“Keep in mind that this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. There was no question about her guilt or innocence.” Alex paused and surveyed the congregation. The loudest complainers had been questioning all week about Alex representing someone he knew was guilty. “And Jesus didn’t offer a substantive defense. Instead, he knelt down and wrote something in the dirt.”
Alex knelt now and pretended to write on the floor. He spoke in soft tones. “What did he write? We don’t know. Perhaps…” Alex looked up at his congregation. “Perhaps he wrote a list of sins the religious leaders had committed-maybe even the names of women they had slept with. Perhaps he was sending a message to the leaders that if they stoned this woman, their sins would be exposed as well.” Alex couldn’t help taking a quick glance at Harry. The man’s neck was turning crimson.
“Perhaps this is a reminder to all of us that we should be slow to judge and that every sin-even our own sin-is an affront to a holy God.”
Alex stood and walked a few rows deeper into the congregation. Nobody was scribbling pictures on the bulletin today. If his entire ministry hadn’t been on the line, this might have been fun.
“Or perhaps what he wrote in the dirt was the Roman statute that made it illegal for anyone but Rome to impose capital punishment. That’s why the Jewish leaders had to get the sanction of Pontius Pilate before they could crucify Christ. But whatever he wrote in the dirt was not what we would call a substantive defense. Though none of us like to think of it this way, Jesus defended this woman on a technicality.”
Ramona could not have looked more proud. Her posture, as always, was impeccable. On the other side of the sanctuary, Nara slowly nodded her approval.
“As to my second question-‘Does this passage even belong in Scripture?’-we have to determine whether this passage was added by the early church leaders or whether it was contained in the original manuscript of John and for some reason removed by the early church. As you all know, we don’t have the original manuscript. And so we must judge based on what we know about the early church and based on the thousands of ancient copies that we do have.”
Alex was starting to lose them a little. Nobody had ever accused his congregation of getting mired down in theological details. “You should know that this story is contained in a fifth-century Greek manuscript, one of our oldest copies, and in the original Latin Vulgate. The story is also referenced in several writings of the early church fathers in the third and fourth centuries.
“We know that the early church was adamant about the sin of adultery. In fact, when an early Christian literary work called The Shepherd of Hermas suggested that persons who committed major sins such as adultery could be forgiven only one time, it was roundly criticized by church leaders for being too lenient. Tertullian called it ‘The Shepherd of Adulterers.’ Given this judgmental attitude of early church leaders, it’s hard to believe that those leaders added this story rather than deleted it.
“And if that’s the case, we ought to pay careful attention to a story that is so poignant that the early church fathers couldn’t quite embrace its radical message of mercy and forgiveness. Maybe they had forgotten that Christ’s entire message was based on God’s willingness to forgive our sins, not just one time, but for all time. There is no better picture of such forgiveness than this story.”
Alex hesitated before he dove into the next part. He didn’t want to make the sermon all about him, but he knew his own future was the issue foremost on everyone’s mind.
“At the end of today’s service, you’ll have a chance to vote on whether I should remain as your pastor. Many of you are upset with me because I’ve chosen to defend a man of another faith who I believe is innocent. Many of you have already decided that he is guilty.”
Alex was getting some hard looks. He had gone from preaching to meddling. “But even if you want to assume that this man is guilty, does that mean I shouldn’t represent him? Did Christ make you prove your innocence before he died for your sins? If this story about the woman caught in adultery stands for anything, it stands for the proposition that we are never more like Jesus than when we’re defending those persons who have been rejected by everyone else. This is a story about grace. A story about forgiveness. And if you decide to fire me as your pastor, then I would urge you to do what the early church leaders seem to have done…”
Alex spoke softly now, though he knew his words were landing with nuclear force. One thing that South Norfolk Community Church believed was that you didn’t mess with Scripture. So Alex reached into the back of a pew and pulled out the nearest Bible that the church had placed there next to the hymnals. “If you decide to vote against me, have somebody take a pair of scissors, open each Bible to John chapter eight, and cut that chapter out. And along with it, some other teachings on grace in the New Testament.”
Harry Dent was actually shaking his head from side to side, the equivalent in church of a declaration of war. Ramona had a thin but pleased smile on her lips.
Alex hoped that his message today had given her some good ammunition for the business meeting that would take place after the service. An hour from now, he would know whether it was enough.
52
Alex waited in the foyer as the church members deliberated. Anyone who was not on the current membership roll-including all members of the press-suffered the same fate. When Alex declined to answer questions from the reporters and told them the meeting could last an hour, they decided to leave. Alex promised to call them when he found out the results of the vote.
Despite receiving many accolades about the sermon from the regular church members, Alex was pessimistic about the vote. Harry Dent and his cohorts had invited people to church who hadn’t darkened the doors for two years. They were undoubtedly planning to vote Alex out.
Alex thanked Nara for coming and was surprised when she told him that she was going to wait it out with him. After most of the visitors left, Alex and Nara found a seat on the steps at one end of the foyer.
“You want anything to drink?” Nara asked. “I can run to the store. This meeting might take a while.”
“Democracy at work,” Alex said.
“Only in America do you determine God’s will by majority vote.”
“Good point,” Alex said. He was too emotionally drained to argue. Preaching wasn’t easy when your job was on the line.
“That was a good message,” Nara said. She hesitated, clearly wanting to say something more. “I’ve been pretty pushy-especially in court on Friday.” She turned to him, then added, “I think I might have judged you too swiftly.”
The admission surprised Alex. His mind was still on the proceedings in the sanctuary, but when he looked at Nara, he was struck by the sincerity in her eyes.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “If I was in your shoes and it was my grandmother’s preliminary hearing, I probably would have fired my lawyer on the spot.”
“I can do that?” Nara asked.
Alex smiled. He liked that about Nara-the smart-aleck attitude. “Fortunately for me, you most certainly cannot.”
“I’ll try to behave myself from now on.”
“Promises, promises.”
“No, really.”
Alex turned serious. “For what it’s worth, Nara, you’ve already done a lot to help your father’s case.”
Nara thought about this for a moment, as if weighing how much she should share. She glanced around the foyer to make sure nobody was within earshot. “I know you’re focused on the vote right now, and you should be. But when this is over, we need to sit down with my father and have a very frank discussion. You need to ask him about the Islamic Brotherhood in the United States and who provides their funding.”
Alex looked at her, measuring the earnestness in her eyes.