"Sometimes it's better to be good than right"

August 21, 2016 Proper 16

Have you ever come across a saying or a bit of advice that has profoundly changed the way you’ve thought or acted? 

Several years ago, I came across a bit of advice that has stuck with me—I can’t say that I’ve always lived that bit of advice.   But at times I’ve tried to.

The bit of advice that I heard—is--“Sometimes it is better to be good rather than right."

 

Let me make a disclaimer ----today sermon may be more of “do what I say not as I do” sermon. 

My wife, Chrishelle, will attest that I will often fight to the death to try to prove I am right in certain situations being good flies out the window. 

Sometimes it is better to be good than right. 

In some way, I think this statement encapsulates what Jesus is trying to get at in the Gospel lesson today where he gets himself in a little bit of hot water with the religious authorities for healing on the Sabbath.

Remember that Keeping the Sabbath was  serious business.  As you know –it’s one of the ten commandments -thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day. 

One of the ways that folks kept it Holy was by not working. God had worked for six days in creating the world – then he commanded that the seventh day  was to be a day of rest.   In the explanation for this particular commandment in the book of Exodus –not only are you to do no work- but neither are your kids or your slaves and not even your donkey is allowed to work on the Sabbath.

The tradition of not engaging in work on the Sabbath—was so serious that in the book of Number there was a story of a man who was caught carrying firewood on the Sabbath –folks were not sure what to do with the man—so God tells Moses -to have him put to death—to stone him.

I am guessing that the stoning that the stoning probably not to be on the Sabbath.

So this is the culture that Jesus is operating in when he steps forward and lays hands on the women who has been bent over for 18 years and heals her.

I see in this moment Jesus choosing to do the compassionate, the good thing as opposed to fulfilling an obligation or doing the right thing which might have been Jesus simply obeying the tradition of not engaging in work on the Sabbath. 

You realized that Jesus He could have easily justified his behavior had he not reached out his hands and healed –the mental diaolougue might have been today is the Sabbath- that means  I don’t need to work- my duty on this day is to rest.  

But today I think the message is sometimes it is better to be good than right.

Why does this matter?  Because sometime when we were are trying our darnedest to do what is  technically right or to be right sometimes we impede the kingdom of God from being manifest in that moment.

Just recently I had an argument over something incredibly trivial that I won because I was technically right—and for a moment I basked in that  wonderful feeling of having been proven right but when I saw the response of the person who had lost the argument I saw real defeat-- I realized that I had failed at being good and perhaps I could have approached the conversation differently-- so that maybe there wasn’t a winner and a loser –a way that could upheld the dignity of that person.

Sometime when we try our darnedest to do what is right or to fulfill a duty we fail at offering the radical hospitality and love of God.   I think that’s what motivated Jesus on in this story to act.  He saw someone who needed to know that God loved her.  What the culture said at that time—was that she was bent over, disabled, because God was mad at some sort of sin in her life or perhaps her parents.  Jesus says not so fast.

Several years ago, I was visiting a church on summer vacation.  The worship space large and was wide open and set up in such way that after the service you just turned around and had coffee hour right there.  Kind of like we do right here. 

So after the service I wandered over to this incredible spread and began to partake as I watched folks scurried about doing their various jobs the altar guild and flower guild quickly scurried into motion being about of cleaning up, other folks were -de-robing.  Some folks had wandered over and were greeting one another and I was standing there nibbling on my cookie a not a soul spoke to me- a few polite smiles- but not a genuine hello.  I also realized that had I been in full clergy garb folks would have stopped- because that was right you wouldn’t fail to offer hospitality to a clergy person- but an unshaven guy in shorts and a t-shirt.

Now I can be a bit of an instigator at times so decided to really see if  I could  make it very obvious that I was a visitor and perhaps someone to be welcomed—it was a relatively big church and I realized that maybe folks hadn't realized I was a visitor. 

I had a visitor packet that I had picked up off a table and on the front of the packet in big letters it said visitor-- so as I was eating my cookie I kind of held the packet   across my chest like this so that everyone could see that I clearly was a visitor- I stood there for a few minutes and still was unable to induce even a welcome. 

Looking back I realized that most everyone was doing the right things—doing their duties altar guild, visiting with family and friends, but they failed at doing the good thing which was offering radical hospitality and love of God to the stranger. Luckily it didn’t really matter, but what we know is that often first time visitors come to church—because there is something in their life that may not be quite right.  So stopping and offering radical hospitality is often really important particular to folks who are visiting.

Today Jesus challenges us to live lives of where sometime doing good means forgoing being right.  I truly believe that the kingdom of God is manifest often when we respond to life and our situations with goodness and compassion.

Sometimes it’s simply better to be good than right.  May we be challenged by those words today and always.

AMEN