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Sunday sermons | Passionate worship |
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This sermon was preached by Pastor Keith Cardwell at Swift Presbyterian Church.
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| Aug. 19, 2018 | 13th Sunday after Pentecost |
Don’t Look Back
Genesis 19:1,12–26
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L OT, ABRAHAM’S NEPHEW, lives with his family in the city of Sodom. His daughters are engaged to some local guys. This is their home. They live here, work here, play here, date here. Life is lived in and around Sodom. One day Lot is sitting at the city gate. This is the area where business and politics take place. Two angels walk into town. (Nobody recognizes them as angels, but we’re told that.) They are sent to see if the rumors that have reached God’s ears are true. Is Sodom really a city deserving destruction? (Genesis 18:21)
Lot extends a hearty Middle Eastern welcome to the strangers and invites them to stay with his family. They did this in those days because there are no motels or AirB&B. After a delicious meal and extensive hospitality, a rather exciting evening, ensues. At daybreak the angels force Lot, his wife, and his two daughters leave before God destroys the city.
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THERE’S A LOT OF DISCUSSION about Sodom and neighboring city of Gomorrah. The Old Testament often mentions Sodom and surrounding towns as sinful and uses their destruction as a warning. What was their sin that led to their destruction? In Ezekiel (16:49) we have this: “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” While Lot greeted the strangers with hospitality, welcome and safety, the remainder of the city sought to do them harm.
Jude in the New Testament offers these words: “Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion.” But back to our story.
The angels make sure Lot, his wife (we’re not told her name), and his two daughters leave before God destroys the city. As they flee, the angels warn them, “Don’t look back. Escape or you will wind up like the rest of these people.”
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AFTER SOME WRANGLING with the angels about the relocation plans, Lot, being the gentleman that he is, runs for his life and leaves his wife and daughters behind. The daughters are close behind. His wife lags way behind. And she looks back. She turns and watches the flaming sulfur fall from the sky, consuming everything she values. Then the past consumes her.
The Hebrew for “looked back” means more than to glance over one’s shoulder. It means “to regard, to consider, to pay attention to.” She focused on her past and her future died.
Lot’s wife is not the only one who looks back. The Israelites view life in Egypt nostalgically during the arduous trip to the promised land. “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost — also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” (Numbers11:1-6) Referring to the daily food that dropped from heaven. Of course, during that time in Egypt they were also slaves unable to control their lives, their families, their food supplies.
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WE LOOK BACK. Back to a time when life was golden (at least in our memory). Back to when we were relevant, when we made a difference. We long for who we used to be and regret that we’re no longer that person. We look back to when life was simple. We long for those days when we were healthy.
Lot’s wife could not resist turning and looking at all they were leaving. She looked at her old life. She looked at her old way of being. She looked at her old form of security. She looked at her old friends. She looked at her old home. She could not let go of what was, what used to be, what will never be again. She looked back and just as the angels had said, she perished.
We can be turned into a pillar of salt, frozen in time — unless we realize we can’t control what’s changing around us. We can’t always keep our family safe. Cancer strikes. Accidents happen. Eating properly, exercising, taking vitamins are no guarantee we will live to be 100. We can’t control the economy. We can’t control your boss. We can’t control the school car line. We can’t keep things the way they are, or go back to the way things used to be.
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DON’T LOOK BACK. Dwelling on past hurts take your life. Let go of past pains. Let go of past glory. Let go of past disappointments. Let go of your former life. We’re fortunate to receive a similar warning. Ephesians 4 tells us to change the former way of life that was part of the person you once were. Instead, clothe yourself with the new person created according to God’s image in justice and true holiness.
As a kid, you finally let go of the security blanket you were attached to. As a teen you let go of the hope that a certain someone would pay attention to you, ask you out, and you’d live happily ever after. At a certain point we let go of the dream to write the great American novel. To be a star on Broadway. To rise to the top of the business world. To be a millionaire. To be and have the perfect spouse with perfect children. Somewhere along the line we let go of the notion that life will always be sunny and carefree.
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LETTING GO IS A PROCESS that is seldom easy. For many, its meaning is elusive.
How do we let go? Letting go means removing our attention from a particular experience or person and putting our focus on the here and now. We hang on to the past, to past hurts. We hang on to past jobs, former friends. We identify by who we once were not who we are now.
We have to let the past pass. The struggle to hang on to it, any part of it, clouds our present. We can’t see the possibilities today is offering if your mind is still drawn to what was. (from Each Day a New Beginning, quoted in Uncharted Journey).
If we spend our lives looking back, we make little progress in the future God has for us.
— Keith Cardwell
Genesis 19:1,12–26
Holy Bible, New International Version
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
19 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here — sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry[a] his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”
16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords,[b] please! 19 Your[c] servant has found favor in your[d] eyes, and you[e] have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it — it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request, too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.[f])
23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah — from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities — and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
— This is the Word of the LORD.
Footnotes:
a. Genesis 19:14 Or were married to
b. Genesis 19:18 Or No, LORD; or No, my lord
c. Genesis 19:19 The Hebrew is singular.
d. Genesis 19:19 The Hebrew is singular.
e. Genesis 19:19 The Hebrew is singular.
f. Genesis 19:22 Zoar means small.
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