John 8: 1-11; Romans 15:7
A sermon by Dr. Richard A. Wing, Co-Pastor, September 15, 2019
INTRODUCTION
On Nantucket Island, they had a lifesaving station. People would risk their lives to save shipwrecked people. They had a motto for the life savers: “You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back.” How is that for a recruiting slogan? Good luck with that! Eventually the Coast Guard took over. The lifesaving people disbanded. Now members meet for dinner monthly. They are not in the life saving business any longer.
In a far less dramatic way, we are in the lifesaving business midst the mini-shipwrecks we see every day in the lives of people. A woman abandoned by her husband while being 6 months pregnant. A friend loses her job. A boy eleven is bullied at school. A co-worker makes a foolish financial choice for the company and is fired. A high school girl does not get invited to the prom. Seniors in their eighties lose another friend and life gets one more person lonelier. These are among the mini shipwrecks we see daily where we seek to give a life line. Most lifelines we give are words. Every word we speak has the power to encourage or discourage. Words are used to offer acceptance, love and hope; or judgment and condemnation.
When I worked with Dr. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled, he created The Foundation for Community Encouragement. Just one word of encouragement can make all the difference, a fact we must never forget. A man named Dennis was in my church in Northern California and is alive today because of one word of affirmation and encouragement. His mother was, to be brief, hideous and awful in every way. She verbally abused him daily. After one evening of outrageous put downs, Dennis went into the bathroom to kill himself. A gentle knock came at the door. It was his father, a man not given to words at all. His father said, “Never listen to your mother. You are a good young man and I love you.” And then his father shut the door. Words can kill. Words can save. Let us never forget. His father’s few words saved his life that night.
Paul defines our lifeline: “accept one another.” That means we recognize that it is very good that all people we encounter are alive and that we long for the best for them. Acceptance does not mean approval. I visit prisons often. You don’t approve or disapprove of what inmates did but encourage them on a new path of life. I have experienced with inmates how very few words of encouragement can be life changing. They are life lines.
Our text features a woman rapidly going under. Adultery was in the Jewish law a crime demanding death by sundown. As is very clear today in the #METOO movement, men often forget they are supposed to be in the life saving business with women rather than loving themselves by finding a fleeting moment of sexual advantage.
Suddenly there was a man who noticed her; listened to her; the effect was immediate.
Now look out here: she is caught in the act of adultery (which often makes me wonder about the “religious folk” who were running around peering in bedroom windows). The text says they bring her to Jesus. They want to trap him. They are more desirous of killing Jesus than they are killing her. They think, “we’ve got Jesus now. If he is soft on crime again, we can do him in.”
They sound like our society. I hear people saying “we don’t want anyone soft on crime.” Some say “we don’t want some bleeding heart liberal to go soft on crime. We want someone tough on crime.” Since the early 90’s this has been the motto in America: “Let’s get tough on crime.”
So, here is Jesus; the woman on the ground and people with stones in their hands.
Now, before going further, here is the main question I have for you and me: “Did you come to church today with stones in your hands?” Did you come with gritted teeth? Feeling of revenge? Let’s take a look here.
I make 3 observations today:
I NEVER ARE WE MORE SELF RIGHTEOUS THAN WHEN WE CONDEMN THE SINS OF THE FLESH
Jesus was more interested in the sins of the SPIRIT than the sins of the FLESH. Sins of the spirit are pride, arrogance, self-righteousness, and judgmentalism. In this and other stories, people who committed the sins of the flesh came to Jesus because they knew there they would find understanding, and when you are understood, you are forgiven.
In many stories, Jesus identifies the worst of sins as pride and arrogance. These religious leaders and their followers thought they could love God and despise people.
Here these words from the Desert Father Abba Theodore: “Do not judge the sexual sins of another; for in judging you transgress the law just as much as they.
Jesus said: don’t commit adultery and don’t judge, and held each with equal weight.” (Let that soak in for a moment).
Let me be brief: judgmental people are NOT in the life saving business.
II ON PENTECOST, GOD CREATED A STONE-FREE CHURCH
Most people think: I have to clean up my act before going to church. Why? Because church history has been made up of way too many stone throwing churches.
Philip Yancey talks about the time that he and his church were working in a homeless shelter. He met a former prostitute who was carving out a new life with her daughter and was about to move into her own apartment and a new job. He casually said to her one day, “have you ever considered going to church?” “God no!” she said. “I am already feeling terrible about myself, they’d only make it worse.”
In ancient times men and women ran toward Jesus for forgiveness and restitution. Throughout history people learned to run from his followers because those claiming to be Christian carried stones in their hands that they were anxious to cast.
That’s among the main reason people aren’t coming to church anymore: we are seen as judgment, not grace. And God is not amused by that. Now let’s look at——
III THE CHOICE
The people anxious to stone this woman stand there as she crouches on the ground. The religious folk ask, “What do you say Jesus? What should we do here?”
He responds: “let the one who is without sin cast the first stone?”
One large stone hits the ground with a distinctive thud. Then another. Did they have a change of heart? No, they were not changed. They went away to regroup and find another way to kill the King of Hearts, and the Prince of Grace.
There is no room in Jesus’ community for throwing stones. Paul said: “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If God is for us who can be against us?”
So today, are there any stones you need to drop? I ask that of myself before placing the question before you. Do you carry a stone for a parent who failed you? A stone for an ex-spouse or ex-boss? A stone for a business partner who did you in? The love of your life who dropped you?
PUT DOWN THE STONE, says Jesus. For your own good. Put it down.
The men drop their stones and leave, to conspire another day to kill Jesus, and you know how that will end.
Jesus is left with the woman.
“Where are all the stone throwers? Has no one condemned you?
“No sir.”
“Me neither,” says Jesus.
Never are we more like God than when we imitate that spirit of Jesus in our daily lives. We are life savers when we do that.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said: “If humanity ever captured the energy of love, it will be the second time in history that we have discovered fire.” Amen.
John 8:1 Jesus went across to Mount Olives, 2 but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them.
John 8:3 The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone 4 and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. 5 Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” 6 They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. 7 They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” 8 Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.
John 8:9 Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. 10 Jesus stood up and spoke to her. “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?”
John 8:11 “No one, Master.”
“Neither do I,” said Jesus. “Go on your way. From now on, don’t (miss the mark in life).”
Rom. 15:7 So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it!