My brother's keeper

"The plain fact is there are some Americans who, in the aggregate, are consistently doing worse in our society — groups that have had the odds stacked against them in unique ways that require unique solutions; groups who’ve seen fewer opportunities that have spanned generations. … 50 years after Dr. King talked about his dream for America’s children, the stubborn fact is that the life chances of the average black or brown child in this country lags behind by almost every measure, and is worse for boys and young men."  President Obama launching his 'My brother's keeper' initiative this week.

"The initial investigation of the murder of Stephen Lawrence was seriously flawed and deserving of severe criticism. The underlying causes of the failure were more troublesome and potentially more sinister. The impact of incompetence, racism and corruption on the investigation had been the subject of much evidence and debate. The Inquiry concluded that institutional racism affected the murder investigation, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and police services elsewhere, as well as other institutions and organisations." Mark Ellison QC reporting on the British police investigation into the murder of a young black man, Stephen Lawrence.

With all eyes on Ukraine it would have been easy to miss these other two significant events this week. As we enter Lent the failings of our own societies ought to concern us as much as those elsewhere.

Every black teenage boy (or girl) deprived of justice is a nail in the coffin of righteous society, a nail in the cross of Christ who died for that girl, that boy.

Too hot to publish - for 900 years!

Preparing my sermon for Ash Wednesday tonight (well, yes, it was a little late) I found myself wondering why the first twelve verses of John 8 (the gospel reading for Ash Wednesday in our church) are missing in some Bibles and (more often) printed as a sort of footnote in others.  I'm sure I learnt that at theological college but I had forgotten. Turning to my reference books took me to an interesting journey of textual archaeology.

Apparently (credit goes to Raymond Brown's wonderful two volume commentary) although the passage does not appear in any standard texts of John's gospel until after 900AD, it was known to theologians much earlier, in the second and third centuries. There is plenty of evidence to show that it is a genuine ancient story about Jesus which must have been known to those who put the Bible together. So why was such a great story left out? Because, Brown suggests, and I suspect, it was just too hot to handle.

Oh, I forgot to mention what the story is about.  It's that one where Jesus is confronted with a prostitute, invited to condemn her and instead just writes in the sand, and then comes out with that masterly suggestion, "The one of you who has not sinned should throw the first stone to kill her."  In modern context it's rather like Jesus saying about a serial pedophile, "You deserve to die but I am going to love you instead!"  No wonder it did not get published for 900 years.

Is God's forgiveness really that shocking?