Homily for March 21, 2010
[5th SUNDAY in Lent, Cycle C]
(readings found here)
Reading I Is 43:16-21
Reading II Phil 3:8-14
Gospel Jn 8:1-11
While I was writing this homily I was reminded of the deacon who’s son was watching him prepare a homily. The son asked him, “Dad, how do you know what to write?” “Well,” said the deacon, “I listen to the Holy Spirit, and He tells me what to write.” The son then asked “Dad, then why do you cross out so much?”
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Whenever I read this Gospel, I always have 2 questions. First - What did Jesus scribble in the sand? My guess - nothing he was truly “scribbling” – he was waiting for them to take in what they were going to do, to let the anger and hatred calm a little, let the fires of religiosity and self righteousness burn out and release and then let his words of truth work on them…
2nd why didn’t Jesus condemn the woman caught in adultery? Why didn’t tell her she hadn’t lived up to the law? Was it because he knew she was repentant? She had been humiliated, probably harassed, called every name in the book and some not in the book on the way and was expecting to die from stoning. Then they bring her to this great prophet Jesus. Wouldn’t he accuse her also? But he didn’t – he let her go with the simple admonition – go and sin no more!
Maybe we need to look at a pattern here?
2 weeks ago for our 3rd Sunday of Lent Gospel – We find that a fig tree was not bearing fruit and the Master said to cut it down. The gardener on the other hand said, No, let it go and I will fertilize it for another year. Then if it’s not bearing fruit – I’ll cut it down.
Last week for our 4th Sunday of Lent Gospel – the Prodigal son (prodigal family as Fr Zehren called them) the ones who go astray, the ones who have sinned, if they so desire to come back should be welcomed back.
This week in our Gospel it’s the woman who was caught in adultery who is going to be stoned, but after they meet Jesus there is no one left to condemn her. Seems to be a parallel here. A story about repentance and mercy. Hmmmm… Lent – repentance, Reconciliation – mercy?
How much different are the Scribes and the Pharisees from the Older Brother of the prodigal son or the master seeing the fig tree? How different is the woman from the fig tree or the younger brother?
How does this story of Jesus life and the parables reflect the chosen people, the Jews? Aren’t they the prodigal son, aren’t they the fig tree, aren’t they the woman? How about us, are we the woman, the Pharisees, the scribes, the fig tree, the prodigal son, the older son?
How does Jesus treat all of them in this Gospel and in the parables?
The Scribes and Pharisees and the older brother come off as arrogant, and domineering. Yet, in the parable last week, the father talks to the older brother kindly reminding him that everything he has is his; that he should also welcome back the prodigal son/brother. Here, in our Gospel today, Jesus does not reprimand the Scribes or the Pharisees, he just indicates that they, who also sin and represent the chosen of God, the Jews, have sinned in the past, yet God forgave them. That perhaps, given the time to cool down and come off their high horses, they might have compassion and mercy also.
But, before we ourselves sit in judgment on them, we might sincerely ask how many of us would have acted differently than they did in this particular case? How would many of us react if we discovered a spouse, a son or daughter, not to mention a stranger or public figure, in an adulterous relationship?
The woman in this story is not just an isolated sinner. She represents all of us. She represents every person who has sinned. She represents you and me. And the Scribes and Pharisees, who were sinners too, they also represent you and me. We sin in both ways: when we hurt others by indulging our desires at their expense and when we hurt others by setting ourselves up as superior to others. If we had been there that day, what would we have done? Would we have condemned the guilty woman too? Even during the past week, how many people have we condemned in our hearts or in our thoughts and our words? Are we regular readers of newspapers or watchers of TV which delight in trashing people and destroying their lives? How many people have we ourselves passed judgment on? On the other hand, to how many have we extended a hand of love and compassion?
Notice Jesus does not deny that she sinned. Nor does she deny it. The realization exists between them that she has sinned and that she is deeply sorry for that sin. But let’s not forget that the original intent of the Pharisees and Scribes was not to judge this woman and to stone her, but to test Jesus! And what happened in the Gospel from 1st week in Lent? That’s when Satan himself tempted Jesus while he was in the desert. And what happened then?
From the Gospel of the 1st week in Lent -
Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry.
From today’s Gospel -
“Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
The scribes and Pharisees hope to condemn Jesus in his own words. You see, if he agrees with Moses, he belies his own teaching and his way always of being with sinners; but, if he rejects the Law of Moses, he can be denounced as not a man of God.
Again from the Gospel of the 1st week in Lent -
And Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” And testing him they are, but Jesus replies, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
To the scribes and Pharisee’s credit, not one of them took up the challenge. One by one, beginning from the most senior, they slipped quietly out of his sight. This is the first teaching of today's Gospel: only one without sin can sit in judgment on another person. And Jesus is the only one there without sin. Doesn’t the saying go: “people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” Yet, don’t we do this all the time?
Unlike the Pharisees and Scribes, upholders of the Law, Jesus refuses to condemn her. Rather he gives her an opportunity to repent, to convert and to change her ways. Jesus came not to condemn but to save, to rehabilitate, to give new and enduring life. Jesus always leaves a door open. Our instinct is to punish and even destroy wrongdoers. Every day we see the media condemning and even claiming to be "shocked" by the misdemeanors of the famous and the not so famous. How do we think Jesus would deal with such people? If God acted like the Pharisees, how many times would we have been condemned or stoned? But, no matter how many times we sin, no matter how seriously we sin, even if the whole of society condemns us and expresses horror and revulsion at our behavior, God calls us to start over again, to change our ways of seeing life and other people. How often does he do this? Once or twice? No, but seventy times seven times he told Peter! In other words, indefinitely.
" Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!" says Isaiah in today's First Reading.
This was also the experience of Paul, also once a zealous Pharisee. Paul knew that God had forgiven his sin, the sin of persecuting the disciples of Jesus (in the name of God and religion, it may be noted). He realizes now that it is not a question of becoming a morally perfect person by his own efforts. For him to have a close relationship with Jesus is the most precious thing in life as he so eloquently states in his letter to the Phillipians (our second reading)
“For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God”
Your brother in Christ,
Deacon Bruce
