What does the FIRST Stone mean to you?
Daddy and Me
What does the FIRST Stone mean to you?
The Rev. Glen DeLong, my dad, was an Episcopalian minister. In 1973, he used my nail polish to paint the word FIRST on a river rock. He held it up and said, "What does this mean to you?" I answered, "Let he who is without sin cast the FIRST stone." He walked away grinning, calling my mother's name. I knew then that my dad had created a brilliant teaching tool, a gentle reminder of the lessons of the FIRST stone from John 8.
My father's FIRST stone sat on his desk for the rest of his life as a Priest. If you were sitting in his office, complaining about anyone or even anything, he'd push that FIRST stone right toward you. He'd give you pause, space, time to rethink, a moment to try to walk in another person's shoes. He'd tell you that in the end of that teaching Jesus said, "Go and sin no more." Go... and stop doing bad stuff.
In the sermon he preached on the FIRST stone, Daddy told us that mercy and forgiveness were not just concepts, they are responsibilities. He said the lessons of mercy and forgiveness weren't the only take-aways from John 8, they were the obvious. In the end, Jesus said, "Go and sin no more." Daddy said that meant it was possible for us, no matter how horribly we've behaved as humans in the eyes of God, to turn our lives around, right then, right there, in that instant. We can all choose to "Go and stop doing bad stuff." The FIRST stone lesson is really about your responsibility to your mission, about knowing your purpose in life and serving it. Daddy reminded us all, in his words and in his deeds, that Jesus didn't speak the truth for just one person on that day, he spoke the truth for all people, everywhere, all ways.
I was 14 when I heard that sermon, I'm nigh onto 60 now. After 40+ years of contemplating Jesus' teaching that day, I know the only way the FIRST Stone Lesson could have been any more profound would have been if all those people had piled their stones together in witness. If they had marked the place of their understanding of His word in a Cairn, marked their understanding for all the world to see. I'm not sure how smart that would have been back in Jesus' day, I'm sure it's smart now. Find out more about The FIRST Stone Mission Cairn Project.
The FIRST Stone Mission was founded to honor my father's ministry. I hope I've done you proud Daddy!
Peace,
Janet DeLong, PhD
The Rev. Glen DeLong, my dad, was an Episcopalian minister. In 1973, he used my nail polish to paint the word FIRST on a river rock. He held it up and said, "What does this mean to you?" I answered, "Let he who is without sin cast the FIRST stone." He walked away grinning, calling my mother's name. I knew then that my dad had created a brilliant teaching tool, a gentle reminder of the lessons of the FIRST stone from John 8.
My father's FIRST stone sat on his desk for the rest of his life as a Priest. If you were sitting in his office, complaining about anyone or even anything, he'd push that FIRST stone right toward you. He'd give you pause, space, time to rethink, a moment to try to walk in another person's shoes. He'd tell you that in the end of that teaching Jesus said, "Go and sin no more." Go... and stop doing bad stuff.
In the sermon he preached on the FIRST stone, Daddy told us that mercy and forgiveness were not just concepts, they are responsibilities. He said the lessons of mercy and forgiveness weren't the only take-aways from John 8, they were the obvious. In the end, Jesus said, "Go and sin no more." Daddy said that meant it was possible for us, no matter how horribly we've behaved as humans in the eyes of God, to turn our lives around, right then, right there, in that instant. We can all choose to "Go and stop doing bad stuff." The FIRST stone lesson is really about your responsibility to your mission, about knowing your purpose in life and serving it. Daddy reminded us all, in his words and in his deeds, that Jesus didn't speak the truth for just one person on that day, he spoke the truth for all people, everywhere, all ways.
I was 14 when I heard that sermon, I'm nigh onto 60 now. After 40+ years of contemplating Jesus' teaching that day, I know the only way the FIRST Stone Lesson could have been any more profound would have been if all those people had piled their stones together in witness. If they had marked the place of their understanding of His word in a Cairn, marked their understanding for all the world to see. I'm not sure how smart that would have been back in Jesus' day, I'm sure it's smart now. Find out more about The FIRST Stone Mission Cairn Project.
The FIRST Stone Mission was founded to honor my father's ministry. I hope I've done you proud Daddy!
Peace,
Janet DeLong, PhD
Janet is a philosophical writer. Her favorite quote: "When you come to the edge of all the light you have, and must take a step into the darkness of the unknown, believe that one of two things will happen. Either there will be something solid for you to stand on ~ or you will be taught how to fly." Patrick Overton
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From the back cover: "When Janet was 14, her father handed her a stone on which he had painted the word FIRST. She answered her father, "let she who is without sin cast the FIRST stone." He answered her answer, "you can lead someone to truth, they have to find it for themselves." After 30 years of contemplating the meaning of that FIRST Stone and his words, she finally put hers down."
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