Sodom
Originally scheduled for June 2
Sodom was not a
very nice city. Indeed, the scriptures describe it as “wicked
exceedingly.” To give you an idea of just how bad the place was, the
residents thought that the right way to greet the two visitors to
Lot was to have them dragged out so they could be homosexually
raped. So God decided to destroy the place. Which brings up an
interesting question: if all of us are sinners, why did Abraham
argue with God that it would be unjust to destroy the wicked and the
righteous together?
The righteous are
not perfect, nor are they sinless. They do believe in trying to do
what God wants, and they try to fix their mistakes when they can.
The wicked, by contrast, are not trying to do what God wants and are
often very proud of the fact that they don’t. Abraham in fact argues
that the character of God, being a just God, should prevent him from
slaying the righteous along with the wicked. In essence, God agrees.
This goes a long
way to explaining why God doesn’t take the simple solution of
slaying the wicked to solve the problems of this world. He does slay
the wicked from time to time. However, as we are taught in the
parable of the wheat and the tares, in general it causes more harm
than good to slay the individual wicked. Eventually we will arrive
at Judgment Day. On that day God will face the divine dilemma: how
can you send the wicked to hell and pardon the sinners who are known
as righteous?
God will spare
the righteous on judgment day because he has provided a path for
them to become sinless in his eyes. In the Old Testament, sin had to
be remedied with atonement — which included a sacrifice to “pay for”
the sins of the people. Unfortunately, getting rid of your sins by
sacrificing sheep and goats doesn’t really work very well. It points
the way to the real thing in the New Testament — the sacrifice of
Christ on the Cross. By his atonement the justice of God is
satisfied, and the mercy of God triumphs.
Communion is a
memorial of that atonement. The bread represents the body of Christ;
the cup, his blood. By taking communion you proclaim that you have
accepted the sacrifice of Christ as atonement for your sins. It
would be pure hypocrisy to take this with no intention of acting
like the righteous. When the Judgment Day arrives, Christ will
separate the sheep and the goats. The sheep — the righteous – will
be saved that day not just because they took communion, but also
because they showed that they followed Christ’s voice. They will be
the ones who took communion as genuine followers of Christ.
Therefore, examine yourself and see if there is anything in need of
repentance. Then partake, with an honest heart.
