Reader's Guide - "The Word for Today" Monday, September 17, 2012 Read - Genesis 19 & 20 The story of Sodom and Gomorrah began at the tail end of our reading for yesterday. We have been listening to stories of covenant promise and threats to that covenant. This story is certainly a story of threat to the covenant of God given to all people through Abraham. The story actually sounds something like the wickedness we heard about in the flood story. The world has not changed – Abraham lives in that same world of wickedness – and so do we. As the story unfolds we are reminded of the challenge God faces in dealing with a rebellious world. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a terrible story filled with violence and abuse. In our time it becomes a controversial story because of its allusions to the homosexual rape perpetrated by the men of Sodom. It would be so easy to get caught up in that controversy that we lose the flow of the story as a whole. What happened at Sodom is wicked because human beings exert violent power over others. We need to hear it as part of the threat to God’s great covenant promise. The wickedness of humanity is continued in the story of Lot’s daughter’s incestuous behavior right after God had rescued them from Sodom. The point is that not only a select few are found guilty in these stories but all of humanity. Instead of hearing God’s judgment upon “them” it is better for us to realize that this story casts God’s judgment on all of humanity. We are reminded of the challenge that faces God in redeeming the people God has created. And the depravity of all humanity is carried forward in the very next story when Abraham himself is implicated. Abraham lies about his wife Sarah – I suppose we could say he stretches the truth to fit his needs but in the end that is still lying. Taken together the picture painted of all humanity within these stories is not a very good one. What a mess! What a challenge God faces! Unless we are able to embrace these awful stories of all humanity caught in the clutches of sin, ourselves included, then we will likely not be able to hear the miraculous grace of God who saves depraved humanity. Unless we can see ourselves in these stories we are likely not to feel the depth of God’s saving grace.