“You make me want to become a better person.” That line that was spoken to Helen Hunt by Jack Nicholson in the Hollywood film, As Good As It Gets. Overnight it became one of the most popular lines in modern cinema. And I have to admit, when I heard it for the first time, in the advertizing for the film, somehow I immediately knew that it was one of the best sentences I had ever heard in my life. But why? I wasn't really sure.... but I knew there was something extremely important about it.

“You make me want to become a better person.”There is a drama unfolding in that sentence. And it is not any ordinary drama; it is the o-n-e s-t-o-r-y that, for me, has come to matter more than any other, because it is the story of how we become fully human. Yes, it is just a line from a Hollywood movie. No, it is not a quotation from Holy Scripture. But it conveys something that is at the very heart of the Gospel of Christ.

Because the truth of these words – “You make me want to become a better person” – is exactly what emerges in the heart of a person who has been touched by Divine Grace – by that power of self-giving love – the only love which can never be earned through our achievements, and never be lost through our failures. Such a love is transforming. It enables us to trust in such a profound way that we can actually let go... actually surrender our most private selves – wounds and all – as an offering of love to the One who first loved us. It is through such acts of self-surrender, that we are transformed, that we actually transcend our obsessions with ourselves and grow into more fully human beings, like Jesus.

“You make me want to become a better person.” I think what makes this sentence so powerful is that it describes a spiritual truth which is no longer easy to put into words in our culture. It's not guilt, or shame, duty or obligation. It is that unique desire which is only born in response to self-giving love... that desire to become genuinely virtuous in one's life, as an expression of love and gratitude, to the one who first loved us.

“Virtue”¹ is a word that we don't hear much in contemporary culture, at least not in casual conversation. It is not simply that what used to be called “virtue” is now called something else. It is more that we no longer have a meaningful word in our culture to describe what virtue once meant. In our day, “virtue” is a word that is more associated with romance novels from the Victorian era than with our real everyday lives. And that is a terribly significant loss.

Because what a culture understands virtue to be... reveals its vision of what an authentic, fully human being is.. What a culture understands virtue to be... reveals its vision of the kind of persons that it is actively seeking to develop, by encouraging the formation of some values and attitudes and behaviors, but discouraging others. When a culture no longer understands virtue in a meaningful way, it reflects confusion about what an authentic, fully human being actually is. We can no longer give a straight answer to the question of what kinds of values and attitudes and behaviors that are to be encouraged and strengthened.... because we are not really sure. When a culture no longer understands what virtue is.... it bores a hole, a vacuum, a kind of boring emptiness in its center that the culture cannot fix.

And so, many people, when they hear a Hollywood actor repeating a line like “You make me want to become a better person,” they know at some level that it is terribly significant, but they don't really know why.

Unless... they have been blessed to belong to a supportive spiritual community and tradition that have helped them to experience and understand what virtue actually is, where it comes from, and how it develops in daily life.

In this morning's readings (Isaiah 32:1-5, 16-18; Psalm 85:7-13; Colossians 3:12-17), not including the Gospel, I counted ten virtue-related words being used: (1) justice; (2) good judgment; (3) steadfast love; (4) faithfulness; (5) compassion; (6) kindness; (7) humility; (8) patience; (9) meekness (which means gentleness); and (10) gratitude.

Although the word “virtue” no longer has great meaning in our popular culture, it is an extremely important word for us in the church to understand well, because it is basic to who we are & how we live. The Church is a community of persons who are finding, in Christ, the Source of all virtue, and the Way to practically cultivate it in our daily lives. Growing the spiritual fruit of virtue is what we do. It is the business that we are in.

In this morning's Gospel text (Mark 5:21-43), we witness an encounter between Jesus and a woman who had been suffering from a disabling disease. She had exhausted all of her financial resources in search of a cure, but her disease had only gotten worse. She sees Jesus, and she somehow knows that he is the One. She knows that if she only touches him, she will be healed. And so she reaches out and touches a piece of Jesus' clothing... and, in that moment of contact, a kind of spiritual transfusion takes place. Immediately she feels the hemorrhaging in her body stop, and she knows that somehow she has just crossed the boundary line between sickness and health.

The text says that Jesus was “immediately aware that 'power' had gone forth from him.” A transmission had taken place in which the health in Jesus was mixed in together with the illness in the woman and, her illness was cured. But what kind of 'power' are we talking about here that was going out of Jesus and into this woman?

The word in that verse of Scripture which we now translate as “power” is the Greek word, “dunamis.” It is where we get our English term, “dynamite” from. Dunamis is pure power. It's not necessarily destructive power, like dynamite is. It could also be a constructive power, like the power to heal the sick, or care for a child, or create a life-giving work of art.

But this Greek word “dunamis” in today's gospel text wasn't always translated into English as “power.” If any of us here have been around long enough to remember the older King James version (or the Douay version) of the Bible.... we will remember that the word used there to translate what was transmitted between Jesus and this woman was not “power,” but “virtue.” The older versions translate the verse like this: “And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned...and said, 'Who touched my clothes?' ”

Back in the 1600s, when the King James version of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer were being assembled, the word virtue was still very much in use. The conscious cultivation of virtue was still a core principle and practice of the spiritual life. In fact, it was the major “project” of Christian life, the heart of biblical spirituality they believed. As our patron, St. James, said in his epistle: “faith without genuine acts of virtue... is dead” (James 2:26).

Cultivating virtue is not an easy project, though. It's more than just being well mannered. In fact, the only acts which our tradition considers genuinely virtuous are those acts which are rooted in the three divine virtues that come from God alone: Faith....., Hope....., and most-importantly, Self-Giving Love (1 Cor 13:1-13). When our hearts are filled with faith, hope, and love, our acts of virtue are the genuine fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Virtue without God's Spirit in it is like plastic fruit. It can look like real fruit, as long as you don't get too close it, but you wouldn't want to eat it, because it would make you sick, instead of nourishing you spiritually. God calls us to become really, organically, fruity -- genuinely virtuous -- just like Jesus, with our hearts grounded in divine faith, hope, and love.

It sounds very peculiar to modern ears, but back in the 1600s, when Anglicanism was spreading like wildfire, consciously cultivating a virtuous character was just normal Christian life. It was just how people “grew up” spiritually.

So, in these earlier translations of our Scriptures, although the the translators knew that the original language literally said that “power” went forth from Jesus to the woman... they concluded that, in their culture, the most accurate English word to use was not “power” but “virtue,” in its traditional Christian meaning.

After all, it wasn't just some neutral power that was flowing between Jesus and the woman. It was the source of all virtue, the divine power of self-giving love. It is not neutral. It's always constructive. It's always safe. It can do no wrong.

That is what touched this woman in the first place and got a virtuous cycle going in her life. Jesus' self-giving love is what gave her the hope that Jesus was truly worthy of that deep trust we call faith. That faith, hope, and love are what moved her through the thick of the crowd and enabled her to respond back, to touch Jesus, to allow his health to enter her being, and free her from her affliction.

Jesus' love made her want to become a better person. It lifted her out of the ordinary economy of silver and gold (which hadn't helped her at all) and ushered her into the economy of grace (Acts 3:6; Rom 14:17), where truly good things happen in this world, even without being payed for (Isaiah 55:1-13; Mat 6:24-33), at least not paid for with money.

This is what happened to Jesus' disciples. It is what those who were only distant admirers of Jesus couldn't “get.” Only the ones who were actually engaging with him in a disciplined way to become like him – who had the level of trust required to surrender themselves to him and follow his teachings. They were “in love” in the deepest sense of the word. The way Jesus had loved them... made them want to become better persons, persons like Jesus. They were caught up in a divinely initiated virtuous cycle that was enabling them to engage in the awesome but difficult process of discipleship.

So often in the church we imagine that we could do so many wonderful things – help to change the lives of so many for the better, if only we had the money. But virtue is free to develop, free to give, free to receive. And virtue is more powerful than money, more powerful than dynamite. And unlike money or dynamite, virtue can only do good. It has no adverse effects. It is the ultimate clean energy. Our single most important resource in the Church is the spiritual capital of virtue, which we cultivate, by grace, within our own individual characters, and within our collective character as a community.

In the vision of Jesus, money is not power. Divine virtue, cultivated in our daily lives, is power. In this mysterious spiritual zone called the Kingdom of God, where Jesus lived, and where he invites us all to live as well... the only currency is virtue. Virtue is what matters most, because virtue is the only thing that reconciles and heals.

What this suggests is that if we want to grow our ministry in the community, we can do that. “Not a problem,” as our kids say. But there is a price that we will have to pay for that, a price that can't be paid with cash, or even credit. This kind of growth only comes our way through the currency of virtue. And it can start coming our way even today.... Even today we can begin growing our ministry in the community by consciously drawing on the limitless virtue of Christ, and passing it on through acts of love and service to the people around us in our daily lives -- including those here surrounding us this morning. Even drawing on just a tiny bit of divine grace and passing it on... adds to our collective fund of virtue.

The more that our daily lives are inspiring the people around us to say “You make me want to become a better person,” the less we have to worry about what specific kinds of outreach programs we should be developing, and how exactly we are going to finance them. Not that those concerns are unimportant. They are very important. They are just not primary in importance. What matters most is that we become very comfortable operating within that spiritual economy of grace that Jesus operated within, where the currency is virtue, and there is a genuine meeting with others as human beings, so that reconciliation and healing happen very naturally.

Wherever there is virtue, there can be a genuine meeting with others, as persons of immeasurable dignity, created in the image of God. And where there is a genuine meeting with others, genuine healing and reconciliation can happen. It's always a pleasant surprise that where the gifts of reconciliation and healing are happening, we end up not having to worry about paying the electric bill. Because where God's work is happening, God provides. That's how it worked for Jesus. That is still how it works today. And I am convinced that there is no more exciting and worthwhile project in the world to be engaged in.

This week I have been reflecting a great deal on the words of our mission statement: “Warm, vibrant, and welcoming, sharing Christ's love in an ever changing world, with the community and beyond.” In my heart, when I hear all of you saying those words, from your hearts, there is a kind of spiritual transfusion that takes place. You make me want to become a better person... together with you.... in this community and beyond. Thanks be to God.