Sure, People Work Hard for Poverty Wages, but We Pray...Is that Not Enough?

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
July 20, 2025
Proper 11, C
Amos 8:1-12
Colossians 1:15-28
Psalm 15
Luke 10:38-42

‘Hey Jesus,’ Martha said, ‘I have a bunch of housework to do. Won’t you please come over and sit around while I do my chores? My sister will probably pay attention to you, and honestly, that really gonna piss me off.’ 

That’s usually how we read this story, isn’t it, and it’s really weird. Why would you invite someone into your home just to ignore them? Also, the message that those who sit at Jesus’ feet and listen are better than those who have to do work is not a message Jesus taught. Jesus was consistently for those who had to work and couldn’t spend all day in the temple. After all, if everyone sat around reading the Bible and praying all day long, who would do things like grow food, work at grocery stores, operate power plants. We give thanks for those who work while others rest.

So, as we often read the story of Martha and Mary, it’s kinda weird. Thanks to my wife, however, I was introduced to a different reading of this story which came from Mary Stromer Hanson*. She points out that we tend to read some things into the text that aren’t really there. For one thing, Martha welcomed Jesus, but not into her home. That was an addition, and the most ancient texts don’t have those words. 

So, Martha welcomed Jesus. Mary, we are told sat at Jesus’ feet, meaning she was one of his disciples who learned from him. It doesn’t actually say she was there in this story. We’re told she also sat at Jesus’ feet, meaning Martha did too. Martha and Mary were both Jesus’ disciples. 

Finally, we’re told that Martha was distracted by her many tasks, which we assume means housework, but the Greek actually says “ministry”. Martha was distracted by her ministry in her hometown, and she was asking Jesus to send her sister back to help her. 

Jesus is telling her, then, that she has a good ministry and that her sister, Mary, also has a good ministry elsewhere. You don’t need her here, Jesus was saying. What you need is to draw near to God as you do your ministry. Look at all you are doing; it’s great ministry, but you are becoming distracted from the one who is with you. Don’t forget to join with me as you serve others. You can become so consumed in that work that it becomes a burden. Join again with God, let God’s love fill you, then your service will be a blessing both to others and to you.

Prayer and service work hand in hand. As Pope Francis said, “You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. This is how prayer works.” At the same time, feeding the hungry can be your prayer for the hungry. Prayer and ministry of service are all tied up together as one.

We draw near to God by listening to God. Draw near to God by acting with love towards others.

In our reading from Amos today, God says, 

Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land…Surely I will never forget any of [your] deeds. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation…The time is surely coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. (Amos 8:1-12) 

In "ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN",
Kal-El is a champion of the working
class and working poor. His symbol 
that of the working class on Krypton.

In Amos, the people were no longer able to draw near to God and hear his Word because of how they mistreated the poor and lowly. They went to God in prayer often enough, but they paid the poor poverty wages and rejoiced in their own wealth, blaming the poor for not doing more or working harder. 

Because of how they treated people, they could not draw near to God, no matter how hard they tried. God would not hear their prayers, nor would God let his Word be heard among them. 

Sitting at the Lord’s feet, being Jesus’ disciple, demands action. Drawing near to Jesus for our prayers to be heard demands following Jesus’ teaching and abiding in his love, living out his love for others. Living out Jesus’ love for others is sitting at Jesus’ feet. Following Jesus’ teaching is drawing near to Jesus in prayer.

At the same time, living out Jesus’ love for others requires us to return to Jesus for prayer and learning. That sounds contradictory. Prayer is service. Service is prayer, and we have to do both intentionally. 

 

Without drawing near to God for times of rest, we can become overcome by the work, the ministry, the suffering of others. That’s what was happening with Martha. She was getting overcome by the enormity of the work of ministry, the enormity of the work of loving others. She was getting overcome by seeing suffering all around her, and so she wanted Mary to come back home and do the work with her. 

What Martha actually needed, however, to take a break from her work, and spend some time sitting at Jesus’ feet, learning again, resting in Jesus’ presence, and drawing near to God in prayer. That means some of the work wouldn’t get done. That’s ok. There’s always more work to do, always more love to give, always more suffering to soothe, and God commanded us to rest, to take time to draw near to God. 

When we don’t take that time to rest, then we can’t hear God anymore, and we often start following the ways of the Adversary. When we’re overcome by the suffering of the world, we often become angry and hateful toward those who are causing the suffering. When we don’t rest in God, we turn against our enemies, rather than for those we seek to serve, and even our service can bring the darkness of the Adversary, rather than the light of the Holy Spirit. 

When we’re overcome by the Adversary, we can’t hear God’s word. We need rest to offer to God all of our hatred and all of our anger. We need rest to offer to God all of our righteous fury at those who pay poverty wages while enriching themselves. We offer all of that to God so that God may heal our hearts and we may live out the light of God’s love once again. 

So, when we hear the story of Marth and Mary, and we’re told we need to be more of a Mary than a Martha, that we need to pray and stop doing so much work, that’s not really what the story tells us. We need both. Prayer without service can lead to selfish faith, not caring about those around us, like we saw in Amos. Service without prayer can lead to being overcome by the enormity of suffering in the world. We need Martha and Mary, prayer and service. True discipleship means we pray for people and we love and serve people, walking with Jesus all along the way. 

* https://eewc.com/new-view-mary-martha/

https://stromerhanson.blogspot.com/2015/11/mary-of-bethany-her-leadership-uncovered.html

Do not be afraid, for the Word has become flesh...

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
December 29, 2024
1 Christmas, C
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 147
John 1:1-18 

“[Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.”

When Jesus was born, the Word of God became human. The Word of God which spoke creation into existence became human. The word of God which gave the law of Israel became human. The Word of God which spoke through the prophets became human, and most importantly of all, the Word of God which is God became human.

When God became human, an angel of the Lord went to nearby shepherds and told them, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

That little baby, wrapped in bands of cloth, surrounded by family and no small amount of animals was God born among us as the human child, Jesus. The good news of great joy is that God became human and was born among us, as one of us, uniting all that we are in perfect union with God.

That’s good news of great joy, and yet we so often hear it told as remarkably bad news, don’t we. “If you don’t believe in Jesus, God’s gonna get you,” right? We do talk a lot about God’s judgement of the wicked, the unjust, and those who gain wealth by oppressing others. Thank God, God has judgement on such people.

Here’s the good news: even that judgement and that wickedness has been united to God in Jesus. That’s the whole point of the incarnation, of the Word of God becoming human; everything about us has been united to God. Nothing can separate us from God and God’s love. Amidst all the storms and crud of life all around us, we are perfectly united to God: in our faith, in our fears, in our kindness and in our sins. We are forever one with God through that baby wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

Now, I said earlier that Jesus, in the manger, was surrounded family as well as all the animals. I don’t just mean Mary and Joseph. As much as I love our manger scenes with more cows and sheep than people, as in a barn set away from the house, that was almost certainly not the case. The room where they were was attached to and part of the house where animals could be kept. They were probably at the home of a family member. So, Jesus was surrounded by Mary, Joseph, and other family members celebrating the birth of Mary’s firstborn son, and they were surrounded by animals.

Thinking of this manger scene of family and animals, I was reminded of Noah’s ark. The Manger, the birth of Jesus, was like a little ark, a little sanctuary amidst the flood of all the crazy that was going on around them. Rome was oppressing the Jewish people, there were fanatical religious leaders calling for armed rebellion, tax collectors and soldiers were extorting money from people, and as it turned out, the king of Israel was a crazy enough dude that he thought murdering babies was a good idea.

So yeah, life was like a terrible flood of crazy all around and in the midst of that flood, you had this ark, this manger in which God was born among us surrounded by loved ones and animals, a safe place from the storm, and a new beginning.

On that night, in that manger ark, our new life of perfect union with God began, and with that new life, God began once again God’s life of love among us. Remember that revolution of repentance I talked about last Sunday, Mary, singing her song of praise to God and of revolution on the earth? Remember, I said that God’s revolution for us is meant to change the crazy of the status quo not by violent revolution, but by the non-violent revolution of repentance? The next step is the non-violent revolution of love.

The Word of God became human because our union with God is what gives us the strength to love in the face of all of the crazy going on around us.

The strength to love in the face of oppression, the strength to love in the face of assault, the strength to love even in the face of murder and rape. That is the revolution of love that God gave us on that night when Jesus was born. We saw Jesus live out that revolution of love all the way through his death and into life everlasting beyond death.

We still see Jesus’ revolution of love being lived out among us in our world today. I think of the time after South African after apartheid. There was terrible violence and oppression during apartheid, and there was violence done in ending apartheid. Faced with this boiling rage among the people of South Africa, Nelson Mandella set up the Peace and Reconciliation Commission, and he asked Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu to lead the commission.

The commission offered amnesty for people involved in apartheid and in the violence done against apartheid. The commission sought truth from those who had harmed so many through their oppression and violence, and victims got to hear from those who had harmed them. The victims got to know that the perpetrators understood what they had done and see the humanity of their victims.

The work done through the Peace and Reconciliation Commission wasn’t perfect, and not everyone agreed with the work, but the work overall brought peace and reconciliation to a nation on the verge of collapse through conflict. Jesus’ revolution of love paved the way for the people of South Africa to move beyond the hurts of the past and find some peace amidst the hurt and hatred, amidst storms of the crazy of life.

Archbishop Tutu wrote:

To forgive is…a process that does not exclude hatred and anger. These emotions are all part of being human. You should never hate yourself for hating others who do terrible things: the depth of your love is shown by the extent of your anger.

However, when I talk of forgiveness I mean the belief that you can come out the other side a better person. A better person than the one being consumed by anger and hatred. Remaining in that state locks you in a state of victimhood, making you almost dependent on the perpetrator.

If you can find it in yourself to forgive, then you are no longer chained to the perpetrator.

Freedom and salvation. Freedom from sin, including freedom from the sins of others. That is the salvation of Jesus and Jesus’ revolution of love. Gathering with Mary and Joseph, with family, and with animals around the manger and the babe wrapped in bands of cloth, we can rest in that ark of freedom and salvation amidst the storms of life around us. The Word of God has become human, uniting us perfectly with God. All of our faith, all of our fears, all of our kindness, and all of our sins have been united to God. So, “Do not be afraid, for we have been brought good news of great joy for all the people: to us is born…in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord,” for the Word has become flesh and dwells among us.

Cool. Now We Have a Sword.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
August 25, 2024
Proper 16, B
Ephesians 6:10-20
Psalm 34:15-22
John 6:56-69

Put on the whole armor of God, Paul writes. Armor is a defensive tool, meant to keep us from harm. Armor up. Get yourselves ready, each day, for everything that’s gonna be coming at you, and let’s face it, on any given day, there’s a lot that may be coming at us. Bad news, loss, shouting and anger, physical attacks, sexual assault and rape, eviction, theft, derision, scorn. 

The armor of God is meant to protect us from these attacks. More accurately, the armor of God is meant to protect our spirits from these attacks, to keep our hearts and our minds from being beaten down and broken by the assaults we face every day. 

Paul writes that “our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this present darkness; against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Physical attacks are going to come. They are going to come. They’re going to hit us. They’re going to hurt us. The armor of God is meant to protect us from the spiritual attacks which come along with those physical attacks. 

Look at the armor and protection that Paul writes about. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and whatever shoes will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. 

So, look first at the belt of truth. Among the countless lies we hear, we are often told in a thousand different ways how worthless and terrible we are. If we believe those lies, then we begin to believe that we are, in fact, worthless and terrible. We hate ourselves, we hate the world around us, we live in darkness and fear. We’re also often told that various other groups of people are worthless and terrible, and if we believe those lies, well then we begin to believe that we can treat those other groups of people as terribly as we want to. With these lies of how terrible and worthless we and others are, we can have a pretty dark view of the world and take out our wrath on everyone around us. We see this a lot.

Against such assaults, Paul tells us to wear the belt of truth. If we believe the truth that we and all people are beloved and beautiful, made in God’s image and infinitely valued by God, then those terrible and worthless lies we are told will fall away, unheard. We won’t end up attacking ourselves and one another because we believe the truth of all of our blessedness and belovedness.

Look at the breastplate of righteousness. The more harm we do to others, the more our spirits are fractured and broken. The more we figure, “my life, my world, my way,” the angrier and more resentful we get when things keep not going our way. 

The breastplate of righteousness, then, allows us to give up the belief in “my life, my world, my way.” Rather, the breastplate of righteousness reminds us that the world is Gods, our lives are Gods, and the way is the way of Jesus. Living God’s life, in God’s world, following the way of Jesus, we get to give up the anger and resentment of me and mine. We get to live the harmony of letting go, of choosing to be righteous rather than getting what we think is righteously ours. 

The shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. We believe in God who is good and who is for us. We believe in life lived in unity with God, and we believe that life of unity with God continues on even after our mortal bodies die. With that faith, though many assaults may happen to our bodies, we still walk in this world with God. We can let that peace rule in our hearts, and heal the bitterness and anger over the things that have been done to us. 

Then there are our shoes, as we walk through this life with the armor of God, we can let people know how we can find peace amidst hurt, how we can find acceptance when things don’t go our way, how we can find worth in ourselves and love of others in a world full of people who tell us hate. As we walk through the world, we can let people know that our peace, acceptance, worth, and love come from our belief in God, walking in the ways of Jesus. 

Finally, there is one last piece to the armor of God, and this is the one piece that can be used both for defense and for offense. That is the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Cool. Now we have a sword. Now we get to attack people. 

Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s not what that means. Considering all the armor that has come before, suddenly getting to attack people doesn’t really make sense. What is the sword of the Spirit, and how do we use it?

The sword of the Spirit is the word of God, which doesn’t mean that it’s the Bible. Remember, the Bible as we know it didn’t exist yet when Paul wrote these words. It was centuries before Paul’s letters, the Gospels, other writings of the Christian scriptures and the writings of the Hebrew Bible were all collected together into one agreed-upon book. 

Also, if we look at the Bible itself, the books of the Bible aren’t the Word of God. Jesus is. So, Jesus is the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. 

As offense weapons go, Jesus doesn’t seem like the best thing in the world with which to harm others. If we’re actually using Jesus, the Word of God as the sword of the Spirit, then we would be doing as Jesus did: caring for people, healing people, “loving one another, just as Jesus has loved us.” That is how we use the sword that is Jesus. Love, healing, caring, compassion and communion.

What about using Jesus to attack people in an argument, like a keen and bloody sword? Well, again, our enemies are not flesh and blood. Our enemies are not people to attack. Jesus is a sword against spiritual forces of darkness, and the way to attack spiritual forces of darkness is love, healing, caring, compassion, and communion with others. 

With the whole armor of God, we won’t feel the need to lash out and attack others with the sword of the Spirit. Rather, we’ll see other’s hurt, others’ brokenness, and we’ll want the sword of the spirit to attack what’s hurting them, and that is done through healing. The sword of the Spirit only attacks the spiritual forces that are harming people. As we give compassion, love, and healing, and caring in community, the sword of the Spirit defends people. 

So, armor up. Every day, we can help each other put on the whole armor of God: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and whatever shoes will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. Finally, walk with Jesus, the sword of the Spirit to attack spiritual forces of darkness by defending, loving, and healing one another.