What I learned at church this Sunday.

August 23, 2015

What I learned at church.

"But as Tertullian once said . . . ."

It was one of those Sundays that come to me often in Presbyterian churches: I’m more than reasonably certain the preacher knows what he is talking about; I’m much less certain I do. But what I got this Sunday – from the story of the woman taken in adultery, the one Moses says should be stoned - was this. It was much less than the preacher meant, I’m afraid, partly because I couldn't quite keep up. He was a tall, narrow, nervous man in a hurry, pushing one word against another against another and another with never more than a sliver of breath in between.

    This is only what I got: Jesus has no patience for condescending overweenery (pun intended). What he’s drawing in the sand is a line he is labeling “Pompous Ass Free Zone.” And what he wants to tell pompous asses every-where (and the pompous assery in every-one) is this, “Put your stones down (pun also intended) and go home. Tell your wife and children that you’re sorry for being such a hot-air balloon and try to mean it.”

    What he wants to tell sinners when he’s made the zone pompous ass free is this, “You can start all – all – over again. Go anywhere but home and make a new beginning.” That’s it, right? That's the end of story.

    But, there are not many preachers that slow down enough to stop where the story does. There’s always something to add. The narrow man in the broad hurry was not the exception that tested that rule.