We each have opportunity to learn from all things, from likely and unlikely sources. It depends most on if we are open to learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a long repeated biblical story, that whether I believed in the word or not, challenges me to the core. I pray there\u2019s never a day that I go unchallenged by the account; if so, my strong sense is it is me who is impervious to the learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The story goes something like this\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTeacher,\u201d they said to Jesus, \u201cthis woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, \u201cAll right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!\u201d Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, \u201cWhere are your accusers? Didn\u2019t even one of them condemn you?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, Lord,\u201d she said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And Jesus said, \u201cNeither do I. Go and sin no more.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Allow us to briefly acknowledge the significant components of the story\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n A woman had done something wrong; there was no debate that adultery was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A crowd had gathered; that means everyone\u2019s actions would be seen by someone else\u2026 perhaps a tribe in some ways that all thought alike. No doubt crowds tend to egg each other on, often ramping up emotion and activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The crowd attempted to egg on the perceived arbiter of truth in this situation\u2026 But what she did was wrong! There is no dispute! How will she be punished?!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In wise judgment, there was calm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then it was said\u2026 if you have done no wrong, go ahead\u2026 punish her\u2026 be loud\u2026 make it a public spectacle\u2026 <\/em>It\u2019s insightful how once again it\u2019s poignantly clear we are loudest when we believe ourselves clean from the crime. We point fast fingers at those who have done wrong in areas we feel we are absolved, ignoring the places where we have been foolish, fallacious or illicit\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 actually forgetting those places exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And here\u2019s the thing. Sometimes that\u2019s been me. I have said some things I\u2019d like to take back \u2014 even this week. The errors of my ways, so-to-speak, are not just nice neat, cleaned up stories from my youth. The errors of my ways occur even now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So allow me to close with two outstanding truths \u2014 and why this account is so challenging whether we are Jesus followers or not\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was no question the woman was wrong; there was no debate. The crowd was right; she was wrong. Note, too, that as the crowd dispersed, she was compassionately called to change her behavior and inherent line of thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what\u2019s also true based on the wisdom revealed, is that I will never be capable of throwing that first stone, that rock of condemnation, if you will, whether physically or verbally. I can\u2019t do so unless I ignore the equally existent, imperfect parts of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the reality we must grapple with now, if we are willing to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We each have opportunity to learn from all things, from likely and unlikely sources. It depends most on if we are open to learning. There\u2019s a long repeated biblical story, that whether I believed in the word or not, challenges me to the core. I pray there\u2019s never a day that I go unchallenged by … <\/p>\n