Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 Search Archive Print This Article Moolaade Monday, March 10, 2008 John 8:3-8 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."� Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. About his 2004 film Moolaade, director Ousman Sembene said, "Moolaade is set in a rural African setting. In that setting, two traditions come into conflict. The first tradition is female circumcision. It dates back before Christ, before Mohammed. That tradition has been used to perpetuate the subjugation of women. The other tradition, as old as humankind, is the right to protect the weak." In the film, an African woman stands up to her husband and most of her community to protect several young girls from the annual "purification" rite. She strings colorful lines of yarn across the entry to her home and thereby invokes "moolaade," the "protection". As long as the girls stay inside her home they are safe. They are in a sanctuary which no one will violate, no matter how angry they become. The yarn is only a foot above the ground, but the women with the sharp knives and the men with the sharp tongues are stopped in their tracks. Men who know their fears, their weaknesses and their sins have always spent far too much time accusing their women and far too little owning up. Nothing different about the men of Jerusalem. We're not told, of course, how many of the men who accused the woman had sex with her. Jesus might have known their names. Was he writing their names in the dust with his stick? His own sinlessness allowed him to throw that first stone, but he did not. He always identifies with the persecuted and the weak. Rather than condemning them for the sin that often got them there, he comes to them in their pain and helplessness. As Jesus stands between the threatening mob and the cowering woman, he says to all of them, "Do not be afraid." The men are as full of fear as the woman, but they will not admit it. Instead they sullenly drop their stones and walk away, grumbling about Jesus' interference. The sins I commit in secret haunt my life. I know God knows, but I won't face the consequences. So I am afraid, not so much of being found out (though that is frightening enough) but of the wrath of God. His touch sends me running to the cliffs of Hell, ready to leap into the abyss just to avoid him. My fear is so irrational, because God loves me. He is ready to invoke "moolaade" against the devil's scheme to kill me. But my fear blinds both mind and heart to God's love. In the screeches and screes of my conscience his quiet voice is lost. It is soothing and will heal me, and his forgiveness is so close. But I will have None of It. O Lord Jesus, this is not the way to live. Let me put my pride and fear to death, and not give up intimacy with you. I want to hear your whispers and feel your tender touch on my head, and just let you love me. "; Add      Edit    Delete