Then Stop Following Thieves and Bandits

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
April 26, 2026
4 Easter
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
John 10:1-10

In our reading from Acts, we heard today that in the early church, those who believed were together in joy with one another. What occurred to me was, we’ve got a lot of talk about belief within the church, and a lot of the belief people talk about is belief in punishment for those who don’t believe. Well, I say poopiedoo to that. Anyone can believe in punishment and fear, which is not exactly life. Those who were in that first church believed in life, not death. Let’s see what happens when we believe not just in punishment and death, but when we believe in life. 

Jesus is the gatekeeper and the gate for the sheep, he said. Just after the passage we read today from John 10, Jesus also said he is the good shepherd. Jesus is the one leading the sheep, leading his people, guiding us, keeping us safe. Others, he said, are thieves and bandits who try to harm the sheep

He was talking at the time about religious and political leaders. He was talking about people of empire, people who made very clear claims of who was in and who was out, people who often led by fear. Among the religious leaders, there were those who told people, “You’re no good.” Rather than seeing people as lost and in need of guidance, some of these religious leaders saw folks as no good sinners. Instead of bringing life, they just brought fear of punishment and death. Then you had the king and Roman emperor and governors who truly viewed other people as beneath them. Such is the way of empire, the way of thieves and bandits, the way of those who harm and destroy life.

Unlike them, Jesus is the gate and the gatekeeper. He actually cares about the sheep. He came that we may have life abundantly. Jesus leads us in ways that lead to life, love, peace, health for our bodies and souls. 

Now, he also said that as his sheep, we will not follow the voice of others. Well, he was saying this to some of those thieves and bandits, letting them know that the people he had healed, the people he had shown grace and love to, were not going to follow them any longer. They weren’t going to go back to being beaten down by religious leaders telling them, “You’re a sinner; you’re a sinner; you’re a sinner.” They weren’t going back to the in-group out-group way of empire. They weren’t going back to the way of being told to be afraid. They were going to continue to follow Jesus and live the kingdom of God. 

So, what about us? We hear Jesus’ voice leading us to live the ways of God’s kingdom, and I dare say we also go down harmful paths, following the voices of others. We’re still Jesus’ sheep. As he talked about in another parable in Matthew 18, sheep who wander away are still Jesus’ sheep, and he will leave 99 other sheep just to go find one of us who is lost.

So, we’re still Jesus’ sheep when we follow the voices of others, but we need to admit that we’re following the voices of others as if they were our shepherds. We need to admit that sometimes we follow thieves and bandits.

Now, I don’t necessarily mean others religious folk when I talk about following thieves and bandits. Today particularly, I’m talking about following after drugs, alcohol, and other addictions. When we’re addicted to drugs, we’re still Jesus’ sheep, and we need to admit that we’ve started following the drug dealers and the drugs themselves as our shepherds, rather than fleeing from them as the thieves and bandits that they are.

See, Jesus came that we may have life and have it abundantly. The drug dealers and the drugs themselves are thieves and bandits, taking life bit by bit, while getting wealthy off of it. 

I bring this up because last week, there was a man overdosed on the sidewalk just outside of here. He got NARCANned by EMS and taken to the hospital, and on the sidewalk where he had been, there was trash everywhere, empty beer bottles and beer cans, as well as four other men, stoned out, sitting on a wall, just like he had been, but slightly less near death. They were escaping life, like he had been, and I get that, the desire to escape. I think we all in some sense get that desire to escape when life is overwhelming. I spent a lot of time trying to escape life through alcohol, myself. It didn’t work. It wasn’t life abundant. It was barely living. 

Trying to escape life didn’t really work for the man who overdosed or the men on the wall last week either. Life still hit them, but it hit with them while dependent on the drug dealer’s poison. That’s not life abundant. That’s barely life at all. Such is life when we follow thieves and bandits as though they were our shepherd.

Full confession, I didn’t handle the situation well last week after the man was brought to the hospital. I had the other guys leave, and I cleaned up all the trash, which was fine, but I was pissed off and cussing at the guys as well, which was not fine. I was pissed off at the drugs and dealers leaching away at life, without the slightest thought or care as to how much damage they’re causing. I was pissed off at the trash lying around. I was pissed off that people are scared to come to church because of it. 

Telling the guys to go, clean up your trash and leave, well that was the right thing to do. Shouting and cussing at them wasn’t. They’re still part of Jesus’ flock, and they still deserve for people to honor their dignity, even if they’re not honoring their own dignity. 

The church is a hospital for people in need of spiritual healing, so it is the right place for people who are struggling with addiction. The church also has to be a safe place for anyone to come, and when people are stoned out of their minds, fighting, shouting, and leaving trash everywhere, that’s no longer a safe place for people to come. The church as spiritual hospital is no longer a place where people can come for spiritual healing when there is fighting, shouting, trash, and rampant drug use everywhere around it. 

To those who have been hooked on drugs, those whose lives are being taken from them bit by bit by thieves and bandits, keep coming to church, and give respect to others who are coming here as well. Come to church seeking the Good Shepherd. 

One thing the good shepherd does is drive away the thieves and bandits to protect the sheep. So, to the sheep whose lives have been stolen by the poison of drugs, keep coming to church. To the thieves and bandits who keep selling that crap, stay away until you stop selling that crap. To the thieves and bandits who are selling drugs, you are welcome once you stop selling the drugs, once you stop poisoning people for profit.

Now wait a minute, Pastor Sullivan, you said last week that the way of Jesus is to love your enemies, to bless those who curse you. You said to try having a meal together and to seek peace, for blessed are the peacemakers. How does that square with telling drug dealers only to come back once you stop selling your poison? Well, to any here who are selling drugs, let’s have a meal together. Come talk to me, and we’ll go have lunch, for you, too, are children of God, beloved sheep of Jesus’ pasture. 

Saying, “Come back once you’ve stopped selling drugs,” and at the same time saying, “Let’s have a meal together,” may seem contradictory, but remember, we aren’t people of empire. Empire says in absolute terms, you are either with us or against us. A gospel that believes in fear says you are either with us or against us. We aren’t people of empire. We are not people of a gospel of fear and threats. We’re people of a gospel of resurrection, a gospel of life. We’re people of peace. We’re people of meals together, meals of love and hope, meals of justice and peace, meals of reconciliation and forgiveness. 

That’s the way of Jesus as both our shepherd and as the gate and the gatekeeper. Jesus’ way is to keep the thieves and bandits out, so they no longer harm sheep, and Jesus’ way is to seek out those same thieves and bandits because they are also lost sheep. 

So, if you’re tired of life that is barely life, try staying away from thieves and bandits, in all of their many forms. If you are tired of hearing from others a gospel of threats, division, and fear, then stay away from thieves and bandits. They too are lost sheep, but so long as they follow the ways of destruction, they come only to steel, and kill, and destroy life. We are not meant to follow thieves and bandits. We are not meant to have our lives sucked away from us bit by bit.

Jesus is our gate and our gatekeeper to keep thieves and bandits from sucking away our lives. Jesus is our good shepherd, so that following him, we may have life and may have life abundantly. 

The Armalite Rifle Won’t Save You

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
May 11, 2025
4 Easter, C
Revelation 7:9-17

Psalm 23
John 10:22-30

“Come on, Jesus, tell us if you’re the Messiah or not!?” That’s what the people wanted to know. “Are you the Messiah, or aren’t you, Jesus?” Jesus responded that he had already told them, and they did not believe. Part of why they didn’t believe is because they were looking for a different Messiah.

When the people asked Jesus about being the Messiah, it was during the festival of Dedication, in other words, Chanukah. Chanukah is the feast of the consecration of the altar, over 100 years before Jesus, after the Israelites drove out the Syrians who had desecrated the temple. Having in mind Israel’s military victory over the Syrians, people wanted to know if Jesus was going to drive out the Romans. 

Folks in Israel had been looking for a revolutionary leader who would overthrow the Roman Empire ever since they took over Israel. Jesus just wasn’t their guy. When Jesus was on trial, the crowd told Pilate to release Barabbas, the revolutionary leader, rather than Jesus. Then, a few decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Jewish people actually had a revolution against Rome, and that revolution ended poorly for Israel and in fact destroyed Israel.

“Are you the Messiah?” The people asked. Yes, Jesus was telling them, but you won’t see me as the Messiah because you’re looking for the wrong Messiah. You’re looking for someone to lead you into war and bloodshed. You’re looking for someone to kill your enemies and rule over others in a kingdom of power and might, and that’s just not the Messiah I am.

If you want a warlord as your messiah, that’s fine, and you’ll have a warlord’s salvation. Death, destruction, violence, anger, strife, and fighting forevermore.

That is not the salvation Jesus brings.

Jesus’ salvation comes through love and justice, mercy and forgiveness. Jesus taught that we don’t need to fight and kill to wrest our peace and security from others. Instead, we can seek peace though our unity with God, and then work with God to save and shepherd the lives of those we love (and the lives of those we don’t love). With Jesus as our Messiah, we seek to live God’s kingdom of love and peace, knowing that we won’t fully achieve the love and peace we desire. We strive for justice, knowing that justice will not be complete in this life. We recognize that the peace of God means others will see us as enemy, and we will not seek to dominate or kill them. The peace we fully seek will only happen one day, in that time and place of God’s making where we all “will hunger no more, and thirst no more,” where the “Lamb…will be our shepherd, and he will guide us to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.”

We won’t get that full peace in this life, but we strive for it anyway, and we get glimpses of that peace throughout our lives. We get glimpses of the peace of God’s kingdom as we trust in Jesus and love and serve others as he loved and served us, following the voice of Jesus, our shepherd Messiah.

That’s a very different voice than the voice of the warlord Messiah. If, like some of the people talking to Jesus in our Gospel reading today, if we are listening for a warlord Messiah, then we won’t recognize the voice of Jesus. Listening for a warlord Messiah, we’ll want to conquer, rather than comfort; to subdue, rather than serve; to lecture, rather than love.

Listening for a warlord Messiah, you won’t hear my voice, Jesus tells us, because you’re looking for the wrong Messiah.

I think of churches full of people who brought their Armalite Rifles, AR-15s, to church so they could have a service of blessing for their rifles. Ok, so that’s kinda nuts, and it makes me ask, who is the Messiah for such people? I suppose to be fair, just before Jesus was arrested, Jesus did tell his disciples to gather up some swords. I’ve even heard that said as a reason why Christians should be armed and ready to kill.

Of course that’s a misreading of scripture and ignoring half of the story. In Luke 22, Jesus did tell his disciples to get some swords. Then he told them why. It was so the scripture would be fulfilled, that he would be counted among transgressors. Jesus had no intention for his disciples to use the swords. Peter tried to when Jesus was arrested, and Jesus immediately told him and the rest of them to put their swords down.

I like to think that people who read Luke 22 and think we are supposed to get guns and be ready to kill are not intentionally misreading scripture, but that they are faithfully misreading scripture. I like to think that their reading is simply tainted by nationalistic fervor and a strong gun culture in America. When having a gun becomes synonymous with being a Christian, and being a red-blooded, gun-loving American becomes part of what it means to be a Christian, then we have mistaken Jesus for Barabbas, replaced the shepherd with the warlord.

Even without bringing guns to church for God to bless them, we still may end up following a warrior, rather than a shepherd. In the small, everyday battles of our lives, who do we follow, the warlord or the shepherd? When we come to church seeking blessing, do we intend to change our ways so that we may be blessed in order to bless others? In the words of one of our Eucharistic prayers, do we come to church “for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal?”

Looking to Jesus and hearing his voice, we get to follow Jesus as our shepherd, and we are called, as his sheep, to serve as fellow shepherds. We are called to care for others, and not just those we think are worthy, not just those we think are part of Jesus’ flock. See, the warlord tells us to create and ingroup and an outgroup. The warlord tells us to care for the ingroup and to keep the outgroup away.

The shepherd says, “Feed my sheep,” and the shepherd also says, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this flock.” We may think someone doesn’t belong, but that’s thinking like the warlord. Jesus said, “one shepherd and one flock.”

As Jesus’ sheep, called to live as shepherds, we are called to seek and serve Christ in all persons. We are called to strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being. The warlord doesn’t do that, and the warlord’s salvation comes in this life only, a salvation of death, destruction, violence, anger, strife, and fighting forevermore.

Jesus is the Messiah, because Jesus is a shepherd, calling us to live as shepherds, bearing one another’s burdens and caring for one another. Jesus’ salvation comes in this life and the next, in this life because we help to save each other from hell on earth, and in the next life because we will live with Jesus in that place where “we will hunger no more, and thirst no more; where the sun will not strike us, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be our shepherd, and he will guide us to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.”

Is It Living, or Just Existence?

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church
April 30, 2023
4 Easter, Year A
Acts 2:42-47
John 10:1-10
 

Is it living, or just existence?

Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The thieves Jesus was talking about were all kinds of folks who would rule over others, promising all sorts of goodies, maybe easy street, maybe victory over enemies, maybe power, or maybe just solace and a temporary reprieve from having to feel the difficulties of life. A lot of those things sound pretty good. Not feeling the difficulties of life for a while, victory over enemies, easy street, power…those all sound pretty good, and yet Jesus said the folks peddling those things are thieves coming steal, kill, and destroy. 

Power for one tends to mean domination over for another. Easy street for one tends to mean subjugation and oppression for another. Victory for one tends to mean death, defeat, and despair for another. Not feeling the difficulties of life tends to mean not dealing with the difficulties of life and sinking deeper and deeper into a pit of resentment, desperation, and fear.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

Following in those ways, then, leaves us in a life of fear, doesn’t it? Desire for easy street, victory, and power: fearful that we won’t get it and someone else will. Desire not to feel, fear of life and actually having to face life. Following in those ways of the thief, we end up not truly living, but just existing. We want what we don’t have or can’t have. We’re afraid of losing what we do have. We numb so as not to have to experience life as it is. The ways of the thief leave us just existing.

In the midst of our fear and our sometimes just existing rather than truly living, Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

In the earliest church, which we hear about in Acts 2, we’re told that “those who had been baptized devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” We’re further told that they spent time together, shared meals together, had glad and generous hearts, praised God, and had the goodwill of all the people. That sounds like the total opposite of fearfully existing. Spending time together, sharing meals with glad and generous hearts, praising God, and having the goodwill of all the people sounds like truly living, like the abundant life Jesus came to give.

So, how do we live this abundant life? I could simply say, “just trust in Jesus,” but we know from scripture and from our lives that faith without action doesn’t do a whole lot. In the book of James, such faith without action is even called “dead.”

So, what action makes our faith alive such that we have the abundant life Jesus came to give. Well, again in Acts 2, we’re told, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

That sounds pretty good. Being together with others, learning about and following the ways of Jesus, sharing meals and praying together. That sounds like continually turning our hearts toward God and one another. That sounds like building a community of trust and love.

There was a man who did just that in a story Jesus told. He was a powerful man, living on easy street, managing a rich man’s money, but he was dishonest, and maybe was taking some on the side. When he was found out and was about to be fired, he went to everyone who owed the rich man money and reduced the size of their bills. The point of the story was that when this man lost his power and easy street life, he learned to rely on the people around him, and they knew they could rely on him as well. With money and power gone, he quickly built up a community around him, because that community of people, living in trust and love with one another is the abundant life Jesus came to give.

Like the man in the story Jesus told, the people in the early church, were a community that relied on each other. They lived in abundant life, not on easy street, not with power, victory, or numbing. They lived an abundant life in community with one another.

That community, that abundant life takes trust. Abundant life takes letting people in. Abundant life takes looking out for and depending on one another. The abundant life Jesus described takes faith and prayer together with those on whom we depend. The abundant life Jesus describes takes learning and living Jesus’ was.

 

One of those ways of Jesus is to cease fighting. We cease fighting, and rather than living against others, we live for others. In Jesus’ abundant life, we’re not just going it alone from one thing to the next, but we’re taking action together. We’re not just reacting to one another, but we’re reaching out in support and love.

In Jesus’ abundant life, we’re seeking a revolution, not with power and victory over and against others, but a revolution of life lived together, for one another. A life where we have ceased fighting and spend our time instead in prayer and fellowship, sharing meals together, learning and following the ways of Jesus, learning to love and trust one another.

That’s abundant life. The power and victory over others, easy street and numbing our pain, that’s not abundant life. That’s the fearful solitary life of the thief who came only to steal and kill and destroy. The abundant life of Jesus is love, trust, community, prayer, fellowship, learning and following the ways of Jesus. The abundant life of Jesus is a revolution, living for one another, taking action together, reaching out in support and love, not just existing, but truly living.