Noah drank from its wine, got drunk and passed out, naked in his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and told his two brothers who were outside the tent. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah woke up hungover, he learned what his youngest son had done. – Genesis 9:21-24 Now we all know that we weren’t the first God believing individual to have gotten drunk, pass out from drinking too much, or strip down to his/her birthday suit in a drunken stupor. If you haven’t done any of the above, God bless your soul. If you have, “haha! Join the shameful club of ‘can’t hold my liquor.'” But my point isn’t to lambaste you for your indiscretions, because everybody makes mistakes, and I’m probably the biggest idiot of them all so you’re in good company– mine. What I want to do is discuss two courses of action that can take place when people make mistakes. The first course of action is to publicly make it a mockery. It’s only okay to make fun of people’s short comings if they were showboating and they fell on their face, not figuratively, but literally. Otherwise, making a mockery of somebody’s shortcomings and mistakes is wrong! In this scene, Ham, the youngest son, sees Noah’s mistake and then goes to spread the word of his father’s mistake. Ham demeans the person making the mistake. We know this happens all the time because there is always that one jerk face who can’t keep their camera phones in their pockets. This person also loves to post things on facebook and on youtube with your name tagged for all the public to see your folly. (You know who you are). All People make mistakes, and so will you (wagging fingers to the person taking video). This is obviously the wrong route to pursue. In fact, it would be ignorant for us to hastily pursue this course of action. On the flip side, we have Shem and Japheth, Noah’s older sons, whom cautiously and carefully try to cover up for the mistake of their father. I’m not, by any means saying, “see no evil, hear no evil.” I am saying that a person must be treated with dignity and respect despite of his/her transgression. I know here, people will get at me and send me all types of emails about Joe Paterno, Catholic priests, and child molesters and etc, etc, but my point here and the Bible’s point here is not for an institutional, mafioso style cover up masked by lies and trap doors. The key point here is that the two older sons of Noah came to help the situation and cover their father from the embarrassment of his mistake. The idea is that people deserve a second chance or even a third or fourth chance for their mistakes. When was the last time any of us did that for a friend? When was the last time we had a friend we could call on to do that for us? God, seeing our miserable mistakes and despite of it, decides to cover up those mistakes through the blood of His Son Jesus. So it is time we start covering up the nakedness of people around us and help them mend their mistakes.
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