W. W. J. D.

Well, it think maybe I'm calmed down now enough to get something off my chest...in the past few days I've received a couple of email forwards informing the world that a national church leader has "resigned his position, effective immediately"... He, "confessed to a one-time incident that involved ethical misconduct and an inappropriate interaction with a woman that did not involve any physical intimacy." I will not mention this dear man's name here or anywhere else to add any indignity to the disgusting report sent out by his own fellowship.
The email article is so filled with spiritual arrogance and pomposity that it stoops below similar things that this same fellowship has decryed in the secular press. In the first place I could have lived a lifetime very comfortably without knowing this juicy bit of gossip (gossip doesn't have to be a lie to be gossip...if it is defaming and slanderous, it is still gossip) on this brother in Christ.
Sanctimoniously it is mentioned that he has had "a sterling record," and that whatever he did with whomever he did it was an aberration. Oh and there is to be a yet undetermined, "period of rehabilitation." Now, at this moment a popular phrase comes to mind..."W. W. J. D." It is on bracelets, necklaces, T-shirts, bumper stickers and what have you. What would Jesus Do? Well, now that is a thought, and the way to answer that is to see what He did.
Once the pharisees brought to Him a woman taken in adultery, "in the very act," thereof. He simply wrote in the sand while they called off the Jerusalem Times Herald, and then said to her simply and quietly, "neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more." He said to a crippled man who never even confessed to sin, "thy sins be forgiven thee, go and sin no more." He didn't have the press secretary of the Assemblies of Disciples of Christ to send out an email detailing these individuals misconduct or inappropriate action. He didn't call for an undetermined period of rehabilitation, rather he simply said, "You are forgiven, you are not condemned, go and don't do a repeat performance!" (pretty good paraphrase, eh??)
If one of his disciples had fallen to the state mentioned above I have a pretty good idea how He might have handled it. Feeling His nature, methinks He would have called him aside privately and said, "You have confessed, you are forgiven, don't do it anymore, and don't ever mention it to Me again...because the next time you mention it, I won't remember what you are talking about!!!" That is redemption, that is grace, that is the Christ I know in my heart and serve!!!!!!
That's a far cry from what He said to the religious leaders of His day. He used words like, "Snakes, Daddy Snakes, Granddaddy Snakes..." Why? It was because they were continually justifying themselves, while accusing everyone else of wrongdoing. That didn't go over with the loving Savior very well. Perhaps we have a lesson to learn from that.
Tonight I pray for a dear man and his family who are no doubt hurting. They have been exposed to the fellowship they have loved and served for many years in a most unflattering way. Dear God, may he and his loved ones sleep a peaceful sleep as your nail scarred hands reach around them and he hears a loving and compassionate voice in the quite of his soul whisper, "neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more."
What Would Jesus Do? Does anybody care????????