Delivered by Hand

First Sunday in Advent

December 2, 2012

Delivered by Hand

Genesis 19:16

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

It's a common theme in fiction: at the end of the story, the hero reaches out his hand to his friend, who is about to fall. They could be on top of a burning building or the edge of Mt. Rushmore, but the moment between the hand reaching and the hand grabbing is tense. Will the hands connect? Will they both make it out of danger safely?

What you don't see as often is the victim refusing to grab the hero's hand or the one in danger hesitating to be saved. But in the events of history, you see this all too often. We see it happen in the facts of Genesis 19. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah are about to be scorched, Lot lingers. Why?

Because he loved his home and life in Sodom. Even though he was probably considered very odd in that shameless city, Lot had a comfortable life and was a respected member of the community. I base this on the fact that he was sitting at the city gates when the angels come to town. The city gates were where prominent members of society conducted business.

Lot loved being respected. He was troubled by the depravity of his fellow citizens, but up to that point they had left him out of their sinful perversions. But then when even that changed, when they were trying to break down his door to attack his guests, Lot tried to appease these depraved men with a twisted offering. He was willing to sacrifice his own daughters, so that he could wake up in the morning in his same bed, in the same town, as though nothing had changed.

To sum up, Lot had no spine. He was a weak and foolish man who was bossed around his wife, not the woman he married, but the world. But in His mercy God sent His holy angels to deliver Lot from his unholy marriage.

Nothing's changed in 4,000 years. There are lots of Sodomites and lots of Lots and lots of Pharisees walking around. We have married our world. The world offers three basic convenient marriage packages.

(1) The first is the most obvious: you can marry your lust, hate, and greed in openly wicked ways. Augustana College just announced the logical conclusion of their marriage to the world: they will now allow gay civil unions in their chapel. The following is a quote from Augustana's head pastor, Chaplaain Richard Priggie.

"Since it follows with our values and the action of our church body [the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America], we felt it was important at this time to say yes. Yes, we do affirm [gay civil union] ceremonies and we're looking forward to having them in our chapel." (WHBF website, “Augustana College allows Same Sex Weddings on Campus,” Nov. 27, 2012)

(2) The second kind of marriage the world offers is less blunt. As we've seen, some marry the world by celebrating homosexuality. But most aren't that bold. Most are like Lot. They do not practice, but instead tolerate wickedness. They learn to live with it and keep their mouths shut because they don't want to risk losing what they have—respect from fellow humans.

Iowa has legalized gay marriage. And last month just over 640,000 Iowans voted to keep State Justice David Wiggins in his job, the man who handed down this decision (Muscatine Journal, “Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins is keeping his job,” Nov. 7, 2012). I'm not saying that voting to retain Wiggins was sinful, but I do know that many voted to keep him because they were in favor of tolerating the sin of homosexuality. So these “Lots” end up calling digusting things beautiful. They do this because they want to think of themselves as open-minded and tolerate. They care more about the opinion of their fellow humans than thus sayeth the Lord. They fulfill Jesus' prophecy,

Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will keep it. (Luke 17:33)

(3) But there is a third way in which we can marry the world—by finding our goodness in comparison. Many try to keep their lives by celebrating what they are not. Jesus told a story about a Pharisee who tried to keep his life by boasting of what he was not,

‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. (Luke 18:11)

We can hear how Lot lingered in Sodom, and think in our hearts, “Thank God I'm not like Lot.” We can hear the folly of Justice Wiggins and think, “Thank God I'm not like Wiggins and those who voted for him.” We can hear Pastor Priggie's boast that he is not like, well, us, and think, “Thank God I'm not like that liberal Lutheran ELCA pastor.”

Dear friends, be careful. Let us repent of our pride in what we aren't or haven't done. Christ doesn't care about who we aren't; He cares about who we are.

We are disgusting. We have done disgusting things. And if you think haven't, that's disgusting.

Lot was disgusting and did disgusting things. We would have let him die in the fire and brimstone. But Christ said no. He sent His holy angels to rescue Lot. When he lingered, what did they do? They grabbed him by the hand and physically dragged him out of that disgusting place.

Eternally and spiritually Christ drags us away from our disgusting selves and makes us beautiful. By hand His pastor poured water on your head and made you beautiful. By hand His pastor puts His very blood and body into your mouth and makes you beautiful.

This beauty lies in His promise to you that His beauty will cover you now and always. This is the beauty earned on His cross where all our disgusting-ness hung on Him and Him alone. And He delivers this forgiveness that makes you beautiful by hand.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.