Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
The Third Sunday of Lent
March 19, 2006
W. Gregory Pope
WALKING IN THE WAY OF JESUS:
THE WAY OF GRACE AND FORGIVENESS
John 8:2-11; Ephesians 4:32
You may not know this. It is a deep secret in her family. But Erin Woggon has a twin sister that her parents, Kelley and Frank, left on the other side of the pond when they moved back from Germany several years ago. Her sister’s name is Lucy. Lucy has three other siblings named Peter, Edmond and Susan. Once upon a time, the four of them stepped into a wardrobe and entered another world called Narnia. Narnia was created in the imagination of C. S. Lewis over fifty years ago and was recreated on the big screen this past December.
I was introduced to The Chronicles of Narnia by my fifth grade teacher, Mr. Hinman, who throughout the school year read to us the entire seven volume series. Perhaps some of you have read them as well. Though fictional, even mythical in ways, the fantasy world of Narnia reveals some truths about this world in which we live and the importance of choices we make along the way.
This Lenten season we are prayerfully considering what it means to walk in the way of Jesus. As a congregation, we have said it is crucial to our mission to walk in his way. Our banner above us is growing each week with words that mark the way of Jesus. Today the marks are Grace and Forgiveness.
So far it may sound as if walking in the way of Jesus is all about what we have to do: repent, be baptized, turn away from sin and toward the ways of God, live as a disciple, perform acts of love and compassion. And yes, being Christian is something we do.
But only by God’s grace are we able to walk in the way of baptism and repentance, conversion and discipleship, love and compassion. Only by God’s baptismal blessing bestowed upon us as God’s beloved are we ever able to change and become who we were to created to be. Only by God’s love for us and in us are we able to love. Only by God’s compassion toward us and through us are we able to be compassionate. God’s blessing, God’s love, God’s compassion are all gifts of grace that make the way of Jesus a path we are capable of walking, though imperfectly.
Being Christian, walking in the way of Jesus, is something we DO. However, before the walk begins, even before we take our first breath, before we can DO anything, God’s grace is the land into which we are born and the nursery in which we all live and move and have our being.
There is nothing we can DO to earn or deserve such grace. It is God’s gift to us at birth. It is a parent’s privilege and great responsibility to surround their children with God’s grace.
Because we will not always live in the innocence of birth. We will all make choices that harm us and others. Choices made out of anxiety and fear, lust and greed, self-preservation and pride.
In the land of Narnia, Edmond sold his soul to the evil White Witch. She had promised him he could be king of Narnia and she enticed him with what? Kids, with what food did the witch entice Edmond? Turkish delight. Yes, he loved Turkish delight. And he so wanted to be king.
For Adam and Eve, it was the desire to be like God. And the enticement was fruit from the forbidden tree. For Edmond, it was the desire to rule over his brother and sisters and be king of Narnia. And his enticement was Turkish delight.
Whatever the desire, whatever the enticement, we all make choices that bring harm to others and to ourselves. So we all live in need of daily grace.
There once was a woman in need of such grace. We heard her story a moment ago. Caught in the act of adultery, she is brought alone before Jesus by a group of Pharisees. (Curiously the man is missing from the scene.)
Jesus has gained a reputation of extending grace and mercy to sinners. But everyone knows you must have laws and there must be consequences for those who break them. And when a well-known religious teacher is not punishing people when they break God’s law, he must exposed for the fraud that he is and be condemned.
The Pharisees see the opportunity to do just that. They have found this woman guilty of adultery and have dragged her before Jesus.
“O Rabbi Jesus,” they say, “This woman has been caught in the very act of adultery. The law of Moses says she should be stoned to death. What do you say?”
“I agree,” Jesus said. “Actions have consequences. But the only ones who can pass judgment and condemnation are those without sin. So let the one of you who is without sin, cast the first stone.” Sin has its consequences, but your heart and mine full of sin renders us incapable of passing judgment and condemning anyone.
We must first judge ourselves. And when we do we will find that every last one of us is guilty.
That’s what the Pharisees discover, and all of them are forced to drop their stones and walk away.
The next part of this story reminds me of the scene in The Chronicles of Narnia where Edmond stands guilty before Aslan the Lion. Aslan is the Christ of Narnia. The art on the table this morning is a portrait of the Lion of Judah, one of the many biblical metaphors of Christ. Like Edmond before the gracious Aslan, this woman stands before Jesus, and in both stories we are given a beautiful portrait of grace.
He says to her in all the brokenness of her humiliation, “Who remains to condemn you?”
“No one,” she whispers quietly.
And then the only one who has the right to judge and condemn says to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
At first glance, it may seem that Jesus is taking lightly the pain and harm brought by adultery. But he does not. Adultery destroys lives and families and communities. It breaks hearts and crushes dreams. And has consequences that last years. Jesus, in other places, acknowledges that sometimes the damage done to marriage by adultery may be irreparable and irreconcilable. Jesus would never say that sin does not matter.
But in this story Jesus realizes that something else is going on. He sees that adultery is not the worst sin being committed. This woman is being used for religious purposes. And no matter how guilty the sinner, Jesus will not stand for anyone to be used by others in self-righteous ways, especially in the name of religion.
Religion is always in need of judgment and grace. And Jesus spends his life not destroying religion, but calling religion back to its purpose: to bind together the human creature and Creator in community.
Laws, morals and ethics are crucial to a healthy life and community. But laws, morals and ethics are not the foundations of the gospel. This story is the gospel in all its beauty. We find that grace ultimately trumps law. That God’s forgiveness comes without condition. That God is gracious above and beyond all our sin.
The gift of grace and forgiveness does always call for a change in our behavior: “Go and sin no more,” Jesus said. You can’t change the past. You can only live in the present and decide how you will live tomorrow. Go and sin no more.
And all of it, all of it is grace.
It is grace that enables us to acknowledge our sin.
It is grace that pardons our sin and reconciles us to God.
It is grace that empowers us to turn from our sin.
It is grace that allows us to forgive ourselves.
And it is grace that leads us through the hard work of forgiving those who have harmed us.
“Forgive one another,” scripture says, “as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
To save us from judging others and to be given the grace to forgive, we must first stand ourselves before the gracious Christ, fully aware of our own sin and shame, and be washed in the forgiveness of God. Only then are we able to forgive others.
It is easy, is it not, to see so clearly the sins of others, while our own sins we fail to see. That is why repentance is needed along the Jesus way. Repentance does not earn us God’s forgiveness. Rather, in repentance, we recognize our own sin and God’s mercy toward us; and in this way alone we are able to forgive. But forgiveness is hardly ever easy.
One of the most difficult places to offer forgiveness is in family relationships. Such intimate love. Such intimate pain. Where love and vulnerability are the highest, pain runs the deepest, and scars of hurt remain for the longest time.
Forgiveness is hard, hard work in the land of intimate relationships. It is ultimately a work of God’s grace within us. But it may take years. And when forgiveness comes, it may or may not bring reconciliation with it. We can hope for it. We can strive for it. But trust may be so completely shattered that an intimate relationship cannot be fully restored. And that only adds to our pain. The only forgiveness we may be able to offer over time is the desire for the well-being of those who have brought us harm.
The journey toward forgiveness could be the most gut-wrenching steps we take as we walk in the way of Jesus. But they are crucial steps toward freedom and healing.
And so Aslan tells Lucy and Peter and Susan to forgive their brother Edmond for partnering with the White Witch against them.
Forgiveness is closest to impossible, I think, when someone has brought harm to those we love, especially our children.
A young man was on trial for the brutal murder of a young girl he did not even know. The prosecuting attorney described in grim details the specifics of the murder. The horror was almost too much to bear for those in the courtroom. But through it all the father of the murdered girl sat impassively, watching the trial, watching the boy.
After the trial was over, and the boy was found guilty, the father announced that he was going to visit that boy in jail and get to know him. People were appalled. Why would anyone who had suffered what this man was suffering do such a thing? But the father was adamant. “That boy and I are forever bound,” he said. “We need to know each other. I do not know if I can forgive him. But perhaps if I know him I will not hate him. This is about healing and reconciliation.”
In that beautiful prayer by St. Francis of Assisi, there’s a line that says, “where there is injury, let me sow pardon. To use the word ‘injury” implies not only the reality of a wound, but also the possibility of healing. When an injury is not allowed to heal, the wounded person dies.
“Sowing” is an even more interesting word. It does not imply that something is fully grown, only that the seeds of possibility have been planted. Even if the father of the murdered girl cannot find the slightest possibility of forgiveness in his heart, by seeking reconciliation and healing on some level, he is sowing the seeds of the possibility of pardon and forgiveness at some future time. (Kent Nerburn, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace, Harper San Francisco, 1999, 22-26)
Forgiveness is central to walking in the way of Jesus. We must work through and move on from our hurts. If we do not, the wound makes us sicker and sicker. Forgiveness may take a good long while. Don’t feel guilty about that. But it’s a journey that must be made. A journey made not in our own strength by our own will, but by God’s grace and with the help of others along the way.
I challenged you last Sunday to purposefully engage in one act of love and compassion this past week. I challenge you to do it again. I add to that challenge this week to extend grace and grant forgiveness to someone in your life who needs it.
To do so is to make your life a reflection of the gospel. To extend grace and grant forgiveness is to imitate the God who has forgiven all your sin and who daily surrounds you with unending grace.
So drop your stones of judgment. No need to cast them at others or yourself. Because Christ, the only one justified to cast stones has his arms and hands open wide, arms once stretched out on a cross, hands that are now nail-scarred and open, holding no stones, reaching out to you and to the world in grace and forgiveness. Will you place your hands in his and walk with him in his way?
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CRESCENT HILL BAPTIST CHURCH
2800 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, Kentucky 40206
(502) 896-4425
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