![\"Day4tribe\"](\"https:\/\/oshetablogs.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/10\/day4tribe2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIn my post called, \u201cFor the Days I Don\u2019t Feel Black Enough\u201d<\/a>, I described how I try to overcome shame and identity crisis from childhood bullying by taking an Oreo Eucharist.\u00a0 The response from that post was ridiculously humbling.\u00a0 Some of my favorite messages were from women who could relate to my story and would actually go out to buy Oreos, to take very own Oreo Eucharist!\u00a0 The stories they shared with me of how they struggled with shame, fear, or sense of worthlessness were gifts to me.\u00a0 Truly.\u00a0 I invited you all to come and share your stories while we take of the cookies and milk together and some of y\u2019all called my bluff.\u00a0\u00a0 THANK YOU!<\/p>\n So today we\u2019re going to go back to that blanket where I take my Eucharist for my FMF.<\/p>\n Every Friday a wonderfully courageous group of writers link up at Lisa-Jo Baker\u2019s blog to share out best unedited five minutes on a word prompt.<\/a><\/p>\n Today\u2019s Five Minute Friday falls during my Thirty-One Day Challenge.\u00a0 For the month of October, I\u2019m writing for thirty-one days on one topic: Finding My Tribe.\u00a0\u00a0 I promised that I\u2019ll take the word Lisa-Jo puts out and find a way to make it work for this month\u2019s theme.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s word is: Write .<\/p>\n Seriously?<\/p>\n Why not some low hanging fruit like, \u201clove?\u201d<\/p>\n How am I going to work that<\/i> in? \u00a0But, I think I\u2019m up for the challenge. So I got the prompt last night and all day long I\u2019ve been waiting for inspiration to hi.<\/p>\n I played with a few ideas on my walk with my husband this morning, but it finally came to me!<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to try to write for five minutes on one of the most well known story in the Bible of Jesus writing. I\u2019m going to write on the woman caught in the act of adultery\u2014from the perspective of the woman.<\/p>\n This is in line with the \u201cfinding my tribe theme\u201d because the picture of God as our loving ally, not a judgmental deity, \u00a0as described in this account is the foundation for every theological belief and conviction I hold\u2026 my tribe is made of women who see God as reflected in Jesus.<\/p>\n On Monday, I\u2019ll share how this story helped me reframe my picture of God as \u201cfor me and not against me\u201d.<\/p>\n But for today, I\u2019m going to write for five minutes as if I invited the woman to come sit on my blanket, share her Jesus story, and share in an Oreo Eucharist\u2014and she actually took me up on it.\u00a0 It\u2019s longer than most of my five minutes because I had ALL DAY LONG to craft this post in my head.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a bit of a departure from the rules. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n So here we go:<\/p>\n Oreos with the Adulteress.<\/p>\n GO:<\/b><\/p>\n I had just pulled out a sleeve of cookies when she approached my blanket. With her long braid tumbling over her shoulder, graceful fingers cupping a ancient-looking pitcher, a serene smile on her lips, and eyes shining a bit of mischief, she knelt down and asked,\u00a0 \u201cIs this where we tell our Jesus stories?\u201d<\/p>\n Schooching over to make room for my new friend, I nod, \u201cYes, yes, this is. Please tell me your story!\u201d<\/p>\n She gingerly sits next to me and pours milk into my amber cup.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you sure, it\u2019s pretty shameful?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHoney, shame used to be my middle name\u201d, I say as I arrange the cookies on the plate.<\/p>\n She chuckles lightly and begins her story:<\/p>\n \u201cHe was in on it, I think.\u00a0 When the teachers of the Law wanted to trick Jesus and they I think he offered me up. It was obvious they needed a scapegoat.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n I knew something was up when he came to me in the near dawn and not for our usual middle of the night meeting. He was a little bit more anxious, he looked over his shoulder a few to many times, and he wanted to get right to it.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0I didn\u2019t delude myself that there was any love between us, he needed to use my youthful body for release and I needed to feel something\u2026anything, \u00a0even if it was a fleeting desire.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n I knew it was wrong. \u00a0I knew it was against the law, but when has the law ever made me feel known, loved, or seen?\u00a0 Never.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n So he came to me and we began our hopeless transaction.\u00a0 At first, it was just him and me.\u00a0 His desire and my need. Tangled up together in our sin.\u00a0 And then there were the men. <\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Loud and posturing, they rushed at us and grabbed me. Naked and unprotected, I was dragged away from the bed.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cWhat is this!\u201d they demanded as if they didn\u2019t know.\u00a0 They knew!\u00a0 They planned it all.\u00a0 The giddy gleams of self-righteousness in their eyes told me\u2026they knew.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n They threw me to the ground in front of Jesus, as he taught early in the day with so many people gathered all around him. <\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n And if my nakedness, my dirtiness, my shame wasn\u2019t enough\u2014they asked for my life.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cTeacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.\u00a0 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women, Now what do you say.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n I waited for the inevitable.\u00a0 His \u00a0stone-faced judgment. The screams of disgust.\u00a0 The unrelenting blows of heavy rocks.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n But, he didn\u2019t do that.\u00a0 Jesus looked at me<\/b>, looked at them, and then he knelt down to write<\/b> in the sand.\u00a0 Mere inches away, I could have looked up to see what he was writing, but I didn\u2019t\u2011I was too afraid of making eye contact.\u00a0 \u2018He\u2019ll pass judgment soon.\u00a0 It\u2019ll all be over when he stands up\u2019, I thought.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n As my accusers persisted he stood up and said, \u201cLet anyone who is without sin be the first to thrown a stone at her\u201d\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Then he stooped again to write<\/b> in the sand, so close to me I could reach out and touch the Messiah.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Soon I heard feet shuffling away and as quickly as I was dragged to face my shame, I was left alone with the Savoir and his writing in the sand. <\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cWoman, where are you accusers?\u201d he gently asked.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cThey have all gone\u201d I stammered, nearly hopeful that this was all behind me.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no one left to condemn you, then?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n I nodded stiffly.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cNeither do I condemn you. \u201d\u00a0 He declared.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cGo now and leave your life of sin\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n I shook my head in amazement at her story. \u201cHe really does love us, doesn\u2019t he?\u201d\u00a0 I say.\u00a0 \u201cI mean, he could have totally blasted you with the law, but that\u2019s not our Jesus is it?\u00a0 He fulfills the law with love, right?\u201d<\/p>\n She nods and offers me a little smile, \u201cthat he does.\u201d<\/p>\n She picks up an Oreo and twirls it around in her finger, \u201cYou know, it seems to me, this would be much more fun if we twisted and pulled the cookie apart to see which side the cream lands?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYep, I say\u2026super fun\u201d with a little smirk and a wink<\/p>\n So she hold up one side and I take the other and we twist.\u00a0 The cream lands on her side, go figure.<\/p>\n \u201cGo\u201d we say to one another, \u201cand leave your life of sin\u201d<\/p>\n STOP<\/b><\/p>\n Tomorrow and Sunday I\u2019ll post prayers, liturgical readings, or poems that I love.<\/p>\n Until tomorrow, Lovelies,<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n