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“Even The Stones Will Cry Out”
John
A sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
I just got
back from the Baptist Peace Fellowship Conference in
Each year, the BPFNA makes a banner
with the conference theme on it. One of
our artists made this one, but unfortunately, we never got to see it. It appears that the banner was seen as a
threat to national security and it was confiscated at the
And as I reflected throughout the week about our journey of faith and what the stones might be crying out, I found myself continually drawn to this familiar scripture found in John’s Gospel. Actually, that’s not completely true. It is actually found in a minority of ancient manuscripts. Most scholars don’t even think it came from John’s gospel. But look how straightforward it is and simple. And the stones play a key role in the story.
You know how it goes. But I want to read for you a retelling of the story by a fellow peace-camp participant, the Rev. Ashlee Weist-Laird. She wrote this at Peace Camp ten years ago when all the women in a workshop were invited to rewrite the story from the perspective of the unnamed woman.:
When
the men sent by the Pharisees came bursting into my house I was petrified. They didn’t say what they wanted,
they simply grabbed me and dragged me out into the street. It was early and I was still in my
bedclothes. I felt the sun, already hot,
on my face and shoulders as they pushed me into the street. As we moved along the street I saw that we
were heading toward the
I’d
heard there was a teacher in town, named Jesus.
He was creating quite a stir and the Pharisees really hated him. I’d never seen him before, but as we
approached the
Then, I saw him – Jesus, I mean. He bent down in the dust and dirt with me and moved his finger through the sand, as if to write – but he wasn’t writing. He was looking at me. His head was toward the ground, but he was looking at me. I’ll never forget the expression on his face. I could tell that he was tense, but there was a depth of kindness in his eyes. He even seemed a little bit scared. He looked at me, not with scorn, but instead there was compassion. Then he stood up and spoke to them. The Pharisees had not stopped with their questioning. When he finally spoke, it was amazing – not like any other religious leader I’d ever heard, his voice was calm and full of authority. After he spoke, he knelt down again, on my level, not looking at my accusers.
To
be honest, in all my fear, I don’t know what he said to them, but it must have
been incredible, because the next thing I knew I head the sound of stones
dropping in the dust beside me and felt the bodies of those holding me moving
away. I didn’t know what to do. I was still too afraid to move. Then Jesus came over to me, held out his hand
and helped me to stand. He said there
was now no one to condemn me. I knew from that moment that whatever happened,
everything would be all right. Ashlee Wiest-Laird,
The woman was accused of adultery. But she was really just a pawn in a trap designed for Jesus. And Jesus, God bless him, refused to play their game.
This is truly a story about sin. But whose sin? The woman’s? The Scribes and Pharisees? Jesus? Ours? Jesus was saying that their box for sin was way too small. Jesus was saying that we had better be careful when we try to define the narrow door through which we are to go, for we might well squeeze out some of the hope and some of the compassion and some of the mercy and some of the spirit. And if we do that, then pretty soon we realize we are going through the wrong door.
If you tried to nail down the scriptural definition of sin, you might have a hard time. You could certainly come up with a long laundry list. Some of them would contradict each other. Anyone who has ever read the book of Leviticus knows full well that there are plenty of sinful things that we do all the time.
Jesus knew of the problem we have with sin. He knew he could not win an argument about sin, even if he was to play the scripture proof-texting game with them. Here’s my definition of sin: anything that stands in the way of right relation with God or God’s people. So that would include all sorts of isms: racism, sexism, ageism, me-firstism, heterosexism, classism and even judgementalism. It would include violence of the bomb, the bullet, the ballot, the tongue and the heart. It would include all of the barriers we set up to deny that there is hope in this world, for to deny hope is to deny God.
Bruce Bawer, in his book “Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity” makes the distinction between law-based Christianity and love-based Christianity. He argues that the church in defining itself has focused so much on the legalistic aspects of Christianity that we have choked out the inclusive love-message of Jesus. Today’s scripture is the ultimate love over legalism proof-text. And yet, so many focus on the “sin no more” closing line than on Jesus’ ethic of refusing to abuse anyone. We all know that religion has been used as a convenient tool of abuse.
We have been called sinners time and again. Just this past week, I received a letter from an The Judson Association of the West Virginia Baptist Convention. It calls us sinners and demands that we repent. It reads:
From: The Judson Association, West Virginia Baptist Convention
To: Member
Churches of The Association of “Welcoming and Affirming Baptist Churches”
From the beginning of human history, God has established the standard for human sexuality when He most gloriously created in His image, the first man and woman. Since that time, our enemy, Satan, has sought to rewrite God’s standards. There is no denying that the OT and NT describes and condemns the practices that the association of W&A Baptist Churches “count as sacred”. And it would be an understatement to say, that your beliefs do not represent the vast majority of American Baptists.
According
to scripture (Mathew 18) we are
compelled to approach each of your 50 individual churches with our
concerns. We want you to understand that
you are not our enemy. We love each of
you as one loves his family. It is in an
attitude of love, that we call upon you to conform to
tenants of the denomination of which you belong. (Resolution 8200:10/92 – which states, “We
affirm that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian
teaching” as adopted by your general Board of the American Baptist Churches by
Mail Vote- October 1992).
There is one point upon we can all agree – no person, regardless of their sexual orientation, should be denied an opportunity to hear and to respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our disagreement is that we do not “affirm” nor “count as sacred” any sinful practice. And we believe to “affirm” this practice is to deny the absolute and complete transformational “power in the blood” of Jesus Christ.
We
have called upon every
Respectively, In the Service of Christ,
Larry Coffman,
Committee Chairman, Judson Association
larrycoffman@mac.com
Jesus told a simple truth. He chose not to get into an argument about which sin was the worst. He said, “Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.” All of a sudden those stones became too heavy. I think they began to cry out. I like to think they became the building blocks of the foundation of a new tomorrow. Sisters and brothers, when we are confronted with the opportunity to do good or to do harm in God’s name, God wants us to do good. The stones cry out for it. So do we.
In a few moments, we will have a unique experience. Our Roman Catholic seminary intern will preside at communion in a Baptist church. To a whole lot of people this would be a sin. But Monique has chosen her words carefully and has the blessing and approval of this church to preside this morning. So today, we celebrate this communion as a blessed rite of passage for Monique. And we stand here to witness with you the presence of the Holy Spirit as you say those ancient and relevant words. She is not doing this to prove anything. She is bearing witness to her calling and offering us the mystical gift of communion. And maybe as a result of this simple and symbolic act, the stones which seek to condemn will get a bit heavier. And those that used them to condemn will drop them and the former persecution stones will form the foundation of a new vision of inclusion, justice and mercy.
Jesus said to the scribes and the Pharisees, “let the one without sin cast the first stone”. Jesus said to the woman, “None now stand accusing you, go your way and sin no more.” And with that simple act, the stones of domination and sexism and abuse and violence with which religion has built tall walls began a tumbling down. May it be so in our lives and for our world. Amen.