eBulletin April 6, 2025

Today we hear of a story that seems very unfair.  A woman is caught in the act of adultery.  She is put—alone—in the middle of a circle of people who are ready to stone her.  I ask myself, where is the person with whom she was committing this act?  Is he not guilty also of breaking one of the commandments?  Yet, we blame the woman because she is unable to defend herself.  Because in Jewish society women had fewer rights.  They scapegoated her.

I feel like the same thing is happening with immigrants today.  Undocumented immigrants who work hard to earn a living for their families and who pay taxes are being arrested and deported.  Whether we are aware of it or not, we all benefit from labor of people who are undocumented.  Why isn’t everyone who eats avocadoes harvested with undocumented labor somehow also held accountable?  Are we also not guilty from benefitting from their labor?  From their taxes?  In our society we scapegoat immigrants. It is so unfair.

Like all of us with our personal sins, the cycles of societal sin repeat themselves.  That we are doing what we do now after centuries of societies scapegoating vulnerable people is no surprise.  We tend to never learn, to never progress.

And yet, we hear in the first reading a breath of something new.  The Prophet Isaiah says, “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!  Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”  God is always trying to do something new.  One of the new things he wants to do in us is show that we do not have to repeat the same old patterns of sin, of blaming others, of blaming ourselves, of thinking we are less.  We see Jesus doing something new in the gospel.  When faced with this woman, he first draws on the ground.  And then he simply invites people to reflect on their own lives: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  And one by one, they put down their stones.

Jesus would say, “Let the one who has not benefitted from the labors of undocumented persons in this country cast the first stone.”  If we answered honestly, we would all put our stones down. Finally.

Additional parking will be available from Friday to Sunday at 22nd and Commercial, near @Triple K Manufacturing.
On Sunday, parking will be available only at Calvary Baptist Church.