Let's say that we're all here today because we want to be better people. We are here to be good, to become more righteous. After all, surely this is one of the main functions of religion, the Christian or any other, to make us better than we would have been if we had not gotten up on a cold February morning and gone to Chapel And let's agree that, even if we have not arrived, we are at least on our way toward goodness because we did get up and go to the Chapel, which in no way is meant to detract from those of you who will watch this service this afternoon on cable because that means that you are on your way too, even though you are traveling on your sofa.

Yet the trouble with being Christian good is that good people were often the very ones who caused Jesus so much trouble. A lot of good…