Father Snort

Brad Sullivan

Proper 12, Year A

July 30, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

A Woman Made Bread, and Jesus Said, “This Is My Body”

Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to “yeast that a woman took and mixed in with tree measures of flower until all of it was leavened.” Bread. The kingdom of heaven is like bread, the yeast mixing with the flour, helping it all grow together, the hands of God working to knead the dough and bake it, transforming it from something gooey and inedible, to something delicious and life-giving. God gives life and forms people in the Kingdom of Heaven, transforming us from one thing into another. Like God took clay and formed it into Adam’s body and transformed it into a living being, so did a woman knead and shape dough to make bread, which Jesus took, and broke, and gave to his friends and said, “this is my body.”

We are called the Body of Christ live here on earth, as we believe in Jesus, recognize him moving in our lives, and as we seek to live out his Kingdom here on earth. We’re called to be bread, our separate lives transformed into something greater and life-giving, yeast mixed with flower and water, kneaded, shaped, and leavened into a large loaf of fresh baked bread. Think for a second about the smell of fresh baked bread; it smells so good, makes you hungry, even if you’re not, you smell that bread, and you want some. That’s what the Kingdom of God is like. When we see or hear about the Kingdom of God really being lived out here on earth, we want to go there, we want to be a part of it.

Really living out the kingdom of God here on earth takes time and effort, just like it takes time to and effort to make bread. It takes time and effort to mix the ingredients together, to knead the dough, and then it takes God’s transformation, the ingredients literally becoming something else as they are baked together. That’s life in God’s Kingdom: time, effort, mixing, and God’s transformation.

Life in God’s kingdom, truly living our God’s kingdom takes time. It takes time for people to form relationships with others, time to get to know our neighbors. Life in God’s kingdom takes effort. It takes effort for people to join with others in their communities to serve others, to pray together, to strive together for justice and peace: seeking and serving Christ in all people, respecting the dignity of every human being, and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Life in God’s kingdom also takes mixing. For the kingdom of Heaven to work, the yeast doesn’t just sit on the counter and watch the woman make the bread. The yeast moves in and around and interacts with the flour, the yeast and flour joining together with each other, changing each other, becoming something different than the two were separately. In the kingdom of God, we take time and effort mixing our lives with the lives of others. We work. We strive. We meet people, and we see where Jesus is moving in their lives. We join with them: the movement of Jesus in our lives joined with the movement of Jesus in their lives. When we take this time and effort to mix our lives together, Jesus works to knead the dough, like a woman who kneaded and shaped dough to make bread, which Jesus took, and broke, and gave to his friends and said, “this is my body.”

I read an article last week which was about this kind of Kingdom work, people mixing together and forming bread. The article from gravityleadership.com, was titled “How to Shift Small Groups to Missional Communities” For those unfamiliar with the term, mission communities are groups of people within a larger body of the church who “are committed to growing closer to Jesus, doing life together, and joining God’s work in the world. In other words, missional communities embrace worship, community, and mission as a holistic life of discipleship.”

The thrust of the article was that missional communities are different from small groups and that in order to live God’s kingdom, we need to shift some of our small groups into missional communities. The article points out that many churches have done pretty well at gathering their large worshipping communities into smaller groups which pray together, and study scripture, and get to know each other more deeply through their faith. The small groups take a large community in which some people know hardly anyone, and they give places where people can grow together in deep relationships with one another. The article went on to say, however, that often these small groups grow stale, continually looking for the next book or next study, and the mission and work of Jesus gets left undone. Even with a good focus on formation and sharing faith together, reaching out to others beyond themselves is often left out of these small groups. The yeast remains on the counter, watching the flour from a distance, not mixing and allowing the woman’s hands to form them into bread.

To be fair, the yeast is always ready for the flour to come to it. We, the church, want people to come here. We have become a largely attractional community, waiting for folks to come through the doors of the church building and join us in worship. While we do outreach here and have mission trips which are all good things, those efforts are not usually part of our daily lives and the communities in which we live. Rather, much of our life in the church is a part of this attractional model: come to church to be a part of these outreach efforts here.

With the attractional model of church, we’ve also done Sunday school pretty well for those who are here. If you come to church on Sunday, you can be formed in the stories of scripture and the faith of Jesus. If you can’t come to church on Sunday, you’re kinda left on your own. Folks can watch Joel Osteen on TV, but there’s not actual interaction, actually community with real people, watching something on TV. We have not been really faithful to Jesus’ calling for us to go out into our communities and form disciples of Jesus there.

Now, that sounds like evangelism, which the Episcopal church has not historically been overly well known for. We can share our faith within communities within the church, but going out? That sounds like less than happy street corner people. Let me be very clear: a faithful, yet less than happy person on a street corner, threatening strangers to believe in Jesus isn’t yeast mixing with flour; it’s rat poison. Truly being yeast that gets up off the counter to mix with the flour means mixing with others in our communities, living life together, and thereby allowing Jesus to transform us into bread. Evangelism is not generally done with strangers. Evangelism is done with people we know and people we have gotten to know. Evangelism is done in community, not by ourselves. Becoming bread, becoming the kingdom of God means we live out our faith in community with others, going out together in our communities to serve others and likely to be served by them as well. That is what missional communities are, what the church was always intended to be.

The article, “How to Shift Small Groups to Missional Communities”, gave three steps toward transforming a small group into a missional community which has an outward mission:

- Start a conversation with your existing small group about joining God’s work in your community. If you are not currently part of a small group, prayerfully make a list of people you can invite in on the conversation.

- Discern mission as a group by making a list of areas in the community that God might be inviting you to step into. This could be a place like your neighborhood, [joining with others to regularly and consistently help at a non-profit or community home], or a people group that you feel especially called to serve and love.

- Develop some rhythms to support your life together that includes regularly seeking God, connecting in community with one another, and engaging your shared mission together.

Prayer, Worship, Service.

[Finally], as you step into mission as a community, think presence more than projects. How can you be intentional and consistent in being present among a group of people as a community? Then simply keep noticing where God is at work and join him there!

Now, I’d love to give an exact, step by step process for becoming a missional community with a simple beginning, middle, and end, but the Kingdom of God doesn’t work like that. What exactly a community is going to look like, what exactly the community mission work will be depends on what needs there are in each of our communities. What are our passions, and were do the needs of our communities meet the passions of our hearts? A missional community could join together to serve together, regularly, at a non-profit or a community home/shelter. A missional community could join together and get to know their neighbors and serve them when in need. Then that person might join the missional community and serve with them when someone else is in need.

A missional community, like the Body of Christ, like the Kingdom of God, is not a project that can be easily drawn up, pre-formed, modeled, and packaged for easy assembly. Missional communities, the way of the kingdom of God, requires work, effort, mixing together, dreaming and praying together with guidance from Jesus. Missional communities are going to be different everywhere because the needs and the people are different in each community.

Our part is to be formed as bread, to be yeast, to mix with our communities, to really get to know the communities in which we live, to notice what the needs are, to notice where Jesus is already at work, and then to be willing to be changed by mixing our lives and the work of Jesus with the lives and work of Jesus within others in our communities. Then we become the Kingdoms of God.

When we take this time and effort to mix our lives together, Jesus works to knead the dough, like a woman who kneaded and shaped dough to make bread, which Jesus took, and broke, and gave to his friends and said, “this is my body.”

https://gravityleadership.com/small-groups-missional-communities/

Brad Sullivan

Proper 11, Year A

July 23, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

Genesis 28:10-19a

Romans 8:12-25

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

We Are One With Jesus, and Jesus Is With Us

I had a wonderful week last week at Camp Allen. Kristin and I, along with Machel Delange and Caroline San Martin were the camp directors for a session of summer camp for 3rd and 4th graders, and our theme was Star Wars based, “I am one with Jesus, and Jesus is with me,” that line taken and modified from a prayer that a character prayed in the most recent Star Wars movie, substituting “The Force” for Jesus.

We showed clips from the Star Wars movies and talked with the kids about trusting in Jesus and following in his way, like Jedi trusted in the Force and followed the path of the light. We hiked, we swam, we comforted homesick kiddos, and we supported the teenagers and young adults who were counselors and staff members of the camp. The kids gave these great responses during our discussions about Jesus being the light of the world and us following him and being one with him. “Jesus’ light is within us and we offer pieces of that light to others.” We talked about being one with Jesus and that because we are one with Jesus, we are one with each other and with all creation, so what we do really does matter; if we do good things to one, we are bringing light to all, and if we harm one person or even one part of creation, we’re harming and bringing darkness to all. Then, we made prayer beads and prayed “I am one with Jesus, and Jesus is with me” on the prayer beads to help us to be aware of his light within us so that we live and act out of that place of unity with God and with all creation.

It was a really good week. Then I came back and started working on the sermon for today, and was met by one of my not quite favorite passages: Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds: Jesus sows good wheat seeds, and then the devil comes along and sows weeds among the wheat. On the one hand, I love that Jesus says not to tear out the weeds until the harvest so that harm doesn’t come to the wheat. We’re all connected, and so tearing out the weeds would harm the wheat.

On the other hand, at the end of the parable, Jesus explained that the weeds would be burned, meaning all causes of sin and all evildoers will be thrown into the furnace of fire at the end of the age. I imagine that means that some people will be punished eternally for what they did during one lifetime, and I’ve always been bothered by that idea. I fret over who is going to end up as the weeds and who will end up as the wheat.

How does this work? Are we all children of Jesus or children of the devil from our birth with nothing we can do to change it? That’s certainly what Jesus’ explanation of the parable sounds like. Perhaps he was using black and white language to describe something more complicated so his disciples would understand. Perhaps it is every bit as simple as it sounds. Perhaps the furnace of fire will burn the evil away and leave what is good in people? I honestly don’t know. I struggle with this one. How could there be causes of sin and evil doers in God’s kingdom? Of course there wouldn’t be, but doesn’t Jesus redeem them? Isn’t that what his death on the cross was all about? I wrestle with these questions, as have Jesus’ disciples for 2000 years.

Most of this wrestling has to do with our fears over the idea of a final judgment. Who will be wheat and who will be weeds? Many Christians end up try to assuage those fears by coming up with biblically based rules about who will be in and who will be out, rules about determining who is wheat and who is weeds. Predestination. Double predestination. Marks of election. These and other attempts to defend God’s sovereignty and to identify who is wheat and who is weeds all have several problems.

While trying to tie up Jesus’ parables and teachings about his kingdom into a nice neat package with a bow on top, and all such attempts lead to putting our faith in rules rather than in God, and we end up determining for our own sense of security who is in and who is out, which means we end up taking removing Jesus and the angels from the story and put ourselves in their place. When we start supposing that we can determine who we believe to be weeds and who we believe to be wheat, we end up exalting ourselves to the place of Jesus, and not surprisingly, folks who engage in this type of supposition also end up placing themselves on the side of the wheat, not the weeds.

Whenever we start trying to determine who is wheat and who is weeds, we also end up making the same first mistake of Adam and Eve, eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Such determinations are not ours to make, and Jesus expressly forbids our doing so. So on the one hand we aren’t supposed to make determinations about who is good and who is evil, and on the other hand, we don’t have to. There is great relief in not having to determine who is good and who is evil. There is great relief in not having to determine even if it is so clear cut as good and evil, black and white. Thankfully, we don’t have to make those determinations.

So, rather than try to justify God’s sovereignty and make ourselves feel better by assuring ourselves that someone else is the weeds and we are of course the wheat, we can take comfort in the idea that God will eventually judge justly and eradicate all evil, all malice and fear, all hatred and enmity. God doesn’t do so right now, because we are all so interconnected that removing all evil right now would destroy us all. That’s another question I often hear asked, “Why does God allow bad things to happen?” Because removing all evil right now would destroy us all. Remember also, that when we determine who is evil and who is good, one person’s evil enemy is another person’s hero. If we got to determine who is evil and who is good, there would be none of us left.

As much as we may want to, ours is not to answer such questions. Ours is to trust in the way of Jesus who prayed for God to forgive the evildoers who killed him. “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing,” Jesus prayed. Ours is to forgive others even as we have been forgiven. Ours is to trust the Word of God which spoke all of creation into existence, to trust that the Word of God which became human as the person of Jesus just might have a good idea about how to run the universe which he created.

Then, we continually seek Jesus’ help in our lives, to live out his kingdom now. We get to seek Jesus’ help to eradicate evil from ourselves and to live out God’s kingdom as best we can now. Freed from having to run the universe, we get to trust Jesus who is the way and the truth and the life. We get to live with his light within us, and we get to share that light with others.

We get to live and share his kingdom, and what is life like in God’s Kingdom here on earth? Well, at least in this life, it is full of joys and sorrows, full of missteps and faithful following in Jesus’ way. Life in God’s Kingdom is full of grace and compassion, understanding and forgiveness, messing up and reconciliation. God’s kingdom is full of joining together to help one another in times of adversity, and joining together to celebrate in times of joy. Rather than trusting in rugged self-reliance, the hubris of earned or deserved wealth, and a lofty self-appointment as being wheat among the weeds, life in God’s kingdom is life lived together, putting our trust in Jesus and in each other, sharing with others what we have been given by God.

As we said at camp last week, we trust in Jesus and follow in his ways, for he is the way, and the truth, and the life. We trust the light of Jesus within us. We trust in his goodness and ability to order well the universe that he created. We live life not with continual fear, wondering are we wheat or are we weeds. We live life in God’s Kingdom, life lived full of the assurance that we are one with Jesus and Jesus is with us.

Brad Sullivan

Proper 7, Year A

June 25, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

Genesis 21:8-21

Romans 6:1b-11

Matthew 10:24-39

Come On, Jesus! You’re Supposed to Be the Prince of Peace!

Several times last week, someone would ask me what the Gospel reading is for this Sunday, and every time I told them, their reaction was, “Oh, yuck, I hate that passage.” Honestly, that was my reaction too. “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” Come on, Jesus, you’re supposed to be the Prince of Peace, not the Prince of Jerry Springer.

I could say that Jesus’ talking about family members being against each other harkens back to Micah 7:6 - “For the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” Obviously that passage was in Jesus’ mind, but the context was that things had gotten so bad in Israel, that Micah was describing how things were, families were against each other, and children were treating their parents with contempt. It would be a little disingenuous, therefore, to say, Jesus was just trying to remind people of scripture. He didn’t say children were treating their parents badly. He was saying that because of him, because of people believing in him and following his teachings, parents and children were going to turn against each other. Those who didn’t follow him were going to turn against those who did.

This really isn’t all that surprising to those who have read the Gospel. Jesus was a polarizing figure. On the one hand he healed people and was a champion of the outcast and downtrodden. He had a lot of wonderful teachings which we love to hear like “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” On the other hand, Jesus wasn’t just the easy listening station. There was a lot of metal in him too, a good bit of raging against the machine of religious moral superiority coupled with economic and social injustice.

Jesus did not mince words when denouncing religious leaders who demanded religious perfection from others and yet did not care for the vulnerable and needy. “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widow’s houses and for the sake of appearances, say long prayers.” (Matthew 23:14) Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, because y’all are supposed to be using the money given to you by faithful Jews to help the vulnerable. You’re supposed to be helping widows and helping others who have a hard time getting by. Instead, you’re demanding that they do their religious duty and pay up in order to beautify the Temple. Do you really think God will be pleased with a pretty building when his people are suffering?

If you really want to please God, Jesus taught, then love God and love people. Love people. Care for them. Help them mightily in their hours of need. Take up your cross daily, and follow me. Sacrifice your own safety and security in order to help people who are vulnerable, needy, down and out, rejected, and downtrodden. Love God and love people…and don’t even pretend that you love God if you don’t love people. There’s no way we can love God through our religion, if we don’t love people through our daily lives and actions.

Folks like the Scribes and Pharisees, who dotted the “I”s and crossed the “T”s of their religious duties, didn’t like hearing that they actually had to care about people. They didn’t like hearing that they would actually have to sacrifice some of their own comfort and security in order to help those less fortunate and (according to their theology) less deserving people. “I have what I have because I’m a good, God-fearing person, and I earned it,” they thought. “Those others would be better off than they are if they feared God like I do and worked harder.”

That was pretty well what folks thought of the poor and the down and out back then, and Jesus was having none of it. “No guys, the kingdom of God belongs to them too, and the kingdom of God is actualized in this world when you who have enough and more than enough, do all in your power to make sure that those who don’t have enough are cared for as well.” Folks didn’t like hearing that. In fact, folks killed Jesus for saying things like that.

Jesus was a polarizing figure. Folks who really engaged with Jesus either loved him or were pretty turned off and scandalized by him. He claimed to be God. He claimed to be the way and the truth and the life. He upset people’s comfortable focus on themselves, and forced them to take a hard look at others and their needs, and he taught folks to take a hard look at their own lives and see how their lives might be harming others. Truly taking Jesus seriously today, he is still a polarizing figure. You can love him, you can be pretty turned off by him, or you can assume he really didn’t mean or say much of what he said.

When we do take seriously living as he taught, believing in Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, then some people are going to turn against us. Heck, even grace is going to turn people against us. Grace is great for those whom we feel deserve it, but what about when we follow in Jesus’ way and offer grace for those who don’t really deserve it? That’s going to anger some people, and Jesus would have us do so anyway, rather than take the easy road and get on the bandwagon of self-righteousness and condemnation.

“Take up your cross daily,” Jesus said, “and follow me.” Let parts of you die, daily, in order to offer grace to others. Let some of your needs die in order to help provide for the needs of others. Be willing to accept the deaths of relationships that will come when people turn against you for truly taking Jesus seriously.

A friend and colleague of Kristin’s was at a fundraiser and raffle to support a girls’ softball team in his community. One of the raffle items was an AR-15, and this man really doesn’t like guns. So, he spent thousands of dollars on raffle tickets, won the rifle, and had a friend help him turn it into gardening tools. Swords into plowshares. He took an instrument of death, and turned it into instruments of life, and he has received death threats for having done so. He’s lost friends, received thousands of hateful messages, and he’d do it again, seeking life, rather than the possibility of death.

Jesus’ teaching that he has come to set family members against each other is still not my favorite passage to hear. It’s not exactly the feel good film of the summer. The reality of suffering ridicule, of straining and even losing relationships over taking Jesus seriously is, however, the way of Jesus. What Jesus taught in our Gospel passage today is the way of him who is the truth and the life. Do we dare take Jesus seriously? Imagine the world if we do. Imagine the changes in the world when we and other Christians acknowledge and share our faith in Jesus not through religious moral superiority while ignoring the problems of others, but rather through living and sharing our faith in Jesus by daily sacrificing greatly for the sake of others. That’s life following the way of Jesus, life in the Jesus movement.

Thinking only about myself, hearing today’s passage leaves me not wanting to hear Jesus’ words. Thinking about others, however, I want to hear more of today’s passage. Thinking about others, I find hope and joy in today’s passage. We get to be part of the Jesus movement in which we sacrifice some of our own safety and security for the sake of others, to provide safety and security to those who don’t have enough. We get to accept grace for all those times when we don’t follow Jesus all that well, and we get to offer grace to those who don’t deserve it. We get to offer grace even to those who would turn against us for taking Jesus seriously and following him as the way, the truth, and the life. We get to be part of the Jesus movement, knowing that there will be consequences, and choosing for the love of others, to follow Jesus.

Brad Sullivan

Trinity Sunday, Year A

June 11, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Matthew 28:16-20

Love, Grace, and Communion: The Holy Trinity

A couple of years ago on Trinity Sunday, I had this idea to preach about God as a frosted Donut, as a way of describing the Trinity, with The Father as the dough part, Jesus as the frosting, and the Holy Spirit as the hole, where, it’s kinda hard to define, it’s kinda hard to explain the Holy Spirit, but it isn’t a donut without the hole. Thankfully for the sake of the congregation a couple of years back, I decided not to do that. It would basically be heresy, unless it’s Shipley’s Donuts, but in all seriousness, I’ve heard similar approaches to describing the Trinity, such as, “God is like an egg” with the shell, white, yoke: three and yet one. Of course that’s three parts that make the whole egg, rather than three whole persons who make the whole God. Honestly, if we’re going in that direction, I kinda like the donut thing better, but the big problem with any such means of trying to describe God as a trinity of persons is none of those metaphors say anything at all about God as a relationship of persons. The relationship is key to who God is and what God is as a single God in Trinity of persons.

So as an analogy for understanding God as being three persons and yet one God, I’d like for us to think about our own relationships. Are we closer to people whom we have never met and don’t even know exist, or are we closer to people whom we love deeply? Obviously, we are closer to people whom we love deeply. We know them intimately. We get to know the deep parts of who they are. As we love more and more, we become more and more connected to a person, and while we are still distinct persons, we become more and more united as our love for each other grows.

Ok, so multiply that by infinity, and we have some understanding of God as three persons united so completely in love for one another that they are one. It still doesn’t entirely make sense to our rational little brains, but it also kinda does. God is a relationship of persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each fully God, and yet each distinct from the other, so completely united in a continual dance of love that they are one.

Then there are, of course, the inevitable questions of this Trinity of persons such as, “which one came first?”

“Oh, they’ve always been together as one.”

“But I thought the son proceeded from the father?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“So when did that happen? How long was the Father around before the Son proceeded from him?”

“Oh no, they’ve always been together forever.”

Whenever we try to tease out all the specifics of how God as a Trinity of persons works we generally end up with God as a frosted donut. Tasty, but perhaps an understanding of God as Trinity comes less from our brains and more from our hearts.

Think about how much logical sense some of our relationships make? Brain work or heart work? God is described after all as love, not logical rational sense. Consider how Paul ended his second letter to the church in Corinth. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” Those are words of the heart.

Love. The basis of all our relationships. The best of who we are. Peaceful, giving, not worried or concerned about what’s next, but content with now and fully present with the person right in front of us, fully honoring the person right in front of us. Love means seeing ourselves as we truly are, warts and all, and not only accepting who we are, but delighting in who we are. Love means seeing others as they truly are, warts and all, and not only accepting who they are, but delighting in who they are. Love means seeing our common humanity, that divine spark, divine image in which we were all made, and living into and honoring that common humanity. Love means giving for the sake of the other and also receiving from the other. Love means honoring, accepting, and delighting in each other, recognizing and celebrating the beauty in each of us.

Grace…for all the times we don’t love. Grace. Forgiveness and understanding. Compassion and empathy. Grace is forgiving others for the hurt they have caused us. Grace is looking at those who have harmed us and seeing them through eyes of compassion and empathy, offering some understanding that they are wounded as well, and they only hurt out of their own hurt and fear. Grace is saying “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing,” even as they nail you to a cross. Grace is the acknowledgement of our common humanity, our common weakness, our common harming of each other and offering peace to those who have harmed us, even as we accept peace from others, accept in our own hearts for the harm we have caused.

Communion. Delighting in time spent together. Shared meals. Shared endeavors. Shared lives. With love and grace, we share and join together with others, enjoying the love we share, grateful for the grace we give and receive, free to be fully who we are, loved and accepted by others without pretense or show, without hiding our true selves, unashamedly being seen, seeing others, giving and receiving love, and gratefully receiving and giving grace. We enjoy life together, and we share our lives with one another.

You want to know what God is like as a Trinity of persons? Who or what do we understand God to be? Love, Grace, and Communion.

Love does not exist without grace and communion. Grace does not exist without love and communion. Communion does not exist without love and grace. Each are distinct, and yet they are inseparable.

With such a life of love, grace, and communion, Jesus told his disciples to go and baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Go and baptize into the way, into the very life of love, grace, and communion. We baptize and are baptized into the life of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We baptize and are baptized into the life of God who is love, grace, and communion.

Echoing and reminding us of Jesus’ command to his disciples to go and baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I say this day to go and invite people into the life of God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Go and invite people into the life of God who is love, grace, and communion. Live the life of love, and grace, and communion. Life the very life of God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Live that life with others in how you love them, how you offer them grace, and how you share communion with them. Say to those who are spiritual but not religious that the life of love, grace, and communion is the life of God. Say to those who have been harmed by churches preaching an angry God who hates most of who and what we are that such a God does not exist, but is the vain invention of fearful men.

Say to them that the God we know, the God we worship, the God whose very life we live is love, grace, and communion. Go and teach them about God who is love, grace, and communion; God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Baptize them with your words. Share communion with them in your actions. Love them well, and ask for grace for those times when you don’t love them well. Share the very life of God, the very life of Jesus, and invite them to be disciples of Jesus as well, sharing also in the life of God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; God who is love, grace, and communion.

Brad Sullivan

7 Easter, Year A

May 28, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

John 17:1-11

Love Is Gritty, Love Is Hard, Love Is an Empty Tomb

I had a conversation with a nine year old last week about this Sunday’s gospel passage. I read it to him and then asked him what he thought. He said that it sounded like Jesus and the Father saying, “If we get to be in heaven for ever, why don’t the people on earth get to?” Meaning, “why shouldn’t the people on earth get to be with us in heaven forever as well?”, and of course, we do. That was Jesus’ life’s work and his prayer for his disciples which we heard today, that they would be one and he and the Father are one.

The Father, and the Son, and the (not mentioned in this passage) Holy Spirit want us to be one with them and each other just as they are one. There’s nothing better in the world, nothing better in all of the universes than the unity of Jesus and the Father and that’s the unity Jesus is praying for us to have! That unity with each other and unity with God is being with God in heaven forever, and I don’t mean because we have unity with God, then we’ll get to be with God in heaven forever. I mean having unity with God and each other is right now being in heaven with God forever.

Heaven is all around us. The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven is here, now, in the very air we breathe, for in God we live and move and have our being. Jesus was praying for our unity with each other and God now, for eternal life now. “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Knowing Jesus, following in his way, believing in him is eternal life, lived in this world, in this life, and continued on after death, in the next life, for there is nothing better in the world, nothing better in all of the universes than the unity of Jesus and the Father, and that’s the unity Jesus is praying for us to have!

At the same time that Jesus was praying for his disciples, praying for us, however, did you notice how much he was talking about himself? Glorify me so that I may glorify you? Much of John’s Gospel has Jesus talking about himself. There is very little teaching about God’s kingdom, few moral lessons, no parables…almost all of Jesus’ teaching involves an explanation about who he is and why people need to believe in him. “I am one with the Father, I am the good shepherd, I am the vine, I am so humble and yet so awesome.” Ok, that last one was made up; in John’s Gospel, we don’t get the humble, self-effacing Jesus we see in Mathew, Mark, and Luke. Jesus is constantly talking about himself and kinda saying how great he is. This is a bit of a side bar, but John’s Jesus often sounds to a bit to me like the rapper Eminem in the rap song Without Me: “This looks like a job for me, so everybody, just follow me, cause we need a little controversy, and it feels so empty without me.”

I realize in saying that, I just secured about 7 more years for myself in purgatory, comparing Jesus and Eminem, (he’s a child of God), but often, as I read John’s Gospel, I am struck by how much Jesus sounds like a rapper rapping about himself. Rappers that I have heard tend to rap about themselves especially early on in their careers, as if to introduce themselves: “here’s who I am, here’s my story, here’s why I’m legitimate and worth your listening to, and here’s the story within me that is screaming to get out.”

That’s kinda what Jesus was doing in John’s Gospel. Jesus was constantly telling people about who he was, how great he was, and how much they needed to believe in him. Of course that’s what he was doing, because of who Jesus was and because there were so many false narratives out there about life and about God. The narrative about Jesus was screaming to get out of him. The narrative about what life truly is, about who God truly is was screaming to get out of Jesus, and he only had that one life, that one chance to tell the narrative of God, the narrative of love.

Jesus had one chance, and he didn’t want to blow it, so he taught people how to live, how to love, he taught about God’s kingdom, he showed them what life was like in God’s kingdom so they could live out God’s kingdom, and he taught about himself, because at the heart of God’s kingdom is Jesus. The heart and soul of God’s kingdom is the new Eden, the new creation where we walk with God and each other, naked and unashamed, and the heart and soul of that new Eden is Jesus.

So Jesus did talk about himself because he wanted everyone to know and share in the eternal life of the new Eden which is unity with him and the Father. Remember, there is nothing better in the world, nothing better in all of the universes than the unity of Jesus and the Father, and that’s the unity Jesus was praying for us to have!

That unity, known by another word is love, and not just sappy, hallmarky, pop song love. Love is the cross. That’s where Jesus was going just after the prayer he prayed for his disciples. Love is sacrifice for the sake of the beloved. Love is gritty; love is hard; love is not pouty or jealous, boastful or rude. It makes a way for the beloved; it does the hard work of seeking peace and working through resentment. Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing; love repents of wrongdoing and seeks to heal past hurts. Love rejoices in kindness and truth, and love prefers having a good relationship to just being right. Love bears the good times and hardships. Love believes in the beloved. Love makes its home in hope, and love endures all things for the sake of the beloved.

Love goes to the cross for the sake of the beloved. Love kneels at the foot of the cross to mourn for the beloved. Love is tears and joy. Love is laughter and pain. Love is sticking by the beloved through sickness and death. Love is caring about someone through their anxieties, doubts, and fears. Love is not wanting more and more, not demanding what is deserved, but being content with enough so that another can also have enough.

Love is also an empty tomb. Love is new life, new creation. Love is joy in each new day, each new moment. Love is setting aside the past to be made new in the present. Love is trusting in Jesus’ resurrection, trusting in his narrative about God, and life, and himself. Love is eternal life, knowing God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. There is nothing greater in all the world, nothing greater in all of the universes than love, and love is the unity of Jesus and the Father, the unity and gritty kind of love that Jesus is praying for us to have, for us to be in heaven forever with him and the Father.

Brad Sullivan

4 Easter, Year A

May 7, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

Acts 2:42-47

John 10:1-10

Thieves and Bandits

Jesus said, “All who came before me are thieves and bandits...The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Those who came before Jesus were those who were seen as a messiah, an anointed one of God. There was a messianic fervor in Jesus’ time, a great desire for one to arise who would be the messiah, the anointed one to drive Rome out of Israel and to lead Israel into a time of peace and prosperity, a time that would last forever. They were wanting a new king over Israel as the messiah, the anointed one, because the anointed ones were the kings of Israel. David, king David who slew Goliath was the second of these anointed ones, these kings. David was seen as the greatest of all the kings of Israel, and by what Jesus said, he was a thief and bandit.

See, God was not overly enamored of Israel’s desire to have a king rule over them. God even warned Israel what would happen if they placed a king over themselves. In 1 Samuel, God said to Israel that if you place a king over you, he will take your sons for his chariots and horsemen; your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will take the best of your fields, vineyards, and olive orchards to give to his friends; and 1/10 of your grain and vineyards to give to his officers and his friends. He will take your servants and the best of your cattle, 1/10 of your flocks, and “you shall be his slaves.”

Now, being that the people of Israel thought things through about as well as we do, they said, “sounds great; sign us up!” Now, some of the kings of Israel were pretty good, some were ok, and some were rancidly terrible, but they were all anointed ones, all messiahs. They were all seen as the new savior of Israel, and according to Jesus, they were all thieves and bandits. They made war. They conquered and were conquered. They took from the people in order to bring about their conquests, and they took from the people in order to live in the opulence fitting for a king.

Jesus did something different. Jesus did not seek conquest. He did not kill. He did not take from his subjects in order to live like a king, instead he lived simply. Jesus was anointed by God, the messiah, and he led his people by being the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. Many people had wanted to raise Jesus up as their earthly king, as their earthly anointed messiah to lead a revolt against Rome, and he could have let them. He could have chosen that; he had every right to, being, you know, God, but he didn’t. Jesus chose instead to be killed, rather than have thousands or even millions be killed in order to drive Rome out for the sake of some insults, some hardships, and a building.

That’s really what it came down to, right? Rome ruled over Israel and collected taxes from them, usually taking more than they were supposed to. Corruption abounded. They began appointing the high priest over Israel, desecrated the Temple in various ways, stole from the temple, and heaped contempt upon contempt for the Jewish people and their religion. Insults, hardships, and a building. Jews began to radicalize amidst the oppression of Rome and the messianic fervor of the age, and in the year 66, the great revolt began against Rome. The Jews rebelled and won their first couple of battles again Rome. After that, things did not go well. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed fighting in the great revolt, and in the year 70, the Temple was destroyed by Rome.

Then in 132, the Bar-Kokhba revolt began. Shimon Bar-Kokhba was yet another messianic figure who led a three year revolt against Rome. This revolt cost hundreds of thousands of more Jewish lives and also ended in defeat. All told, estimates are that over a million and a half Jews were killed in these two revolts, the Temple was destroyed, and in the year 135, the entire nation of Israel was destroyed, the people taken into slavery or forced to move elsewhere.

“The thief comes in only to steal and kill and destroy,” Jesus said. The people of Israel followed thieves and bandits, and their lives were stolen from them. Husbands and fathers became killers. Men with livelihoods took up the sword and were killed. Their whole way of life, indeed their entire nation, was destroyed.

“I came that they may have life,” Jesus said, “and have [life] abundantly.” The earliest disciples of Jesus followed a different path than the path laid out by the thieves and bandits who led Israel. Jesus’ small band of disciples followed him as their shepherd, as the gate to fields of life abundant. They followed in his ways. When they were kicked out of the Synagogue, they did not argue that they deserved to be there, they simply met in people’s homes instead. When Rome said they couldn’t meet in the temples of the Roman gods, they did not demand a right of worship, but met elsewhere. They followed Jesus, the good shepherd, and God added daily to their numbers. They were a people without a nation, a people of many nations, living wherever they were, following and believing in Jesus. They didn’t have doctrine yet. They didn’t have a set of beliefs about Jesus other than his teachings, his death, and his resurrection. People followed him, believed in him and his way, and they received life, abundantly.

Like the people of Israel, the earliest Christians were living under the corrupt and oppressive government of Rome which didn’t care one whit if any of them lived or died, but rather than fight that government, they banded together and provided for each other as there was need. They cared about each other more than they cared about their stuff, and they cared about each other more than they cared about fighting against Rome.

They were, as we read in Psalm 1, like trees planted by streams of living water. I know, it’s a mixed metaphor, shepherds and trees, but we’ll go with it. Trusting in Jesus, following in his ways, and banding together to care for one another, the earliest Christians became a forest fed and nurtured by the abundant life of Jesus. Together, this forest had fruit in abundance, and they shared their fruit with others, even the small woodland creatures who were not a part of the forest, who did not work for their fruit. They provided shade and fruit for these creatures living in their forest, and they and even let some make their homes in their branches, and these other creatures became trees as well, sharing in the abundant life of Jesus. They were provided for by Jesus, by their trust and faith in him and in his ways, and they shared abundantly with others. Now, men came with axes from time to time, the oppression of Rome, and this forest of the early church even shared abundantly with them. Some of these men became part of the forest themselves. Others of these men came and cut down some of the trees, but the forest remained and continued to have abundant life and to share life abundant, fed by the streams of living water of Jesus and his ways.

This forest of the early church was the new Eden of Jesus. That was Jesus’ kingdom. That was the place where Jesus led his disciples, the new Eden, and the new Eden of Jesus and his way could happen in any kingdom of earth, in any place and in any time. The people of Jesus’ way, of his movement, did not look for an earthly thief or bandit to lead them to steal what others had, to force their rights upon others, to kill, be killed, and destroy. The people of Jesus’ way, his movement, looked to Jesus to lead them beside still waters, to be for them streams of living water so that they could be planted in any place and bring forth fruit and shade to care for those around them, to give to any as there was need. That is life, the life abundant in the Jesus movement, life with Jesus as our shepherd.

Looking at a modern example of a thriving church with life abundant, the church in China is in a similar place as the early church was. The government of China is not overly enamored of Christianity, so while they allow it, they have state sponsored churches, led by earnest Christians, but regulated by the state. Sounds a little like Israel under Rome, doesn’t it. Rather than rebel against the government, however, many Christians in China are simply forming their own churches. They are meeting in homes or other larger building that they own. They aren’t demanding any rights from the government; they are just going ahead and meeting, being the church, and the government is letting them. They come by and check the roles to know who is attending these unregistered churches, but without fighting, with no thieves and bandits to steal, kill, and destroy, these unregistered churches in China are thriving and growing. They are becoming, like the early church, a forest planted by the streams of living water of Jesus and his ways.

Now some in this country still talk about Christianity being attacked by our government. Rather than quibble about whether such oppression is true or untrue, I would say it is irrelevant. Where the church thrives, it thrives not because a government allows it to. The church thrives and becomes the new Eden whenever and wherever the people of the church follow Jesus, trust in him and his ways, and band together, caring for each other more than their rights as a church. When the church follows Jesus and his ways, and when we band together and care for one another, we become the new Eden, a forest planted by streams of living water that thrives and has life abundantly.

Brad Sullivan

Easter Vigil, Year A

April 15, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

Matthew 28:1-10

Why Are We Here? For Proclamation

What are we doing here? It’s Saturday night on a long weekend. We could be out on the town; or staying at home, relaxing; or watching the new Star Wars preview for the 17th, 18th, and 19th times no YouTube. Instead we’re here in church, doing much the same thing and in the same place where we are going to be tomorrow morning. We’ve spent the last 40 days of our Lenten journey preparing for this night. As Jesus spent 40 days in the desert preparing for his ministry and death, as his disciples spent three years with Jesus preparing for their new life in him, we have been preparing. We’ve been learning from Jesus, learning to follow in his way. We’ve been working at re-membering, at joining ourselves back to him. We’ve been learning to rely more and more on Jesus through our Lenten journey.

Not so tonight. Tonight is different. What are we doing here tonight? Tonight we are proclaiming: “The tomb is empty and Jesus is risen.” That is what Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph did on the day of Jesus’ resurrection. Theirs was the first joy of proclamation.

They had gone to the tomb, and the tomb should have smelled of decay, of blood and sweat, and death, but it didn’t. The tomb was empty, and rather than decay, the tomb smelled of new earth and rock, clean and pure. It smelled of new life and new creation, for that is what the empty tomb was, new life.

On the first day of the week, the same day when God proclaimed, “Let there be light,” an angel of light rolled back the stone of Jesus’ empty tomb and showed the women the new life and new creation that had been brought about through Jesus’ death and resurrection. They saw the new light and new life that God had created once again, and then they went.

They went to proclaim Jesus’ resurrection, and Jesus met them on the way. The new life and new creation itself met them, and he smelled of Eden, of earth and trees, of grass and fruit, of life and spring. Seeing him was like seeing the sun rise on a beautiful field after a long, dark, frightful night.

They saw him, and they touched him, this new creation, and then they began their proclamation, the proclamation of the church that has continued on ever since and continues on this very night, across the whole earth, and in this very room. The proclamation of Jesus’ resurrection, of new life and new creation continues on in our lives of service, of prayer, of conversation, and love. The proclamation of Jesus’ resurrection continues on in each person who is baptized in his name.

The act of cleansing, of washing away darkness and following in Jesus’ light is an act of proclamation that the tomb is empty. Blood, and death, and decay have been washed away and transformed into new earth, new life, new light. That is what we are here to do tonight, to continue the proclamation, that God has taken the darkness of the world and said once again, “Let there be light,” for the tomb is empty, and Jesus is risen.

Brad Sullivan

Maundy Thursday, Year A

April 13, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

So, I Tend to Be Kinda Grouchy

I tend to be kinda grouchy. There’s my Good Friday confession a little bit early.

So this has been for me a fantastic Lent. Lent is generally my favorite time of year because it’s this time of year when we get to be more intentional than usual in seeking help from God in some aspect of life, or we seek to give something up so we can further our dependence on God, and this Lent I had not come up with anything to give up by the first Sunday of Lent. Ash Wednesday came and went, and I was thinking, “I don’t know. I don’t eat much chocolate so that’s not going to do much…”

Then I was talking to a Gentleman on the morning of the first Sunday of Lent, and he was talking about how Lent had been great. He had this laundry list of things he had given up. We’re talking chewing tobacco, coffee, alcohol, every coping mechanism a person could have, and he had gotten rid of all of them, and so I was thinking, “That’s gotta stink…,” but it had been a fantastic Lent for him because every time he started thinking about, “I really want this, or I really want that,” he took it as an opportunity to pray. So, he was loving it, because it was this constant drawing nearer to God that he got to have. I was thinking, “Thank you! That should have been obvious, but thank you, and that’s what I’m going to do now.”

So, I decided to give up being grouchy for Lent. There was one night when I was angry and upset, and it wasn’t really about my life, it was listening to the news and hearing about all the awful stuff and getting so incensed about all the bad things in the world and finally saying, with tears streaming down, “God, I cannot take this anymore. Please get rid of this. Get rid of this anger. Get rid of this overreaction to everything. I don’t want it anymore; I’m done with it,” and he took it.

It was gone, and I felt fantastic. I was less grouchy, less grumpy. I had a greater capacity to be a loving person. That has been my Lenten practice for the rest of Lent. Every time I start getting agitated, or worried, or upset about something, I stop, and I pray, “God, please take this from me. I don’t want to deal with it. I can’t deal with it. Please take this from me.” Then I can go about and deal with whatever was getting me upset in a much more loving way.

So it has been a fantastic Lent, and I offer that story because we’re coming to the end of Lent. We’re starting what’s known as the Tridium, the three days, and Maundy Thursday as we’re remembering our abandonment of Jesus at the end of this service. We’re remembering, tomorrow, the crucifixion of Jesus and the horrors of humanity. Talk about grouchy, here was a guy loved people far too much for humanity to allow him to live, and so we’ll be remembering just how huge our capacity for atrocities and darkness is.

Jesus knew that was coming, so he gave his disciples this new commandment, and knowing full well his disciples’ and our capacity for darkness, his final commandment was not a warning against darkness. His final commandment was not, “Guys, try not to be terrible jerks to each other.”

His final commandment was “Love one another. Even as I have love you, love one another,” which tells me that despite our capacity for darkness, Jesus knows that we have a capacity for love, and not just a capacity for love, we have every bit as large a capacity for love as he does. He didn’t say, love one another kinda like, near to how I have loved you. He said, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

We were made in God’s image. Jesus was fully human. So, every bit as much the capacity for love that Jesus has, so do we have. That is what he left his disciples with on the night that he knew they were going to leave. Amidst all of the darkness of the world, amidst all of the darkness that was to come, he wanted them to remember and to live out their capacity for love.

That is what I have found this Lent in asking this continual prayer of help from God, that ultimately, asking God to help us to take away the darkness leaves us free to love. Jesus has taken care of our darkness. He has taken it, and he asks us continually to offer it to him, so that we then may be free to live out a life of love, a life full of every bit as much love for one another as he has for us.

Brad Sullivan

5 Lent, Year A

April 2, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

John 11:1-45

We’ll never be transformed if we aren’t willing to walk into the tomb.

Thinking about the raising of Lazarus from the dead got me thinking about death and the fear of death, and that got me thinking about Star Wars. To be fair, most things do, but fear of death is a recurring theme in the Star Wars saga. In Star Wars there is something called “the Force,” an almost divine-like force that some people can tap into and use to perform great feats and do great good. There are others who can tap into the force, but use it selfishly. The way they use the Force is called The Dark Side, and through The Dark Side, they bring about great evil. The tragic hero of Star Wars, Anakin, is one of these good force users, but he is particularly afraid of death and the death of those he loves. So when he receives a vision of his wife dying, he is terrified, and he seeks the advice of the wise, old Master Yoda.

Anakin explains this vision of death, and Yoda says, "Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin! The fear of loss is a path to the Dark Side."

"I won't let my visions come true, Master Yoda," Anakin replies.

Yoda says, "Rejoice for those around us who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy, the shadow of greed, that is."

"What must I do, Master Yoda?" Anakin asks.

"Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose."

Sadly, Anakin didn’t really take Yoda’s advice and through his fear of death and loss, he ended up acquiring great power through The Dark Side and became an embodiment of evil, the infamous Darth Vader. Anakin was unwilling to face the tomb, for his life and the life of those he loved, and so he became and brought about the very thing he feared.

Now most of us aren’t going to become an embodiment of evil because of our fears, and yet Yoda’s advice still applies to us. “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.” Jesus said something similar in his teachings about not worrying and about losing our lives. Don’t worry about what you will eat or what you will wear, Jesus taught. “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:34) Worrying, he taught, won’t change anything or help you in any way, but it will make you afraid and miserable. Closely tied to not worrying was Jesus’ teaching about our lives. He taught us to let go of that which we fear to lose. “For those who want to save their life will lose it,” Jesus said, “and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

How much of our time is spent, like Anakin, “sensing the future”, worrying about some possible future catastrophe? How much of our resources are spent trying to stave off death? We fear, we worry, and we take actions that are guided by our fear and our worry of death and loss, and those actions usually bring about greater death and loss.

Jesus would prefer that we let go of that which we fear to lose and trust instead in him. That’s what he showed us in his raising of Lazarus from the dead. When Lazarus was deathly ill, Mary and Martha sent for Jesus, and Jesus apparently had every intention of healing Lazarus, but only after he died first, right? Jesus waited around and let Lazarus die before he healed him, and he did so for two reasons: one so that people could see that he, that God, has power even over death, and two because it was very important to Jesus that people believe in him.

Jesus waited around till Lazarus was good and dead before deciding to go to see him in Bethany “so that [he], the Son of God [would] be glorified through [Lazarus’ death and being raised from the dead].” See, just before this story, Jesus had been in Jerusalem and had given sight to a man who was born blind, a miracle so great that no one had ever heard of anything like that ever happening before. Many who did not see Jesus actually perform this miracle, however, did not believe that Jesus had done this, and later, many of them even tried to kill Jesus for claiming to be God’s son.

So, Jesus left Jerusalem, went away across the Jordan River and then received word that Lazarus was sick. When he arrived in Bethany which was very close to Jerusalem, with Lazarus already dead, many Jews from Jerusalem were there mourning with Martha and Mary. Ok so, we don’t know if these were the same people who tried to kill Jesus, but they were from the same place where those doubts and death threats had come. In fact, Jesus’ disciples were afraid of going so near to Jerusalem, believing that they were going to be killed, since last time they were there, people tried to kill Jesus.

So, Jesus returned to Bethany to show people from Jerusalem not only a healing, but to show them that he had power to raise the dead back to life. Jesus wanted these people to believe in him. It was important enough to Jesus that people believe in him, in fact, that he waited for Lazarus to die and risked being killed in order to show that he truly was God’s son, and those who saw believed.

So why was it so important to Jesus that people believe in him, that he would risk so much? Because Jesus wanted to heal them too, and believing in him was the healing they needed. They needed to believe in him who is the light and life of all creation. They needed to believe in his power over death. They needed to believe that his teachings were true, that they could let go of that which they feared to lose, and trust in him. Jesus wanted them and us to believe in him because Jesus knows what our worries and fears bring us when we follow after the ways of our worries and fears.

Ultimately, our worries and fears bring us to The Dark Side, to Darth Vader. Consider when we don’t trust in Jesus and don’t follow in his teachings. Times when we have been hurt and we don’t let go of that hurt, we don’t forgive, and we cause greater strife. Times when because of our hurt and our perceived righteousness, we retaliate and cause further harm. Consider how much suffering is caused by our epic battle with death. How many are killed in order to protect the lives of others. Consider the suffering caused by our battle with all kinds of death: physical, emotional, relational, death of goals, dreams, etc. How often do we try to stave off and prevent death at all cost, rather than accepting death and trusting our lives and our deaths with Jesus?

Trusting in Jesus, believing in him, means letting go of that which we fear to lose. Trusting in Jesus means being willing to face the tomb, trusting in resurrection, in Jesus’ power over death. That’s a lot of trust because even trusting in resurrection, we don’t know what’s going to happen. Trusting in Jesus, we need to let go of that which we fear to lose and accept death in order to be transformed.

A couple I know and gave some counseling to was limping along with their marriage basically on life support. Their marriage was dead, but neither was willing to face that truth. Finally, one did, but rather than simply say, “ok, let’s get divorced,” this person said plainly what their marriage had become and did raise divorce as a possibility. That was a bit of a shock to the other. So, together they began facing the tomb in which their marriage had gone. They looked at what was causing the death of their marriage. They looked at what they each of them were afraid to lose, what each of them had to place into the tomb in order for their marriage to survive. They worked together, and they both allowed some things to die. Some of their dreams of what they wanted their lives to be died. Some of their visions of what they thought marriage should be died. Through those deaths, they found new life. Through their willingness to enter the tomb, their marriage was transformed. They found new life, resurrection, by letting go of that which they feared to lose and entering the tomb.

See, what Jesus ultimately wants for us is transformation. That is why it is so important to him that we listen to him and believe in him. Jesus wants us to be transformed into light and life, and we’ll never be transformed if we aren’t willing to let go of that which we fear to lose and walk into the tomb. If we trust in Jesus and believe in him, then we can accept and face our deaths. We can enter the tomb and be transformed.

Brad Sullivan

2 Lent, Year A

March 12, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

John 3:1-17

Babies Crawling On the Ever-Shifting Sands of Time

“They say that these are not the best of times, but they’re the only times I’ve ever known.” That’s from poet and prophet, Billy Joel, in the song Summer Highland Falls. That single idea, that these aren’t the best of times, but they are the only times I’ve ever known, that idea holds true for each new generation, doesn’t it? When we’re first born, the world doesn’t seem crazy and messed up. It just seems like the world, even if it is crazy and messed up. Then we get older and the world seems different, and we get older and the world seems even more different. The world changes more and more, until sometimes folks find themselves living in a world they no longer really recognize or understand.

New folks move into the neighborhood and the neighborhood changes. The constant and regular practices of our religion become less constant, not at all regular, and the younger generations don’t do things the way we used to. Texting replaces written invitations to parties and other events. The interwebs replace print media. Star Wars gets taken over by Disney! Ways of life, unacceptable when we were children are now acceptable decades later. Whatever the changes, they’re happening all the time, all around us. We’re often longing for the past, or the good old days, or the way we did things “back in my day,” and into this longing for the past, this longing for some firm footing on the ever shifting sands of time, Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above.”

Well, if you are born from above, then what are you, or what is your spirit, but that of a newborn baby? See babies and children don’t long for the good old days. They see the world around them, and they can live in it and accept the world as it is. They can see God in the world all around them. The Kingdom of God is not hidden from the eyes of infants and children because they aren’t looking for God’s Kingdom in some longed-for and likely over-romanticized past. Infants and children can simply live into God’s Kingdom in the ever changing present.

Our ties to the past are not a bad thing in and of themselves. They give us wisdom and some grounding in the ever-shifting sands of time, but those very ties to the past, when tied too tightly, end up binding us so that we can no longer move, and we see the sands a-shifting, we see the times a-changing, and we become afraid. That is how Nicodemus felt when he came to Jesus stating, “we know that you are a teacher who has come from God…” Nicodemus made a statement, declaring that Jesus was from God, but Nicodemus also came to Jesus at night. He was curious about Jesus, but he was also frightened. Jesus didn’t mesh with what he thought he knew about God’s Kingdom, and behind Nicodemus’ statement that Jesus had come from God, was a question. “How can it be that you come from God, when what you say and do, while like what God taught, seems so different from the religion that I know?”

Something of what Jesus said and did resonated very deeply with Nicodemus. In Jesus, Nicodemus could see the Kingdom of God, and at the same time, Jesus was different than the religion of Nicodemus’ childhood and training, and the fear that Nicodemus felt at that difference was eclipsing his curiosity. Be born from above, Jesus said. Be a baby again, full of curiosity and without fear, trusting not in the past, but in God and God’s Kingdom all around you.

In these first weeks of Lent, Emmanuel has decided to get curious about God and God’s Kingdom all around us. On Ash Wednesday, we had our regular services here, and we also changed how we’d always done things by bringing ashes and prayers with us out into the surrounding community for “Ashes to Go,” something churches have been doing close to about 10 years now, actually. We went out into the world, where Jesus already was, and we both offered moments of grace in the ashes and prayer, the holy things of our church, and we received moments of grace from the people we met. We didn’t bring Jesus to anyone. Jesus was already there, and we got to encounter Jesus together. So, we’re going to hear stories from a couple of the folks who went out for “Ashes to Go.”

J:

Good morning, I was one of the Ashes to Go people who went to the park and ride. There were about six of us gathered near where people get off the bus, and my main job was to hold the sign up that said, “Ashes to Go,” so as many people as possible could see it, but I was a part of some interactions there, and I found the whole thing to be moving to me and to other people also. There was one young couple there who drove up and asked one of us to go over to them. One of our members went to them, and they asked us to pray for them because they wanted to have a baby. So she prayed for them, not only that they would have a baby, but that God would bless them in ways to make their lives full.

Many folks would come by, and some would look at us like “are you serious?”, and others would give us a big smile, some would say, “I went this morning.” It was a start, a good start, and I hope it will continue. Thank you.

R:

Good morning. For myself, it was also a very spiritual experience. Like our sister said, we had a sign that said, “Ashes to Go,” and next year we need three signs so we can spread out a bit more. The first person who came up to us said, “Is this for real?” During the hour we were there, so many people came up with different outward expressions of the Holy Spirit that had gone into them. Some were smiling. Some weren’t sure. There were people who’d be coming off the bus, and you could see that they were tired, but when they saw the sign, they got a skip in their step, they were smiling at us, and it was beautiful, it was wonderful. There was one lady who came up, and she had a lot on her mind; she was very quiet, and we asked if she would like to have ashes. She said, “no thank you,” and she walked past. Then she stopped and came back and asked for prayer for her son. So we prayed together for her son, and then she said, “Now I would like ashes.” So it was incredible to experience this, and I hope we all have the opportunity to do this again, and I will volunteer for next year. Thank you very much.

L:

Good day. I was not part of taking the ashes to the street, but Brad gave my family Ashes to Go, a little take home packet and Ash Wednesday service. For the past five years, I’ve been to St. Mark’s Episcopal for the 7:00 a.m. service since it fit my schedule, but this year, my schedule didn’t allow me to go to make that service, and my wife and I couldn’t make the evening service here, and Brad knew that, so he gave us Ashes to Go for our home. I mentioned it to a neighbor, who mentioned it to another neighbor, and we ended up with seven people in our home that evening, and we read through the service together. I started the service, and our daughter wanted to read the scripture. After she got through about a paragraph, she wanted to read the second scripture, and then the third scripture, and we had a little bit of a tug of war so my wife and I could read a scripture, and we all got our scripture in. From that, our neighbors were there and participating, and as Brad said, we didn’t bring Jesus to anyone, but we found him together in our house that night, and it was very moving. I think if anyone can do that and open up, which we all can, tell someone, and I will be part of next year’s on the street. I think that’s great, and I’ll make time. Thank you.

We never know where or in whom we might encounter God, for God’s Spirit blows where it chooses, and we do not know where it comes from or where it goes. Beyond the Church, God’s Kingdom shows up all the time, in all kinds of different ways, from the mystical to the mundane. God’s Kingdom isn’t overly concerned with the artifices of any longed-for past because God’s Kingdom has been ever present in through and beyond all of our presents and all of our pasts.

In ancient Israel, when a foreigner, Naomi, clung to her mother-in-law, Ruth’s, neck and said, “I will not leave you,” God’s Kingdom was present. When Jesus said, “neither do I condemn you,” and “Father forgive them,” God’s Kingdom was present. In 15th century England, in the birth of the Anglican Church, God’s Kingdom was present. During that same time, when Europeans began coming to this land, God’s Kingdom was present. God’s Kingdom was present in this land, in fact, long before Europeans arrived with Christianity, or was God not here yet? God’s Kingdom has been present during times of darkness in this land and during times of light. God’s Kingdom has been ever-present in this and every land throughout all time, showing up whenever and in whomever it would.

Some, like Nicodemus, would see it and think, “that can’t be God’s Kingdom, it doesn’t fit with what I know.” Fortunately, God isn’t bound by what we know in our ties to the past. So it is with those who are born of the Spirit. They are babies once again, tethered to the past, but also free to live in the world as it is rather than as it was, free to be curious about the world, free to explore as all newborn babies do. Newborn babies, born not of the flesh, but of the Spirit, is what Jesus has formed us and called us to be, over and over again, to enter back into God’s womb and are then born once again. Jesus has sent us out to live and proclaim God’s Kingdom,

wherever it happens to be, even in the crazy newness of our constantly changing world, and the ever-shifting sands of time upon which we travel.