"LOVE DOES NOT REJOICE IN WRONGS"
a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens
Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.
November 3, 2024
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
John 8: 2-11 NRSV
2 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. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and, making her stand before all of them, 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 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. 7 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.” 8 And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 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. 10 Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
Love keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing. That is what the Apostle Paul wrote to one of his congregations. Paul, as you know, was a follower of the Risen Christ, founder of numerous churches, and author of numerous letters to those congregations. Let me ask you: do you believe that? Love keeps no record of wrongs and does not rejoice in wrongdoing.
For me there are two answers: yes and no. Or maybe yes, and maybe. Is that clear enough of an answer? Can we go home now? Or would you like a brief explanation of my answers? I mean, after all, we’ve got maybe five minutes. This may take seven, but who’s counting, so let’s go.
We are told that God keeps track of our sins. That sounds like a record of wrongs. But at the same time I have counseled with many couples over the years where one person brings up everything the other person ever did wrong, real or perceived, every time there is any conflict over anything. I always counsel that this is not helpful. It isn’t that you should never talk about it when someone does something hurtful. But the first part of that discussion should be as near as possible to the time it happens. And it should begin with the person who feels hurt telling the other person what was said or done they felt hurt by. Then the next step is asking the other person if they meant it to be hurtful. Now, I don’t have time to break down a full description or explanation of this, but trust me, keeping record of wrongs to use against someone else is never helpful. But not processing a hurtful experience, and not knowing if they were intentional or accidental never helps a relationship grow either.
That said, let’s talk about God’s record of wrongs. Much of Christianity over its history portrays God as a kind of eternal record keeper of wrongs, proclaims that we are all guilty, and details the pain and suffering God will put us through for doing those wrongs unless we have confessed these wrongs, changed our ways, and proclaimed our belief in Jesus as our Savior. Simple process, simple concept. Paul himself says, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, in a different letter to a different church [ Romans 3:23 ]. He even says, “shall we say that God is unjust in bringing God’s wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? [ Romans 3:5-6 ].
So apparently we have a problem here. Hey Paul, which is it, God loves us and keeps no record of wrongdoing or God has to judge the world and because we all are guilty, God has to keep record to justify our punishment?
Ok, I confess, I have no answer for this conundrum. I can’t resolve this contradiction in the 2 minutes I have left. So I am going to throw myself on the mercy of the court. I am going to point you to the reading from the Gospel of John and this story about a woman caught in the act of adultery. You heard the story. I believe the real reason they bring this woman to Jesus was to test his faithfulness to the law of Moses. I suspect they don’t really care about this woman or her adultery. Maybe they knew about her adultery because some one or more of them had participated in it with her. Which of course leads to the question why was the woman brought forth and not the man, too? Hmmm? Oh, well, no time for that.
Here’s what I find fascinating in this story. First off, Jesus isn’t so much interested in her guilt as he is in their interest in her guilt. He asks anyone who qualifies to stone her to do so. The qualification is anyone who has not sinned. I can imagine the scene. Here are all these fire-breathing holy, righteous men who dragged this woman down to Jesus, not really caring about shaming her, because she doesn’t really matter to them. What matters is trying to catch Jesus in a controversy so they can accuse him. Power, when threatened, loves to try to do this kind of thing.
When he asks them to testify to their holiness [ “Let the one without sin cast the first stone” ], I imagine the sound. First one, then another, and then perhaps a dozen stones, dropping out of hands ready to destroy another person, and the sound of sandals shuffling off quickly out of sight. And we are told that when they were all gone Jesus straightens up, asks her if there was no one left to condemn her. She says, no one, sir. And he says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and don’t sin again.”
Did you notice? He didn’t put any other requirements on there. He didn’t say, fall down and worship me, proclaim your belief in me as Savior and I will release you from your sins. If you ask me he chose to keep no record of her wrongdoing. Matter of fact he didn’t ask any of those who were about to do wrong to someone they considered a wrongdoer about their list of sins either. I wonder if any of them were in earshot when he said, “Just, go, and don’t sin again.” I’m not sure what to make of that. I just kind of want to go, “whew!” That was tense.
So I’m sorry, I have to admit failure to you. I can’t give you a good explanation of all this. You have to go and work this out yourself, I think. But maybe keeping a record of other people’s wrongs is, well, wrong.
One thing I do know is that real love is never wrong. I guess that is what God’s love is, real love. Back in the day we called it grace. That came from a Latin word meaning love, given freely, with forgiveness. Love is a pretty amazing thing, isn’t it? Maybe that’s what makes that song so beloved. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, hmm? AMEN?
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