James’ Message

Dear friends,

I can remember my mum buying a great big sack of potatoes (56 lbs) that used to last several weeks. This was really useful in helping to feed three children who were always hungry. You could clearly see where the potatoes had come from with the bits of mud and dirt still clinging to them. I never really thought to suggest that buying mud by the pound along with the weekly spuds was a bit of a waste of money, but in a world where we are increasingly removed from agricultural practices there is some sense in saying that in ‘potato land’, the dirtier the better.

One of the great reassurances of the Gospels is that there are some very muddy people who we meet there - very muddy people whose lives Jesus transforms and cleanses by his words, presence and actions. Whilst we may not be able to know the intricate details of their lives, we can at least feel reassured that Jesus was interested in real people with flaws, real people who would get the dirt of the world washed off them, only to go and find some more somewhere else.

In John's Gospel there is the story about a woman who is caught in the act of adultery. She was brought before Jesus and a crowd of people by the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees. She had been accused of being caught in this act, which under Jewish law carried the death penalty by stoning. This was in fact a ploy by the religious authorities to trap Jesus - will Jesus allow the death of the woman or play down the seriousness of her sin - but as Jesus often did he turned the trap into an opportunity. Jesus upheld the law, while imposing a condition upon its enforcement which made it impossible. Jesus stood up and declared that whoever is without any sin, may cast the first stone. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.

This passage and the illustration above is a helpful one to hold onto as we journey through Lent which this year begins on February 22nd with Ash Wednesday. Lent is a time when we are asked to examine our thoughts, motives and actions so that we can be cleansed from the mud of sin that otherwise clings to our lives. Whether we identify with the woman or others who had to withdraw from Jesus, we are all human, all fallible and all capable of being forgiven.

In a world of rankings and guilt where one thing always seems to be held against another as better or worse, this story and its conclusions are worth pondering. Have you sinned, says Jesus, then how can you cast a stone? And to the woman he says - you are not condemned, go and sin no more. As we examine our lives we can look to Jesus who forgives us, immediately and completely.

With my best wishes,

James