Sex and the Big Dance



My team for the tournament this year:
15th seed Long Island Blackbirds



    Even if you don’t know if a basketball is stuffed or inflated and even if you could not care less about the game James Naismith invented, everyone knows about March Madness.   Hope your team made the big dance hosted by the NCAA.   BYU made it, but they also made the news last week because of sex.   That’s right,  a player was kicked off the team when he acknowledged his transgression to BYU officials.  His transgression was having sex with his girlfriend.   The school has suspended him for the rest of the season.  Not sure what you make of all of that; some writers commend the school for their actions and some think the school has their head in the sand.   Who’s to say?   Apparently the NCAA, which lives and breathes endless rules like the Pharisees of long ago, doesn’t have a policy regarding premarital sex or adultery.   Not sure Moses would have been invited to sit on the NCAA Board of Directors.   

This week we uncover the meaning of the seventh commandment, “Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery.”   Some of the figures are staggering when it comes how many have had sex before marriage and how many spouses have broken this commandment.   Over my years in the ministry I have come to believe that this commandment is much more complex than having (or not having) sex.  

I kicked around a number of sermon titles this week.  I always like the ones that “get you off the bus” and want to come and hear the sermon.  So I first thought of “Forbidden Sex,” but when I told the person who sends my title into the Observer, she blushed and said, “Oh, dear.”   So I figured I needed to tone it down.  So then I liked the snappy and catchy one, “ Lust, Sex and Grace.”   But that too seemed a bit too racy to some.  I was running out of ideas and time, so finally in a cooperative spirit with Jason, Catherine, Jane and Jessica we came up with, “Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places.”   Oh, in case you are wondering, a basketball is inflated, not stuffed.  And here is something to chew on: I wonder how many teams would have enough players to field a team  if everyone fessed up?   Catherine says they wouldn’t have enough teams for a tournament!  Still blogging.  See you Sunday.