March 28th 2004 |
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Fifth Sunday in John 8/1-11 |
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| Background: This is
perhaps the most scandalous story in the Gospels. Many scholars think that it is not part
of St. John’s Gospel because it does not quite fit here and does not appear in some
of the ancient codexes. It may have been a free floating parable of Jesus which the editor
placed in St. John’s gospel, changing it from a parable Jesus told to a story in
which Jesus participated because it seemed less scandalous if Jesus was the principle
actor. The scandal of course is that Jesus forgives the unpardonable crime of adultery and
indeed gives “absolution” before the sinner confesses. |
read the padre |
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Story: Once upon a
time a man named Dean Acheson who had served in the Roosevelt administration was called
back to serve in the Truman administration. A friend of his was Alger Hiss who turned out
to have been a highly placed Communist spy in late nineteen thirties and the early
nineteen forties. After Hiss’s conviction on perjury charges, reporters asked Acheson
who worked in the State Department (and probably designed the famous Marshal plan which
saved Europe from hunger and Communism)what he thought of his friend Hiss now. The son of
an Anglican Bishop and a frosty, prickly man, said the famous words, “I will not turn
my back on Alger Hiss!” Immediately the Republicans in Congress branded him as soft
on Communism and perhaps a Communist spy. This image stuck in the minds of many Americans,
although Acheson was the most determined of Cold Warriors, perhaps indeed the first Cold
Warrior. He committed the unpardonable sin of forgiving a traitor who had not even asked
forgiveness. That’s what Jesus did.
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