DAY 7

SODOM, GOMORRAH & THE LORD’S PRAYER

Genesis 18 & 19 and Matthew 6:1 – 18

I feel like we are in the thick of it. Sarah laughing at God, Abraham negotiating with him, the entire episode of Sodom, Gomorrah, Lot and his family…there is much to ponder and think about.

Genesis 18 starts not with Abram & Sarai, but with Abraham and Sarah, two people whose standing with God is different. God has made his covenant with Abraham and Abraham has circumcised all the males. And so God “stops by.” Not that this is a normal event, but it does seem somewhat matter-of-fact. Amid the hurried preparations for the surprise guests we find God promising Abraham a son, and Sarah being quite tickled with God. Have you ever laughed at God? The next interaction is startling. Not Sarah’s lying; she is embarrassed and doesn’t know what to say. Rather, God’s reaction, which is basically His pointing out that she did in fact lie to Him and then no more of this matter is discussed: Remarkable.

Abraham’s negotiation with God makes me nervous. As I read I am thinking, “Really Abraham you are going to keep pushing this point?” I also find the verse in Romans 3:10 coming to my mind, “there is no one righteous, not even one.” I understand that verse to point out the reality that none of us is perfect. Why then is Abraham pursuing this line of questioning, and with God! The answer to my way of thinking is Lot. I think Abraham is probably the kind of uncle you would want. We read in an earlier chapter that he lets you, the nephew, choose the best land. After he has just been told he is going to have a son, his concern is with a nephew. I on the other hand would probably want to talk more to God about this promised son. Abraham apparently doesn’t need to. My sense is that God sees Abraham’s real motivation, the motivation of an uncle for a nephew; not bad really.

As I think about God in these interactions, my image is not one of cruelness. He doesn’t react to Sarah’s laughing (mocking even), nor to her bold-faced lie. Nor does he grow tired of Abraham’s bargaining: read it closely, it is more than bargaining, it is a challenge. In verse 25 we read “Far be it from you to do such a thing…” I also wonder did you read the entire section as Abraham counted down by five. Did you? Did you begin to skip ahead and not read Abraham’s plea word-for-word because you knew where it was going. I did. I skipped ahead. I didn’t have the patience first time through to completely read it. Then I realized God had the patience to listen to Abraham’s count down. As I am on the verge of reading how God will destroy a city, it would be easy for me to skip over this bit of narrative, of how amazingly patient God is, and only “hear” that God is somehow capricious and quick to destroy – anything could be further from the truth…for the Lord is slow to anger…Numbers 14:18.

Genesis 19 Yet this amazingly patient God seems to have a limit. I (and maybe you) struggle with reading a text about when God reaches His limit. Before I judge God I have to admit I also struggle when I read about when humanity has gone completely off-the-ranch. When I read about a country killing its own people, or when I read about a child or woman begin battered by a man. It is not just reading about it, I can still remember touring the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.; it was more than unsettling. There are limits aren’t there? When humanity won’t stop what must God do? Reflect back on the Genesis 19 reading, did it seem like the people of Sodom were going to stop? Even after they were blinded they continued groping for the door to Lot’s home. What Genesis 19 seems to be describing is a society with no limits.

Then there is Lot, what is up with him? He doesn’t want to leave, it seems as his sons-in-law actually didn’t leave, and his wife looked back. What do those actions communicate? To me they communicate a deep emotional investment in this place. Lot was rescued. While Lot wasn’t perfect, God was willing to spare him. Might that imply that we can be people for God, yet who at times can get emotionally invested in things which are not of God? The Good News is that God will spare us, in fact might deliver us, even when we really don’t want to leave it. It says in verse 16 that the Angels seized them and basically dragged them out. A prayer flows from this, “Lord, deliver me from that which is not of you, even when I am not so inclined; seize me and drag me from it.”

After all that we have this situation with Lot and his daughters; this just seems to be more of a confused family, and it leaves me just amazed. Before I judge Lot, I think I need to look at myself – are there episodes where God has clearly delivered me, but I return to actions that are not of God?

Matthew 6:1-18: if Genesis 18 shows God’s amazing patience and love for those he cares about, and if Genesis 19 shows that God has limits, then how might we interact with this God. The Gospel text brings us to a moment where Jesus, who is one with the Father, instructs his followers about some specific behaviors. They all make sense to me. Do not show off, pray in private, give to the needy in secret, and when you fast don’t walk around all gloomy.

Then there is the Lord’s Prayer. I have really spent my time on the Old Testament today, and I am finding it hard to comment on this part of the New Testament except to share a story. This past Christmas Eve at the 4 pm Service I was sitting close to our Sunday School kids who had a part of the service. As we began I could hear their voices praying the “Our Father”. I lowered my voice and let them lead me. It was more than cute. My thought then and now was about God hearing their prayer, innocent and offered simply.