I need to give a warning, and I’m not here to single anyone out. But I have heard it from many people and I confess, I’ve participated at times. We can’t allow it any longer in the Body.

Let’s go to a Bible story that’s rarely taught in Sunday School.

Genesis 9:18-28 (New Living Translation)

The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.) From these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the earth.

After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked.

Noah was a righteous man. He was the last one God called “perfect”. It’s clear from Noah’s response later in the text that his son Ham was likely going to his brothers to laugh about the state of their “perfect” father. It was not a concerned “What do we do?” or else Noah would not have cursed Canaan. What Ham did was to further the shame of his father, and the curse was passed to his kids.

Children, stop doing this to your parents. Quit mocking them even in fun for their mistakes or idiosyncrasies. Adult children do this in front of their kids and don’t expect it to be returned upon them later in life. Your judgment of others limits your destiny. This is especially clear when children mock or try to shame their parents. I’m not old, but I’ve lived long enough to see children judge their parents the same way their parents judged their grandparents.

The lesson from this account isn’t just for covering up the mistakes of parents. It should be our model every time shame is exposed. We don’t make a joke about it. We don’t hold them up to judgment. We show them honor by not exposing their shame.

Incidentally, not exposing the shame of one who is fallen but who has repented is one of the most difficult things for a church leader to do. People want the details. But if they’re not part of the solution or part of the problem, to discuss the details is simply gossip. And if the individual has repented and is trying to make it right, their is no reason to expose their shame. The easy course is for the church leader to expose the sin and stop the vultures circling him or her. It’s easy enough to expose a dead corpse to the birds.

But our mandate is reconciliation and we cannot expose the shame of others to save ourselves from unfair judgments. If you’re a church leader, don’t worry. I’ll give you tools to honor those who have fallen and those who want to rip into you because you won’t play the gossip game. Stay tuned.