So, for those of you who do not spend very much time in the Southeast, I need to tell you about a Southern treasure. I speak of none other than the Krystal hamburger. These depression-era burgers are the Southern cousin of the White Castle, small burgers, steamed in onions and covered with a pickle, mustard, and a soft, little bun. And sometimes cheese. Krystals are soul food for people in a hurry. The restaurants are generally open 24-hours a day, so they are the go-to food for those who would be better off going home after a long night. And they are often the bane of existence of those same people early the next morning. But man, oh, man, they are so good.
When I lived in the South, I would often get a “sack full” – twelve of these jewels. I'd eat a few for dinner, then put the rest in the fridge and eat them cold over the next few mornings. When I'm back for a visit, Brian and I will be driving around and, at least once during my visit, one of us will say, “Let's get a sack full for dinner.” No explanation was necessary.
Oddly enough, I was thinking about Krystal burgers when I was reading this Gospel passage.
Jesus is teaching his followers about what it really means to follow him. And part of that following was recognizing that Christian follow-ship is not done alone, but with others. That's the whole point of loving God AND loving your neighbor. But that also means that occasionally you might not see eye-to-eye with those neighbors, and you will either upset them, or they will upset you. As Jesus says, you or they may “sin against” the other.
Now this passage is generally taken as a blueprint for church polity, how we should conduct ourselves as a church when some hullabaloo breaks out. First, if someone “sins against” you, you go to that person and talk it through. If that doesn't work, go to a Warden. If that doesn't work, take it to the Vestry. And if that doesn't work, go to the congregation.
Frankly, I don't know of any congregation that actually functions this way. I'm sure they are out there, but Episcopalians are generally the type that will just stew over something. But that blueprint is generally held out as something we should strive for.
But lately I've been thinking that interpretation misses the point.
You see, the Bible, especially the gospels, is made up of these things called pericopes. This refers to a set of verses that often are seen as a coherent whole thought or point. In other words, a pericope is a fancy, Greek way of saying, “snippet.” And this snippet doesn't end with telling the congregation. There's more that often goes underappreciated, at least by me.
The rest of the pericope talks about binding and loosing. Jesus tells us that whatever his followers bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever his followers loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
And this is where the Krystals come in.
During seminary, as y'all know, Fr. Brooks and I were best friends (and still are to this day). But that doesn't mean that things were always peaches and cream between us. There was this time when Becca was in Missouri visiting her family, and Brooks and I were on our own. We were having a conversation that for some reason or another became a pretty heated argument. Things were said that shouldn't have been said. Words were shouted and feelings were hurt...really, really hurt. Brooks threw me out of their apartment, and I was glad to go! And I did what I usually do when I'm upset. I went for a drive. Now to be honest, I also go for drives when I'm not upset...I love to drive. But in this case I needed to be anywhere but Sewanee. So I took off and drove the backroads down Monteagle Mountain to just put as much distance between us as I could for a while.
After about an hour I was cooled down, and started thinking about how stupid I was and really needed to apologize. And I was texting Brooks to say just that when I got a text from him saying “I'm sorry, best friend.” I teared up and smiled. My heart suddenly felt light when before it was dark.
Now, I was in a small town at the foot of Monteagle, and I looked up and saw it. A Krystal. I texted back, “I'm in Jasper. Want a sack-full?” And he replied, “OMG, yes! And since Becca's gone, we can watch John Wayne.”
The trip back was so much easier than the trip down. That's often the way of reconciliation. The smell of Krystals fresh off the griddle is a smell every Southerner knows and regrets that he can't share with the rest of the world. And sitting on the couch with the dogs and your best friend and watching “The Searchers” after reconciling was a time I'll never forget.
But here's what I forgot, and for the life of me I still can't remember: I can't remember what we argued about. To this day, I can't remember.
And I think that's maybe what Jesus was actually getting at in this pericope, this snippet. It's not so much the process of reconciling, but the result.
Jesus never seems concerned with process anywhere else in the Gospels, so maybe he's not so concerned with it here. Maybe he's more concerned with the result of binding and loosing. Maybe he's concerned that the result of sin is not just the harm done to others but to ourselves. Maybe he's suggesting that when we sin, we bind that sin to ourselves and carry that weight around. And the of reconciling, and the repenting, and the forgiving, whatever that process is, cast that weight away and free us, loose us. And maybe he's telling us to go to any lengths required until we wise up and offer repentance and accept forgiveness. That this is how we live together in God's kingdom.
If I had bound that grudge to my heart while alive, I wonder whether it would be bound to my soul in death. But by offering repentance and accepting forgiveness, the sin is such that I can't even remember it.
This, y'all, is a grace. And I thank God that we can accept it.
This is a tough time in our country. And I have a feeling that we are going to be in for quite a lot of anger and strife and finger pointing. And not a whole lot of repenting and forgiving.
But we are first and foremost, members of God's kingdom. So, save your pennies, and when the time comes, go spring for whatever passes up here for a “sack-full” and visit someone you need to reconcile with. Loose whatever needs to be loosed. Set it loose.
You may regret all the Krystals you ate the next morning, but you will never regret the gifts of repentance and forgiveness.
Amen.