The Judgment of Sodom

Scripture: The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 17), A.D. 2016 C

Homily:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

In the 1960s, American archaeologist Paul Lapp excavated, in the Dead Sea region, an early Bronze Age city known as Bab edh’Dhra, the Gate of the Arm. There he found evidence of a thriving civilization from the third millennium B.C., which suddenly ceased occupancy around 2100 B.C. amidst very fiery circumstances. Mass graves, earthquake damage, and thick layers of ash convinced many that Lapp had uncovered nothing less than Sodom and Gomorrah, the most notorious cities of the Bible, destroyed by the wrath of God in a rain of fire and brimstone. Legend has it that earlier teams had refused to excavate the sight, for if God had wanted such wickedness buried in the sands, what right had mortals to dig it up again?

What was the great sin of Sodom and Gomorrah that inspired such fear some 4,000 years after their destruction? And why did Abraham beg for these cities to be spared?

Our Old Testament reading picks up where last week’s left off. You may recall that on a particularly hot and deadly day, Abraham found three strangers wandering into his tents. Eagerly he ran out to greet them, and provided for them cakes and meat, curds and milk, a sumptuous feast for his unexpected guests. Keep in mind that we’re talking about the Middle East some 4,000 years ago, when hospitality was a matter of survival. The desert was a cruel mistress, and anyone who found himself lost or unprovisioned certainly risked death. People were honor-bound to aid strangers, for who is to say when one might find oneself in a similarly dire situation? Where nature is hostile, people need to stick together.

Nevertheless, Abraham goes above and beyond. He doesn’t just provide bread and water; he slaughters a calf and prepares its tender veal; he offers curds and milk, literally the cream of his crop. Abraham’s hospitality is extravagant. And it’s a good thing, too, because these three visitors are more than they seem. They are in fact three angels of the Lord, authorized to speak in God’s Name and worthy of the deference due to heralds of the Most High.

In response to Abraham’s generosity, the angels reaffirm the promise previously given by God: that Abraham and Sarah would have a son; that this son would go on to become a great nation; and that this nation, in turn, would bring blessing to all the peoples of the world. This is a promise that Abraham has heard before—for 15 years or so, in fact. But what makes this promise so remarkable is that Abraham and his wife Sarah are pushing 100, an incredible age even today. The idea that these two would bear a son is laughable—and indeed, Sarah laughs when she hears the angels’ promise. Abraham is a man “as good as dead.” He, father a great nation? He, save the world?

But the angels insist that God will bring this about within the year, and indeed the Word of the Lord works wonders. Impossibly, Sarah bears a son. And today more than half the population of the earth claims to be children of Abraham, be it physically or spiritually. He truly has become the father of many nations.

In today’s reading, the feast is over, the promise proclaimed, and Abraham is walking along with his three divine guests as they set out for Sodom and Gomorrah. And the Lord, speaking through one of the angels, muses, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice; so that the Lord may bring about for Abraham what He has promised him.”

In other words, God involves Abraham in His plans for Sodom and Gomorrah because this is part of His promise: that Abraham and his children have a key role to play in the salvation of the world.

“How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very great their sin!” announces God through His angel. “I 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.” Now, what is the great sin of Sodom that causes all to cry out to God? In effect, it is the precise opposite of Abraham’s hospitality. When strangers came to Abraham, vulnerable and exposed, he provided for their every need.

But Sodom and Gomorrah are notorious for preying upon the weak and needy. Strangers in Sodom are given no shelter, no provision. And when they sleep in the open, with no place to lay their heads, the people of those cities fall upon them with robbery and rapine. They steal from the stranger. They abuse the needy. They sexually assault the vulnerable. And this cannot be allowed to stand! God flies to the aid of the helpless. God avenges injustice against the weak.

Two of the angels proceed along the road, while the third, speaking for God, remains with Abraham. The two will enter Sodom and Gomorrah homeless and in need, reaching out for hospitality, for food and shelter and charity, as they did with Abraham. But Abraham knows very well the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. “Suppose,” he says to God, “there are 50 righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the 50 who are in it? 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! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”

Abraham has family in Sodom, his nephew Lot with his wife and daughters, and he does not desire the innocent to suffer alongside the guilty. “If I find at Sodom 50 righteous in the city,” replies the Lord, “I will forgive the whole place for their sake.” Abraham, nervous but also brave, then asks, “Well, what if there are only 45 righteous? Or 40 or 20 or 10?” And the Lord answers, “For the sake of 10 I will not destroy it,” and, the text says, He went on His way.

This exchange reminds me of an old Jewish legend, that at any given point in time the whole world is upheld by the prayers of only 36 people, who have no idea of their own importance. Here Abraham doesn’t even ask for 36. He asks for 10.

You probably know the rest of the story, and if not I imagine you can tease it out for yourselves. The angels enter Sodom as strangers in need. They are denied hospitality, and indeed the entire city comes out to rape the homeless—a horrific crime in this or any century. There are not 10 righteous to be found within the cities, but only four, and the angels go out of their way to save these four from the cataclysm to come. But judgment cometh and that right soon, and to the great relief of all the surrounding countryside, Sodom and Gomorrah are justly destroyed in brimstone and fire.

But that’s a story for another day. Let’s go back to that conversation between Abraham and the angel of God. What exactly is going on here? Surely God doesn’t need Abraham to tell him what He’s going to find in Sodom. Abraham knows that God sees all. And surely God doesn’t need Abraham to remind Him that the innocent ought not to suffer for the crimes of others. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?

God has chosen Abraham for a specific role: to be a catalyst, a vehicle, for God’s mercy upon the earth. God has chosen a lowly human being, a man “as good as dead,” to advocate for the weak and for the vulnerable and for the innocent, and God hears Abraham’s plea and grants his request. Surely God is merciful with or without Abraham, but here He has chosen Abraham to be the vessel of His mercy, the font of His forgiveness. That’s why God included Him within the angel’s conversation, within God’s own divine reason and plan. Starting with Abraham, God will now task people with opening up His mercy for all the nations of the earth. Our job is to carry the promise of mercy.

That’s why the children of Abraham go on to become the Chosen People, set apart as God’s own priestly nation. They are not righteous in and of themselves, but they are righteous because God has chosen and called and forgiven and empowered them, sending them out to be a blessing to all people, a little pinch of yeast that will raise the entire batch of dough. That’s the whole story of the Old Testament. And the promise of God given unto Abraham reaches full fruition 2,000 years later in the birth of Jesus Christ, who is Himself God Incarnate, the visible Image of the invisible God, in whom the fullness of deity is pleased to dwell.

Jesus Christ is history’s one and only truly perfect human being, the only Man who has ever been righteous in and of Himself. Imagine that: just one perfectly righteous human being, amongst all the billions who ever were and are and ever will be. And He has identified Himself fully and wholly with sinners, given Himself fully and wholly to all of us who in no way deserve Him. So that in Him, in this one Jesus, all of humanity, all of human nature, is redeemed and sanctified and raised up to life everlasting. In Christ, all are forgiven. In Christ, all are saved.

And so this same judgment of Sodom now falls upon us: “If I find one righteous,” sayeth the Lord, “I will forgive the whole world for His sake.”

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.