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 8:3-8 | MSG
J Philip Newell says that in our Christian family there are some who believe that the deepest hidden parts of us carry the marks of our common sinfulness. In essence, some would say, sin is what is deepest in us. He notes that for others in the Christian family, “what is deepest in us in the image of God.” As you think about this, which of the two is closest to what you believe, and your own experience?
Christian Wiman invites us to step into the story from John’s Gospel – to join him with the others standing around Jesus and the woman. Care to join us?
I hope you are brave enough to linger here just a bit longer… On an index card, or an app on your smartphone, imagine you are standing by Jesus – broken and vulnerable – In silence, without speaking a word, watch closely what Jesus is writing with his own finger on the ground – in your life… Now write with your finger what you see him writing with his… Be still, and wait with it…
What does he write?... Some say he was writing down the names of
those self-righteous and accusatory Pharisees standing around him
and the woman. Some say it was their sins, others that he was writing
down specific verses from the Old Testament. Consider the elements.
First, there’s the act itself of writing on the ground surrounded by
inquisitors. Who does that? Just try it the next time you find yourself
in a heated meeting. Then, too, Jesus writes with his finger, not an
implement of some kind. The WORD (capital W) inscribed the word
(lower case) upon reality itself - reenacting, I would argue, and perhaps
salvaging that original moment when the Word of God (see John 1) became
the word of man. Also, it is metaphorically suggestive that Jesus writes
on the earth, not on a tablet, as if the law had come alive, as if the closed
world of human religion, represented by the Pharisees had been blown
open and shown to be as transient and perishable, but also as immediate
and meaningful, as this glorious earth that is all around us... in this moment
... Jesus “writes” something that you will never read, never “understand,”
and thus maybe, just maybe, never forget...
from “Writing In The Sand”
Plough Quarterly, Summer 2021
May this portion of Ted Loder’s prayer become our own prayer…….
God of history and of my heart, so much has happened to us during
these whirlwind days: we’ve known death and birth, we’ve been brave
and scared, we’ve hurt, we’ve helped, we’ve been honest, we’ve lied.
We’ve destroyed, we’ve created, we been with people, we’ve been
lonely. We’ve been loyal, we’ve betrayed. We’ve decided and we’ve
waffled. We’ve laughed and we’ve cried. You know our frail hearts and
our frayed history – and now, a new day begins…..O God help me to
believe in beginnings and in my beginning again, no matter how often
I have failed before. Help me to make beginnings: to begin going out of
my weary mind into fresh dreams, daring to make my own bold tracks in
the land of now, to begin forgiving that I may experience mercy…..to
become a beginning of hope for the despairing, of assurance for the
doubting, of reconciliation for the divided, to become a beginning of
freedom for the oppressed, of comfort for the sorrowing, of friendship
for the forgotten,…..Help me to believe in beginnings – to make a beginning,
be a beginning, so that I may not just grow old, but grow new, each day
of this wild, amazing life, you call me to live, with the passion of Jesus
Christ. Amen.
Still In ONE Peace,
Jon (the Methodist)
If you would like to view past editions of How Sweet the Sound, follow this link: https://sounddistrictnc.org/category/from-the-ds/