The Ninth Sunday After Pentecost

July 29 2007

Proper 12 C

The Rev'd Lloyd Prator

New York City

Today, I would invite you to a closer look at the Old Testament lesson, the bargaining session between Abraham and God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah were evil cities where all manner of unpleasantness went on, to God’s considerable displeasure. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is used, by Biblical fundamentalists, to speak about God’s disapproval of homosexuality – since we have a pretty clear idea of what went on in Sodom. Without getting sidetracked into that debate, I will say in passing that what happened in Sodom was actually an instance of sexual assault, not a variant form of sexual behavior among the consenting. Today’s reading consists of a theological commentary upon God’s anger at Sodom and Gomorrah and his destruction of those two wicked towns.

Walter Bruggeman, a great Old Testament scholar and a favorite writer of mine, points out that these two stories, God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham’s intercession with God represent a distinct turning point in Israel’s understanding of God. The destruction of the cities represents the activity of a vindictive, retributive God, the sort of God-idea that was common throughout the near east of that time. God operated in a system of indictment and punishment, discovery and destruction, the classic retributive justice system. You do what you shouldn’t; you pay the price. The point of today’s story is, as Bruggeman puts it: “to drive a wedge of grace into the quid-pro-quo of retribution.” Must we always live only by justice and retribution, or might there be another way?

The vehicle for finding this other way is our old friend Abraham whom we met last week when, in his early hundreds, he discovered that he and his equally superannuated spouse were going to have their first child. Abraham and God have, in today’s reading, a very peculiar relationship. Recall the passage, God has announced that Sodom and Gomorrah are beyond redemption, their sin is very grave and God is going to investigate the matter. The investigators went off to investigate and Abraham stood before the Lord. Nothing unusual about that. Except that is not how the story actually went, originally. When the story was written, it actually read that the Lord stood before Abraham. Abraham kept God standing before him while he made that little negotiation for the 50, the 45, the 40, the 30, the 20 and finally the 10 righteous people. The Lord stood before Abraham as if Abraham were calling God to account for his actions. This is outrageous. Today, we see Abraham presuming to be god’s theological instructor. Abraham presumed to preside over the meeting with the Lord before him, called to account. What we see here is actually nothing less than Abraham instructing God on how to be God. This is not, in fact a unique occurrence. God does change his mind in the course of Hebrew scriptures, remember the story of the flood and how God vowed that he wouldn’t do that thing again.

Now, Abraham’s instruction of God and God’s rethinking of his plan for justice against the Sodomites and the Gomorrians, together paint a new picture of God. First, this new God picture is of God who, while he stresses moral obedience, also has a few other tricks in his bag. He has a concern and a passion for even those who violate his law. In this scheme, the innocent have a role to play in the salvation of the wicked, for God says he will save the towns if even ten good people are found there. In this bargaining with God, we see progressively fewer and fewer righteous people required to save the whole community. In our tradition we know of even one person’s righteousness being sufficient to save. And, this picture of God is of a God who seeks to find a way to ave not to punish, to redeem, not merely to hold accountable.

But, what, will you say, is the significance of all of this? What does it matter that an ancient manuscript holds God accountable to Abraham? What does it matter that we see a radical shift in Israel’s understanding of God? Well, it matters a lot, and let me show you why.

Take this story about Abraham instructing god, and pair it with that wonderful line from the gospels where the man helps his neighbor because of his persistence, his importunity. You get a picture of a God who doesn’t mind a little impudence among the troops. And I like that. What is the good of having a God if you can’t sort of “knock him around” a little.? What a difference it might make in your prayers if you were to presume to give God a little flak now and again. I think that it would add a wonderful note of honesty, candor, and frankness to your prayers. If you feel like knocking God around a little, don’t you think God knows it? Why not let it out? A little impudent behavior in the presence of the Lord of history can help us to be more honest in the divine presence and to be clearer about what is really going on inside us. A sanitized prayer life is of relatively little use, in the long run.

Second, having this wonderful scene in which Abraham instructs God can help us understand who Jesus really is and why God took flesh and lived among us. What Abraham tells us today is that apparently God needs us. We are an essential part of his scheme. In the Old Testament, the writers spend thirty-nine books telling us of how God set up communication with us, re-established it, fixed it when it got broken, renewed the promise when we broke it and kept sending notes when we wouldn’t stay in touch. When it got around to Jesus, it is as if God said that it was necessary for him to live a human life in order to feel everything we feel and endure all of what we must endure. God seems to know us by drawing close, and in today’s story he draws close by taking some instruction from Abraham. In Jesus, he draws close by taking a human body from the life of the world. It is as if God turned to every man and asked, “Please, tell me what it is like to live human life.” And, in order to get the full answer to the question, realized he had to take a human life and live it to its fullest.

So, today, we have a primitive revolution in our understanding of God. Not aloof and detached; not even in the Old Testament. But rather passionately involved, and responsive to the human cry for mercy, meaning, and hope. What we think we see only in Jesus, God made flesh, is actually the way God has been all along, for at the core of his being, God is the one whom we can call to account, for he is willing not to be let off the hook for the human condition, and not to be left off the cross either.