Sermon: The woman caught in adultery - John 8:2-11

Intro

Before we look at today’s story, I challenged you guys to get familiar with the theme verse for the weekend, to memorize it, right?  Is there anyone who can come up here and recite Matthew 16:24 tonight?

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’”  Very good!  Let’s give him/her a hand.  You can have a seat.  The them for the weekend is what? (Follow Me)  Right, so this morning we asked and hopefully answered the question, “Is it worth being a disciple?  Is God a God who is worth following?  “Tonight we are going to look at the question, “who can be a disciple.”  But before we get started, I have something to show you.   

Object Lesson

Can you all see what I have my hand?  What is it (A rock).  That’s right.  I have two boys, 7 and 5, and for my boys, rocks can be hours of entertainment.  They collect them, they through them in the water, they hit things with them, you get the idea. 

In biblical times rocks had different uses, didn’t they?  Think about the story of David and Goliath, what did David use stones for?  (As a weapon)  Right,  in the story we are about to look at stones were used for something else, judgment…a little something like this…(Movie clip from Saved: 39:15 - 41:05)

This is a pretty crazy scenario – but Christians are sometimes known as being judgmental aren’t they?  Today’s story shows that things weren’t that different 2,000 years ago.  Let’s take a look at tonight’s story

The Text: John 8: 2-11

Read (or have student read)

John 8:2-11New Living Translation (NLT)

² but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. ³ As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

⁴ “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

⁶ They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. ⁷ They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” ⁸ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

⁹ When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. ¹⁰ Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

¹¹ “No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Caught in the act!  That is what has just happened here, isn’t it?  This woman’s darkest secret sin has just become a public spectacle.  Can you imagine?  We don’t know how this whole thing went down, but we can speculate can’t we?  Did this whole mob of religious dudes break down the door, grab this woman, and drag her into the streets.  Probably.  She was probably called names, maybe she was hit.  I am sure she wasn’t led nicely.  I bet her experience might have even been a little like Jesus’ before he was crucified… 

But what is motivating the scribes and the Pharisees? Is it really a love of scripture or the righteous law of God, or the preservation of marriage? No, it is to trap Jesus because he threatens them. What is he threatening? He is threatening their power, their authority, and their position in the culture. The truth is, these religious leaders don’t really care about this woman or her sin.  They are using her like an object, like a pawn.  What is interesting about that is most sexual sin at the deepest level, has to do with treating other’s or ourselves as something less than God intended us to be.

So these Pharisees have set a trap for Jesus.  They think they have him.  It’s a lose, lose situation.  If he say’s “don’t stone her” he is breaking Jewish law.  If he says “go ahead” he is tainting the image of who he is, and perhaps worse, be is breaking Roman law.  A death sentence could not occur without the approval of the Roman government.     So Jesus is in trouble, and the Pharisees are excited to see him fall on his face.  And they don’t mind taking this poor woman’s life in the process. 

So the woman is placed in front of a mob of people with her sins, and maybe her body on full display.  Maybe she was pushed on the ground; she was definitely treated like trash.  And these Pharisees can hardly wait for Jesus to self-destruct.  They are standing there, they already have stones in their hands.  They want to see Jesus sweat; they want to see him fail.  But instead, cool as a cucumber, Jesus stoops down and starts writing in the sand with his finger (act this out).

Fun fact, this is the only time in scripture that Jesus writes.   We don’t know what he is writing, maybe he is listing the sins of the Pharisees, maybe he’s listing their girlfriend’s names, or maybe he is buying time so the situation can calm down a little.  He might be trying to take some of the attention off this poor woman and place it on himself and the Pharisees.  Maybe he is writing, “Where-is-the-dude?” do you all wonder about that too?  I mean, technically, the law says that the guy involved should be stoned too.  It’s just another example of the double standard about guys and girls on the issue of sexual sin isn’t it?  Can I get an amen ladies?!

Whatever he was writing, the Pharisees were ignoring it.  They were getting frantic; they were excited to see Jesus crash and burn!  They persisted, they were forcing Jesus to make an answer, and no matter what answer he gives, it will be the wrong one. 

Instead Jesus stands up and spoils their fun, stating “let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” And the wind is knocked out of their sails.  What just happened? Jesus has managed to turn the tables, and the Pharisees are forced to recognize their own imperfections.  One by one the Pharisees admit defeat and leave. 

So now, this woman is left with Jesus, and maybe the crowd who may have stayed to watch the juicy scene.  So Jesus who is without sin, who has every right to pick up one of those stones (hold in hand again) and beam this woman right in the head, has a choice to make. Jesus doesn’t see the scriptures as a tool to judge others and make himself look good.  So Jesus lets her off the hook, he is not going to judge her.

It’s not that the truth doesn’t matter to Jesus – he acknowledge the woman’s sin and tells her not to repeat it – but Jesus deals with people individually, never as an example of some broader point or an “object lesson.”  Issues and causes are not more important to Jesus than people.

Now, we need to understand that “Go and sin no more” is not a punishment, or a requirement to earn the grace Jesus has given her. It is not a warning either.  Jesus was not saying, “This is a one time, and one time only get out of jail free card, so don’t do it again!”

Instead Jesus’ instruction is a release. This is what Jesus does here for the woman: he releases her from her deadly disease, from her sin.

So what about us? The day and time will come; it may already have come for some of you, when you will be left alone with Jesus.

“Go and sin no more.” These words of Jesus are for each of us; they are words that free us from the soul-destroying powers of the judgment of the Pharisees and the equally soul-destroying actions of the adulterous woman. Many of us have had our darkest secrets exposed.  Maybe that hasn’t happened to you but the guilt and shame and fear is still there.   Maybe, like this woman, we feel hopeless.  We are broken, and we feel that we can’t be fixed.  Perhaps you came here this weekend feeling like there was no hope.

But there is good news; the gospel literally means good news.  Jesus came to earth to live, die, and be raised from the dead to bring the grace given to this woman to everyone!  Jesus does not condemn us. He frees us from condemnation. He frees us just as much from our sin. The one without sin, who alone could condemn, alone took our sin and condemnation from us on the cross. His death frees us and his resurrection gives us a life that can be lived without the death and trap of sin. In John chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 Jesus says, ¹⁶ “For this is how God loved the world: He gave^[a] his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”

I hope you know that tonight.  Jesus offers a gift.  If I offer a gift to you, what has to happen before it is really yours?  (You have to take/receive /accept it).  That’s right!  Tonight Jesus is offering us the gift of forgiveness of sins, the power to live a different life through him, and an eternal life with him. 

So who can be a follower of Jesus, who makes the cut?  Anyone who reaches out and takes Jesus’ gift of salvation.  So tonight I am wondering if you are willing to make that decision, to take the gift that Jesus has for you.  No matter what we’ve done, no matter who much shame we feel, Jesus message is the same, I don’t judge you, I forgive you, live forever with me, and go, and sin no more. 

Right now I am going to say a prayer, and then we are going to sing a few songs, and during that time we are inviting anyone who wants to make that decision, who wants to take that step to come forward and kneel at the alter to play.  There’s nothing magical about coming up front, but Paul tells us in Romans 10:9 “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Praying at the alter instead of in private is just a good way to declare openly that Jesus is Lord and that we our accepting his gift.  After we our finished singing and everyone has come to the alter I am going to lead us in a salvation prayer. 

The Church's Mission

The Mission

Migliore (2004) states, “The church is called to mission.  The church does not exist for itself alone any more than God has chosen to exist for God alone.  Because the trunie God is a missionary God, the church is called to be a mission church rooted in the Trinitarian missions” (p. 265).  Tennent (2007) seconds the connection between God’s mission and the mission of the church stating, “we must not forget that we cannot have a Christ-centered theology of misson that does not place the church at the center  of Christ’s redemptive plan” (p. 215).  Jesus Christ broke into human history to set in God’s mission into motion.  Before returning to the father he revealed that his followers also had a role in God’s mission (Matthew 28:19-20).  It was that call and the working of the Holy Spirit that brought the church into existence (Acts 2).   The church exists, at least in part, to be a part of God’s redemptive work until its completion, at the return of Christ.

Implications

The church’s role in God’s mission serves as an indictment every time a local congregation is more interested in being comfortable and “homey” – what I like to call, “church as country club” – than in making disciples.  The church is called to a mission, not called to customer service, and self-help.  The church’s mission reminds the church that we our “resident aliens” and that we are called to live counter-culturally (Hauerwas and Willimon, 1989). 

Evaluation

Tennent (2007) stresses, “the importance of the relationship between soteriology and ecclesiology” (p. 214).  Scriptural witness will not allow us to deny the connection between soteriology and ecclesiology.  The triune God will not allow us to deny the church’s role in God’s mission.  God created us to be in relationship with one another, and a natural interaction of these relationships is communicating (sharing) good news.  God’s mission is the revelation of the ultimate good news, the redemption of creation.  The church’s mission is to do, what comes naturally to those created in God’s image.  Scripture, history, reason, and personal experiences of conversion attest to this reality. 

Haurerwas, S. and Willimon, W. H. (1989). Resident Aliens.  Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.

Milgore, D.L. (2004).  Faith seeking understanding: An introduction to Christian theology.  2^nd Ed.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. 

Tennent, T. C. (2007).  Theology in the context of world Christianity.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan 

Sanctification in this Life?

I fear that I cannot allow myself to simply answer the question, “is entire sanctification possible.”  I feel the answer to this question is only half the issue.  I also feel led to explore “fallout” that occurs in the “sanctification obsessed” culture of the holiness traditions. 

Is Sanctification Possible?

I find myself agreeing in an entire Sanctification as Wesley defines it.  I agree with Wesley that the entire Sanctification is a rarity, probably found only in those followers in the later stages of their life. I think these qualifiers are important to recognize.

Support in Scripture

The New Testament offers ample support for the notion of entire sanctification (Matthew 5:48, James 1:4, 1 John 5:18 to name a few).  Perfection in scripture relates more to the idea of complete, than flawless, and yet, we must carefully look at what it means to be complete.  To see what is meant by being complete as we were intended to be, I argue that we must look at the example of Christ.  In Jesus’ earthly ministry we see finitude, but we also see complete obedience, unconditional love, and yes- the absence of sin.  This is what it means to be complete in Christ, through the Holy Spirit. 

Real Examples

I think further evidence is granted when we see personal examples that exemplify, or at least closely reflect complete sanctification.  Historical figures such as Mother Teresa and Brother Lawrence fit the bill, but most Christians can probably identify personal examples, for me it is Paul, a retired pastor with zeal, abounding empathy, sage wisdom, and a complete lack of selfishness.  Paul astounds me on a regular basis. 

The Fallout of the Obsession

Though I believe that entire Sanctification in this lifetime is possible, I also think the obsession with it has been dangerous.  In holiness traditions Sanctification has been seen as a requirement for leadership roles rather than something obtained for only some Christians, and usually later in life.  As a 22 year old beginning the ordination process in the Church of the Nazarene I knew full well that I had better check the yes box asking about whether or not I was sanctified when applying for a provisional pastor’s license.  This not only cheapened the idea of Sanctification, it also encouraged works righteousness, rather than waiting to be transformed by God though grace (Galatians 5:5).  Even though I believe the complete sanctification is possible in this life, I think sanctification is better understood in the journey (with God as the driver) than in an obsession with the destination.  

Justification by Faith Alone?

According to Migliore (2004), “justification is God’s gracious forgiveness of sins that is received by faith alone…That we are justified means that our justified means that our broken relationships with God has been restored by an act of free grace and forgiveness…God’s act of justification is a free gift and is no way dependent upon us, although it calls for our response” (p.  236). Justification by faith alone brings up the question, if we are justified, does it matter how live?  The Apostle Paul addresses this question in Romans 13:1-6:  

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.  Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.  We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin (NLT). 

It is helpful for us to address the inseparable nature of justification and sanctification.  Migliore (2004) highlights Calvin’s understanding of a two-fold grace through Christ; justification and sanctification.  Sanctification, like justification requires a response.  What does that response look like?  Does it mean that sanctification comes by our best efforts to live as God intends?  We can once again turn to Paul’s writing to address these questions.  In Galatians 5:3-6 Paul responses to the belief that gentile Christians need to be circumcises by stating:

I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.  But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love (NLT).

According to Paul seeking justification and sanctification by our own efforts negates the justification through faith.  Sanctification, like justification, is received by grace through faith.  The response needed is not change created by our effort, but rather, an intentional act of being receptive to God’s transformational grace.  Addressing the spiritual disciplines Foster (1998) states, “The Disciplines are God’s way of getting us into the ground; they put us where he can work within us and transform us…We must always remember that the path does not produce the change; it only places us where the change can occurs.  This is the path of disciplined grace” (p. 7-8).  Justification through faith calls for an initial response, to receive Christ’s atonement, but it also calls for an ongoing response, a response that allows for God’s transformation in our lives. 

Foster, R.J. (1998).  Celebration of Disciplines: The path to Spiritual growth 3^rd Ed.  San Francisco, CA: Harper.  

Migliore, D.L. (2004).  Faith seeking understanding: An introduction to Christian theology.  2^nd Ed.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. 

Pilgrimage to Ground Zero

What follows is a personal friend and mentor's reflections of his visit to New York City mere weeks after the tragedy of 9/11.

Thirteen years ago, October 3, 2001, Jo Ann, and I returned to our home in California from New York City importantly different from the city we have so often experienced and unabashedly love.  For four days, we had been bombarded with images, expressions, smells and sounds.  With our son Brad, a resident of the city, we walked the streets and tried to absorb some sense of the pain that held New York in its grasp for the past 32 days since the morning of September 11, 2001.

Not as on-lookers but as pilgrims, we went to Ground Zero.  The combined effort of the best of TV anchormen had failed to communicate its tragic reality.

With hundreds of others we talked along lower Broadway, stopping at barricaded intersections patrolled by NYPD officers and personnel from various military groups.  At every barricade there were signs, letters, flowers and remembrances attached to the chain-link fences transforming them into falls of compassion.  We walked past a church across the front of which the resolute congregation had placed a banner that informed the population of a wounded city that it would reopen its doors and do it soon!  We walked around to the west side of the ruins and passed a child care center not a block away form where trucks were removing rubble and ambulances were removing remains.  We expressed to each other our concern for those children and wondered painful wanderings.  We were later informed that the caregivers in that center had safely escorted all the children away from the terror and, amazingly, that all the families of those children had been reunited. 

As we left Ground Zero, Jo noticed a fine collar of white ash on the lack collar of my coat.  The three of us were carrying away on our shoulders the residue of terror.  As we walked through South Liberty Park, a small, tranquil walkway, harshly juxtaposed against what we were trying to leave behind us, through the trees, partially engulfed in the smoke issuing from the remains of the twin towers, we saw the Statue of Liberty standing Phoenix-like in the harbor.  In that instant she became a needed symbol of stability in the midst of such an absurdly

The Following morning we went to see a fire-fighter friend, Al Schwartz, on duty at the Midtown Station just off the cacophony of Broadway.  As we approached the station house we saw thousands of messages from people around the country plastered on the outside brick walls.  We stopped to read some of these expressions of thanks and support.  There was a message scribbled in crayon from a confused child in Biloxi, Mississippi.  There was a message hand printed on a beautiful card by an empathetic woman from Honolulu who remembered Pearl Harbor.  There was another from a teenager who had never been out of Whitefish, Montana.  And one in particular I shall never forget.  It was typed on important looking letterhead from a New York businessman who had suddenly been forced into recognizing an indebtedness he had long neglected to acknowledge. 

Inside the Fire House in the company break room were boxes of cookies, fresh cakes (some beautifully decorated), and cases of soda, all expressions sent by Manhattan dwellers that, I can only assume, needed to do something tangible to say thank you and to help overcome their own sense of helplessness.  On one filing cabinet, lying among piles of un-filed papers, there was a wilting handful of flowers the guys in the company had just been too busy to throw away, or simply didn’t want to.  Al shared with us that, “Tomorrow I will march with our NYC Fire Department Pipe Band in three funeral processions.  It’s been going on like this for days.”  Jo asked Al how he managed to get all the other, everyday stuff done, like fighting a recent fire on 53^rd Street.  “We just do it,” he answered in exhausted resignation.  All has become, for us, a symbol of all the courageous professionals in New York City who did their jobs.

As we left the station house we stopped to look at the Fire Station “Wall of Heroes”.  Surrounded by garlands of red, white and blue ribbon were the pictures of 16 of Al’s buddies from the Midtown Company who had died in the World Trade Center Tragedy.    

While we were there I sensed a city trying to regain its equilibrium. The Yankees beat the Mariners three out of four. “Phantom of the Opera” was still running at the Majestic Theater, even though the cast had to take a 25% temporary pay cut until more tourists came back. The 

Lincoln Center shimmered in a sophisticated light while down in the subway station at Time Square a not-so-good violin player sawed away in hopes that we would drop a buck or two into his open instrument case. I doubted that New York City would ever be “back to normal”. I was certain however that it would find a “new normal” for a different time.
Wisdom tells us that the intensity of our sympathy must lessen if we are to live lives of sanity in the present. Lessen,
yes, but eliminated… never. Compassion tells us that two things must never be eliminated: our God given responsibility to confront bigotry with unfailing resolve, and to liquidate the ignorance that sets one people or one faith against another.

That was a year ago. Today some of us will stop for a brief while and revisit those moments of insanity. We will try once again to understand a hate so engrained that it would cause people to kill themselves that they might kill others. And we will probably fail in our effort. Today, some of us will gather with others from our communities and symbolically weep. We will remember TV images we wish we could forget. We will remember a fireman carrying the body of a small child and we will remember the crying. And we will remember the aftermath of silence.

That is as is should be.

Then we will leave and return to our status quo. Our memories will be some how muted for they will be a year removed from the intensity? When we go home and read the box scores of the Yankees we will less clearly see those who have missed every baseball season in the new house that Ruth built. When we open our date books we may not even think about date books that have remained closed since 9/11/01.

That too may be as it should be.

On God's Revelation

We come to know God through God’s revelation.  The creator discloses some of his character and his purpose to his creation, radically changing his creation in the process (Milgore, 2004, p. 22).  We can only know God in part.  God is revealed through general revelation (nature and human history) and special revelation (the Word of God) (Milgore, 2004, p. 29). 

General revelation is limited and is subject to special revelation.  Milgore (2004) states, “special revelation repeatedly challenges, corrects, and transforms all of our earlier knowledge of God, from whatever source, as well as confirming what is good and true in it” (p. 32).  Additionally, Tennett (2007) states that God’s revelation both transcends (“pilgrim” principle) and penetrates (“indigenizing” principal) cultural context (p. 13).  

Milgore (2004) argues that even scripture is subject to the revelation of God through the life, death and resurrection of his son.  He states “the truth is that neither ‘scripture alone’ nor ‘scripture plus church tradition’ is sufficient to communicate the gospel of Christ effectively” (Milgore, 2004, p. 41).  Christians then, both as a community, and as individuals, are called to make themselves available to be a part of God’s revelation to the world.  That is, I think, what the great commission is all about.    

Milgore, D.L. (2004).  Faith seeking understanding: An introduction to Christian theology.  2^nd Ed.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. 

Tennent, T. C. (2007).  Theology in the context of world Christianity.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan 

Ecclesiastes, Robin Williams, and the Urgency of The Great Commission

When I heard about the Robin Williams tragedy Ecclesiastes 1 instantly came to mind:
"3 What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. 6 The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. 7 Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. 8 Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content." 

I see parallels between Robin success and the kind of life Solomon must have experienced.  I know Robin Williams was battling depression - and I am not one to minimize the impact of mental illness - but clinically depressed or not, Solomon's lesson for us is that a life without God is meaningless...is HOPELESS.  I believe (and of course this is just an educated guess) that in addition to his struggles with depression, Robin Williams realized that all his work, all his accomplishments, all his success were simply meaningless.  Having it all, but still having nothing, that must have been a terrible realization.  

Ecclesiastes goes on to share that the presence of God in our lives gives us meaning, but it seems that Robin Williams never got passed the first chapter, and the meaningless of life it proclaimed.  So the Bible is clear, that life without God is bleak. 

And so, to those Christians who would be quick to judge Robin, and those who have committed suicide before him, I say, judgment is in order when we learn that someone has committed suicide, but I believe that the judgment should be placed on the church.  Robin Williams is accountable for his decision, I suppose, but he is NOT accountable to me, nor any other outside party who would "throw stones."  The Christian community, I think, is accountable for failing to bring hope to a seemingly hopeless situation.  That is after all, the Great Commission, in a nutshell.  Go and be the Good News, bringing hope to a seemingly hopeless world.  

So Robin Williams' tragedy convicts me.  It leaves me asking, how must my Christian witness be different?  How can I proclaim to all around me that there is hope in Christ, even in this seemingly meaningless existence?  To those quick to judge, I ask, what are your doing to be the Good News to God's lost children?