The following sermon was delivered on Sunday, March 27th and is a reflection on John 8:1-11. Footnotes and citations have been left out for purposes of blog publishing.
In college I was instructed to read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Thankfully it wasn’t the thousand page tome but an abridged version. I fell in love with the book, and read it in a weekend. Being that our scripture today carries with it so much silence, my mind fills the gap with Les Miserables. Like the woman caught in adultery, Jean Valjean is red handed and expecting swift judgment. He, similarly, stands silently before a servant of God, in our case a Bishop, who rejects the law of the land in favor of an abounding & mystifying grace. Hugo writes of the moment when the Bishop “buys” Jean Valjean, buys him from the imprisonment and hardship he is to endure as someone who stole silver from all places but a House of God, penning, “Jean Valjean opened his eyes & looked at the Bishop with an expression which no human tongue could describe.” I re-read those words and instantly attribute them to John the author of the Gospel, serving as narrator. I hear, “the woman who was brought before the crowd for judgment, opened her eyes and looked up at Jesus with an expression no human tongue could describe.” Like Valjean, our unnamed woman comes face to face with a sort of love that is an affront to the status-quo, and the law that would order and guide our days. This is a love that, I still stand silently before, like many of you.
I am a sinner from the soles of my feet to the top of my head, and while the Apostle Paul writes in First Timothy that he is “the worst” of all sinners, I think that I can give him a run for his money. Left to my own devices, I fear the good and turn to the easy. Amazing Grace has got me dead to rights, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” I can say this now but it acknowledging the actual state of things wasn’t always easy. I have, from time to time, been like the guy who came up to me after his aunt or mother’s funeral (I can’t quite remember) and complained that singing Amazing Grace was offensive because the dearly departed was certainly no wretch.
I spent a great deal of my life trying to be perfect, not in the way the scripture tells us to be perfect as God is perfect , but perfect in the eyes of others. Applying for college, I coveted letters of reference from my Pastor that said I was a “good Christian”, from my coaches that said they were impressed with my commitment, from teachers that said I was a skilled student, and from anyone who could write that I was a wonderful human being. During my time in college and beyond I kept those letters in a binder and just about any stroll down memory lane included the affirmation those letters contained. I tied my worth to my ability to be a good friend, to always do what is right, and when others gave up, I selfishly pressed forward hoping to be like Sally Field and proclaim “you like me, right now, you like me!” Yet, as we all know, Sally’s moment fades away.
I have recently come across a poem To An Athlete Dying Young, that described it all eerily well. “The time you won your town the race, we chaired you through the market-place; Man and boy stood cheering by, And home we brought you shoulder-high. Today, the road all runners come, Shoulder high we bring you home, And set you at your threshold down, Townsman of a stiller town.” The poem continues, “Smart lad, to slip betimes away from fields where glory does not stay, And early though the laurel grows, It withers quicker than the rose.”
The unnamed woman brought before Jesus is a beloved child of God. She is a sinner, standing accused for a crime caught red handed, and according to the law she (along with the absent male) was to be taken outside the city gate and before all who gathered, the victim of her infidelity was to throw the first stone. If her intention was to be perfect, she failed. If her intention was to escape the consequences of her sin, she failed at that too. Jesus does not condone this woman’s sin nor ours because we cannot be relieved of the consequences of our sins. We must live with the fruits of what we have sown yet, in Christ’s love we can be relieved of the consequences of being sinners. Christ embraces this woman sins and all. Will her marriage be harmed? Most likely. Will she face scorn on the part of the community? Probably. Will her sins keep her from experiencing God’s love? Absolutely not.
The truth is, God is a sucker for screw-ups like me. Where the world withholds its love and acceptance for those deemed worthy and valuable, finding precious few to love, God does not seek value; God creates value through love. “It is not because we have value that God loves us; it’s because God loves us that we have value.” Sinners unite! We are the beloved children of God; accepted not only for who we are but what we are – the beloved children of a God who loves us, accepts us.
Allow me to close with a thought about stones. Symbolically the stoning of the accused was about rejection, ostracizing the sinner from your community, and literally the throwing of stones chased the life right out of a few. If you find yourself with a rock in your hand, you have a choice: do I use it as a tool of separation, judgment, and punishment, or can it be a building block? Stones large enough to deal deadly blows usually are large enough to have been included in walls and buildings during ancient times, and today we have the same opportunity. The energy and zeal spent all the world throwing stones and hating others that we are so convinced are different, sinful, or otherwise is a poor use of time and materials that could be used for good, and for building. Sinners loved by God, we can build together. We can take our stones and united, use them to build rather than kill. Our own church stands as a testament. Stone upon stone built a House of God for everyone to hear of a love above all others. What else can we do when we use our stones to build up rather than tear down?
No comments:
Post a Comment