Saugatuck Congregational Church, UCC
©Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton
July 24, 2016
Scripture: Genesis 18:20-33 and Luke 11: 9-13
What kind of god puts up with a direct and repeated challenge to that God’s good judgement? What kind of god, given the power to destroy whole cities, invites feedback from a mere human? Gods are supposed to throw fire bolts and demand absolute obedience, right? A God worthy of praise is a powerful God, one with whom you do not mess. And what better way to exercise power than to smite those who disappoint you? Power (it has been argued) means having the loudest voice in the room; it means having your own way, no matter what; it means hiring and firing at will, no questions asked. You don’t challenge powerful people, certainly not a powerful god.
Unless you are Abraham, and that powerful persona is the God of Israel. Then, it seems, it’s ok to go – head-to-head with the Creator of the Universe. Because then, you are dealing with a God who exercises divine authority in ways we might expect.
The scene unfolds as Abraham challenges God. Not just challenges, but prosecutes: puts God on the stand; puts God’s principles on trial. Yes, he does it with some degree of tact, strategically employing a self-deprecating tone: I am but dust and ashes… But he also persists, pushes God long past when you’d expect God to lose patience. It’s almost as if God welcomes the exchange.
Indeed, commentators have suggested that God effectively invited Abraham into this dialogue, to help God to work out whether to punish a community that had repeatedly refused to extend hospitality to strangers. God sent a couple of angels off to verify whether everything was as bad as God suspected. But God stayed behind. In that first verse, ancient versions of the manuscript read, “the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, while God remained standing before Abraham.”
Somewhere along the way, redactors changed that sentence so that it now reads, “Abraham remained standing before God” – presumably because they thought it unseemly to portray God as standing before any human being. Still, it seems clear that God wanted to speak to Abraham, and not the other way around.
And what does Abraham do with that invitation? He uses it to appeal for justice and mercy, to expose the disconnect between who God is and what has God proposed to do. “So, You want to destroy all of Sodom? Really? Because that’s not like you at all.”
Do you have anyone in your life who will do that for you, will call you back to your higher self? We likely all have friends who will fan our temper tantrums, egging us on when we’re fussing and fuming. But what about friends who will say, “Whoa, Alison, do you mean that? Because that’s not the Alison I know. I know that you value community, respect and reconciliation, right? So do you really want to spray-paint a frowny face on the hood of that Maserati, even if the driver did steal your parking space?”
That’s what Abraham did for God: called God to account – as other prophets would do in turn, down through the ages. In fact, you could argue that the entire history of God’s relationship with people is peppered with moments like this. On the one hand, God must repeatedly remind the people that they have promised to be faithful, in light of all that God has done for them… “Didn’t I save you from slavery? And now you turn your back on me… Didn’t I feed you in the wilderness? And now you worship other gods.”
On another hand, the people repeatedly cry out to God in times of trouble, “Aren’t you supposed to be a just God? So why all this suffering? Why are innocent children still dying in the streets? Why do bombs continue to erupt? Why don’t you punish the evil-doers, the demagogues and destroyers of human life and dignity? How about a little less sitting back and a little more smiting?”
If the exchange between Abraham and God is any indication, God welcomes these questions. Among other things, and as ironic as this may seem, it is proof positive that we are still in relationship. You don’t demand accountability from someone you have written off. So we challenge God, ask that God be God, appeal for justice and mercy. And God listens.
In this case, Abraham asks God to protect the innocent, despite the actions of the guilty. In a complete reversal of that saying, “Guilty by association,” Abraham suggests that those who have caused harm should be forgiven for the sake of the innocent. “Far 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?” If there are 50, no 45, no, 40, no, 30, no, 20, no, 10… if there are just 10 righteous people in the city, will you destroy it? “No,” says God, “I will not.”
What have we to learn from that divine posture? From God’s choice not to wield the sword – to be swayed not by those who have failed but by those who are faithful? How does this exercise of power expose our own contrary behavior? Right now, my son Ian and I are reading a book called Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky, (by Sandra Dallas) about the Japanese relocation camps that the United States maintained during WWII, camps in which we effectively imprisoned over 100,000 U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan. All those devoted U.S. citizens, declared guilty by Association. Today, the victims of indiscriminate condemnation include Muslims, refugees, young Black men. These, too, we declare guilty by association (that terrorist was Muslim, so all Muslims must be terrorist; that black man acted out, so all black men must be violent). One of my seminary professors, an African-American woman, once described walking through our neighborhood one afternoon. She encountered a white woman who, upon seeing the professor, clutched her purse and ran in the other direction. Half a block away, she stopped and turned back. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I was mugged by a black person last week.” “But it wasn’t me,” my professor replied.
We know what to call this: It is racism. We’ve witnessed it, or experienced it – the preconceived notions we develop, the blame that gets applied with a broad brush. The question is, what counsel, what wisdom might we gain from this exchange between God and Abraham, about how to dismantle it? Perhaps this: that God not only rejects the prospect of destroying the innocent with the guilty, but actually forgives the guilty for the sake of the innocent, indeed, for the sake of the entire community.
Of course, we can point out all the ways and places that this doesn’t seem to happen, all the tragedies in which the innocent and the guilty perish together. In the hugely popular Broadway musical, Hamilton, there is a musical refrain,
Life doesn’t discriminate
Between the sinners and the saints
It takes and it takes and it takes
And we keep living anyway
We rise and we fall and we break
And we make our mistakes
We all know that bad things happen to good people. This encounter between Abraham and God does not imply that innocent people will always escape suffering. Rather, I believe the scene is included to remind us that God wrestles with God’s own distress regarding human behavior, weighs it against the opposite, and asks us to be partners in the wrestling. Because part of being people of faith means holding each other accountable.
Maybe the power we must learn to wield is the power to stay true to God’s vision for creation – God’s vision of shalom – peace with justice; love with mercy; maybe it is giving everything we have to ensuring that those principles, and not our personal impulses, hold sway. Maybe it’s being wise enough to recognize when we are angry, frightened or morally outraged, so that we can choose NOT to strike out. Maybe it’s having the sagacity to call on others who can help us to live according to those highest principles.
Much, much later in the story of God and God’s people, a man named Jesus arrived on the scene. He devoted his life to teaching those divine principles. “Search and you will find, ask and you shall receive, knock, and the door will be opened,” he said. Ask and you shall receive…not wealth or success or that gorgeous dress in the window or the shiny car, but God’s spirit, to guide and inspire us. That’s the power we are promised… The power of God’s Holy Spirit, poured out to for the sake of all God’s people.
Scriptures
Genesis 18:20-33 New Revised Standard Version
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 he had finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.
Luke 11: 9-13 New Revised Standard Version
9 “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”