Do You Feel Particularly Saved?

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
March 16, 2025
2 Lent, C
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Psalm 27
Luke 13:31-35

“Run, Jesus! Run for your life! Herod’s trying to kill you!” The Pharisees warned Jesus, and Jesus replied, “Aww, y’all are so cute.” That’s not an exact quote, a little poetic license, but the idea is there. The Pharisees were almost certainly lying to Jesus. They were the ones who wanted Jesus to stop his preaching, not Herod. Even when Jesus was arrested, Herod saw Jesus as a curiosity and sent him back to Pilate for judgment. 

So, the Pharisees wanted Jesus to stop preaching, they gave a B.S. death threat to get him to quit, and Jesus saw right through their lie, calling their bluff, saying essentially, “If Herod wants to kill me, here’s where I’ll be, and I’m not going to stop.” That much they understood. What they probably didn’t understand was that Jesus was telling them, “Not to worry, I am going to be killed shortly after I ride into Jerusalem.”

Jesus knew that continuing on with his preaching and healing ministry was going to get him killed, and yet, he persisted. He went to the cross, not hiding from it, knowing that his teaching and way of life was the very thing that was going to get him killed. He continued on, accepting the cross, rather than living as an enemy of the cross.

That’s how Paul referred to people who wouldn’t live according to the ways and teaching of Jesus, “enemies of the cross.” “Their minds are set on earthly things,” Paul wrote. The whole idea of the cross, of personal suffering for the sake of others is beyond them. So, while they may give to others, they won’t do so if it brings any personal suffering. 

“Take up your cross,” Jesus said. “Lose your life for my sake.” That doesn’t just mean physical death. Give up your egos. Give up our need to be right. Give up your need to be justified, compensated, avenged. Let those things go, seek God’s will, and say, “Father, forgive them.”

Living as an enemy of the cross, on the other hand, means choosing one’s own power to force one’s way in the world. Had Jesus been an enemy of the cross, he would have unleashed all the power of God to destroy those who would have killed him. Had be been an enemy of the cross, Jesus would have denied forgiveness and chosen wrath. Rather than forgive all, he would have chosen to justify himself and his way by condemning all who did not live according to his way. I’m pretty sure that would have been most, if not all of us. 

As an enemy of the cross, Jesus would have used his power to gain more power and still more power, not serving the poor and those in need, but punishing those who did not. As an enemy of the cross, he would not have made himself friends with sinners, but he would have joined with those who considered themselves righteous, and he would have joined in their self-righteous glory. He would have stayed in an ivory tower, looking down upon the lowly with scorn. As an enemy of the cross, Jesus would have considered things like empathy for other people a weakness, and weakness is something an enemy of the cross cannot abide.

An enemy of the cross would follow the temptations of the Devil, choosing power over others, forcing one’s will and one’s way on others. Even if that way is the way of Jesus, forcing that way on others is not the way of Jesus. Folks in the church did that to the indigenous people of this land, likely thinking that the indigenous people were enemies of the cross, never realizing that by forcing Christianity, they themselves were living as enemies of the cross. Might makes right? Not according to the way of Jesus. Might makes right is an enemy of the cross, and the way of an enemy of the cross leads to destruction.

Even with faith in Jesus, the way of an enemy of the cross leads to destruction. Even with faith in Jesus, the way of might makes right leads to destruction. Even with faith in Jesus, the way of coercion and forcing one’s will on others leads to destruction. Even with faith in Jesus, looking down upon the lowly and rejecting empathy leads to destruction.

Paul was clear in his letters, as was Jesus in his teaching, that faith, without the way of the cross, is dead. James actually wrote the words, “Faith without works is dead,” but you can see the truth of those words throughout Paul’s writing and Jesus’ teaching. 

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus said, “but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) “Imitate me,” Paul wrote, “and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.” (Philippians 3:17)

Our faith in Jesus is lovely and good, but without following Jesus’ way of life, our faith withers. Discipleship, walking in the way of Jesus is what give our faith life to transform our lives and the lives of those around us. 

Does that mean shouting at others about our faith? Nope. Loving, forgiving, helping, that is the way of Jesus, the way of the cross. When we follow the way of the cross, we give up our power and live as servants. 

Living as servants, following the way of the cross when we see so much in the world that needs fixing. Overcome by it all, we may find ourselves alone shouting into the darkness. We may find ourselves being tempted as Jesus was, seeking power to force our will on others, but that is living as an enemy of the cross. We shout in the darkness when we are overcome by the problems in the world, and then we join with others, building one another up in love. 

We leave our despair at the foot of the cross and accept the death that the cross brings. The many deaths that happen in our lives: the death of might makes right; the death of coercion and force; the death of scorn for others; even one day, our physical deaths. We accept the way of the cross, and we find salvation, dwelling under the shelter of Jesus wings, gathering us as a hen gathers her chicks. Salvation, dwelling together under Jesus wings, dwelling forever the in peace, love, and unity of God. That is the way of the cross.

Living as an enemy of the cross, is a life that is also seeking salvation, but it is a life of anger, a life of wrath, a life of fear. Living as an enemy of the cross is a life of choosing to get yours over others. To hell with anyone else, I’m gonna get mine. 

In times of following that path of “I’m gonna get mine,” do you feel particularly saved?

Do you, instead, feel alone and even more fearful of losing what you have?

That’s what the Pharisees felt, afraid of losing what they had, and so they wanted to silence Jesus. Jesus said, “No, I choose the way of the cross,” and Jesus invites us to live the way of the cross as well. Letting go our fears, accepting our many deaths, and joining with others in love, we find shelter in the shadow of Jesus’ wings, as he gathers us like a mother hen gathering her chicks. 

Faith, not a Formula: Following the Advocate

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
March 9, 2025
1 Lent, C
Romans 10:8b-13
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Luke 4:1-13

In Bible study this week, we talked about following the ways of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, rather than following the ways of the Adversary, whose name is Satan. During our disagreements in Bible study over what we thought a passage meant, we’d sometimes respond by telling another person they are wrong, and our way of believing is right. Oddly enough, arguments would ensue, some back and forth variation of I’m right and you’re wrong. Now, if one of the two people was right, then then other one may well have been wrong, but when we get into those arguments, we’re working against one another, following the way of the Adversary, Satan. 

We could simply offer our own beliefs, not against the other person, not declaring them wrong, but simply offering what we believe. That’d be more of a Holy Spirit kind of way, not speaking against you, just advocating for what I believe. That way, we remain united, even in our differences, as opposed to a church that is fractured and torn apart.

A fractured church is what we see in Paul’s letter to the Romans. The church in Rome was made up of both Jewish followers of Jesus and Gentile, non-Jewish, followers of Jesus, and those two different groups seem to have been at odds with each other, both telling the other that they were wrong. “You have to be Jewish if you really want to follow Jesus,” the Jewish Christians said, and the Gentile Christians responded, “We don’t do all of that law of Moses stuff that you do, because we just believe in Jesus, so our faith is better.”

Well, Paul was having none of it. “Ain’t none of you got a leg up on the other, guys.” To the Jewish followers of Jesus, Paul was pointing out that the law was fine, but why would they demand it of anyone, when they still needed Jesus in addition to the Law. Then, to the Gentile Christians, Paul was pointing out that they were no better than the Jews, if anything, maybe a little worse off, because everything to know about God was right there to be understood in creation all around them, and yet they had made idols to worship instead of God. 

So, Paul’s basic argument is, “Y’all are both doing fine, and you don’t need to follow Jesus in the exact same way.” The different ways we all follow Jesus in the church now are all pretty good because we are all so very different. With all of our differences, we all still share this idea that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead. That’s what Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome to let them know that even though they were very different, what united them was Jesus. Jesus is Lord and God raised him from the dead.

With Paul’s writing of unity within the church, there has been a temptation whittle his writings down to a simple formula. One, “confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord,” and two, “believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.” Then, “you will be saved.”

I’ve heard these words talked about as the right way to believe in Jesus and that anything those words will lead you to destruction. So, we’ve got fighting within the church as people take Paul’s words and turn them into something he didn’t intend. We use Paul’s words to say to different kinds of Christians, “I’m right, and you’re wrong,” and we let the Adversary tear the church apart. 

We don’t quite go to war with different parts of the church the way we used to. Christians killing Christians over which type of Christian you were. Heck, there were even times in some parts of the church where making the sign of the cross over yourself in the wrong way could get you killed. 

Nowadays, our attacks tend to be more verbal, Facebook, shaming, and maybe that’s not as destructive as killing people, but we’re still harming one another terribly out of this feeling that “I’m right and you’re damned.” 

This all comes out of fear and a resulting need for certainty. What if they’re right? Does that mean I’m wrong, and if I’m wrong, is my salvation in question? So, we give into the temptation for certainty, rather than faith, and the opposite of faith is certainty. Doubt goes along with faith, because we don’t know with faith. We choose to believe. Certainty, on the other hand, leave no doubt, and therefore no faith. So, in our quest to alleviate fear, we choose certainty over faith. We fight with one another, because nothing helps certainty more than an out group (I must be saved because they aren’t), and we end up following the ways of the Adversary, Satan, rather than the Holy Spirit.

When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, we like to think that it was easy for Jesus not to be tempted, thinking about Jesus being God, but we gotta remember, Jesus was human. You bet Jesus was tempted. He’d been out there for 40 days. He was hungry, so when Satan said to turn bread into stone, you bet Jesus wanted to do it. One, he could have, just used his God-powers and poof, magic bread, but The Adversary was the one challenging him to do so. Giving into that temptation, Jesus would have been following the way of the Adversary, telling God, “I no longer trust you. You’ve kept me here, safe, for 40 days, and now, I no longer trust you.” 

Then, when Satan told Jesus he’d give him power and authority over all the kingdoms of the world, you bet that was tempting. Think of what Jesus could do with all the people of the world under his control. He could make the nations and the people do as he wanted. ‘You want to seek injustice? Too bad, you’re not allowed. You want to oppress your workers and ignore the needs of the poor among you, well, I won’t let you, because I’m in charge now.’ 

Everything Jesus preached and taught, he could make people do, except, of course, he’d have to worship the Adversary first, and then he’d have to follow the way of the Adversary. He’d be fighting against anyone and everyone who didn’t want to do as he said. What would happen when people said, “no.” Would he drive them out of town? Take all of their money? Just kill them? Yea, that wouldn’t have worked out so well, Jesus following the way of the Adversary.

So, Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil, choosing instead to trust in God, knowing that God was absolutely for him. 

That is the trust Jesus offers for us to have as well because Jesus is absolutely for us, and Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, the Advocate to be for us as well. God is 100% for us, not like Satan, the Adversary, who is against us and leads us to be against one another.

God gives us the Holy Spirit to be our Advocate, that we may be each other’s advocate as well. Rather than fear leading us to the temptation of certainty, God’s love for us can lead us to the trust of faith. With that trust, trusting that God is for us, we don’t need others to be wrong for us to be right. We can let other Christian groups and denomination believe and practice their faith as they do without having to prove them wrong. 

That even goes for the weird denominations (and I think we all know which denominations we all think are weird). I know which ones I think are weird and wrong, and that’s for me not to share, but to give over to God, and say, “Here you go, Lord. I think they’re weird, but that’s my problem, not theirs, and I’m going to give that to you and ask that you grant me your Spirit, that I may be for them and not against them.”

That’s what Paul was encouraging the Christians in Rome to do. The Jewish Christians thinking the Gentile Christians were weird and the Gentile Christians thinking the Jewish Christians were utterly baffling, Paul was writing them to let them know that their unity was in Jesus, and Jesus was for them both. Weird, crazy: groovy. God is for us, and so we can be for one another. In our fears and our temptations for certainty, we can trust God’s love and be for one another, following in the ways of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit.

Walking In the Glory of God

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
March 2, 2025
Last Epiphany, C
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
Luke 9:28-43a

If you’ve ever had a “mountain top” experience or been astounded at the greatness of God, then you may have some idea of what Peter, James, and John felt up on the mountain with Jesus or what the crowds felt after witnessing Jesus heal the boy with the demon. Awe, wonder, hope, joy, peace? Sometimes people have these blow your socks of kinds of experiences of some great encounter with God where they feel or see something miraculous in the world. Sometimes it’s a sudden spiritual awakening, a massive awareness of God’s presence and the guidance of God’s Spirit. 

Now, I say sometimes because these experiences of God don’t happen all the time, and they don’t happen for everyone. Peter, James, and John were up on the mountain witnessing the full divinity of Jesus shining through. It was a massive encounter with God, and it only happened to those three guys. None of Jesus’ other disciples ever saw that, and even for Peter, James, and John, it was only once, and it was very brief. Once the encounter was over, they went back down the mountain to continue their lives. They couldn’t stay on the mountain forever basking in the glory of God. 

So, what did they do when they went back down the mountain? They went about their daily lives, probably not basking in the glory of God, but they certainly were living in the glory of God.

See, Peter, James, and John were thoroughly Jewish, as were Jesus and all of Jesus’ disciples. So, when they went back down the mountain, they continued living the Torah. Torah is the first five books of the Bible, and Torah is the written law given to the people of Israel through Moses. So, when I say that Peter, James, and John lived the Torah after they came down the mountain, I mean they lived the way of life given to them by God.

Torah is more than just a bunch of laws. Torah is the way the people of Israel came to know God and to walk alongside God. Torah is understood by some rabbis to be created by God before all else and that creation itself was made through Torah. So, when Jews live according to the ways of Torah, they are coming to know God through that way of life, quite literally living in the glory of God throughout their daily lives. That’s what Peter, and James, and John did when they came back down from the mountain. While no longer basking in God’s glory, they were living in God’s glory every day as they lived and walked in the way of Torah.

Now for us who are not Jewish, who are followers of Jesus, we don’t live according to Torah. Many of us have heard of the 10 Commandments, and we follow them more or less; I’d recommend more than less. Instead of following all of the laws of Torah, however, we follow Jesus and seek to walk in his ways. When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, with Moses and Elijah next to him, God’s glory shone through Jesus himself, as the living embodiment of Torah, the living embodiment of the Law and the Prophets. What some rabbis say of Torah, Paul wrote of Jesus. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created…”(Colossians 1:15-16)

So for us, when we walk with Jesus, seeking to live according to Jesus’ teachings and ways, we are walking in the glory of God as well. Very few of us may have mountain top experiences, grand encounters of God’s miraculous presence, and yet we can still walk daily in the glory of God. When we trust in Jesus and follow in his ways we come to know God more and more. Like the Jewish people coming to know God through Torah, we come to know God through Jesus, through his life and teachings.

For an example, Jesus taught not to seek revenge, but rather to pray for our enemies and bless those who curse us. When we do so, we can find peace, giving our anger over to God. We also find life in Jesus’ teaching because when we don’t seek revenge, we have a better chance of not being killed. Last week, a 17-year-old was shot and killed by some fellow students in a pickup truck. The groups of teens had gotten into an argument the day before, and then, rather than letting it go, praying for his enemies, and giving his anger over to God, the teen and his friends began the fight again, and the young man was killed. When we say Jesus’ ways are ways of life, sometimes we mean that very literally.

Refrain from anger, leave rage alone, and instead, pray for your enemies and bless those who curse you. Following in those ways of Jesus, we come to know God, and we find life. Jesus said we find our lives by losing our lives, and this is part of what Jesus meant. Letting go of anger, forgiving others is a way of letting go of our life, letting go of our desires and trusting not in ourselves, but in Jesus and in Jesus’ resurrection. Letting go of our lives also means literally letting go of our lives believing that life continues on even after death. Letting go of our lives doesn’t mean that we seek death, but that we accept death and no longer fear death. Accepting and losing our fear of death, we may find forgiveness and blessing our enemies to be easier too. In all of this, we walk daily in God’s glory, coming to know God through Jesus.

Now, following in Jesus’ ways is not an automatic thing. Like most things in life, we can’t just say we’re gonna follow Jesus and then, poof, it happens. We gotta train, and practice to daily follow in Jesus ways.

So, we have the season of Lent, which begins this Wednesday. Lent is a season of prayer, a season of turning our lives back around towards God’s ways, and a season of giving things up in order to strengthen ourselves. We give things up for Lent to train ourselves to tame the desires of the flesh. By giving something up during the 40 days of Lent, we learn to master our desires, seeking God’s help in little things so that we become stronger to follow in God’s ways when it really matters. 

When temptations come for us to fight or get revenge. When temptations come for us to feel better or numb out in harmful ways: drugs; casual sex; drinking to oblivion. We practice resisting temptation during Lent so we become used to giving our harmful desires over to God and taming our flesh. The trust comes that if we give up those ways, if we give up always satisfying the desires of the flesh, then we can be strengthened for greater love and peace, walking with God, and knowing God. Note that giving into our desires doesn’t make us terrible people, giving into our desires usually does harm us and harm others, and then we find we’re walking in darkness, rather than God’s glory.

So, what are the ways of Jesus in which we want to walk? I’d say the baptismal covenant pretty well tells us how to walk in Jesus’ ways. We promise, with God’s help, to join with others in learning and following Jesus’ teachings, to pray together, and to enjoy life together. We promise, with God’s help, to turn away from ways of harm and destruction, and to return to God when we realize we’ve gone down those destructive paths. We promise, with God’s help, to live and talk about the life we have found in Jesus and the way of love which we follow. We promise, with God’s help, to love all people, realizing God dwells in all of us, and so we will seek justice and peace, honor and respect.

We don’t exactly need a mountain top, massive encounter with God to realize that walking in the ways of our baptismal covenant, walking in the ways of Jesus, we will find greater life and love than when we follow in the ways of our anger and our desires for vengeance. Following in the ways of Jesus will bring greater life and love than when we follow the desires of our flesh with no regard to the harm it may cause ourselves or others. 

That may sound good here, but the challenge is to trust in Jesus’ ways beyond here, in the moment, when we really want revenge or the desires of our flesh. That’s when the true trust comes that we will find greater light and life denying the desires of our flesh, denying ourselves and following instead the teachings and way of Jesus. That trust and will bring us life, walking daily in God’s glory. That trust and faith also brings peace amidst our fears as we believe that even death is not the end, but that life continues on in Jesus’ resurrection, living forever in the glory of love of God.

Without forgiveness, blessing, and love, the killing always starts again.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston

February 23, 2025

7 Epiphany, C

Genesis 45:3-11, 15

Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42

Luke 6:27-38

Jesus knew that Rome was going to destroy the nation of Israel. His people, his home, the land he grew up loving, Jesus knew that Rome was going to take it over, destroy the temple, and leave most of the Jewish people no longer living in their ancestral homes. He told of this coming calamity in Luke 21, and knowing that Israel’s enemies were going to destroy them, Jesus taught to “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

What about fight, kill, and destroy your enemies so they don’t destroy you? Wouldn’t that have been better for the people of Israel? Well, for a time, Israel did fight against Rome, and they had some victories and held out as long as they could. A full victory against Rome, however, was simply not something Israel was able to achieve. They were too few and without the discipline and tactics of the Roman army. 

Jesus probably knew this too, but losing a war was not why Jesus said to love your enemies and bless those who curse you. He didn’t qualify his teaching with, “If you know it’s a fight you can’t win,” then love your enemies. No, Jesus simply gave the teaching, “Love your enemies…bless those who curse you,” without qualification or exception. 

So, let’s look at his teaching a little bit. What about those who think you are worthless, stupid, and are prejudiced against you? We can certainly hate those people back. We’d be justified in hating them back, and initial anger and hatred toward those who hate us is exactly how we should feel. Of course we feel hatred toward those who hate us. Jesus teaches us not to stay in that place of hurt and hatred, however, because for one thing, when we hate those who hate us, we prove them right about us. Hating those who hate us, we justify their hatred, at least in their minds. 

Jesus teaches us instead to pray for our enemies and live in love towards those who hate us. By loving our enemies, we prove them wrong about us. Loving our enemies, we may even turn our enemies into our friends. Love your enemies, Jesus taught, and bring healing to the world. 

On the other hand, think about hating your enemies, choosing not to forgive. Think about unforgiveness and the hatred that comes from it. Think about Hamas and the killing and rape their hatred let to. They had legitimate grudges against their enemies, and yet their attacks haven’t turned out well for anyone, not the least for themselves. Thousands of Israelis killed, tens of thousands of Palestinians killed. Hamas’ hatred proved Israel right about them, and so Israel felt totally justified in killing over 50,000 Palestinians. Like Israel fighting against Rome 2000 years ago, Hamas wasn’t able to kill all their enemies, and they lost terribly.

At the same time, in Israel’s destruction of Hamas, they seem to have rather decidedly won. Gaza is destroyed, and most of Hamas’ military operations are gone, and yet, there are Palestinian children who will remember the bombs and the killings from Israel, and in a generation or two, they will likely rise up again against Israel just as Hamas has done, and the cycle of violence will continue. 

Even when we win against our enemies with hearts full of hatred and anger, we may feel at peace for a time, but our enemies have friends and children, and many who care about them, and they’ll remember the hurt we cause, and they will rise up one day. No peace. No healing. No bonds of humanity uniting people back together. No compassion. No mercy. Just hatred, violence, killing, and waiting for the day when the killing starts again. Without forgiveness, blessing, and love, the killing always starts again. 

“Love you enemies…and bless those who curse you,” Jesus taught. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” How lovely it would be if we’d simply trust Jesus and strive every day to do as he taught, but we don’t, partially because we get so caught up in our emotions, and partly because we’re not sure we trust Jesus. 

I know he said to love our enemies, but, well, I need revenge. I’m angry. I’m hurt. They don’t deserve me doing well unto them. They deserve vengeance. True, but we’ve only been at this human life thing for thousands and thousands of years, and violence and revenge has not yet brought the peace and healing we crave. We just keep believing The Adversary’s lies that vengeance will make us feel whole. It hasn’t yet. Vengeance just keeps the cycle of violence going without end.

So, what do we do with our anger and hatred? We give them to God. We offer our rage, our hatred, and our desires for vengeance to God, laying them at the foot of the cross, asking Jesus to do with them as he will. Do others deserve our vengeance? Sure. Let God handle it.

“Refrain from anger,” we’re told in Psalm 37. “Leave rage alone; do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil. Do not fret yourself because of evildoers; do not be jealous of those who do wrong. For they shall soon wither like the grass, and like the green grass fade away.”

Evildoers shall fade away. Ooh, does that mean God’ll kill them? Maybe. Maybe not. Perhaps instead of killing them, God will help them fade away from our lives. They’ll fade away from our thoughts and our hearts. As we trust in God, and as we join together and care for one another, those evil doers won’t affect us so much.

Think of two people, alone, living on the streets, without enough for an apartment. They’re angry and resentful and want justice for all the people in their lives that brought their misfortune upon them. Alone, they are simply angry and wanting revenge. Together, however, the two of them have enough for a small apartment. They try it. No more railing against those who put them where they were, but instead taking care of one another, letting the evildoers fade away. Instead of lives of fear and solitude, they join together in trust and love, and they find new life supporting one another. 

Let God give judgment to those who need it. Pray for them, for their well-being, and let them fade way so you are no longer consumed by them. Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High.” Mercy. Peace. Those sounds like great rewards to me.

As for our desires for justice, the thought that those evildoers deserve our vengeance, Jesus said, that God “is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” That’s weird. God is “kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” That’s weird because that now how we think things should go, and because we’re told that the ways of the wicked are doomed. “God is kind to the wicked,” and “the ways of the wicked are doomed.” How does that work together? Well, as you often hear me say, I don’t know. That’s God’s deal, and thankfully, these judgments aren’t ours to figure out. When we figure them out, we often end up following the ways of the Adversary, with cycles of anger, hatred, killing, leading to further anger, hatred, and killing. 

Break the cycle; Jesus taught. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful,” without qualification, without exception. Rather than proving your enemies right about you by hating them back, prove your enemies wrong about you by blessing them, loving them, and showing them mercy. 

God Will Judge Them. Choose Life. Choose Mercy. Choose Love.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
February 6, 2025
6 Epiphany, C
Jeremiah 17:5-10
Psalm 1
Luke 6:17-26

I don’t tend to preach too much about God’s judgment of the wicked and the way of the wicked. Preaching about God’s judgment is really popular in Christianity. Bombastic preachers seem to love preaching about sin and wickedness, God’s judgment, and, I don’t know, trying to scare people straight? With such preaching, there are often very simple and clear rules given about who will be judged, the things for which we’ll be judged, and the formula for escaping judgment. Just believe in Jesus. Well, believing in Jesus is more than just one’s belief in who Jesus is. Truly believing means that belief changes our actions and our lives being transformed by God’s grace, mercy, and love.

So, a simple, “scare you straight” sermon about God’s judgment is not really my style or focus because, for one thing, it is so overdone, for another, it is often very harmful, and for another folks tend to be pretty darn beaten down by life already, we sure don’t need to be beaten down and bruised by a preacher’s words on Sunday as well.

So, you’ve heard me preaching a lot more about God’s love, God’s grace, the forgiveness and healing that God offers to all of us. You hear me preaching about God becoming human as Jesus, to unite humanity, all of us, with God in every way. God has united even with our sin and wickedness by taking all of that upon him on the cross. So I don’t preach too much about God’s judgment of sin because God has primarily judged us as beloved, as forgiven, and as worthy of God’s healing and mercy.

Then we get readings like the three we heard today which give God’s blessings and God’s woes for humanity, and it is rather hard for me not to preach about God’s judgment.

“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses,” we are told in Deuteronomy. “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him;” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20) Our choices, the way we treat others, the way we treat our children echoes on beyond just us.

So, God gave us choice to choose life.

As we’re told in Ecclesiasticus, God “created humankind in the beginning, and he left them in the power of their own free choice. If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice. He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose. Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given. (Ecclesiasticus 15:14-17)

“The way of the wicked is doomed,” we heard today in Psalm 1:6. The way of the wicked is doomed, so God offers us choice not to follow in the paths of wickedness. When we do follow the paths of wickedness, there is judgment. There is judgment for our anger and our hatred. There is judgment for our fighting and hurting each other. There is judgment for taking advantage of others, stealing from others, making sure I get mine even if someone else suffers for it. There is judgment for choosing paths of wickedness rather than choosing paths mercy and love.

“Choose life,” God says.

Well, that seems pretty simple and straightforward, doesn’t it. If you don’t choose life, you’ll be judged by God.

Well, maybe not so simple, because as much as we are given choice, God knows that our choosers are broken. Consider how brain chemistry works to affect our decision-making. Some of our brain chemistry really screws us up, with mental illness of various kinds, and one’s ability to choose life is limited. Consider trauma that happens to some of us early on in life, sometimes through over-stressed and underprepared parents, and one’s ability to choose life is limited. Then, add poverty and struggle, the enormous stress of nowhere to live, being scorned by others, constantly hungry, tired, and threatened, and one’s ability to choose life is limited.

So, we have God’s mercy. We have God becoming human to join with us in all of our pain, all of our hurt, even, on the cross, joining with all of the ways we have chosen death over life. God says I see you, and I see your struggle, and I judge you as beloved, forgiven, and worthy of healing and mercy.

Well, that seems pretty simple and straightforward, doesn’t it. Jesus died for our sins, so we’re all off the hook. Well, again, if we’re taking seriously God’s judgment and God’s mercy, then it’s not so simple. Lots of preachers will tell you that it is that simple, just believe in Jesus and you get God’s mercy instead of God’s judgment, but such simple math doesn’t really add up if we take scripture seriously and listen to Jesus’ teachings.

Jesus talked about divine judgment in the blessings and woes we heard him give today. Woe to you who are full and over full while others go hungry. Those who are hungry aren’t righteous for being hungry, but God sees the injustice and figures if humanity won’t care for those who are hungry, then God will. Woe to you who remained over-full while others went hungry. You will not be rewarded by God, rather, you will be shown the same indifference and contempt you showed others in life.

Jesus told a parable about a rich man who had far more than he needed. Food just went to waste as he feasted daily, and just outside of his home, there was a poor man named Lazarus, who begged for food, was diseased, had nothing. When they both died, Lazarus was cared for by God, the judgment being, since no one cared for you in life, I will care for you now. The rich man, however, was in Hell. He was shown the same indifference and contempt that he showed others.

Now, to be clear, being poor and beaten down by life is not a guarantee or God’s favor and mercy. One can be poor and beaten down by life and also be really terrible to others.

What I hope we see is that we are meant to take seriously God’s judgment and God’s mercy.

God has given us choice to choose life. God has taught us that when we choose death over life, those choices harm us for generations to come. So, when we choose death over life, when we choose wickedness over love, God judges us for that.

God also knows just how hard it can be for us to choose life. God knows that our choosers are broken, and so, God offers us mercy.

How exactly does God’s judgment and mercy work together? Well, they work together, and we can’t define exactly how. Trust and take seriously God’s judgment against all of the ways we hurt one another. Trust and take seriously God’s judgment against people and nations who ensure the wealthy stay wealthy while the poor stay poor. Trust in Jesus’ words against such people and nations. Woe to you who are rich and full and over-full while others go hungry. Rich people and nations choosing more for themselves while giving less to those in need is having contempt for God’s mercy while inviting God’s judgment.

Don’t be fooled by those who give simple answers to reassure you of God’s mercy towards you and God’s judgment toward others. Jesus was very clear that such judgments are not ours to give.

Rather, Jesus has taught us to trust in God. Trust in God’s judgment and God’s mercy. Trust, and do not be contemptuous of God’s mercy saying, “Well, I believe in Jesus, so whatever I do, I’m forgiven, and it doesn’t matter.” We’re forgiven, and that is meant to change our lives, to transform us to start choosing life, rather than death. So trust and take seriously God’s mercy and God’s judgment. Choose life. Choose mercy. Choose love. As for those who continue to choose their own wealth while ignoring and withdrawing help for those in need, God will judge them. Trust in God’s judgment. Choose life. Choose mercy. Choose love.

Rather than what the market demands, choose justice, mercy, love, and transformation.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston

February 9, 2025

5 Epiphany, C

Isaiah 6:1-8, [9-13]

Psalm 138

Luke 5:1-11

Title

“From now on, you’ll be fishing for people,” Jesus told his first disciples. This has been interpreted by many as Jesus’ call for his disciples to be evangelists, sharing the good news of Jesus and getting folks to become Jesus’ disciples. So, I’m supposed to preach about how we’re all supposed to go out and be good evangelists and get people to believe in Jesus. 

When I’ve heard people talk about this kind of fish for people evangelism, the message that I’ve heard that people are to share often has very little to do with this life and has a whole lot to do with life after we die. So, there are often thinly veiled threats of God’s punishment or not veiled at all threats of God’s punishment, along with a get out of punishment free, Jesus card. Believe in Jesus. You just gotta believe. The whole thing is often kind of confused and leads to believers whose faith may be in Jesus, but whose lives are not transformed. 

It kinda follows the movies I’ve seen about Jesus where his disciples get so excited about fishing for people that they go around talking about the good news, and how great it is because of the good news, and y’all should believe because of the good news. There’s never really any explanation as to what the good news is, and audience members who haven’t been raised in the church are left wondering what in the world they were talking about. 

I find that a lot of our “fish for people” evangelism is equally confused, people feeling like they have to tell folks about Jesus to get them saved, but in that conversation, the actual person with an actual life is irrelevant. “You gotta get saved.” “But what about what’s going on in my life right now?” “You gotta get saved.”

So, that’s definitely one interpretation of what Jesus meant by “you’ll be fishing for people,” but I read a different interpretation last week which is fantastic and actually makes sense with the rest of Luke’s Gospel and the prophets that came before. “Fish for people” was an image used in Jeremiah, and Amos, and other prophets calling for justice, for an end to oppression, and for turning back to God’s ways of loving and caring for one another. 

In Jeremiah 16:16-17 God says he is sending fishermen to catch those who are not following God’s ways, who are following idols and violence. In Amos 4:1-2, God says those who oppress the poor and crush the needy will be taken away with fish-hooks. In light of Jeremiah and Amos, it sounds like Jesus was sending his disciples to call out oppression and to serve and heal the needy who were being crushed by the powerful.

Jesus sending his disciples to fish for people by working to help the poor and needy, and striving against oppression, that follows all that had come before in Luke’s Gospel. What did Mary sing when she was pregnant with Jesus? I’ll give you a hint: it wasn’t, “My son is going to be a get out of Hell free card with little or no impact on this life.” Mary’s song said, “[God] scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” Justice and mercy were the themes of Mary’s song. 

For centuries, the prophets had been preaching justice and mercy. “Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8) “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Hosea 6:6) “Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17) Then, when John the Baptist was proclaiming his baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, people asked him what they should do, and he told them to live lives of justice and mercy. 

So, when Jesus told his disciples, I’m going to have you fish for people, he was telling them, we are going to work for justice and mercy, and by working for justice and mercy, we are going to draw people closer to God and one another. We are going to live lives of love and transform people’s lives by how we care for them. We are going to transform people’s lives, and we teach others to do the same.

That work of justice and mercy, that work of love and transformation was for everyone, those who were wealthy and those who were poor. In one parable Jesus told, a wealthy man showed mercy, and a poor man did not, and the poor man was not let off the hook (or the fish-hook) just because he was poor. 

Justice and mercy, love and transformation, that’s God’s will for our lives. That’s always been God’s will for our lives. We see this in the earliest parts of scripture and when God formed the people of Israel and gave them the law. One law God gave was about gleaning. Gleaning was a practice in ancient Israel in which large landowners, farmers, would not take in all of the harvest. They would intentionally leave some of the grain, leave some of the fruits or vegetables out in the fields, so that the poor among them could come and take what had been left.

In other words, the wealthy intentionally took less than they could for themselves so that others might have enough.

If we look at modern-day gleaning, we could look at the owners of businesses and the executives of businesses. Owners are the shareholders, and they want to get as much as they can get from the profits of the company. Executives try to keep shareholders happy by earning as much profit as they can to give as much as possible to the shareholders. The executives also end up getting as much as they can in their salaries. The market demands that executives get huge salaries, because if one company didn’t pay as much, then another would pay more, and they’d get the best executives. So, salaries keep going up as companies compete for the best people.

Executives and shareholders get as much as they can out of the business, and folks on the bottom have not enough or barely enough to live on. That goes completely against the Biblical demands for justice and against the concept of gleaning. Modern-day gleaning would look like shareholders and executives intentionally giving themselves less than they could get so that those at the bottom could have more.

That’s the kind of thing Jesus and his disciples might preach when they went around fishing for people. For those at the top, you don’t need to take as much as you can for yourself, regardless of what the market demands. Choose to take less than you can, so that those at the bottom can have more and won’t be weeks away from eviction at any moment. 

Rather than choosing what the market demands, choose justice, mercy, love, and transformation. I think that’s what Jesus and his disciples would preach as they went fishing for people, and Jesus and his disciples would preach that message to all of us, not just to the wealthy. Even those with very little can oppress others. 

God, who created all that is, has been teaching us this for millennia. Choose justice, mercy, and love, rather than oppression. God knows how hard that can be for us, and so God became human. God became human to join with us in our oppression, both when we are oppressors and when we are being oppressed. God joined with us to strive with us and to help transform our lives. From lives of oppression to lives of justice, mercy, and love, God strives with us, joining us together with God and one another so that our lives might be transformed. That sounds like good news. Fish for people. Choose justice, mercy, and love, and allow Jesus to transform our lives.

Mercy, Judgment, and Grace

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
February 2, 2025
4 Epiphany, C
Hebrews 2:14-18
Psalm 84
Luke 2:22-40

To free those who are held in slavery by the fear of death, that’s why we are told in Hebrews today that God became human. Jesus, who is God living among us as a human being, shared all parts of our lives with us, including death, so that death itself has been joined to God. “Do not be afraid,” we hear God telling us. Do not be afraid even of death, because when we die, we continue to be joined together with God, our lives changed from one form of life to another. 

Do not be afraid God became human as an act of mercy for us all. Hebrews states that Jesus is the sacrifice of atonement for our sins. Our sins are ways of disconnection, ways we harm one another, ways we harm ourselves. As we attack, and harm, and hurt one another, we put up barriers and become more and more isolated, more and more disconnected from one another, and more disconnected from God. So, Jesus is the sacrifice of atonement for our sins, our ways of harm and disconnection. Atonement means “to make one.” 

Jesus makes us one with God and each other in his sacrifice of atonement for our sins. Jesus does this on the cross by uniting not only our death to God, but by uniting even our sins to God. All of our disconnection from one another has been united to God in Jesus’ sacrifice of atonement. 

Why did God do this? Because we are God’s children, and God loves us and offers us mercy, rather than what we necessarily deserve.

There’re a couple of ways I can look at what we deserve for the harm we do to others. 

We tend to hurt other people because we have also been hurt. We hurt others our of stress, isolation, and fear. As we hurt others, they hurt others, and they cycle continues on and on, forever. 

So, on the one hand, we hurt others because we are first victims of being hurt. We need mercy. On the other hand, we’re still responsible for the hurt we inflict on others. We deserve judgment.

There’s a singer-songwriter named Mary Gautheir, and she wrote a song called, Mercy Now. She was asked about this song in an interview with Sarah Silverman, and she said the song began during a time when she was feeling pretty sorry for herself. She was having trouble in her music career and feeling she wasn’t getting what she deserved. When she talked about it with a friend, who said, “Well Mary, considering all your past behaviors, I’m not sure you really want what you truly deserve, do you?” She thought about it and realized, “Nope I don’t particularly want what I deserve; I’m good thanks.”

Then she thought about others. What if everyone got what they deserved based on the worst days of their lives? What if churches got what they deserved based on the worst days of their life? What if America got what it deserved based the worst days of its life.

She thought, rather than all of us getting what we deserve, what we really need is a little mercy. That’s what God offers in Jesus’ sacrifice of atonement for our sins. God offers mercy by joining all of our beauty and all of our crud with God.

Now we can, of course, spit in the face of God’s mercy, say we deserve it, that God has to give it to us, and with contempt, demand what we think is ours, and I’d say, “Good luck with that.” 

God’s mercy is a gift offered, a gift which we receive, not demand. God’s mercy is given freely because we need it, because we do harm others out of our own harm. God’s mercy is also tied to God’s judgment, because as much as we are victims of sin, and harm, and hurt, we are also perpetrators of sin, and harm, and hurt. God’s mercy comes as we recognize that, as we realize the hurt we’ve caused and actually care about those we’ve harmed. 

God knows, we do deserve judgment for our sins, the hurt we’ve cause, and God knows we need mercy. 

So, I’m going to finish by singing Mary Gauthier’s song, Mercy Now.

Mercy Now
Mary Gauthier

My father could use a little mercy now.
The fruits of his labor, fall and rot slowly on the ground.
His work is almost over, it won’t be long, he won’t be around.
I love my father, and he could use some mercy now.

My brother could use a little mercy now.
He’s a stranger to freedom; he’s shackled to his fear and his doubt.
The pain that he lives in, it’s almost more than living will allow.
I love my brother; he could use some mercy now.

My church and my country could use a little mercy now.
As they sink into a poisoned pit that’s going to take forever to climb out.
They carry the weight of the faithful who follow them down.
I love my church and country; they could use some mercy now.

Every living thing could use a little mercy now.
Only the hand of grace can end the race towards another mushroom cloud.

People in power, they’ll do anything to keep their crown.
I love life, and life itself could use some mercy now.

Yea, we all could use a little mercy now.
I know we don’t deserve it, but we need it anyhow.
We hang in the balance, dangle ‘tween hell and hallowed ground,
And every single one of us could use some mercy now.
Every single one of us could use some mercy now.
Every single one of us could use some mercy now.