To Ken that We All Are Kin

In the Gospel story of the woman caught in adultery (Jn 8:1-11), when Jesus said, “Let the one among you who is without sin throw the first stone,” he was establishing a kinship, a mutuality, between the accusers and the woman. He opened the eyes of the crowd to the understanding that, like the woman, they too had acted immorally at times. Interestingly, the word “ken,” which is so close to “kin,” means “the range of perception, understanding, or knowledge; the range of vision.” When we are in kinship with others, we see them, acknowledge them, understand them.

I’m sure the self-righteous people who brought the woman to Jesus saw no connection between her and themselves; she was a scapegoat who allowed them to feel superior and deflect their own sinfulness. Jesus pointed out the connection between them, the mutuality, and thus the relationship changed. As Fr. Gregory Boyle says in his book Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship, “God invites us to always live on the edge of eternity, at the corner of kinship and mutuality.” We are all kin, all related in the body of Christ, and the sooner we ken that, the sooner the kingdom of God will come to fruition.