STONES VERSUS DOORS

TODAYS SCRIPTURES

Joshua 7:20, 25b - Achan replied, "It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel." Then all of Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them.

John 8:7, 9 - When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.

Please also read Matthew 7:7, Acts 14:27 and Revelations 3:20. Oh, go ahead. It will do you good to look them up.

STONES VERSUS DOORS

Our Sunday School class was studying Joshua 7 and a comment I made has been on my heart.

Cliff notes: The Israelites defeated Jericho but then got thoroughly trounced. Why? Well, thinking themselves undefeatable after Jericho, they planned the next battle instead of following God. Joshua also failed to notice God was no where to be found. You see, God was more than a bit upset with them. He had told the Israelites to take nothing for their own out of Jericho. As usual, one guy saw a few items he liked so he took them and hid them under his tent. No one knew except God. When they were defeated, Joshua called God and asked, "What gives?" God says, "Did you even notice I was no where to be found? Here is what you are going to do to fix things." Each tribe and person was judged innocent until only Achan remained. The punishment was severe. Achan, his family and everything he owned was stoned, burned and buried under a pile of rocks.

The discussion was great: How would you feel waiting to see if the guilty person was in your tribe? Your family? Why punish the whole family? How does one person's sin cause others to suffer? How would you feel if you were Achan? How would you feel as you threw stones?

It is hard for us to understand much in the Old Testament. One man sinned and the whole family stoned. Why the whole family? Why death? Why did the whole community have to participate? But we are New Testament people and we see sin through the Cross. We like the time Jesus said to throw the stone if you are free of sin. We know no stones will be thrown because we have ALL SINNED. We no longer throw stones or punish a whole family - or do we.

At the end of class, I commented, "Today we do not throw stones, we just shut doors."

We shut the door on:

> the person that has funny colored hair

> the person that doesn't like our style of music

> the person that has really sinned unlike our teeny tiny sins

> the person that has paid the price (jail time, etc.) for their crime

> the family of the person that committed crimes or those really big sins

> the person that doesn't wear the right clothes

Do you get the idea? Do we throw stones? No, we do something worse. We shut the door and deny those we judge, as not up to "our" standards, the opportunity to know Jesus.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Would you shut the door on someone?

(As you are thinking on this, I want to make a further comment. Please do not think I have some better-than-thou attitude. I am very guilty of judging people and am sure I have shut doors. My goal today is to help us see that we do not have to throw a rock to injure someone. We can shut the door to our church, to our compassion, to our understanding of God. When we do that, the person on the other side of the door will never learn about God's love and forgiveness.)

LET US PRAY (Please use this as a beginning of your prayer. Finish in your own words, words from your heart.)

Forgive me Lord. Forgive me when I feel smug because I do not throw stones, but feel it is fine shutting the door on people who do not live up to my standards. Move through me and be the force that gives me the courage to open doors in my church and in my life. When I see someone that has sinned, let me open the door of forgiveness. When I see someone that doesn't look quite like me, let me open the door and invite them in. When I see someone who is suffering because of the actions of another, let me open the doors of understanding and compassion. When I see someone looking for you, let me open the door before they even have a chance to knock. Amen