Sheep Don't Actually Fight Wolves, You Know

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
June 21, 2026
Proper 7, A
Jeremiah 20:7-13
Psalm 69: 8-11, (12-17), 18-20
Matthew 10:24-39

So, my family and I were watching the movie “Wake Up Dead Man” last weekend. It is the third of the “Knives Out” movies, murder mysteries with the Holmesian detective Benoit Blanc. In this one, the mystery revolved around a very angry priest who was constantly preaching fire and brimstone sermons about the sheep and the wolves. He believed the church were the sheep, the world were the wolves, and the church had to fight like hell to overcome all of the wolves out there. He saw sin all over the place; he saw it infecting the church, saw wolves infecting the church, and so his approach was to call out the sins and drive out the wolves, and fight. Always fight. Things may not have turned out overly well for him; I can’t say for sure.

The idea is cute, though, sheep verses wolves, with the sheep fighting like hell against the evils of the wolves in the world. I think it would make a good cartoon movie, maybe, but sheep don’t actually fight wolves. The shepherd keeps the sheep safe from the wolves. I think that’s part of why Jesus called us sheep. We’re not supposed to fight the world. 

The Gospel is not the church against the world. The Gospel is Christ for the world. Jesus is for the world, and Jesus proclaimed good news for the world, the good news that “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” 

Then again, we get our reading from today in which Jesus said, 

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

So, how is that good news, and what does family members being against one another have to do with the kingdom of heaven that has come near? Well, the kingdom of heaven is God’s way of love, lived out among us, and yet Jesus said he came to bring a sword. Ah crud, I guess no more love. No, obviously not. God is love, and God became human as Jesus, so Jesus was the very love of God living God’s way of love in the world, and God’s love for us is absolute. 

That is good news for the world that desperately needs to hear good news. Sadly, like with the priest in the movie, there is a lot of anger and hatred coming from the church to the world. There are a lot of people in the church thinking they need to fight the world because Jesus said he came to bring the sword, and so there is anger and hatred being dressed up as if it were the love of God. Sheep being told to fight the world, family members being told to fight one another, rather than love one another and show the healing love of God.

That was so much of Jesus’ proclamation, showing people love. He healed folks, ate with folks, cast out demons, and raised up the lowly. Jesus shared the good news of the kingdom of heaven by living the kingdom of heaven, then he told folks about the kingdom of heaven and that they could live it too.

Then, Jesus also promised that even as we live the love of the kingdom of God, we will still be harmed in this world. When he said family would rise up against family, son against father, mother against daughter, mother-in-law against son-in-law (no surprise there), everybody against everybody in a family, he wasn’t telling his disciples, “You must reject your family.” Jesus was warning his disciples that when they went out and started proclaiming the kingdom of God, their family members reject them because they were going to think them heretics. So, be ready for that, Jesus was telling them, and don’t turn against them. Just be ready for the fact that they might turn against you, and when they do, continue to offer them love. 

That may have meant leaving home, in the disciples’ case. Whoever loves their family more than me is not worthy of me, he said, so if the disciples’ families said to them, “If you walk out of this house following that Jesus fella, then you just keep on walking,” then, Jesus was saying, you may have to say goodbye. 

People may reject you for following Jesus’ ways and teachings, and if they do? Go out and shout on a street corner, “Y’all are all sinners, and you’re going to…’”. No, he just said, if people reject you, go to someone else.

People today may want nothing to do with the way of love or a Gospel that preaches and lives the way of love. Ok, they don’t have to. Our job is not to treat them as wolves, and fight them, and force them to accept Jesus. Sheep tend not to stand up against wolves. They tend to walk the other way, which is what Jesus said go on to somewhere else if they won’t accept you. 

Even so, we…no, I won’t say we. I often become a wolf, particularly when something has just really upset me, and I’m really angry. In traffic, I’m almost always a wolf. My daughter actually said she’s afraid when I drive (ok, sorry sweety, I’ll do better). I will say that after 48 years of life, being a wolf has thus far never been really helpful for me, getting so angry that I’m against whoever it is. 

Just a couple weeks ago, Monday morning, my coffee mug got stolen from Lord of the Streets, when we were inside, just before a meeting, someone stole my coffee mug. I don’t know who did it, but whoever it was, my gut instinct, my natural way of doing things was to get really angry with the person and hold on to that grudge and become Captain Resentment. I’m really good at that, which is basically a way of becoming a wolf. Instead, I thought to myself, “What am I going to do if I find out who took it? Am I going to go punch the guy? Am I going to do anything about this to try to get my coffee mug back? No, I’m not. Well then, it’s not worth harboring a resentment over.” 

So, I just let it go. I mean sure, it still bothers me, but alright, I’m out a handy way to hold my coffee. I’ll live. My gosh, I was close to becoming a wolf over something as simple as a coffee mug, but then I chose a different way. That’s the way of Jesus and the way of love in the world. That’s the way of being a sheep in the world.

Now, if we look at the church and how we do things in the church, we have a really good history of becoming wolves, and we have a really good history of being sheep. Our challenge is to continue to strive to be sheep, and what that means is first and foremost we stick to Jesus and we follow in his ways. 

We daily reflect, daily look back. “Am I following in Jesus’ ways? Am I being a sheep, or am I turning against people and insisting that they follow Jesus’ ways? Do I become a wolf about how I want them to?” That’s not being a good sheep to our shepherd.

If we really want to proclaim the kingdom of heaven, then we’re often going to lay aside our desires for how we want the world to work, and we’re simply going to sit at Jesus’ feet and try to follow him, try to find that peace and that love that he gives so that we can offer it to others.

We live out the kingdom of heaven, then, by bringing others in, and welcoming others in, finding out who they are and sharing love with them that they may share love with us too. This is something the Episcopal church has done pretty darn well in the last, well, often, but particularly in the last 50 years or so. 

Women used not to be able to preach, teach, or be priests or bishops. You could polish the silver, but otherwise…Then the Episcopal Church realized we don’t really see that as the way of the Gospel. We don’t see that as a way of sharing love, and so women became priests and bishops in the church and became fully members of the church. 

More recently, our LGBTQ brothers and sisters became fully members of the church. They have been able to be married and to become priests and bishops in the church. This has been not without contention. Some parts of the church want nothing to do with that, and others fully embrace it. What we’ve done a really good job of, as the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Texas is say, “Groovy cool. We don’t all have to embrace that.” 

We don’t all have to live out our way of life in exactly the same way. So, the communities within the church that have felt that full inclusion of LGBTQ members is their way, they’ve gotten to do that. Those who have not, have not had to. 

The problem still, is that so often these different groups within the church have still become wolves, as family rising up against family. “Those are the wrong ones, and they are just horrible, hateful, awful people.” “Those are the wrong ones, and they don’t care at all about doing things right or following scripture.” “Bring the sword of Jesus and turn against them!” We become wolves and fight with one another in the church, when we’re called to be sheep, when we’re called to do our darnedest to follow Jesus as our shepherd and offer that way of love to others. 

We offer the way of Jesus, the way of love to others as best we see it and understand it, and sometimes those others don’t see it the way we do, and so we’re just told to wipe our feet as we leave. If they’re wrong, God’s gonna deal with it. We get to show them the way of love because we’re not wolves. We’re sheep, and Jesus is our shepherd. 

With other churches who do things differently, ok. I don’t have to be right. They don’t have to be wrong. They’re following the way of love the best they can in a way that works for them, as are we. The church is pretty darn big, and there are a lot of different ways that we can live together. We don’t have to force each other to live the way of love exactly the same way. 

Jesus said to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of heaven has come near. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, Jesus told his disciples. Go, and proclaim the kingdom of heaven by healing people, by loving people. Let that way of healing and love be your proclamation. 

So, we today in the church, we often want to become wolves towards those other ones, whoever they are, for doing things wrong and sometimes terribly wrong, but we aren’t called to become wolves. We aren’t commanded to rise up as family member against family member. We’re warned that those conflicts may happen, and when they do, we’re called to love. We’re sometimes called to walk away. We’re called to seek to heal others, with Jesus as our shepherd, not our own wants, desires, angers, and fears. We cast those upon Jesus and ask that he will lead us as his flock, as his family, sharing the way of love. 

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.

Just Deserts

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
March 8, 2026
3 Lent
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
John 4:5-42

Don’t you just love it when your enemies get what’s coming to them? It’s like a delicious meal of deserved justice served with vengeance pie topped with self-righteous ice cream. It’s great. I love it when the bad guys fall and the really terrible people get exactly what they deserve. Enemies getting their comeuppance makes my little black heart sing. 

Then, the rest of me starts feeling pretty rotten, actually. That part of me that sings at other people’s misfortune ends up making the rest of me rather sick. Rejoicing at my enemies’ downfall may feed my cold little black heart, but it feeds my heart poison and grows in me like a cancer.  

It’s said that we are what we eat, and that is true of our spiritual food as well. Junk food and desert taste great, and when that’s all we eat, our bodies suffer. They stop working well. We end up with diabetes, and cancer, and heart disease, and even depression and anxiety can get worse from a bad diet. 

When we feed our hearts and souls with junk food, our hearts and souls become unhealthy as well. Vengeance, delighting when our enemies are hurt, that’s like really bad junk food for our souls. Think about what that diet really looks like: anger; rage; happiness that others are hurting, that’s cruelty. We can’t really be healthy and happy people when we feed ourselves on cruelty. We can’t be healthy and happy people when we delight in people’s suffering, even the suffering of our enemies.

See, the more we eat of people’s suffering, the more we want that food, which means we end up wanting people to suffer. So, even though our enemies might deserve suffering, when we delight in their suffering, we end up becoming cruel people.

Another problem with delighting in our enemies’ suffering is that we let ourselves focus on them, rather than ourselves. If they are bad and are getting what’s coming to them, I don’t need to look at ways I harm people. It’s still there, though, festering and eating us up from the inside. So, it grows in the dark, like mold, like fungus, rotting us from the inside. 

So, Jesus offers us different food. When he met the woman at the well, he told her he would give her water welling up within her to eternal life. Then Jesus talked to his disciples, telling them that the food he has to eat is doing the will of God. 

Well, what was the will of God that Jesus kept doing throughout his ministry? Healing people. Healing communities. Showing people a better way than the way of vengeance, a better way than the way of fighting and being against one another.

When the woman at the well asked Jesus which mountain was the correct one to worship God, he told her, neither was the correct mountain. The time is coming, Jesus said, when people will worship God neither on one mountain or the other, but they will worship God in spirit and in truth. 

So, what’s with the two mountains? They were the mountain on which the temple was built in Jerusalem and mount Gerizim in Samaria. The people of Israel and the people of Samaria were bitter enemies, so the argument over which mountain was the correct place to worship God was really an argument about which people God loved and which people God didn’t love.

So, when she asked which mountain was the best mountain, Jesus told her that folks would worship God neither on the mountain in Samaria, nor the mountain in Jerusalem. Instead, people would worship God in spirit and in truth. That sounds to me like all people get to worship God, regardless of which nation you belong to. That sounds to me like no more quarreling over whose mountain is correct, and if they stopped fighting over which mountain was correct, then they’d no longer be enemies. They’d no longer delight in one another’s suffering 

The food that Jesus offers is for each of us as individual people, and the food that Jesus offers goes far beyond individual healing. Jesus offers food that grows into healing among communities and even healing among nations. A community and a nation full of peaceful, loving, compassionate people is a community and a nation that will spread that same peace, love, and compassion to others.

Now, this is not about turning a nation into a Christian nation. Jesus wasn’t preaching to kings and rulers. Jesus wasn’t calling for a religious conversion of governments. Jesus wasn’t talking about forcing his way on others. Jesus was speaking to a woman at a well and to his disciples. Jesus spoke to the masses, to the people. Jesus met with religious leaders. Jesus wasn’t taking over a nation’s government to force change from the top town. Jesus healed and taught people the way of love to change lives and communities from the ground up. That’s things grow after all, from the ground up.

The food that Jesus offers feeds us in ways that lead away from bitterness, anger, and cruelty and into peace, love, and compassion. The food of taking delight in our enemies’ suffering, decays our bodies and souls, making us bitter, angry, and cruel. The food Jesus offers feeds our bodies and souls with eternal life, making us peaceful, loving, and compassionate. 

A community and a nation full of peaceful, loving, compassionate people is a community and a nation that will spread that same peace, love, and compassion to others. That peace, love, and compassion doesn’t spread through force feeding it, but by offering it and living it. When Jesus offered this food & water to the woman at the well, she wanted it. 

She ran to tell others to come and see a man who, “who told me everything I’ve ever done.” All Jesus actually said was that she’d had five husbands and the man she was with wasn’t her husband. Rather than dismissing this woman as sinful for having five husbands, let’s ask ourselves, “Why?” Only men could sue for divorce, so she hadn’t left her husbands; they had dismissed her. Why? 

Well, we don’t really know why five husbands had all sent her away, but we can guess that it left her feeling hurt and ashamed, probably bitter and resentful too. It could be a shameful thing to be dismissed by one husband, others wondering, “What’s wrong with her?” She’d been dismissed by five, so it’s a good bet she felt deep shame, like she was no good and unlovable. 

Then, Jesus talked to her, not like damaged goods but like a fully important, beloved human. “If he only knew,” she probably thought. Then, she found out that he did know, and he wasn’t shaming her or treating her like a lesser human. That was healing for her. That was the food and water Jesus offered, welling up in her to eternal life.   

The woman went from eating the bread of shame, bitterness, and resentment, to eating and drinking the love of God, the eternal life given by Jesus. Peace, love, and compassion was the food Jesus gave her, revealing the truth of her life, so she was no longer bound by it. There she was, fully exposed, and God was still calling her beloved. That’s being naked and unashamed, as we were created to be in Eden, in the beginning.

From there, the woman spread his message to others, bringing them to Jesus so he could feed them as well, the food Jesus offers growing from the ground up. That what Jesus calls us to do, to offer the same bread and water of peace, love, and compassion, to offer the same healing and eternal life we have be given to others. We’re reminded again and again to stick to this diet as well. 

As much as delighting in our enemies’ downfall is juicy and delicious (and it is delicious), it is also cancerous, harmful food which rots us from the inside out. Set aside that food. Offer it to God. “Here, Lord, accept my offering to you of my anger, fear, resentment, desires for vengeance. Accept my offering to you of the cruelty in my heart. Then, please feed me with your peace. Feed me with your love. Feed me with your compassion. Amen.”

Thanks for Your Forgiveness, God, but I'm Really Cross with this Guy

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
September 17, 2023
Proper 19, Year A
Psalm 119:33-40
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20

Thanks for Your Forgiveness, God, but I'm Really Cross with this Guy

Last week I said, Jesus taught that we are to forgive for as far and as long as there is vengeance. Today, we got to hear Jesus actually giving that lesson. “How often do we forgive?” Peter asked. “Seven times?” That’s a good number, biblical.  “No,” Jesus said, “not just seven times should you forgive, but seventy-seven times.”

That seventy times seven times is not just a number. Seventy-seven times of forgiveness is a reversal of vengeance.

In Genesis, remember Cain who killed his brother Abel? God wanted all the killing to stop so God declared that anyone who killed Cain would be avenged seven times. Then, Cain’s great-great-great-grandson, Lamech, killed a man. Lamech was also worried about vengeance. So, he declared, not God, Lamech declared, “If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech shall be avenged seventy-sevenfold.  

So, when Jesus said we are to forgive seventy-seven times, he declared that we are to forgive so much so that there is no vengeance left within us. As far and as long as there is vengeance, that is how far and how long we are to forgive.

Jesus, then illustrated the point of infinite forgiveness by telling a story of a man who owed a huge debt. How much money did he owe? Oh, a couple thousand lifetimes worth of money. He owed 10,000 talents, we’re told, and a talent was worth about 6,000 days’ worth of wages. So doing the math, 10,000 talents times 6,000 days of wages, divided by 365, times the number of years, and you get about 2000 lifetimes’ worth of wages.

So, an impossible amount that this guy owed, and he was forgiven. That’s how God is with us. God knows we need that forgiveness because it heals us. God desires our healing and our joy, so God forgives us. As far and as long as there is vengeance, God forgives us.

That was Jesus’ teaching about God’s forgiveness, and then, Jesus rather strongly encouraged us to forgive every bit as much as God does.

Let’s be honest. That’s tough. I’m glad God forgives me over 2000 lifetimes’ worth, but when someone has even three months’ worth of stuff against me, I have a hard time forgiving it. That’s how much the guy in the story wouldn’t forgive his fellow worker. A hundred denarii. A hundred days’ worth of money, about three months. He’d been forgiven 2000 lifetimes’ worth, and he wouldn’t forgive three months’ worth.

That sounds about right. Thank you, God, for your infinite forgiveness; I have a really hard time forgiving others. I do; I think I’m not alone in that. Forgiveness is hard.

Not offering forgiveness is harder. Holding on to resentment and not forgiving is like drinking poison, hoping the other person will die. We harm ourselves when we don’t forgive, thinking they don’t deserve it, it’s not just, I can’t let it go because I can’t imagine life without getting the restitution I’m owed. These are all good reasons not to forgive, and when we don’t forgive, we harm ourselves.

Of course, there are two sides to forgiveness; the other side of forgiveness is seeking forgiveness and making amends. This is hard as well, and we often don’t want to even try to make amends.

What if we aren’t forgiven? What if they make us pay up in some big way that we’re just not ready to pay? What if we can’t do or just aren’t willing to do what is asked? Shouldn’t they forgive us? So, shouldn’t we owe nothing?

Maybe so. Maybe not. When we owe an amends to someone else, it isn’t our place to demand forgiveness. If the other person forgives or not, that’s on them. Our part is to work to heal the harm we have caused. If that means we need to repay someone for what we’ve done to hurt them, ok, so be it. Our task is to offer healing, even when it’s risky, and in doing so, we find that we are healed as well.

Looking again at the healing of forgiveness, we saw in our reading from Genesis, the healing Joseph brought in forgiving his brothers. They had beaten him up and left him for dead, and then as an afterthought, figured they’d just sell him into slavery, rather than actually kill him. So, Joseph was sold as a slave in Egypt, and then over the years became powerful in Egypt, second only the Pharoah.

When his brothers asked his forgiveness, Joseph had the power and the right not to forgive them, but he chose the path of healing. If he hadn’t, then the nation of Israel would never have formed, and none of us would be here as disciples of Jesus. Think of the enormous healing that has taken place because of that one act of forgiveness. Whole communities of people throughout the centuries devoted to God’s mission of healing humanity.

That’s what the church really is, what we really are, a community of people devoted to God’s mission of healing and reconciliation through forgiveness. Unfortunately, we’re often not that great at forgiveness.

Think of the churches you’ve been a part of or chosen not to be a part of because there very little forgiveness, where people seemed not even to like each other that much. Think of the conflicts in churches over…I was going to say “piddly shit,” but you aren’t supposed to cuss in church, so I’ll say “small stuff,” the conflicts over small stuff that lead to rifts and fractures.

Little wonder so many people don’t want to be a part of the church when we’re often no better at forgiveness than anyone else in the world, and we’re often worse. Jesus and the forgiveness Jesus gives have so much healing for our hearts, healing for our relationships, healing for the world. How much healing does our world need right now? Fractures and divisions, hatred and conflict.

In the darkness of conflict, we get to be a light of healing and forgiveness. When forgiveness is undeserved, we offer forgiveness anyway, because the healing is so needed, for ourselves and for others. When we harm others, we make amends, even if it costs us, because the need for healing is so great. The healing of forgiveness and making amends brings us freedom and peace, and that freedom and peace grows in our lives, in our communities, and in the world.

Be Not Socially Awkward or Weird: AKA - Our Faith Has No Need for Others to Share It

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church
August 2, 2023
Proper 8, Year A
Romans 6:12-23
Psalm 89:1-4,15-18
Matthew 10:40-42 

Be Not Socially Awkward or Weird:

AKA - Our Faith Has No Need for Others to Share It

 

So, in last week’s Gospel, there was this rather interesting bit where Jesus said that he had come to set family members against each other and, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” At first glance it might look like if we’re going to follow Jesus, we’re supposed to turn against our family? Some might even preach that we should turn against our family or friends if they don’t believe in Jesus.

 

That is, of course, completely misunderstanding what Jesus was saying. First note the context. Jesus was talking to his disciples in first century Israel, and the religious leaders of the time weren’t over fond of Jesus and his teachings. He was considered by many to be a heretic, and so were his followers. So, Jesus was warning his disciples, saying, “If you follow me, your family might turn against you. Realize that fact, and if your family turns against you, don’t stop being my disciples. Work to accept that your family might not understand, that they may turn against you.”

 

That was a tough pill to swallow: people’s families turning against them for following Jesus, being exiled from their communities for following Jesus. Jesus referred to it as taking up a cross. Jesus was telling his disciples, that it was likely going to get pretty tough for them, and he was encouraging them to continue to follow and believe in him, despite the difficulties. Never let anyone fool you into thinking God is against you, even if people turn against you.

 

Never was Jesus’ message, you should turn against anyone who doesn’t believe in me. Nowadays, however, some folks seem to turn Jesus’ message around, saying things like, “If someone in your family isn’t Christian and won’t convert, stay away from them, or if someone in your family is a sinner, stay away from them. Shun them.” Must we hate people or declare others our enemies in order to be Jesus’ disciple?

Nope. Nope, nopey, nope, nope, nope. That’s the exact opposite of what Jesus was saying. Jesus wasn’t saying turn against others. Jesus was saying to his disciples, “People may turn against you for being my disciples, and if they do, accept it, be ok with it, and continue to love them. Realize that God is not against you, even if your family turns against you.”

Then, in our reading today, Jesus continues assuring his disciples that those who treat them poorly need not be worried about. Those who treat his disciples well, Jesus said, would receive the reward of the righteous. Don’t worry if people turn against you for being my disciple, Jesus was saying. Try not to get too down over it. God’s with you, despite what some may say, and God will be with you always.

So, accept that when we seek to follow in Jesus’ ways, some people may not get it.

Now, by and large, most of us aren’t going to face the same kinds of difficulties for following Jesus as his disciples did in first century Israel. His disciples back then faced excommunication, shunning from their families, sometimes even death.

Nowadays in Houston, Texas, when we decide to follow Jesus, some folks may think it’s lame. Some may think we’re going to become terribly judgmental. Some may be afraid we’re going to start hating them because of who they are, things they do, ways of life which some Christians frown upon. Remember, though, Jesus never taught his disciples to hate or shun others. Rather he taught his disciples to accept that people may hate or shun them. Rather than grow angry or resentful, accept it, and continue to love.

In our reading from Romans, today, Paul talked about being freed from sin. In light of Jesus’ teaching, think about sin as being angry, resentful, or hateful toward non-Christians or folks who may turn away from you for being a Christian. Responding to that with anger, resentment, and hatred is dismissing the freedom of Christ and binding ourselves up in sin again. Folks may hate you…for any number of reasons. You don’t have to hate them back. That is freedom.

There are folks in America nowadays who say Christianity is under attack. I don’t

believe it is, but even if Christianity is under attack, Jesus said, “be ok with it.” He didn’t say, “attack them back.” That’s the total opposite of what he said.

There was a gentleman on the Metro up in DC where my wife is right now, and this man got on the Metro and started talking loudly at everyone on the car, telling them about Jesus and how they needed to be saved. That’s not evangelism. That’s just frantic, angry, forcing one’s religion on others. It’s also just socially awkward and weird.

Jesus didn’t say, “force your views on others.” That’s the exact opposite of what he said. Jesus didn’t enslave us to being weird and awkward and hating others. Jesus offered us freedom from fear, freedom from anger, freedom from resentment, and freedom from hatred. Jesus offered us freedom to believe in him, and trust in him, and be ok with the fact that others don’t. Jesus was very clear in his message to his disciples that their faith didn’t require others to share it. Others don’t believe as we do, and our faith doesn’t require them to.

“Bless those who curse you,” Jesus taught. How much more then, does Jesus teach, “Bless those who don’t believe as you do.” Love other people. That’s freedom. We don’t have to get angry or resentful towards others. We are freed from sin, yet somehow the church often seems to be consumed by sin, focusing so much attention on sin…usually someone else’s sin.

“We’re all sinners, we’re forgiven, but you…you had better stop sinning.” Why do we get so wrapped up in sin, especially other people’s sin, when Jesus came to free us from sin? Sin is ways that we harm ourselves and harm others. When we get all bent out of shape over other people’s sin, when we drink that cup of anger and resentment, all we’re doing is poisoning ourselves and then harming others out of our own poisoned souls. Getting so wrapped up in sin just causes us to sin.

As Jesus’ disciples, we don’t offer judgment for others’ sin. Jesus was about forgiving sin, freeing us from sin. We may, in socially normal ways, offer people some of the healing we’ve found in Jesus. We also get to be totally ok if people don’t want it. They don’t have to. Our faith has no need for them to. That’s freedom, freedom which Jesus has given us.

Our way as disciples of Jesus is the way of forgiveness, healing, and love. Anger, resentment, hatred of others has no place in the way of Jesus. Others may not like the fact that we’re Christians. That’s ok. We don’t need to force acceptance on others, to force others to be Christian or even to like Christianity. Jesus didn’t teach us to force our faith on others. Jesus taught us to love. Even if people reject you, love them, Jesus said. In the face of anger and fear, offer the way of love.