Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for October 12, 2008
Judgment
This week we are talking about judgment. Things are not always what they seem. Judging them correctly can turn your life around.
In the Quest book, the Jafolla's tell three mini-stories about judgment:
If you have ever been in the desert you know that you have to watch out for the prickly cactus. You can see how dangerous they are with their stiletto like spines. The large saguaro cactuses practically scream out to you, "Don't touch me. Hands off!" What a worthless plant! Looks like nature goofed on this creation.
Then there was the dog. The veterinarian placed the leash in their unwilling hands as they thought "Oh, please, not this dog!" At the other end of the lead was Stormy April, a bedraggled and confused greyhound whom he had recently operated on and whom they had agreed to adopt, sight unseen, after she got injured racing. "This isn't going to work out at all," they whispered to each other as they reluctantly lifted the sorry beast into their car.
Then there were the neighbors. It was certainly obvious that those people who had just moved into the house across the street were going to spoil the friendly neighborhood. When they first arrived, the Jafollas smiled and waved a warm hello, but they put their heads down and looked the other way. "Maybe they didn't see us, or maybe they're just very shy," they conjectured. "Let's try again."
So the next time they knocked on their door with the idea of introducing themselves and offering the use of their phone or anything else they might need before getting settled. But they never got the chance, because they never came to the door. The Jafollas decided that these people looked like trouble.
SECOND LOOKS
So, what do you think gets humans into more trouble and misery than anything else? Could it be our tendency to be judgmental?
Let's go back to that cactus. The hostile-looking cactus, which we so judgmentally dismissed as one of nature's mistakes, contains life-saving water which has rescued many a desert traveler from death by dehydration.
The seemingly undesirable greyhound which they strongly suspected would be an unwelcome addition to their family, soon became the most elegant, endearing, intelligent pet they had ever owned.
And that unfriendly, rude couple across the street? They are now two of the Jafolla's best friends. It turned out that one of their children had been killed by a hit-and-run driver only a few weeks earlier, and they were understandably overcome with grief.
Judging people and situations and things only by their outer appearances is always a mistake. How would you like people to totally judge you only by the way you look when you are at your worst? Things are rarely what they seem.
We waste so much time and energy in dealing with what we think things are when we should be staying centered in our Christ essence and allowing people and situations and things to present us with the good they always contain for us.
Say with me, this affirmation, "Teach me your way, God; and lead me in a plain path."
A RIDICULOUS HABIT
Often we are quick to condemn or judge but when we do that, what we are doing of course, is forgetting that God is present in every situation, no matter how bleak it looks. Or we are overlooking the Christ presence within a person or group of people.
When we practice the ridiculous habit of judging by appearances, we cut ourselves off from the good which the situation or person holds for us. It is such a destructive, unproductive habit that it's hard to believe anyone would want to engage in it, and yet how many of us still persist?
Jesus was absolutely on target when He taught that we must not judge others. We have no right. After all, each human being, regardless of appearances, is a child of God and has the Spirit of God within. Disapproval or condemnation of someone is, when you distill it to its essence, disapproval or condemnation of God!
Every person on earth is divine on a deep level. Someone may be skillfully concealing this divinity, not fully realizing it exists, but that doesn't alter the fact that the Christ is within and must be recognized and honored by us.
As you allow yourself to do this, you will find that the people turning up along your trail seem to be more wonderful, more friendly, more appealing than ever before. That is because you are more wonderful, friendly, and appealing as you acknowledge the Christ first in yourself and then in each person you meet.
Say with me this affirmation, "My judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father."
EVEN WHEN IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE
When you consider some of the strange, hideous, and inhumane acts some individuals commit, it sounds ludicrous to suggest that such people are divine at their essence. Yet they are.
You see, whatever a person does or does not do can in no way negate the fact that he or she is a divine creation. How can they be otherwise? They, too were created by God and are, as much as you, children of God. Realizing this fact, it then becomes incumbent upon us to see the light of the Christ within that person, even when it seems to glow so dimly that they don't even see it themselves.
Within each of us is the same essence which Jesus recognized in Himself and in all humanity. True, it is expressed in varying degrees, to be sure, but be assured that it is there. The man who commits heinous atrocities is still a child of God. To judge him as anything less is to put yourself in a position of judging God; it is to say that God made a terrible mistake.
Say with me this affirmation, "The righteousness of the divine law is active in all my affairs, and I am protected."
BUT...
But there is a great difference between being judgmental and using your good judgment. To acknowledge that the Christ dwells in every individual is using your judgment. However, it does not mean that you have to hang around with a misguided soul who is dangerous to you, either physically or emotionally. Just as your judgment would direct you to get out of the path of a runaway truck, you would also get out of the path of a person who, not recognizing or expressing the Christ within, is destructive. The divine potential is there, to be sure, but until it is recognized by the person and called forth, it is often a good idea to steer clear of such an individual as much as possible.
Angry, mean-spirited people who bask in negativity are as much children of God and have the Christ within fully as much as happy, positive, spiritually centered people. It's not our job to change them but merely to see the Christ in them, do our very best to see them as children of God. Yet at the same time we must also use our judgment, which may lead us to choose not to spend time with them.
Operating from this perspective, you are not denying the presence of the Christ in someone. You are not being judgmental by seeing him or her as less than a child of God. You are simply using good judgment to avoid something which is not contributing to your good.
Say with me now this affirmation, "I no longer condemn, criticize, censure, or find fault with my associates; neither do I belittle or condemn myself."
LIKE VERSUS LOVE
Jesus encouraged us to love one another, to see and love that Christ essence of every person, but He never required us to like the inappropriate behavior of someone. This is where our wise judgment enters into it. There is no one in all of history who is not lovable at the divine core, because God is at the center of that core. However, there have been many whose actions are unlikable and unacceptable and downright repugnant. Jesus was constantly castigating the scribes and Pharisees about their pompous and rigid behavior. He was not being judgmental of them as being less than children of God. Rather He was using His judgment and acknowledging their actions as inappropriate and harmful and a bad example for others to follow.
There is nothing wrong with choosing not to associate with or accept unlikable behavior, as long as we remember that somewhere within that person there is still the Christ.
Say with me this affirmation, "There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus."
HURTING OURSELVES
If we ignore this obligation and proceed to condemn and judge by outer appearances, we are really hurting ourselves. Our harsh judgment returns to haunt us because it keeps us out of "the kingdom." It bars us from operating in the Christ mode, and that restricts our spiritual growth. When we are judgmental, we are not being authentic or true to our divine nature, and as Truth students we cannot afford such wasted energy and setbacks.
Pick your way carefully among the sharp boulders of condemnation and false judgment. Get past them once and for all, because they are "trail-blockers," holding you back on your spiritual path. They don't belong in your life.
Say with me this affirmation, "I do not judge others, so that I will not be judged."
LEAVING JUDGMENT IN THE DUST
It says in John 8:1-11 "Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them.
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"
They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, sir." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.""
Have you ever seen a Tibetan sand mandala? A minister I know of once had the opportunity to observe one in the making. She was working at a small private school for girls in Connecticut. A group of Tibetan monks came and stayed with them, and they spent the bulk of their time creating a mandala right in the middle of the school. The whole community gathered around them their first day, and joined them in prayers as they dedicated their work to the cause of world peace. Then they set right to work. More than a dozen monks spent much of each day on the mandala, taking breaks only to share in meals and conversations with the students.
For a full week the sound of their tools could be heard coming from the main hall in the school as they layered color upon color in a pattern of intricate and stunning beauty. Between classes, sports, and various other commitments, this minister hovered over the monks and watched this tremendous work of art take shape--all the while knowing that at the end of the week these men had every intention of destroying their handiwork. And when Friday came, and the mandala was finally finished, they did just that.
The community gathered around the monks once again. After much prayer and chanting, the eldest monk took a small broom and began to sweep up the sand. The colors applied with such painstaking care blurred into each other immediately; the pattern unraveled, and the beauty of a week's skillful work was swept up in mere moments into a small urn. There were gasps of dismay. A few students actually uttered quiet protests, and more than one person cried as the mandala was swept up. They followed the monks out of the school and down a wooded path to a nearby stream, where the sand was released into the water along with the prayers for peace that the monks had imbued into every last grain as they worked. They believed the water would carry their prayers for peace out into the world and effect change.
That week the minister realized quite clearly that few of us are at peace with impermanence--especially here in the West. We are known for our ability to preserve, store, catalogue, and protect what is precious to us, whether it is art, antiques, or just an opinion. We like to hold onto things. If we made sand mandalas like these in the West, when we were finished we would apply sprays and lacquers to freeze the intricate patterns in space for all time--and then hang our work on the nearest available wall for posterity.
Of course, preserving the mandalas would negate their whole purpose; for their creation is merely the outward form of a spiritual discipline--a discipline of prayer and release. They are created to teach us that nothing here is truly permanent. From dust were we created, and to dust will we return, swept up in the context of time as surely as any one of these Tibetan mandalas.
Jesus wrote in the dust once, and his actions leave us with a similar truth. The story of the woman caught in adultery is at once beloved and highly suspect. Beloved, because for many of us the actions and words of Jesus in this account are essential to our understanding of his character. Suspect because this story is most likely not original to the Gospel of John--or any Gospel for that matter. From the differences in language, and some of the strange and apparently meaningless actions that take place, scholars have determined that this particular story had a life of its own, and that it circulated independent of the Gospels for years before well-meaning scribes began to include it in the canon as best they could. Yet, most scholars would agree that this story, for all its strange history, is in fact a true account of an actual event.
In John 8, while Jesus sits teaching one fine day in Jerusalem, he is interrupted by a group of scribes who have caught a woman in the very act of adultery. They call on Jesus to exercise his supposed authority as a teacher of the law, and condemn her to death. This may seem to be an extreme reaction, but adultery was as grievous a sin in the context of their culture as it may seem trivial (at least to some) in ours. To feel the force of this moment, imagine this same woman with the blood of her murdered child on her hands, or some such horror. It is important to understand that no one would have thought these scribes were behaving in a petty and vindictive manner--including Jesus. Yet he chooses to see their request as a challenge to be met in a new way; and his response is both cryptic and illuminating. In the Gospel we read that "Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, 'Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.'"
It is one of the most well-known responses of Jesus in all of Scripture. With ten simple words, Jesus turns the tide. All the momentum building up to this moment is caught up short, and a deeper truth begins to rise to the surface
As I read this story over again I began to realize that in spite of the sin at the heart of this account, this is not a story about mercy or even forgiveness. I think it is a story about humility. Jesus humbles himself before the crowd. He does not take the opportunity to demonstrate his authority as the son of God to judge this woman, or even to forgive her. Of all the people in that crowd, Jesus was the one man who could have lifted a stone against her and pronounced a righteous judgment; but he chose another way.
There is, instead, a profound humility to his actions and his willingness to keep silent. There is a humility to her actions--for she never asks to be pardoned or protected. And ultimately, the rest of those assembled are humbled as well. As they turn and walk away one by one, it is not because her sin is forgiven, but because in light of Jesus' challenge, her sin is no longer the issue. It is now their sin that is before them, their sin that must be dealt with--and perhaps they are now more aware of the planks in their own eyes than of the speck in hers.
I hear a warning in this story: a reminder that it is at once so easy and so inappropriate for us to judge one another. It is so easy to find fault. It takes minimal effort to forego any tendency toward humility, compassion, or mutual understanding, and instead pick apart arguments and actions, rehash conversations in search of slights or mistakes, dismiss and disrespect others, delve deep into the patterns and dynamics we have established with ourselves and others that are as destructive as they are familiar.
In a world where we are searching desperately for something real, something permanent, something to hold onto, it sometimes seems that the only thing we can count on is that people will disappoint us. And if we are not careful, we may find ourselves taking a perverse delight in how often we are proved right. But hear Swedenborg's words in light of this story and this tendency:
Swedenborg writes, "When there is no compassion, selfishness is present, and particularly a hatred for everyone who does not agree. This is why such people see nothing in their neighbors except what is wrong with them. If they do see anything good, they either regard is as insignificant or find a bad interpretation for it. . . . But compassionate people scarcely see what is wrong with others. Instead, they are alert to everything in them that is good and true, even putting a good interpretation on things that are evil and false. All angels are like this; and they receive this attitude from the Lord, who bends everything toward the good."
It is easy to condemn--and the condemnation may even be deserved. But this story calls into question the necessity of condemnation. We certainly have the ability, but do we have the right to condemn each other, if even God in his mercy chooses not to condemn? Or are we being called to another way? A way of humility and compassion? A way that does not place us above each other, but beside one another?
It typically takes very little incentive to get people to respond with righteous indignation in a difficult or tragic situation. But when such an opportunity arises, we need to pause, as Jesus did, and examine ourselves.
Scholars and theologians throughout the ages have pondered Jesus' strange behavior of stooping down and writing in the dust. Was he writing out the sins of the scribes? Was he divining in order to read their minds? Musing? Acting totally unconsciously? Or was he, as Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, has suggested, merely buying time? No one knows for sure. And honestly, what he wrote doesn't really matter.
What matters is that ultimately, all of the judgments we pronounce upon one another are as insubstantial as what is written in the dust. What matters...what can make all the difference, is a moment of contemplation in the midst of this kind of opportunity; a moment when we pause and ask ourselves what we are really doing. Are we simply working out our own issues of anger, sadness, and frustration on someone else because their actions have given us the opportunity to deflect scrutiny from ourselves? Are we allowing our fear, anger, and disappointment to rule us, and lead us down a path of self-righteous judgment?
What I realize when I read this story is that the only person I have a right to judge is myself. And even this right should not be taken as an opportunity for self flagellation, or self-degradation, but rather as an opportunity to be conscious of my need for humility and compassion toward myself and others. What is needed is a recognition that I am not perfect, but the Lord loves me anyway, and is willing to forgive what is wrong in me because he is so deeply committed to all that is right.
Those scribes may have had a lot of anger and frustration that would have found a temporary release in the execution of that woman. But Jesus did not allow them the satisfaction. He alone could have pronounced righteous judgment upon her. Of all those assembled, he was the one without sin. But instead he chose another way. When he finally straightened up, he asked, "Woman where are they? Has no one accused you?" And she responded, "No one, sir." Then he said, "I do not condemn you either."
Jesus is asked to act as a judge and he refuses. He demonstrates for us the truth of what Swedenborg says, namely, that God is not interested in judging us, nor are the angels. And ultimately, if we are motivated by true compassion, we will not be interested in judging, either.
SCRIPTURE: John 8:1-11
REFERENCE: The Quest Richard & Mary-Alice Jafolla; Arcana Coelestia #1079 Swedenborg
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