Fifth Sunday of Lent C        March 21, 2010

Isaiah 43:16-21  Psalm: 126    Phil 3:8-14    John 8:1-11

Through Isaiah, God tells us that there is going to be a new creation. We will see that in the Gospel. But the signs of the new creation are in the passage from Isaiah itself, and it is one that gives us new hope as we continue into this “joyful” season of Lent.

In the first place there will be “Water in dry places.” With the abundance of water here in Canada, we take that for granted. I just returned from Guyana, which although means “the land of many waters” – can be quite dry and a real worry for the farmers and their crops. But even for our everyday life, it was surprising how the lack of water can affect us. We were travelling in an A1 luxury coach where the driver had forgotten to check the water in the radiator. As we returned at night, the bus heated up and we had to stop and wait for it to cool down. Not a bad prospect, I thought under the starry skies, until the mosquitoes began to make a feast of the 33 of us!! Water should have been provided for that dry radiator. How relevant was Isaiah at that moment.

 The next piece of Good news, is God’s message that we are a chosen people. Again how relevant and practical. As I waited to board the plane, the stewardess announced: “Would the passengers in the first class, executive class and frequent flyers board now or at their convenience” I thought that as God’s chosen people we do not get those privileges, but we definitely get those gifts that Paul mentions in his letter to the Galatians, Ch.5 : love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Even when things are difficult, as God’s chosen people, we face these difficulties with courage and with strength.

 Finally, Isaiah tells us that we have the assurance that God has formed us. An artist always creates a thing of beauty, especially if s/he has beauty in her/his heart. God is beauty personified, and hence God does not make junk but we are created in God’s image and likeness. Each one of us is a “thing of beauty, and a joy forever.” A certain friend of mine was telling me that he attended a conference recently, and persons were asked to identify themselves and their occupation. My friend was tempted to say, “I am Tony and I am a beautiful creation of God.”  He would have been so correct!

This is the new creation that Isaiah is telling us about. When we come to think of it, - the newness is not that things have changed, but we have realised with a new wisdom and new understanding the hidden value and treasure that we are. This has been at our finger tips all the while.  A certain ship travelling off the coasts of the Guyanas and Brazil, lost their engines and were floating aimlessly towards the mouth of the Amazon. Having consumed all their drinking water, they were thoroughly dehydrated and close to disaster.

Their luck changed when they saw a ship come steaming out of the Amazon river, and they signalled frantically for fresh water. The signal they received was: “Lower your buckets into the sea” The mates of the stranded ship were furious and thought it was a cruel joke, until one of the lowest sailors did precisely that. When he tasted the water, it was fresh and not salty. The Amazon comes out with such a force that the waters remain fresh for miles into the ocean. So too is the newness that God is creating for us.

But the newness that Jesus brings is a new respect for every human person made in God’s likeness. This beauty never disappears, no matter how much we sin, no matter how much we wallow in dirt. We see that in the Gospel, in the story of the Woman caught in adultery.

 The scribes and the Pharisees demanded that she should be stoned. It was the law. They were right. And Jesus agreed with them. Sometimes we think that Jesus was against the Scribes and Pharisees because he constantly clashed with them. Quite the contrary! Jesus was with them all the way in the respect and keeping of the law. He would say in Matthew 5:13, I have not come to abolish the law. Jesus would obey it to the last detail. However, the newness that Jesus would bring was that all the laws were only a foundation for the New Commandment that he would give: Love God and love your neighbour.

As a result all the other laws: keeping the Sabbath, the ritual washings, the offerings in the temple were there as a foundation of the new law of Love. According to the law, the woman committing adultery should be stoned. But she was also a daughter of Abraham – and she too had a right to receive salvation.  It reminds us of the story of Zaccheus. “He is a son of Abraham, and salvation has come to this house today.” Not once did Jesus say to the woman, “it is okay to do what you are doing”. All Jesus did was, - “since no one was left to condemn her, neither would Jesus”.

Jesus loved the law and kept it. However, we are called to be witnesses, not the judge, jury and executioner. This was the newness of attitude, newness of thinking, a newness of understanding that Jesus brings to the scene. As Mother Theresa of Calcutta would say, “if we spend all our time judging people, we will not have time to love them.” Jesus would say it more dramatically: “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.” On another occasion, he would say, “First remove the beam from your eye, then you will see more clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Again, Jesus is not saying that we should not correct the wrong doings. But if we love them with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds and with all our beings – then correction would come with love, with kindness, and we who are being corrected will accept the suggestions with equal openness and eagerness.