Genesis 18:20-32
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
20 Then the Lord said, “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! 21 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.”
22 So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.[a] 23 Then Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose 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? 25 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?” 26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.” 27 Abraham answered, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose 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.” 29 Again he spoke to him, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30 Then 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.” 31 He 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.” 32 Then 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.”
22 So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.[a] 23 Then Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose 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? 25 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?” 26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.” 27 Abraham answered, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose 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.” 29 Again he spoke to him, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30 Then 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.” 31 He 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.” 32 Then 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.”
One of the first theological
doctrines that I remember learning was that in the Presbyterian and Reformed
system, sinfulness is not merely a problem for an individual person. There is something about sin that makes it a
social problem.
Now it is true that an individual can
sin.
But it is also true that sin
permeates our humanity and community.
Theologically, we often refer to this
as “the doctrine of Original Sin,” or in terms that John Calvin expressed
it: “total depravity.” I think modern theologians tend to express it
this way – “sinfulness is in our DNA.”
In the New Testament, St. Paul put it this way
in his letter to the Romans: “All have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
(Romans 3:23).
I said this was one of the first
theological doctrines that I remember leaning as a child – and I did not learn
this from my preacher or my parents or my Sunday School teacher, but rather
from my 1st grade teacher, who one day, after staring down the class
sociopath, then looked at the rest of us and said, “Now remember class, one bad
apple spoils the whole bunch.”
I’m told this is actually true of
apples. Apples, as they ripen and over
ripen, produce ethylene, which speeds the ripening of the other apples.
In other words, human sinfulness by
definition infects and rots the fabric of the whole community.
Let
me give you some examples of what I mean by this.
Take one group of honest people for
whom truth telling comes innocently and naturally, add a dash of liars, shake
well and allow to sit. What dish will result?
It will not be long before
all trust is gone. No one will know whom
to trust or not to trust.
Human sinfulness by
definition infects and rots the fabric of the whole community.
Take a nice community. A pleasant neighborhood where everyone knows
everyone and people don’t always lock their doors. Add just one shooting – or not even a
shooting – a simple burglary where no one gets hurt. And now the presence of that one bad apple
robs the whole neighborhood of a sense of security and trust.
Take
the political situation today. Add the
two recent scandals of the candidate for the mayor of New York and the current Mayor of San Diego both
of whom face controversy over their sexual misconduct. Their conduct casts a shadow that overwhelms
the good and decent political leaders in our communities – and yes, I do
believe we have many good men and women in public service. But the few bad apples spoil the bunch and by
and large we don’t trust ANY politicians any longer.
Take
group of church members in a committee, session or board of deacons – let one
person suggest to another that they should lie to the rest of the church group
so they can get their way, and pretty soon everyone is suspicious of everyone
else and no one knows whom to trust – yes, even in the church the one bad apple
can spoil the bunch.
Anytime you are trying to
build a church, or a society, or a family, or a group, or a world -- it only
takes a few rotten apples to mess it up for the rest of us.
Now the solution to that is
simple enough – we gotta get rid of some folks.
We’ve got to get rid of the wicked few.
That
sounds like a good approach.
But – that was also the approach of
the Pharisees, the Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and the Taliban -- and they all failed. In fact, they promoted evil.
Because
whenever one group tries to get rid of the wicked few in a society or a
neighborhood, we always run into another theological truth, and that is that
you cannot get rid of sinfulness in a human community. There is just too much of it.
To
try to do so is like stamping out a gasoline fire. The more you stomp on the fire, the more it
spreads. And that means that every
community, and this community, will eventually move toward becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah . Which, by the way, is not a pleasant thought.
By the way - What was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah
that resulted in their destruction?
The Bible says in Ezekiel 16, “Now this
was the sin of Sodom :
She was arrogant … they did not help the
poor and needy .. Therefore I did away with them.”
Now
it is in this story that Old Abraham came up that rarest of all human
discoveries, a new theological idea. Most theological ideas are not new, but
this one was.
What if, he said, given the
fact that the sinfulness of a few can destroy a good community, what if the nature
of God is to work the other way? What if the broken and wicked community can be
saved and redeemed by a few good apples --
a few righteous people?
That
was an idea so innovative that he took it to God Almighty. Abraham finds this
difficult to do. His demeanor is like
that of a young, newly hired apprentice approaching the company’s CEO with a
new idea he hopes will revolutionize the industry. Or better yet, a friend of mine once told me
that when Abraham presented his new idea to God, Abraham acts like a frightened
little boy facing the toughest bully on the street. And he nervously draws a dare
line for the toughest bully on the street.[i]
Have you ever done that as a
kid – or had someone else do that to you?
A line is drawn. And one kid says
to the other, “I dare you to cross this line.
In fact, I double dare you. I’ll
double dog dare you and even triple dog dare you to cross this line.”
"I know you are going to beat up
on Sodom and Gomorrah ,” says Father Abraham, “but suppose
there are 50 righteous, would you step over that line and save them?"
The
divine answer - God steps forward and said yes.
I’ll cross that line.
With
that, Abraham realizes he might not have started this negotiation on the best
of terms. It’s like going to the boss to
ask for a raise. You practice your
speech, you agonize over just the right words, and finally you say, “Boss, can
I have a $10 raise,” and the boss says, “Sure, why not.”
There is this sudden realization that
you should have asked for a $20 raise.
So there is Abraham. God has agreed quickly and easily. Come up with 50 righteous people, and I’ll
save the cities.
But – what if Abraham is not able to come
up with 50. So he draws another dare line
in the sand. "What if there are
only 45 righteous people?"
And
God crosses the line, and says, “Come up with 45, and the whole town is saved.”
Abraham,
being less and less sure of what he can come up with crosses another, and then
another, and another dare line in the sand.
What if there are only 40 righteous people in town?”
“I’ll
save the town.”
"20?"
"Yes."
"10?”
“Yes.”
The
mercy of God for the righteous is stronger than the punishment of God for the
wicked.
But
you know the outcome, Sodom
comes up short and the prospect for the human community is a dim one indeed.
And that is why for us and for ancient Israel , there should be an element
of fear for what we need to do next. And that is to put this community
in this story.
And if you think the prospect for hope for
this community is to destroy the wicked among us, then you are way behind the
times. The hope for the community is in finding a few righteous. We need a few good apples.
So let’s start counting the
righteous.
Are there perhaps among us here
today, 50 righteous? Let’s see a show of
hands – how many righteous people are here today? Oh, wait!!!
Before we do, let’s be sure we know what we are talking about.
If you want to understand a
word, what better place to go than to the dictionary.
Righteous.
Adjective. Meeting the standards of what is right and just; morally right;
guiltess.”[ii]
Are
there 50 of us who qualify as righteous?
Hmmmm…. One of the strangest gifts I can remember
receiving on behalf of a church was presented to the Faith Presbyterian Church
of Sumter SC, my first pastorate. A fellow came into my office one day and
handed me a check made out to the church for $10,000. It was a hefty amount for a church that was always
in financial distress, and it came as a great relief.
However,
I didn't quite know what to do. The
fellow didn't seem familiar at all. But
I was afraid to ask who he was, because I imagined him responding by saying,
"Don't you remember me, I'm one of your members. I was here two Easters
ago." I didn't insult him and risk tempting him to take his money back.
I
did ask him if he wouldn't mind telling me what prompted him to make such a
gracious gift.
He told me a little bit of his
story, and I learned that he was not a member of the church, even an inactive
or infrequent member.
I
started to tell him about our church, but he stopped me and told me he really
wasn't interested. He didn't have time to hear about the church.
That struck me as odd. Here is
a righteous man, making a generous gift to a people he does not know, or care
about. As he got up to leave, I ventured a bold question, "what prompts
you to be so generous and to give our church this money?"
"I'm a friend of Walter
Perry," said the fellow.
I
knew Walter. He was the Clerk of our Session.
"He
and I play golf," said the stranger.
I
knew Walter played a lot of golf.
"We had a bet," said
the stranger.
I
knew Walter was a seriously compulsive gambler. He had just recently lost
entire savings. He had been fired because of his obsession, and his marriage
was in trouble.
"You mean to tell me,
Walter finally won a bet, you lost and he wants all of the winnings to go to
his church?"
"Oh no, preacher,"
said the stranger. He just wants me to give a tithe -- a tenth of it to the
church."
Are there 45 righteous?
Several years ago in another community and in another church, we had a
young man named Joe. Everyone loved
Joe. He had grown up in the church. People remembered him coming forward for the
Children’s Devotionals during the worship services and giving these wonderful
answers whenever the pastor asked a question to the kids. They remember how Joe grew up, and would
often help give the Children’s Devotional.
Joe went on mission trips with the church to Mexico . When Joe graduated from the Citadel in South Carolina , he came
back home and wanted to volunteer to work with the youth. But a few weeks into his work with the kids,
the youth pastor and I decided to remove him from working with children. Nothing had happened. But our experience suggested there was
something not quite right with Joe. He
had passed the background checks. He had
obeyed the rules, including never being alone with a child. But still, we made the difficult decision to
remove Joe from his position of volunteering with youth.
Firing volunteers is tough. It’s not easy. We lost three families from our church. One of them came to the Session and said,
“How dare you do this – Joe is the most Christian, godly and righteous young
man in this church.”
But Session stood by the staff, and
Joe was removed from working with the volunteers.
Two months later, I received an
email. In Gwinnett County, Georgia,
where I was serving at the time, there was a service that sent anyone who
requested it an email with the arrest records for the previous day, including
mug shots and charges.
And there was Joe.
The charge was sexually molesting a
child.
Joe admitted his guilt to the
police. As is often the case, the police
soon discovered there had been other molestations by Joe.
So here was a member of the church
described as “the most Christian, godly and righteous young man in the
church.”
Are
there 40 righteous?
There
is an actor in Hollywood
who has that rare quality found in all too few actors today. He is a man of faith. He is a devout Christian. He freely speaks about his faith. As it has grown, he has regretted some of his
earlier movie roles.
A few years ago, he made a movie
about Jesus Christ. It depicted the
violent execution of Christ.
The actor is Mel Gibson, and the
movie was “The Passion.” When the camera
zooms into show the nails being hammered into Jesus, the Roman soldier’s hands
holding the hammer and nail and pounding it into the flesh of the Savior were
the hands of the director, Mel Gibson.
As Gibson later said in an interview,
"It was me that put Christ on the cross. It was my sins" that put him
there.[iii]
And yet, this man of great faith has
great failings. Shortly after making
this movie about Jesus Christ, his wife made public an audio tape recording of
Gibson in a fit of rage. There were
accusations of Gibson hitting his wife while she held their baby in her arms.
True or not, all of this was
consistent with the record of Gibson’s arrests, drunk driving, and assaults on
others.
A man of faith, with such anger and
violence.
Are
there 20 righteous here today? Or 10? Or dare I draw even another line. One
that Abraham did not have enough courage to add. Is there even one?
One?
In Paul's letter to the Romans,
he says that "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
Is there not even one righteous
person here at Grace
Covenant Church
this morning?
Or among all of humanity?
Paul's letter deals with that
issue and in it he states very clearly that the answer is no.
Not 50, not 40, not even ---
not even one.
Which is not pleasant news when
one looks to see what happened to Sodom
and Gommorah. As my 1st grade
teacher said, "One bad apple spoils the bunch." But in Sodom and Gomorrah ’s
case, there was not even one good apple to save the bunch.
And what of our world?
Our sinful recklessness has
damaged the environment. What will save us?
Our healthy capitalism has
often turned to become sinful and destructive greed, establishing poverty at
the deepest levels. What will save us?
Our sinful fears and hates have
brought us to war and violence and terrorism that can destroy us in the blink
of an eye. What will save us?
Are there not 50, 40, 30? Is there not even one righteous person?
Yes,
there is one among us who is righteous.
There is One among us on whom God's
favor falls.
Jesus Christ.
Good news that Abraham only dimly
saw. That into the midst of broken human community, God himself would provide
his own righteousness. He makes our community life not only possible, but
pleasant.
It is through the one good
apple, the one righteous, the one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that we are
saved.
Are there 50 righteous among
us?
No, but thank God, it doesn't
matter.
We need only one righteous
among us -- Jesus Christ.