Love, Hope, Faith, and Floaty, Water Walking Awesomeness

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
August 9, 2026
Proper 14, A
1 Kings 19:9-18
Psalm 85:8-13
Matthew 14:22-33

“Dude, if I called you out of the boat to take a stroll on the water with me, did you really think I was going to let you drown?” Ok, so that’s a bit snarkier than what Jesus said to Peter, but I think it really gets to the heart of the question, don’t you? Jesus had called Peter out of the boat in the middle of the sea to take a stroll on the water with him, and when Peter got afraid and began to drown, Jesus picked him up, put him in the boat and said, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

That’s actually a pretty good question. Why did Peter doubt? He saw Jesus, walking on the water. When Jesus called him out of the boat, Peter started out walking on the water just fine, but then he got afraid when he saw the wind and the waves. So, of course, Peter doubted because he was afraid. With fear of drowning foremost in his mind, I can imagine Peter having two questions. Could Jesus keep him walking on the water, and would Jesus keep him walking on the water. In other words, Peter was doubting Jesus’ ability and his good will.

Maybe that sounds familiar.

Sure, Jesus is powerful and all, but can he really help with this? I can see Peter wondering just how far Jesus’ powers extended. If a wave knocked Peter ten feet away from Jesus, would the floaty, water-walking awesomeness still reach him? Then there’s the question of Jesus’ intentions. What if Jesus was secretly angry with Peter and had only called him out of the boat to trick him? What if Jesus actually wanted him to drown and figured this way he could make it look like an accident?

That may sound nuts, and it is nuts, but Peter wouldn’t have been the first to question God’s power or good will. When the people of Israel were hungry and thirsty in the desert after God freed them from slavery in Egypt, they cried out, repeatedly in Exodus and Numbers, “What the heck, God? Did you bring us out of Egypt just so we could die in the wilderness?” The people were hungry and thirsty, so of course they began to doubt. Could God bring them food and water in the desert? Would God bring them food and water in the desert? Spoiler, but God did.

Photo by Sebastian Bill on Unsplash
Text inspired by Despair.com

So, as much as some may like to dis Peter a little bit for his lack of faith, he was in pretty good company in questioning the power of Jesus and the good will of Jesus. Truth be told, Peter was in pretty good company with all of humanity in being afraid and wondering, “Is this really gonna work?” Of course, Peter was afraid. He was walking on top of the water in the middle of a stormy sea. If he hadn't been afraid, he would have been in a coma. I don’t care how much faith he had, his fear response was going to take over. There’s no shame in that.

We all have a fear response. For some of us, it’s kinda mild, and for some of us, our fear response is huge. Now, that’s supposed to be a good thing, protecting us from actual threats, but we often become afraid over things that feel like threats or remind us of threats, even if we’re not really in danger. Just the wrong thing will hit, past trauma will get triggered, and the fear response takes over. So, we get afraid, sometimes very afraid, and once that fear takes over, we may just start to sink. Even if we have great faith, we may start to sink when fear hijacks our brains. 

There’s no shame in that, and the fact that fear takes over doesn’t mean we don’t believe well enough. No matter how well we believe, that fear response may hijack our brains, and we may begin to sink. That’s ok. It happens. So, when it happens, when we’re overcome with fear and we begin to sink, Peter has shown us what to do. Turn our fear over to Jesus and ask for his help. Trust in Jesus and allow our fears and doubts to quiet down so that love, hope, and faith can lead us.

Now, that doesn’t mean everything is always going to turn out great, if only we trust in Jesus enough. Jesus did tell us that even if we have great faith, bad things may still happen to us. People are still people, the world is still the world, and no matter how faithful we are, life’s slings and arrows may still hit us.

The work of the church is to continue in the ministry and mission Jesus has for us, even when we are hit by life’s slings and arrows. We are to offer our fears to Jesus, trust in the mission and ministry Jesus has for the church, and remember Jesus’ message, “Dude, if I call you out of the boat, do you really think I’m going to let you drown?”

In our life at Lord of the Streets, Jesus has given us a mission, and our mission is to relieve suffering and reveal dignity by rebuilding lives through ministries and relationships with people facing homelessness. That’s how Lord of the Streets lives out Jesus’ mission of love, hope, and faith: relieve suffering and reveal dignity by rebuilding lives through ministries and relationships with people facing homelessness.

That’s the mission for everyone who chooses to be a member of Lord of the Streets (and for everyone who chooses to be a partner and supporter of Lord of the Streets). So, for everyone here, that’s all of our mission if we choose for it to be. We help one another out, we build relationships together, healthy relationships where we support each other and build each other up in love.

I was talking to a member last week. He was homeless and now has a place to live near here, and unfortunately, there’s a lot of drugs where he lives and not a lot of love, hope, and faith. So, I suggested that he start offering some of that love, hope, and faith. Invite some neighbors to meet together, pray together, have fellowship together in ways that don’t involve drugs. Ask Jesus to let that grow and bring love, hope, and faith to his apartment building and drive out the drugs and despair. 

The man I was talking to hasn’t stepped out of the boat on this one yet. That’s ok, it’s a fearful prospect. Jesus’ message to him is, “Dude, if I call you out of the boat, do you really think I’m going to let you drown?” If he does begin gathering a community of love, hope, and faith to drive out the drugs and despair, I really don’t think Jesus intends for that to fail.

I’m having to listen to that same message right now as well, “Dude, if I call you out of the boat, do you really think I’m going to let you drown?” We’re in the midst of renovating our building at Lord of the Streets, and at the same time, our A/C went out. This is all happening as we’re working to expand our ministries to help folks get off the streets and stay housed. We’re working to build greater community of love, hope, and faith at Lord of the Streets, so that community can spread, so that folks do get housed, like the man I mentioned earlier, they can continue to build greater love, hope, and faith wherever they are.

Well, with all the crud going on with our building and the A/C going out right as this is starting to begin, I’m seeing a lot of wind and waves, and it’s hard not to get afraid and start to sink. So, what I’m trying to do is listen to Jesus’ message, “Dude, if I call you out of the boat, do you really think I’m going to let you drown?”

What I’m trying to do is believe that Jesus has this ministry for Lord of the Streets, and even though things are a pain in the tail right now, it’s gonna get better. We’re gonna get through this, and we’re going to have this ministry of connection and relationships. We’re going to have this ministry of being able to join together, and grow together, and support one another together, and not only get housed but stay housed and have these communities of love, hope, and faith so the church continues to spread, not only in our building, but in all the buildings where we end up living. 

So, what do we do with our fear of drowning in the meantime? 

Well, we keep on praying. We keep on, every day, saying, “Lord, grant me love, and hope, and faith. Guide me. Guide us. Guide your church into the mission and ministry you have for us at Lord of the Streets.

Then, when we do get knocked down by the slings and arrows of life, because we will, we continue to trust that even though resistance happens, Jesus’ mission ain’t gonna fail. What did Jesus say? “The gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Any one of us may get knocked down. Any one of us may get hurt, but we’re a part of something bigger than ourselves. We’re a part of Jesus’ mission of love, and hope, and faith, and nothing is going to stand against that, as we live that out together, and step out of the boat, and listen to Jesus’ words. “Dude, if I call you out of the boat to walk on the water with me, I ain’t gonna let you drown.”

Peace Be With You: Love and Forgive

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
May 24, 2026
Pentecost, A
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
John 20:19-23

“Peace be with you,” Jesus said to his disciples when he appeared to them after being resurrected. Jesus had been killed. In the process of being killed, he prayed God to forgive those who were killing him. Then after being dead from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning, Jesus was raised from the dead, appeared to his disciples, and said, “Peace be with you.” 

He could have gone with, “Hey guys, I’m back. That death thing that the Romans did to me, it didn’t really take, so let’s go bust them up now,” but no. Jesus let them know that the whole forgiveness thing that he prayed as he was being killed, he really meant it. They tried to kill Jesus, very ineffective; it didn’t really last, but the forgiveness, that part stuck. 

“Peace be with you,” Jesus said, followed closely by, “Forgive.” Jesus’ last command to his disciples before he was killed was to love, and his first command to his disciples after he was resurrected was to forgive.

Love people and forgive people. “As the Father has sent me, so do I send you,” Jesus said. Jesus was sent to love and to forgive, so he told his Church, to love people and forgive people. In the upper room where he had had his last Passover meal with his disciples, he appeared among them and breathed on them saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” He sent them as he had been sent, to heal the hurts of the world through God’s love and forgiveness. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit for the whole Church to continue his work of healing the hurts of the world through God’s love and forgiveness.

Now, when he commanded his disciples to forgive on that first Easter day, he seemed to know exactly how hard it can be to forgive others, and so he reminded them of how harmful and damaging it can be to hold on to someone’s sins and not forgive. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them,” he said, “if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” At first listen and with centuries of church practice under our belts, it may sound like Jesus was giving certain people in the church the power both to forgive people’s sins and to hold people’s sins over their heads and prevent God from forgiving them. 

“If you retain people’s sins, they are retained” may sound like “if you don’t forgive people, God won’t forgive them,” but that’s not the case. Look at Matthew 6:9-15, where Jesus taught his disciples to pray what we call “The Lord’s Prayer.” He taught them to ask for forgiveness in as much as we forgive others. “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Our prayer is that if we do not forgive others, we are asking God not to forgive us. In fact in Matthew 9:15, Jesus said just that. If we do not forgive others, neither will God forgive us. 

So, “if you retain the sins of any, they are retained,” means just that. If you hold on to the sins of others and don’t forgive them, then you truly have held on to them, and they will be yours to deal with. Those sins that you hold onto will be yours to fester and rot within you. What happens when we hold on to people’s sins? Aside from festering rot, we get resentments. We get anger and hate. Resentments against people have best been described as drinking poison, hoping the other person will die. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. If you choose to drink the poison of resentment, hoping to kill your enemy, then yes, you really will be harmed by drinking that poison. If you choose to hold on to people’s sins and not forgive people, then yes, God will hold on to your sins and forgive you just as much or as little as you have forgiven others. If you retain the sins of any, they will be retained, and you will be stuck with their sins, rather than with new life of love and forgiveness.

So, Jesus was warning his disciples of the great harm that is caused by not forgiving others. Heal the hurts of the world by love and forgiveness. That is Jesus’ mission for his church. That is the reason he sent the Holy Spirit to strengthen us and guide us, so that we could share with others God’s love and forgiveness, just as Jesus did.

We are a people of resurrection life, and that resurrection life is lived through love and forgiveness. Not an easy task, and not for only a select few.

When the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples at Pentecost, what we call the birth of the church, they suddenly began speaking in many different languages so everyone who was there heard and understood exactly what they were saying. Jesus’ mission of love and forgiveness wasn’t only for one particular group of people. God’s love and forgiveness are for all nations, all tribes, all peoples. God’s love and forgiveness are for every human being, ever.

That sounds great until we each get to the people we are quite certain do not deserve God's love and certainly don’t deserve God’s forgiveness. The best we can do with some of those people is, “Well God, you may love and forgive them, but I certainly never will.” 

Living and sharing God’s love and forgiveness with others may be one of the hardest things we will ever do. In fact living and sharing God’s love and forgiveness is pretty much beyond most of us or all of us in those really difficult situations, so Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit. We don’t have the strength on our own to live and share God’s love and forgiveness, and we aren’t meant to do it alone. We live and share God’s love and forgiveness with the strength and guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

Perhaps that’s part of why Jesus’ first words to his disciples after he was resurrected were, “Peace be with you.” This is a monumental task I’m about to give you to do, but you won’t be doing it alone. So “peace be with you.” “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Peace be with you. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” so that you may live and share God’s love and forgiveness with others. Peace be with you. Do not drink the poison of resentment, certain that you are right and they don’t deserve forgiveness. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t, but you will all suffer if you hold on to those sins and drink that poison. The world will suffer if you hold on to one another’s sins and drink that poison, so forgive. 

As Jesus’ church, we get to love and forgive. Let Jesus worry about whether or not someone deserve love and forgiveness. Love people and forgive people. That is the way of the church. When you know you can’t love and forgive someone, that’s when you know the Holy Spirit is saying to you, “Peace be with you. Now, breath me in, and let me do what you can’t.” Receive the Holy Spirit, breath it in, and then love people and forgive people.