More thoughts on Lent and this Sunday's readings (April 7)

There's a relatively new scroll hanging in the church that quotes Mark 12:30:

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment. 

With its most beautiful script, this scroll has been reminding me of the particular message I feel the HolySpirit has been placing over my heart and mind this Lent: to think first and foremost and ONLY of...Him. Strangely enough, I found that by striving to "make MORE time" with God by trying to fit in and keep up with yet another one of the myriad of daily Lenten devotionals, exercises, commentaries, and readings scattered over my bedside/kitchen/office tables, I was actually spending LESS time IN Him! In my stretch to get more OF His word, I found myself with less and less time to merely...rest...settle into...just mull over...Him. 

This upcoming Sunday's readings are once again a reminder to me to STOP. REST. CONSIDER...where AM I? Where IS my heart? What IS the intent of my actions...and where am I going with them?? To whom or what have i given over my mind? To whom or what have i given over my strength? But it wasn't so much the readings that spoke out to me, but that little "verse before the Gospel" that made me think about how much of my heart, my soul, my mind and my strength was I actually FULLY dedicating to, well, sitting in His presence and LOVING Him.

Even now, says the Lord, return to Me with your whole heart; for I am gracious and merciful. (Joel 2:12-13)     

Where ARE you? RETURN to ME.

I love this Sunday's gospel of John 8, where the Pharisees have dragged that poor woman "caught in the act of adultery" and thrown her down before the feet of Jesus, demanding "...Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do YOU say?"  And in response, Jesus just bends down and writes on the ground with His finger.  What is He writing? What do they see? When their insistence persists, He does not condone the woman's sin, but throws the "decision to punish" right back at the accusers.  Right into their hearts.  Directly into the minds that FULLY KNEW they were unlawfully presenting, accusing, demanding with their intent NOT being to bring "justice against a crime committed", but to trap Jesus into doing or declaring something outside of the current Roman death-penalty laws. 

Where ARE you? What is the intent of your heart?   

And then Jesus states what each one of the accusers are so well aware of--that in their accusation of a crime committed, they too were breaking the very law they were using to accuse (i.e. see Deut 22:22; so if they "caught her in the act of adultery" then they must also know the partner and their law requires that BOTH adulteress and adulterer be brought to the same penalty...so where is the other?): "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." 

Where ARE you? What is your true intent?

Whatever Jesus is writing on the ground is very impactful--seemingly affecting the most mature first and eventually trickling down to the younger.  What made them "see" their hypocrisy, their inconsistency in their demands for law-bringing, their perversion of the truth to meet their end...?

Where ARE you? RETURN to Me.

But one by one they all walk away.
  
And to the woman, He asks if no one condemns her (condemn is the very strong Greek word katakrino, having the meaning of a judicial judgment in which a legal sentence has been handed down and passed). AND THEN, although He says "Neither do I condemn you" (i.e. pass judicial judgment and legal sentence--katakrino), He acknowledges her sin, and tells her to...STOP.

Where ARE you? RETURN to Me.

I am loving these Lenten pearls, ladies, and would LOVE to hear some more of yours!
I will post the next week's readings tomorrow!

love
maggie