“If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
There is a logical development in the readings this Sunday: in the Old Testament, God asks us to look forward to the “new deed he will do”, when he will put “water in the wilderness”; we then see the new deed, which Paul talks about, to be the “supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus”, and sharing the “power of his resurrection”; so who is this Jesus, and how is he “water in the wilderness”? It is because he brings hope for the future and forgiveness of our sins, as the Gospel story relates. This Sunday’s readings are there for our encouragement, to help us look forward to Easter, and the meaning of Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection: that meaning is Reconciliation and a new creation (as we heard last week). We are driven on through Lent by a vision of the marvels that God has worked, and that God will work for us.
PSALM
When the Lord delivered Zion from bondage, it seemed like a dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, on our lips there were songs. The heathens themselves said: “What marvels the Lord worked for them!” What marvels the Lord worked for us! Indeed we were glad.
Deliver us, O Lord, from our bondage as streams in dry land. Those who are sowing in tears will sing when they reap. They go out, they go out, full of tears, carrying the seed for the sowing: they come back, they come back, full of song, carrying their sheaves.
1st Reading: Is 43: 16-21
2nd Reading: Phil: 3: 8-14
Gospel: John 8: 1-11
5th Sunday of Lent 2016 Newsletter
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