Of course we’ve all been hurt lately!  Somebody hurt our feelings with a crude comment or offhand remark.  Somebody looked at us funny.  Somebody turned us down when we asked really nice.  Somebody overlooked us.  Somebody forgot to invite us.  Somebody said something behind our back.  Somebody “done somebody wrong.”  But, if I may redirect you to the original question, “Have you hurt anybody lately?”  It is amazing how quick we are to acknowledge how we have been hurt but how slow we are to recognize how we have hurt others.   Sometimes people don’t even know they hurt us.  Sometimes they have hurt us intentionally.  Sometimes we don’t know how we hurt people and sometimes we are mean-spirited or selfish and we hurt others on purpose.  Or, if we didn’t intend to hurt them, we don’t really care that we did.  What does this ability to recognize trespasses against us more quickly than our trespasses against others say about us?  First, it reveals that we have the capacity to know these things.  This is unique to humanity.  When a bluegill is being filleted, he/she is not saying, “This really hurts my feelings.”  Nemo was able to express his deepest psychological meanderings but you did know that was a cartoon, right?  Second, it reveals that we are more concerned about ourselves than we are about others.  No one has to teach us to love ourselves, we come by that rather naturally.  Third, it reveals that there is injustice in the world.  In other words, something is wrong with the place we live in.  There’s a “wobble” to the whole thing.  Fourth, it reveals that something better is possible.  If injustice and hurt was the norm, we wouldn’t see a problem.  Very few people notice something unless it doesn’t work.  How many of you notice all the work our tech crew does every week—until something goes wrong?  We could go on but my purpose is not to exhaust the junk behind the problem, it is to help us recognize it and do something about it.  On Sunday, we’ll be studying Peter’s denial of Jesus.  We are quick to identify with Peter because we have all dropped the ball like he did.  What I’d like you to be on the lookout for is what Jesus did with the hurt.  Maybe we should be thinking more about how we have hurt others and a bit more gracious towards those who have hurt us.