Sermon for SMHP, Year C, Proper 12, July 28, 2019
Genesis 18:20-33
20Then
the Lord said, “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah
and how very grave their sin! 21I must go down and see whether
they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if
not, I will know.” 22So the men turned from there, and went
toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.
23Then
Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the
wicked? 24Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city;
will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous
who are in it? 25Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay
the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be
that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
26And
the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I
will forgive the whole place for their sake.” 27Abraham
answered, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust
and ashes.28Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will
you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy
it if I find forty-five there.”
29Again
he spoke to him, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of
forty I will not do it.” 30Then he said, “Oh do not let the
Lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will
not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31He said, “Let me take it
upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered,
“For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32Then he said,
“Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are
found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 33And
the Lord went his way, when God had finished speaking to Abraham; and
Abraham returned to his place.
So
this is a lectionary text, so it comes up every three years. But it feels particularly relevant this
year. Anybody else feel that way? Maybe you were wondering, too, as you
listened to the conversation between Abraham and God,
How
should God respond to a people who have utterly forsaken the Word of
God?
What
is God to do with people who claim to be faithful, but who operate out of their
basest instincts, ignoring the call to hospitality and love of neighbor? Who turn away the refugee at the gate and ignore—or
even denigrate—the poor in their midst?
What shall God do with those people?
If
you know your scripture, you know that the answer to that question is complicated.
There have been different answers at
different times, as our relationship with God has grown and evolved. There was a time when God was pretty smite-y. Not much grace in the Garden, for
instance. Eat one forbidden fruit and go
straight to lifetime detention.
And
then there was the time that God destroyed the whole world except for Noah and
his family and a very smelly ark. We’re
going to touch on that later, sans the smelly ark part. It’s part of the baptismal liturgy.
But
then there was the time after that time.
After God surveyed the earth, utterly destroyed, God established the
first covenant, with Noah and his descendants.
God promised to refrain from destroying everything again. As a mark of this covenant, God “set a bow in
the clouds.” Still today, the rainbow is
a mark of promise, inclusion and love.
God
promised to love us. God made covenants
of love and fidelity, with Noah, and then with Abraham, and then with Jacob. Those covenants are much like the covenants
we make with one another today—
·
The marriage covenant
·
The adoption covenant
·
The baptismal covenant
In
those covenants, we promise to love each other and be faithful to one another. In a few moments, CeCe’s parents and sponsors
are going to make covenantal promises to her and to God. They will promise to raise her in the faith
into which she is being baptized, with full knowledge of what that faith means
and its power over death.
These
sorts of promises and vows--these covenants of love and fidelity--are
important. They remind us that
relationships are not to be taken lightly—not to be picked up and put down
easily. It has been wonderful to work
with Joanie and Duncan on their wedding, because they have taken the promises
they make that day seriously—investing as much time in thinking about the
wedding ceremony as the reception.
God’s
covenant with Noah was important. It marked God’s intention to
enter into a long-term relationship with humankind. And each successive covenantal step—the
covenant with Abraham, with Jacob, and finally the New Covenant in Jesus
Christ—those were marks of our deepening relationship of mutual love and
fidelity with God.
It’s
important to keep that progression in mind, as we consider the Genesis text
before us this morning. This text
reminds us that there has indeed been a progression in the relationship between
God and human beings.
When
Abraham and God had this little negotiation about the future of the legendary
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, that relationship was still in its early
stages.
To
put it another way, God was a new parent in those days. God’s children were misbehaving something
terrible, and quite frankly, God was kind of at a loss for what to do. It happens.
Even to seasoned parents. But new
parents often have the look. You know
the one. [Make bewildered, frustrated
look]
Or
to put it yet another way, God’s gettin’ ready to pull this car over,
Sodom and Gomorrah, and you are not going to like it one bit.
In
order to understand this lesson, we have to cast ourselves back to when God and
humankind were still learning to love and trust one another. Because we know God the seasoned
parent. We know the God who can hold a
child being baptized and comfort a grieving spouse, and create a beautiful
sunset. All without breaking a sweat.
We
know the God of incarnation—who so loved the world that God was willing to enter
into our experience and even take on our suffering.
That’s
the God we know.
That
is not the God having a conversation with Abraham on the road from Mamre to
Sodom. I mean it is, of course. You’re
still the same being you were in middle school, right. But you’re probably glad to have left a few
things about yourself back in that time.
The
God conversing with Abraham is the same God we know, but with some edges that are
still being worn smooth by love and mercy and practice. Abraham is talking to the God whose fiery, destructive
tendencies have been scaled down, but not eliminated. The God who is still incarnate—witness God
having a conversation with Abraham—but who has not entered fully into human
experience.
So
as Abraham and God and having this conversation on the road, God is pretty
matter-of-fact about old Sodom and Gomorrah. “Abe,” says God, “I am getting
terrible reports about Sodom and Gomorrah.
I’m going to go down there, and see if I have some smiting to do.”
God
and Sodom are in a Game of Thrones, and you know who’s going to win.
Winter
is coming.
Abraham
is playing a different game. Abraham is
cast into a role we see every so often in scripture. Let’s call it “attorney for the
accused.”
We
see Moses play this role in the desert.
We see the prophets intervening on behalf of the people. When Jesus talks with women from Canaan and
Syrophoenicia, we see them doing it—reminding Jesus that God’s name is Mercy. Love.
Inclusion.
I
am so in awe of single parents, because I know how much I rely on my wife to
play this role for me. And I know my
responsibility is to play it for her. We
have to remind each other that as the parents of that little boy back there,
our name is Mercy. Smiting is strictly
forbidden, even when he spits at your face, which is a fun little behavior that
came back this week.
Abraham
is playing that role for God in this story.
“Oh God, I know you’re really mad at Sodom and Gomorrah, but remember
how some of them are nice? Maybe fifty
of them are nice…well, fifty might be high, but at least forty of them are good…well,
forty might be a bit of a stretch, but thirty—yeah, thirty of them are decent
folks…maybe. How about ten? Would you take ten?”
Abraham
speaks a word of mercy to a God whose name is mercy. Or whose name will be mercy, as God
continues to fall even deeper and deeper in love with the creation.
Lucky
us. We are the youngest children of the
very large family of God. By the time
God created us, God had been really strict with a bunch of our older siblings,
and God settled in to just love the stuffin’ out of us. To forgive us all manner of things.
But
also to gently remind us, every so often, as Abraham reminded God, as God
reminded Jonah, as the Syro-phoenician woman reminded Jesus: “Your name is Mercy.”
People
of God, as we baptize this child today, let us be a community willing to remind
her, “Your name is mercy. You belong to
a God of mercy. And that God of mercy
has a church.
Here
you will be loved, no matter what. Here
you will be accepted, no matter what.
Here you will be welcomed, no matter what! Because we belong to a God of mercy, and
that makes us a people of mercy.”
Let
us say those words over CeCe at the font, and let us remember to whisper them
to each other, every so often.
Do
that now: turn to the people around you
and whisper, “Your name is mercy.”
Let
us remind one another, and let us remind the world. Let us shout it out, drown out the cries of those
who have forgotten, call them, and us, back to God’s tender embrace of love and
inclusion.
Shout
it with me: “Our name is mercy!” “Our name is mercy!”
Let
it be so.
Amen
Rise up, people of God, and let us sing together hymn #657.
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