Br. Scott Wesley Borden, OHC
BCP - Proper 26 C - Sunday 04 November 2007
Isaiah 1:10-20
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
Luke 19:1-10
Br. Scott with friends and Associates at the dedication of the new entrance to the Guesthouse's Middle House
I find the reading from Isaiah irresistible right from the very start with its reference to Sodom and Gomorrah. Our collective understanding of the sin of Sodom is an interesting thing. A great many people over the years have assumed it was a sexual sin. More recently others have begun to understand it as a violation of hospitality. One thing is sure: it was a really bad place filled with really bad people. And things ended badly for those nasty folks.
The problem with limiting our notion of the sin of Sodom (and Gomorrah - though we never seem to disparage Gomorrianders as much as Sodomites)... Limiting our understanding to any particular sin is that this becomes a way to let ourselves off the hook.
Isaiah puts us right back on the hook. “You rulers of Sodom! You people of Gomorrah!” He isn’t talking to the people of long lost cities from long gone civilizations. He’s talking to his neighbors and the leaders of his day... people who were probably his good friends up until this conversation... And while the words are coming from Isaiah’s mouth, they are God’s words. Through scripture Isaiah is still speaking God’s words to us.
Greeting to us - rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah... It would be rather unremarkable if someone began a prophetic witness today with a greeting like “You people of Sodom...” and then went on to a predictable lecture us about the dangers of sexual misdeeds. I could tune that out in about one heart beat.
But Isaiah doesn’t relate this reference to Sodom and Gomorrah to any type of sexual immorality. The problem, it seems, is that people are worshiping too much, offering too many sacrifices, too many fat beasts, lambs and goats... , too many festivals, too many assemblies... they are wearying God.
Now there is conventional wisdom stood on end... the sin of Sodom wasn’t too much sex, but too much religion..
“Trample my courts no more... Bringing offerings is futile... incense is an abomination to me” says God. “I cannot endure solemn assemblies...they have become a burden to me.”
Does God get tired of our prayers? When we gather in this church every few hours, are we tiring God? ... annoying God? ... angering God?
I think of that scene from the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” when the clouds part and God appears. Immediately everybody drops to the ground... and God shouts “Get up... if there is one thing I can’t stand, its groveling.” So up they get and immediately avert their eyes... And God thunders “look at me when I’m talking to you.”
Of course it would be absurd or worse to suggest any equivalence between Isaiah and Monty Python... but both give us ways to question how we relate to God... how we honor God.
“Your appointed festivals... My soul hates. They have become a burden to me...” Monty Python might fidget with the deck chairs, but Isaiah is sinking the ship. Worship and prayer are central to our lives as followers of Jesus - but Isaiah seems to be saying that God is weary of listening, or worse, that God is actively annoyed with our worship. “When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you... your hands are full of blood.”
George MacLeod, the founder of the Iona Community and primary re-builder of the ruined abbey on that little Scottish island, was fond of saying that heresy, in his opinion, was praying for the recovery from ill health of poor, old Mrs. So-and-so, but failing to do anything about her substandard housing that was making her sick.
Praying for justice, but accepting the privileges that injustice can bring us, is offensive. Praying that God will heal the sick, but systematically depriving large portions of our society of access to sound medical care, is abominable. Praying that God will make peace when we have a lifestyle that requires the world to be at war, is futile.
It is as though our prayer was something like: “Dear God - please make all these good things happen so that I don’t have to do any work... so that I don’t have to sacrifice... so that I don’t have to change my life...” And God says: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.”
That, it would seem, is the sin of Sodom with which Isaiah is concerned. Proclaiming our love and devotion to God while living our lives in a way that dishonors God and frustrates God’s purpose.
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean... Learn to do good. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow.” Isaiah seems to have caught wind of the Gospel...
Jesus doesn’t call us to be saints - just to learn to be saints. Look at the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector in this morning’s reading from Luke. Tax collector is code for big, bad sinner. If Isaiah were relating the story he might well have said “Zacchaeus was a chief Sodomite and he was rich.” Nasty, wicked, bad...
So naturally Jesus becomes best buds with the sodomite tax collector. “Hurry - I must stay at your house today...” you wicked, nasty tax collector. Jesus seeks out the lost. The tax collectors, the sodomites, the poor, the oppressed who have no helper, the diseased, the despised.
It would be very nice if Zacchaeus had come under Jesus’ influence and then decided to give away half his wealth and write all his past wrongs... and then Jesus said now I must come stay with you as some sort of reward.
But it’s the other way round. Jesus says I’m coming to be part of your life - ready or not... and Zachaeus says OK... and I must put things right in my life - start to undo the injustice I have participated in... help those who have no helper. Sanctification is the response to grace, not the precursor. Ready or not Jesus is with us - and our response must be like Zachaeus - we must learn to do good.
Our prayer and our worship are wonderful and powerful tools to help us to learn to be followers of Jesus, to give us vision and strength. But if in our prayer and worship we are not leading us to follow Jesus - to build God’s kingdom - they are futile. Worse still, if we are praying and worshiping as a way of avoiding building God’s kingdom, that is hateful to God.
Lord Jesus; help us to learn to do good, to seek justice, and to plead for those who have no voice. Amen.
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