Honesty is the Best Policy in Graceland
By the secular calendar, October 13th, 2024, was the first Sunday I preached and celebrated for the first time as Rector of Saint Monica and Saint James Episcopal Church. But by the Church calendar, it was on the Sunday closest to October 12th, Proper 23. So, this Proper 23 Sunday is the second anniversary of my tenure as your Priest. Within the three year lectionary cycle, these aren’t the readings I preached on in 2024. Then it was Year B, Mark’s year. This year is A, Matthew’s year.
Last Sunday, Jesus – through Matthew, compared the leaders of his fellow Jews to squatting murderous tenants. Today, Jesus as interpreted by Matthew, says to Gentile Christians, don’t get too big fer your britches. Two Sundays ago, Jesus welcomed the tax collectors and other sinners who were easy to pick out by those whose sins weren’t so easy to see. The most with which some of them could respond to that welcome was remorse, not even repentance. But Jesus accepted that remorse. But that still means that everyone whom Jesus welcomes still needs to change their hearts and their lives – repent – even if that change comes one step at a time.
And so, we’re still working on those changes, however long we have been “living members,” that is limbs and organs, of Christ’s Eucharistic Body the Church. And they were working on those changes in Philippi when Paul wrote to them. When Paul wrote to one of the local churches he’d founded, he would send the letter with one of his assistants to read aloud to the entire Christian community. In this case that was Epaphroditus, who had come from Philippi to help Paul while he was in prison. So, when Paul sent Epaphroditus back home with this letter, he had the intel on what was going on there. As the church gathers to hear that letter, I imagine two of the women in that church, Euodia and Syntyche, as far from each other as they can possibly get.
Epaphroditus has read through nearly nine-tenths of that letteraloud, when suddenly he says for everybody to hear, “I URGE EUODIA AND I URGE SYNTECHE TO COME TO AGREEMENT IN THE LORD.” I wonder how long he paused. He then reminds them, and everybody else in that big house, that what they share is infinitely more valuable than their differences: “These women [and the rest of them] have striven for the gospel with me, along with Clement and all my other fellow-workers, whose names are written in the book of life.”
Our names are in the same book, which means we’re going to be in the same house for a very long time. I will probably never resort to the same pastoral strategy as Paul. Neither am I sending any coded messages to those who will know what I’m talking about. But on this anniversary of our relationship as a parish family, I think it good to for all of us in this house to be reminded that honesty is the best policy: honesty with ourselves, honesty with each other, honesty with God. Be honest with ourselves even when it’s hard. Be honest with each other even when it’s hard. And be honest with God even when we’re afraid to be.
We all know how hard each of those can be. So did Paul Simon. In my subjective opinion, the greatest song of the past forty years is the one with these lines:
And my traveling companions
Are ghosts and empty sockets
I’m looking at ghosts and empties
But I've reason to believe
We all will be received
In Graceland
Not just the good news but the best news is that when we entrust our deepest desires, with thanksgiving, to God; then the peace that transcends human understanding and therefore also human mastery, will stand sentry watch over our hearts. And in that divine safe space, we can be honest with each other and at peace and love with each other. For this and for our time together: Thanks be to God.
October 11th, 2026
20th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 23, Year A
The Rev. David P. Kendrick