The Genesis passage today is startling. It stresses the importance of honest questions and concentrated attention – this is crucial in a healthy relationship with God and with others.
And please note the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is definitively not about homosexuality but about the grievous sin of radical inhospitality.
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O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; increase and multiply upon us your mercy that with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we lose not the things eternal… A magisterially eloquent prayer; a good and right prayer for these troublous times. A prayer asking that we “may so pass through things temporal that we lose not the things eternal”.
With the evil rapacious progression of heretofore unthinkable acts, we are all in danger of “losing the things eternal”. “To pass through things temporal” is not to engage in denial, avoidance, dismissal but rather, reminiscent of Psalm 23, to “pass through”(as through death itself) as undamaged as possible. “How’s that working for you?”.
In today’s startling reading from Genesis Abraham finds a way through the horror of things temporal and, so I believe, is by sweet anachronism pleased by Rudyard Kipling’s little verse…
I KEEP six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.
The Elephant’s Child
Like Kipling, Abraham knows the value of the honest question; by this Abraham struggles to maintain his identity, sanity and grasp of “things eternal”.
Genesis 18:20-32 presents three aspects of Abraham’s questions. 1. The Stance of Dignity. 2. The Basis of Fairness and 3. The Imperative of Persistence.
The Question dons The Stance of Dignity. Genesis 18:22 “Standing before the Lord” Abraham begins his prosecutorial interrogation. This “standing” is eloquent – it speaks of the value, the esteem, the honor that the Lord bestows upon all those and all that He has made. We come before such a God not scraping, crawling, uriah-heap-forelock touching figures but as upright for so God ordains. In fact, so bold does God make us that the Message Translation reads (vigorous as ever) “The men set out for Sodom, but Abraham stood in God’s path, blocking his way. Abraham confronted him, “Are you serious? “
The articulated question is a sign, a badge of honor and it must be encouraged, affirmed, heeded even in the church and, at our best, the Episcopal Church in this excels. Karl Barth (the great theologians of the 20th century) writes that we become fully woman, fully man as and when God addresses us. In other words, “Abraham is enabled to stand to attention… because God is giving Abraham his full attention” even as God finds himself interrogated.
The Question accepts The Basis of Fairness. Abraham proceeds with his questions because he is convinced that he is in conversation with the One who cannot usurp justice nor wreak unfairness. Genesis 18:25 “Shall not the judge of all the world do what is just?” I know I should use the concept “just” but to me “fair” is more accessible. Here we must stop and reflect and ask… “Truly, what does God look like to me?” To Abraham the answer was simple, God is One whose nature insists that He act constantly, consummately, completely with justice and fairness. Upon this was based Abraham’s staggering almost embarrassing performance presented today. For the briefest of times (thank God) I taught at a private school in England; the shortness of my employment assured as little damage as possible to the British educational system. Often when I presented the boys with prep/Homework they would complain, “But sir that isn’t fair.” To which I would invariably reply, “But, boys, life is not fair.” I have long regretted that statement because I failed to explain, boys and girls, that life and God are not the same, are not identical. Sadly many in adulthood have not yet ascertained the distinction.
The Question undertakes The Imperative of Persistance. Clearly Abraham was terrier-like as he worried the issue and refused to let go the question. Listen to the Message Translation as it presents Abraham’s persistence as he moves the line from 50 to 45 to 40 to 30 to 20 to 10 – v. 27 ““Do I, a mere mortal made from a handful of dirt, dare open my mouth again to my Master?”, v. 30 “Master, don’t be irritated with me, but what if only thirty are found?”, v. 31 ““I know I’m trying your patience, Master, but how about… twenty?”, and v.32 “Don’t get angry, Master—this is the last time.” And this persistence (a great NT virtue) is urged in today’s Gospel as well (Luke 11:1-13) “because of his persistence the friend receives his bread” and ask, search and knock are not well translated by an aorist (done once) but better by a present participle… ask and go on asking, search and go on searching, knock and go on knocking.
Created Man/Woman empowered by the Creator to ask… with dignity, in faith and with persistence.
A Newsbreak – a theft has taken place.
A crucial verse of the Genesis passage has been summarily, unreasonably ripped away, stolen. The perpetrators? – those who determine our readings. But why?
The stolen verse is the key of the conversation and of all our lives. Listen v.33 “When God finished talking with Abraham, he left. And Abraham went home.” It is by God’s grace that we live and breathe and have our being; it is by God’s grace that we are enabled to stand with dignity and “so pass through things temporal that we lose not the things eternal” and thus find home. AMEN