Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

Read: John 8: 1-11       When someone is found guilty in the eyes of law, normally the punishment is a specific period of time behind bars, but a judge in Oklahoma laid down a punishment a few days back that was very unique. The case involved a 17 year old teen Tyler Alred, who crashed his car on to a pick up truck in December 2011. This crash led to the death of Alred’s friend, 16 year old John Luke Dum who incidentally was travelling along with Tyler in the car.  Tyler was driving under the influence of alcohol, and there was more problems for him as he was under age to consume alcohol.  He was arrested and his case came to the judge for hearing and sentence where Alred pleaded guilty to the charge of manslaughter. But he told that he wants to change his life and does not want to repeat mistakes in life. The members of the Dum family were also sympathetic to the need of Tyler and they felt that they did not want to see Tyler being put behind bars and thus having two lives being ruined for a mistake. It is in such a context that Judge Mike Norman gave Tyler Alred a unique punishment.  The punishment consisted of the following. 1. He should graduate from high school, 2. Graduate from a welding school, 3. Regularly and routinely take drug, alcohol and nicotine test for a year, 4. Wear a drug and alcohol bracelet, 5. Become a motivational speaker in victims impact panel so that he can speak about ill effects and disasters of alcohol and driving under the influence of alcohol. All these sentences were unique. But it was the last condition in the sentence that was very unique. The Judge ordered that Tyler Alred should attend church regularly for the next 10 years. This last condition has brought in a lot of criticism from all quarters since there is a separation between the matters concerning church and state. Lots of people have vociferously condemned this ruling stating that since there is separation between state and religion, the judge has no right to force any religious belief on any individual.  But then Tyler’s lawyer is not opposing the sentence because the lawyer also feels that what Tyler did was a mistake and hence he needs to be given a chance to change his life rather than living for ever with a condemnation. Even the judge who felt that if something could be done to Dum’s family in this hour at the loss of their son, this sort of punishment was the only way out. As soon as the sentence was read in the courtroom, there was emotional scenes in the courtroom with the members of both the family embracing each other and offering words of support. It was  then even Judge Norman realized that more than sentencing a kid behind bars, his life needs to saved by offering him a chance to repent and to reorder life in specific ways so as to positively bring a well being to the society. I think what Judge Norman did was a kind of support to a victim who has fallen and who needs not condemnation and judgment  but genuine support, help and resources to rise from the dark pit of his way ward behavior to a transformed life. This is what the community of believers are also expected to do when fellow members in the society or in the community fall in their track of life. But somehow today we thrive on gossiping the stories of the condemned rather than offering genuine support and resources to rise up and build broken lives again.
We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living” and portion that we shall use for our meditation is from John 8: 1-11. This is a portion in the Bible where we find different reaction to a woman who has sinned. Reaction of condemnation, reaction of punishment, reactions of silence and reaction of support and encouragement. A woman has been caught in an act that was sinful. But more than her sin, her life is made more disastrous by teachers of law who drags her in public and brings her to the presence of Jesus. The moment Pharisees and scribes exposed the woman in public, her life was made more awful and scornful as even those who did not know about her has come to know her and her life history. There are times in life when certain aspects in a person’s life need to be kept in secret so that we help the person to rebuild their life, help them to feel that we are not condemning them or judging them but offering genuine support at a time when they have fallen. This attitude has to be shown, because we also have fallen, and none of us are perfect. Thus we all need support and encouragement especially in times when we have fallen from grace. As somebody remarked the only difference between the woman caught in adultery and the people who are condemning her is that, while she has been caught red handed the oppressors are very clever to hide the sins that they do and nobody has caught them red handed. It is in such a context that Jesus offers her unconditional support. What is poignant in this incident is Jesus bending down and writing something on the ground. I don't know what Jesus wrote, but what has touched me more than what Jesus wrote, was his gesture of coming down to the ground where the woman lay and then telling her “neither do I condemn you”. Jesus was not standing while the woman was cringing at his feet on the contrary Jesus was in her position of distress and then offering the words of support and restitution. What the community of believers, the church needs to do is to be a pillar of support to people whose lives are in tatters because of some unwise choices and actions that they have done. It is not condemnation, judgment and gossip that is the need of the hour, but a genuine reassurance that we all are there with the victim in their new journey to change and transformation. It is only then can we also get support and help when we also fall. Can we be resources of support?
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla