One of my unsung heroes is an unnamed veteran Detroit firefighter. After years and years of doing good and getting no credit for it, saving people's lives and never being thanked for it, he decided he'd had enough. "I was fed up," he told a reporter who interviewed him after the bizarre episode. "I was fed up right to here," he said pointing to the top of his head. "Did you ever feel that way, I mean really fed up?" he asked the reporter.

What the fed-up fireman did the day before was to hop in the biggest fire truck at his station, turn on all the lights and sirens, drive to his house, pick up his wife, pick up his daughter at kindergarten, and take the family on a siren-screaming ride through the city of Detroit.

He finally returned the $200,000 truck to the fire station – sirens still wailing and red lights still flashing – and then, to top things off, he submitted his resignation to the Detroit Fire Department." ("Fed UP?" Sunday Sermons, 31 [3 June 2001], 25).

Jesus didn't know of Murphy's Law. But he did know of Messiah's Law. It's the Christian equivalent of Murphy's Law, our Scripture lesson this morning introduces it to us. It goes like this: No good deed goes unpunished. Or put in more theological terms, if you love, you get hurt.