John 8:1-11 (NRSV)
While Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, 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. Now what do you say?" They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, sir." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again."
Neal M. Flanagan, O.S.M writes about John's Gospel in the Collegeville Bible Commentary, New Testament volume. As I read through what Flanagan wrote about today's story of the exchange between Jesus and the woman caught in adultery I had to look around a bit. This story is inserted in between a major controversial set of conversations about the validity of Jesus and his claim to Messiah-ship. There are all kinds of things being said about Jesus and whether his claim to be the One sent by God is legitimate. Of this story, Flanagan writes:
"In modern editions of the Fourth Gospel, this passage is ordinarily either dropped or placed within brackets to indicate that it is not part John's original text. It is missing from our oldest best Greek manuscripts and seems to have been unknown to the early Greek Fathers, since they did not comment on it. In various old manuscripts it is found either at 8:1, as in our text, or after 7:36, or at the end of the Gospel, or after Luke 21:38. The earliest certain reference to the story is found in a third century writing on church discipline called the Didascalia. In a word, it did not form the original Gospel of John.
Not withstanding the mystery of the story's transmission, and of its insertion into John (because of 8:15?), it contains one of the most striking portrayals of Jesus' mercy and is a strong plea for its own authenticity. It possesses all the signs of historical truth. It must be a story dating back to Jesus that was passed along by oral tradition and used, perhaps, to solve the problem of forgiveness of sin for baptized Christians. It sounds incredibly like a Lukan narrative, dealing as it does with mercy, sin, and a woman.
One of the questions always asked about this beautiful passage is what Jesus was writing on the ground. Two reasonably plausible suggestions are that the doodling indicated lack of interest or that John wished to refer to the Greek text of Jeremiah 17:13: "...may those who turn away from thee be written on the earth, for they have forsaken the fountain of life, the Lord." (Page 995).
Gospel stories such as this one are all too often used by religious conservatives as a defense for "love the sinner, but hate the sin mentality" in the direction of any and all who make the conscience choice to exercise their sexuality outside of the marriage of one man and one woman. This passage with the incorrect interpretation I just wrote about is especially used as a weapon toward lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered people. In his blog on Walking with Integrity "A Manifesto! The Time Has Come!" Bishop John Shelby Spong wrote:
"I will no longer listen to that pious sentimentality that certain Christian leaders continue to employ, which suggests some version of that strange and overtly dishonest phrase that "we love the sinner but hate the sin." That statement is, I have concluded, nothing more than a self-serving lie designed to cover the fact that these people hate homosexual persons and fear homosexuality itself, but somehow know that hatred is incompatible with the Christ they claim to profess, so they adopt this face-saving and absolutely false statement. I will no longer temper my understanding of truth in order to pretend that I have even a tiny smidgen of respect for the appalling negativity that continues to emanate from religious circles where the church has for centuries conveniently perfumed its ongoing prejudices against blacks, Jews, women and homosexual persons with what it assumes is "high-sounding, pious rhetoric." The day for that mentality has quite simply come to an end for me. I will personally neither tolerate it nor listen to it any longer. The world has moved on, leaving these elements of the Christian Church that cannot adjust to new knowledge or a new consciousness lost in a sea of their own irrelevance. They no longer talk to anyone but themselves. I will no longer seek to slow down the witness to inclusiveness by pretending that there is some middle ground between prejudice and oppression. There isn't. Justice postponed is justice denied. That can be a resting place no longer for anyone. An old civil rights song proclaimed that the only choice awaiting those who cannot adjust to a new understanding was to "Roll on over or we'll roll on over you!" Time waits for no one."
As I read through this Gospel, I cannot escape the fact that Jesus is far more concerned with the state of the hearts around him, than with the adultery this woman was caught in. As the Commentary by Neal Flanagan suggests that Jesus may have been writing on the ground as a sign that Jesus was just simply not interested in the Pharisees telling him about what he woman did and what the law says. It's just like sitting in a church on Sunday, listening to some old conservative sermon about the sin of abortion, homosexuality and/or women being ordained. We doodle and just turn off our ears. Jesus is very concerned about what is in the hearts of those looking to condemn her. Jesus wants to deliver them from their arrogance and determination to exploit a woman's situation to score points with how they can justify killing Jesus. Not only does Jesus out smart them all, but he also deals with the woman in a compassionate, loving and merciful way. Unlike the Pharisees, Jesus does not exploit the woman, instead he absolves her and shines God's light of love into her life.
Rather than look at this Gospel from the standpoint of sexuality, I think it is better to examine what is in our hearts. One thing this Gospel has right is all of us at one point or another tend to approach other people with not so good intentions. Our human nature says that when things are not quite the way we would like them to be, we can all make use of someone else to get our own way. The old saying goes: "The way to hell is paved with good intentions." We can approach a situation for very good reasons, yet on the inside we can harbor a grudge and seize a moment to get back at someone who has hurt us, and tear them apart. In Minnesota we have the rule of "It isn't Minnesota nice, it's Minnesota ice." If you ask someone: "Are you mad at me?" They will say no to you, but tell everyone else what a butt head they think you are. What are our intentions as we deal with others and their unique situation?
As we continue to watch our President and Congress debate issues like health care, finance reform and the repeal of Don't ask, don't tell are they really seeking the good of the people that have elected them, or are they only interested in pleasing the lobbyists who pay them the huge amounts of money to defend their positions? How are we calling them to be accountable?
A very important question for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people is that as we pursue marriage equality and social justice in a corrupt world, are we keeping our focus on the issues and the necessity for change, or are we all too often fixated on the opinions of people like James Dobson and Pat Robertson? While it is important that we answer their false statements about homosexuality, it is more imperative than ever that we keep our efforts focused on achieving equal rights and helping to educate minds and hearts about LGBT issues. We should double our efforts on telling the truth about LGBT people and especially those of us who are still Christians and pursuing the mission of the Gospel, instead of getting all wound up over the anti-gay rhetoric.
What is our focus today? What is in our hearts as we take on the issues that affect LGBT people? In our relationships do we seek to serve those we interact and are in love with, or do we seek to use them for our own selfishness? Are we seeking God's mercy for those times we fail? Are we willing to accept God's forgiveness and move forward? Or are we still judging ourselves by what others say about us?
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, BCP, Page 216).
No comments:
Post a Comment