One of my nieces displays this about herself on her Facebook Profile Page.

“Doing good things.”
Doing the right thing.
Mostly.”

It is a good description of her.  She is passionate about social justice and doing good things, and works as a community organizer and a legislative aide to a state legislator.  But her second statement reflects a deeper understanding.  Doing good things and doing the right thing can mean different things.  And the best we can hope for on doing the right thing is “mostly.”.  I would not impose a label on my thoughtful niece – but if I were to do so, I’d say that she is an uncommonly astute theologian.

More often than we’d like – or that we’d like to admit – even when we know the right thing to do, we do the wrong thing.  Even if we mostly do the right thing…we can’t ever seem to get to “always.”

The word “mostly” concisely sums up what Paul says in a long and complex argument.  “I do not do what I want but I do the very thing that I hate. . .  I can will what is right but I cannot do it.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”

Paul’s assertion seems pretty pessimistic.  If it is sin within us that makes us do the wrong thing, and if sin is undeniably and permanently within us, maybe we just can’t help ourselves.  At first blush, Paul’s argument sounds like the old Flip Wilson character, Geraldine, claiming that “The devil made me do it.”

Paul asserts that there is sin in us all…and he is right about that.  But he will not let us off as easily as Geraldine would like.  Paul has a claim to make about how sin can be overcome in our lives and we can be empowered and equipped to do the right thing.  Mostly.

One way the sin within us deceives us is to convince us that we are not like everybody else.  Everybody else might need to confess their sins.  And everybody else might make mistakes.  But we do not.  Everybody else might have to suffer the consequences, but we will not.

Friends, you and I are just like everybody else.  Paul states it elsewhere in Romans, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  So let’s start here:  Nobody is perfect.  Though Wesley theoretically believed that perfection in love could be attained, he found it to be almost never true in this life.

Another way that the sin within us deceives us is in making us believe that doing the right thing is a matter of following the rules.  Laws, rules, restrictions and regulations are in place, and so long as we have followed them, we have done the right thing.  In practice, of course, laws are helpful in sorting out accountability and managing consequences.  The one who ran the red light will pay for the collision.  But the one who has the green light should avoid the collision if they can.  Being right doesn’t always make you good.

The words of Paul that we heard today are from a long section of Romans where he is arguing that the Law handed down through Moses is useful for clarifying right and wrong, but wholly inadequate for rooting out the sinful tendencies from peoples’ lives.  In fact, it is Paul’s own experience that rigid adherence to the law can be an avenue of expression for sin.

Of course, there is also the possibility that the law in unjust, and that the right thing to do is to disobey it.  So the law is not the answer to how we can make right choices.

There are a lot of wrong choices to be made.  Some of them are illegal.  But a lot of them are perfectly legal.  But not right.  Buying what we can’t afford in order to keep up with some imagined standard of living that is beyond our means has gotten many of us into trouble.  Add greed to that – and we have key ingredients for the economic situation of our country today.  We invest our time and our money in the wrong things.  The self interest of the few and powerful is a continual threat to the well being of the many.  Our daily choices affect our own well being and the well being of the community.

There are a lot of small, personal choices that have consequences.  We choose how to behave when we drive.  When to speak and when to remain silent.  Whether to use drugs and alcohol.  How we will treat our child or our spouse or our partner or our co-worker.  What to do with every dollar in our pocket.  How we spend our time.  Sometimes we choose wrongly.  And don’t even realize it.  Sometimes we make honest mistakes – but there are still consequences.  Nobody, I daresay, who takes an honest inventory of their day can say they made not one wrong choice.

There are some who would claim that all this can be overcome by the power of positive thinking.  However, Christian theology maintains that we do not and cannot possess within our own selves, independent of every other relationship, the capacity to do the right thing and do good unambiguously.  Though self improvement and positive thinking have a role, they are not adequate to save us from the distortions we bear in our inner selves.  Preaching that says otherwise might be good psychology- though I doubt that- but it is not good Christian theology.

Paul gives us good Christian theology.  He gives us a theology of the trinity.  There is a transcendent force for Good at work in the world that we call God.  The world is disordered by what we call sin.  Jesus Christ came into the world as a full and complete expression of the goodness of God and embraced sin, opening the way back to goodness for all of us.  The spirit that was in Christ can come and live in us, too, clarifying for us what is sin and what is goodness.

Paul saw the Christian life lived in Christian community as the means to our lives becoming holy.  So, let me give you the plain language for it.  Doing the right thing is learned.  We have to practice, and it is a team sport.  We need each other in community.  And while I’m asserting this in Christian language, in a Christian context; there is a universal truth to the plain language version that is not confined to Christianity.  We who profess the Christian faith, however, ought to get better at practicing together in community doing the right thing.

“In community” is critical here.  We need each other to learn to do the right thing.  Senator Graham and his colleagues need Sonya Sotomayor to help them know that white male is a cultural point of view.  The white clergy of Birmingham needed Martin Luther King, Jr.  to help them know that “not yet” too often means “not ever.”  Children need parents to help them know that “everybody else doing it” doesn’t make it right.  We need that friend who will look at us and say, “don’t do this.  Do that.”  We need each other.  Doing the right thing is a team sport.

Holiness of heart and life is a distinct mark of the Methodist tradition.  John Wesley believed that we could allow the Spirit of God to dwell in us and that it would root the sin out of our lives.  If that is theoretically true – and I accept that it is – it is nonetheless not guaranteed, nor is it an easy journey.

We actually have, as United Methodists three rules to follow to help us make right choices.

Bishop Reuben Job puts it this way:  Do no harm.  Do good.  Stay in love with God.

So, when faced with a dilemma, ask yourself:

1. Is somebody getting hurt?  Will somebody get hurt?  If everybody is getting hurt, who is it most important to protect?  Hint – God protects the weakest and most innocent first, and therefore, so should we.
2. Is there an opportunity here to do a work of mercy; to do a thing that is good?  If so, do it.
3. Have I maintained a relationship with God through the practices of Christian community, so that there is somebody with whom I can check on my answers to the first two questions to make sure I’m being honest with myself?
4. Who will I ask to help me be accountable for doing the right thing?

How do you know if you’ve done the right thing?  When you’ve done the right thing, even if it was really, really difficult, there’s usually a sense of peace from having done it.  And perhaps the results of the decision are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, perseverance…fruits of wise living.

When you haven’t done the right thing, you’ll know.  But the good news is:  There is a remedy for that.  It is confession, acceptance of forgiveness, sometimes restitution and apology, and a renewed commitment to the practices of faithful living.

We began this series on forgiveness with the story of the woman who was brought to Jesus after she had been caught in adultery.  We noted the remarkable reality that not one who stood before her could throw a stone – except for Jesus, who, instead of throwing stones, doodled in the dirt.  He sent her away saying, “go and sin no more.”  We have described how we might extend forgiveness to others as a process where we do the following things:

1. Give up our desire for vengeance (don’t throw stones)
2. Begin to pray and wish for the well being of the one who has wronged you (love your enemies)
3. Engage in works of mercy (do good even to those who harm you)
4. accept that you have sinned, stand in need of freely given grace, and let that grace set you free of guilt and shame.

Every day is a new day.  God makes all things new.  The resurrection is about second chances.  If you haven’t been doing the right thing, it’s never too late to start.  There are people here who will support you through the consequences and help you on the right path.

And if you have been doing the right thing…well, mostly – then thank God for the grace you’ve been given.

We are most of us trying to do the right thing mostly.  But God’s grace is sufficient always.

And that just makes me grateful.

Thank you, God – for showing us the right thing; for the people you place in our lives to help us; for the courage you give us to acknowledge our mistakes and seek forgiveness; for not throwing stones, but for loving us still and always.  Thank you.  Amen.