SERMON | Dropping Rocks
B-Sides | Dropped Stones
Scripture: John 8:2-11
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.”]
Questions
What?
1) What’s the weirdest question you’ve been asked or asked recently?
2) At first glance, who do you identify most with in this story (no wrong answers). Why?
So What?
3) How do you feel when you get interrupted with a question?
Now What?
4) Rather than judgment, Jesus gives this woman and this crowd grace. Where in your life are you most needing grace? Where in your life is it most difficult to give grace?
5) Lucas talks about the complicated nature of being human. He mentions how maybe some of the crowd didn’t want to stone the woman. He borrows Lutheran language saying we are simultaneously “sinner and saint.” How does that definition match up to your own understanding of who you are?
Prayer
God of interruptions, we are people filled with questions. We are people filled with love. We can also be people filled with hate. Help us to choose the former. Help us to ask questions that lead to transformation. Equip us to see your interruptions as holy experiences to both experience and pass on your selfless grace. Amen.
“Questions interrupt. They interrupt our days, our slope-side lessons, and ultimately our lives. Questions interrupted both Jesus, this vulnerable woman, and this misguided crowd.“
—Rev. Lucas Jones