I am delighted to be returning to the very warm and welcoming congregation at St Peter’s in the Woods, Appleshaw, this Sunday.

What was the real sin of Sodom and Gomorrah?

For generations the standard (by which I mean patriarchal, heterosexual, cis, and yes male) interpretation of this passage and the passages preceding it, is that the unforgivable trespass of Lot’s neighbours has been their lust after men, that is their homosexual behaviour. On the surface it is easy to see how the passage could be interpreted this way, if we do not read the whole passage in the context of what has come before. If we choose, and as people of faith I believe we really should, to read the whole of Genesis before we come to this passage, or at the very least the stories of Abraham and Lot, then we will come to understand the passage in a completely different light: the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is their lack of hospitality, their abuse of guests. We could take much longer to dwell on this matter in the light of our contemporary issues regarding welcome and refugees or migrants, however, along with the other passages set for today, we are being guided along a different route. This week we are being asked to consider our own relationship with God, how (if) we come before God, we are being called to consider how Abraham and Lot’s relationship with God differs, and the impact that had upon them, their families, and their communities long term.

Let’s begin ‘in the beginning‘ with the passage from Genesis. Abraham had a very special relationship with God, it wasn’t perfect, Abraham made plenty of mistakes (and even repeated them!), there would have been plenty of times when God found himself sighing and ‘face palming’ at Abraham’s antics. The thing about Abraham is that he always came back to God. Abraham was willing to acknowledge his mistakes and to move forward, trusting God. Maybe not perfectly trusting God, but more so than most. Abraham developed a relationship with God whereby he felt comfortable enough to barter with God.

This is what we see in today’s passage from Genesis.

Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 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? Far be it from you to do such a thing…And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.”

Genesis 18: 24-26

Abraham, sensing impending danger for Lot and his family, barters with God, pushes God to a place of mercy. Lot, though, when told how that mercy will unfold, whimpers and whines that it is all too difficult.

If you want to know what happens next, do read on in your Bibles, but the take home for today is that Abraham, who had been forgiven much, sought forgiveness for others: for Lot, his nephew, who had been his ‘ward’ when he had been orphaned, but also for the whole of the town. Abraham was willing to risk God’s displeasure in a time when deities were not known for their mercy, to plea on behalf of others. Abraham had an astounding relationship with God, and God honoured that relationship too. God had no need to share the plans for Sodom and Gomorrah with Abraham, but due to their special relationship, Abraham was brought into the picture, so that he was able to plea on behalf of others.

The Psalmist picks up on this special relationship with God in Psalm 138.

On the day I called you answered me,

you increased my strength of soul.

Psalm 138: 3

The Psalm is entitled ‘A Psalm of Thanksgiving and Praise’ but here again we see the intimacy of a relationship between God and godling. The God of the Israelites is different from other ‘deities’, The God of Abraham and David is one who seeks relationship, one who welcomes open conversation and questioning and pouring out of the heart; it is not wrong to question God, indeed God seems to love our persistence, our hearts calling out in times of (in) justice, of pain, fear, desperation. It’s OK not to be OK, it’s OK to let God know that is what we think.

Jesus confirms this; his very presence on earth enabled humanity to present all those questions and queries and pent up angst to God in person. Jesus received every question thrown at him, only getting upset when those questions were used to trap him. Jesus responded by asking questions of his questioners, or by telling stories that made them think, sometimes even teaching them directly. Jesus responds favourably to those who question him with hearts that are genuinely seeking to understand life in all its fullness in difficult times; not so much to those whose questions are disingenuous.

This we see in his teaching on prayer in Luke 11. From this passage we have one of our most famous pieces of liturgy, the most prayed prayer: The Lord’s Prayer. In it Jesus is asked how to pray. The disciples are searching for something different from the set pieces of their Jewish faith, they have seen Jesus’ honesty in prayer with God the Father and how it feeds him and enables him. They have yet to see Jesus himself barter with God in the Garden of Gethsemane when he pleads to have the cup of suffering taken from him.

Jesus teaches the disciples not just a prayer to recite, but a way to live: worship God, ask for what you need, seek and offer forgiveness, protection from going astray. Then Jesus tells a story; it is a story about hospitality and perseverance, and building that Abraham-like relationship with God.

Remember the people of Sodom and Gomorrah who tried to run the strangers out of town, who tried to beat and rape them? To punish Lot and his family for providing them with hospitality? Here Jesus tells a different story of hospitality, one in which someone receiving an unexpected guest at an inhospitable time, and finding his cupboards bare and unable to offer his guest sustenance, asks his neighbour to lend him some bread. It is the middle of night, the neighbour is not happy to be disturbed, yet the value of hospitality is such that the host perseveres, the neighbour relents, and the guest is fed. The hospitality may be a little begrudging, but how different from the example we find in Genesis!

“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.”

Luke 11: 9

Remember also Abraham persistently bartering with God to save the people of Sodom of Gomorrah? Here in this story there is also persistence and willingness to be awkward on behalf of others. Jesus comments that the neighbour may only have capitulated in order to get back to bed, but due to the persistence of the host, hospitality was offered. There is humour in this story telling, but Jesus links it back with the teaching on prayer: be persistent, work it out with God, don’t be afraid to be real with God, come as you are. Despite knowing this prayer inside out and back to front, despite knowing that God wants us to connect with him as with a loving Father, we still hide behind ‘thees’ and ‘thous’, and politeness. God tells us to be more like Abraham, David tells us that God responds when we cry out, Jesus tells us to persist like the annoying neighbour. However we come, we are to work it out with God.

What does Paul have to tell us? In his letter to the Colossians writing to a church that would not have been well-versed in the stories of Abraham, or the Psalms of David, he directs them straight back to Jesus’ teaching on prayer. Paul reminds them that they have been forgiven of all their trespasses, cleansed through baptism, and made acceptable in God’s sight, and God’s hearing, and to open their hearts in prayer. They are also warned not to be led astray from any philosophies or ‘new age teachings’. This is good teaching for us too. Perhaps over the centuries Jesus has been wrapped up in so much sacred behaviour that it is difficult to remember him as the itinerant preacher with dirty hands and dusty feet welcoming all those with clean hearts. We feel that we need to be perfect in order to come, timidly before God, and yet throughout the Bible, from Genesis to the letters of Paul, we are taught to come as we are. We are taught not to be fearful of finding the right words, the correct etiquette, the perfect posture. We are taught to cry out on behalf of others, on behalf of ourselves, to be open and honest with the God who truly loves us, because it is when we are most fully ourselves that we bring most joy to God.

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live our lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Colossians 2: 6,7

Oh and one other thing: be generous in offering hospitality to unexpected guests!