Practicing the Rule of Christ

 Sometimes, the Sunday lectionary grabs one by the throat and insists that you must not look away from the very difficult lesson. That's how I felt, anyway, when I saw what was on the docket for Sunday.

This lesson on how to deal with conflict in the church is showing up at a time when the Episcopal Church is facing scrutiny for some incidents involving bishops who have used and abused their power. I have already talked enough here about my own involvement in shedding light on the wrongdoings in the diocese of Florida. Bishop Howard is now a subject of a possible Title IV proceeding, the ecclesiastical discipline canon for those clergy who have not done right by their office. Articles in The Living Church and Episcopal News Service revealed that there are additional Title IV cases involving two other bishops, one of whom is retired an reportedly assaulted the President of the House of Deputies at last year's General Convention. After going through the proper channels to address this problem, an attorney in the Presiding Bishop's office recommended that the offending bishop be given "pastoral care" instead of being stripped of his privileges as a bishop. This failure to discipline the offender set off a tidal wave of anger in the church, which the Presiding Bishop was forced to address.

All of this, coupled with a few tense moments recently at St. Barnabas, weighed heavily on my heart and mind as I wrote this sermon. See what you think.

Texts: Matthew 18:15-20, Romans 13:8-14

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One of the things our Episcopal Diocese of Georgia requires of all new priests serving parishes here is that we have to take a week-long course in Conflict Management.

Note that it’s not called Conflict “resolution” but Conflict “management.”

The understanding is that in any group…and a church being a particular type of group… there is always going to be conflict.

Because we’re human beings…each with our own experiences of life which inform how we interact with other human beings.

And that will…inevitably…lead to conflict.

I’ve done the training…in fact, I did some of it twice because another diocesan requirement of priests is to attend Leading with Grace where some of the same conflict management concepts with the same trainers happened again.

One of the things I remember about the Conflict Management training for priests was that there was only one person who was entirely comfortable entering into a conflict situation…and she was one of the trainers!

The rest of us fell along a spectrum of “I’ll do it if I really have to” to the ones who really didn’t like conflict at all…and joked that the turtle…a reptile able to tuck its head back into its shell… was their power animal.

We all loved each other through our hesitations…and examinations of how we handled conflict…and left with tools and understanding that we could apply not only in our church communities…but in our everyday dealings with others.

What we learned is pretty much the directives laid out in our Gospel lesson.

We could call this “How to Manage Conflict in the Church.”

But another theologian had a snapper title.

Estrella Horning called this “The Rule of Christ.”

And it’s a simple concept of how to preserve community living.

Because that’s really Matthew’s goal with this particular story.

If someone commits a wrong against you…your first step is take that person aside and have a one-on-one. And hopefully, that will be all it takes.

But…y’know…that step is probably the hardest step.

Some people simply suffer in silence and say nothing…harboring the hurt…taking the abuse…feeling unloved…until it comes out in ways that are usually self-destructive.

Some people… instead of taking the person aside and addressing them directly… begin a campaign of talking behind their back and spreading gossip and rumors about them.

Telling five or ten others rather than the one person who needs to hear the complaint.

Nothing can be more destructive to a community…and more antithetical to love… than gossip.

Gossip goes against the whole notion of “love your neighbor.”

And this is why…once more…Jesus’ instruction in his “Rule of Christ” for living in a community…is to start at the most intimate level…the one-on-one.

When speaking to the person…know that they might not be aware that they have been doing harm.

Talk it out…pray…and hope that this will resolve the issue.

If that doesn’t work… then bring in two or three others into the discussion. See if a few more minds around the table can come to a better understanding.

If the person who has committed the wrong still won’t listen…that’s when it goes to the wider church.

The point of this Gospel lesson isn’t about being punishing and punitive.

What Jesus is driving at is that when living in right relationship in community… the person who has committed the wrong or the sin against another member deserves protection from arbitrary actors. At the same time…those who’ve suffered wrong need to be heard…and their injury taken seriously.

If we follow this model… not just in church but in how we live and go about our lives in the world… the outcome is a healthier community…one that “lays aside the works of darkness and puts on the armor of light” as we heard in Paul’s Letter to the Church in Rome.

And fair warning to y’all: Jesus will be making even more of this lesson next week. Because of course this Gospel falls in a much larger context.

In the section right before today’s reading… Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep.

The shepherd…upon realizing that one sheep has gone missing…leaves the other ninety-nine… the ones who are doing OK… and goes off to find the one that has wandered away.

Upon finding that one… the shepherd rejoices. Because…ultimately…God’s goal is to bring all back into right relationship.

Hence…this Rule of Christ reading this morning.

The timing of this Gospel lesson couldn’t have been more prescient…at least in the life of the broader Episcopal Church.

Some recent reports have come out in various church news publications about bishops in the church behaving badly. One was accused of verbal and physical assaults of family members.

Another is under investigation for intentionally ignoring church canons that allow for the full participation of LGBTQ people in the life of the Episcopal Church.

And in yet another case… a high-ranking member of the laity was reportedly assaulted by a retired bishop from her diocese at last year’s General Convention as she entered the hall to be introduced to the House of Bishops.

All this at a time when we’re in the midst of doing our part here in Georgia to complete the Safe Church Safe Communities training before November…. the very training that demands better of all of us in how we treat each other.

When the mechanisms in place in the church fail to protect the rights of those injured…all of us suffer.

In this case with the bishops…the loud megaphone of the church news services brought the issue into the light.

And the offending parties have become to us as “a Gentile or a tax collector.”

It seems justice could only truly happen when the press became “the church.”

There is now a pledge from members of the House of Bishops…including our own Bishop Frank Logue…that there will be an examination of what went wrong in these processes.

With God’s help…and with true repentance… those bishops who will be gathering at their fall meeting in a couple of weeks… will make amends and work toward a more just outcome for people who’ve suffered abuse.

What does all of this mean for us at St. Barnabas?

I think the main take away is that if we intend to follow Christ…we need to be prepared to air out our differences with each other in a manner where love, mercy and forgiveness are at the center of our discussions rather than getting into an argument over who is in the right.

This doesn’t mean that the person who commits a wrong or does injury gets away with what they’ve done.

But when we bring it to the person’s attention…we take the time to listen to each other…in love.

And when apologies are made… we accept that as true and work toward the reconciliation of relationship.

Coming into right relationship is God’s ultimate goal.

And that needs to be ours as a church… as a representative body of Christ… as well.

May we treat one another justly, rightly, and in love…in the name of God…F/S/HS.