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We were out in the hallway waiting for the wedding to begin. Like most grooms, he was nervous. He paced up and down the hallway as the minutes ticked away.

He was a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. I knew he was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. So, to help calm down this young soldier right before his wedding, we began to talk about Fort Bragg. I have an aunt who lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where Fort Bragg is located and I have been on that base several times. I asked him if he was in the Airborne Division.

"Yes, sir!" he replied. "I'm in the 101st Airborne. They are the best."

You could hear the pride in his voice and you could see the pride on his face as he talked about his division. You could tell he was proud to be serving his country.

As we continued to talk, I asked him, "What influenced you to join the Army?"

"Well," he said, "there were many factors. Joining the Army was a way to help support my mother and it was a way to build up credit to help pay for my college education. But I suppose the real reason was their promise."

"What promise is that?" I asked.

"You know," he said. "The promise in their advertising, to help me be all that I can be."

The Scripture passage in Luke tells one of the most beautiful and appealing stories in the Gospels. Jesus was dining in the courtyard of Simon the Pharisee. Scarcely had the meal begun when a woman came and stood at the feet of Jesus.

The Bible does not gloss over the situation. The Bible describes the woman as a "sinner." She sold herself in the streets to satisfy the sensual desires of men. And now, she had walked into Simon's courtyard and stood at the feet of Jesus.

Access to Simon's house was easy. The rules of hospitality were surprisingly free. Uninvited guests were welcome to come in and sit along the walls and listen to the conversations of a distinguished teacher. Most likely, there were several uninvited guests who had come to listen to Jesus.

However, the appearance of this particular woman caused some murmuring among the people. It was scandalous that she should even be present. Simon was embarrassed that she had intruded into his dinner party. Simon was shocked that Jesus did not order her to leave at once when she began to anoint his feet with an expensive ointment. But Jesus looked at this woman in a different way. Jesus saw more than a woman who peddled her flesh in the street; Jesus saw more than a woman who was an outcast and a sinner. Jesus saw a woman who was changing. Jesus saw a woman who was living in the depths of sin, but now she was trying to change and become all that she could be. Jesus saw the possibility for good that was deep inside this woman if she would only realize what she could be.

The Good News of the gospel is that there is a possibility for good buried deep inside each of us. We may do what we know to be wrong ... we may do those things which fill us with shame ... we may have walked the path of sin for so long that guilt overwhelms us. But the clear message of this dramatic story from the Bible is that we still have the possibility of change and of becoming all that God calls us to be.

Today, I want to lift up some ideas from this story and discuss how you and I can become all that we can be, looking closely at how we can live out the possibility that is within each of us.

I. You Become All That You Can Be When You Realize That You Are Not Self-Sufficient
There is a difference between Simon and the woman. Simon is not a villain. He is curious about Jesus and invites him to his home. But Simon is unwilling to get very close to Jesus. The severest indictment we can bring against Simon is that he is not conscious of any real need in his life. Simon thinks he has his life in order and cannot see the possibility of being any better than he is. Simon believes he is self-sufficient and does not have a real need to be closer to Jesus.

Too many of us are like Simon. Our minds are closed to any real problems in life. We have a tendency to believe we are self- sufficient and do not have any need for God in our lives.

I recently visited the new office suites of a church member. He is the senior partner of a law firm of fifty attorneys. I noticed on a shelf in his new office a Navy bell, a few medals, and a Bible with a hole through it.

He saw me looking at the Bible and told me a story from World War II. He was a young Navy officer, a Lt. Commander who had not grown up in the church. He had never really thought very much about God. On the day they were getting ready for the invasion of Okinawa, the chaplain came by and gave him a Bible. He was busy, so he stuck it in his shirt pocket.

About twenty minutes later, the bell for "battle stations" sounded. A flight of Kamikaze planes began attacking the naval task force. Suddenly, something slammed into his chest and knocked him flat on his back. He had trouble breathing because of the impact of the shrapnel that had hit him. He grabbed his chest and was surprised there was no blood. The shrapnel had torn into the Bible in his pocket and had stopped on the passage in 2 Corinthians 12:9 which says: "My grace is sufficient for you...."

Far too often, we go about living our lives thinking we can make it on our own, thinking we have no need for God's help or help from anyone else, thinking we are entirely self-sufficient in the living of our lives. But the simple truth is that we can never be everything we are meant to be -- everything we are called to be -- until we see a need for God in our lives.

But the Good News is that God's grace is sufficient.

II. You Become All That You Can Be When You Realize That Love Is The Most Powerful Force On Earth
The woman in the story is a notoriously bad woman. She is widely known as a prostitute and is shunned by the respectable people of the community. However, when and where she came in contact with Jesus, we do not know. Perhaps she had stood at the edge of a crowd and had listened to him speak. And as she listened to Jesus speak, she felt his words of love go directly into her heart. As she listened to him speak, she suddenly felt the weight of her sins being lifted. As she listened to him speak, she realized that his love could give her a new life -- a life filled with new hope and new possibilities.

So the night she sought out Jesus to express her gratitude for the cleansing power of his love. She had a new sense of dignity, of worth, and purity as a person. So she sought out Jesus at Simon's house. Around her neck she wore a costly phial of perfume. She began to anoint his feet with the perfume and, as she did so, she became so overwhelmed with emotion that she wept. Love is a powerful emotion that can bring a new hope, a new sense of self-worth, and a new desire to be all that we can be.

Roy Smith grew up on the plains of Kansas. His father worked as a mill hand and never made a lot of money. But his father wanted him to go to the small Methodist college in their town. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Roy knew it was a sacrifice for his parents to put him through college, but he rarely thought about it. He was enjoying school too much to worry about the expense.

When Roy made the debate team, he mentioned how nice it would be to have a new suit and new shoes for an upcoming event. Somehow, his parents managed to buy the new suit and new shoes for their son.

Then just before the debate was to begin, someone burst through the doors of the auditorium and told Roy that his father had been badly hurt in an accident at the mill. Roy ran down the streets of the little town to the mill, but it was too late. His father had died.

They buried him on a cold and windy day. After the funeral, Roy went over to the mill to pick up some of his father's belongings. Someone had thoughtfully put them into a cardboard box. When Roy looked into the box, his father's old work shoes were lying on top with the bottoms up. Those shoes had holes that stretched from side to side. He then realized that while he wore new shoes to a debate, his father had stood on the cold steel floor of the grain mill in shoes that did not protect his feet. In that instance, Roy Smith knew the sacrifice and love his father had made for him. In that moment, as the tears streamed down his face, Roy Smith sensed a new determination to go on with his college education and become all that he could be.

Yes, love is the most powerful force on earth. When you realize the love that God has for you -- you begin to catch a glimpse of all that you can be.

III. You Become All That You Can Be When You Realize That You Are Forgiven
The woman's sin was not condoned; it was forgiven. Jesus made her feel that she could rise above her evil past and her sinful present. He simply looked at her and said: "Your sins are forgiven."

This is the hope that we all have. Deep within our lives some sin may lie buried. But the redeeming hope of the gospel is that we can be forgiven. The sins of our lives can be pardoned and we get a fresh start ... another chance ... a new beginning ... an opportunity to become all that God wants us to be.

Dr. A. J. Cronin tells of a young nurse in charge of a little boy who was desperately ill with diphtheria. His throat was choked with membrane and he had only a slender chance to live. A tube was inserted into his throat to help him breathe.

The nurse was stationed by the bed to keep the tube cleared. But she fell asleep and awakened to find the tube blocked. Instead of following the instructions and clearing the membranes, a simple matter of routine nursing, she lost her head and bolted in panic. Hysterically she called the doctor out of his sleep, but when he arrived the child was dead.

He was angry that a child should die so needlessly by blundering negligence. That very night he sat down and wrote a report to the Health Board and demanded that the nurse be dismissed. He then called the nurse in and with a voice trembling with resentment he read his report to her.

The young nurse stood there in silence -- shame and guilt on her face and tears in her eyes. Finally the nurse looked at the doctor and with a stammering plea, she said, "Give me ... give me another chance."

The doctor was surprised. Certainly, he had not considered that. It was a breach of discipline and there was nothing to do but to punish her. He dismissed her, sealed his report, and went back to bed.

But he could not sleep because words kept whispering in his mind: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us ..." The next morning he got up and tore up his report. And this young nurse went on to become the head of a large hospital and one of the most respected nurses in Great Britain. Why? Because she was pardoned! Because she was given another chance! Because she was forgiven!

This is the theme the New Testament shouts from Matthew to Revelation -- there is forgiveness with God. You may have walked the path of sin ... you may be overwhelmed with shame and guilt because of those sins ... you may be embarrassed with the way you have been living your life. But you can be forgiven! You can be all that you can be. You, too, can hear Jesus say to you as he did that woman at Simon's house: "Your sins are forgiven."

Prayer
O God, help us to accept the forgiveness you offer to us in Jesus Christ. In his name. Amen.