Reaching Out with God's Love by Rev. Gabrielle Martone at Pearl River United Methodist Church on Sunday 26 January 2020
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John 8:1-11 NRSV
while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They 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. When 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.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
... from John, although some scholars don't think it actually belongs there, is my favorite. It is my favorite because I think it teaches us the most about Jesus and who Jesus is and how Jesus responds to the things in our life that everybody else says that we should be condemned for. So I want you to imagine this. Jesus is in the temple and he is teaching and those that thought they knew everything. We don't have any of those people in this lifetime, right? And really just wanted to catch Jesus in a trap, brought him a woman, caught in adultery and said, "She's yours to deal with. This is what the law says." Jesus, and this is my favorite part, kneels down in the dirt and begins to draw.
I want you to imagine that the next time somebody is trying to get you caught in a trap, you just bent down and started to draw on the floor. It's a very bizarre response, but it's Jesus' way of saying, "I don't want to be bothered with this." And then Jesus looks at them and says, "Let the first person who is among you who is without sin be the first person to cast a stone." And Jesus goes back to drawing in the dirt. One by one starting with the elders, they all walk away. One by one starting with the wisest among them, they walk away. And when Jesus stands up, he looks at the woman, he being the only one in this space who is without sin, thus being the only person who had a right to condemn her, looked at her and said, "Is there no one left?" And some translations have the woman saying, "No one." And other translations say, "No one but you." And Jesus' response in every translation is the same, "Well, then, neither do I. Go and live your life differently."
That for me is the epitome of what the Christian faith is all about when we are talking about how we interact with and deal with other people. John 3:16, anyone who's grown up in the church probably has that memorized, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son..." We all remember that one. So that nobody would perish but have eternal life for all that believed in him. But we don't always remember John 3:17 that says, "Jesus did not come to this world to condemn it, but to save it."
Our job as Christians, somewhere over the years has been flaunted and used as a way to be able to say, "You are in and you are out. You follow the rules and therefore you belong here, or you don't follow the rules and therefore you do not belong here." And we have become a one central location for judgment. "Either you're in or you're out. And if you're out, don't even try coming back in because we don't want you here." When the whole Jesus' narrative is the exact opposite, it is all about finding, holding, and loving people. Reaching out and saying, "You for who you are, not because you follow the rules, not because of you have done all of the right things, but solely because of who you are, you are loved and you belong here and you will not be condemned. Let us learn to live our life differently together."
So our mission statement here at Pearl River United Methodist Church is we are a community rooted in grace, growing in faith and reaching out in God's love. So what does it mean to reach out in God's love? Well, it means exactly this. That we show up in the darkest parts of people's lives and we say, "I do not condemn you." We reach out a hand and we say, "You matter and you belong. And it is not about the amount of things that you can check off, but it is about freely and totally being yourself and allowing God to transform you. You're not joining a country club or a social event. You are joining the kingdom of God."
My favorite thing about baptisms is that when I hold these tiny little adorable babies, I have no idea what their life is going to be. I have no idea what this child is going to do as they grow up. I don't know how many times they will talk back to their parents. I don't know how many arguments they will create and not settle with their siblings or their friends. I don't know what college they will go to if they will go to college. I don't know what their life holds for them and still I say, "God loves you and we love you." So that even if this child, no matter who it is, does not step into the doors of the church that I am serving ever again. Even if I never cross that child's path ever again, that baby remains in my heart and in my prayers, no matter who they grew up to be.
As we hold a life in front of us, what God says is, "It doesn't matter who you are because you have been created in my image." And so as we grow up and we begin to interact with other people and we begin to experience life differently than others, we have two choices. We either become people of condemnation and say, "you don't belong here because you don't fit in." Or we become people who reach out in God's love and say, "You matter. Not for your income level, not for your job, not for your education, not for how many cars you have, not for how much debt you have, not for anything other than you are a beloved child of God." So we go out in the world and we reach out and we say, "You matter, you belong." So that we can be like Jesus who doesn't want to deal with the scribes and the Pharisees trying to catch him in a trap, but also values this woman's life and who she is and the experiences that she has had and what has brought her to her place and he offers her freedom. "You are not defined by your sins. You're not defined by your shame or your guilt or the darkest parts of who you are. You're defined only in your freedom that I give you."
Here's my big challenge for all of you sitting in this room. Even those of you who are just here for a visit. I want you to do something totally different with your life this year. I want you to find one experience that causes you and forces you to be in a different space, a different vein, a different experience. I want you to go seek out the lost, the last and the least. Whether it's serving at a soup kitchen or working with a warming center or just walking a different path. When you go to the city, I want you to come face to face with people who do not exist like you do. And then I want you to reach out and offer them belonging and acceptance.
My big challenge to you folks, Pearl River and visitors included, is this summer in July, we're going to Red Bird. Red Bird Mission is a mission in Southeastern Kentucky that works with the three poorest counties in the United States to rebuild homes and to offer freedom and life and acceptance to people who probably will not get it in other places. And I guarantee you that the homeowners that you will encounter will be entirely different than anyone you've ever experienced before because mountain people do things differently and they were wonderful and beautiful and it is a gift. And so I want you to come with us. It doesn't matter if you know any trade skills whatsoever. When I first went, I was 13 years old. I never held a power tool in my life because my dad was terrified that I would hurt myself and/or other people. I want you to come with us. And if you do have a trade or a skill like I don't know, heating and air conditioning, electricians, handyman in general, I want you to come down and help teach somebody else on the trip how to do that.
And if you can't do Red Bird, John and Beth do Rise. That's in Upstate, NY-
Western New York State. I lied. Go with them. And our youth group is going out to Pennsylvania this year to do work on elderly folks homes out in State College. Go with them. There are three different opportunities this year from this church for you to be able to use the gifts and the skills that God has given you, even if they're not in the power tool department, to change the life of somebody else. And in the most beautiful way, give back to someone who will never be able to repay you. What you do is you show up to somebody's house and you do work and your life gets changed. Because you offer total acceptance and fullness and life, and you reach out in the purest form of love to be able to do something incredible.
So there's three opportunities. We will continue to publicize them. See, that one's up all ready. Hey, we will continue to publicize them and I want you to come. Come with me, go with John and Beth Ann, go with Alice. Go get yourself out of Pearl River, New York, or Mahwah, or wherever it is that you live, Sleepy Hollow, and go be the hands and feet of Christ. Go reach out in God's love and change the world today and every day. Amen.
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