way of Jesus, the Way becomes something that is internalized by us. Why do we pray and read scripture every day? “Because the priest said I had to.” No, we pray and read scripture every day because that’s our Way. Sometimes we may be doing it simply because it is our Way and we’re walking in that Way, but we keep daily prayer and scripture reading as our Way because that Way of life brings healing.

The way of Jesus is ultimately the way of healing. Why would any of us do with less so that others may have what they need? Because we see our brothers and sisters working and not making enough to pay rent. We see our sisters and our brothers getting sick for two weeks and then being evicted because those two weeks without wages kept them from being able to pay that month’s rent. These are the folks I minister with every day, and once folks end up on the streets, it is frightfully hard to get back.

When you don’t have daily access to a shower and don’t have a place to launder your clothes, getting a job is almost impossible. If you have any mental illness and don’t have a job that pays enough to have good medical insurance, and then enough for co-pays and prescriptions on top of that, then keeping a job can be frightfully difficult. There is a lot of suffering in our world, in our city, and our Way, the Way of Jesus, is to help soothe that suffering.

When we do, we also find that our own suffering is soothed as well. Times when we don’t quite see it, all we can do is trust. Trust in the Way of Jesus, trust in how Jesus’ way has been handed down to us in the Episcopal Church. Then there are times when we recognize the healing that has been brought by walking in the Way, and it becomes internalized by us. The Way of Jesus becomes our Way, the Way of healing, the Way of justice, mercy, and love.