A woman in her SUV was in a really big hurry and was growing increasingly agitated at the truck in front of her. When he slowed down and did not run through a yellow light – even though he could have made it – she just lost it. Her hands were up in the air and she was shouting at him words we don’t say in church.

There just happen to be a police car right behind this woman’s car and he pulled her over, hand cuffed her and took her to the police station. After about an hour of holding the woman, he came in and said, “I’m releasing you. I am sorry there has been a misunderstanding. You see when I saw the ‘Jesus loves you and I do too’ sticker on your bumper and I saw the Christian fish symbol and then I saw you yelling and screaming at the car in front of you, I assumed this could not be a Christian driving that car -- so the car must have been stolen.”

Have you ever noticed how much condemnation there is in the world? You ever take note of how commonplace it is to quickly condemn other people? We live in a sea of condemnation.

• The driver in front of us who does not handle the car in the way we believe he should.

• The corporate leader who does not turn the company around.

• Turn on the news report 24 hours a day and hear of crime, judgment, and condemnation.

• Listen to the political talking heads – always ready to pounce on the mistake of political leaders they despise.

• Condemnation is entertainment – the comments of three panel judges on TV talent shows watched by millions. Think of the looks and smirks on the faces of the audience BEFORE Susan Boyle sang.

• An abortion doctor shot to death while ushering on Sunday at his church – shoot by a man who believes in “protecting life.”

There is condemnation alive and active in us.

• The mother who lives with the memory that her child was injured permanently while she was preoccupied with chores downstairs.

• A young man works hard and graduates from high school like the students we celebrate with today. He goes to college and has everything going for him – good looks, intelligence, friends, and a supportive family. He is happy on the face of things but for the words that constantly live in his mind: “I am not worthy --- I am not worthy.”

• Sometimes we wake up at night rehearsing the mistakes we made: “How could I have been so foolish!”

It is not so surprising that what some people have come to expect from their faith is more condemnation. So many people I have met over the years have told me of how condemning their religious upbringing was to their spirits. Grace may have been proclaimed but they never did get past the shaming and the guilt they experienced. What is the primary image that so many people have of God? The white haired old man up in the clouds looking down on us – trying to catch people in their sins.

Jesus understands this. He understands what we expect from God and what we have experienced in the world. And therefore Jesus says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” That is the loving verse we are familiar with, but here is the next one that we often skip over: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn…” The apostle Paul says the same thing in another way: “There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION for those in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.”

This is the gift of our faith: we can come out of darkness and trust we will not be condemned by God for who we are or what we have done. God sheds the light of Jesus on the world but the light is not a search party meant to hunt down some escaped criminal. It is the light of grace and truth.

The prologue to John’s gospel says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” It does not say, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and condemnation!” Now truth is not easy, but it is not condemnation. Condemnation is being put down, being brought low. When you condemn someone you cease to have concern for them or even to see them as human beings. But truth is different. God sheds the light on the world that we may come to see the truth about our world and about ourselves and be transformed. Truth is very much concerned about justice, but also about the well being of another person. The purpose of truth is not to put down another person but to bring new life to that person.

I am thinking now of a friend, a good friend. Married to Gene whom she adored – some would say worshipped. One day she comes home and he has just up and gone. His side of the closet is empty as if nothing were ever there. Back in the kitchen a note – a cryptic note that needs a lifetime to decipher.

Dear Sara, I just cannot take it anymore. Sorry, Gene

Take what? The adoration, the love and devotion I have given you? Take what? The gourmet meals I cooked, the loads of clothes I washed for you. Take what? My family’s wealth you shared in. The grace and the devotion I showed you when you stayed out those late nights without a call? Sorry? Sorry! What do you mean ‘sorry?”

What was at first bewilderment and disbelief became surging pain and despair and it did not take very long before that turn into hatred and condemnation. At some level you can understand. A long litany of injustice she has experienced at the hand of an ungrateful soul for all her goodness now runs through her mind like a run away freight train on an endless loop. She cycles through the ears of friends who are sympathetic, but who all grow weary of the endless list of condemnations leveled at a man they all knew was imperfect long before she had.

There is so little self-reflection on her part. So little of that bright light of truth is reflected on herself as she attempts to make sense of that brutally simple note.

She has a dream one night – a disturbing dream. It is amazing that when God cannot get to us the direct way God finds the indirect way. It is night. She is with her husband and very angry. She locks him in a trunk. For some reason he willing complies. She tosses him over a bridge into the water. But it is not he who starts to lose his breath. She loses her breath, as if she were in that suitcase. She is gasping! She is so confined! She wakes up breathing freely again and bewildered by what she has just experienced.

For the first time she starts to realize that in her marriage she so desperately needed to idolize him and look up to him that she tried to manage every aspect of his life and never value and trust him for who he was. She became aware of how little she really appreciated him as a human being apart from herself. It was not condemnation that she now felt towards herself but the grace and the truth that began to set her free to live and begin a new life.

“Indeed, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him.” And what of you? The light of Christ is being shown on us all. It is not a light to condemn but to save.

Rev. Allen Mothershed, First Congregational Church, Moline, June 7, 2009