My father preached about the time that Jesus arrived at the scene where a bunch of do-gooders were about to stone a woman to death who had been caught in the act of adultery (come to think of it, why weren't they about to stone the adulterous man with her?). In those days, the "righteous" did not tolerate adultery, and it was punishable by death. Jesus stopped the mob and asked them what the offense of the woman was, and they told him that she had committed the evil sin of adultery and that the law dictated that she be stoned to death. They were claiming their right to stone her to death right there on the spot. Jesus said, "You have quoted the law correctly; therefore, let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Powerful words. He looked the accusers right in the eye and told them, essentially, that no one is perfect, that we are all striving to perfect ourselves in this process called life, and that, most importantly, none of us has a right to act as if we are perfect and have a right to destroy those we designate imperfect.
According to the story, once Jesus said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," one by one the accusers of the adulteress left. When they had all left, Jesus turned to the woman and said, "Woman, where are your accusers?" And she acknowledged that they had all left. At that point Jesus said to her, "Go, and sin no more." In so doing, Jesus did not tell her that she would never be tempted to do wrong ever again, but that she should strive to live a life free from the trouble her ways prior to His intervention had brought to her. Go and sin no more. He didn't say, "I expect you will fall back into your old ways once I am not watching." Jesus did not go checking up on her for the rest of her life. He simply told her to strive to do right and left her to live her life with that thought as her guiding principle.
Jesus was condemned by His contemporaries, who wore their righteousness like bright garments, for associating with adulterers, thieves and criminals. Yet, He said that was why He was here, to minister to those whose lives needed change. And following that admonition from Jesus to allow those who need His message to come to Him, one thing I have seen in my father is that he has never prevented anyone from coming to any church that he has pastored. At the end of his sermon today, he told the rapist that he was welcome in this church.
Well, the associate pastor stood up, told my father he was wrong, stormed up to the pulpit and took his personal items from the pulpit, right in front of the congregation, and more than half the church stood up and left with him.
As they exited the church in their hypocritical self-righteousness, the members walked past my sister who stood in the vestibule and said to each one, as they spewed venom at her, that EVERYONE is welcome to come to this church.
Friends, my sister hurt so much as each of those hypocrites passed her, but she did not let the tears go until she was driving home. My father stood there in the pulpit and, when the associate pastor said that he and these others were leaving, my father said, "So be it."
I am sure that my father, mother and sister are hurting. I have called them all to tell them I am proud of the stand they took. If it were not hypocritical, I would almost go to that church and support it, but I am not a member anymore, and do not believe in all of their beliefs, so I am staying out of it. But I told my sister that those hypocrites who left, (you must remember that these are Fundamentalists who believe in the LITERAL translation of the Bible as their guide) these hypocrites do not believe in what they profess, because they say that Jesus can heal the sick. When they are feeling ill, they pray to Him for deliverance. They believe that Jesus changes the lives of any who call on Him as their Saviour, YET, and here is the big transgression on their part, they will not let Jesus change this ex-rapist into a Christian. No! He is to wear a scarlet "R" in his forehead forever. Jesus cannot save him. And I told her that if Jesus cannot save this young man, then He did not save any of those hypocrites, either. Their inability to believe in the saving grace of Jesus is proven herewith, that they know their lives are filled with all manner of evil, and if Jesus did not change them, He cannot change this former rapist. If they truly believed in what they say about the redemptive grace of salvation through the blood of Jesus and His atonement for our sins on the cross of Calvary, then they would put this young man's sins where their's are - in the sea of God's forgetfulness, buried by the grace of God.
Well, the hypocrites left en masse, but I truly think my father, who has never waivered in his Fundamentalist beliefs, would rather minister to those in need than to count himself a member of a social club composed of self-righteous bigots who dictate the material in his sermons.
So, folks, there is the next chapter in the continuing saga of God's forgiveness for a former rapist.
