One day, as he was telling a friend about his hat-woes, his
friend made a rather peculiar suggestion. His friend said, “Why don’t you go to
church on Sunday?”
“Go to church?” asked the other man with a bewildered look
on his face. “How will that solve my problem of forgetting where I keep leaving
my hats?”
“Well that’s simple,” replied the man’s friend. “In the back
of the church, above the coat racks, there are all sorts of hats. I’m sure you
can find a suitable hat to replace the one that you just lost.
The scheme appealed to the man, and so on the very next
Sunday, the man found himself in a place that he hadn’t been for a very long
time; he found himself at church.
Rather than just grab a hat and run, the man decided that,
since he was at church anyway, he might as well sit down and see for himself
what this church-thing was all about. So he went into the sanctuary and sat
down.
After the service the man joined in at the pastoral
receiving line to greet the pastor and shake his hand. When his turn came, he
introduced himself to the pastor and said, “Pastor, today you kept me from
sinning.”
“Oh,” said the pastor with a somewhat confused look on his
face. “How did I do that?
“Well,” said the man, “I came here today with the express
purpose of stealing a hat. You see, I have this strange problem of always
losing mine. But when I heard you preach about the evils of adultery, I
suddenly remembered where I keep leaving my hats.”
_______________
My father was always a great storyteller, and if memory
serves me correct, the preceding was one of his stories. Was it original to
him? I have no idea, but one thing is for sure, to this day, dad is known for
his stories and one-liners. Maybe that’s where my brothers and I get our sense
of humor from. Thanks, Dad J
Though funny, the story also has a more serious side. It is
one that we don’t seem to talk about much anymore. Why? Maybe it is because too
many of us have gone through it and it seems to have become an accepted norm,
even in the church. What am I talking about? I’m talking about “adultery.”
Have I offended you yet by suggesting that many church-goers
are adulterers? Before you label me a heretic, notice what Jesus said on the
subject. He said,
“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery” (Matthew 5:31-32; NIV).
Then, as if to reinforce the seriousness of this, Jesus says
it again. He says,
“I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery” (Matthew 19:9; NIV).
Likewise, God said through the prophet Malachi,
“I hate divorce” (Malachi 2:16).
Now if what they tell us is true, that the church has a
higher divorce rate than the world (greater than 50% of Christian marriages end
in divorce), and except for those cases where the reason for the divorce is
marital unfaithfulness by one member of the union, and if we take Jesus’ words
literally, it then logically follows that at least half of married (or formally
married) Christians today, are adulterers. What are we going to do with that?
Based on the frequency of divorce today for any and every
reason, apparently we do not share God’s sentiment on the subject. Or am I
missing something here? But wait, it gets worse. (Are you ready to lynch this
author for bringing up this subject?). Jesus also said,
“But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28; NIV).
Oh, oh. Busted! I guess that makes me an adulterer too. Yep,
I have looked at women the wrong way too before. God forgive me. The world
often says, “Looking is free,” but is
it really? The world often says, “It’s OK
to look at the menu, but you have to eat at home,” but does that cheesy line
really line up with what Jesus taught? Like many other things in life, it’s not
always about the literal action or word; often even the spirit of the action or
word is just as damning.
So what is the moral of this divorce and adultery stuff?
Before we beat ourselves up too much, the story doesn’t end
there. Jesus still shows his love towards us adulterers, as seen through his
parable of the woman who was actually caught in the very act of adultery. Poor
thing, talk about embarrassing! You can read about it beginning in John 8:3. In
the end, after all the accusations of the religious nut-cases who were seething
for a capital punishment verdict, Jesus simply says,
“If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7)
![]() |
From Facebook. Original source unknown |
Philip Yancey was right when he reportedly said, “Christians get very angry with other
Christians who sin differently than they do.” Likewise CS Lewis once said, “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea,
until they have something to forgive.” In his great book ‘Revise Us Again,’ Frank Viola wrote, “One can talk a great deal about Jesus
Christ, and even about the need for knowing him, and yet betray him by one’s
actions and attitudes toward those who are his.” That, my friends, is the
bottom line! Have we, perhaps ironically, betrayed the one we call our Lord? Sadly, sometimes I think we have. God forgive us.
Yes, I’m sure you’re quite right; God doesn’t like some of
those many things that people do and embrace today. Homosexuality was not a
part of God’s plan for mankind. I’m sure His heart does ache with every child
that is aborted. Murder is wrong, and so is lying and cheating and fornication
and adultery and divorce and, and, and …
So, lest we get too smug with ourselves and think that we
are somehow better than those people over there, we would do well to remember
that sin is sin. One is not somehow better than the next. Our s**t stinks just as bad as theirs. We have all fallen
short (Romans 3: 9-12), and were it not for Jesus, we would all be hopelessly
lost.
So the next time you or I find ourselves tempted to point
fingers, maybe we should consider an embrace of love and forgiveness instead.
Maybe we should think about something else that Jesus also said:
“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6: 14-15).
Hmm, I hate to think of it this way, but that almost sounds
conditional, doesn’t it? So, from one adulterer to another, how’s that for
ending on a controversial note?
Oh, and by the way, while you were out, your “friend” called
and asked if you will come by later and pick up your hats.
Photo Credit (cowboy hat): Flickr Creative Commons
Photo Credit (cowboy hat): Flickr Creative Commons
Very good! The way I heard it it was the minister who lost his bicycle. As he was preaching on the commandments, when he got to 'Thou shalt not commit adultery' he remembered where he'd left his bike!
ReplyDeleteRissa,
DeleteI haven't heard that one, but it works too. Either way, the message remains the same.
Thanks for sharing :)
Another great post.
ReplyDeleteIt seems important to note that after Christ defended the woman caught in the act of adultery, he admonished her to "go and sin no more".
Some people take His defence as a carte blanche, after all, none are without sin.
Good observation. The admonishment still applies to us today.
Delete