"TO BE IN THAT NUMBER"

Rev. Jim Petersen

1^st Congregational UCC-Great Falls, MT

 6-29-08

Text: Genesis 18:16-33

 We are on the road with Abraham this summer as lifted up in our lectionary readings.  This is the journey of our faith. It begins with Abraham, with the call of Abraham, Genesis chapter 12.  God calls Abraham out of his homeland in Haran and Abraham goes.  With his wife, Sarah, and servants, with his nephew, Lot, and livestock, Abraham goes to a land he knows not.   Abraham goes with obedience, and thus becomes the father of our faith.

God covenants with Abraham, promising a land and a great nation, if Abraham will but agree to be God's people. They seal the deal, and God prepares for the progeny of Abraham with the promise Abraham and Sarah shall bear a son. This promise comes in the form of three men, who Sarah hosts and Abraham toasts, when they are told the stunning news a son will soon be on the way.  Stunning in that Abraham and Sarah are late in life.   But for God, it is never too late.

Our journey continues as the men or "angels unaware" depart.      Abraham, ever the host as the culture requires, accompanies    them out of town. On the way God reconfirms the covenant, "Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him."

Along the way Abraham also learns God's next stop through the "angels unaware."  They are on their way to check out Sodom and Gomorrah, for God has heard "how great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin." 

And here begins a dialogue between God and Abraham that   I believe further establishes Abraham's place as the father  of the faith for the world's three great monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam as well.

For you see, God is angry.  God is ANGRY.  Not at Abraham, but at Sodom and Gomorrah, God is angry. At the wickedness and sinfulness of the people there, God is angry.      Not that this is Abraham's people. The Sodomites & Gomorrahites.  No.  This is not Abraham's people. It is true his nephew Lot lives there now; having separated earlier from Abraham for their livestock was too great for the meager land they shared.  But Lot is still living a good life, and neither this place nor its people are Abraham's business.

Indeed, the Lord has already assured Abraham that he has it made in the shade, which I can tell you is not that easy to come by in the Promised Land.  God has just repeated how Abraham's people will be fruitful and multiply, how they will be mighty and blessed. 

What is Sodom and Gomorrah to Abraham?

Abraham, for whatever reason, it is not his business, it is not his kindred, it is not his kind, and surely it is not convenient, really, he should care less, for whatever irrational reason, Abraham approaches the Lord.  Now remember we are in the Old Testament,  and one did not approach the Old Testament God, surely not one so new to the faith as Abraham, without fear and trembling.

But Abraham approaches the Lord, in whose presence we should listen, and Abraham speaks, "Surely Lord you are not going to destroy the righteous (read faithful) with the wicked of Sodom & Gomorrah. You can't do that, Lord."

What?  Is this in the covenant?  Abraham given permission to tell God how to do God's job!  No, it says "you will be my people," not you will be my boss. I remember in my Optimist Club, how we would get fined for this kind of thing.  Right, Bob?

Abraham continues, "Surely Lord, you who are the judge of all the earth, surely you will not destroy the wicked of Sodom if there are fifty faithful persons among them.  You cannot sweep away the innocent with the wicked.  Far be it from you to do such a thing."

Abraham, with nothing to gain, his social security is secured, laying it on the Lord.  The Lord listens to Abraham, the other startling half of this conversation, and even agrees with Abraham, more startling still, saying, "Alright, Abraham, if I can find 50 faithful people, I will spare the entire city."

Have we got a deal?  Well, not quite.    Abraham, asking the Lord's forbearance for his persistence, pushes further, "Well, Lord, what if we fall a few faithful shy of 50?  Surely you will still not want to destroy the righteous with the reprehensible if we are just a few short." 

Responds the Lord, "Have it your way, Abraham.   If 45 faithful can be found I will spare Sodom." End of discussion.

Well, not quite.  Remember Abraham is Jewish. Like a teenager working his parents for the car keys, he continues, "Well, what about 40 faithful, Lord?  Will you spare the city for 40?"  "Fine, Abraham, 40 will do."

"How about thirty, Lord?"  "Yo, Abe, thirty." Abraham is on a role.  "Can we try twenty, Lord."   "Alright, Abraham, twenty.  Twenty will do fine."

Abraham does not know these people, the Sodomites. If he knew them, he would not like them. What is it worth to him? As I've said, his ticket to Paradise is booked.

"Lord, if you please, may I speak."

 "Do I have a choice, Abraham?"

"Well, sir, I was just wondering, if we could find ten faithful people, count ?em, ten, two handfuls, would you spare Sodom, Sir?"

"Abraham, read my lips.  I will not destroy Sodom or Gomorrah if I can find ten faithful people."

The conversation concluded, Abraham goes home. And God, I presume, takes a nap.

Ten faithful persons can spare all of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah are bad, bad, wicked places. I would read you the litany of their sins except we are in church.  Bad, disgusting stuff.  But for ten faithful persons God will spare them all.

There is a lesson of hope in here: what a few faithful persons can do.  It does not take many.  In fact, it happens all the time.  As anthropologist Margaret Meade noted, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; it is the only thing that ever has."

It does not take many.  One person with a vision, a couple of others with commitment, a few more in prayer, and tremendous things can happen.

I remember a few years back when I was part of a Vision 2000 planning committee for our community.  At the end of our visioning process we had a roomful of people gathered around 19 designated goals.   Really, just a few people around each goal.  

A couple of them never came to fruition, but most did and a few of them really took off, like city recycling, river's edge trail, and river front development,  and we are all the better for it.

What a few faithful persons can do. That's all God is looking for.

God looked in Sodom and Gomorrah for ten faithful persons. God could not find 10 faithful persons in all of Sodom and Gomorrah, God could not find 10 faithful persons.   Though Lot was spared, the rest is history.

Well, we do not want to be history.  At least, that kind of history.  We want to be in that faithful number, right?    If not to save the world, though I would vote for this, then for the following personal reasons, let me give you three.

(1) We need faith in order to be content with our lot in life.

It is not that we should be satisfied with anything less than the best lot.  But let's be honest, the acreage is handed out in disproportionate shares. Some get a lot. Some get a lot less.   But we each have our abilities. And we each have our disabilities.  Nobody is perfect. 

Which is to say, we are human beings not perfect beings.  Ladies and gentlemen, we come to accept this by faith.

The gift of life is packaged in different quantities and qualities.  As long as we each make use of what we have been given, we can express thanksgiving for the gift,  and know a measure of joy and fulfillment.

To be content with our lot.  Especially important in our society where media messages fill us with images of perfection and expectations of easy fixes, instant cures, and immediate satisfaction.

Faith enables us to know that life is still worth something, and still worth living, even when we fall short of the Madison Ave. image, or whoever else is laying their expectation upon us, be it our own ego or our parents or our peers.

In God's scheme of things a modest success or a good effort, even when ending in failure, is fine if it represents our best.  After all, we are still children of God.

The fact is, the bulk of the world's work gets done not by the few geniuses, but by the great mass of average folk who perform their ordinary tasks cheerfully and faithfully.

As Dr. Brown of Yale University puts it:  "Though a few four-leafed clovers may be found in every pasture, the cows that graze there do not feed and thrive on four- leafed clovers, but upon the three-leafed clovers."

Or, to use another analogy, we are rather like earthworms.   As Charles Darwin wrote of the earthworm:  "It may be doubted if there are any other species that have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organized creatures."

Well, think about it.   The earthworm toils tirelessly and silently, day and night, grinding away, replacing the earth's depleted topsoil with a richer, more fertile soil, that we all might enjoy the fruits of the earth.

We should do as well, grinding away to make our place on the planet richer and more able to bear fruit, without complaint or criticism.  Praise God for those of you who do.

(2) A second reason for faith.   Faith sees us through when the world around us grows dark and difficult. Now I don't want to be gloomy, but if you read the news, sometimes we read of cyclones in Southeast Asia, earthquakes in China, floods and tornados in the Midwest, and fires in California, all in the last weeks.

Even if we can sleep through these global issues, no one of our lives, no matter how privileged and protected, is going to escape times of trial and testing. If we are going to relate in life, we are going to lose in life.  This past Tuesday was the 22^nd anniversary of our daughter, Jill's, death.  But who's counting? When washed out by one of the inevitable floods of life, it is faith that keeps us afloat.

Therefore, it is important to keep our life rafts pumped.  The prayers of thanksgiving we offer in the well times, the deeds of generosity we perform in the good times, how we exercise our faith even when it seems we could get away with not exercising, will enable us to view life at its dimmest, to experience life at its cruelest, and still be able to say, "...spite of everything, it is good."

Bear in mind, the midst of crisis is a tough time to begin to exercise.  It is a hard time to learn to pray, though, God willing, it happens all the time.  I think of the attendance pump following 9/11, only too soon to fade away.

As a minister wrote in dealing with the death of his wife:  "In those moments our faith proved terribly important.   When we are caught up in some tragedy of life, it often proves the case we do not have the time or the presence of mind or the emotional resources, or even the will,   to think through the issues we face.  Indeed, in such moments we are thrown back onto the faith we have built over the years, and in that crisis either it sustains us or we are carried down with it to ruins."

Or as Martin Luther King, Jr., so eloquently put it:  "I would urge you to give priority to search for God.  Allow God's spirit to permeate your being.  To meet the difficulties and challenges of life you will need God.  Before the ship of your life reaches its last harbor, there will be long drawn-out storms, howling and jostling winds, and tempestuous seas that make the heart stand still.  If you do not have a deep and patient faith in God, you will be powerless to face the delays, disappointments and vicissitudes that inevitably come.  Without God, all our efforts turn to ashes and our sunrises into darkest nights.  Without God, life is a meaningless drama in which the decisive scenes are missing.  But with God, we are able to rise from tension-packed valleys to the sublime heights of inner peace, and find radiant stars of hope against the nocturnal bosom of life's most depressing nights." 

Wow...now there was a preacher!

Ours is a Resurrection faith.  It arises out of the ashes.  God is at work through faithful people giving witness to God's love in the darkest hour, including your own.  Faith will see us through to the "radiant stars of hope against the nocturnal bosom of life's most depressing nights."

Which leads, mercifully, to the final point:

(3) Faith keeps us focused off of ourselves and onto something much greater than ourselves.

Faith gives us something more than ourselves to live for. There is nothing more dull, deadening and depressing than living for ourselves alone.  Such life is neither healthy life nor happy life.  The loneliness and bitching of the miserly person who has everything as they suffocate in their own self-indulgence.  Can't you just hear it?  Be careful it is not your own voice.

Faith keeps us focused off of ourselves and onto something greater than ourselves.

To illustrate from my all time favorite "Dear Abby," A fifteen year old girl writes,   "Dear Abby,    Happiness is knowing that your parents won't almost kill you if you come home a little late.  Happiness is having your own bedroom...Happiness is getting the phone call you've been praying for.  Happiness is being a member of the popular circle.  Happiness is knowing that you are as well dressed as anybody.  Happiness is something I don't have.  Fifteen and Unhappy."

A few days later a thirteen year old girl writes a letter in response: "Dear Abby,

Happiness is being able to walk. 
Happiness is being able to talk.
Happiness is being able to see. 
Happiness is being able to hear.

Unhappiness is reading a letter from a fifteen year old girl who can do all these things and still say she is not happy.  I can talk, I can see, I can hear, but I can't walk.  Thirteen and Happy."

To be happy, we must have a greater goal in life than ourselves.  God saw to this in the beginning, when God created us in God's image.  We are not put on earth to serve ourselves.     We are put on earth to do some earthworm good in our world.  It is our purpose in passing through.

Which really isn't a difficult call or sacrifice at all,  for when we set about our task of making this old world of  ours a safer and better place in which to live for all of  God's children, we come to realize that life is worth  living for and that life is worth dying for.

As in every generation, there are formidable challenges before us.  But with a little faith, the odds don't seem so great against us.  For as Martin Luther commented when his case was before the Catholic court, and he was asked in an intentionally intimidating way, "Martin, when (your whole world disintegrates around you), where will you be then?"    Said Luther, "Why, then as now, in the hands of Almighty God."

Abraham said to the Lord, "Please don't be angry with me, Lord, but I must speak one more time.  If you can find ten faithful people, will you not destroy Sodom?"

The Lord answered Abraham,   "If I can find ten faithful people I will not destroy Sodom"  Won't you be in that number?  The Lord is looking around and counting.

AMEN.