Street Signs of Life: Stop

Pastor Phillips' Sermon

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Heavenly Father, we thank you again for a beautiful day to come and worship you, for a day when we can offer our sacrifice as our praise and receive from you your word and encouragement and the sacrament. Bless us now as we meditate on your word. Fill us with your Holy Spirit and inspire us as we live our lives in Jesus' name. Amen.

Today we continue our series “Signs of Life.” And today is my favorite sign, the stop sign. I am so excited. I just love this sign. Who couldn't love this sign? It's just beautiful, a big, red sign. But you know what, when I think about it, the stop sign elicits the most aggravating behavior of today's drivers in my book. It's just unbelievable, when we look at that sign, we all come up with different ideas of what it means.

So I'm going to do a little review for you. We're going to work on this so, beginning with Gloria Dei, we're going to change our community and the way we react to that sign. First of all, I want you to tell me, what does this sign say? “Stop.” Okay. We're doing good. That's really good. But if we ask each of you what does it mean, I wonder how close we'd come to the textbook definition. And in today's world, when truth is up for grabs and we hear all these things like a value is neutral, programmed, and tolerance and all these things where people just kind of define truth as they go along, you could come up with all kinds of crazy meanings for this beautiful red sign. But we're not interested in that much. We want the truth. We want the truth about this sign, so we consult the Iowa Driver's Manual , Page 31, and I quote, “The stop sign is red with white letters. It has eight sides. It means you must come to a full stop. You must wait until crossing vehicles and pedestrians have cleared. You must stop at the stop line if one is present. If necessary, you may then pull forward to the stop sign or the edge of the intersection and then proceed when it is safe to do so.” That sounds pretty clear. Just stop at the stop sign. But compare this textbook definition to the reality of what we see going on in our streets.

Last Friday, my wife and I were out walking for exercise. We were walking down the sidewalk, and there was a car stopped at a stop sign. It was a four-way stop. There were no other cars there. All of a sudden, a car came from behind that car, swerved around it, and went right on through the intersection without stopping. I was just shocked. And I see this stuff everyday and I know you do, too. People just blowing off stop signs. I couldn't believe it. The woman in the car is just shaking her head, and we shrug our shoulders. What are you going to say? “My gosh, he just blew right through that stop sign.” I have a question. Does the behavior of that driver who blew through that intersection change the meaning of the sign? Not at all. The textbook definition stands. These signs are placed there to protect people, to keep that intersection safe, to control that intersection. But that driver who just blew through that stop sign was dangerous, not only to himself but also to all of us. And if you think about it, that one car was stopped. Imagine if a little child was crossing in front of that car when the other one blew around it. That could have been a tragic end.

But God puts stop signs in the bible as well. God gives us stop signs to guard us from dangerous behaviors, dangerous to ourselves and dangerous to others as well. And the textbook definitions of God's stop signs are also radically different from the reality of our behavior. For example, God says, “You shall have no other gods.” But we fill our lives with all kinds of things that come before Him. God says, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.” But we throw His name around like a common expression, whenever we're shocked or surprised or angry. God's name just flies out.

In John 8, the Gospel reading for today, we heard a fascinating story involving one of God's stop signs and a woman who had been ignoring that sign. The story begins as Jesus comes down from the Mount of Olives . That's where He had spent the night, and it was His habit to go to a quiet place where He could be by Himself and pray and meditate and maybe even teach one on one with some of the disciples. But this day, He repeats a behavior He's done many times. He comes down to the temple, and He sits down to teach. Now Jesus was very popular. Everybody would gather to hear Him speak and listen to the words that came from His lips. But the scribes and the Pharisees were jealous. So as Jesus sat down to teach the people, the scribes and the Pharisees wanted to test Him. They wanted to find a way they could trick Jesus and have words to use against Him, some point where they could accuse Him of doing something wrong. So, on this day, they bring to Him a woman caught in the act of adultery. It kind of seems strange, though, doesn't it, that only the woman is there? Why do you think that might be? Well, God's stop sign with regard to this woman was, “You shall not commit adultery,” and this command says we should only have sex with our spouse. To prosecute a violator of this command at first required the individual be warned in advance. Then, if they persisted in their behavior, their act had to be witnessed by two witnesses giving identical testimonies of what they saw. This detail made it very difficult to convict someone of adultery. It almost had to be a trap set to catch the woman, which, in this story, might account for the fact the man's not there. He was part of the trap.

The point is this woman had been caught in the act. Her sin was obvious. She had blown through God's stop sign and now the Pharisees and the scribes put Jesus to the test. They asked, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery and the law of Moses commanded us to stone such women. What do you say?” This question is a two-edge sword. If Jesus said, “Stone her,” He would lay Himself open to the charge of counseling an action that was contrary to Roman law, which did not provide the death penalty for such cases. If He said, “Do not stone her,” He could be charged with offending against the law of God. It would seem Jesus is on the horns of a dilemma. Hum. Faced with this question, He simply stoops down and takes His finger and begins to write in the dirt. Nothing too dramatic unless you understand that writing with the finger is symbolic of divine legislation, God's judgment, God's decision. So Jesus wrote in the dirt. But what did He write? All kinds of people have speculated about what He might have written there. Some people believe He wrote Exodus 23:1 which says, “Do not spread false reports. Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness.” Others believe He wrote words He would later say. I heard one person say, as the scribes and the Pharisees were standing around Him and He was being challenged to respond to this question, He simply wrote the names of the mistresses of the scribes and the Pharisees.

The scribes and the Pharisees continued to press Him for an answer, so He stood up and He said, “If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus insisted on a competent witness, but who is competent to accuse someone else of adultery? Again, He stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger. As the impact of His words hit home, the lynch mob began to disperse and it says the eldest left first. One by one, they each left until finally it was just Jesus and that woman. Jesus stood up and He asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No, Sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Jesus did not condemn the woman, but He clearly called her to stop ignoring God's stop sign with regard to adultery. Her sinful behavior did not change the meaning of the sign. Sex outside of marriage is sin. And Jesus did not overlook that fact but called her to righteousness and obedience.

But I wonder, thinking back to that driver who swerved around that car and went right through the intersection, I wonder what these people are thinking when they just blow off that big, beautiful, red sign and cruise on through. Is it that the laws are only for other people? Or maybe the laws are simply suggestions and they're somehow optional? I had a friend once who I rode with, and he often broke traffic laws. And when I commented to him about it, he said, “Well, when I get caught, I'll pay.” And I'm like, “What kind of attitude is that? It's only wrong if you get caught.” And now I wonder, is that how we feel about God's stop signs? “It's only sin if I get caught.” The reality of that thought is, in relationship with God, He always catches us and we never get away. That's why, each week, in our worship service, we take time to confess our sins and ask for forgiveness in Jesus' name. Jesus' words spoken to that woman are then spoken to us as well. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Amen.

Copyright 2006 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church