3rd Passiontide 2022, In Death Life Begins

 3^rd Passiontide

John 8:1-12 

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but as soon as day dawned, he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now, what do you say?" They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him. 

Ninetta Sombart

But Jesus bent down and started to write
something into the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, "Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her." And again, he bent down and wrote into the earth. 

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, starting with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?" 

"No one, sir," she said. 

Then Jesus declared, "Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin." 

And Jesus began to speak to them again: "I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light in which there is life."

 3^rd Passiontide Sunday

April 3, 2022

John 8:1-12 

The light and warmth of the sun can be absorbed or reflected. A dark object absorbs the warmth. A light, polished surface stays cooler because it mirrors light back. 

Our minds and hearts can also absorb or reflect. We can listen, absorb, take in. When what we take in enters not just our minds but our hearts, they can become warm. In so doing, we ourselves are likely to be transformed. The genius of the language says that our hearts melt. 

And we can also listen and reflect back. Usually, we reflect back our own soul's reaction. We reflect our ego's rush to judgment. An immediate judgment may be a kind of self-protection coming from the soul's defensive armoring. Being too quick to deflect with our thinking, we bypass absorbing into our heart what is said and possibly being transformed. 

Deborah Harris

In this gospel reading, Christ shows Himself to be someone whose heart and mind work together in a healing way. He does not reflexively reject the woman because she broke the law. He takes her into His great heart, the warmth of His broad understanding of the ways of human behavior, of social interaction, of karma. He then reflects back to her not judgment but rather gives her the strength of His warm understanding and His encouragement to do better. He absorbs her life into His. He carries her in the light of His life. 

The poet Nelly Sachs wrote, 

How long have we forgotten to listen!

He planted us once to listen

Like lyme grass by the eternal sea ....

Although we have business

that leads us far

From his light….

We must not sell our ears….

Press, oh press in the day of destruction

The listening ear to the earth,

And you will hear, through your sleep,

You will hear,

How in death

Life begins.* 

The deeds of each one of us are written into the earth. But the earth has become Christ's body. He absorbs all of our deeds. He carries us in His great heart. He gives us the encouragement and the strength to do better so that we can walk in the light of His life. 

 www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

*Nelly Sachs (1891-1970), “How Long Have We Forgotten to Listen!” in Women in Praise of the Sacred, Jane Hirschfield. 

3rd Passiontide 2021, Writing the Story

3^rd Passiontide

John 8:1-12

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives,

Cranach the Elder

but as soon as day dawned, he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now, what do you say?" They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write something into the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, "Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her." And again, he bent down and wrote into the earth.

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, starting with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?"

"No one, sir," she said.

Then Jesus declared, "Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin."

And Jesus began to speak to them again: "I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light in which there is life."

3^rd Passiontide

March 21, 2021

John 8:1-12

If one were to go to the shore and write 'I love you' in the sand, the waves would wash the letters away. The words would disappear. But their meaning, the love itself, would still exist.

Our deeds are the letters we write into the earth. Whether public or secret, they may seem to disappear. But their meaning remains.

A modern poet writes:

         …it's wrong to think people are a thing apart

from the whole, as if we'd sprung

from an idea out in space, rather than emerging

 

from the sequenced larval mess of creation

that binds us with the others,

all playing the endgame of a beautiful planet….*

Ninetta Sombart

Jesus bent down and started to write something
into the earth. The Gospel doesn't say what He wrote. But it certainly had something to do with deeds and their meaning for the earth.

Christ's whole life, His death, and His resurrection have inscribed their meaning permanently into the earth. And their sense still speaks: I love you, He says. I recognize your deeds. And I love you. Let my love for you shine before you. Let My love give you the strength for acts of integrity and worth, for we are writing the earth's story together.

 

---

* Alison Hawthorne Deming, “The Enigma We Answer by Living” in Genius Loci

 For more resources, go to click here.

3rd Passiontide II, 2020, Containing Damage

Rembrandt

3rd Passiontide
John 8:1-12

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but as soon as day dawned, he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle, and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now, what do you say?” They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write something into the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, “Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her.” And again, he bent down and wrote into the earth.
 

Dore

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, beginning with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

Then Jesus declared, “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”

And Jesus began to speak to them again: “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light in which there is life.”

3^rd Passiontide
March 31, 2020
John 8, 1-12

A fruit-bearing tree goes through its stages. When the fruit is green, it may drop. When fruit is ripe, it will drop. When overripe, the fruit drops and spoils. We do not blame the tree for dropping its fruit. We do not pass judgment or punish the tree because of its overripe fruit spoils. The tree is bound to follow the natural course of events.
 

In a certain sense, our deeds exist in a kind of hidden natural realm, a realm that has its own lawfulness. Our sins, our errors, our failures are a bit like fruit. Some of them come from our greenness, our immaturity. Some of them come from our over-ripeness. It is as useless to pass judgment and dole out punishment as it is to stone a tree that has dropped its fruit. Punishment doesn’t change anything. What is needed is understanding, a kind of wisdom, and a desire to help.

When we understand where someone’s ‘sins’ come from, including our own; when we understand how the state of their inner nature, their weakness or misguided errors, led them to do what they did, then we can begin to let go of the need to accuse. We can let go of our demand for retribution. For just as fallen fruit contains a seed within it, so does our deed. The deed itself will, in time, call forth its own compensation.

All of our deeds, good and bad, contain within them the seed of their required compensation, the seed of their karmic balancing. Like the elders in the gospel story, we are not required to be the enforcers of others’ karma. The universe, as God created it will do that.

Our

Mariusz Lewandowski

deeds fall with their seeds literally into the earth itself. The earth is Christ’s body. He takes into Himself our fallen fruit, green, ripe, overripe. The great law of the universe says that all deeds call forth their compensation. So Christ does not, cannot remove the necessity of our compensating for our deeds in the future. But by taking on our sins, our propensity for evil driven by weakness, Christ sees to it that the damage to the earth and to ourselves is contained. He sees to it that we never lose the power to continue to grow and bear fruit, good fruit, no matter how rotten the things we have done.

A truly Christ-inspired attitude toward the sinner (ourselves included) is not to play judge and executioner, but rather to understand.  We need to understand that we all are flawed. We need to understand that the universe will provide the opportunity for balancing the deed in the future; to understand that it is far more helpful to work to overcome the causes of failures, errors, weaknesses in myself, for the sake of others. It is essential to strengthen myself and others through Christ so that like the woman in the Gospel, we can walk forward into the future in Christ’s light.
 
www.thechristiancommunity.org

3rd Passiontide 2020, Time of Suffering

Rembrandt

3rd Passiontide
John 8: 1-12

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but as soon as day dawned, he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle, and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now, what do you say?” They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write something into the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, “Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her.” And again, he bent down and wrote into the earth.

Breugel

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, beginning with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

Then Jesus declared, “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”

And Jesus began to speak to them again: “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light in which there is life.”

3^rd Passiontide
March 29, 2020
John 8: 1-12

If someone adds something to food or drink to thin it out or to poison it, we say that it has been adulterated. It has been watered down or made harmful.

Over millennia, humanity's soul has been adulterated. The forces of humankind's adversary have inserted the thorn of evil, the sting into our hearts. It is a wound.

Bradi Barth

Because of this wounding, we have become weak. We are both 'watered down,' not fully potent, and at the same time capable of harm.

Christ came to the earth to experience what it is like being a human being in a body of flesh. He knows in depth the underlying human condition of weakness. And its capacity for evil. Yet in His empathy and compassion, He does not judge us. Instead, He seeks to give us strength, to heal us, to raise us.

Given the current world situation, we may now feel contracted in grief. Now is our time of suffering. Yet, like the woman in the gospel reading, we must realize that collectively we have brought this on ourselves. We all have succumbed at some point to self-centered desires and lack of compassion. However innocently, we have all contributed to evil.

And yet, as always, Christ stands in our midst, offering strength and healing to our souls and spirits. He gives us the opportunity to move beyond the self-centered desires, the restless pleasure-seeking, the judgmental anger, and self-pity. We have been adulterated. He offers us the strength to change our ways, become our better selves. Keep going, He says. Separate yourselves no longer from a right relationship to Me, to others, to the world.

In the words of the poet, we may say to Him:

My heart is so small

Fra Angelico

it's almost invisible.
How can You place
such big sorrows in it?

Yet He answers:

"Look, … your eyes are even smaller,
yet they behold the world."*

Eventually, with Him, we will rise and expand.
 
* Rumi, in Whispers of the Beloved, by Maryam & Azima Melita Kolin

www.thechristiancommunity.org

3rd Passiontide 2019, Soul Deaf

Giusto

3^rd Passiontide

John 8:46-59 (adapted from Madsen)

[Jesus said,] Who among you convicts me of error? Why do you not trust in me, since I am proclaiming the true existence to you? Whoever is of God receives the words of God. The reason why you do not receive them is that you are not of God.

 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and are possessed by a demon?”  Jesus answered, “I have no demon within me. Nothing but reverence for the Father lives in me; but you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who wills it and he will be the judge.  Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever keeps my word in his heart is free of the sight of death through all earthly time.”  

The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you are possessed by a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets; and you say, ‘If any one keeps my word, he will never taste death for all time.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets who also died? Who do you think you are?”  

Abraham's Vision, Tissot

Jesus answered, “If it were my own aim to reveal my being, such a revelation would be worthless. But it is my Father who reveals me, and although you call him ‘our God’, you do not know him.  But I know him. If I said, I do not know him, I would be deceived as you are; but I do know him, and I bear the power of his word within me.  Your father Abraham rejoiced that it was granted to him to see the coming down of my being; he saw it and was filled with joy.”  

The Jews then said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”  Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, from before the days Abraham was born, I existed as the I AM.”  So they took up stones to hurl at him; but Jesus was concealed from them and left the temple.

3^rd Passiontide

April 7, 2019

John 8: 46-59

As we get older, we may begin to lose our hearing. As the high tones disappear, we start to miss parts of words. If a key word fails, we may miss the meaning of the whole sentence. As the loss progresses, we may eventually become stone deaf, unaware that someone is speaking to us at all.

Our souls can go deaf too. At first, we miss little things. Indeed we are often unaware that we are missing anything at all, for the noise of living glosses it over. Gradually our souls and spirits become ‘hearing-impaired.’ We may only become aware of it when in inner crisis, our prayers and pleas fall into a great inner silence.

The Pharisee in all of us wants to insist that the truth be rational, literal and physical, and loud. Anything else is the senseless babbling of a madman, only worth throwing mental and verbal stones at.

It is part of Christ’s passion, his suffering, to go unheard, unrecognized and unacknowledged. Because of the inner deafness caused by hardening of our hearts, he is unable to do what he came to do—to open our soul’s ears to the words of the spirit.

“Why do you not trust in me, since I am proclaiming the true existence to you?” John 8:46

Tissot

Our true grounding is within the spirit. The solidity of the certainty of Christ’s existence is the truth upon which we can stand. The heart is the ear of the soul, a resonating chamber for the words he wants to speak to us. His word pours life into our hearts and spirits. His word strengthens and clarifies. His word enlivens, lives in our hearts as his eternal life.  Taken in, his word grants us existence in the realm of the spirit: For as He said, “Whoever keeps my word in his heart is free of the sight of death through all earthly time.” John 8: 51 

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3rd Passiontide 2018, Dark Woods

3rd Passiontide

March 18, 2018

John 8: 1-12

Halfway through his life, the poet Dante finds himself in a dark forest, not quite knowing how he got there. He is threatened by three beasts who impede his path. In his despair, he appeals to one who guides him further along his way by offering to take him along another path.

We too, sometimes find ourselves ‘in a dark wood’, not quite knowing how we got there, lost and imperiled. If someone were to approach and judge us, criticize us for being hopelessly lost, it would not help—we already know that. What we need is a guide who takes us under his care and shows us another path, a way through.

Christ did not come to earth to pronounce judgment on human lives. By becoming human, he came to understand the human condition from the inside. He came to offer his strength, his clarity, his guidance. He can extend our clouded vision. He can help us recognize that we need to take another path, go in another direction. To the soul who had adulterated her true life’s path, he said, ‘Go. Go elsewhere; walk another path that does not send you to the beasts’.

For us too, Christ appears in our extreme need. He comes to give life’s light to us. Christ is here as a guide. He is here as light along the path in the darkness in which we all walk. In the words of Hafiz:

God

pours light

into every cup,

quenching darkness.

The proudly pious

stuff their cups with parchment

and critique the taste of ink

while God pours light

. . .  

pours like rain

into every empty cup

set adrift on the Infinite Ocean.*

3rd Passiontide 2017, Either/Or

3rd Passiontide

Woman Taken in Adultery, Rembrandt, wikicommons

John 8: 1-12

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives; but as soon as day dawned he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle, and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now, what do you say?” They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write something in the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, “Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her.” And again, he bent down and wrote in the earth.

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, beginning with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up, and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I judge you,” Jesus declared. “Go now, and leave your life of sin.”

And Jesus began to speak to them again: “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light in which there is life.”

3rd Passiontide

John 8: 1-12

St. Albans

In the beginning, God gave a command to Adam, the law-abiding masculine side of the human being. Humans were not to eat of the fruit of knowledge without dire consequences. Eve, the curious, open feminine side of the human, in innocence, grasped the fruit and ate. For already in Paradise, God had allowed the tempter to approach the human.

In today's reading, we hear of the further evolution of this ancient human motif. The boundary-breaking, forward-moving feminine side of the human is given a death sentence as punishment for breaking the law. This punishment is to be meted out by the so-called law-abiding masculine element.

Artist Unknown 

Yet Christ rises above this problematic either-or, black or white antagonism. Though He clearly discerns, He does not judge. He gives the feminine, forward-moving side of the human being the strength to observe out of herself the appropriateness of boundaries. And neither does he judge our punitive masculine side. Rather, by writing in the earth, he leads us to understand that we all have sinned. His unspoken command to our masculine side is that wise empathy is more important, more fruitful, more life-giving than judgment. For wise empathy leads us out of the finality of death into the living future.

All of our sins are written into the earth. But Christ Himself has taken on the earth as His Living Body. Thus, our sins are sins against Him, which He nonetheless absorbs and transforms into a way forward. Through Him, working with Him, we can find the way into God's light, His life, His love.

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3rd Passiontide 2016, Light Seeds

3^rd Passiontide

Ninetta Sombart

March 13, 2016

John 8: 21-29

And he went on: “I go away now, and you will seek me, and in your sin you will be subject to death. Where I am going you cannot come.” Then the Jews said, “Will he perhaps kill himself, since he says: Where I am going you cannot come?” And he said to them, “You come from below. I AM from above. You belong to this world which perishes, but I do not come from this world. That is why I said to you: You will be subject to death in your sins. If you do not fill yourselves with the power of my being, you will be subject to death in your sins.”

Then they said to him, ‘Who are you?” And Jesus answered, “Why do I still talk to you at all? There are many things which I could say about you and many things to judge. But HE who sent me is Truth itself, and so I speak out into the world what I have heard from HIM.”

But they did not understand that he was speaking to them of the Father. And Jesus went on, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the I AM. I do nothing out of myself, but I proclaim what the Father teaches me. He who sent me works in my working. He does not leave me on my own; what I do is always in accord with HIM.”

3^rd Passiontide

March 13, 2016

John 8: 21-29

The seed, when planted, sends out two shoots. The first one dives down into the earth; the second rises into the light and air. Eventually it is this second shoot that will blossom. It will produce the seeds of new life.

We are the seeds God has planted on earth. We lead a kind of double life. We must indeed root and ground ourselves in the earthly. We also are to seek the light of the Christ-Sun; blossom in His warmth, produce spiritual fruits and seeds of a new life. But for us there is a paradox.

artist unknown

In this reading, Christ reminds the people that he has sown himself on earth in the body of Jesus, and that he is about to grow himself in reverse, into the realm of death, into the body of the earth. There He will bring the light and warmth of the Spirit-Sun into the cold darkness of the underworld. He will blossom there and produce seeds of life within the realm of death.

At first, no one will be able to accompany him there but the light, the love, the life of His Father. But He is doing this so that we, who are bound to the earth and are destined to die, will be able to find His light and warmth, his life, forever here on earth, and even when we die. For he is the light that descends into the darkness. We need not fear it. As Rilke says:

You are not dead yet, it’s not too late

To open your depths by plunging into them

And drink in the life

That reveals itself quietly there. *

*Rainer M Rilke, “You see, I want a lot”, in Rilke’s Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, p. 61

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3rd Passiontide 2015, Spread of a Sun

John 8: 12-20

And Jesus began to speak to them again: “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light in which there is life.”

Then the Pharisees said to him, “How can you be your own witness? Your testimony is not valid.”

Jesus answered them, “Even if I do bear witness to myself, my testimony is valid, for I know from where I come and where I am going. You judge according to the physical aspect of Man, but I judge no one. Yet even if I did judge, my judgment would be valid; for I am not alone, but HE who sent me is with me. In your Law it says that the testimony of two persons is valid. I bear witness to myself, and the Father who sent me also testifies to me.”

Then they said, “Where is your Father?” And Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. I you knew me, you would know my Father also.” These words he said as he was teaching in the treasury of the Temple. And no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.

3^rd Passiontide

March 22, 2015

John 8: 12 – 20

The sun generates a tremendous amount of energy, which it radiates forth into the universe. It pours out the substance of its being as light and warmth. In the beginning it called forth creation. The sun’s light and warmth continue to stimulate and support life. Without the sun, we and the planet would soon die.

Christ calls himself the light of the world. And this is no mere simile. For the being which once lived within the sun, together with his Father generating and radiating its warmth and light, that being came to live on earth in Christ Jesus. He is ever sacrificing the substance of his own being to bring us life-giving forces. His life stimulates our life; the life of our bodies, the life of our souls and spirits.

Our openness of soul and spirit, heart and mind, are what allows him to shine his warmth and light into us. He shines his invisible light on our path, illuminating the way. His invisible light allows us to see truth amid the darkness of lies, illusions, deceit. His warmth lets us experience his life-giving blessings. Had he not come to earth, the planet would long since have died.

He came to make the earth into a new radiant star, the star of love. He can only do so if we open ourselves to his light, his warmth, his love. Then will he not only be with us; he will be in us.

In the first morning of the world created,

on the skin of water reflected,

is the spread of a sun,

and the sun, like god, is a power

you cannot see.

Only what it lights on,

only what it touches with warmth…[1]

---

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[1] Linda Hogan, “Light”, in Rounding the Human Corners 

3rd Passiontide 2008, The Listening Ear

3^rd Passiontide

John 8: 1-12

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives; but as soon as day dawned he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle, and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down, and started to write something in the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, “Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her.” And again, he bent down and wrote in the earth.

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, beginning with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up, and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I judge you,” Jesus declared. “Go now, and leave your life of sin.”

3^rd Passiontide Sunday

March 9, 2008

John 8: 1-12

The light and warmth of the sun can be absorbed or reflected. A dark object absorbs the warmth. A light, polished surface stays cooler. It mirrors light back.

Our minds and hearts can also absorb or reflect. We can listen, absorb, take in. When what we take in enters not just our minds, but our hearts, we can become warm. In so doing, we ourselves are likely to be transformed.

And we can also listen and reflect back. Usually we reflect back our own soul’s reaction. We reflect our mind’s rush to judgment. An immediate mirroring may be for us a kind of self-protection, coming from the soul’s defensive armoring. Being too quick to deflect with our thinking, we bypass absorbing the other into our heart and possibly being transformed.

In this gospel reading, Christ proves Himself to be a human being whose heart and mind work together in a healing way. He does not reject the woman because she breaks the law. He takes her into His great heart, the warmth of His great understanding of the ways of human behavior, of social interaction, of karma. He then reflects back to her not judgment, but gives her the strength of His warm understanding and His encouragement to do better. He absorbs her life into His. He carries her in the light of His life.

The poet Nelly Sachs wrote,

How long have we forgotten to listen!

He planted us once to listen

Like lyme grass by the eternal sea ....

Although we have business

that leads us far

From his light….

We must not sell our ears….

Press, oh press in the day of destruction

The listening ear to the earth,

And you will hear, through your sleep,

You will hear,

How in death

Life begins.[1]

The deeds of each one of us are written into the earth. But the earth has become Christ’s body. He absorbs all of our deeds. He carries us in His great heart. He gives us the encouragement and the strength to do better. We walk in the light of His life.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Nelly Sachs (1891-1970), “How Long Have We Forgotten to Listen!” in Women in Praise of the Sacred, Jane Hirschfield, p.217. 

3rd Passiontide 2009, It is Still There

3^rd Passiontide

Rembrandt

John 8: 1-12

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives; but as soon as day dawned he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle, and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down, and started to write something in the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, “Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her.” And again, he bent down and wrote in the earth.

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, beginning with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up, and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I judge you,” Jesus declared. “Go now, and leave your life of sin.”

3^rd Passiontide

March 29, 2009

John 8: 1 -12

In order to be healthy, water needs to flow. It can flow into a quiet lake. But if there is no outflow, it stagnates. Eventually it turns salty, like the Salton Sea or the Dead Sea.

Our very useful faculties of discernment and judgment are like water; to be healthy, they need to flow both in and out. The lawyers who caught the woman in adultery were quite correct in their discernment—the woman had indeed committed adultery. But until the lawyers were willing to let discernment flow into themselves, their relationship to the law and the social order was not healthy. Their judgment was instead literally death-dealing. Self-awareness, in-flowing self-discernment, allowed them to crack their stony hard-heartedness. They begin to flow away from the deadly place of judgment.

Christ discerns that the woman is indeed a sinner, as indeed we all are. He neither condemns, nor does He say that her sin doesn’t matter. Instead he shows the way forward and out, toward health and re-integration: “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Keep moving, keep flowing away from the place of your stagnation. John 8: 11

And then He says to all of us: “I am the shining river of the light of the world. Whoever flows with me will never be in darkness, but the Light of the direction of Life will shine for him.” John 8: 12

Leaving our stagnation, and joining with Him, we can once again take our place in the great flowing channel of being. We can become those through whom the water of life flows, rather than stops; those through whom love flows; those through whom flows the world’s evolving.

The poet says:

Don't say, don't say there is no water.

That fountain is there among its scalloped

green and gray stones,

it is still there and always there

with its quiet song and strange power

to spring in us,

up and out through the rock.[1]


www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Denise Levertov, “The Fountain, “