Ever heard of a rain shadow?

It’s one of those terms I must have heard many times, but never paid any attention to. Until now.

Here in San Jose, California, we’ve gone a number of months with ZERO rain.

Recently, there was a chance for showers in the northern part of the San Francisco Bay area. But not in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay area such as San Jose in Silicon Valley where we live.

The reason?

San Jose is in a rain shadow.

The weather app explained that a “rain shadow” is formed by mountains (or in our case by the high hills surrounding Silicon Valley) that block the moisture-laden winds blowing off the Pacific Ocean.

San Jose probably won’t receive meaningful amounts of rain for another month when children are going door-to-door trick-or-treating for Halloween.

In our lives, what are the causes of “rain shadows”? What “high hills” keep us from receiving blessings!

Jesus described a number of them in his Sermon on the Mount, including adultery. (For additional “rain shadows”, please read my blogs “Rain Shadows: Troubles, Persecutions, Worries, and Deceitful Wealth”; and “Rain Shadows: Grudges, Vanity and Hypocrisy”.)

Jesus warned us against rain shadows caused by adultery, saying:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman [or man] lustfully has already committed adultery with her [or him] in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28).

Countless people have despaired of ever being able to avoid looking lustfully.

Even straight-laced President Jimmy Carter confessed that he sometimes looked at women with lust in his heart. In a famous interview published by Playboy magazine, he said, “I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” (November 1976 issue).

But wait. There’s more!

Jesus’s warning against adultery forbids far more than breaking our marriage vows visually or physically.

We also must not look with lust in our hearts at the Power of Money, the Power of Religion, and the Power of the Kingdoms of the World.

I used to wonder why Jesus condemned adultery so many times. Again and again, he denounced this “wicked and adulterous generation.” (Matthew 12:39; 16:4; Mark 8:38).

Eventually, I realized he was denouncing far more than the type of adultery involving sex and spouses.

Jesus was denouncing a broad range of “adulteries”.

He was denouncing “adulteries” figuratively much as the Prophet Ezekiel denounced Israel and Jerusalem because they “committed adultery with their idols”. (Ezekiel 23:37).

He was denouncing “adulteries” figuratively much as the Prophet Hosea compared his wife’s literal adultery by breaking her marriage vows with Israel’s figurative “adultery” by breaking its covenant with the LORD. (Hosea 3:1).

Hosea told Israel:

“Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites,

   because the LORD has a charge to bring

   against you who live in the land:

‘There is no faithfulness, no love,

   no acknowledgement of God in the land.

There is only cursing, lying and murder,

   stealing and adultery;

they break all bounds,

   and bloodshed follows bloodshed.’”

     (Hosea 4:1-2).

It sounds like a summary of today’s news headlines!

And so, when we realize that this definition of “adultery” encompasses far more than sex and spouses, it becomes clear that Humanity in the 21st Century meets the criteria that Jesus used for calling us a “wicked and adulterous generation”.

For that matter, it’s accurate to say that every generation has been a wicked and adulterous generation.

As the Prophet Isaiah lamented:

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

     each of us has turned to our own way.” (Isaiah 53:6)

We are all adulterers!

I learn this lesson anew each time I read Gibbon’s monumental history of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

In thousands of heavily foot-noted pages, Gibbon covers 1,500 years of history involving Europe, the Mediterranean world, and the Middle East.

Gibbon begins around the time of Jesus and the early church, when the Roman Empire was at the peak of its power, wealth and grandeur.

Gibbon ends around the time when Constantinople (the eastern capital of the Roman Empire) fell to the Muslims in 1453. (The original capital of the Roman Empire, Rome, fell to barbarians about 1000 years earlier.)

We can only imagine how many more adulteries have darkened history since 1453.

Starting in 1492, Europeans began circling the globe for God, Gold and Glory—looking and lusting for the Power of Religion, the Power of Money, and the Power of the Kingdoms of the World.

The Twentieth Century saw two World Wars and the Cold War.

The Twenty-First Century is suffering from Terrorism and Climate Catastrophe.

After contemplating these millennia of history, my head is always in a whirl.

Some good things have happened. And are still happening!

As Jesus prophesied, the Way of Jesus is growing:

“like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18-19).

Indeed, like a mustard seed whose “branches” have grown so big “that the birds can perch in its shade” (Mark 4:32)—the Way of Jesus has grown so large that many people, communities of wisdom, families, businesses, nations, and civilizations have enjoyed life to the full (John 10:10).

But many bad things have also happened. And are still happening!

So many battles and wars.

So many people, communities of wisdom, families, businesses, nations, and civilizations going astray—rising, declining and falling.

So much suffering.

All these evils arose in one way or another from the Power of Money, the Power of Religion, and the Power of the Kingdoms of the World. (Revelation 6:1-8; 12:17-13:15).

All these adulteries blocked blessings for people, communities of wisdom, families, businesses, nations, and civilizations.

All these adulteries reduced the blessings that arise from coming in peace for all Humanity.

All these adulteries reduced the blessings that arise from lighting the world with our good deeds.

There are countless illustrations that deepen our despair.

As the first chapter of Ecclesiastes laments:

“Meaningless! Meaningless! . . . .

Utterly meaningless!

   Everything is meaningless!”

What do people gain from all their labors

   at which they toil under the sun?

Generations come and generations go . . . .

All things are wearisome,

   more than one can say.

(Ecclesiastes 1:1-8).

There are countless illustrations that confirm the wisdom of James, the brother of Jesus:

[W]here you have envy and selfish ambitions, there you will find disorder and every evil practice. . . . .

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. . . . .

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?

     (James 3:14-16; 4:1-4 (emphasis added)).

In addition to adultery involving spouses, what kinds of “adulteries” do Gibbon and modern history record? What kinds of “adulteries” does Jesus condemn?

We are not to commit adultery by looking and lusting for the Power of Money.

We are not to lust “for treasure on earth, where moth and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19).

We are to be on our “guard against all kinds of greed” for “life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15).

Instead, we are to pray to our Father in heaven: “Give us today our daily bread.”(Matthew 6:11).

We are not to commit adultery by looking and lusting for the Power of Religion.

We are not to walk around in clerical garb, lusting for impressive titles, important religious roles, and places of honor at gatherings. (Mark 12:38-39).

We are not to use the Power of Religion to devour widows’ houses and to justify our greed by making lengthy prayers for a show. (Mark 12:40).

Instead, we are “to look after widows and orphans in their distress.” (James 1:27)

Instead, we are to worship the Father in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24).

Instead, we are to pray to our Father in heaven: “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12).

We are not to commit adultery by looking and lusting for the Power of the Kingdoms of the World.

We are not to be the kind of rulers of our families, communities of wisdom, businesses, nations, and civilizations who commit adulteries by looking and lusting for ways to “lord it over them, and [to be] high officials exercis[ing] authority over them.” (Matthew 20:25).

We should not vainly boast that we are great because we put ourselves first by looking and lusting for the Power of Money, the Power of Religion, and the Power of the Kingdoms of the World. (see my blog “How Do We Build a Civilization That Is Good—That Is Very Good?”.)

Instead, we should truly “become great” by serving others in the Way of Jesus.

For the Way of Jesus is “not to be served, but to serve” and to give our lives to save others. (Matthew 20:26-27).

How do we overcome all of these adulteries?

We need to love the one and only God with ALL our heart and with ALL our soul and with ALL our strength and with ALL our mind. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Matthew 22:37-38).

Because, if you’re already loving your spouse and your God with ALL your heart, soul, strength, and mind, then there’s no room left in your heart, soul, strength, and mind for anything or anyone else who could lead you astray from enjoying life to the full.

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For additional thoughts about rain shadows, please read my blogs “Rain Shadows: Troubles, Persecutions, Worries, and Deceitful Wealth”; and “Rain Shadows: Grudges, Vanity and Hypocrisy”.

For more thoughts about the Way of Jesus growing like a mustard seed, please read my books Visions of America and Visions of the Church (published together in one volume); and Lighting the World.

The theme of Visions of America is:

We come with Joy and Peace for all Humanity—paraphrase of Apollo 11

The theme of Lighting the World is:

You are the light of the world.

[L]et your light shine before [people],

that they may see your good deeds

and praise your Father in heaven.

“Not by might nor by power,

but by my Spirit,” says the

LORD Almighty.

—Matthew 5:14,16; Zechariah 4:6

Both these themes also apply to Visions of the Church, in which I tie together 2,000 years of Church history through comparisons with the troubled—yet ultimately triumphant—flight of Apollo 13.