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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

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 gr

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’

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 wh

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 th

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

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

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 ta

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

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

Brad Sullivan Last Epiphany, Year A February 26, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston Matthew 17:1-9 The Freedom to Fail “Man glows on top of mountain, disciples respond stupidly” I think that’s pretty much what the newspaper headline would read for the transfiguration. The article would follow: Itinerant preacher and Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth, stunned his disciples yesterday when, in a remarkable lack of his characteristic humility, Jesus began glowing on top of a mountain, revealing himself as God, and then asking his Father for a mic drop, as a bright cloud covered the terrified disciples and God’s voice declared Jesus to be his son. The article would go on and probably miss a lot of the grace that was going on with the Transfiguration, the newspaper reporter totally transfixed by the majesty and awe. To be fair, I’ve been transfixed by the majesty and awe of the Transfiguration many times. Jesus’ full divinity shinin

Brad Sullivan 6 Epiphany, Year A February 12, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston Sirach 15:15-20 Matthew 5:21-37 The Quest “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” That’s where we left off last week in Jesus’ sermon in Matthew chapter 5. At a first hearing, it sounds like Jesus is giving a major, “you’ve got to be good enough for God” kind of statement. “You’ve got to be righteous enough in God’s eyes in order to be good enough for God.” That’s certainly where my teenage brain took this passage when I read it back in high school. “Man, I’ve got to be even better that the religious leaders in order to be good enough for God?” Yikes! Well, I’ve got a few critiques to that particular understanding of Jesus and the Gospel. The

Brad Sullivan 4 Epiphany, Year A January 29, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 Matthew 5:1-12 Smacked Upside the Head by Hope “I get it, guys. The Gospel sounds foolish, and you feel kinda dumb for proclaiming it, but just go with it. That’s how God works.” That’s basically what Paul is saying in his letter to the Corinthians. He says Jesus seems like foolishness to the nations, although for us, he calls Jesus the wisdom of God. “For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.” It’s as if Paul is saying, “I get it, guys. The Gospel sounds foolish, and you feel kinda dumb for proclaiming it, but just go with it. That’s how God works.” Jesus’ words sounding foolish, at least on some level, certainly seems to be happening with the beatitudes, the beginning of his sermon in Matthew 5. Now, I love, this sermon, this list of blessings, this list of people who

Brad Sullivan 2 Epiphany, Year A January 14, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston John 1:29-42 Fumbling In the Dark Repentance leads to seeing Jesus. That is what I heard in our Gospel story this morning, as John was declaring Jesus to be the Lamb of God, the one who would take away the sins of the world. John said that he came baptizing so that Jesus would be revealed to Israel. Now John came with a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and his doing so led to Jesus being revealed as God’s son after he was baptized by John. This baptism of repentance led to a revelation of Jesus, seeing him as more than a carpenter’s son, but as the Son of God who has saved the world from their sins. For us, repentance leads to seeing Jesus as well and being guided by the light of Jesus, without which, without Jesus, we’re fumbling in the dark. We may not feel like we’re fumbling in the dark. We’re so often guided, after all, our own

Brad Sullivan Christmas Eve, Year A December 24, 2016 Emmanuel, Houston Luke 2:1-14(15-20) Becoming Human On A Lark And that’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown. Every time I hear Luke’s telling of Jesus’ birth, I hear Linus telling the Christmas story to Charlie Brown, letting him know what Christmas is really all about. Christmas is about the joy of God becoming human and how fantastic it is that God thinks highly enough of us, love us enough, that he actually wanted to be one of us. How crazy is that? How great, but is God just totally nuts? Maybe. Now, rumor has it that becoming human: living, dying, being resurrected for our sake, was always part of God’s plan, but what if it started on a lark, kind of just a crazy, whimsical idea? Imagine Jesus, before becoming human, saying to his Father: Jesus: Dad, you know how much we love those humans? Father: Yeah, Son. I do. Jesus: Have you ever t

Brad Sullivan 3 Advent, Year A December 11, 2016 Emmanuel, Houston James 5:7-10 Matthew 11:2-11 Avoiding Suffering and Death: The Great Lie of Life We hear in our story from the Gospel according to Matthew today a story about John the Baptist, sitting in prison and wondering if all he had done had been worth it. Was God’s kingdom truly coming? Was salvation actually at hand? Or, had he thrown his life away, been miserable out in the wilderness, eaten locusts for God’s sake (literally for God’s sake), and ended up in prison, soon to be killed, all for a lie, a misguided zealot’s farce? Was Jesus truly the messiah, the anointed one? So he asked, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus could never give a simple “yes” or “no”, could he? When John’s disciples asked the very direct question, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to w

Brad Sullivan 1 Advent, Year A November 27, 2016 Emmanuel, Houston Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:36-44 I’ll Take First Watch “I’ll take first watch.” That is a frequent refrain on the AMC hit TV series, “The Walking Dead”, a show which I have been watching the TV show now for years. For those unfamiliar with The Walking Dead, it is a show about a zombie apocalypse and the struggle for survival of those few humans left who are not the walking dead. Whether the survivors are walking through the wilderness or living in the moderate safety of a walled-in community, there are constant threats from zombies (what they call “walkers”) and even from other humans. So, “I’ll take first watch” is a frequent refrain on the show, a life or death situation. “I’ll take first watch” was also about the first thing that popped into my head when I read this Sunday’s g

Brad Sullivan Proper 28, Year C November 13, 2016 Emmanuel, Houston Isaiah 65:17-25 Luke 21:5-19 Life After The Apocalypse Your worst fears are coming true, but fear not. That’s basically part of what Jesus was saying in the discourse to his disciples that we heard today. “Guys, you’re about to be living in Diaspora again. You are about to be scattered among the nations, living in places that don’t really support your faith. The Temple that you love so much…it’s gonna be gone in 40 years, and in about 100 years, Israel is going to be gone too.” Jesus didn’t get that specific with the timeline, but he was telling them about the future destruction of the temple and of the nation of Israel itself. “Continuing to live out your faith is not going to be easy, guys,” Jesus was saying. “You won’t be able to depend on the beauty or even the existence of the Temple. You

Brad Sullivan Proper 26, Year C October 30, 2016 Emmanuel, Houston 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Luke 19:1-10 Climbing Trees and the First Winter Breeze “The Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” Thank God for that! Amen, and Alleluia! I could almost end right there…I won’t, but I almost could. Thank God that the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. It’s a crazy world, and it is pretty easy to get lost in this world. Zacchaeus, as we heard in our Gospel story today, was one who got lost, lost seeking after riches and security for himself. As a tax collector, Zacchaeus was a Jewish man who made his living collecting taxes for Rome. He was the ultimate turncoat. Not only did he not hate Rome, he got rich by collecting exorbitant taxes for an occupying nation from his own people and then taking more than necessary to line his own pockets. He was kinda the scum of the earth, and yet Jesus s

Brad Sullivan Proper 24, Year C October 16, 2016 Emmanuel, Houston 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Luke 18:1-8 Catastrophizing Our Lives. Trusting In God. Does anyone else ever find themselves catastrophizing their lives? Imagining the worse scenario happening, maybe even what would you do if? I thought it was pretty uncommon, maybe even that I was the only one who did that, but I find more and more that catastrophizing our lives is actually quite common. We’re afraid of things, and our brains seem to like to try to prepare us for possible tragedy by playing out our fears. It doesn’t actually help, but our brains sometimes just don’t get that. When we’re afraid, we often live into our fears, and we can’t really spread that much love and joy and hope when we’re catastrophizing our lives. In the midst of our worries and fears, Jesus said, “Do not be afraid.” “Do not worry.” “Do not l