Poor Anna Karenina, my mother used to say, poor Anna Karenina.  The tragic figure of Leo Tolstoy's towering nineteenth century novel of imperial Russia, Anna Karenina, wife of one of Russia's most influential politicians, made a fateful decision to yield to her impulses and consort with the dashing young general Vronsky, with immense consequences.  A child was born, the couple tried to live together, yet everywhere Anna went she was rejected by the society in which she had once traveled with such joy and aplomb.  No one wanted to mix with an adulterer.  For those who have not read the novel, I won't spoil it by disclosing the ending, other than to say that it was not a happy one.
     The eighth chapter of John's gospel presents a story, not found, as many New Testament scholars point out, in every New Testament manuscript but extant in enough to validate its inclusion in the biblical corpus, in which a woman has been caught in adultery.  As the woman's accusers prepared to throw stones at the woman (the prescribed punishment for adulterers in those times), they asked Jesus what they should do.  After waiting a few minutes, Jesus replied, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."  Freshly reminded of their own perfidy, the woman's accusers, one by one, dropped their stones and left.
     Jesus then turned to the woman and asked her, "Did no one condemn you?"  "No one," Lord, she replied.
     So Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either.  Go.  From now on sin no more."
     We all know Anna Kareninas in our lives.  We all know people who, for various reasons, have given into their baser impulses and plunged themselves into a life of ignominy and sin.  Even if we disagree with what they did, however, we cannot stop loving them.  We cannot pretend that there is a place where God's love is not present.  We cannot pretend that there is someone without absolutely any purpose.  And we cannot ignore the fact of our own sin.
     Did Jesus overlook what the woman did?  No, he did not.  But he was willing to give her a another chance.  We should, too.  We should be willing to give everyone another chance.  We should be willing to believe in the enduring love of God.