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Brad Sullivan Proper 4, Year B June 3, 2018 Emmanuel, Houston Deuteronomy 5:12-15 Psalm 81:1-10 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 Mark 2:23 - 3:6 Sabbath, Jesus: Gifts of Freedom from All that Enslaves us Rules are made to be broken. That’s one of my favorite oft quoted sayings of supposed wisdom which is actually totally and completely bogus. Rules aren’t made to be broken. That’s just something people say when they don’t feel like following a rule, which happens pretty much of the time. Rules weren’t made to be broken. Then again, rules aren’t generally made to be followed either. Don’t get me wrong, those who make rules want them to be followed, but following some arbitrary rule is not the point of making the rule. Rules aren’t made to be followed. Rules are made to be helpful. The Pharisees missed that in their understanding of the rule about not working on the Sabbath. Thinking that th

Brad Sullivan Trinity Sunday, Year B May 27, 2018 Emmanuel, Houston Isaiah 6:1-8 Romans 8:12-17 John 3:1-17 Trinityish Type Stuff: a.k.a. Restoring God's Shalom Without doubt and without fear, May you find some comfort here, May there be hope to help you cope When what you need Is nowhere near Make your mark unto these years, Shape your world with salt and tears, Carry on when your will has gone, Be it joy or sorrow Given time, given faith, Given courage to embrace Changes as they each take place, Be it joy or sorrow - Terri Hendrix, Joy or Sorrow That’s from a song called Joy or Sorrow by Texas singer/songwriter, Terri Hendrix. That song made me think of the life of Jesus, following the wind of the Holy Spirit. In good times and in bad, in joy or sorrow, Jesus had a profoundly beautiful life, being led by the wind, the Spirit of God. Jesus was ful

Brad Sullivan 6 Easter, Year B May 6, 2018 Emmanuel, Houston John 15:9-17 Jesus wants us to be joyful…not fearful, lonely, right, or isolated. Abide in my love, Jesus said, so that my joy may be in your and your joy may be complete. Jesus had all sorts of emotions, just like every other human. Anger, frustration, contempt. Think about how Jesus was with the scribes, the Pharisees, the money changers, his own disciples at times. Jesus was powerful in the extreme, and those emotions and ways of being, anger, frustration, contempt are powerful as well. They were a part of Jesus and they gave him a nudge to start acting or doing things every now and then, and yet rather than choose to act and live out of those powerful emotions, he chose to live in the powerful weakness of love. The powerful weakness of love is so much more powerful than anger. Love is so much more powerful than frustration. Love is so much more powerful than contempt…and

Brad Sullivan 4 Easter, Year B April 22, 2018 Emmanuel, Houston 1 John 3:16-24 John 10:11-18 Give Grace Amidst Angst, and Be Healed Life is hard. It’s also great, and we’re in the Easter season, so we’re not going too far down a dark path, but life is, in addition to being great, straight up, plain, old fashioned hard. We have hurts that happen to us from the moment we are born. Fears, feelings of abandonment, loss, and that’s for kids with great parents. People let us down. We let other people down. We lose trust and faith in those we love, disease hits us and nocks whole families down, jobs are lost, security is tenuous, and we hurt and have a hard time reconciling with folks even in the best of circumstances. We end up with a lot of angst. My desire as a youth was maybe to avoid some of that. In reading scripture back in high school, I had a strong desire to follow God in all his ways, as Jesus told Satan during h

Brad Sullivan Easter Sunday April 1, 2018 Emmanuel, Houston John 20:1-18 Even When the World Tells Us Not To Happy Easter y’all, as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, his victory over death, and the fullness of his great love for us. I love that God joined with us even in death, and then in Jesus’ resurrection, God has shown us the full measure of his grace towards us. We get to share in his eternal life and love, forgiveness and reconciliation. That’s the nuts and bolts of our faith, we get to share in God’s eternal life and love, forgiveness and reconciliation. I absolutely love our faith, our faith in Jesus and in his resurrection, and I also keep hearing more and more folks who nowadays think we’re kinda nuts for believing in Jesus, or even for believing in a God at all, and that’s fine. To be fair, I don’t know if our faith is true; I can’t prove it, but I love it, and I choose to beli

Brad Sullivan 5th Sunday of Lent March 18, 2018 Emmanuel, Houston John 12:20-33 Sleeper Awake (and Quit that Darn Snooze Button) First of all, I’d like to thank my buddy Patrick Hall for his sermon last Sunday entitled, “Risking Exposure,” which helped draw out of me these words for today. You can look him up, Patrick Hall, and search for his sermon from last Sunday called, “Risking Exposure.” Now turning to today’s sermon, I’ve recently found that one of the worse inventions ever created is the snooze button. It’s a procrastinator’s dream. You get to put off the day and stay comfy in bed, wrapped in the covers for just a little bit longer, which, if you’re going to do that just set the alarm for 10 minutes later. The big problem with the snooze button is what doesn’t get done because of it, the morning walk or time in prayer, the rushing through a morning that could have bee

Brad Sullivan 3rd Sunday of Lent March 4, 2018 Emmanuel, Houston John 2:13-22 Wreck It Rabbi One of my kids’ and my favorite movies is an animated movie called, “Wreck It Ralph.” Ralph is a video game character, a bad guy whose catch phrase is, “I’m gonna wreck it,” and in this movie, the video game characters are kind of alive and interact with each other when they are off stage, when no one is playing the game. Ralph’s game is a game called Fix It Felix in which Ralph is, again, the bad guy, except that he doesn’t want to be the bad guy. He’s good hearted, but in the game, his job is to destroy a high rise apartment building, and as he does, the tenants shout “Fix It Felix”, and the hero, Fix It Felix comes along and fixes everything that Ralph destroys. So, everyone kinda hates Ralph, then as the movie goes on, they all realize that without Ralph, no one would play their game, and thro

Brad Sullivan Ash Wednesday February 14, 2018 Emmanuel, Houston Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Choosing to Love…Without All the Time in the World I was on Facebook this morning as I am every morning, about to start Morning Prayer, which I pray on Facebook so others can join in praying together, and as I was about to start, I noticed a friend’s updated status (a priest friend of mine). The status was a question and an answer. “So, do you have any plans for Valentine’s Day?” “I’m going to go to work and remind everyone of their inevitable death.” Happy Valentash Wednesday, everyone. I loved that status update because…well, I love that kind of humor, and because it is so true. Maybe a bit maudlin, I’ll grant you, but we really are here on Ash Wednesday to remind ourselves of our inevitable death, and of the hope that goes with it. We can only really come to that hope of life in

Brad Sullivan Last Sunday after the Epiphany February 11, 2018 Emmanuel, Houston 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Mark 9:2-9 God Is In the Grind Have you ever been outside walking around and then looked up and been startled, scared even, by a hideous, almost other worldly beast staring at you with hungry eyes, vicious teeth, and razor sharp claws, only to have your eyes refocus and realize you were in fact looking at a tree branch? The tree branch didn’t change, only how your eyes saw the tree branch changed. I wonder if that isn’t something like what happened to Peter and James and John with the transfiguration. Rather than Jesus changing before their eyes, perhaps what changed was their eyes’ ability to see for a few minutes something they had not previously been able to see: the radiance and majesty of the light of Jesus. Perhaps even, Moses and Elijah had been there previously as well, unseen and unheard by Peter, and James, and John, until God

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Brad Sullivan 2 Epiphany, Year B January 14, 2018 Emmanuel, Houston John 1:43-51 The Families of the Earth Can Be Blessed Through You “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” I love this question of Nathanael’s partly because it appeals to my snarky side, and also because the obvious answer is supposed to be “no.” Nazareth was a Podunk little sparrow fart town. The messiah was not supposed to come from there, and further, at least in Nathanael’s mind nothing good could come from such a crummy place. Nathanael would have rather written off Jesus and anyone from Nazareth. Let’s leave those people there, and go on and hope for the messiah to come from somewhere important. God just wasn’t playing Nathanael’s little game of making sure things looked good enough on the outside to stroke his ego. “Sorry Nate,” God said. “I know you want to be associated with a Messiah from some

Brad Sullivan 2 Christmas, Year B December 31, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston John 1:1-18 The Questioners, the Loners, the Kids with Behavior Problems… Over the weekend, a priest friend of mine and I talking and joking together about challenges of church life, and she said, “Yeah, church would be great if it wasn’t for all the people.” It’s a common joke about the imperfections of the Church which is the ecclesia (or gathering) of Jesus’ friends. Jesus’ ecclesia of friends began as a rather rag tag group of also-rans, the island of misfit toys type folks who needed and wanted the love and belonging which Jesus was offering. Being a rag tag group of folks, the church was always an imperfect bunch, and that proud tradition has continued on to this day. As the church, the ecclesia, the gathering of Jesus’ friends we’re a group of people who follow in Jesus’ ways, except when we don’t. We

Brad Sullivan 3 Advent, Year B December 17, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 John 1:6-8, 19-28 That Someone Greater Is Jesus, and that Something Greater is Love So, John the Baptist really upset the uber religiousy folks of his time, didn’t he? He was there, baptizing folks to testify to the Light of God, to lead people into repentance from the ways they were living that harmed themselves or others, and to prepare their hearts for the coming of God’s kingdom. That sounds like a good thing, something folks could pretty well get behind, but the priests, the Levites, and the Pharisees, they were having none of it. The priests and Levites were the ones with primary responsibility for the Temple worship, and the Pharisees were a group within Israel, focused on upholding the religious laws and rules of Israel. You might thing that such religious type folks would be glad to see someone taking their fai

Brad Sullivan 1 Advent, Year B December 3, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston Mark 13:24-27 A Tale of Two Households When Jesus told his parable about the master of a household going away on a journey and leaving his servants in charge of the household while he was gone, telling them to keep awake and be ready for his return, Jesus was talking about how his disciples were to live once he was crucified, as they waited for him to come again at the end of time and restore all of creation. Rather than try to tease out each drop of meaning from each detail of his parable, I thought I’d expand on the parable and see where it leads, in order to develop Jesus’ point in telling the parable. I call this “A Tale of Two Households.” There was a master of a large household, almost like a small kingdom, with herds of cows, flocks of sheep, chickens, a vast and productive farm, and the members of the master’s household, servants and family alike,

Brad Sullivan All Saints Sunday, Year A November 5, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston Matthew 5:1-12 Who are the saints? (Icon of St. Joseph - is this a saint? Picture of my dad - is this a saint?) Both are saints, even though only a few knew my dad. The saints are those who love God and love people. The saints are also those whom God loves and whom people love. In our Gospel reading, the beatitudes, is Jesus describing the saints? Yes…and…he’s not always describing people who have done particularly saint-worthy things. He’s also describing those whom he loves. Did the people whom Jesus described do particularly saintly things? Peacemakers - yes. Merciful and pure in heart - yes, they seem rather saintly. Hunger and thirst for righteousness - maybe. The poor in spirit - no…just kind of downtrodden. The meek and those whom mourn - …also kind of sad, not particularly

Brad Sullivan Proper 25, Year A October 29, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Matthew 22:34-46 The Most Powerful Force In the World Becca Stevens is an Episcopal priest and the founder and president of Thistle Farms which she stared 20 years ago with five women who needed healing, survivors of abuse, trafficking, and prostitution. She started with five women in a house called Magdalene, and there these five women found the healing power of love as they lived together, cared for each other, and loved their way back to wholeness. After four years, Becca and the women of Magdalene House realized they also needed women to become economically independent to fully get their lives back, and so they stared making candles, oils, and other healing products. Thistle Farms began, and the women who were survivors of the worst that humanity has to offer began operating this business, Thistle Farms, learning about running a business, while being healed themselves,

Brad Sullivan Proper 23, Year A October 15, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston Isaiah 25:1-9 Philippians 4:1-9 Matthew 22:1-14 Wow, That Got Out of Hand Quickly So this is everyone’s favorite parable. In a few sentences, Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast went from a king throwing a wedding feast for his son to the guests not wanting to come, killing the king’s servants, and the king utterly destroying their city and killing all of them. From “Hey guys, let’s have a party,” to total bloodbath in 4.3 seconds, the hearer of this story is left rather breathless, thinking, “Wow, that really got out of hand quickly.” We’re left stunned, and a bit scared as we hear this parable, and so we often try to clearly define what groups of people Jesus is talking about. Christians have long tried to define themselves as the riff raff collected from the streets who accepted the king’s invitation, and C

Brad Sullivan Proper 20, Year A September 24, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston Jonah 3:10-4:11 Matthew 20:1-16 But Jesus, That’s Not Fair! “But Jesus, that’s not fair!” That pretty well sums up the response of the laborers at the end of Jesus’ parable of the laborers in the vineyard. They had agreed to work for the day for the usual daily wage. They negotiated those terms with the landowner. Then, when they found out that those who worked for only an hour also made the usual daily wage, they felt cheated. “That’s not fair!” Well, as a friend of mine was thinking of titling her sermon for today, “Suck it up, Buttercup.” Clarence Jordan of Koinonia Farms once said, “Whenever Jesus told a parable, he lit a stick of dynamite and covered it with a story.” At first glance many of us, myself included, look at this parable and think, “Well that’s not fair, Jesus.&#

Brad Sullivan Proper 16, Year A August 27, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston Exodus 12:1-14 Romans 13:8-14 Matthew 18:15-20 Our Pre-Harvey Lives Are Dead and In the Tomb Last Friday, I was volunteering over at FamilyPoint Resources, a little ways down Memorial from here. Family Point has after school programs for children in this area along with other services for children and families. With school not yet in session last week, FamilyPoint opened up to have some hang out time for the neighborhood kids, and I was there to help with that. I spent a little bit of time on the soccer field, but mostly built LEGOs with a group kids. It’s great getting to see what they come up with and how excited they are to show off their creations. There was the occasional dispute over, ‘that piece is mine,’ but mostly we just built together and admired each others’ creations. Afterwards, I was talking with the executive director, Stephanie Hruz

Brad Sullivan Proper 14, Year A August 13, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston Matthew 14:22-33 Walking On Water: The Martyr of Charlottesville Jesus was the Word of God which spoke all of creation into existence. On some level, even subconsciously, I’d guess Jesus began to have some inkling of who he was. I wonder if in his encounter with his disciples on the boat, Jesus just forgot for a minute that humans can’t walk on water. He was tired; it had been a long day. He’d gone away to be by himself to pray for a while after learning that his cousin, John the Baptist had been beheaded, and instead of getting a break, Jesus ended up teaching and multiplying food some somewhere around 10,000 people (including the women and children). Finally, after all that, he sends his disciples across the sea in their boat while he gets to spend some time alone in prayer. So, worn out, dog tired, Jesus spent time alone in prayer, and I think he might have bee