STONECATCHERS
The older black woman was a frequent visitor to the New Orleans Courthouse. She had first come for the trial of the boys who had murdered her sixteen year old grandson. Bryan Stevenson tells her story in his heart rending, hope-filled book, ‘Just Mercy.’ She told him: “I loved that boy more than life itself.” “I grieved and grieved and grieved. I asked the Lord why he let someone take my child like that.” “When those boys were found guilty for killing my grandson, and the judge sent them away to prison forever, I thought it would make me feel better but it actually made me feel worse.” “I sat in the courtroom after they were sentenced and just cried and cried.” She told of a lady who came over and gave her a hug and let her lean on her.
A year later she started coming down to the courthouse: “I don‘t really know why. I guess I just felt like maybe I could be someone, you know, that somebody hurting could lean on.” “I just started letting anybody lean on me who needed it. All these young children being sent to prison forever, all this grief and violence. Those judges throwing people away like they’re not even human, people shooting each other, hurting each other like they don’t care. I don’t know, it’s a lot of pain. I decided that I was supposed to be here to catch some of the stones people cast at each other.”
Stevenson, recalling the Biblical story of the woman accused of adultery, and Jesus’ words, ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,’ observes: “Today our self-righteousness, our fear, and our anger have caused even the Christian to hurl stones at the people who fall down, even when we know we should forgive or show compassion. We can’t simply watch that happen. We have to be stonecatchers.”
A good place to start would be the 2016 US election campaign. The vile demonization of people left and right is creating an atmosphere from which can come little if any good. Political self-righteousness is a particularly vicious phenomenon. Those who resort to name-calling and divisive language, in order to denigrate those who do not share their position cast stones that inflict enormous damage, not only to their opponents but on their society as well. If we do not catch those stones they will inflict hurt that will take a long time to heal. We would be far better off if we took the attitude of the ‘courthouse lady: “I just come here to help people. This place is full of pain, so people need plenty of help around here.”
And we need stonecatchers in churches today! It was to religious people that Jesus said: “Let the one without sin cast the first stone.” And yet, for two thousand years the church has been busy distinguishing who was a sinner and who wasn’t, determining who was righteous and who wasn’t, more interested in sexuality than justice, more occupied with the politics of sin than creating an environment of forgiveness and reconciliation. Too often there has been bullying in church, and hurtful, hateful words are heard in churches - stones hurled at those who’ve erred, or those who are different, or those who don’t agree with the self righteous who are in control. If we do not catch those stones they will inflict hurt that will take a long time to heal. We would be far better off if we took the attitude of the ‘courthouse lady: “I just come here to help people. This place is full of pain, so people need plenty of help around here.”
Really, we have a choice: be passive and watch fear, anger and self-righteousness take over the world, or be activated and put ourselves where we can catch the stones that people throw. It might be by letting ourselves be the shoulder upon which the hurt can lean. It might be by pointing out that words and labels can and do hurt, not just the person to whom they are directed, but the one who throws them as well. It might be by telling your own story and let it be the means through which others can see a pathway to healing and wholeness.
Maybe, just maybe, if there are enough stonecatchers, those who throw the stones will take a long, hard look in the mirror, and see that people are being hurt, and realize that they’re wearing themselves out and hurting themselves as well. This place is full of pain, so people need plenty of help around here. What is clear is that the world needs more stonecatchers right now!