Selling Used Cars And Abating The Wrath Of God.



The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, John Martin

Genesis 18:20-32

 

And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.” Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?” So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.” And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose there should be forty found there?” So He said, “I will not do it for the sake of forty.” Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Suppose thirty should be found there?” So He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” And he said, “Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose twenty should be found there?” So He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.” Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.”

Little known fact: I used to sell cars. It was back in 2005 and it lasted for about a year... Yes, I know that you're judging me. It was a tough job with long hours and angry customers. I was officially a new car salesman (of Toyotas, then Acuras) but I was allowed to sell used cars as well. Selling cars is tough because of the negotiation factor. Negotiation makes selling used cars even tougher. Have you ever wondered why you can negotiate a cars price but you rarely are allowed to negotiate the price of other products? There are plenty of products with a sizable markup (like restaurant food). Cars inherited the negotiation aspect to their sell from their transportation ancestor: horses. Horse trading involved a lot of negotiating, speculation on value and trade ins. This being the case, horse traders got a bad reputation and the wrath of customers. The wrath of customers came from the perception of an unjust and unfair deal. Wrath is a curious and misunderstood emotional response. Wrath seems to be an emotion in response to an offence. It is usually followed by vengeance. So over a hundred years past the glory days of the horse trade auto dealers are still visited by the wrath due to horse traders.

I brought up my auto industry past because in Genesis 18 we find Abraham doing something familiar to it: negotiating. Abraham and God's negotiations center around haggling over a price. Abraham is attempting to negotiate the price of God's wrath. The surprising detail in this story is that God is open to negotiations. God is willing to hear Abraham's best offer. Keep in mind that this is the second half to last weeks reading where the three presumed angelic visitors announce that Abraham and Sarah will soon conceive a child in their elderly years. So the good news was that they were gaining a son: the bad news is that they might be losing a nephew... and a niece in law... and their two daughters. God's planned to destroy the city-states of Sodom and Gomorrah, which happened to be where Abraham's beloved nephew Lot resided. You and I know that everything about your perception of a given people changes when your family member is one. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were not just the heathen city folk to Abraham and Sarah, they were his family members...or at least four of them were. It is so easy to blindly judge the sins of others without concern when we don't have "a dog in the race." But when its your son, daughter, nephew or friend you see the humanity in those "other" people. To Abraham Lot was not just any inhabitant of Sodom and Gomorrah, he was "one of the good ones." And that is what he started out with when he negotiated with God, in essence he said "but Lord what about the good ones?" Being reasonable God agreed that his wrath could be abated for the righteous ones among the wicked in the city... but there had to be some. Abraham started at fifty and God agreed to settle at fifty. Abraham kept marching God's price down and God kept agreeing that these were reasonable numbers. It was like the scene on the Cosby show where Heathcliff and Theo go car shopping. Heathcliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby) writes down his offer on a sheet of paper and slides it over to the salesman (who is played by a young Sinbad) who writes down his counter offer. The difference is that God always agreed to Abraham's terms and never countered. So God and Abraham settle on ten righteous people. Only ten righteous souls would be good enough to save Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction. If we fast forward beyond the selected verses, the angels do visit Sodom and Gomorrah and are not able to find ten righteous people but Lot's family are allowed o escape before destruction occurs. Sending judgment upon cities and nations for being unjust is not unusual for God to do in the Old Testament. Nineveh, Babylon and even Jerusalem (amongst others) would be preached to about the impending wrath of God. In the story of Noah God set to destroy mankind and all of humanity with it for humanities vile behavior. God only finds one man (Noah) who is just and just like Lot his family is saved from destruction. Similarly God later found himself in another round of negotiations when he Mankind's sinful nature proved to grievous to save it from damnation. In this story again he found one man who was just, holy and without sin. But this time everything changed, because God had a family member in this group. God's Son was part of Humanity. Christ had given up his majesty in glory to take upon human flesh. In doing so he would take upon humanity's judgment. So Christ negotiated with God that instead of humanity reaping the punishment of its sin, he alone would taste the bitter cup of God's wrath. When we could not sit at the table and  negotiate lower terms with God, Jesus was offered as our trade-in. 

So why is God so judgmental? Why is every corner of the Old Testament covered with stories of God's wrath? After studying and comparing the Old and New Testament, an early Christian bishop named Marcion (pronounced "martian") decided that the God presented in the Old Testament was different and inferior than the God presented in the New Testament. Marcion was excommunicated and labeled a heretic. It is easy to see where Marcion erred. At first glance, the depiction of God in both testaments does seem different but when one tales a deeper look you see countless instances of kindness, grace and mercy, that we usually think of as a New Testament thing, emanating from the God of the Old Testament. We also see judgment and a focus on justice, things we think of with the Old Testament God, in the New Testament. Christ is such a "nice guy" just because he is personal revelation of God that humanity was too spiritually young in the Old Testament to notice. It's that principal or stern teacher that you had as a kid that you see again in adulthood and realize that he was actually a nice guy all along. But as a child he had to instill discipline in you. You had to learn before he could befriend you. So the question still begs: "Why is God so judgmental?" An answer may lie in today's painting "The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah" by the English Romantic era painter John Martin. And seriously, what gets more romantic than holding your beloved tightly and whispering gently in their ear." Hey baby, you're going to Hell" (which was actually "pillow talk" for the Great Awakening evangelist Johnathan Edwards)? Yes, yes, I know that Romantic painting had less to do with Valentines Day chocolates and more to do with the depicting grandeur of nature... it's like Valentines Day chocolates for tree huggers, hippies and John Denver fans... but back to John Martin. John Martin should be known as "the painter of God's wrath" because he made a career of depicting it. If it was a depiction of God's wrath or a picture about the forewarning of God's potential judgment, John Martin had paintings for either occasion. John Martin's painting about the demise of Sodom and Gomorrah mixes painterly abstraction in its depiction of nature and realistic representation of people. It features Lot and his family fleeing from the fiery abstracted swirls of paint that have consumed what once was their city. This crimson and ochre inferno represents God's destructive wrath upon the remaining inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. God's wrath in itself represents the abstract notion of Justice and like the painting it encroaches upon real people. If wrath is an emotional response to an offence, then God's wrath is kindled against offences against Justice. All throughout the Old Testament God seeks vengeance against societies that were unjust, corrupt, blood thirsty, idolatrous (especially when that idolatry led to blood thirsty practices), lacked humility and had no love for the poor and down trodden. Most of the time these were Gentile cultures and God would use Israel as an agent to punish them. Several times it was Israel and God used Gentile nations to punish his children... then He would send another Gentile nation to punish the Gentile nation who just finished beating up His kids. God as the universal standard bearer and enforcer of Justice. In that role He used the Old Testament times to teach the nations of the Earth about the concept of Justice. 

Sometimes it seems useful to imagine God as a force or a concept. But God is a person, with a personality. He is more than human but he is similar in that He senses pleasure and displeasure. He experiences joy, love and anger. Anger is usually dangerous and wrath is mostly sinful... for human beings. It is not for God. This is because God is the only being that can remain fair in His anger and just in His wrath. Justice is an attribute of God. God ordains (most of) human government as his ministers of Justice. Human Justice at its best is an effort to mirror the divine notions of justice, fairness and peace among humans. When human government doesn't do this it is unjust. Notice that I didn't make an argument for religious government. One of the things that encouraged me to further study the intersection of biblical Christianity and Art criticism a few years back was my discovery of the works of the Christian theologian, art critic and philosopher Francis Schaeffer. I was a huge Schaeffer fan... now I didn't necessarily as free with all of his conclusions about Art but I was thrilled that their was another Evangelical who knew anything about Art... at all. Another group that was influenced by Schaeffer's thoughts are the Religious Right/Moral Majority of politics (I lean more politically Left myself, but I'll try and shy away from unnecessary political discussions). Francis Schaeffer became friends with the controversial theologian and philosopher R.J. Rushdoony. Rushdoony (an accused racist) was the forefather of Christian Reconstructionism: the movement that espouses that Christians should encourage the instatement of Old Testament law as the Law in the modern world. This includes the death penalty for a ridiculous amount of offences. Should Christians advocate  for this legal revolution? If they should then their would be New Testament biblical precedent for it. There isn't. RJ Rushdoony and Christian Reconstructionist's advocacy of Old Testament interpretations of contemporary laws actually conflict with how Jesus practiced the Law. We often don't think of one aspect of Jesus' role as a rabbi: in effect Jesus was a lawyer. When we hear stories of Jesus' interactions with a young lawyer about the nature of one's neighbor or his disagreements with the Pharisees, they all surrounded Biblical Law. Religious law (Old Testament/Torah) had real life and death consequences in Jesus' time. The most prominent example of this was the story of the woman who was caught in adultery and was about to be stoned to death (as is legally prescribed for such an offence). Jesus dismantles the angry mob by inviting those without sin to cast the first stone. Jesus prevented this death sentence from being executed. Christ also scribbled something on the ground that the Gospel writer doesn't reveal the content of... maybe he wrote Deuteronomy 32:35 where the Lord declares that "vengeance is" His alone to exact. No one knows what Jesus wrote, but we do know how Jesus practiced the law. Jesus looked for the overall concept behind the Law: he preached following the Spirit of the Biblical Law. He never advocated usurping  the Roman laws of the empire that ruled his part of the world at that time. Later St. Paul would go further in Romans 13 and advise Christians on living in a non-Christian culture. The Roman Empire was far from a neutral secular state, but was very religiously pluralistic... at times it was very antagonistic to Christianity. Paul's advise was to be obedient to authorities, pray for them and be a model citizen. So what about cases (like the Nazis) where government in evil and unjust. Well the Apostles (in their legal run ins with authorities in Acts) would advise us to obey God rather than man...but we can still be a good neighbor even when we can't be a good citizen. A just government isn't necessarily a Christian one or religious one. A Christian government doesn't always turn out to be a just one. God call individuals to be Christians, not governments. In this aspect Lot is a foreshadowing of the New Covenant Church era. God doesn't save nations or cities. He saves individuals. Governments have to rule over many types of individuals with different beliefs, sins, thoughts and practices. A government is not a just one when it forces someone to accept Christianity, abstain from work on a religious day or pray in school. A government is just when it gets those different people to live in peace and not abuse each other. This is where Christians can change societies. They save the societies that they live in by recognizing what general God honoring concept (that also benefits the general peace and good) can be introduced to their city/national law. A good example of this is William Wilberforce's efforts to end slavery in the British Empire. His belief in the evil of enslaving fellow human beings was informed by his Christian belief. God saves individuals: Individuals save nations and cities. They save cultures by working for justice. A just society escapes the wrath of God.

God's wrath enforces the fair deal. When God exerts vengeance it is an act of restoring justice and equity. Does that mean that we as Christians should all work in law enforcement? It is an honorable notion but no. Some are called to serve in this area and we should pray fir them. We should all, however, be enforcers of justice by utilizing God's greatest tool for justice. God's most powerful tool in exerting His wrath against injustice was not laws, judges or armed soldiers. God's weapon of vengeance against injustice and unrighteousness is Love. From Abel to Zechariah, the World had persecuted and murdered so many of God's innocents, prophets and holy men that He gave his Son Jesus, to be persecuted and murdered. God gave His Son to be sacrificed by sinful human hands on the altar of God's wrath. Jesus suffered as our scape goat (no really, that phrase has religious significance). Like a scapegoat humanity's guilt was placed upon him and left us... in a theological contrast to Lot. Lot left his home in Sodom and Gomorrah to escape from God's judgment of humanity. Jesus left his home in Heaven to embrace God's judgment of humanity. He embraced the judgment and an absorbed it into himself. That's what Love does: it takes injustice, sin and hurt and overcomes it. Justice is what is pursued (through earthly or divine means) when we fail to treat others out of love. Loving God with your whole being and loving your neighbor as your self is the central message of both the Old Testament law and Jesus' New Testament ministry. Everything about God's view of justice is centered around love...because God is Love. And that is non-negotiable.

The Hospitality Industry

The Hospitality of Abraham, Unknown Artist

Genesis 18:1-10

Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.” So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” So he said, “Here, in the tent.” And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.”

I have worked in the Hospitality industry consistently for several years now. Yes I do Accounting, but I do it for a Hotel. Even when I did Accounting for companies that managed restaurants, I still kept a second or third job working at a hotel. Plus restaurants count as hospitality too, so I feel like my experience should count as quadruple. Be it high brow, low brow or no brow, I have experience of working every level of hospitality. Yes I have crazy stories. Yes I have graveyard shift stories. Yes I have celebrity stories. Yes I have medical emergency stories. Yes I have cute old people stories. Yes I have earthquake at the hotel stories. Yes I have robbery stories. Yes I have drunk people stories. Yes I have kick people out of the hotel stories. Yes I have big tip stories. Yes I have charming tourist stories. Yes I have post-wedding reception fight stories (thankfully not mine). I even have a crazy/celebrity/fight story (but I can't tell that one for a few years). Outside of a heap of stories I have learned a few things about giving good hospitality service. Hotels and restaurants that give good hospitality know that the little things that count. It is all about giving to people. Not just a clean bed or a steak and salad. Quality hospitality is about being attentive to needs and giving more than is expected. The best places (large or small, family run or corporate) focus extra attention on giving. That is why the most complete hotels are called "full service." They take every opportunity possible to give.

The bulk of these verses from Genesis are made of details about details. The author doesn't just state that Abraham and Sarah treated their three mysterious guests well. We are given the play by play of every detail of their hospitality to their visitors. Some read this narrative and assume that Abraham knew right out that they were angels. The artist of the icon has pictured them that way. However I am of the thinking that Abraham was just a kind Middle Eastern fellow (his hometown that he emigrated from was in present day Iraq) that took pride in his hospitality to strangers. As a travelling herdsman he knew the toils of life on the road and offered a rest stop for these three strangers. Kindness to strangers was standard to Abraham, You may read something into Abraham calling them "My Lord" and referring to himself as their "servant." Yes, it may be that he realized early on that he was encountering the Divine, but it may be that he was referring to them as "Lord" like we refer to someone as "Sir" or another title of honor. His referral to himself as their "servant" showed his humility. By this point Abraham was a rich herdsman who hobnobbed with Pharaohs, but humble acts of service toward those in need were not beneath him. Humility was standard for Abraham. So he set a comfortable meal before be fore his gusts, and that's when things got weird... 

Our snippet of the story ends with the strangers telling Abraham that his wife Sarah will bear a son. It is strange because these are total strangers and because they are speculating about future medical events. But more than that it is strange because Abraham and Sarah and 30 years into their senior citizenship. Abraham and Sarah had been getting in half price to matinee movies after a meal at the local Bob Evans for some time now. They were elderly and childless. They wanted children but it never seemed medically possible... especially now. That may be why God chose to do it in their senior years. A gift of a child at this point would no be seen as normal, it would be understood as a miracle. It would be seen as a gift of God. It would be seen as God's hospitality. Abraham (who is known to history as Father Abraham) was promised by God to be the father of nations... that through him the world would be blessed. He would go on to have a son named Isaac. His relationship with God would birth Monotheism. He is understood to have been the first Jew. It could be said that Abraham was blessed because he trusted and served God. This is true. But it is also true that God trusted and served Abraham. Before Abraham knew Him, God was planning out His hospitality to Abraham.

Trinity, Andrei Rublev

All of the big three Monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) place Abraham in high esteem, however, in Christianity we see much more to God's promise of greatness to Abraham's descendants. We read into God's promise to bless the world through Abraham's offspring the glimmer of hope through his descendant Jesus. The promise of the Messiah is like a snowball that starts in the Garden of Eden and rolls throughout the Old Testament scriptures until it builds big enough to take out a BMW. Most contemporary Jews accept some notion of the Messiah... God's special servant who rules as a King and makes all right with the world. It is debated whether the Messiah is an one actual person, an age or the people Israel collectively. Christians (obviously) believe that Jesus is that long awaited Messiah (hence the name Christ, since Christ & Messiah mean the same thing in two different languages). But it is more complex than choosing whether the Messiah is a person, age or Israel collectively... Jesus is obviously a person, yet he is more than just a person. We believe that Jesus is God. We believe that God's special servant who rules as King is God Himself in flesh. So what about the times when Jesus prays to God as his "father"? Or the times that God speaks from Heaven about Jesus when Jesus is around? Well that's because they are different people... or "persons"...but all the same God... Okay, it's complicated. Oh yeah, and when Christ sent down the Holy Spirit to the Apostles to dwell in the hearts of believers... that was God too. like I said: it's complicated. So when Christians looked back on scripture in light of Christ they not only saw foreshadowing of Christ and the Church but they also saw pre-revelations of the Christian understanding of God's nature. Most throughout Christian history have seen the three strangers/angels that visited Abraham to be the Trinity Himself. Therefore Russian icon painter Andrei Rublev revisited the commonly reproduced icon of "The Hospitality of Abraham" and remixed as a painting of the Trinity. All he had to do was crop out Abraham and Sarah. It's an interesting testament to the evolution of theological belief. It shows how a familiar Biblical narrative can give us new gifts when we view it with fresh eyes. Even God's Word practices it's own form of hospitality.

So it appears that we have God in three persons but the same being. I would attempt to use an illustration to simplify it, but many of the illustrations used to simplify our understanding of the Trinity usually simplify it too much and lead to borderline heresy. I think that the best thing to keep in mind when contemplating the triune nature of God is that God is different. That's it. We accept that other things in life are greater/different than us. Why can't we accept this with God? God uses metaphors in Scripture to show us what He is "like" or what his relationship to us is comparable too, but these analogies have their own limits. God is greater than anything we can imagine. Holier than we can percieve. More perfect than we can fathom. In the end he is way more gooder than we could ever be: the mostest gooderest of all... and yes, I know that "gooder" and "gooderest" are not real words. But that's just it: my words and grammar fail to explain what and who God fully is. When words fail God has given us a better teacher to reveal his identity: experience. Scripture is filled to the brim with the ancients experiences with God. How Abraham experienced Him to be a friend. How his wife Sarah experienced Him to be a healer. How his descendant Moses would later experience Him to be a deliverer. In our own lives we experience Him to be a loving Father, a saving Son and a comforting Holy Spirit. And the attributes of God that Scripture testifies to but we have yet to experience we will know fully when He resurrects us to eternal life with Him. God is a wonderful caretaker who understands the detailed needs of all under His care. When we experience His giving nature it reveals to us more details about who He is. He gives because God's business is hospitality. If you are one of God's children (and the spiritual offspring of Abraham), how hospitable are you? Are you inheriting your Father's business?