There is not one of us who are without fault or blemish. Why is this good news?

Because there is freedom in truly accepting this statement. It is part of how things actually are. But so much effort in this life goes into keeping up appearances to the contrary. We strive for perfection, and demand it from one another, then grow angry if any fall short. But there is another way.

Wisdom does not always come from the strong, or help from the seemingly successful. Sometimes those who have been broken and brought back to life have more to teach us than those who are still pretending to be invincible.

It was lunchtime in the busy diner. He leaned over the bowl of soup. The rising steam touched the skin of his face without softening it, like mist moving over weathered stone. But his eyes were full of light and life.

He had been an active alcoholic for decades before he got sober. But then he had hit that place where enough was enough and he had come up for air. When he did, there were hands that reached out and gathered him in. His recovery began, and continues, in weekly meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.

People who have submerged themselves in drugs or drink slip below the surface of their own life. They drift out of touch with their feelings. They move through relationships by impulse and reaction. Pain, anger and disappointment go unresolved, heaping up on one another. There is a lot of debris in the wake of an alcoholic's unexamined life.

When a person first gets sober the feelings they have avoided move to the fore. The damage they have caused to themselves and to others drifts inescapably into view. There is usually a tangle of judgment and self-loathing. The only way to deal with this floating morass is to begin to untangle the web of feelings and relationships and do whatever is necessary to empty the surrounding swamp.

The man in the diner may have been up to his knees in challenges, but he had been in recovery long enough to make some important discoveries. "Anger and resentment are like water," he said, "if you don't drain it off somehow, eventually you'll drown in it. Forgiveness is as much for you as for the other fella. We're all in the same room in this life and a rising water level doesn't help anyone breathe any easier."

Recovering alcoholics know that a person needs a higher power and the support of other people to find a life of honesty, humility and selfless service. They know there is more that needs to be released than just a tumbler full of gin or a handful of pills.

We are all connected in this life whether we acknowledge it or not-drunks and saints, upright citizens and homeless reprobates- all of us are in the same world- in the same room, to use the man in the diner's phrase.

And God is the architect of the space in which we dwell, the maker of heaven and earth. It is God who made us and not we ourselves. He knows us through and through. He sees all of our frailties and loves us anyway. As Paul wrote to the Romans, "we do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." In spite of all our posturing about our strengths, we are God's possession. God has already forgiven us our weaknesses and failures. Can we give each other a little more slack? Can we give each other the strength to acknowledge our brokenness and offer one another the encouragement needed to get to our feet again when we fall?

The Old Testament lesson, the psalm, the reading from Romans and the parable from Matthew all describe the power of forgiveness and the debilitating effects of holding onto anger. " A rising water level doesn't help anyone breathe any easier."

Every day presents us with opportunities, large and small, for the practical application of forgiveness. Whether we are harboring resentments that come from hurt feelings or stoking righteous indignation about the confused relief effort in the Gulf Coast, we are only pouring more water into an already flooding room.

There is another way…
As author Diane Cirincione writes "Forgiveness is giving up all hope… for a better past." We cannot change what has already taken place. We cannot wipe away 9/11, redo the initial response to Katrina, nor erase the small everyday hurts we have given or received. But we can resolve to do our individual and corporate best to drain the collective swamp. We can acknowledge human brokenness and seek and offer forgiveness.

This is a tough order. It doesn't seem humanly possible to forgive terrorists who kill women and children. Aren't revenge and retribution more sensible responses? And when people anywhere suffer we want to find someone to blame. But in the parable from Matthew we are asked to emulate God's example of mercy rather than to expect God to be as vindictive as we may feel. Anne Lamott, one of my favorite authors, writes "You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."

We will all stand before the judgement seat of God in the end. Day by day we form our own character and present a witness to others through our words, our actions and attitudes. it helps to be conscious about the stance we take in our daily life and to cultivate practices that encourage forgiveness and compassion.

As a means of encouragement and support I offer you two things. The first is a description of a concrete practice of reviewing one's day that Bill W., one of the founders of AA, wrote in the Alcoholicvs Anonymous Big Book:

When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest, or afraid? Do we owe anyone an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves that should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others…We must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to ourselves and to others. After making our review, we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.¹

The second item for your consideration is the Paradoxical Commandments by Dr. Kent M. Keith. The wisdom of his words was such that Mother Teresa had them framed on her wall. Dr. Keith is not naïve about the ways of the world. He has been an attorney, a state government official, a high tech park developer, president of a private university, a graduate school lecturer, community organizer, and a YMCA executive. Keith is not a slouch in his formal education either- he has a B.A. from Harvard, an M.A. from Oxford, a Certificate in Japanese from Waseda University in Tokyo, a law degree from the University of Hawaii, and an Doctorate in Education from the University of Southern California. He is also a Rhodes Scholar. The Paradoxical Commandments are the educated man's longer version of " A rising water level doesn't help anyone breathe any easier." Dr Keith writes:

• People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
• If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
• If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
• The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
• Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
• The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
• People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
• What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
• People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
• Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

Isn't this what Jesus did?

Peter asked Jesus- "How many times should I forgive?"
"Seventy times seven," Jesus said.

AMEN