Sermon:
October 19, 2003
Sunday Night Alive!  

Scripture:
John 8:1-12

Stones. We’ve all got them. Some of them we know so well, we can call them by name. They have names like bitterness—we’ve been carrying that one ever since that girl we once dated scorned us. Then there is that stone called jealousy—we carry that one because that guy got paid more or got more recognition than we did. Then there’s that stone named revenge—from that time when we were humiliated or disrespected. How about that stone named anger—the one we picked when he walked out, or when the doctor gave the diagnosis, or when we got that pink slip. We carry stones ready to throw when the bitterness, hate, jealousy, disappointment or desire for revenge becomes so strong, we’re not so sure how to respond. We know some of these stones so well, we know them by name. 

But some stones don’t just have names, they have names on them. These stones have names on them of people or groups. We believe if those people or groups weren’t around…well…things around here would be better.  If old “what’s his name” would just quit, then things at work would be so much better. If it wasn’t for the Democrats (or the Republicans), then maybe this country wouldn’t be headed where it is in that hand basket. And the church…well, we all have a stone for that one group (you know that one group). If it wasn’t for “them,” then the church would really be able to have an impact in the world. If it wasn’t for “them,” the church would be just as the good Lord intended it to be, wouldn’t it?  

Who is “them,” anyway? Well, it depends on who the “us” is. So depending on who “we” are when we are wishing that “they” would just disappear, “they” are the liberals or conservatives, the evangelicals or the pluralists, those who take the Bible as literal or those who take it as more figurative. No matter who “they” are, we all probably have a stone somewhere with their name on it.           

Stones to throw. Most of us carry them around with us wherever we go. Some of the stones have specific names on them, even a face. The names on other stones may not be so specific. Oh, but the feeling is just as strong—maybe stronger. They are the stones we want to hurl at groups (“Those lousy so and so’s. I wish I had a stone for every one of them.”). And then there are those bad days when you just want to throw stones at the world. You don’t care who they hit. In fact, they’re meant for anyone who gets in the way. 

The stones we hold also have a hold on us. These stones we carry…we clench them. We grip them tight. Sometimes we clutch them in our hands as if they are treasures. Sometimes we sit there, weighted down by the stones we carry. We fumble around with all our stones as if we couldn’t do without them, as if in giving them up…even just some of them…we might lose our very selves. What are we to do with all these stones?

Our scripture has something to say to those of us who have stones to throw. It first suggests that stone throwing is rarely about what the stone thrower says it’s about in the first place. In verse 5, the Pharisees and scribes chide Jesus, saying, “What have you got to say?” Then the scriptures alert us readers by saying in verse 6 that “they [the scribes and Pharisees] asked him this as a test, looking for an accusation to bring against him.” Right there it tells us what is about to take place is not as it appears.

You see, for our stone throwers, this whole episode is not really about the woman. It’s not really about adultery. It’s not about sin (not hers, at least). It is about Jesus. For these religious leaders, Jesus is quickly becoming too popular. He is rocking the boat. He is challenging the status quo. He is disturbing people’s sense of who is in charge of power, challenging their very understanding of who God is and whose God is. These scribes and Pharisees want to be the ones who will decide who is in and who is out, so they do not appreciate this itinerant preacher from Nazareth who is walking around telling sinners, prostitutes, women, foreigners and tax collectors that there is a place for them in God’s kingdom. It isn’t Jesus’ call to make, anyway. Who did he think he was? God?

They are setting him up, hoping to embarrass him by putting him in a position to publicly have to choose between the Law of Moses and the law of Rome. There was a lot at stake in how Jesus answered that question: “What have you got to say?” We know from other portions of the scripture that, at the time of Jesus, Jews no longer had the power to sentence someone to capital punishment. It was Rome that was the law of the land. So if Jesus responds that the woman should be stoned, then the Pharisees and scribes could accuse him of trying to usurp Roman power. They could brand him a “political agitator,” a rabble-rouser, forcing the Roman authorities to deal with him and the movement he was creating. On the other hand, if Jesus responds that the woman is to be spared, then he is in direct conflict with the Law of Moses and could be branded as a blasphemer and a heretic, destroying any credibility he would have with the Jewish people he was beginning his movement among. They were sure they had him this time.

Stone throwing is never about what it appears to be about. The men don’t care about this woman’s “crime.” They don’t care about her at all. They are using her for another purpose all together. They just want to catch Jesus—trip him up, make him look foolish—and they don’t care who gets caught up in their agenda. There was no consideration of the human cost to their scheme. As is often the case, stone throwers are more than willing to stone someone right on the spot in order to prove their point.

In this episode, Jesus exposes the truth about stone throwing. It is never really about what it appears to be about in the first place. Stone throwing has so much more to do with those who throw the stone than it has to do with those whom the stone is aimed at. We discover that stone throwing is seldom about God’s righteousness, as much as it is about self-righteousness.

Eventually, Jesus exposes that same truth about the stones we carry. He helps us discover that our stones have more to do with us than anything they are aimed at. Jesus helps us to understand that the stones we carry have to do with our own deep-seated anger and hurts. The stones we carry are our struggles with feeling powerless or out of control. This story makes us admit that there are times when we’d much rather throw stones, blame others, and even hurt others than be honest with ourselves about why we are carrying the stones in the first place. Stone throwing is never about what it appears to be about. 

Our scripture tonight exposes stone throwing in another way. This story makes it clear that in order to stone someone, you can no longer see them as a human. You certainly cannot see them as a child of God. To the Pharisees and scribes, this woman is not fully human. She is not deserving of equal treatment, not worthy of dignity or respect—and not because of her crime or because of her sin, but because of her gender. In the first century Palestinian world, women were not considered fully human. They were non-persons. They were the property of their fathers or husbands. Marriage wasn’t something that came from romance or love, but was more or less a business deal. If love could be found (as I am sure it sometimes was), it was a fringe benefit, but not the primary concern. Marriage was about consolidating property, shoring up tribal or clan alliances, and producing male heirs to keep lineage, property and bank accounts in the proper hands. 

Unlike our contemporary world, in Jesus’ time, adultery wasn’t a major concern because of how it messed with the human heart. In the first century world, adultery was a considered a crime because of how it messed with the economic dealings of the day. A woman caught in adultery was damaged goods, no longer able to perform her economic function, no longer needed, good for nothing. Might as well just kill her. 

This helps us understand what’s at stake for the woman in our story. She is given no name. She has no voice, no story. There is no concern for the social or religious circumstances that have put her in this position. She has no identity apart from which she stands accused (and nobody wants their entire identity to be determined by a private moment that suddenly ends up in the public eye). For the stone throwers, she is nobody’s daughter, nobody’s sister, nobody’s mother. She is a nobody in the eyes of God. She is only known to them, and too often to us, as the woman caught in adultery. And as long as the Pharisees and scribes have their stones, then they believe they have the power to see her as they want. The stone always makes her different, makes her the object of their scorn and ridicule. The stone will always keep them separate, will always allow them to be blind to who she really is, who they really are and to what is really going on. As long as people can be seen as less than human, it just doesn’t matter what happens to them.  

So that is why what Jesus says to these stone throwers is so radical. It stops them right in their tracks. “Let the one who is without sin throw the first stone…” In saying those words, Jesus asks everyone watching to stand with her in that moment. In those words, Jesus helps these men connect with this woman at the only place they can, the only place that each and every one of us (no matter our race, gender, color or creed) are able to connect with each other. That place is our brokenness.  

By standing with this woman, Jesus de-objectifies her. He forces them to be honest about their real motives, forces them to see her as human, forces them to see themselves as human. And in that moment of connection, suddenly, one by one, the stones begin to fall to the ground and the accusers walk away. 

That is what happened in tonight’s drama, isn’t it? The moment that we realize who the “lousy-no-good-drunken-idiot” is, everything changes. The moment we hear his story, everything changes. And just as the young man in that drama is given another chance to live life differently, so are we. 

See, that’s the thing about a world of stone throwers. Eventually everybody must get stoned.  Because just as I might be carrying around a stone that is intended for somebody—some group, some party, some religion, some race, some nation, some category—I then have to realize that somebody somewhere is walking around with a stone they have aimed and ready to throw at some group, some party, some religion, some race, some nation, some category that represents me. That’s what happens in a world of stone throwers. Sooner or later, everybody must get stoned. 

But Jesus offers us a way out of this cycle of stone throwing. Everyone in the story is offered an opportunity to live life differently. The woman is invited to participate in a new future for herself that will allow her to live not as a condemned woman, but as a freed person. And the scribes and Pharisees are invited to give up the categories by which they have defined and attempted to control life. Jesus’ famous last line from this story is, “Go and sin no more… Go live your life differently.” It is not just spoken to the accused, but to the accusers. It is proclaimed to the woman as well as to the rock throwers. It is proclaimed to all who have ears to hear. “Go and sin no more. Drop the stones. See yourself and each other as children of God… Go and live your life differently.” 

“Come on, it’s not that simple, is it? What am I supposed to do with these stones I am carrying around? What am I supposed to do with all this bitterness and jealousy? It’s hard to change, hard to let go. These stones have become so much of who I am. I know them and they know me. I am not proud of it. It’s just the way that I am, and for some reason, it seems so much safer to cling to my stones than to let them go and trust an unknown future.” 

So what happens when we drop those stones? What kind of life lies ahead for us? I don’t know all the details, but let me suggest two things. First, when we drop those stones we are carrying—when we leave behind the jealousy, bitterness, anger and hate from the past—our load becomes a lot lighter. 

Second, when we drop those stones we are carrying, the clenched hands that have held tight to those stones—held tight to the pain, clenched in anger and pain—suddenly become open. Open and ready to receive God’s grace, God’s healing, God’s mercy.

So what are we supposed to do with these stones we are carrying around? I guess what the story says: “Go away and sin no more.”