Getting Stoned | March 13, 2016

March 13, 2016

The most powerful and chilling part of today’s gospel is that moment when Jesus says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And with guns locked and loaded, ready to throw, they all stopped cold in their guilty tracks, retreated in shame, and were probably changed for good by that one sentence. If we were to fast-forward that same story into our present world, however, would people drop their stones or would they throw them anyway? It’s a compelling question and I think the answer I keep receiving in prayer is heck yes; the woman would be stoned to death! Mud slinging and stone throwing are perfectly acceptable in our society, aren’t they, and they are even encouraged for certain types of sin. Jesus makes it clear that we are all affected by sin and one of the affects of sin is that it clouds our judgment. When our judgment is clouded, we might only be able to see the sin of others and our need to throw stones covers up our own sin.

Again, mercy, steps onto the scene and dramatically rips the stones out of our hands, because it has already saved us on more than one occasion from getting stoned ourselves; it’s powerful, it’s humbling, it’s stumbling, it’s knee dropping, it’s life changing, it’s eye opening, it’s heart opening, it’s chilling, it’s breath taking. The name of God is Mercy and the face of Mercy is Christ. The most curious part of today’s gospel is the vision of Jesus writing in the sand isn’t it? Don’t you just want to know what he wrote? Mercy? Forgive her? The man’s name? The sins of all those holding stones? The name of God? I love you? Whatever he wrote compelled the writer to report the action in the story and that means we should pay attention. The finger of God has yet again touched our hearts with a moment of pure grace and today He’s writing a word in the sand of our soul, a word of mercy, a word of love, and a word of forgiveness. Sand is just millions of stones ground down over time into harmless powder, and so it is with our sin, ground down over time with mercy into nothing but a place for God’s finger to write His love notes to us. Receive it. Have a blessed day.

Reading 1 IS 43:16-21

Thus says the LORD,
who opens a way in the sea
and a path in the mighty waters,
who leads out chariots and horsemen,
a powerful army,
till they lie prostrate together, never to rise,
snuffed out and quenched like a wick.
Remember not the events of the past,
the things of long ago consider not;
see, I am doing something new!
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
In the desert I make a way,
in the wasteland, rivers.
Wild beasts honor me,
jackals and ostriches,
for I put water in the desert
and rivers in the wasteland
for my chosen people to drink,
the people whom I formed for myself,
that they might announce my praise.

Responsorial Psalm PS 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6

R. (3) The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those that sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Reading 2 PHIL 3:8-14

Brothers and sisters:
I consider everything as a loss 
because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
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, 
depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection 
and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, 
if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

It is not that I have already taken hold of it 
or have already attained perfect maturity, 
but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it, 
since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, I for my part 
do not consider myself to have taken possession.
Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind 
but straining forward to what lies ahead, 
I continue my pursuit toward the goal, 
the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.

Verse Before The Gospel JL 2:12-13

Even now, says the Lord,
return to me with your whole heart;
for I am gracious and merciful.

Gospel JN 8:1-11

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, 
and all the people started coming to him, 
and he sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman 
who had been caught in adultery 
and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him,
“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.
Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him,
he straightened up and said to them,
“Let the one among you who is without sin 
be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one,
beginning with the elders.
So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”