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"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

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.

Wine Coolers? Really?

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
August 18, 2024
Proper 15, B
Ephesians 5:15-20
Psalm 34:9-14
John 6:51-58

“Give thanks to God at all times,” Paul said. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you,” Jesus said. I wonder if those two things might be related. It’s a good bet, since I brought it up, that I believe they are.

For weeks we’ve been talking about Jesus as the bread of life, and I’ve been talking about ways in which Jesus is that bread of life and ways that we receive that bread of life. So, today we get to add “giving thanks to God at all times” to the ways that we receive Jesus as the bread of life.

So, of course, that means we can’t get sad, or if we do, we have to give thanks about the fact that we’re really sad and miserable. I hope it’s obvious that I’m joking. Giving thanks to God at all times is not just a rule that needs to be followed. Jesus as the bread of life is not just some rule to be followed.

Jesus as the bread of life is a way of life. If we’re looking at eating the bread that is Jesus’ body as a rule to be followed, then we’ve got plenty of systems and commands within the various parts of the church for how exactly we’re supposed to follow that rule.

We share the sacrament of communion, we get baptized, we make an adult profession of faith, and on and on. If we follow these rules about Jesus, then we have life within us, so some teachings within some parts of the church would go. We get eternal life. We get to go to Heaven when we die. All of these rules for how we receive Jesus as the bread of life are fine, I suppose, but a lot of them tend to miss the point. The rules would say, receive Jesus as the bread of life in this particular way, and then you get to go to Heaven. The point of Jesus as the bread of life, however, is that the life of Jesus, the eternal life of God is what we get to live now in this world, following Jesus as a way of life, not just as a rule to be followed.

Following Jesus, living the eternal life of God here and now, we live the truth that there is more beyond this life, so we needn’t fear death, nor be overcome by grief. Receiving Jesus’ bread of life as the way of letting go of our anger and desires for vengeance, we can let our anger turn to sadness, and our sadness to acceptance, trusting in God’s vengeance. Even though there are plenty of people whom we feel definitely deserve vengeance, and yet are obviously fat and happy in this life, we can trust in God’s justice, God’s vengeance, even as we trust in God’s mercy. That life of trust and acceptance, and the resulting peace that comes is the eternal life that Jesus gives as the bread of life.

If we look more at this way of life that Jesus is, we heard Paul say in Ephesians chapter four, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery.” Well, if we look at this simply as a rule, then if ever you get drunk with wine, then you’ve done wrong, and you must repent. “I’m never going to do that again,” you say the next morning. Then of course, you do get drunk on wine again, at some point, and it becomes this cycle, eventually figuring, “Eh, I’ll be forgiven; I don’t need to take that rule too seriously,” or we take the rule way too seriously and not only do we not drink, but we say all drinking wine is wrong and evil.

Even further, if we look at not getting drunk off wine as a rule, well then we get to say, “Paul only mentioned wine, so getting drunk with beer and liquor is ok.” Wine coolers? They’re obviously not ok, but they don’t break the rule. Do we really have to make a rule for each type of alcohol?

Then, we have other drugs that Paul didn’t mention. Do we have to make rules for each of them? Do we have to make individual rules about not getting high or stoned off weed, heroin, cocaine, crack? We’d have to keep making up rules forever, wouldn’t we, because even 20 years ago, Fentanyl wasn’t a thing, so, now we’ve got to make a new rule against that.

Hopefully, all of that is obviously ridiculous. The way of life Paul describes points to the problem not of one substance or one time of getting drunk. Paul telling us not to get drunk off wine addresses how we can use everything I just mentioned: drugs, alcohol, and so many other things. When we’re using these things to escape reality, to feel better regardless of the consequences, that’s when Paul is saying we’re having a problem. When we use alcohol, drugs, sex, money, whatever else to feel better and escape reality, and we lose control and do other harmful things, those are the problems Paul is talking about. Wanting to feel better, heedless of the cost and consequences.

Trying to escape reality, rather than living in reality, that’s the real problem. Becoming addicted to changing the way we feel, rather than working with those feelings and working with others in the world, that’s the real problem.

Enjoying oneself with friends, while “getting drunk with wine,” as Paul said, but being safe, not driving, enjoy the evening, and yes, feeling a little more tired crummy in the morning than you otherwise would, I’m not sure that’s what Paul was talking about. Ok, you enjoyed time with friends; that’s a good thing.

When you start doing it every night? Doing it to numb your life? Doing it so you can make bad decisions and not really care? That’s where the “getting drunk off wine” becomes a problem. That’s where it becomes a way of life that brings death.

So, “Do not get drunk with wine” is not just some rule to be followed, but a way of life in which we seek to deal with life and handle life with the help of others, not just numbing away our feelings to trying to feel good so we don’t ever have to feel.

Part of life is pain and having to deal with that pain, and following Jesus as the bread of life helps us deal with that pain. “Give thanks to God at all times,” Paul wrote. That’s part of how we deal with the pain of life, again, not as a rule, but as a way of life.

Consider the way of gratitude. Following in this way, we work at finding things for which to be grateful, and then we give thanks. We practice living gratitude every day. That doesn’t mean we ignore the bad or push our sadness aside, saying “thank you,” to God just because we’re supposed to. Practicing gratitude means even in the midst of suffering, we look for something for which we can be legitimately grateful. Our sadness is still there, but there’s a little bit of hope too, a little bit of peace.

Following the way of gratitude, we can choose, to some extent, what the world looks like. If we only focus on the negative, the problems, the complaints, then those things become our food.

If we practice gratitude, on the other hand, focusing on the good, giving thanks for blessings we see, then that becomes our food. Feeding off of gratitude, and the goodness in the world, and the blessings we see, that sounds like the bread of life which came down from Heaven. Feeding off that bread of life, we find Jesus is right there with us in our suffering, strengthening us, holding us, helping us join with others. We can practice gratitude, and let that be our food. Doing so, we can receive Jesus as the bread of life, and we can “be filled with the Spirit, as we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among ourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in our hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Crushed By God and Remade

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
October 8, 2023
Proper 22, Year A
Philippians 3:4b-14
Psalm 80:7-14
Matthew 21:33-46

Crushed By God and Remade

Happy Sunday everyone! The Astros won, it’s cooler outside, Jesus is talking about crushing people with stones. “The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” Hurray! Jesus was saying this about the chief priests and Pharisees, those who were constantly critical of and at odds with Jesus. So, when we who are on team Jesus read Jesus saying that the stone will crush anyone on whom it falls, there’s a tendency to read that as, “someone else.” That feels pretty good. The stone will crush someone else. We’re on team Jesus, so we’re ok.

We’ve got to assume, however, that at least at some point in our lives, we’re going to be the ones on whom the stone falls. We’re going to be the ones crushed by the stone. At some point, we’re going to be tripped up by the stone and broken to pieces.

So, the first question I have is, what is the stone that Jesus is talking about?

Well, according to Isaiah 8:14-15, the stone is God. “[God] will become a sanctuary,” we’re told, “a stone one strikes against…a rock one stumbles over…many…shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken…”

Well, that sounds fun! Yea for God being a stone over which we stumble and get crushed. I realize I’m not really selling the whole, “love God” idea right now. God becomes a stone we strike against, a stone we stumble over, and a stone which breaks and crushes us. Can’t God just let us go our way and not hurt us? That sounds kinda nicer, or can’t we just go back to thinking the whole God Rock Stumble Crush Thing is about someone else?

No. We can’t. Deciding who those others are that God is going to make stumble is a pretty quick way to make sure God is going to trip us up. Do not judge others, Jesus said. Take a look at the log in your own eye, rather than the speck in someone else’s. When we’re focusing on everyone else’s faults and flaws, we’re ignoring our own, pretending that we’re just fine and everyone else is at fault. God loves us enough not to go along with our self-deception, so there will be times when all of us will be crushed and tripped up by the stone that is God.

We don’t want it, but because God loves us, God is going to trip us up and have us be crushed and broken to pieces by the stone that is God. So, why would God do this to us as an act of love?

Because we are so often going a thousand miles an hour completely and obliviously in the wrong direction? At that point, it might be kinda nice to have a stone to trip us up and stop us.

A stone of stumbling and crushing, well, yeah, at a thousand miles an hour, we’re going to get crushed by whatever stone we trip over.

That’s an act of love because when we’re going a thousand miles an hour in the wrong direction, we need more than a slow down and some course correction. We need to be remade. God tripping us up when we’re going a thousand miles an hour in the wrong direction crushes us and shatters us so that we can be remade.

On a societal level, think of times and ways we have been remade. Think about what it took to end slavery in this country. The Civil War crushed and shattered this country so that it could be remade. We didn’t do a great job of it, and so there was the Civil Rights Movement which shattered the country again so that we could be remade. Striving to end discrimination on the basis of sex has shattered many who believe they are righteous in their discrimination.

Stumbling over the rock that is God and being shattered is never pretty, but it is an act of love so that we can be remade, no longer going down a path of destruction. On an individual level, being crushed by the stone of God is often called hitting rock bottom.

I think of a man I know, a friend, who was successful and miserable, addicted to alcohol, cheating on his wife with multiple women. He was finally shattered when she left him and took their son with her. He also lost his job. Crushed and shattered. So then, recovery, sobriety, working on his resentments and fears with others’ help, starting to be of service to others rather than just taking from others. After he was crushed and shattered, he was remade. He has a job again. He gets to be with his son again, and his ex-wife trusts him to be with their son. Being shattered wasn’t pretty, but being remade was beautiful. All of it was an act of love by God.

St. Francis was another who stumbled and was crushed by the rock that is God. In his case, his family was hugely rich, and yet he couldn’t help be the poverty he saw all around him. After first stealing from his dad to try to help people out (that didn’t work out so well), he decided to give up his wealth and lived a life of love, prayer, and service. He led others in lives of prayer and service, some living a monastic life, supported by the church, others continuing with the jobs and families, while also devoting themselves to prayer and service of others.

What St. Francis and those who joined in his way of life found was peace in their lives. Love and service to others grounded in a life of prayer became a sanctuary for them, a life of blessing, having first been tripped up by the rock that is God, then shattered and remade.

In the same passage that calls God a stone to trip us up and shatter us, God is called a sanctuary. When we are stopped from going in the wrong direction, we then get to take refuge and recover in the sanctuary that is God. We can then find our way to be led by God in a direction that is whole and healing for us. That’s the idea behind God being a stumbling block that crushes us. God stops us from the harm we are living, we are crushed and remade, and then God becomes a sanctuary for us as we live a life of love and service, grounded in prayer.

So, when Jesus says, “The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” I really do say, “Hurray!” Hurray for being remade in the sanctuary that is God. Hurray for the peace that comes with God as our refuge, living lives of prayer and of love and service to others.