"Let the one among you who is without sin..." John 8:7
In the frst reading today from Isaiah, we hear God address the people of divine choosing. They can look back to see where they have been. But, and more importantly, they must look to the new moment a forever and faithful God makes possible. They have not done it, and they never could do it. With all creation, they are called to know the glory of God and live God’s truth in praise and thanksgiving.
Paul echoes this in the second reading, weighing all he had trusted against the Mystery of Christ. So much rubbish has been traded in for the righteousness found only in the scales of justice that are divine justice. Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection are the accomplishment of what we imagine and long for, of what lies well beyond our imagining.
In today’s Gospel reading from John, Jesus draws a stark comparison between the woman caught in adultery and those who were content to jeer at her and subject her to someone, anyone for judgment. If they could point to the words in the Law that addresses her manner of sin, they had forgotten the place to look or even their need to look at the Law in their own regard. It is not uncommon in human history that individuals or even whole nations should point to and announce judgment on others as a way of pufng up their own sense of self. Depending entirely on our own sense of truth, our own sense of self as righteous, our own strength of mind, body or spirit, we are only one turn away from running out.
At times we are left alone with the Lord, as was the woman in this story. We might not be sure that we are welcome, but he has invited us. We might not be sure we want to admit we need to be here, but we do!