We follow Jesus because we know the alternatives.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston

June 29, 2025

Proper 8, C

Galatians 5:1,13-25

Psalm 16

Luke 9:51-62

  

So, discipleship of Jesus determines how we live our lives. It means giving up some of our desires for something even greater. It can take us time and practice, fits and starts to really start following Jesus well as his disciples, and like anything worth doing, we keep at it, even when we mess up on the way.

Look at Jesus’ disciples in the story we heard from Luke 9. Back in Luke 6, Jesus had told his disciples to love their enemies and bless those who curse them. Then, we heard today that when some folks rejected Jesus and his teachings, two of his disciples, James and John, were very zealous, and they wanted to call down fire from Heaven and kill them all. “Lord, those people rejected you. They’re our enemies now, right? We don’t like them. Let’s kill them all” No, guys, Jesus said. That’s not the way.

James and John were Jesus’ disciples, but they really weren’t understanding what his way of life truly meant. “Love your enemies.” Ok, sure, but we should also kill all our enemies, right?

See, they wanted to gratify their desires for revenge and their feelings of self-righteousness. “Those guys rejected Jesus. Now we’re angry. We’ll feel better if we destroy them.” They probably would have felt better, too, more powerful, less afraid, like nothing could stop them or harm them, but that’s not the way of Jesus. Power, revenge, killing, seeking what we want for our sake, regardless of the cost to others…that’s the way of Satan, the adversary, and those who live according to such ways, Jesus said, aren’t fit or ready for the kingdom of God.

After Jesus rebuked James and John, we heard three stories of people who wanted to be Jesus’ disciples, but they didn’t want to change; they didn’t want to give up their own desires. They weren’t ready to let go of some of their own power and control for the sake of others.

“Lord, I want to follow you,” one guy said. Ok, sounds good, but realize your true home will be the kingdom of God, so all other homes you make in this world will be secondary.

See, if we follow Jesus, then our allegiance is first to Jesus, and our home will not be a nation, nor a flag, nor a political party. Our home will not be a gang, nor a family, nor even ourselves. Now, we don’t have to divorce ourselves of our families. We get to still love and live with them. We get to care about our nation. We get to and should care about ourselves.

When any of these come into conflict with following Jesus, however, we don’t get to rest in those things and chose those ways over the ways of Jesus. Our homes aren’t in our nation, our flag, our political party. Our homes aren’t in a gang, our family, or even in ourselves. Our homes are in Jesus, the ways he taught, and the faith he kept.

“Lord, I want to follow you,” another man said, “but first I want to bury my parents.” Ok, his parents probably weren’t dead yet. He was likely worried that following Jesus was just going to be too messy. His parents may not've liked the idea of him following this weird upstart preacher from Nazareth. "Just give me 20, 30 years tops, Jesus, and then I'll absolutely follow you."

Jesus’ response to him is basically, “Why wait?” Do you think your parents won’t want you to follow Jesus? Do you fear your friends or others around you will think you are soft or weak if you follow Jesus’ ways instead of their ways? Would it be difficult or uncomfortable to let people know that you’re no longer into vengeance, that you truly believe Jesus’ teachings about love your enemies and bless those who curse you?

Finally, there’s they guy who said, “Lord, I want to follow you, but let me say goodbye to my family first.” Hold up, guys. You can’t look backwards if you’re going to plow a field. The plow would go all over the place instead of in a straight line, and you’d mess everything up. Besides, you don’t need to say goodbye. You don’t need to sever ties with your family, or your friends. You can follow Jesus and still love your family and friends. If they reject you, so be it, but you needn’t leave them forever. You don’t need to say “to hell with them” or ask fire to come down from heaven and consume them just because they’re not following Jesus.

Jesus was letting folks know that the world is pretty screwed up, and the time to follow him is right now. You may not be ready, but at least start; at least try. James and John and the rest of the disciples, they all screwed up. They weren’t exactly ready, but they tried. They kept at it. Why? Why follow Jesus? Well, we know the alternatives.

We know what happens when we ask fire to come down from heaven. We drop bombs. We make enemies. We simply can’t kill enough people to make ourselves safe. There are always people who care about the folks who are killed, and they’re always going to want revenge. We’re not really making ourselves safe when we drop bombs. We’re just passing the danger on to future generations. Love your enemies doesn’t sound so stupid when we really think about it.

We follow Jesus because we know the alternatives. We know what happens when we have several thousand billionaires in our country with more wealth than 99% of all other people in the nation. We end up with 40% of everyone in our nation struggling to get by, living in poverty, and weeks away from homelessness at any time.

We know what happens when we do all we can to increase the wealth of the rich while doing less and less to bring the poor out of poverty. We end up with the kind of economy we have now, with a shrinking middle class, thousands of billionaires, and 40% of Americans being weeks away from homelessness at any moment.

That’s what happens when allegiance to nation, party, economic ideals, and desires for more come before following Jesus. Several thousand billionaires with 40% of Americans at risk of homelessness every day. 40% of Americans struggling to get by, struggling in school, constantly stressed, worried, fighting, angry. That’s the result of placing wealth, and party, and even some conception of our nation ahead of following Jesus.

Following Jesus means giving up our selfish goals, our selfish desires, and even our self, Jesus said, in order to live in a way that serves others. Geddy Lee, Canadian singer and bassist for the band, Rush had something to say about living in a way that serves others. In his recent book, "My Effing Life," he said of Canada, “Sure, we pay more taxes than many others do, but I prefer to live in a world that gives a shit, even for people I don't know.” A wealthy man happy to pay a large percentage in taxes because he understands and cares about how much that helps others. He’s not even a disciple of Jesus, but he’s certainly following Jesus’ ways in that.

Following Jesus determines how we live our lives. It means giving up some of our selfish goals, our selfish desires, and even our self, for something even greater: the kingdom of God in which we do give a shit about others, even people we don’t know; the kingdom of God in which we love and follow Jesus by loving and caring for others. Following Jesus can take time and practice, in fits and starts, and like anything worth doing, we keep at it, even when we mess up on the way.

Eternal Life Is for After We Die, and other Ridiculous Things Preachers Say

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
October 13, 2024
Proper 23, B
Amos 5:6-7,10-15
Psalm 90:12-17
Mark 10:17-31

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” That’s what the man in today’s gospel story asked Jesus. Of course he buttered him up a bit first, calling him “good teacher.” Maybe he was just being polite, but he also seems a little bit smarmy to me, like he was trying to butter Jesus up a bit to prove that he really was worthy of eternal life, that he really would get the best of everything. It seems that this man’s only real interest was himself and getting into God’s good graces.

Notice that his initial question was totally selfish. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He wasn’t interested in helping bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth. He wasn’t interested in healing the wounds of the world. 

No, his only interest was himself. “How can I make sure things turn out as well as they possibly can for me…and only me?” He asked. “I’ve got enormous riches, I have no interest in helping others, and I want to make sure I have the best of everything after this life too.” Like I said, kinda smarmy. Selfish.

Of course, wanting to be worthy of God’s rewards and wanting to inherit goodness for himself, that probably went along with what he’d been taught. Keep God happy with you. Make sure to follow all the rules just right so you don’t make God angry. If others aren’t following God’s rules, make sure to stay away from them so you don’t get defiled by them. Look out for you and yours. Follow the laws, and God will reward you. Sound kinda familiar to some?

The trouble is, such a selfish way of life is completely misunderstanding scripture; misunderstanding the laws of God; and misunderstanding salvation, eternal life, and the kingdom of God.

Making sure things turn out well for me is not the way of the Kingdom of God. Making sure things turn out well for me is not inheriting eternal life. Making sure things turn out well for me is not, in fact, salvation.

Eternal life, the kingdom of God, and salvation itself are “Love God, and love people.” Anything that helps you do that is following the ways of God. Anything that helps you love God and love people is inheriting eternal life. See, eternal life is the life of God, and when we love God and love people, we are living the eternal life of God. If any want to inherit eternal life, love God and love people, and you’ll find that you are living the eternal life of God here and now.

For the man asking Jesus about what he needed to do to inherit eternal life, he seems to have been thinking about life later on, after life here on earth. He somehow had the life of God detached from this life. He seems to have had the ridiculous notion that life here on earth is just setting us up for something better or worse later on, as though the only point of this life is the next life. Does that also sound familiar to some? That’s insane. The point of this life is this life and how well we love God and love others in this life.

We were made to be people of love. We were made to be people who support one another and care for one another. We were made to care for the earth, this beautiful home God has given us.

You may have heard a song called, “Made to Worship,” with a chorus which begins with, “You and I were made to worship.” My response in hearing that chorus has always been, “No we weren’t,” because I thought the song was saying that we were made for the purpose of being in churches singing to God. That sounds to me like we were made to make God happy be stroking his ego. If I’m religious enough, God will be happy with me and will reward me. That’s insane. That’s not what we were made to do.

So, when I was preparing this sermon, I thought of the song “Made to Worship” as an example of religion gone crazy, and then I looked at the rest of the lyrics, and it’s actually talking about living the kingdom of God.  “You and I were made to worship; you and I are called to love; you and I are forgiven and free. You and I embrace surrender; you and I choose to believe, then you and I will see who we were meant to be.”

Loving others. Accepting and surrendering to God’s forgiveness and the freedom God gives, choosing to believe in God and in God’s ways, despite them not always making sense to us…by doing those things, the songs says, we will see who we were meant to be. We’ll see that we were meant to be people of love. Our worship is meant to help us understand that above all, God desires us to love one another, and then when we do, we find that love to be our true worship of God.

Now, when the man asked Jesus about inheriting eternal life, Jesus responded that the man’s wealth was getting in the way of him loving God and loving people.

“What are you talking about, Jesus, I can have as much wealth as I want. There ain’t no law against it.” True, there’s no specific law against having great wealth, but Jesus’ teaching asks us, “Does what you’re doing help you to love God and to love people, or does what you’re doing make loving God and loving people harder?”

For the man who asked Jesus about inheriting eternal life, his great wealth was making loving God and loving people harder for him. We know this because when Jesus suggested that he sell some of his stuff and give the proceeds to the poor, he walked away from Jesus. He loved his stuff more than he loved people in need. Love God and love people was eclipsed by, “But I really love my stuff.”

Jesus taught that even though there ain’t no law against having as much money as you want, the reason one would have all that wealth is to care for other people, to love God by loving people. Jesus told a parable of a wealthy landowner, who paid everyone who worked for him a full, living wage. Even folks who were only able to work for an hour got a full living wage.

The man in Jesus’ parable had more than enough, and he had love in his heart so that what he did with his stuff was to make sure others had enough as well, not just enough to barely scrape by, but truly enough. Using his wealth to make sure that even those who could only work an hour had a living wage, that was his worship. That was inheriting and living eternal life, not in some after-we’re-dead future, but right then and there, because his life wasn’t bound up in his money, his stuff, for his sake. His life was bound up in the love and care he had for others.

The man who asked Jesus about inheriting eternal life was primarily focused on himself, and any salvation this is primarily focused on things turning out well for me is ultimately not salvation but just more love of stuff. In such a false salvation the stuff we love is just ourselves, and a salvation centered on self is not eternal life; it’s just selfishness.

Jesus showed us in his life and ministry what salvation truly is, what eternal life truly is, and what the Kingdom of God truly is. “Love God and love people.” Whatever helps us love God and love people is true worship of God, and a life lived by loving God through loving people, that is eternal life.