It Isn't Just a Flesh Wound

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
June 8, 2025
Pentecost, C
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
John 14:8-17 (25-27)

 

Our bishop has said, “God has a mission, and God’s mission has a church.” Well, God’s mission is to unify humanity with God and with one another, and we are God’s church. God has formed us to live out God’s mission of unity and reconciliation. More accurately, we are part of God’s worldwide, one church, which God has formed to live out God’s mission of unity.

Anglican, Episcopal, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Mennonite, Church of Christ, and countless other church groups, we may argue amongst ourselves, and some of us may say others of us aren’t really Christian, but despite our objections, we are one church throughout the world. We are one Body of Christ, all formed to live out God’s mission of unity and reconciliation.

Of course, we believe that the unity of God and humanity happened a couple thousand years ago when God became human with the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God united physically with every aspect of our lives, so that we are fully united with God, and nothing can change that. Nothing can separate us from God because God has become human in Jesus Christ.

So, since that mission unity with God is done, accomplished, and finished, what is left for the church to do? Well, as I said before, God has formed the church to live out that mission of unity. God has formed the church to live the truth that we are one with one another and with God.

When we don’t live into that truth, when we don’t live as though we are one, we are deceiving ourselves.

In the movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, King Arthur is on a quest to search for the Holy Grail, and in his travels, he comes across a fearsome knight who picks a fight with Arthur. It wasn’t the best idea, Arthur makes quick work of him and when the knight won’t yield, Arthur cuts off the knight’s arm. Then, when the knight claims it’s just a scratch, Arthur cuts his other arm off. Then the knight starts kicking Arthur, and Arthur says, “You’ve got no arms left.” “Yes, I have,” the knight replies. “It’s just a flesh wound.”

Eventually, Arthur cuts off both of the knight’s legs as well (because he still kept trying to fight Arthur), and the knight says, “Alright, we’ll call it a draw.”

So, the knight saying that his arms being cut off was just a flesh wound, that was nuts. Even more nuts was that he seemed to actually be trying to convince Arthur that he still had arms. He seemed to actually believe his own lie, but alas, saying that he still had arms didn’t change the fact that they had both just been cut off.

In a similar way, when we deny that we are one with one another, we are lying to ourselves. When we say this part of the church or that part of the church isn’t really the church, then like the knights, we’re cutting off our arms and legs and claiming it’s just a flesh wound. This goes beyond the church as well. When we harm or dismiss any human and claim that it doesn’t hurt us, we’re like that crazy knight. 

We can think that we can harm others without harming ourselves, but those lies we tell ourselves don’t make the harm any less true. The arm being cut off will never just be a flesh wound.

We are meant to live and acknowledge the truth that we are one. Anything else is a lie.

So, how does the church live out God’s mission? Well, we stop lying to ourselves. We stop pretending that we aren’t unified. We may not like other parts of the church, but as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 12, that’s like a human body where the mouth tells the eyeballs they don’t belong. That’s a pretty stupid thing for the mouth to say, almost as stupid as one denomination telling another they aren’t really a part of the church.

I mean, I get the mouth not liking the eyeballs. To a mouth, eyeballs are just really weird. No teeth, no tongue, strangely spherical, and to eyeballs, I’m sure the mouth is equally strange. Wet without being sad, smelly, can’t see a damn thing. It’s like the Baptists and the Catholics; the two could hardly be more different, but either one saying the other doesn’t belong, well, that’s just dumb.

And, one part of the church telling another part it doesn’t belong is a lie, denying God’s mission of unity, rather than doing the hard work of living out God’s mission of unity.

Now, why do I think God’s mission of unity is hard? Well, a cross, three nails, and a crown of thorns. God’s mission of unity ain’t easy. Easy is seeing the people we don’t like and just giving in to our disgust. Easy is letting anger turn to hate. Easy is saying, they’re weird, they’re different, they’re sinners, and they’re going to hell. The lie that we aren’t one is easy. The lie that God is angry with them but not at us is easy. The lie that we follow Jesus, each one of us for our own personal salvation, and not as a part of one another, that lie is easy, as easy as saying my arm is still here when it has clearly been cut off.

Realizing and trusting that our own personal salvation has already been accomplished and that we are now meant to live out that salvation in and through one another, that truth is harder than the lie, but that truth also gives life. Just like Jesus dying on the cross was hard, but his death gave life.

So, to help us with the hard work of living out God’s mission of unity and reconciliation, God sent the Holy Spirit to unite us, to guide us, and to strengthen us so that when we don’t have enough to live God’s mission, God’s Holy Spirit can work for us, strengthening, guiding, and uniting us as one, because that is what we are. That is the work Jesus accomplished. That is the mission of God’s church which we are invited every day to live.

"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.”

God's Kingdom on Earth, Bound to the Cycles of Nature

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
December 1, 2024
1 Advent, C
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Psalm 25:1-9
Luke 21:25-36

We are currently smack dab in the middle of the dead time of the year. The nights are getting longer, and they have been for some time. With the longer nights, we’ve got less and less light each day. It’s the season of darkness and death. Now, in 21 days, it’ll be December 22, and that is the day of the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. After that night, the days start getting longer, the nights get shorter, the light returns, and while we’re still in this season of winter, this season of death, there’s this rebirth of life with the solstice and the light returning to the world. 

A couple thousand years ago, the winter solstice was on December 25, and that’s why that date was chosen as the day we celebrate Christmas. We celebrate the light of Jesus coming into the world on the day when the days get longer and light returns to the world. 

Every year this happens, a season of death, followed by the return of the light, leading to the season of rebirth and new life. That new life and rebirth is what Jesus was talking about when he said, “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” 

When the fig tree sprouts leaves, the fruit will be coming soon. New life, rebirth. Few of us farm or have a whole lot of knowledge about plants nowadays, so we could say, once the playoffs start, we know a new champion will be crowned soon. Of course, after the new champion, you get the dead season without baseball, football, basketball, or whichever sport you like. Then there’s spring training, the pre-season, and the whole thing starts over again. 

Whether the cycles of the sun and moon, the cycles of plants and nature, or even the cycles of sports teams, there’s a season of life, of death, of rebirth, and of new life. These cycles and seasons continue over and over, every year. Jesus was fully aware of this cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth when he told his followers that the kingdom of God would come like figs on a tree. 

God’s kingdom comes, God’s kingdom fades, and God’s kingdom comes again. Throughout the church, throughout our lives, throughout scripture, we see God’s kingdom coming and being lived for a time, and then we see God’s kingdom fade, not because God leaves, but because here on this earth with the cycles of nature in which we live, God’s kingdom is bound to the same cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. 

God’s full kingdom is beyond our physical world, beyond death and decay, and eventually, God’s kingdom will come fully and for all time. In the meantime, God’s kingdom comes over and over, joining with us in the cycles of our physical lives, and so God’s kingdom in our lives now lasts for a time, fades, and returns. 

How long till God’s kingdom is fully established and there will be no more cycles of death and life, but only life forevermore? No one knows. The writers of the Gospels and the writers of the letters of our scriptures, including Paul, seemed to think God’s kingdom would be fully established pretty quickly. They seemed to think Jesus would come again with the clouds within a few years. 

They were wrong, that’s ok. Look at the prayers they prayed, believing Jesus’ return was imminent. 

“And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you.” That was Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonian churches. May y’all abound in love for one another and for all, “and may [God] so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”

Would that that was our prayer for one another every day. May God increase in us love for one another and for all, and may God strengthen us all that we will be holy and blameless before God.

When Paul prayed that, he was planting seeds of prayer for those churches he had started. The cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth was happening in the Thessalonian churches even as Paul wrote his letter, and so rather than wait for the death of God’s kingdom within their churches, Paul was praying for new life within them. Paul was planting seeds of new life even before the old life had begun to decay. May God strengthen you all to be holy and blameless.

Now, we know we’re not going to be completely blameless before God. Paul knew the folks in the Thessalonian churches weren’t going to be completely blameless. Actual blamelessness before God was never the point. Strengthening in love, that was the point. God’s strength working in us that we may be holy, meaning that we may choose not the ways of hatred and violence we so often see and celebrate in the world, but that we would choose instead the ways of love, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice.

Paul’s prayer was that as the Spirit and kingdom of God began to decay within the church, new seeds would take root and new love, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice would grow in their place. 

Even with the new life and new seeds prayed into people’s lives, there is going to be death, and there is going to be waiting till the new life begins to bud. Such is the nature of all created things. So, part of the prayer for us is also a prayer for patience. 

With our patience and waiting, we have work to do. Like in the off season of sports, like working the ground and caring for plants during the winter, there is work we get to do as we wait for God’s kingdom to be reborn. Our work is to persevere, to build each other up in love. Our work is to comfort one another when discouraged or sorrowful, to encourage one another in faith and life. Our work is to pray without ceasing.

We pray that we will not lose heart as we wait for Jesus to come again. We pray that we will wait with patience for God’s kingdom. We pray that we will increase and abound in love for one another throughout the seasons of our lives. As God’s kingdom grows within us, as there is a fading of God’s kingdom within us, and as there is a rebirth of God’s kingdom within us, we pray always for love to rule in our hearts. 

What Does Life Sound Like?

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
August 11, 2024
Proper 14, B
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
Psalm 34:1-8
John 6:35, 41-51

“Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” That sounds like life to me. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” and the way of Jesus which Paul described in that passage from Ephesians sounds like the bread of life that Jesus is. 

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” Forgive one another for the sins committed against one another. See, God has already forgiven us of all our sins committed against God.  That was done by Jesus on the cross; any sins we commit against God, God has forgiven. No more sacrifices for sin. We’ve been made right with God. Done. Finito. We’ve received that bread and that life so that we can work toward loving one another. 

That is what Jesus gave his life for, so that we might be freed from the bondage of our sins, freed from the ways we’ve acted inhumanely, and with that freedom, we may try again to act more humanely the next time. Then, following in the way of God, Jesus taught us to forgive one another the sins we commit against each other. 

That sounds like life to me.  

We are all beautifully and wonderfully made beloved children of God. We are good. We are made good, and we are blessed. If we look then, at the idea of sin, we need to remember that the word for “sin” in scripture is an archery term, meaning “missing the mark.” 

You know what happens when you miss the mark? You get to try again. Jesus came to free us from sin so that when we miss the mark, we may be healed and try again. Jesus is the bread of life to get us back to the archery range, heal our woundedness, and strengthen us to hit the mark next time. When we don’t, we aren’t beaten by Jesus, we’re given correction, helped to hit the mark the next time. That’s the bread of life. 

Unfortunately, the ways we often treat one another when we sin, when we miss the mark, look more like this.

The archer shoots and shoots pretty well. Then, the archer misses once, and he’s punished. Now, he can’t shoot as well. He misses more and more often, and he’s punished more and more. Eventually, he’s imprisoned for how badly he shoots. In prison, he grows weaker and is injured further. Then he can’t even get his arrows to the target. He’s beaten even more. Does that sound like life to you?

In another case, the archer again shoots pretty well, but then when he misses, others really like it. It was a really great looking shot, and the plunk it made in the tree beyond the target sounded really cool. He keeps shooting at the tree, he keeps missing the target, he keeps getting rewarded for it, and others who are actually hitting the targets, they get ignored. Does that sound like life to you?

Some are punished for missing the mark. Others are rewarded, and we get so used to it all that we don’t even recognize the harm we cause each other because we’ve been beaten down and broken.

That doesn’t sound like life to me. It sounds like how we live a lot of the time, but it doesn’t sound like life. Unfortunately, pretty much of the time we see people routinely rewarded for ways they miss the mark, and we see people beaten down for ways they miss the mark. That’s not the bread of life.

For Jesus’ part, his way is to forgive us and correct us. That’s the bread of life, and yet even in the church, we often follow the way that is not the bread of life. We often follow the way of reward and punishment both for hitting the mark and missing the mark. What have we been doing for centuries in the church when people mess up? We’ve been threatening them with eternal torture.

Threatening people with eternal torture is beating people down for missing the mark. It’s traumatic, and as we beat people down with the trauma and fear of eternal torture, people become less and less capable of hitting the mark. So, they get more and more threats. That’s not the way of life. 

To be clear, Jesus does talk about punishment after this life for those who are cruel to others and for those who are indifferent to the suffering of others. 

What Jesus doesn’t do is give us a clear set of rules to know who deserves God’s punishment, who doesn’t, nor even what exactly that will look like and what the final purpose may be. We’re given glimpses. We’re assured that even when justice doesn’t happen here on earth, God will take care of that justice.

We don’t have a clear picture of what that will look like, and when we claim to know God’s judgement will be like, and when we claim to know who will and who will not be judged by God, we’re putting ourselves in God’s place, turning ourselves into our own idols. We aren’t given the tool of God’s judgement to beat one another down with when we see others missing the mark. We are given the bread of life. 

So, does the bread of life look like assuring those we feel are wrong that they will be punished by God while we will not? No, that does not look like life. When Christians make claims about who God will punish and who God will reward, what we’re doing is beating down and further breaking folks who we think are missing the mark. 

What we’re called to instead is to seek healing. We’re called to remember what sin really is.   

We aren’t forever corrupted and damned in God’s eyes. I know there are parts of scripture, particularly parts of Paul’s writings which, when misunderstood and read out of context, seem to say that we are broken and damned, but we are not.

We are God’s beloved children, and when God became human, God joined with us fully, so that we will know that we are blessed and wonderful.

In the book “To Life: A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking,” Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote, “For Judaism, sin is a deed, not a condition…a sin is not an offense against God, an act of disobedience. A sin is a missed opportunity to act humanely.”

We miss the mark by acting inhumanely, and we don’t heal acts of inhumanity by acting inhumanely ourselves. We heal acts of inhumanity by responding with the very best of our humanity, offering correction with love and helping each other hit the target next time. 

That is the bread of life which Jesus gave. “I am the bread of life,” Jesus said, and Paul described one way we eat the bread of life, by “putting away from us all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and being kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven us.”

Hollow

Inspired by T.S. Elliot's poem, "The Hollow Men" (https://allpoetry.com/the-hollow-men), "Hollow" follows the idea, "this is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but with a whimper," I looked at three aspects of life which can end with a whimper: our relationships, our lives, and our wars.

Looking especially at our wars, I wrote, "knowing once the bombs stop falling, for an ending we'll be calling, crawling on with nothing but a whimper."

I'd say this feels particularly relevant today, but when has it not felt relevant?