You don’t have to be a follower of Jesus or to have been in church at all, for that matter, to be familiar with this story. Of all biblical stories, it is almost certainly one of the most familiar to people of all kinds of faiths. One reason, of course, is because of the drama here. The Bible has more than its share of PG-13, if not R rated, moments. A woman had been caught, "in the very act of adultery."

The questions left unanswered in this story are as intriguing as the facts clearly stated. How she was caught, of course, is a question people have asked for a long time. How was she actually caught "in the very act"? How did they pull that off? By whom? Under what circumstances? Where was the guilty partner? It takes two, doesn’t it? Was it all just a set-up to trick Jesus, as the scripture seems to imply? The unanswered questions alone provide enough material for a made-for-TV movie. Then, of course, there’s the always the intriguing question. What did Jesus actually write in the dirt?

Then, there’s the way Jesus handled these hyper-judgmental, super-spiritual types. Don’t you get a buzz just watching Jesus do that? Doesn’t it feel good? Like when a car speeds by you on the freeway, only this time, there actually is a patrolman watching. The lights come on, and you get to drive by, at the proper speed, and relish what’s happening to them. Nothing feels better than watching people who have presented themselves as deeply religious turn out to be just as human as all the rest of us. Go ahead; admit it. Isn’t there something in all of us that needs verification that all of these hyper-religious types, especially the preachers, are just like one of us? Well, here it is, right here in the scripture: "Let the one without sin cast the first stone." And, no one was left standing.

This looks like Jesus in one of those almost like Clint Eastwood "Go-ahead-and-make-my-day" roles. "Whoever is without sin, cast the first stone." I never have compared Jesus to Clint Eastwood, but I actually meant it as a compliment to Clint, not to Jesus.

The best part of this story, isn’t it, is the part about the conversation between Jesus and the woman after all of her accusers have left, and they’re left standing alone, just the two of them. Before we get to that, could we for just a moment step inside the woman’s sandals? I wonder what that feels like. What do you think she felt like that day? First, there’s the adultery. Almost certainly, either she was a married woman, or the man she was with was married, or they were both married. This is adultery being described here.

Unlike the made-for-TV movies, this story was not about to have a pretty ending. In fact, lots of damage had already been done. Someone’s spouse was at home, wondering why their husband or wife was unusually late again. There might have even been children involved. If not that, at least extended family. Certainly the religious community had to be reckoned with. Like there is every time someone commits adultery. No matter what Jesus said to her that day, her life was never again going to be the same.

By the way, as I shared just the other day with a young woman, not a member of this church, who is about to be caught in the act, though she thinks she’s not, I promised her she is about to be caught, and that these stories never have a happy ending. In part, because no one ever thinks they’ll actually get caught. But they always do. In my 30 years of ministry, I’ve never seen one of these stories have a happy ending. Life goes on, but it’s never, ever again the same.

Even after Jesus let her go, even after he blessed her that day, how do you think she felt about her future? Do you think there was any part of her that was saying, "I wish I could go back," or, "I really regret"? Have you ever said those words about something you’ve done? Sure you have. We all have. "I regret," or, "I wish," or, "if only."

There are a lot of things about golf I still need to learn, but there are two lessons I have learned for absolute certain on the golf course.

One is that very, very few men over 50 look good in shorts. The other one is that the most frequently used four-letter word on the golf course is, "if." "If I had," or, "if only." Do you ever say those words? Or, for that matter, how many times this morning have you already said them? Is there anything in your life you would go back and do over if you could?

Jesus didn’t offer this woman that option. And neither does he offer it to us. What does Jesus say to her? Two things. One, he tells her that her past is no longer of interest to him. "Neither do I condemn you," he says. "I’m not here with you in this moment," Jesus was saying, "to deal with you or to relate to you based on what you have done or who you have been. That’s not why I’m here."

Contrary to popular belief, and thanks be to God, God does not choose to deal with us on the basis of all the "if onlys" in our lives. Christ on the cross has dealt with the "if onlys" and "what might have beens." One, the scripture tells us, died for all (1 Peter 3:18). That means all men, women, children, all of humanity, one died for all of humanity’s sins once. It’s done. It’s over. The "if onlys" in our lives are no longer of importance to God. "Neither do I condemn you," Jesus said.

The only basis upon which Christ chooses to deal with us is upon who we are and where we stand in this moment. It appears that, despite those who stood there holding stones that day and despite those who were willing to take the law and push it to the nth degree for their personal gain and advantage despite what it did to anyone else, Jesus, on the other hand, is an eternal optimist about a woman the law said was of no value anymore.

To the extent we believe that God is still more interested in our past than our future, we are living a life of “if only” about which not even God can or will do anything. We are still locked away in the Auschwitzes and the Holocausts of our own failures, forever living as prisoners of the past as though the past were still now. We’re chained like slaves to the deck of a ship taking on water in a storm. We’re chained to a life of regrets over what might have been, could have been, should have been, if only, and we’re going down to dark, deep, hopeless graves.

Or, we can take Jesus at his word. We can trust Jesus when he says, "I don’t condemn you anymore. I’m not in that business." As Jesus said, "‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him’" (John 3:16-17, NIV). If you are feeling condemned this morning, it is not the voice of God working on you. The only voice of God we hear post-crucifixion/resurrection is the voice of grace and hope calling us on to let go of what was in order that we might embrace what might be.

Stoning must have been a miserably brutal way to die. The Bible says they were going to stone this adulteress. We kind of just hopscotch across that without even thinking about what that must have been like. Can you imagine? To be pummeled to death with rocks? How long would you remain conscious before the right rock finally put you out of your misery and the other rocks went on and did their deed?

When Jesus confronted those who wished to stone this lady, he stopped them cold in their tracks by asking them to think for just a moment about the stones they were holding in their hands before they threw them. More often than not, when we condemn others, we truly are projecting onto them, stone-like, the very things we struggle with in our own lives. That’s the reason, when Jesus confronted them about their lack of sinlessness, they had no choice but to drop the rocks and walk away. You see, some of them must have been caught in the act, too.

Is there anyone in your life right now who is on the receiving end of your judgmental stoning? Have you taken a good look at the stones you’re holding before you cast them? What’s that in your hand right now? What are you holding? How big is it? How would it feel if your head caught it? The only one who has the right to cast stones is the one who made the stones in the first place and he has chosen to use them for other purposes than pummeling people to death.

How free would we be today if we could believe that Jesus is no longer interested in the past that haunts us, except to the extent that it breaks our heart and that we are still haunted by it? Jesus told this woman two things. First, "Your past is not your problem." And then he says, "Go and sin no more. Start your life from this point. Go forward from here. Live forward, not backward." That’s what he tells her. He does not call her to what you and I would call some kind of profession of faith, to fill out a card, and all those things. He calls her to decide about which direction she will live her life. That’s because regret over what once was is a dead-end street. You just can’t regret your way into a better way of life. You can, by the grace of God, however, we can, no matter where we are, no matter what, no matter what, no matter how difficult it may be, we can restart our lives, wherever we stand.

The last two Sundays, we talked about redeeming life. Last week, we talked about rehearsing grace instead of sin. This morning, restarting. What would life be like today if you could just draw a line in the sand and restart your life? What if that’s what Jesus was drawing in the dirt? What if he had bent down and just simply drawn a line in the sand, as if to indicate, this is where you start over? Why are we so afraid to believe that we could and even should restart our lives? What is it that keeps us from it?

Do you have a dream that your life will be more than it is today? Are you satisfied where you are now? This is all you ever want to be? This level of joy? This level of ability to forgive? This level of peace? You’re fully satisfied? Or, do you dream for more? What’s keeping you from going on? What’s keeping you from being more focused on what has been than what could be?

On December 29, 2005, a young Irish man named Matthew Hazley, a 25-year-old power walked, set a world record by completing a distance of 7,925 miles, which, by the way, happens to be the diameter (not the circumference) of the earth. He did it in 239 days. He did it by averaging 40 miles a day through some of the most difficult mountain passes in the world. Eating as he walked, pausing only to sleep. He wore out 13 pairs of shoes, eating 2-3 packs of Pop-Tarts a day and 12-15 Power Bars a day, as well as consuming a total of 467 bags of Frito Lay munchies. You can eat like that when you walk 40 miles a day! He trained at night in preparation for his walk, running 15 miles with a 27-pound pack on his back. When he really wanted to push it, he’d go 30 miles with a 50-pound pack at night. He finally had to quit his job in order to train full-time.

Now, that’s not my dream. An interviewer, however, did ask him what he would say to someone who had a dream, what they should do to achieve it. And, having cashed in everything he owned, and even borrowed money and quit his job to fulfill this dream of consuming 467 bags of Frito Lay snacks without looking like it, the interviewer asked him what advice he would give to the person. And he said, "Don’t use work as an excuse not to live your dreams" (Shannon Davis, "Squeaky Wheels," Backpacker, April, 2006, p. 75).

So many things never get started. So many things never get restarted, once the dream is gone. Why is that? Do you have any dreams that are still shackled to memories of your past failures? Do you think you can’t achieve your dream of becoming what God created you to be, perhaps like that woman did that day, caught in the act of adultery, knowing she would never again be pure as a virgin, and thinking because of that, life is over, and yet Jesus sets her free to live another dream. Do you ever have any dreams that are still shackled to what has been?

I’ve thought about some of my dreams lately. They’ve begun to get my attention at 51 years of age, because I’ve thought about how quickly I got here from 41. That’s what scares me about 51. I don’t mind being 51; it’s how quickly I got here from 41 that concerns me because those who are older tell me if getting from 41 to 51 blew my hair back (what’s left of it), I won’t believe what’s going to happen in the next ten years. I’m wondering if I’ll look back from 61 and say to myself, "At 51, I wonder if I had just restarted then. Instead of letting my life be defined by what had happened before then, I had restarted those dreams." I’ve begun to ask myself if it’s possible that the reason I’ve put off some of my dreams is because I have become an idolater, a worshiper of security. Of knowing where the next paycheck is going to come from. The security of knowing I will never take steps to put me at risk. Anyone here have that problem?

It may well be that the person who was luckiest that day, the blessed person that day, was the woman caught in the act of adultery, because she had to start over. The other guys got to keep the security of their secrets and go back home.

One reason people get trapped in a specific sin is because, as destructive as it may be, it offers some level of predictability or security. It’s truly mind-numbing how powerful words of regret can be. If only. I wish. But those words are words that are spiritual, psychological, moral, even physical dead ends.

There is a way to change that. Just like Jesus told this lady caught in the act that day. Without actually saying these words, he taught her the mantra of transformation, of changing her words of confession from "I wish" or "if only" into "next time." There is no hope in "if only." There is eternal hope in the words, "next time."

In Ephesians, we are told to live "redeeming the time, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:16, KJV). To buy the time back from what might be otherwise. The scripture is defining evil as the waste of the gift of God by not taking a step forward into whatever he’s called us to do and be. Truly the greatest evil is not some foreign nation trying to overwhelm us, but the wasted days and wasted nights of our own lives that could have been, had we just restarted when Jesus set us free.

This is the day the Lord has made, in which we can restart life, wherever we are. Or, not. It’s up to us.