June 25, 2017
loved 2
- John 8:1-11
- Jon Graybeal
Before we get started, I don’t know if you know this or not, but ZPC has its very own softball team. I’ll be honest, we’ve had our struggles, but last Sunday something amazing happened. I like to refer to it as The Miracle in Speedway (Speedway is where we play our games). Last Sunday the ZPC softball team won its game against the “Players for Jesus.” We, as of yet, don’t have a team name, like I said, we’ve had our struggles. That’s right, the ZPC softball team beat the “Players for Jesus” 10 – 5. We won’t make mention that we had a doubleheader that day or of what the score of that game was. We play again at 4pm today, we’ve tasted victory and there’s no stopping us now.
My name is Jon Graybeal and you’re stuck with me this morning because Jerry is in California “furthering his education.” I am the Director of Student Ministries here at ZPC, which is what we affectionately call our church family. So week in and week out, I am typically with our middle school and high school students. Middle School students on Sunday morning and High School students on Sunday evening. While we’re here and talking about students, I’d like to shamelessly plug our student ministry program. We have amazing students in our community and if you’re not a parent or a family member of one of these students and you don’t know any of these said students, find one, say hi, get to know them. You’ll be better for it, I guarantee it. And another thing, we could use you…yeah, you. ZPC student ministries could use you, whether it’s as a small group leader, someone who just hangs out with us at our weekly programs (p.s., there’s usually food) or maybe you could be the somebody who brings us food. Every Sunday night the high school program begins its time with a meal and we have had parents, home groups, grandparents, you name it, if you’ve ever helped out with a meal on Sunday evenings, thank you, thank you, thank you. ‘Cause let’s face it, they’re not coming because of me. If volunteering in Middle School or High School sounds like something enticing to you, please let me know, come up to me after the service and let me know or call or email me this week, we have a spot for you. Our students are at that time in their life where they need to be surrounded by the church and prayed for and walked with and laughed with and sometimes they just need somebody to sit with them. It’s all too easy to expect someone else to do it, but we need you.
Earlier this spring, I began a series with our High School students called, “You Asked For It?” Students were given a note card and asked, “if you could ask God anything you wanted, what would you ask?” or “if you could ask any question about the Bible, what would you ask?” The result was a stack of notecards full of great questions.
Questions about what sets Christianity apart from other religions, questions about pain and suffering, questions about whether or not the Bible is reliable, questions about heaven and hell and questions about identity and self-worth. And as I thought through what to talk about this morning some of these cards came to mind because we weren’t able to get to all of them. And there was one card in particular that had weighed heavy on me. It was this card:
“I’ve grown up at ZPC and have been told that God is love and that God loves everyone. If that’s true, why do I feel so unlovable?”
And so it’s with that question in mind that we look at our text this morning. John 8:1-11. If you have your Bible you can grab that, or if you have the Bible app on your phone you can look there or it will be on the screens as well. John 8:1-11:
Quickly, before we jump into the text for this morning, we’re going to talk about things like love, how we should love, who we should love….things we talk about often. But this morning I want to say this and if you have your bulletin, grab a pen and write this down: What we teach you to know, whether it’s about love or grace or God or the Bible, what we teach you to know is never more important than who we teach you to love.
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At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
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Quickly before we jump into things, and I won’t get into this too much cause it’s not the point this morning, but this story has its own story. This story here in John 8:1 was not in the oldest texts of John’s gospel. If you’re following along in your own Bible you might see brackets around this section or it might be a footnote. In the oldest manuscripts that we have, this story is not there. The story has had a hard time finding its way into what we call the Bible today. And when the story did show up in the Bible it showed up in different places than where it lives today in John chapter 8. Sometimes it was placed at the end of John’s gospel as an appendage, sometimes it was placed in Luke’s gospel because the language and wording is very Luke like. The story has had a hard time finding a home, it was kind of this wandering, homeless story. The story perseveres due to the fact that it was told from generation to generation. It was a story told by fathers to daughters, by mothers to sons, by grandparents to grandchildren. And so, the story found its home in John chapter 8 and I think it fits quite nicely here, but regardless of where anyone falls on this, this story is in our Bible today because the story was handed down from generation to generation and is so true to Jesus. If you’ve read the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, this story fits perfectly with everything we know about the life and character of Jesus. Regardless of how this story came to us, I’m glad it did because we so often find ourselves right in the middle of this story. Whether we find ourselves in the shoes of the self-righteous, dragging people into the streets, judging, exposing, shaming or whether we find ourselves on the ground, drug out into the street, being judged, being exposed and being shamed. But the real question is how often do we find ourselves being the one that reaches down to help someone else up, how often do we find ourselves loving those that are ashamed, offering a hand to lift someone else up and reminding them that they are loved when everything around them is telling them that they are unlovable? That’s the place we need to be, that’s the kind of follower we need to be, that’s the church we need to be, that’s what this story reminds us of.
I once had a dog named Indy. I got Indy when Indy was 6 weeks old from the Humane Society in Louisville, Kentucky. I named him Indy because I had recently graduated college and had just moved to Indianapolis to work at a church here. When I got Indy, at 6 weeks old, he could fit in the center console of my 1997 Honda Civic, right there in between the two front seats. Indy didn’t stay that size though, Indy was a big boy, weighed about 85 pounds. Indy was lovable, just a good, good dog. He listened when you needed him to, didn’t push or beg and let Emma crawl all over him when she was just a baby. He was easy to love. We had to put Indy down when he was 9, much too young for my liking, but it was the right thing to do and often the right thing to do isn’t the easiest thing to do.
Fast forward 6 months after that sad day and I came across this guy. This is our dog Wrigley. If there’s any doubt as to why we got Wrigley, let me help you out. They look very, very much alike; the operative word there is LOOK. They LOOK very much alike. We often wonder if Wrigley is capable of possessing the lovable gene that was just innately a part of Indy. Where Indy was easy to love, Wrigley is often difficult to love. Wrigley rarely listens when you need him too, is right there when it’s time to eat and will snatch the pizza right off your plate if you leave it unattended. After dyeing a dozen hard boiled eggs for Easter one year, my daughter Emma and I placed them in a bowl in the middle of the kitchen table and went upstairs to get ready for bed only to come back down 5 minutes later to an empty bowl, no eggs, no shells, all gone but one very happy dog. Wrigley likes to bark at the moon, passersby and hot air balloons, and it’s not a great bark at that. I mean just look at this photo, look at Wrigley’s eyes and then Indy’s. Wrigley has those crazy eyes going on. Where Indy was easy to love, Wrigley is often difficult to love. I know it sounds like I’m down on Wrigley and I am but we do love Wrigley in spite of his…challenges.
Like Wrigley, I think we all at times are difficult to love and we often don’t even know it. How often are we stubborn and proud and boastful and unkind all the while going about our day as if we’re the greatest thing that ever was, oblivious to how hard we might be to love. There’s the flip side of this as well which may be more along the lines of our student’s question. The flip side that we feel truly unlovable. A place where we find ourselves playing hurtful words on a loop in our head. Words like “you’re ugly,” “you’re nothing,” “nobody wants you.” Those hurtful words cut deep and as we replay them over and over again we begin to believe them, don’t we, which leads us to feel shame. And shame is a powerful thing, so powerful that it can drive you to believe that you are not only unworthy and incapable of being loved but that you have no control over it. That no matter what you do or how hard you try nothing will ever change. Shame reminds us that we are in the wrong and that nothing we can do will add up to anything. Shame is the stabbing painful feeling that we are unworthy of love. Shame eats at the soul and leaves us with our greatest fear, that we’re not good enough. Author Michelle Graham says it this way: “Shame says that because I am flawed, I am unacceptable. Grace says that though I am flawed I am cherished. “
I imagine this woman that was dragged out into the street felt shame. I’d assume she was half dressed, she was embarrassed and she wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and disappear, to make this all go away. But like I said, shame keeps eating and tearing and breaking and wounding until at least in this case Jesus comes along and starts writing in the dirt.
I imagine Jesus, fully God, running his fingers through the dirt, reminding himself of where we came from, how he created us. Reminding himself that He made us out of this very dirt. I’m reminded of the song “Beautiful Things” and the chorus “You make beautiful things out of us”, “You make beautiful things out of the dust.”
This woman, created from this dust, made unique and made beautiful by her Creator, a Creator who is now stooped down on the ground beside her, this woman is reminded that she is loved, that shame has no place in the midst of grace. Reminded that she is cherished.
As often as I’ve studied this book, sometimes it seems to me that we could sum the Bible up in 10 words: God made everybody, God died for everybody, God loves everybody.
Jerry often gives us homework and so I didn’t want you guys to miss out, so grab your bulletin and write this down so you don’t forget. Sometime this week, just jot down A-Z and your homework is to write down the things that God loves that start with that letter. I know, this is basic and maybe something you did in Sunday School at age 8 but we’re not 8 anymore, are we?
I came across this exercise in Vince Antonucci’s book, “God for the Rest of Us”, so this past week I thought I’d take a shot at it and here’s what I came up with:
A – God loves ambulance drivers, accordion players, airplane pilots, artists, astronauts, acrobats, the Amish, Anglicans, astrologers, adulterers, atheists and addicts
B – God loves babies and Bible readers, Baptists and boy bands, blondes and brunettes and women of a certain age with blue hair. He loves the bully and the bullied, the brave, the bossy, the bitter the beat up and the burned out
C – God loves Canadians, Cambodians, Cubans and Mark Cuban. He loves congressman, crooks, cheaters, crystal meth makers and as hard as this is for me to admit and I still often question this one, God loves cat lovers. It’s hard for me to put that in there, but it’s true. But most of all God loves the Chicago Cubs.
D – God loves Dads, dairy farmers, deadbeats, drag queens, disc golfers and disc jockeys and Duke Ellington
E – God loves Elvis impersonators, evoluntion-ists and Eminem
F – God loves the faithful and the faithless, the fearful and the fearless. He loves people from Finland and France and Fiji and people who think that Philippines starts with an F
G – He loves good people and grateful people and generous and greedy people, glamourous and grouchy people, goofy people and gullible people. He even loves people who collect garden gnomes
H – He loves homosexuals and people who are homophobic and all the homo-sapiens in between
I – God loves people from India and Indiana, introverted and intense people. He even loves IRS auditors
J – God loves late night talk show hosts named Jimmy (Fallon or Kimmel), singers named Justin (Timberlake or Bieber)
K – God loves Khloe, Kourtney, Kim and Kanye and has a special place in his heart for people from Kentucky
L – God loves people in Laos and people who feel lousy about themselves. He loves librarians and landscapers, lawyers and ladies who pack lunch boxes
M – God loves ministers, missionaries, Mennonites and Methodists. He loves people who are malicious, meticulous and mischievous. He loves people who collect marbles and people who’ve lost their marbles. He loves Madonna and Miley and Marilyn Manson
N – God loves Nick Jonas and Nick Cannon and Nick Saban (Roll Tide) Nick Lache, Nick Nolte, Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman and Nikki Minaj
O – Obstetricians, Orthodontists, Optometrists and Ophthalmologists
P – God loves preachers and pimps, pornographers and prostitutes, pill poppers and pedophiles and the police that have to deal with them
Q – God loves the Queen of England, members of the band Queen and Queen Latifah
R – God loves the people of Russia and Rwanda. He loves real estate agents and the factory workers that put rainbow colored marshmallows in my Lucky Charms. God bless them.
S – He loves the people that live in South Africa, South Dakota, South Carolina and even the south side of Chicago. He loves smokers, strippers and saints.
T – God loves Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Tom Jones, Tommy Lee Jones, Tom Petty and even Tom Brady.
U – God loves the people of Ukraine and Uruguay, the United States and the United Kingdom. He loves used car salesman, umpires and the unemployed
V – God loves Vegetarians in Virginia and Vegans in Vietnam
W – God loves Will Ferrel, Will Smith and William Shatner. He loves the waitress at the Waffle House and the woman who weighs you in at Weight Watchers.
X – God loves X-ray techs, people that have an affinity for the xylophone and all the students at Xavier (that’s about as creative as I could get with X, good luck to you)
Y – God loves You. Y – O – U. Tall you, short you, old you, young you, employed you and unemployed you. Popular you, outcast you, happy you, sad you, content you, confused you. This book doesn’t just say that He loves you, it says He SO loves you.
Z – Last but not least, God loves zookeepers and those that are prepping for the Zombie Apocalypse
God Loves You and because He loves you, you have a responsibility, to love one another.
In a few chapters, John chapter 13 we see Jesus talking with his disciples and his words are every bit as true for us today. Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone may know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Those of us who claim to follow Jesus should be known by the quantity and quality of our love.
How do we love one another well? Paul tells us in Galatians 6 to sit with each other, in joy and in pain, carry each other’s burdens. When we have a friend who’s going through divorce, or filing for bankruptcy or their kids are depressed or wrestling with addiction. We are, or we should be, the first ones who run in and offer help.
We can’t continue to expect that someone else will take care of it, someone else will run in and offer help because it’s when we expect someone else will do it that no one ends up helping at all. If the woman in our text this morning had been dragged into the street and Jesus expected someone else to take care of it, if Jesus expected someone else to offer help, she’d have been stoned, she’d have been killed all because a bunch of proud, self-righteous teachers wanted to prove a point. If we expect someone else to step in and help, if we expect someone else to step in and love, it’s likely to just not happen at all and the cost of doing nothing is much too high. Doing nothing leaves people feeling unloved, feeling unlovable, feeling shamed, it leaves a student reaching out wondering where love will come from for them.
Do you guys remember Paul Harvey? I have fond childhood memories of my grandfather listening to the radio and hearing Paul Harvey say, “…and now, the rest of the story” and “This is Paul Harvey. Good Day.” Paul Harvey once said “Instead of being fishers of men, Christians have become keepers of the aquarium.”
Sometimes we have a tendency to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the pain around us. To that I say not so with this church. My hope and my prayer is that we will never be insulated or isolated from the pain of our friends, the pain of the student that wrote this card, the pain of our families, the pain of the people in central Indiana, Indiana, the Midwest and around the world.
We talk about love with some regularity around here, we look at the Bible and see Jesus loving those that are often difficult to love, we see Jesus loving the unlovable, we look at Acts and how the early church took care of and loved each other, we see a God that loved us so much that He gave His Son.
If you don’t hear anything else this morning, hear this: What we teach you to know (what we teach you to know…in here for an hour on a Sunday morning) What we teach you to know, is never more important than who we teach you to love. What we teach you to know, is never more important than who we teach you to love.