Bible Tuesday for Pentecost 10, 2016

Genesis 18:20-32

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.’

22 So the men turned from there, and went towards 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.’

Abraham, a man with chutzpah! He argues with God but in such a deferential way! This text gives us such a revealing glimpse into dickering in ancient times.

God and the two men with him have just finished the feast Abraham laid before them. God declares that Abraham and Sarah will have a son by this time next year and Sarah laughs. Then God declares that he must go scrutinize Sodom and Gomorrah. But it is, in fact, the men/angels who go to Sodom and Gomorrah. God continues speaking to Abraham. Abraham knows that his nephew, Lot, and Lot’s family, live in Sodom. Abraham is very concerned for him so he works God into an agreement that God will not destroy these two cities if there are found ten people who worship God alone in them. Note that Abraham does not ask God to merely spare the innocent, but to forgive the sins of these two cities on the merit of the righteousness of ten faithful people. This idea of a few righteous earning the favor of God for the whole community or nation is a common thread in the Hebrew Scriptures.

When the men/angels arrive at Sodom, it is Lot who offers hospitality to them. The men of the city gather at Lot’s front door, wanting Lot to throw out the two men/angels for the crowd’s sexual pleasure. Here is the evidence God was looking for and Abraham hoped would not be. Lot offers the crowd his daughters instead, so as to save honor by protecting his guests. The men/angels pull Lot back into the house, away from the near riot crowd and bar the door. Very early the next morning, the men/angels pull the reluctant Lot, his wife, and his two daughters out of the city just as it is being destroyed by sulfur and fire (maybe volcano?).

In the Quran, it is Muhammad who argues with God, not Abraham. The argument was not over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but rather how many times a day the Muslim should pray. God started at 50 but Muhammad got it down to five.

Psalm 138

I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
2 I bow down towards your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness;
for you have exalted your name and your word
above everything.*
3 On the day I called, you answered me,
you increased my strength of soul.*

4 All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord,
for they have heard the words of your mouth.
5 They shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
for great is the glory of the Lord.
6 For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly;
but the haughty he perceives from far away.

7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies;
you stretch out your hand,
and your right hand delivers me.
8 The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.

“Before the gods”-ancient Israelites believed God to be the chief God of a council of divine beings. By the time of Jesus, that was considered myth.

“Steadfast Love and Faithfulness” – these are words which lay claim to the covenant God made with humanity. They are not feelings but rather legally bound commitments God pledged to Abraham and his descendants forever.

“Your right hand delivers me” – In many ancient cultures, the right hand is the hand of power. Kings would hold their scepters in their right hands.

Colossians 2:6-19

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives* in him, 7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe,* and not according to Christ. 9For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. 11In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision,* by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; 12when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God* made you* alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, 14erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. 15He disarmed* the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

16 Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. 17These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling* on visions,* puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,* 19and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

“Elemental spirits of the universe.” According to the Harper Collins Study Bible, “This refers to the widespread Greco-Roman notion that the universe is composed of celestial powers that rule life.”

“The fullness of deity” – Just as God is fully present in Jesus, so Jesus makes us fully who God created us to be through faith in his life, death, and resurrection.

Circumcision-The mark of a Jew, verses a Gentile, is a circumcised male. Jews have never performed “female circumcision.” For Jews, the removal of the foreskin was a sign of complete exposure to and vulnerability to God. Circumcision is the initiation right to enter the chosen people of God, the Jews. But Jesus called for baptism into Him for the forgiveness of sins and for new, eternal life. For the Christian, baptism replaces circumcision. However, in the very early church, those Jews who were now following Jesus believed that both circumcision and baptism were required to be Christian. Paul argues against that, stating that baptism and faith in Christ alone are needed.

Luke 11:1-13

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ 2He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:
Father,* hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.*
3 Give us each day our daily bread.*
4 And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.’*

5 And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;6for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.”7And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” 8I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

9 ‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for* a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13If 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!’

Note what Jesus finds important to pray for.

“Hallowed be your name.” – Hallowed or holy, means “set apart for God’s purpose.” We pray that God’s name be used only for God’s purpose. Sure, this prayer asks that we not use God’s name in vain. But it also asks that when we use God’s name, even in prayer, that we only use it rightly, praying for those things which God desires.

“Your Kingdom come” – This petition asks that God’s kingdom replaces the one in which we already live. As we do not know what God’s kingdom will look light, this is a risky petition.

“Forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone indebted to us.” In ancient Jewish culture, sins were not things you do that hurt other people’s feelings, they were things done to give people shame and take away their honor. In that way, if you sinned against someone, you owed them honor, you were indebted to them. In this petition, note that Jesus has the prayer stating that he/she gives all who have taken away honor, and therefore God should forgive him/her. Can we honestly pray this?

“Time of Trial” – There is no clear definition of the Time of Trial. Some Jewish tradition held that there would be a Day of the Lord where God would come to earth and adjudicate all the peoples of the earth in some manner. Other traditions held that humans would go through some kind of testing by God and the lesser deities. Jesus, himself, in the gospel of Matthew tells the parable of the sheep and the goats where Jesus separates the faithful from the unfaithful. Here, Jesus teaches that no matter how we envision it, we should ask God to save us from it.