Journeying Through Lent: Self-Reflection

Reading: John 7:45–8:18 (NRSV)45Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not arrest him?” 46The police answered, “Never has anyone spoken like this!” 47Then the Pharisees replied, “Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? 48Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed.” 50Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, 51“Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” 52They replied, “Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.” 53Then each of them went home, 1while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. 3The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, 4they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.” 12Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” 13Then the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.” 14Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15You judge by human standards; I judge no one. 16Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. 18I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf.”
Message: Journeying Through Lent with Examination

• The things I’m the worst at in daily life are often the things that I’m least happy to hear about. Maybe it’s the same with you.
  • Do you have a friend who lives by the code “being early is on time, being on time is late, and being late is unacceptable?"
    • This can be a dividing concept for many people.
      • We can tease and goad in front of and behind people - “oh, they’re always late"
    • But, you know, it tends not to mean that person gets to where they need to go any earlier.
  • I recognize the times I need to practice some better ways of doing things, but in the midst of the lectures or the judgement, it’s much harder for me to process that.
• Sometimes it can be cultural (like the homelessness issue). Things related to our concept of “stigma” can often have the same effect on people.
• There’s a point when our concepts of what is wrong and who is wrong become toxic.
  • Ronald Potter-Efron:
    • Guilt - “Lets us know we’ve done something wrong… a transgression, a reaction to what is deemed an inappropriate action.” vs.
    • Shame “one’s shortcomings as a total being"
    • Toxic shame tells us "we're going to fail to reach our goals in life". It begets more shame, causing "paralysis, faltering energy, escapism, withdrawal, including people-pleasing and hiding behind a mask, perfectionism, criticism, and rage.” This is why our cultural implications about the homeless can be so dangerous - we create a shame cycle the more we equate circumstance with identity.
  • Guilty about being late vs. shame about being late.
  • Our ability to journey through lent with the companion of self-examination (and penitent self-examination in particular) means we have to consider what it means have good awareness of the countours of guilt and shame.
• The Gospel text
  • There’s so much to unpack about judgement - which is an outward examination. We can take some of it for both how we judge others, and perhaps how we judge ourselves as well.
  • Nicodemus
    • We hear the strands of judgment - well, you’ve been deceived! Well, there’s no such thing as a prophet out of Galilee! And it’s untrue for multiple reasons - Jonah was a prophet from Galilee - but the judgement is cast.
    • The guards are dismissed simply because they’re different. They see things differently than the Pharisees.
  • The woman
    • The law here was to prescribe stoning only if she was a betrothed virgin, and the man should be stoned as well.
    • And this would have been a trap for Jesus. But, Jesus does what’s most important - he seeks the heart of the woman.
    • Jesus neither casts judgement nor completely absolves. There is guilt, but not shame. “Condemn” here in the greek is a punitive sentence. She is free to move forward.
  • The Pharisees
• (the rest was written on paper)