“What Kind of God is This…” Genesis 18.20-32…Pentecost 10C, July ‘13

 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The message from God’s Word this 10^th Sunday after Pentecost is taken from Genesis 18:20-32, it’s entitled, “What Kind of God is This?” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

CS Lewis, the great 20^th Century Christian writer and defender of the faith writes this about prayer in his book, “God in the Dock: “Praying for particular things always seems to me like advising God how to run the world.  Wouldn’t it be wiser to assume that [God] knows best?  On the same principle, I suppose you never ask a man next to you to pass the salt, because God knows best whether you ought to have salt or not.  And I suppose you never take an umbrella, because God knows whether you ought to be wet or dry…  The odd thing is that [God] should let us influence the course of events at all.  But since He lets us do it in one way I don’t see why He should let us do it in the other.” 

We’ve all had the experience of talking to a stranger on the telephone. You don’t know anything about the person. You don’t know what kind of day the person’s having. You also can’t see the person’s body language when you talk on the phone. You watch your words carefully. You’re on pins and needles as you try to conduct business with this stranger. It might be important business such as insurance claims, stock transactions, health-care needs, or a host of other critical matters. It’s not easy to speak with someone you can’t see, is it? 

You know, when you stop to think about it, you can’t see God either when you pray. Does that create some uneasy questions? What kind of God is he really?  What kind of God is this that we pray to each day?

In our text from Genesis 18 Abraham is speaking to God. Abraham knows that our God is a God of justice. God is talking about destroying two wicked cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. But Abraham asks, “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? . . . Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike” (vv 23, 25). Abraham knows God would never do such a thing. He’s a just God. Abraham knows that in that justice God will punish sin. Abraham doesn’t try to defend Sodom and Gomorrah. He doesn’t try to rationalize away their sin. He doesn’t make excuses for them. In fact, he doesn’t comment at all on their sin. He is speaking to God, who is just. God hates sin. He punishes sin. Abraham is praying to God for those who may live in Sodom and Gomorrah who are righteous, not for those who have sinned. God will punish the sins of people. Abraham knows it.

When we speak with God our Heavenly Father, we should know just what Abraham knows. God hated the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Don’t rationalize away your sin by saying, “I’m not as sinful at the people of Sodom and Gomorrah” or by saying, “I’m not as sinful as other people I know.” Don’t make any excuses for your sins either. Don’t try to make some lame defense. God is a holy God. He hates sin. He hated the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. He hates our sins too. He hates our pride and thanklessness. He hates our greed and selfishness. He hates our foul language and our lustful thoughts. He hates them just as he hated the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. His justice demands just the same for you and me as sinful people. Abraham pleaded with God for the righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah. He knew that God would punish the wicked. God did then, and he will now too.

Remember when you were a kid and you knew you’d done what your father told you never to do? He was going to find out. You knew your mother would tell him. She told you that you should tell him, and you knew you had to. You knew he’d be angry. You were afraid. You knew there would be punishment. You also knew something else. You knew he loved you. He would punish you in love. He would forgive you. He would still love you. So you took a deep breath and told him.

Abraham knew the same about his God. There’s another side to the Almighty. He’s just. He’s also gracious.  He’s a God of both Law & Gospel. How well Abraham knew that. God had just affirmed the promise he’d made to Abraham. He would have a son in a year. God had forgiven Abraham before too. God had heard Abraham speak to him before. He had listened. So now in faith Abraham speaks with God boldly. He pleads to God because he knows the heart of God. God is just. Even in his justice he thinks about mercy. Abraham is bold to ask. He’s not bargaining with God. He’s praying in faith to a gracious God to have mercy on his nephew Lot, his wife, his sons, his daughters, and their spouses. He pleads until he’s asking for only 10 righteous people. Only 10, the number in Lot’s family.

Notice that God never loses his patience with Abraham’s prayers. He never stops him. Abraham says, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak” (v 30). The Lord is never angry with Abraham. He listens, and he answers according to his mercy, his grace, his love. The gracious God listens to his child Abraham pray to him. God never tires of it. Never.

And, God will never tire of hearing you either. He will listen. For he loves to hear from his children. You can’t ask too much, too little. You can’t come too much. You can’t try his patience with your pleading. He will listen. He will answer in his time and in his way.

Abraham comes in faith to a gracious God. God promises not to destroy the city for the 10. He would keep his promise. He saved Lot’s family, the righteous ones, in those wicked cities from the hellish destruction that is still in evidence to this day.

You have a gracious God who has saved you too. In his justice God demanded punishment for sin. In his justice he threatened you and me with death now and eternally. But, in God’s justice he also thinks upon his mercy. He acts to rescue you and me just as he did Lot and his family. The punishment of a just God is going to fall on this sinful world. God never wanted it this way. Here we see the heart of God. He acts to rescue you and me from a hellish destruction. He sends his Son to the rescue. His grace is so great that he satisfies his own justice by punishing not you and me for our sins, but his own Son. That is what was happening on the cross. God was being a just God. In the cross we see the justice of God. Sin must be punished, so God punishes his own Son instead of you and me. His Son takes our place. His Son takes our punishment. His Son takes all we deserve. In doing so we are rescued from the hellish destruction of a just God.

In Jesus Christ we are the righteous ones. Jesus’ righteousness is our righteousness. Because he was righteous for us, we are righteous too. On the day of our Baptism we were clothed with Christ. On the day of our Baptism we were clothed in Christ’s righteousness. When God looks upon us, he sees his Son. He sees perfect righteousness. Soon on the Last Day, when God comes to complete his justice on the earth, he will rescue his righteous ones from that punishment as sure as he did Lot and his family.

This gracious God has come to your rescue. This gracious God will listen to you as you come to him to confess your sins. We come knowing the holy and just God with whom we speak. We also know that like our forgiving, earthly father, we have even a greater, forgiving, heavenly Father. He loves to hear from us.

To what kind of God do we talk? We talk with the just and holy God just as Abraham did. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness and threatens the same for all who live in sin. Abraham knew something else about this God. His nature, his very being is love, an undeserved love that he wants to pour out on you and me, on all. We know that. We have been on the receiving end of that grace, that undeserved love. We know it every time we look at the cross.

You know to whom you’re talking. He’s your gracious God, who with all patience, love, mercy, and kindness listens to you. You know you can come anytime. You know you can come about anything. You know it because you are looking at the cross. You know the God to whom you are talking.  This is the kind of God we worship and believe in.  Amen.