The Rev. Dn. James Wesley Holcomb III- How Do I Show Up Like Jesus?

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, you may be seated.

I don't know about you, but if I were to be honest about myself, there's one thing about me that you should know.

Sometimes I find great satisfaction, great satisfaction indeed, in being right.

And I think maybe it was the love of being right that fueled my years in the classroom.

I could easily say, no, Bobby, this is the correct answer.

But yeah, if the truth be told, there's a lot of us that enjoy being right.

Especially if someone has wronged us.

And sometimes we are right.

Sometimes the person really did what they did.

They actually said what they said.

Harm was done.

And in today's gospel, we see the narrative beginning with this assumption, an assumption that something has gone wrong.

There's a conflict, there's a disagreement.

We don't know the details.

We don't need to know the details, but something is there.

And then we see these words, which has often been reduced to some type of disciplinary protocol.

If another member of the church sins against you, go and point that out, point out the fault.

And we see there that Jesus doesn't ask us to ignore anything, doesn't ask us to ignore the wrong that's been done or to minimize the harm.

And we don't need to pretend that peace exists where community has been shaken, and where the oneness and the unity that should be found in that community has been disturbed.

But he does tell us a truth, and the truth exposes something about us.

Jesus knows how easy being right can become something in which we place our confidence that I know what's going on, that I'm right, that I need to be the last voice on the matter.

And we can use our rightness to justify sometimes behavior that isn't always the best reflection of Christ.

We can use our rightness to justify our anger, to gather people to our own side, or to withdraw from other people, or to convince ourselves that because we are right about what may have happened, we are therefore righteous and whatever we choose to do about it.

And I think that is where we need to pause.

And it's also there where our collect today meets the gospel text.

In the collect, we ask God to teach us how to trust Him with all our hearts rather than confiding in our own strength.

We use this opportunity not to take truth in our pursuit of what is right, to vindicate ourselves, but to create space for reconciliation and to boldly declare in how we respond to conflicts that will naturally arise, that we trust God enough to let the truth and the peace of God serve the work of reconciliation in that conflict.

Because for us as disciples of Christ, merely being right, merely being the last voice heard is not quite enough.

There's always this invitation that Christ is calling us to trust God more than our own need to vindicate ourselves and to tell the truth in a way that is full of love and also allows a way for mercy and community to still be pursued.

It seeks to regain rather than to divide.

Regained.

Not changed their mind necessarily, not defeated, not embarrassed, not exposed, not finally proven wrong, but regained.

The wrong may have broken communion, but it has not erased the worth of the people who stand in the midst of that conflict.

Again, my friends, community is beautiful.

Community is necessary, but there will be times when community becomes hard and difficult.

There will be times when divisions arise and when we just don't simply have the same mind on a particular matter.

But in the midst of these points of discontinuity and on these points of dissension, there is always this ever-abiding invitation to embody the love, the grace, and the mercy of God.

Because again, conflicts will come, and it's not about the conflict, but it's about how we respond to the conflict.

And to be clear, regaining someone does not necessarily mean recovering the relationship exactly as it once was.

That would be nice, but that's not always possible.

Sometimes a conversation is no longer possible, and sometimes reconciliation does not restore everything and everybody to the original place.

And we can understand that.

But what reconciliation does do is it allows the mercy of God to lead us toward a peace.

A peace that no longer requires the individuals impacted by the conflict to be imprisoned by what they experienced.

The point is not that every broken relationship must have the same ending, but that the wrong does not have to determine what we become toward one another.

So perhaps one question Jesus places before us today is not simply, hmm, am I right?

Maybe the question is, what does the mercy and grace of God require me to do in this conflict?

How do I show up like Jesus?

Maybe it requires speaking honestly, maybe listening, maybe omitting our own fault where it might exist, maybe establishing and enforcing a necessary boundary, or relinquishing the last word, or refusing to keep rehearsing an old injury, whatever that faithful step may be, we take that state, that step, entrusting our entire selves to God and to His God's grace.

God promises something to us that is more than any final word.

He promises something that is greater than just winning the argument or being the one that's right.

Promises us an opportunity that when we as the people of peace undertake the difficult work in his name, that he will always be there with us.

And as God is with us, may God grant us to tell the truth without turning it into a weapon, to seek peace without pretending that nothing happened, and to make our boasts not in being right, but to make our boast in the unfailing mercy and grace of God.

Amen.