Fifth Sunday of Lent

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

Isaiah calls the people away from inordinate dependence on the past, a dependence that prevented them from seeing the astonishing new thing that God was accomplishing before their very eyes. The new thing is a new creation, a new reality so overwhelming that the people could never have imagined it by themselves. Surely the God who was victorious in the primordial battle, and who created the magnificently ordered universe out of its wreckage, can create some

thing new from a people who had recently been released from the control of their conquerors. This is the promise of salvation proclaimed by the prophet. Paul contrasts his relationship with Christ with the life he led and the values he championed before his conversion. Now he wants to be made righteous through union with Christ, and to share in Christ’s sufferings in order to attain resurrection from the dead. He knows that profession of faith in Christ does not automatically transport one into a higher realm of being, which is what the Christians known as Gnostics seem to have claimed. It is only by taking on the day-to-day struggle with life in a way that conforms to the example set by Christ that this identification is possible.

The narrative of the woman caught in the act of adultery is really a story of conflict between Jesus and some of the religious authorities of his time. If Jesus said she should be stoned as the law required, he would be appropriating to himself the right to pass a death sentence, a right that belonged to the Romans alone. He would also be acting against his own teachings on mercy and compassion, and he would probably alienate those in the community who already opposed this particular death sentence. If he forgave the guilty woman, he would be disregarding the legitimate sentence under Israel’s law, and he would probably alienate those who interpreted the law more literally. Ultimately, Jesus exhorts the woman to sin no more. Compassion and mercy have won out.

Dec 10 2024

Circling for the Kill

I drove past an intersection where a group of crows were picking at a carcass on the road. It reminded me of the scribes and Pharisees, hovering around the woman caught in adultery. She was dead meat to them, bait, used to test Jesus.

Who was she? What was her life like, such that she was willing to risk death by seeking comfort in another man’s bed? We don’t know. Jesus didn’t fall for the test. We don’t know what he wrote in the sand, but somehow he reframed the story. How? Maybe a clue comes in how often this reading uses the word “one.”

Jesus singled the “crows” out, one by one, and challenged them: Who will be the first to throw a stone? You? Or you? Or you? One by one, they went away, beginning with the eldest.

Jesus didn’t treat the woman as carrion—he saw her. He straightened from the ground. He looked her in the eye and asked, “Has no one condemned you?” “No one,” she said.

Judgment changes when it sees “the one.” Jesus shifted the condemnation of the group to the mercy extended to “the one.”

Have you ever judged someone and then later you heard their whole story? It sets you back with an “Oh” and an “Oops.” Accurate understanding is the first step in right judgment. This is the key to God’s mercy—God knows our story, inside and out. You and I, we are not a part of a crowd; each of us is “one,” unique in God’s eyes. We matter to God.

This unnamed woman mattered. Jesus scraped her off the road and brought her back to life, to set her on a new path. He delivered her from death.

Perhaps she then began to sing, “The Lord has done great things for me—I am filled with joy!”

Consider/Discuss

Have you ever wondered about the youngest “crow,” the Pharisee who left last? Did he consider himself righteous and without sin? Did he walk away still hefting a rock in his left hand? As we move toward Holy Week, what are you and I not seeing? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you where your heart is still hardened. Is there one for whom you still hold a rock in your hand? How could you retell that person’s story as “one” whom Jesus loves? And then forgive, in this week before Easter?
Two thousand years later, there are people who are still dismissed as dead meat. Why is there hardness of heart in cultures, in families, in governments, and in places of employment? What can you and I do to help the unseen be seen, to foster justice, to help the “whole story” to be told?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, you know each of our stories. You know our whole story. Help us to see that each person we meet is your unique “one.” A baby born in a refugee camp in Syria is precious in your eyes. A starving girl in South Sudan is “one” to you. A heroin addict living in a doorway in downtown Detroit is irreplaceable in your vision. You call us to become like you; we are never done learning to see as you see. Show us how to be “one” who can help.

Dec 10 2024

Scripture Study for

This portion of Isaiah stems from the late exilic period and points toward God’s imminent deliverance of Israel from exile, returning them to the land promised to their ancestors. The return from exile thus represents a new Exodus. Isaiah makes this clear by drawing on images from the original Exodus. Note the present tense of the verbs: God “opens a way in the sea” and “leads out chariots and horsemen.” The past is not simply the past, but an expression of what God habitually does. Every new act of deliverance is simply an extension of the Exodus, such that that original act of deliverance is not “an event of the past,” but the beginning of God’s unending providential care.

This week’s reading from Philippians is the prelude to the reading from the second week of Lent. Paul is recounting his own move from seeking righteousness by conformity to the Law to receiving righteousness (justification as a prerequisite for salvation) from conformity to Christ, especially to his death. For following Christ requires one to give up many things, including the desire to ensure our own righteousness through observance of the Law. Paul knows that having faith that Christ accomplishes what we cannot feels risky. Accordingly, the life of faith is never finally finished in this life but must be continually renewed and strengthened as Paul (and his audience) continuously and strenuously strive toward conformity with Christ, which is perfect maturity and “God’s upward calling.”

As with last week’s story of the prodigal son, this week’s Gospel from John highlights the priority God places on mercy rather than condemnation, while nevertheless refusing to ignore or condone sin. As we find over and over in the Old Testament, God does not seek the death of sinners, but that they repent and live (Ezekiel 18:23). The scribes and Pharisees, trying to trap Jesus into denying the Law, want to know what Jesus thinks of the command to stone the woman caught in adultery. Rather than answer directly, Jesus reminds each of them that they are none of them without sin (and possibly deserving of the same punishment). Which of them is in a position to condemn her? Even though Jesus is in such a position, he refuses to do so, giving her another chance while exhorting her not to make the same mistake again.