Brief Synopsis of the Readings: In the first reading from Isaiah we read how God reminded his people how they were led through the sea our of Egypt to the promised land. And now God continues to lead them through the wilderness. “The wild beasts will honor me, jackals and ostriches, because I am putting water to give my people to drink. In John’s Gospel we read about the woman caught in adultery. A crowd, led by scribes and Pharisees, brought a woman to Jesus. She had been caught in adultery and according to the law she should be put to death. In hopes of trapping Jesus they asked what he thought they should do. Jesus replied that if “there is one of you who has not sinned let him be the first to throw a stone at her. One by one, all walked away. Alone with the woman Jesus asked where those who condemned her were. When she replied that nobody left has condemned her, Jesus replied that he did not either. He told her to “go away and sin no more.”

Much like last week’s parable of the Prodigal Son most Christians are also familiar with the story of the woman caught in adultery. I’d like to start by acknowledging how far we’ve come since these events and why many of us find outrage in how this woman was treated.

Scripture speaks a great deal about adultery, that is, having sex with the spouse of another. Leviticus 20:10 says this: “If a man commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.” Though it would not have been any consolation to the woman, why don’t we know this as the couple caught in adultery?

At the risk of stating the obvious, men and women were not seen as equals throughout much of our history. And while we in 2022 continue to strive for equality I think we can’t claim victory, though I am heartened that most of us continue to strive.

Simply put, at the time Scripture was written women were not seen as persons so much as property. Given this when an unmarried woman participated in a sexual relationship, or a married woman participated in a sexual relationship with a man other than her husband they were seen as “damaged goods.” Horrifically in our history some cultures have demanded that rape survivors marry their rapists because of the understanding that “if you broke it you need to buy it.” Fortunately this has never happened in our history.

Many of us in 2022 bemoan the fact that we live in a society that obsesses over sex and falsely believe that we came to this understanding relatively recently. And as much as we may find this easy or fashionable it’s simply not true. As teenagers learning about sex we prayed that our parents not only didn’t “do it” but that they had no desire. When I was a youth minister working with teenagers I knew a 16 year old who was born on September 24th. For the longest time she couldn’t understand why her mother called her her “Christmas baby” until she recognized that she was born exactly 9 months after Christmas Eve. Of course when she figured it out she was completely grossed out.

I do genealogy as a hobby. It allows me to learn about and honor my ancestors, particularly the ones I never met. A few years ago I visited the church where my mother’s mother’s parents were married and I sought their marriage date. I had the birthdate of my grandmother’s older brother and counted forward for 9 months. I couldn’t find it and in my frustration I began to count back from his birthdate. I soon learned that he was born six months after their wedding. In 1905 no baby born that early would survive and I recognized that he was conceived before their marriage. My first reaction was: “Pepere (Grandpa), you dog!” I was born 55 years later but I appreciated that my great grandparents celebrated a love that couldn’t wait.

I suspect that we obsess with sex because it allows us our greatest joy and also our greatest sin. All of the animals in the Garden of Eden (to this day) reproduce without emotion. Some live in herds, others live solitary lives, but they don’t feel any attraction. But in a predictable cycle the female comes into estrus, the male responds, and they “couple” resulting in a birth.

But we are different. God created us out of love and set us apart as we are created in God’s image. We meet, find mutual attraction, and fall in love. Not all couples are able to create new life (infertile, gay, post menopausal, etc.) but all couples come together out of mutual love with the understanding that their union would become life giving. We all cooperate in God’s plan of creation of life.

Alas, today’s Gospel also recognizes that we have the power to defile God’s plan. We recognize not only adultery but also pornography and sexual abuse are in our power. To the horror of most of us we’ve learned about sexual abuse within the communities we thought we could trust: clergy.

I honestly cannot imagine the pain suffered by those who fell victims to this abuse and I can only pray for their healing. But I’m heartened that we’ve moved beyond the point where we’ve dismissed their pain and sided with the abusers. And I pray that we’ve already learned about the last person abused.

So at the end of the day what do we do with the woman in the Gospel? Jesus forgave her and told her not to do it again. I hope she recognized that Jesus was like us “in all things but sin.” In other words he could have thrown the first rock. But she did “not do it again?” I hope so.

And yet sex and sexuality comes so close to our relationship with God’s call to “be fruitful and multiply” that we need to recognize that we need to continually recognize that we are called to our best selves and our worst selves.