SOUL FIBER: BLACK WOMEN IN LENT - Caught in Adultery/Saved by Grace

10“Dear woman, where is everyone? Are we alone? Did no one step forward to condemn you? 11Lord, no one has condemned me. Well, I do not condemn you either; all I ask is that you go and from now on avoid the sins that plague you.” John 8: 10-11 The VOICE

And God: “Of the 40 times Jesus speaks on the subject of adultery, He makes a poignant share with those who would attempt to theologically entrap him in The Message: Matthew 5: 27-28. Therein it reads: “You know the next commandment pretty well, too: ‘Don’t go to bed with another’s spouse.’ But don’t think you’ve preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those leering looks you think nobody notices—they also corrupt.”

Who among us 7,600,000,000 humans find ourselves having adulterous thoughts? The Jewish Jesus makes it clear that a thought, that a look has extracurricular implications for everybody: priest, pimp, pastor, parishioner, prostitute, politician, parent, principal, pupil, and all people. This also applies to same-gender-loving, transgender loving, and opposite gender loving folk. And Grace!

I believe thoughts about coveting, cheating on our income taxes, slippery-sloop ideas, laziness, fearfulness, hatefulness, etc., speaks to a spirit of faithlessness that is in opposition to doing justice and loving mercy – the principles practiced by the Jewish Jesus in Holy Writ.

Contemporary scribes and Pharisees have at least three traits in common: practitioners of distractions, accusations, and injustice. This is the thing: When we are caught in adultery or anything else that spiritually disconnects us from God and one another, BE mindful of John chapter 8, verse 11, spoken to the woman caught in adultery: “I do not condemn you either; all I ask is that you go and from now on avoid the sins that plague you.” This is Grace (unconditional, unmerited, divine favor) by which we are saved (protected) from sin.

Pray with me: Dear God, give me eyes to see justice and mercy in every issue, query, concern, circumstance, and situation so as to respond to all of life with Grace.