But let s start at the beginning. And parents, I apologize for any lunchtime explanations you have to give!

Transcription

1 Well, Did She? John 8: 1-11 Well, did she? Did she go and sin no more? Hardly. Oh, perhaps she did not return to the life she had been leading before the Jerusalem chapter of the Moral Majority dragged her through the streets of the holy city and tossed her in the dust at Jesus feet. But sin no more? No more? But let s start at the beginning. And parents, I apologize for any lunchtime explanations you have to give! The story starts with a woman caught in the act of adultery. And by the way where s the guy? Adultery is a duet, not a solo. Well, anyway, according to the Law of Moses, adultery is a crime punishable by death stoning to be exact. And so these protectors of the public morals cart her off to Jesus. Of course, they really weren t that interested in this woman, other than their chance to exact some powerful judgement. Probably picking up rocks along the way. But to them, this woman was mostly a pawn in their game of spiritual chess with Jesus. If He told them to stone her to death, His reputation for being a friend of sinners was shot. If He told them to release her, He was in violation of the long held code of Moses. Either way, checkmate! But we know what He did. He bent down and wrote with His finger in the dirt. John doesn t say what He wrote, but I like the idea of one scholar who suggested that He was listing the sins of the bloodthirsty crowd around Him. And of course, we know that He told the crowd: Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. Checkmate Jesus, as they drop their stones and walk away. And He turns to the woman, lying there in fear and confusion, and asks: Is there no one left to condemn you? Then neither do I. Go and sin no more. Go and sin no more. And well, did she? But there is a lot more to this story than did she or didn t she? It s important to note that these eleven verses from John are missing from most early Greek manuscripts of the Bible the ones we trust to bring us the truth of the Gospel. Some of the great Greek Church fathers never even mention it. If you look in my Greek version of the New Testament, you ll see that the eighth chapter of John begins at verse 12. If you look in your Bibles, you will likely find this story in parentheses, with a note telling you that the passage was omitted from most Greek texts. But these eleven verses are included in the Latin version of the Bible produced by St. Jerome. Augustine and Ambrose, great Latin Church fathers, mention the story. There is even a record from about 100AD that says something about a woman, caught in many sins, who was brought to Jesus.

2 Now some modern scholars suggest that this story is true, but was omitted from the early manuscripts because it made Jesus sound a little soft on sin. So, you sinned. It s OK. Just try to do better. That would be great news for all of us, wouldn t it? It makes sin sound not too bad at all. Only, that would be cheap grace, and Jesus was never a proponent of cheap grace. Cheap grace. The title of a book written by the great German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Who wrote: Cheap grace is the grace we bestow upon ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance; baptism without church discipline; communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the Cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Powerful words, aren t they? And words with which Jesus would agree. Because He isn t offering this woman cheap grace. No Get out of Jail Free card. Or a spiritual cake baked with a spiritual file in it. No, He did not condemn her. He didn t choose to throw His own stones at her. But when He said, Go and sin no more, He meant it. But in meaning it, there was an unspoken message. Two, actually. The first is that the past is the past. The future is what matters. What she did, she did. What she will do well that s repentance. The contemporary Christian group Mercy Me has a song entitled: Dear Younger Me. And the lyrics include these thoughts: Where do I start? If I could tell you everything that I have learned so far then you could be one step ahead. Do I give some speech about how to get the most out of your life, or do I go deep and try to change the choices that you ll make cuz they re choices that made me. If I knew then what I know now, would ve not been hard to figure out what I would ve changed if I had heard. Well, this woman didn t have the opportunity to write a letter to her younger me. But Jesus was telling her she could let go of the past. Let go of where she had been. Let go of the mistakes she had made. Let go of all of her efforts to live with cheap grace. You know, forgiveness without repentance. And let the lesson she had just learned not teach her younger me, but her me yet to be. Now, it would be great if we could write a letter to our younger me. Let our teenaged or young adult or even middle aged me know what we should know to avoid the mishaps and pitfalls that were on their way. Obviously, we can t. All we can do is tell our me to be what we now know. Take the mistakes by which we have been taught (and isn t it interesting how much more we learn from our mistakes and failures than our successes and accomplishments?) and build a new life. And you can t build a new life, you can t create a better future, by relying on cheap grace. The Cross that offers us a release from the past and bright hopes for tomorrow is the costliest grace ever known. But here s the second message Jesus has for this woman. Somewhere, I think, in His time with her, was this unspoken promise. And it is contained in four words: I will help you.

3 Through me, it is possible to be better. Through me, it is possible to free yourself to be more than you think you are. John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, had a terrible story before he was saved. Most of us know he was a vile, drunken, brutal man; a slave ship captain whose cargo arrived more dead than alive. Then he met Jesus, accepted the Lord s costly grace, and built a new future. But when he wrote his amazing hymn about amazing grace, he included these words that we all know so well: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. A wretch. Well, I guess he could call himself that. He was right on target when he did. Now I know some people who don t like the hymn because they reject the word wretch. I m not a wretch, they say. Oh, I sin, but not that badly. Isn t wretch a pretty vile word to describe myself? Well, yes, but Jesus didn t die for nice sinners, whose sins are acceptable in polite society. He didn t die on the Cross for people whose sins are not really that bad. I once read that a priest said that listening to the confessions of nuns is like being stoned to death with popcorn. But even devout nuns know that, in their hearts, they need the Cross just as much as John Newton did. Yes, we are all wretches, even if polite ones. Only you notice, Jesus didn t treat this adulterous woman like a wretch. The crowd sure did. And He could have. But He knew something something we all should know (and we don t always!) A sinner has it inside him or her to be a saint. Jesus saw the potential in this woman; He saw what she could be if she chose to be. And He stood ready and willing to help her find her potential. Isn t that what He does for ALL of us? Gives us the guidance, the direction, the openness, the hope, the faith to reject the wretches we have been (at least in our own eyes) and become something beautiful. As Bill Gaither wrote: Something beautiful, something good, all my confusion, He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful of my life. Look at how beautiful John Newton became through the power of Jesus Christ. A prolific hymn writer (over 280), the rector of an Anglican church for more than two decades, and the man who influenced William Wilberforce, a member of the British Parliament, to take the lead in ending the slave trade in England. Not bad for a wretch, was it? And what might we do, wretches as we are, if we allow Jesus Christ, and His oh so costly grace to have free rein in our lives? You know, among John Newton s other hymns is: Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, in which he rejoices that he is a member by grace of the eternal church, disregarding the world s derision or pity, embracing the solid joys and lasting treasures only God s people know. Or as Dietrich Bonhoeffer concluded in his words: Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of the church. We are fighting today for costly grace. And as that was true when he wrote those words in 1937, it is just as true in 2019! For it is costly grace that turns wretches into servants of God, ready to build a new world. Franz Schubert s most famous work is Symphony Number 8 in B Minor. It s famous because he only wrote two movements, even though he lived another six years after writing them. It s known, of course, as the Unfinished Symphony. Somehow, he just never got around to completing it.

4 Well, the story of this adulterous woman is unfinished, too. Yes, we can be confident that she did sin again. Don t we all? But did she turn her life around as best as she could? Did she repent and confess her sins and seek forgiveness? Did she embrace the costly grace Jesus offered her? Did she step up to the challenge Jesus placed before her and do her best to fulfill the potential He saw in her? Was she one of the women who followed Him? Was she among those who wept on the Via Dolorosa as Jesus carried His Cross? Might she have been one of those who stood on the hill called Golgotha? Did she tell someone, anyone (like perhaps her lover who might have been surprised at her return) that there was a new life offered to her? And him? And everyone? Or did she settle for cheap grace? The kind with few, if any, strings attached? Her story is unfinished, at least as far as we know. So is ours. We are still writing it, composing it, choreographing it. So is, in fact, the story of our church. Well, did she? We will never know. But did I? Did you? Did we? Cheap grace or costly grace? Which shall it be?

5 Worship March 10, 2019 Call: litany Assurance: Litany Children s Message: Heifer fund certificate Prayer: Lord God of grace, turn us around. Let us see before us the light that shines in all of our darkness. Let us hear the clarion call of Your trumpet that will lead us in Your way. Let us feel Your presence, even as You lead us in ways unfamiliar. Let us know Your will that challenges us to fulfill the potential You see in us. And let us live, not by cheap grace, but by the grace that cost Jesus His life on the Cross. For we know that cheap grace only leaves us on Calvary; costly grace shines forth from an empty tomb. Needs, etc. Sing Lord s Prayer

6 Let us carry each other s burdens, for that is the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2