Day 11 - Beyond "change or else!"

Living Christ Sangha - Advent Ango Practice Period

“Love is the Message” @ the NYC AIDS Memorial. Greenwich Village, NYC.

Readings

Isaiah 6:1-13
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
John 7:53-8:11

Reflection

What concerns are expressed here?

Isaiah describes the majesty of God, the preparation of an unfit prophet for the task of speaking for God, and the planned total destruction of the kingdom of Judah due to the hardness of the people’s hearts. The reading from 2 Thessalonians describes the steadfastness of the faithful at Thessaloniki in spite of persecution, and the coming judgment upon those who persecute them. The reading from John is the story of the woman caught in adultery, whom the scribes and Pharisees bring to Jesus to try and trap him by forcing him to either violate the Levitical code that prescribes death for such an offense (Lev. 20:10) or to condemn her to death. This is the source of the famous passage “let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” The accusers leave in shame, and the woman leaves uncondemned and unharmed.

What struck me about these readings is that their message gets more palatable as you read through them. We start with a prophecy of utter destruction (Isaiah), move to prophesying punishment of the persecutors (2 Thessalonians), and conclude with a teaching about our participation in a shared brokenness which isn’t condemned by Jesus (John). A deep progression lies within the readings, which is the move from prophecy to grace as the catalyst for change.

We need to understand what prophecy really is. Popular understanding sees prophecy as the act of predicting the future. This isn’t what the prophets were really up to. They weren’t fortune tellers trying to predict the future; they were keen observers who interpreted and tried to change the present. Sometimes it worked, such as in Jeremiah 26:18-19 which describes how Micah prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem to King Hezekiah, who then repented and begged God to spare the city. The city was indeed spared. In this case, the prophecy accomplished its intended purpose, even though the destruction it foretold did not come to pass.

Prophecy requires clarity about what is really happening. It takes this clear seeing, and infers what fruits will result from the current situation. It is typically delivered as a warning that says, “If you continue on the path you are on, the outcome will be disaster,” and it delivers this warning with the aim of convincing the hearers to not continue on the path they are on. Isaiah and Paul both deliver an explicit prophetic message, which is essentially that if the people don’t change, they will be condemned.

The reading from John is very different. In it, the religious authorities, who were experts in the law, brought a woman to Jesus who had clearly violated a serious prohibition, and the penalty of this violation was death. As the result of a series of extraordinary (non)actions, this penalty is abandoned by all on the scene.

Upon having the charges presented to him, Jesus bends down and writes upon the ground with his finger. My impression of this unusual detail in the text is that he is unwilling to add to the painful shame already being felt by the accused woman. He gets close to the ground, and doesn’t look at her. When pressed to render a verdict, he unveils the self-righteousness and bad faith of the woman’s accusers. He does this by inviting anyone among them to claim true righteousness and cast the first stone. He then returns to writing on the ground. With shame now resting on the woman’s accusers, one-by-one they slink away, leaving only the woman and Jesus on the scene. He then redeems the shameful situation by noting that no one has condemned her, including himself. Finally, he makes the request for change: go and do not sin again.

What is requested of us?

The prophetic formula is “You are being unfaithful, you must change or else...” An external threat is the catalyst for change. The formula of Jesus toward the woman caught in adultery is “You are being unfaithful, there is no ‘or else’, so change.” Jesus is merciful, and his mercy is the catalyst for change.

We are called to both imitate him in his mercy and to obey his call to change. We are to imitate him in his ability to name harmful behaviors while remaining unwilling to condemn those committing the behaviors. In Matthew 7:1-3 he makes this explicit, saying, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. ² For the judgment you give will be the judgment you get, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. ³ Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye?”

We are also called to recognize when we have strayed and erred in thought, word, or action, and return to the path of love that he calls us to walk. We do this not because we have been caught and there will be hell to pay, but because we have received the Spirit of Love and our heart’s desire is to live in the light of that love.

Where is the hope?

We would see something amazing if a significant number of us engaged the twin practices of (1) neither judging nor condemning others, and (2) seeking to repair our own errors as soon as we become aware of them. It would lead to a world grounded in mercy and forgiveness, rather than judgment, contention, and strife. We could move beyond always striving to be right and righteous (which none of us can do anyway) to being loving and merciful.

Prayer

Merciful God, we thank you for the love and mercy in which you do not condemn us for our mistakes. Pour this love and mercy into our hearts so that we may share it with others, and send us your Spirit to guide us to return to your ways when we have strayed. Amen.