11-10-2018

Good Morning All,

        John 8:7; “When they persisted in asking him questions, he straightened up and said, “The person who is sinless should be the first to throw a stone at her.”

     Are you tired?  I’m tired; tired of seeing, hearing about, reading about, listening to or about someone named Kardashian or is a real housewife somewhere or a whole host of others who act and profess to be important but no one knows what they do.  It seems like every time the news ratchets up about one of these; it only goes lower and a little more depraved.  Whenever they come on, I change the channel and think “what are we coming to?”  I look at what people will do, proudly, in public and just shake my head and in the back of my mind comes that other biblical thought “God, I thank you that I am not like other men”.(Luke 18:11)  I am ready to launch into my self-righteous speech of condemnation. I am ready to point out each blatant sin and to pronounce God’s judgement upon the world.  I’ve got my stone in my hand and just picking a target.

    Then this story comes to mind; a woman was caught in adultery and the Pharisees, all men smelled blood in the water and were circling.  They HAD her and in their self-righteous desire to speak judgement; they had the stones in their hands.  They were so sure of their correctness that they wanted to test, to taunt, Jesus.  As they were lambasting this frightened woman, Jesus was bent over writing in the dust with his finger; he stood up and spoke our verse for today then he bent back down and continued writing.  Scriptures does not tell us what he was writing, some speculate he was writing passages from Scriptures that speak of mercy.  Some speculate that Jesus was listing the personal and hidden sins of the Pharisees gathered.  Whatever he wrote, the stones were dropped, from oldest to youngest and soon it was just the woman and Jesus.

    If Jesus stood before us today, as we look at the events on TV, at the events in the courts, at the actions of our neighbors and maybe our family members; what would he write in the sand before you?  When I think about the sins of abortion, homosexuality, when I think of families who seem to find everything more important than the development of their children’s faith life and the strengthening of their personal life, when I think it is time to “let them have it.” I remember the terse words I had for my wife or my children.  I remember judging my neighbor, I remember being quick to pick up stones and I remember that these people all need God’s saving grace through Jesus but no more than I do.

    Yes, Bruce or Caitlyn Jenner needs the forgiveness of Jesus but so do I and so do you.  So pray for those in your life who need Jesus but pray that God will enable you to bring them the grace and mercy of Jesus to them in a loving and productive way.  Our goal, our mission is to reconcile and restore not to attack.

God of all mercy, lead me to drop my stones.  Lead my heart to desire compassion.  Lead my heart to seek to reconcile the world to you.  Guide me to those who are in need of your mercy and help me to speak your loving words of forgiveness to them in order to heal their brokenness.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret