Repentance: A Step Toward a Desire to Embrace an Enemy
(John 8.1-8)
A reflection by Dave Shull
Spirit of Peace United Church of Christ
Sammamish, WA.
The 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time: October 2, 2011.
The second in a series of reflections on the characteristics of a community that takes its shape from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount
Jesus talked about it more than anything else. It goes by a lot of different names. The Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Heaven. The realm of God. God’s new world. The world God dreams of. Jesus came to make this world real. And to gather a community of people to walk with him and make it real. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is the summary of how we live if we want to be a Jesus community walking the Jesus way of peace. God’s new world is where we’re walking together over these next months.
Last week I talked about Miroslav Volf, who teaches and talks a lot about God. He’s from Croatia. Many people he loves were killed during the Balkan Wars in the 1990s. Volf asks, Do you want to be people who follow Jesus on the path toward peace? Then you must help each other nurture a desire to embrace an enemy. He says wanting to embrace one has deeply hurt you is the only sure path toward peace (Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation, Abingdon Press, 1996, p. 126).
I ended last week’s reflection by telling a true story about a South African mother who does just that. She stands in front of a room full of people. Behind a table in that room sits the white police officer who murdered her son. She tells him and everyone else in the room about her son. And what her life has been like since he was murdered. Then she walks over to where the police officer is sitting, looks him in the eye, and says “Your name means blessing. The world needs you to be a blessing. To do that, you need a mother.” Then she opens her arms wide to him and said, “Come here” (story told by South African Methodist Bishop Peter Storey in 2005).
That’s where I left things last week.
Today, and for the next three weeks, I want to look at what steps we can take that might help us imagine doing what this mother did. It may seem impossible and utterly outrageous. And that is what people who follow Jesus on the way of God’s new world do.
The four different actions I’m talking about over the next four weeks grow out of the work of Miroslav Volf. As a person of deep Christian faith, he is trying to take these steps. So one day he might be able to embrace just one of the many Serbian soldiers who killed those in Croatia he loved.
The step toward the impossible and outrageous I’d like to explore today is repentance.
I don’t use that word very often. When I do repent, what I think I’m doing is saying, “I’m really sorry I did that. I’ll try not to do it again.”
But that’s not even close to what Jesus means by repentance. To repent in the Jesus way means to turn around and go a totally different path (Volf, p. 113). We know we can’t change ourselves. So we throw ourselves into God’s arms. We ask our community to walk with us on this new road. because we know we can’t change ourselves. When we truly repent, people see that we’re doing life differently.
If I truly want to repent, the first step I take is to stop pointing my finger at someone or something else. And stop trying to justify my sin by saying it’s all because of what those awful people did to me. To truly repent, the only person I can point to is me. The only actions I can talk about are mine. The only sin I can admit to are those times I have chosen not to do what is loving.
To repent means I refuse to pass judgment on anyone else. And I look only at myself. I think that’s what this morning’s reading from the Gospel of John is all about. Listen for a Word from God.
Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again.
Swarms of people came to him.
He sat down and taught them.
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 and said,
"Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?"
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. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said,
"The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone." Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt. Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. "Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?"
“No one, Master."
"Neither do I," said Jesus. "Go on your way. From now on, don't sin."
(John 8.1-11, The Message ReMix © 2003 Eugene Peterson)
In one hand, they’re holding a stone. With the other, they’re pointing their fingers of judgment at this woman. They’re so sure they’re right. They’re so sure God loves them more than God loves her. They’ so sure that in stoning her, they’re doing God’s will. And they also know they can trap this Jesus who is so soft when it comes to enforcing God’s law. It’s a slam-dunk. What a great day….
And what does Jesus do? He draws pi pictures in the dirt. Maybe he’s just stalling for time. Maybe he’s kind of kinesthetic, and doodling helps him focus his thoughts. Maybe he’s thinking, It takes two to commit adultery…so where’s the guy? And then he does what he always does when he encounters people who love being self-righteous and so sure God’s on their side. He says a couple of words. Or tells a story. And he invites them into God’s new world. He asks them to leave the world of self-righteousness and arrogance and judgment and violence and I’m better than you. And to step into God’s new world. He says, “Don’t you want to come and play over here for a while? This is where you’ll find the love you seek. This is where you’ll find the healing you need. This is where you’ll find joy.
In this story, his invitation to God’s new world goes like this: The sinless one among you, go first.
Why did they all leave? The story doesn’t tell us. Maybe it’s because they all know each other so well. So if one guy throws the stone, everyone else will look at him and yell, “Wait a minute! You’re calling yourself sinless? Who are you trying to kid? What about the time you...? And what about that time you…?” And maybe Jesus’ words forced them to look at the finger that was pointing at the woman. And they saw the other four fingers pointing back at them. And they thought about all the times they’d refused to show love. All the things they felt ashamed of. And when they realized that, all they could do was drop their stone. And walk away.
We can only guess why they do it. All we know is every single one drops his stone. And walks away. For once love wins.
One of my favorite members of Recovery Café is a man I’ll call Bill. He’s in his early 60s. He served time in prison for committing a sexual crime against a friend his high school-age daughter had at the house for a sleepover. Bill served his sentence. He has followed every requirement of his parole. Whenever a school group comes into the Café to do community service, he has to leave. He knows that and he does it. He deeply regrets what he did. He doesn’t blame anybody else. He has paid the price society demands. As a result of what he did, he lost his marriage, his family, and his job. He lives in his truck. He knows he deeply, deeply wounded this girl. And he doesn’t want pity. He wants a job.
Bill is a skilled machinist. He’s been looking for work for two years. He was really hopeful about an interview he had this past Tuesday. I sat down to have a cup of coffee with him on Thursday. He told me it was the same story. Everything was going great. He passed the tests they put him through. Then the person interviewing him asked, “Do you have any felonies?” He said yes. And said what it was. And that was the end of the interview. “I like you a lot,” the interviewer said. “But we’re a family-run business. We don’t hire felons.” And for at least the tenth time since I’ve known him, Bill was judged. He can understand why the interviewer threw the stone. Because Bill knows most people believe what he did means doesn’t deserve anything better.
But in God’s new world, everyone is better than their worst act. In God’s new world, we never point fingers first. In God’s new world, we always take the time to try to get to know someone we have no desire to know. In God’s new world, we drop the finger that points in judgments. So for once love can win.
The sinless one among you, go first. Throw a stone.
Amen.
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