"To Hell with this, I'm gonna live!"

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
January 21, 2024
3^rd after Epiphany, Year B
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Psalm 62:6-14
Mark 1:14-20 

“To Hell with this, I’m gonna live!”

One of my favorite movies is Serenity, which y’all’ve heard me talk about before. It’s a sci-fi film, many centuries in the future, with a rather sinister galactic government over all the planets and the good guys, a crew of 8 people living on a space freighter, doing various legal and not quite legal jobs. On the ship, you have the captain and others, including the ship’s mechanic, Kaylee, and the ship’s doctor, Simon. Kaylee has had a crush on Simon since they met, and it has gone unrequited for a long time.

So, at one point in the movie, the whole crew is about to be attacked by a hoard of vicious creatures, and things are not looking good for our plucky band of heroes. The captain and a couple of good fighters look like they have things pretty well handled, but everyone else, including Kaylee and Simon…they don’t really have a clue what they’re doing. Assuming they are all going to die, Simon finally professes his love for Kaylee. At that moment, she goes from terrified and fumbling with her weapon to cocking her gun and saying, “To Hell with this! I’m gonna live!”

In Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, Paul wrote, assuming that they weren’t all about to die, but that their lives were about to be drastically changed by the second coming of Jesus. Like many in the early church, Paul seems to have believed that Jesus would be coming again within their lifetimes. So, he was telling the church to act accordingly, as though the present form of the world was passing away. Paul was obviously not entirely accurate with that belief, as we see the world is still turning as it was back in the first century.

His advice to the church, however, was still sound. Far from giving up on everything, throwing up their hands and saying, “Well, I guess nothing much matters anymore,” Paul’s message was a little bit more of Kaylee’s “To Hell with this! I’m gonna live!”

Whether Jesus’ return and the fullness of God’s kingdom comes today, or in another couple thousand years, or even further off than that, the Kingdom of God has still come near, and so we get to live. The Kingdom of God is all around us, alive and well in thousands and millions of ways, all the time, every day.  God’s kingdom is alive and well even in things as simple as marriage and relationships, in joy and sorrow, in buying stuff, and in regular old dealings with the world.

Paul was writing about these things as though the world were about to end, and so he said, for those who had wives to live as though they had none. I can think that might mean, “don’t have kids” because, why would you if the world was about to end. There are all kinds of ways that if you were married, you could live as though you weren’t, some of those probably more helpful than others.

Thinking of marriage as it has been in some times and places, we can think of ancient times and of wives as not being owned by their husbands but there being a bit of a possessive aspect to that relationship. In that sense, it seems like Paul was saying, “Husbands, you can let go of your wives a little bit, rather than holding them as possessions. You can be equals as it is in God’s kingdom, equals without being given in marriage, as it is in the resurrection.”

The same seems true of the rest of Paul’s advice on how to live. Hold on lightly to possessions. They won’t go with you when this life is over, and we have to spend time in our lives working in order to get the money to buy possessions, so we’re literally spending our lives to get possessions. Paul raises a good question, then. How much of your life do you really want to give up in acquiring stuff?

Those who are mourning and rejoicing, Paul said, be as though you were not. Ok, we can’t just not be sad or not be joyful, nor would it be helpful to, but we can, again, hold on lightly to those times of mourning and rejoicing. Times of rejoicing will come to an end, and it’s ok when they do. We continue on, and there is still much beauty in life, even in times when we’re not particularly rejoicing. Times of mourning too, don’t have to last forever. We can after a time of sorrow, give that person or dream that we’ve lost over to God, and we let person go, let that dream go, let that life that we had go.

There is still plenty of life after mourning and sorrow when we are open to receiving it.

Hold on lightly. Even though The End may not come right away, it could come at any moment, and an end may also come at any moment. So, hold on lovingly but lightly. Holdin on with a tight grip is living in fear: fear of losing, anger at having lost, attacking any who seem like a threat. To that tight gripped, fearful life, Paul is teaching us to say, “To Hell with this; I’m gonna live!”

The end or an end may come at any time, so hold on lightly. By holding on lightly, we get to love people without possessing them.

By holding on lightly, we get to possess our things but with an open hand.

By holding on lightly, we get to open our hands to receive the beauty of the world and people around us.

Receiving the beauty of the world and people around us, and holding on lightly, we get to receive both joy and sorrow and not hold on to them forever, because there’s far too much living to do to be stuck fearfully clinging to people and stuff and even life itself.

There’s far too much life to live to waste time clinging to things in fear.

We’ve got a baptism today, and “To Hell with this, I’m gonna live,” is not exactly in the baptismal covenant, but it probably should be. What do we say at the beginning? I renounce Satan and all spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God. I renounce all evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God. I renounce all sinful desires which draw me from the love of God. Then, I turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as my savior. I put my whole trust in his grace and love. I promise to follow and obey him as my Lord.

If that’s not saying, “To Hell with this, I’m gonna live,” I don’t know what is.

We’re declaring in our baptism that we’re gonna live. We’re declaring that we’re going to hold on lightly to the world around us and seek to love, rather than possess. We’re declaring that we’re going to mess up and that we’re even going to hold on to those screw ups lightly. Then, when we do mess up, we’re declaring that we’re going to ask God’s help to turn around again, to open up our hands, to let go of what we’re possessing and to receive from God the beauty of this life once again.

That’s the life of Baptism, the Way of Jesus, the life of the kingdom of God, for the kingdom of God is all around us, all the time. It may be tomorrow, or centuries, or millennia from now before Jesus comes and fully brings about God kingdom. However long or short it is, in the meantime, we get to live. However imperfectly it may be, we get to live God’s kingdom in our lives right now. Rather than wasting time clinging to fear, we get to open our hands and live. 

Love Is Our Identity

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
January 7, 2024
1^st after Epiphany, Year B
Genesis 1:1-5
Psalm 29
Mark 1:4-11

Yesterday was the Epiphany, the day when we celebrate the coming of the Magi to visit Jesus. We call it the Epiphany because it was an “Aha” moment. These gentiles had somehow heard that Jesus had been born. They’d somehow heard that Jesus was to be king of the Jews. They visited with Jesus, with Mary and Joseph, and they bowed down before Jesus. The “Aha” moment was the first revelation of Jesus to the gentiles. Decades before Jesus began his ministry, these gentile Magi came to see that there was something special about this child named Jesus.

Now, today, on this first Sunday after the Epiphany, we have another “Aha” moment with Jesus’ baptism. Right after he was baptized, the heavens were opened, God’s voice called Jesus his beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove. This was a revealing Jesus’ identity, of who Jesus was and is.

Last Sunday we heard about Jesus’ identity, that his identity was revealed in John’s gospel as the Word of God, which is God. Jesus’ identity is God who became human to live as one of us. By becoming human, God connected with us completely in every aspect of our lives. We are one with God, even when we hurt ourselves and one another. Even when we disconnect from one another and from God, God has already joined Godself to that disconnection, so nothing can separate us from God, not even our sin.

That’s called Incarnational Atonement. Our salvation is our unity with God, and that unity has come in Jesus.

Part of Jesus’ unity with us was that he was baptized by John. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and Jesus joined with all of the people coming out to be baptized. The “Aha” moment in Jesus’ baptism is hearing that Jesus’ is God’s beloved Son. Now, when Jesus was baptized, he was already God’s son. As we know from John’s gospel, Jesus was God from before all time and forever. So, his baptism by John the Baptist didn’t make him God’s beloved son. Jesus’ baptism revealed him as God’s beloved Son.

One question is, to whom was that revelation made? Who exactly got the “Aha” moment? Did Jesus? Did he already know who he was? People were coming to John confessing their sins. Did Jesus do the same? Did he think he needed a baptism of repentance for forgiveness? Did he know that he was the one whom John was proclaiming? Perhaps Jesus’ identity as God was revealed to him as well. He was, after all, human, having to learn and grow as he went.

So, maybe Jesus’ identity was revealed even to Jesus. We’re not exactly sure, but we are fairly sure that no one else knew that Jesus was God, and we know that because almost nothing was mentioned about his life between his birth and his baptism. For about 30 years, Jesus was just some carpenter’s kids from the sparrow-fart town of Nazareth. He was a nobody, just a regular bloke. It’s as this nobody, regular bloke that God chose to unite with us.  

For us, then, being united to God doesn’t take anyone special. No fancy collar or clothes, no degrees, no training, no particular holiness. Being united to God simply takes being. In the Incarnation, Jesus has united all of us to God for the simple fact that we are people.

As Jesus’ identity was revealed in Baptism, so is our identity revealed in Baptism. At the end of each baptism, we say, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” That sentence reveals a truth that was already there. Just as Jesus’ baptism gave an “Aha” moment, revealing who Jesus is, so do our baptisms give an “Aha” moment, revealing who we are.

We are one with Christ. We are one with God. We are God’s beloved children. In baptism, we are revealed as Christ’s own forever. We already are Christ’s own. We always have been. Baptism reveals that truth.

Looking at some more of what Baptism reveals about us, think on our Genesis reading. “In the beginning… God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.” Everything God made is good, and everything God made is made in the light.

Now, again, from John’s gospel, we know that Jesus is the Word of God which spoke creation into existence. Also, in the Word of God “was life, and the life was the light of all people.” The very life of God, which is light for all people, is the life in which we were made. We were made in the life and light of God, and we were made in God’s image. We have the life and light of God within us, as part of us.

That too is revealed in our baptism. We are part of the life and light of God. So is everyone around us, all part of the life and light of God. Whether baptized or not, all of us are part of the life and light of God. Baptism reveals that truth of our identity.

Remembering from 1 John that “God is love,” we see another part of our identity revealed in Baptism. Julian of Norwich wrote, “Everything exists through the love of God,” and “With creation we started but the love with which he created us was in Him from the very beginning and in this love is our beginning.” (Revelations of Divine Love, Julian of Norwich)

Love is our identity, as is being God’s beloved children, as is our unity with God. There’s nothing special we need to do or be to make this identity happen. Just as Jesus’ identity was revealed to him in his baptism, so is our identity revealed to us in our baptisms.

We are made of the love of God, and love is our identity. There needn’t be anything special about us for this to be true. In his earthly life, Jesus was just a regular bloke, so as regular folks ourselves, we are part of the light and life of God. We are fully one with God because God became human, uniting Godself to us. In that unity with God, we find our identity, God’s beloved children, all of us and everyone we’ll ever meet, God’s beloved children.

Repairing the World, a Cold and Broken Hallelujah

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
December 10, 2023
2 Advent, Year B
Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
Mark 1:1-8

In one of my favorite TV shows, called Angel, the main character, Angel, is fighting for redemption from his terrible past, and he’s doing so by battle all kinds of forces of darkness in the world. He fights demons, monsters, even regular street toughs. Anyone who preys on and harms others, he’s battling to stop them.

As he goes, the true forces of darkness, the demonic forces try over and over to stop him, and as they keep failing, they decide instead to break his spirit. They meet with him and tell him there’re going to take him to their home, where he can fight them on their own turf and probably die.

So he is taken to their home by a kind of demon guide, and when he opens the door, Angel is led back to regular old Earth, onto the streets of the city where he lived. His guide explains that the forces of darkness made the Earth their home long ago, and they aren’t battling to win. They just persist. Angel had been striving for some ultimate victory, some final battle to rid the Earth of the forces of darkness once and for all, and he is told that he will never be able to do so because for the forces of darkness, there is no goal, no victory. For the forces of darkness, there the pain and suffering they cause, and the next person, and the next person, and the next person to inflict with that pain and suffering.

Well, at this point, Angel pretty well gives up. His spirit is indeed broken, he turns on his friends, and decides there is no point to anything he does. Later, in the midst of his despair, he begins to realize that while he may not be able to win against the forces of darkness, that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t try. He tells his friends, “All I wanna do is help. I wanna help because I don't think people should suffer, as they do. If there is no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.”

Angel realized he wasn’t able to heal the whole world, but he could continue to work to repair the world. The idea of repairing the world is a Jewish concept, and in The Ethics of Our Fathers, Rabbi Tarfon wrote, “You are not obligated to complete the work of repairing the world, but neither are you free to abandon it.” That is the way of life John the Baptist proclaimed in his baptism of repentance.

John was calling the people to repent, to turn around and begin again the work of repairing the world. “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.” Repair the hurt and brokenness you see in the world. Turn from despair, and hold onto hope. Turn from being overcome by the suffering of the world, and join in the work of repair.

Find hope as well, John proclaimed, when you are overcome by the enormity of the suffering of the world. Find hope because the work is not ours to do alone, nor ours to finish. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” There will be a final victory over all evil. Eventually, all suffering and evil will be destroyed, but that ultimate victory isn’t our work to do. That isn’t our victory to win. That’s Jesus’ victory to win. So as you work to repair the world, do not be overcome by the enormity of the suffering in the world. Remember, “You are not obligated to complete the work of repairing the world, but neither are you free to abandon it.” Not even when you mess up.

We are going to mess up and mess up big time as we work to repair the world. In the words of Leonard Cohen. “Love is not a victory march. It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah.” We also mess up and repent as we go. We continue to follow John’s call to repentance, to turning around and beginning ever again the work of repairing the world, including repairing the world from the damage we cause.

Last week, I caused damage right out in front of Lord of the Streets. There have been a lot of people driving around supposedly signing people up for health insurance, taking social security numbers, and in reality, they’re just scamming folks, getting their information and selling it, or signing people up for insurance that won’t actually work for them.

I was tired of seeing this happen, so when a pink van pulled up outside of Lord of the Streets, I had had enough. I began shouting at them to move on, to get the hell out of there. I was disrupting all they were trying to do. As they tried to explain that they were a legitimate business, I would hear none of it and shouted all the more for them to go. Eventually they did.

It turns out, they actually are legitimate, and I was terrible to them. Whether the insurance they’re signing people up for is good or not, I have no idea, and that’s not even the point. I was out of control, shouting, angry, adding suffering to the suffering of the world. Sure, my intentions were good, but I also really wanted a victory. I was overcome by the suffering of the world, and I wanted to win. I wanted to defeat the powers of darkness, so in that moment, I became darkness. “Love is not a victory march; it’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah.”

So now, it’s time for repentance: doing what I can to heal the damage I caused. I called the company and let them know what I’d done, and I asked if they could pass on to their employees who were there that I was wrong and that I was sorry. Now I’m here in public declaring that the pink van insurance people may or may not be really helping folks, but they are a legitimate business, not scammers. 

Following John’s call to make straight in the desert a highway for our God, we do our best in a broken world, often failing, often having no idea what the right thing to do is. So, we repent as we go, and we do so with God’s help. We are not alone in working to repair the world. We are not alone in the darkness of the world, for “The light [of God] shines in the darkness, and the darkness [does] not overcome it.” (John 1:5)

For us as followers of Jesus, there is an ultimate victory of Jesus over all evil in the world. It’s just not our victory to win. So, rather than be overcome by the enormity of the work, realize that every bit of good we do matters. Every bit of healing and repair we bring matters. Even though we don’t bring the ultimate victory, we get to help, simply because we can, because people shouldn’t suffer, as they do. Repairing the world is a cold and broken hallelujah. It’s work we cannot complete, but it is work that, with God’s help, is our privilege to get to do.

Trust: Judgement and Mercy Given Out of Love

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
November 26, 2023
Proper 29 (Christ the King), Year A
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Psalm 95:1-7a
Matthew 25:31-46

Trust: Judgement and Mercy Given Out of Love

When my kids were too young to talk very much or reason much at all, I would give them medicine when they were sick. They might ask what it was for, I’d tell them it was to help them feel better from their cold. They’d basically say, “Ok, Daddy,” and they’d drink whatever medicine it was. It occurs to me, that’s a good amount of trust. They didn’t know what it was; they didn’t know what it did. I said it was to help them out, and so they took it. They trusted their dad.

They’re older now, and they can definitely talk and reason things out. For the most part, I can explain why advice I may give is a pretty darn good thing to follow, and they can understand why they would, or in some cases, wouldn’t follow that advice. Even now, however, there are still sometimes when they wonder why, and the answer is, “I really can’t explain it all. You kinda just gotta trust me.”

We can look at the Gospel in a similar way. Sometimes we really understand the ways of God and what Jesus is teaching us. Other times, we don’t really understand it all, and we kinda just gotta trust God. Today’s passage on the judgement of the nations is one of those passages where, rather than figure it all out, we kinda just gotta trust God. Here’s why.

In the story Jesus tells, at the end of time, all of the people of the earth will be gathered before God, and Jesus will separate them out into sheep and goats. The goats will be sent to eternal fire. The sheep will be welcomed into God’s kingdom. The determining factor in these two outcomes is how we treat one another here on earth. This is pretty clear throughout scripture, that God judges us based on how we treat one another. As we heard God say in our Ezekiel reading,

I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

So, from these passages, we can see several important truths:

We are all, at some point, going to die. The world will, one day, end. How we live our lives is vitally important. We are all immeasurably loved by God. We are all loved by others. How we treat one another matters greatly in this life, and how we treat one another determines how we will be judged by God.

Are we harming one another? Are we caring for one another? Do we push with flank and shoulder and assert our will over others? If so, God has promised judgement upon us. Do we care about people other than ourselves? Do we help one another out when we’re in need? If not, God has promised judgement upon us. If we’re going to take our faith seriously, then we need to take seriously God’s judgement for how we treat one another. After all, God takes it seriously, seriously enough to endure the hardships we place on one another.

“Am I a God near by, says the Lord, and not a God far off? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:23-24) Jesus is the one sitting on the judgement seat, separating us into sheep and goats, and Jesus is also present in our lives, receiving the blessings we give one another and receiving the hurt and harm we give one another. So, how we treat one another matters greatly.

At the same time, God became human and died on a cross for our sins, giving us grace and forgiveness for all of the ways we harm one another.

Those seem kind of in conflict, don’t they? God gives us grace and forgiveness for all of the ways we harm one another, and how we treat one another determines how we will be judged by God.

We could try to put a bow around this conflict, explain the seeming contradictions away to make it all work out very nicely. Many churches and preachers have done this over the centuries. We’ve got all kinds of ways of fixing or relieving the tension between God’s judgement of us based on our actions and God’s forgiveness and grace. The problem is that when we explain this in ways that remove the tension, we tend not to take the whole story seriously.

We end up talking about grace only. Because you believe in Jesus, you have grace, and any terrible things you’ve done to others are forgiven. That’s not the story Jesus told in our gospel today.

So, then others end up talking about judgement only, constantly threatening people with fire and torment to get them to believe in Jesus or change something about their lives. That’s what I call grace for us and judgement for others. You’re going to be judged because you live life in a particular way (usually because of one or two particular things that I find icky). That places us in God’s judgement seat.

In a way, so does the grace only side. You don’t have to worry about judgement because you believe in Jesus. That judgement isn’t ours to give. That judgement seat isn’t ours to occupy.

Grace for all. Judgement for all. Grace for believers, judgement for everyone else. All of these are nice and tidy with bows around them. None of these take Jesus’ gospel seriously.

If we take Jesus’ gospel seriously, then we realize that all of the ways we try to get God’s judgement and grace to fit together nicely is ultimately a selfish endeavor. God’s desire is not just that we selfishly try to avoid punishment by treating each other just well enough to make the cut, caring about others only out of self-preservation.

No, God’s desire is that we actually learn to love one another. How we treat one another matters, and what did Jesus tell his disciples? What was his last commandment to them. “Love one another.” Love cares about the other person. Love does not place me in God’s judgement seat saying, “You aren’t treating others well so I’m going to treat you badly.” Love does not impose my will over others, forcing them to do what I want, good or bad. Love actually cares about the other.

Love takes God’s judgement seriously by believing in the absolute belovedness of every human being. Love also takes God’s grace and forgiveness seriously because of how often we can’t or don’t know how to love others well.

Love doesn’t need a bow around God’s grace and judgement because love trusts.

Look at Jesus’ judgement. It is judgement made out of love, love which sorrows at the ways we harm one another. God’s love can’t abide the ways we hate one another. Gods’ love can’t abide the ways we tear each other down, cause each other’s pain, ignore each other’s pain. Love desires that we love one another. Love says how we treat one another matters. I can trust that.

Look at Jesus’ mercy and grace. It is mercy and grace given out of love, love which knows how hard it is to live our lives. God’s love is not just on a judgement seat far off, but with and within each one of us. God’s love understands how we hurt one another out of our own hurt and fear. God’s love has compassion and mercy on us because God sees that we are hurt and broken. I can trust that.

I can’t explain exactly how God’s judgement fits with God’s grace and forgiveness. Whenever I do, I end up with a selfish, fearful, judgy mess. This is one of those times where I can’t really explain it all. I just gotta trust. 

Give to God the Things that Are God’s: Our Hurt, Pain, Anger, and Fear

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
October 22, 2023
Proper 24, Year A
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13)
Matthew 22:15-22

Give to God the Things that Are God’s: Our Hurt, Pain, Anger, and Fear

So, the Pharisees had a neat little trick they were trying to pull on Jesus. See, Israel was under Roman occupation. The power-hungry and blood-thirsty empire had taken over Israel, like so many other places, because they believed they were the only truly good civilization, and all other places in the known world needed to be ruled by them. They’d all be so much better off if they all just followed and did whatever Rome forced them to do.

Rome still allowed Israel to worship God, follow their own religion, and Rome also had soldiers in Israel, keeping the peace, meaning oppressing those whom Rome felt got out of line. Rome also made Israel pay them taxes so that Rome could afford their occupation and oppression of Israel. Rome’s message was, “We’re going to take over your country and oppress your people, and you’re going to pay us for it.”

So, taxes to Rome were not exactly popular. When the Pharisees, therefore, asked Jesus if it was lawful to pay taxes to Rome, they were trying either to get him arrested by Rome for saying, “No” or to be hated by the people for saying “Yes.”

So, Jesus stymied them in their efforts. “Hmmm, the coin had Caesar’s image on it, so it’s meant to be given to him.” So, yes, paying taxes to Rome was legit under Roman occupations. If Caesar wants to rule over you and control your life, fine. Pay him what is due. That way he doesn’t just come and burn your home and take the taxes anyway. Yes, give Caesar his damn tax money…  

…but don’t play his game. Dominance over others, proving loyalty. Outward sign after outward sign that you are one of us, that you belong, that you aren’t going against the powers that are. That’s the game the Pharisees were playing. That’s the game Rome played.

Jesus wasn’t interested in playing those domination games, proving loyalty, proving somehow that you really are a part of the acceptable group of people. Jesus wasn’t interested in dominating or coercing his followers or anyone else. That’s the way of Rome, the way of Empire, the way of signs and assurances that you are still part of the in-group and don’t need to be punished or banished.

The coin had an image of Caesar on it, an obvious sign of whose it was. You carried the coin; in his mind, your life was his.

Notice, however, that the things that were God’s, that Jesus said to give to God, had no image associated with them. There was no visual to put on display to show you were giving to God the things that were God’s. Jesus offered no proof of loyalty, no faithfulness test, no signs given to assure you weren’t backsliding.

That’s because none of those things exist. Jesus’ message was never, “believe or else,” and yet, we’ve taken the Gospel and turned it into a “get out of Hell free card,” written by God saying, “Believe in Jesus, and I won’t torture you forever. P.S. I love you.”

That was never the Gospel, and all of our various churches’ fearful methods of controlling people’s lives in order to “get them saved” are taking God’s Gospel of love and healing for humanity and turning it into a gospel of fear and coercion. 

What does that fearful, controlling gospel tell so many people? That they’re destined for Hell unless they happen to believe in Jesus. What, then is the god of that gospel saying to humanity? That god is saying “I love you, and I really want you to love me back, and if you don’t, I’m going to hurt you. I’m going to hurt you and torture you forever. Oh! You love me too? Well, that’s great! Now, we can be besties!”

That’s not love or healing. That’s coercion and abuse. “Believe in me or else” was never the Gospel Jesus taught. There are passages which, when misunderstood and read out of context, seem to say that, but “Believe in Jesus, and I won’t torture you forever. P.S. I love you,” is not the Gospel.

Jesus didn’t give a test to the religious leaders like they gave to him to “prove their faithfulness and good religious behavior.” In fact, Jesus made a habit of breaking the faithfulness to rules test, constantly pissing off the religious leaders.

Rather than threats and coercion, Jesus’ religion was fairly simple. Know you are beloved, and love others. That was the religion of Jesus.

See, unlike the false god, the emperor Caesar, God does not sit up on high demanding we constantly give him his due while doing his work and kissing up to him. Unlike the emperor Caesar, God doesn’t give edicts from on high demanding that we kill others in order to make the world how he wants it. That is not the god of Jesus.

Instead, God teaches us to love and care for one another. God gives us healing in those teachings. God teaches us to love, care, and pray even for our enemies, and God gives us healing in those teachings. Then, rather than give harsh edicts from up on high, God becomes one with us and shares with us all the joy and all the suffering of human life. Rather than coercing and abusing us from some throne up on high, God joins us at the cross on Calvary.  God joins in all of our hurt, all of our pain, all of our anger, and all of our fear.

“Give to God the things that are God’s,” Jesus said. We might start with our hurt, our pain, our anger, and our fear.

We find that we are giving to God the things that are God’s when we do as he did and join with one another in our sorrow and suffering. We give to God the things that are God’s when we offer to God all of our hurt, all of our pain, all of our anger and fear. We give to God the things that are God’s when we pray for our enemies rather than kill our enemies.

Then, we also give to God the things that are God’s when we find we’ve done everything wrong. When we’ve acted like Caesar, killed our enemies, ignored and caused the suffering of others, we give to God the things that are God’s.  We give to God all of the hurt and the pain we have caused as well as the hurt and pain we have suffered. Then, we give to God the things that are God’s when we accept God’s forgiveness, when we accept our belovedness, when we accept the belovedness even of our enemies and oppressors, and we are healed.   

Crying Our Anger Into Sorrow, and Our Sorrow Into Love

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
October 15, 2023
Proper 23, Year A
Philippians 4:1-9
Psalm 23
Matthew 22:1-14

Crying Our Anger Into Sorrow, and Our Sorrow Into Love

“How did you get in here without a wedding garment?” The king asks. Jesus told a story about a king who invited people to a wedding banquet for his son. The invitees didn’t show up, so God sent servants into the streets, and they invited any random people they could find. Then, with the wedding feast going great, the king sees someone without a wedding garment and kicks that person out for not wearing a wedding garment.

Like last Sunday, we have Jesus giving a parable of the kingdom of God, and like last week, we may be tempted to assume an easy interpretation of Jesus’ parable with an in-group, an out-group, and ourselves, of course, being with the in-group. Such cut and dried, easy interpretations certainly make our brains happy, and placing ourselves on the side of the in-group makes our brains even happier. Jesus didn’t tell this parable, however, just to make certain people’s brains happy.

Jesus’ parable speaks to the complexities and challenges we face in this life in which the good guys and bad guys, the in-groups and out-groups, aren’t quite as easy to determine as we’d like. Also, if we take Jesus’ parable seriously, we need to take seriously the reality that we’re often in and between both groups.

The nation of Israel is about to begin a ground invasion into Palestine because a week ago, Hamas slaughtered over 1300 Israelis. Hamas’ actions were those of a terrorist group, not a legitimate government. What Hamas did was unconscionable, so it seems pretty easy to determine who the in-group and the out-group is in God’s kingdom, right?

Then we look at how Israel has continually pushed Palestinians off of their land since the formation of Israel. We look at the people Israel has killed, the oppression of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. From that perspective, it seems pretty easy to determine who the in-group and the out-group is in God’s kingdom, right?

Nope. As much as our brains would like the simplicity of it, we can’t just easily say, “You guys are the ones who refused to go to the wedding banquet, and you guys are the ones who God went out and sought who did come to the banquet.” We find instead, that both groups are often the one at the wedding feast who refused to wear a wedding garment.

See, the person without the wedding garment was again no easy solution for determining an in-group and an out-group. The wedding garment represented living life according to God’s will and God’s ways. The person in Jesus’ parable who was kicked out for not wearing a wedding garment was one who wanted all the joys and pleasures of life in God’s kingdom but who refused to live according to God’s will and God’s ways. They really wanted the feast and the great food, but they didn’t want to care all that much about others. They didn’t want to trust in God. They didn’t want to change their ways of life when they heard God calling them to, and so they created their own misery and suffering or continued their own misery and suffering.

The person who refused the wedding garment shows us that what we do in this life matters. Regardless of our faith, the way we treat one another matters. If we’re going to take Jesus’ parable seriously, we don’t just get to place ourselves among the in-group. We have to admit that we are the ones who refused the king’s invitation and didn’t come to the banquet. If we’re going to take Jesus’ parable seriously, we also have to acknowledge that we are the second group of people whom the king then invited who did come to the wedding banquet. If we’re going to take Jesus’ parable seriously, we also have to admit that we’re often the ones who come into the banquet without a wedding garment.

No amount of being in God’s in-group can change that. No amount of being part of team Jesus or team anything else can change the fact that how we treat one another matters.

We’re all messed up sinners in need of grace. We’re also all beloved and wonderful people made as blessed by God in order to be blessings to others. So, how do we bless others in the face of the horrors of terrorism and war like we see in Israel and Palestine?

Well, a way not to bless others is to simply choose a side and feel righteous. We can stir up strife against the other, hoping our team will win. We can add discord and division to the lives of people around us because of a conflict happening on the other side of the world, but that’s not wedding garment kind of life. It’s easy, and it may feel good, but it’s not being a blessing to anyone. Besides, we can each do nothing to change the outcome of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Responding with division and strive, will only add more harm to the world, while helping the side we like not at all.

The best we can do is to respond with love, prayer, compassion, and kindness. We can respond with sorrow. We can respond with anger, when that anger is tempered by tears into love.

Many are going to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, pick a side out of their anger, and decide they don’t like Jews, or they don’t like Muslims. Muslims in our country are already fearful for the attacks they are going to receive, and Jews in this country are fearful for the attacks they are going to receive by people upset about a conflict on the other side of the world. That’s responding with anger, not love. Love doesn’t make an easy determination of an in-group and an out-group. Love sees the horrors around us, sheds bitter tears for the tragedy of human hatred and contempt, and then love chooses to love people.

That’s the best response we can have. That’s wedding garment response. Paul knew this when he wrote to the church in Philippi. Knowing there is strife and horror always around us, Paul encouraged the people with these words.

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in [Jesus], and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)

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.