My men’s bible study class took up a lesson today on the Ten Commandments. One Commandment reads thus:
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
I was making the facetious point to the class that I didn’t have a sin problem with coveting anyone’s donkeys–the Commandment, after all, is a little dated. Who has donkeys any more, right? I thought I was illustrating the point safely that obeying some Commandments involves less commitment than others, but that was no excuse for breast-beating self-righteousness.
But guess what?
One of the guys, a high school agriculture teacher who lives in the country, laughed, exclaiming, “But I have a donkey.”
“Whoa!” I roared. “How many Sunday School teachers teaching this standardized lesson across the national denomination could claim he had a class mate who owns a donkey!”
And no sooner than I uttered that exclamation, another member of the class started laughing: “I have a donkey, too.”
OK, seriously, I want to know: How many Sunday School teachers across the land can claim he has two class mates who own donkeys?
Only in Louisiana, I suspect. At any rate, reader, heed the commandment: “Keep thy covetous eyeballs off of Randy’s and Greg’s donkeys, lest ye sin!” Who says God’s writ is not timeless?
Inventio! 