I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken. John 15:1-3, The Message

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. John 15:1-3, NRSVue

The front yard is surrounded by a hedge, a living fence offering separation from the street and a home for small wildlife. Once a year, I take my pruners to it, thinning out maple saplings and other vines. The dead branches go next. But it’s the rest of it that’s so much more difficult: pruning off healthy branches to allow light to penetrate the top leaves, and to keep the sides as well as the top of the shrubs green.

Next week, I’ll be taking the pruners to the hedge for the first time in over two years. Skipping last year’s pruning didn’t make the hedge happier or healthier; it made the hedge scragglier and overgrown.

It’s a lot of work, this pruning, and not for the faint of heart or the overly sentimental. The results, at first, aren’t pretty. It’s only over time that pruning reveals itself as a necessary and good thing. New growth and healthier branches take time.

Lately, it feels to me like my life is in the process of being pruned – some things that no longer work for my age and stage are getting cut away. There doesn’t seem to be a particular logic in it, and it isn’t pretty or a lot of fun. I just have to trust that it will end up bearing some kind of fruit in due time.

[Jesus bend down and wrote with his finger in the dirt…He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.] Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. John 8:9, The Message

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. John 8:9, NRSVue

Perhaps some wisdom comes with age, or at least a healthy dose of self-reflection. Maybe that’s why the oldest among the rock toting crowd were the first to step back from their violent intent. It’s a gift to be able to step away from harming another, from using another as a means to a questionable end. They took the gift Jesus offered and others followed suit.

I’m now in that same category – elder. Along with the creakier joints comes the freedom to turn back, to turn away from a wrong step down a questionable path. There isn’t quite as much at stake as far as my ego is concerned in admitting to an error in judgement.

There’s an added bonus: stepping back and rethinking a harmful act or wrong move is also a teaching moment for the younger ones who happen to see it.

Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt. John 8:6-8, The Message

Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept 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. John 8:6-8, NRSVue

We don’t know what Jesus wrote in the dirt, just that he wrote in the dirt. Some speculate that he wrote the names of the men accusing the woman of adultery, along with their sins. Others claim he wrote the Ten Commandments, giving the accusers a look at what the Law requires – and whether they are in compliance [Augustine interpreted it as Jesus forcing the accusers to look at their own sinful natures and deem whether they are worthy of judging another.]. John Calvin offered this thought: Jesus was showing his lack of interest in their accusations and questions, showing his disdain for them by scribbling in the dirt rather than engage with them.

It’s fun to imagine what Jesus might have written in the dirt, if it doesn’t distract from what that act of writing accomplished. It stopped the momentum, delaying the throwing of the first stone that would give permission for throwing all the rest.

When Jesus straightens up and speaks, his words shift the focus from the woman to the state of the accusers’ souls: Go ahead, throw the stone – if you are without sin yourself. Take a good look at yourself before you harm another. Are your motives pure? Are you without blame? Let’s see if you come forward, see if you can stand up to the scrutiny of others.

Then Jesus bends down to write in the dirt again – giving the accusers the chance to think before acting, to question their right to judge and punish the sins of another. And to think through the consequences of claiming moral perfection and throwing a stone.

It’s something I’m going to picture – Jesus writing in the dirt – when I’m sitting in judgement of another. I’ll imagine Jesus stopping the momentum, shifting the focus to my own inner life and motives, and giving me a chance to go in a different direction.

I think I’ll picture these words for now, not that it really matters all that much: are you sure you want to throw that stone?

Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them.

The religious scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him. John 8:1-5, The Message

They were looking for a way to get Jesus to say or do something against the law, so they find a woman committing adultery (why is only the woman brought in? That’s another discussion.). They had no real interest in her adultery: she was just a means to an end. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were blind to her worth, her humanity, her life.

Sometimes people get so caught up in defeating an enemy, in winning, that they are blind the collateral damage:

The lives that are lost in the pursuit.

The damage to their own souls that comes with every thrown stone.

[And the story will continue… John 8. This is one in a series of writings. For more information, click Picturing John above.]

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but he confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ “ as the prophet Isaiah said. John 1:19-23, NRSVue

…tell us something – anything!- about yourself.” [John said] “I’m thunder in the desert: ‘Make the road straight for God!’ I”m doing what the prophet Isaiah preached.” John 1:23, The Message

John didn’t need to pretend to be what he was not – a Messiah or a prophet returned to life. It seems that being himself was enough, more than enough for John to say what he was put on the earth to say.

I am a voice crying out, thunder in the desert. Make the road straight for God!

All of us have a voice. All of us are a voice. The question is: do we know ourselves well enough, who we are and who we are not, to say what we were put on this earth to say?