“Faith & Falling in Love” a sermon on John 14:15-21

John 14:15-21
“Faith & Falling in Love”
Preached Sunday, May 10, 2026 at Boardman United Methodist Church

At the risk of sounding sappy this morning, I am going to start my sermon with these queries:

What is it like to fall in love? Throughout your life, how have you fallen in love? What events, what encounters, what experiences have led you to falling in love?

As preparation for this week’s sermon, I asked my husband how he realized he had fallen in love with me. I asked myself the same question of me falling in love with him: and I realized that falling in love comes from a series of encounters. From meeting someone, laughing with them, getting to know them, confiding in them, crying with them, trusting them...It was all these experiences that led me to falling in love.

And, of course, not all love is romantic love. As children we often come to love our parents because of the love shown to us, the care we receive, the safety we feel -- and then as adult children of adult parents, we can come to love them all over again in old and new ways. I know when I became a mother, I got to experience falling in love with my child. From just the thought of this tiny human in my womb, giving to her of my body, holding and caring for the most precious thing as a newborn - and then the joy of loving them as their personality develops. And the deep deep humbling love that comes from knowing you are this person’s safe place. As an aside, I know Mother’s Day is a day of joy for many - and also a very complicated day for many more. My prayer for each person here today is that they may experience love as a safe place - whether that is the love between a mother and a child, a spouse, a friend, and/or the ultimate love of God as a safe place.

Friendships are formed in love - through many of the same encounters that form romantic love - through sharing, laughing, crying, and trusting. Community is formed in love. When I became a pastor, I was told my main job when I was sent to a congregation was to love the people - love the people and everything else would follow. Plus, as the Bible says, love covers a multitude of errors. Of course, from my first day here to almost three years, the love can change from an abstract love to a more concrete thing - falling in love not just you in the general sense but you in the specific - between hands held, tears cried, laughs, confidences, prayers, meals shared - these encounters with each other, person to person, these help shape our love for each other.

We can trace these moments, these shared experiences, these encounters with another human being when we truly see them for who they are and it in turn is reciprocated - and we can almost re-trace falling in love. I say almost, because we all know that love also has a mystical component to it, something that we can’t quite put our finger on, something that is just beyond our grasp. For me, I would label that part as the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Which also brings me to another love, that for many of us, we don’t talk about enough, love of God. Love for God. But how do you talk about falling in love with God without sounding a little bit like a crazy person? And the truth is, you probably can’t. Because loving God is a little crazy - and mystical and beautiful. And just like our love for other people is built on genuine encounters with the other, so too is our love of God built on encounters with the Divine, with the Holy Spirit.

Craig Koester, a professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, says this about our Gospel reading today on love and the Holy Spirit:

“Coming to faith is analogous to falling in love. One cannot fall in love in the abstract. Love comes through an encounter with another person. The same is true of faith. If faith is a relationship with the living Christ and the living God who sent him, then faith can only come through an encounter with them. And the Spirit is the one who makes this presence known.”

Let’s take a closer look at this.

In this week’s Gospel reading from John, Jesus is introducing the disciples to the idea of the Holy Spirit. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth...you know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” Remember, this is a continuation of last week’s Gospel text that was part of what we call Jesus’s Farewell Discourse to his disciples. It is before his arrest and crucifixion and he is instructing his disciples one last time on this end of things.

This is a part of a longer passage in John 14 - today started at the 15th verse in the passage that’s really one speech. We have been off lectionary the last three weeks for our Fruit of the Spirit hymn sing so we are kinda jumping back in halfway through this passage. It’s like, as a reader, when a sequel comes out and you haven’t read the first book in a couple years so you need to go read a re-cap. So here’s the re-cap of what came before today’s Gospel reading:

So in the verses before this, Jesus is telling his disciples to not be afraid and to trust in him. He says, paraphrased, “If you know me (and you do know me!) then you know God who is the Father. You know who I am through my teachings, my words, my actions. You know that I preach love, forgiveness, mercy, repentance. And you know I model these things too - so you know what I’m about and you know what God is about -- so now, if you know me, you will do likewise so that others may come to know me through you.”

In summary: If you know Jesus, then you know God. If you love Jesus, then you love the Father, and if you love Jesus (and the Father), you will do as Jesus does. Perhaps these verses are what “WWJD” are based on - what would Jesus do? The answer is always love.

So now, in today’s reading, Jesus expands on that idea of knowing Jesus, knowing God, and doing as Jesus does. The question that this week’s Scripture seeks to answer is: How will people know Jesus through which people know the Father, when Jesus is no longer here on Earth, God as living flesh walking among us? How are we to love God, to fall in love with God, when we have no God to physically encounter?

And here is where Jesus says, don’t worry - because the Father is sending another Advocate, as Jesus was an Advocate for encountering and falling in love with God. In just two weeks we will celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost - that same Spirit who is among us today. And whoever knows the Spirit, knows Jesus, and whoever knows Jesus, knows God. For this is the mystery of Trinity, that they are One, that our God is Triune. So just a caveat - even though the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples at Pentecost - the Holy Spirit was not created at Pentecost. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer - the three Persons of the Trinity have always been in existence with one another, from before there was a beginning, from before there was time, God, Jesus, and the Spirit have all been present. Just as, in time, Jesus was given to us as a gift to know God, so too, in the course of history, the Spirit has been gifted to us so that we may continue to know and fall in love with God.

So who or what is the Spirit? How do we encounter the Spirit in our lives?

The Holy Spirit, like God and Jesus, is both knowable and unknowable. The Spirit though, has always seemed illusive, hard to grasp for many Christians. The Spirit is described as the wind, that which we can feel but cannot see. The Spirit is like our breath, that which is never far from us, fills us with life, sustains us. The Spirit is the flame which ignites within us a desire to know God. The Spirit is that force that we can’t quite put our finger on that interacts in our lives, in our relationships, when we fall in love. Any way we see or feel or sense God moving - in our lives, in our relationships, in the world -- THAT is the work of the Holy Spirit.

And so we may think - have I ever encountered God? And yes, you have. Think about those moments when you have felt peace. When you have felt God comforting you as you cried. When you have felt a surge of joy or thanksgiving that bubbled over into laughter or praise. When you found strength or patience you didn’t know you had. When you’ve had a realization that only could have come from beyond you. Think of all those moments where something beyond you has taken place in your life - that is the work of the Holy Spirit. Those are our encounters with the Holy Spirit and because the Holy Spirit is in perfect union with the Creator and the Son - those are encounters with God and with Jesus, too. And it is through those experiences, through those encounters, when we realize that it is the Spirit we are encountering, that we fall in love with God.

And Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

And remember that Jesus summarized all the law and prophet in two commandments:

One, to love God.
Two, to love neighbor as self.

And we see here how these commandments are circular. When we fall in love with God, we keep God’s commandments - God’s commandments are to love God and to love neighbor. And when we know the Spirit, and thus know Jesus, and thus know God, we are called to do as Jesus did, to spread mercy and forgiveness and love to others through caring for them, siding with the outcast, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and prisoner...basically, loving our neighbors. And it is through these acts of love that the Holy Spirit is at work, and thus we encounter God over and over again, and fall more deeply in love with God…

Yes, these commandments are circular! And at the center of that circle, what remains above all else: is love - and God wants us to encounter the Spirit, to know the Spirit, to know Jesus, to know the Father and fall more in love with God every day and then to live out that love through love of others.

So, at the risk of sounding sappy, I’d like to end my sermon by asking you to ask yourself this question:

How am I continuously falling in love with God?

May we all find ourselves with love at the center. Amen.

Call to Worship for Pentecost based on Acts 2:1-21 & John 7:37-39

Leader: As we begin worship today, we cry out:
People: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: Within us, we ask the Spirit to touch us with holy fire.
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: For those who are thirsty, in the pews and outside the walls, we pray:
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: Holy Spirit, fill us with fire and make living water flow from our hearts.
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
All: Amen.

Call to Worship based on "Blessed Assurance"

Leader: Our God is a God of Yesterdays, Today, and Tomorrow.
People: Blessed Assurance! Jesus is Mine!
L: In our past we sang:
P: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
L: Today we sing:
P: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
L: Tomorrow we will sing:
P: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
L: In all times and places, the work of God continues and so we will never cease in our praise:
All: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Amen.

Call to Worship based on hymn, "I Love You, Lord"

Leader: We come together today to proclaim:
People: We love you, Lord!
L: We lift our voices in worship.
People: Rejoice, O My Soul!
L: King of all, take joy in our worship and praise.
P: May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.
All: Amen.

“The Good News is…Alive in the World” an Easter sermon on Matthew 28:1-10

Matthew 28:1-10
“The Good News is…Alive in the World”
Preached Sunday, April 5, 2026 (Easter)

I love proclaiming the Good News of Easter. I love when I say, “Christ is Risen” and I hear over a hundred voices echoing back “Christ is Risen, Indeed!” So let’s proclaim the Good, Good News of the Gospel together this Easter morning:

Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen, Indeed!

This is the Good News of the Gospel! Christ is risen! Jesus is alive! Death does not have the final say! God offers us all an abundant, joyful, and Good News filled life!

We live in a world that is desperate for Good News. In the pews and in the world, we are a people parched, starving, in need of good news. There is a lot of bad news out there - even as I was writing this sermon, I saw multiple headlines that broke my heart - or would break my heart if I didn’t construct a wall around it to protect it from the endless awfulness of the world. Which is also not what God wants for us. I don’t need to belabor the bad news today - you all know what it is. Wars rage. Disasters happen. Children - and adults - die much too soon. People are mean to one another. We treat one another as less than the beloved children of God that each of us was created as. This is not the Good News of the Gospel.

We also need to acknowledge that sometimes what is packaged and sold as the Good News of Christ Jesus often fails to actually be “good” news - a “Gospel” that is exclusive, limiting, controlling, shaming, hateful is not the Good News of Jesus Christ.

And so over the past six weeks, during the course of the season of Lent, as a church we have been focusing on the Good, Good News of the Gospel. The word “Gospel” literally means “Good News” and it is as the angels proclaimed at the birth of Jesus, “Good News of Great Joy for all People!” If it’s not that, it ain’t the Gospel.

And so we have been focusing on the core of the Gospel message, to satiate our desperate thirst for Good News in our world. And today. Today is the day of ultimate Good News. Good, Good News of Great Joy for all people:

Jesus is alive!
Easter is here!
The Resurrection is real!

And so today as we proclaim the Good News of the Resurrection we should not just proclaim it but live it as well. And so we ask: How do we let this Good, Good News be alive in us? Alive in the world? Especially in a world that constantly tries to drown out, diminish, and obscure Good News with all the pain and hurt of the world?

Jenny Lawson is an author who writes and speaks very openly about her mental health struggles. She does so in a way that is often irreverent, hilarious, and relatable. In her newest book, “How To Be Okay When Nothing is Okay” she gives tips and tricks that she has found to function, be human, and stay alive when she is at her low points.

One of those tips and tricks is curating a joy list. She writes this:

“When depression creeps up on me, I am unable to find joy in things, but sometimes that’s because my depression makes me forget the things that bring me joy, and eventually I find myself stuck on the couch, unable to think about what I could do to help break out of it. So I’ve created a list of things that bring me joy or comfort that I continuously add to, and when I’m struggling, I go back to that list to remind myself of things that I can reintroduce to my life that made me happy. Sometimes a simple reminder that I’ve found joy before can be enough to convince me that I’ll soon find joy again.”

Her joy list in the book includes dressing her cat up, reading, singing loudly in the shower, microwavable kettle corn, and sitting in the sun. It made me think, what would be on my joy list? So I made one:

The sound of my children’s laughter
When the cherry trees are flowering
Marking off a book as finished on my reading app
The first sip of a matcha latte
A hug from a friend I haven’t seen in awhile
When I step outside after a long winter, and for the first time in months, I realize the birds are singing and that which was dormant inside of me comes to life again

That last one feels a lot like the Good News of Resurrection for me.

What would be on your joy list? What on that list feels like the Good News of Resurrection to you? Take just a moment and let a couple things come to your mind.

The next step as Christians, taking this from a great tool for mental health to a spiritual discipline of keeping the Good News of the Resurrection alive inside of us, is seeing the “things” on our joy lists not just as “things” but as gifts of joy from God in order to bring the Good News to our everyday lives.

Being a Christian means seeing all things through the lens of the Resurrection. The line between sacred and secular, the line between everyday and holy, disappears when we see all things that are life-giving as gifts from the God who is Life itself. Gifts from the God who broke the powers of sin and Death over us. Gifts from God who wishes abundant life for us.

Because we do live in a world where Death still sits on the throne and has power over us. We live in a world where there is grief, loss, tears, pain, bad news. And the Good News of the Gospel is that all the bad news won’t have the final say. Because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Death was defeated, and death is dying. We look to that day when Christ will return again to create a new heaven and a new earth, when Death will die the final death, Christ will reign, and we will share in eternal life. We look towards that day - and God offers us a foretaste of it now, whenever the Good, Good News is shared, whenever life flourishes, whenever we experience joy.

The Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dial puts it like this: “How can we trust resurrection when death is on the world’s throne? Because Jesus knows what we will always need to be reminded of: the good news is greater than any tyrant. The good news of God is more alive than anything that tries to kill God, more alive than anything that tries to kill the imago dei in all of us. Kings come and kings go, and we may tremble still—but God? God shakes the earth with power and might so tender and so fresh it can make a tomb bloom with new life.”

And so - let us make joy lists. Let’s also make Good News lists. Lists that proclaim the Good, Good News of the Gospel, Good News of Great Joy for all people! Perhaps our lists would look something like this:

“The Good News is…All Are Invited”
“The Good News is…So Good it Catches Us By Surprise"
“The Good News is… Great Love for God & Neighbor”
“The Good News is…Together, the Impossible is Possible”
“The Good News is…Protection & Care for the Vulnerable”
“The Good News is…Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness”
“The Good News is…Even Judas Gets His Feet Washed”
“The Good News…Revealed through Nonviolence”
“The Good News is…Alive in the World”

If you didn’t pick up on my little sermon Easter egg - those were all our Good News sermon titles in the season of Lent. We’ve been working on our Good, Good News lists all along.

And so, root yourself, ground yourself in the Good, Good News. Make the joy list. Make the Good News list.

The Gospel in Matthew is the “loudest” of all the Resurrection narratives - an earthquake, an angel descending from heaven before their eyes, his appearance like lightning, the guards shake and faint, there is great fear - and great joy - and running, and then…there is Jesus, alive and standing before them.

Let the Good News of Easter be loud in your life. Let the Good, Good News of Great Joy be alive in your life and in the world. Cultivate joy. Cultivate Good, Good News. In a world that so desperately needs the Good, Good News of the Gospel - be its amplifier. Offer a deep drink of life-giving joy to a world that is parched. Let your life be like birdsong after a long winter.

And with that, I want to leave you this morning with a poem by The Rev. Sarah Speed entitled, “Birdsong.”

“Every morning the sun rises,
majestic and steady.
She is greeted
in all her strength
with the joyous cacophony of birdsong.
I like to believe
this holy chorus
is the birds telling each other—
I’m here.
We made it through the night.
You’re not alone.
What good, good news.
I think the resurrection is a bit like that.
God is here.
We made it through the night.
We are not alone.
What good, good news.”

Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen, Indeed!

Amen.

“The Good News Is…Even Judas Got His Feet Washed” a Maundy Thursday Sermon on John 13:1-35

John 13:1-35
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
“The Good News Is…Even Judas Got His Feet Washed”
Preached Thursday, April 2, 2026 (Maundy Thursday)

“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

This is the Good News of this night - a night of love. A night of service. A night of water and towels. A night of bread and wine. A night of Good News.

And the part of the Good News we are focusing on tonight in our Maundy Thursday meditation, is that Jesus’s love, Jesus’s service of foot washing, and Jesus’s invitation to the first Lord’s Supper - included Judas. He was present for the foot washing. He was present for the institution of Holy Communion. And he was one of Jesus’s own - loved until the end.

Yes, even Judas. And that also allows us to say, “Yes, even him.” “Yes, even her.” “Yes, even the one I despise.” And, perhaps, “Yes, even me.”

I think, at our core, as humans, all we ever really want to know is that we are loved. Loved by the people who gave birth to us. Loved by our caretakers. Loved by friends. Loved by significant others. Loved by God. For most people, there is never enough assurance that we are loved enough. We are always seeking love and seeking proof and assurance of the love we have.

And the world warps our own self-image as one created in the image of God and called “very good” by that God, to a mess. To someone full of faults and mistakes. Even when we say, “I’m only human” - this is what we mean. We are sinful people prone to follow our worst natures, inklings, and desires. Even if we “aren’t that bad” - even if we are generally good people, we can still have low self-esteem, be our own worst critics, and see only the bad parts when we look at ourselves.

In the Poem, “Even Now,” The Rev. Sarah Speed, gets to the gist of this human desire to know we are loved:

We ask the question a million different times
over the course of lives.
Do you love me even now?
As children we ask this question
with eyes the size of saucers
and a quivering bottom lip.
In our teenage years,
we ask the question by pushing people away
and paying attention to who comes back.
As adults we ask the question by
extending the first invitation
and seeing who returns the kindness.
Over and over again we ask the world,
Do you love me even now?
The thing I’ve learned about God
is that, no matter what comes before “even now,”
the answer will always be yes.

End quote.

“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

Judas betrayed Jesus, ultimately setting up the dominoes to fall - for his death to his resurrection. In the Gospel tellings of this last night with his disciples, we see Jesus address Judas’s betrayal in various ways - and yet, he doesn’t say “this is my body, broken for you. My blood, shed for you. Except for you, Judas, you are beyond the pale - not worthy of grace and forgiveness.” And even as Jesus says, “Not all of you are clean” in tonight’s reading from John - Jesus had not yet named Judas a betrayer. He got down on his hands and knees before Judas, washed his feet, and showed him a service of love - yes, even him.

Ultimately, it was up to Judas as to whether he would accept the love, grace, forgiveness that Jesus was offering him. After all, Peter betrayed Jesus that very night as well. Denying him three times. - and yet, after his resurrection, Jesus meets Peter on the beach and allows him to accept forgiveness of himself, asking him three times, “Do you love me?” and allowing Peter to answer three times, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Three declarations of love to counter act three denials of Jesus - opening room in Peter’s heart to accept the love and forgiveness that Jesus was offering him.

If we used our Biblical imaginations, we might imagine a future where, after his death and resurrection, Jesus met Judas and offered him the chance to repent. What would it have looked like to repent for Judas?

Unfortunately, we don’t know because Judas could not accept God’s forgiveness for him in this life. Perhaps, his thoughts mirror our thoughts in our darkest moment: “I am not worthy of love. I am not worthy of forgiveness.”

But. And. The Good News of the Gospel is that…Jesus was still offering that grace and forgiveness to Judas. He was offering him love and service through the washing of feet. He was offering him a place of belonging and participation in the salvific act of forgiveness through Holy Communion. It is as we say in our Communion liturgy, “When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.”

Jesus’s love for Judas was steadfast. God’s love for you is steadfast.

There is nothing you can do to change God’s invitation to you to come to Jesus, to accept grace and love, and to be forgiven. The only thing keeping us from God’s love is ourselves. It is as CS Lewis said, the gates of hell are locked from the inside - or even that there are no gates, the only thing that could ever keep us from God is just…ourselves.

And this is hard news. For us. And it is also very very Good News for us. The invitation is here to accept God’s love. It’s wide open. It always will be - tonight and for forever.

I am going to end with one more poem by the Rev. Sarah Speed because it’s so good. It’s called “If You Hear Nothing Else, Then Hear This.”

You can make a fool of yourself.
You can bet on the wrong thing,
lose it all, unravel people’s trust.
You can laugh at a funeral,
curse in a church, say the wrong thing
at the wrong time, every time.
You can lose yourself in a bottle,
a relationship, a false sense of security.
You can uncover prejudice
and wrestle with the shame of it all.
You can withhold an apology,
blame it on someone else,
tell yourself it’s not your fault.
You can trade in love
for a bag of coins.
And even then,
even still,
even now,
Jesus will love you enough to
wash your feet.
If you hear nothing else in the gospel,
hear this.

End quote.

If you hear nothing else in the Gospel tonight hear this Good News: God’s love for you is steadfast.

Amen.

“The Good News Is…Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness” a sermon on John 8:2-11 & Matthew 23:23

John 8:2-11
Matthew 23:23
“The Good News Is…Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness”
Preached Sunday, March 22, 2026

The end of Lent is in sight - next week begins Holy Week with Palm Sunday - and then two Sundays from now we will be proclaiming the Good News of the Resurrection together.

This Lent we have chosen to focus on the Good News of the Gospel. In a world that is so desperately in need of Good News - within the church pews and without - our sermon series is, “Tell Me Something Good: Rooting Ourselves in the Good News this Lent.” We are highlighting that the word “Gospel” literally means “Good News.” And the messages that God has to share with us are, as the angels proclaimed at the birth of Jesus, “Good News of Great Joy for all people.”

And yet - as we come nearer to Holy Week, we see Jesus butting heads with the religious elite involved in mob mentality. That same mob mentality that partners with the power of Empire will lead to Jesus’s death on Good Friday. Good Friday, as well as today’s Gospel reading from John, is meant to hold the mirror back up to us, causing us to cease our human practicies of mob mentality, scapegoating, and treating each other as less than fully human.

To Jesus, his situation at the beginning of this week’s Gospel is not good news. And it’s certainly not good news for the woman dragged before him. For a trap has been set for Jesus and the woman and her very life is the collateral damage that the mob is willing to sacrifice to catch Jesus in a trap.

There are several reasons to assume the men in the mob who bring this woman before Jesus do not actually care about her or upholding the law at all. Where was the man who she was supposedly caught in adultery with? Was it a set-up? Who betrayed her confidence? Was the “act” they caught her in even adultery or was it, as many feminist scholars have wondered, actually assault? Why drag her before Jesus at all, why involve him? How long had they kept her in their grasps before they found the opportune moment to make the biggest scene involving Jesus? No, they are certainly not recognizing her humanity, they mean for her to just be a pawn in a game, a scapegoat, collateral damage.

They waited until Jesus was teaching in the temple - and there were not only the accusers and the woman present, not only Jesus and the crowds listening to him teach present, but also Roman soldiers. According to scholar Kenneth E. Bailey, this area of the temple was regularly patrolled by Roman soldiers, keeping an eye out for unrest. So you can picture the scene - this woman and Jesus are literally between a rock and a hard place. The jaws of the trap are ready to close in on them. For the question they asked Jesus, “Now what do you say?” was a trick question with no right answer.

Sarah Bessey on her piece “The Woman Who Was Not Collateral Damage” put the trick question like this: “The religious leaders are pretty sure they have Jesus in the trap now because to their minds, he only has three options: 1) yes, let’s stone her - which runs afoul of the soldiers standing nearby, or 2) ‘alas, I wish we could stone this bad lady but we can’t because of our occupiers,’ which could be interpreted as not taking the law seriously or as cowardice and a betrayal in service of their occupiers or 3) forgive her and let her go, therefore showing his lack of respect for the law and discrediting him entirely. Bailey goes on to say that if Jesus decides to ‘carry out the law of Moses, he will be arrested. If he opts to set it aside, he will be discredited. What is it going to be: Moses or Rome? Either way he loses and his opponents win.’”

End quote.

And so, caught in a trap, Jesus bends down and begins to draw in the dirt. But they keep pestering him, asking him questions - not asking the woman questions, perhaps they were afraid she would share how they trapped, tricked, and betrayed her to be in this position - but no, for them, this isn’t about her, it’s about trapping Jesus. And so they keep on questioning him, “What do you say? What do you say? What do you say?” And so Jesus answers, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And he then bends down and continues to draw in the dirt.

There have been thousands of interpretations about what Jesus wrote in the dirt. Did he write the strictest interpretation of the law they were bringing before them and then wiping it away? Was he writing the portions of the law they were ignoring - like where were the witnesses? Where was the man? Was he writing the sins of the accusers? Reminding them that they are not without sin and thus cannot cast the first stone? Was he writing the names of the accusers? Was he simply doodling, not giving them the satisfaction of baiting him?

I have always liked the interpretation that he was writing the sins of the accusers or even their names. Because one by one, the crowd disperses until there is no one left to accuse the woman or stone her.

I like these two ideas of what Jesus was writing because they focus on the individuals that make up the crowd of accusers. It moves them from being part of a murderous scheming crowd, it moves them from mob violence, back to individuals who are known, loved, and forgiven by God.

Bessey says, “I find it interesting that Jesus refuses to let them remain part of an anonymous angry mob. He slows down the panic, demands, and the passionate exchanges by writing on the ground. That decision disarms them. And then, with his question - usually translated as ‘let him without sin cast the first stone’ - he transforms that mob into a crowd of people with faces and names. He essentially asks each person there to own up to what they are about to do. If you want to do this, buddy, do it with your full chest and your name attached. Let us see you do it.”

Because in our world today, just as it was 2000 years ago, it is easier to pass on judgement and condemnation when one’s individual identity is obscured. That is, we are seeing ourselves as part of a crowd - the accusers who meant to trap Jesus that day with a woman’s life on the line were viewing themselves as a part of a crowd, of a group. Mob mentality had taken over due to religion and us-versus-them mentality. This pattern continues today in political parties, religious sects, extremist groups, and anyone who has ever gotten in a fight online, their identity hidden behind a keyboard. When we stop viewing ourselves as individuals who are also in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness - and recipients of that mercy and forgiveness - we also stop viewing “the other” as individuals in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness, also beloved by God. It is “us-versus-them” / “right-versus-wrong” / “righteous-versus-unrighteous” / “The good guys versus the bad guys.” And thus whatever we do to one another is excusable.

We cannot extend mercy to one another. We cannot extend forgiveness to one another. We cannot strive for God’s justice in this world (which is nothing like our human systems of punishment) when we are too busy engaging in cultural wars and sorting everyone we meet into boxes of “good” and “bad.”

This is what Jesus means in his teaching from Matthew 23 today. Our verse was this:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.”

I like The Message paraphrase so I am going to share that here: “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?”

Mint, dill, and cumin grow in abundance. They are the little things. If anyone has accidently made the mistake of putting mint in the ground or in a large garden bed they know this. It takes over. So basically Jesus says they are paying attention to the little things - “nickel and diming” the law. “Oh you messed up here on this little tiny thing - you put a comma in the wrong place! And so you are condemed!” While ignoring the GOOD NEWS, the whole point of the law and how we are to treat one another in a way that is pleasing to God - with justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

So Jesus doesn’t play their games. He breaks up mob mentality, centering the humanity of each person in that mob of accusers until there were none left in the crowd to accuse. It is then that he turns to the woman, putting his full attention on her, and releases her from the trap that was laid, freeing her from being the collateral damage that she was intended to be. Just as he refused to let the accusers lose their individual identities in the mob, he now centers her personhood. I imagine he remains crouched down in the dirt, at her level, looks her in the eyes and says “You are not condemned - by them or by me.” I imagine he helps her stand - tall, upright - no longer crouched inward protecting herself, no stones will be thrown today. He then says, “Go and sin no more” which Bessey interprets as “be careful.”

She isn’t a pawn in a game. She isn’t what they accused her of. She is a beloved child of God, a recipient of God’s mercy, forgiveness, and justice.

We all are. This is the Good News of the Gospel - the Gospel that is Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness.

This is the Good News of the Gospel: God offers us unmerited, unearned mercy and forgiveness.
This is the Good News of the Gospel: we are called to extend mercy and forgiveness to others, modeling God’s reign of justice.

We do this when we center the humanity of each and every person in our lives and our world. When we consider our individual and collective actions, how we treat one another in our day to day lives on the micro scale and the laws and systems in place on the macro scale. The Good News of the Gospel should cause us to ask: “What is the most just, merciful, and faithful action?” Or even simply, “what would Jesus do?”

The thing is, mercy in our world is not easy. It makes no sense. The scales don’t balance. And that’s the point. If we were worthy of mercy based on human metrics, we would never receive it - or give it. It would be an eye for eye until the whole world was blind.

The Rev. Lizzie Dial-McManus says it like this, “Mercy—unmerited, inadvisably offered, and brimming with foolish hope—is the making of a Christ-follower…. And yet, mercy makes no sense. It is not logical, or equally beneficial. Mercy does not make us money or make us look good. But mercy is what makes us God’s own. The receiving and extending of mercy in the most awful and improbable of places is what makes me know that God is still at work in this world. Mercy is a practice of hoping and knowing that there is more than the thing that hurts us—more than the thing that haunts us.”

So hear this Good News - God is offering you mercy. God is offering you the invitation to do the faithful thing and extend mercy and forgiveness to your fellow beloved human beings, all of us known and named before God - no “us and them” no “others” - just people. Messed up people and yet known and loved by God - with the capacity to be known and loved by one another.

This is the Good News of the Gospel. There is no judgement. There is no stoning. The world’s justice is flipped on its head, no one gets what they deserve - but we do all get God’s love. Will we accept it and share it with one another?

Amen.