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Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 and Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23 • Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 • Luke 12:32-40

Do you know who Daniel Radcliffe is? Yes, he played Harry Potter in the movies, rising to fame by age twelve and of course became quite wealthy soon afterwards. He’s now 33 years old, and I heard him telling a cute story online about standing outside a shop in New York with his dog, while his girlfriend was shopping inside. It was a cold day, and the dog began to shiver, so Harry bent down in his hoodie and long coat and starting to vigorously rub and massage the dog’s body to warm him up. He noticed a man looking at him from across the street, and next thing he knew that man bent over him with a $5 bill and said – get yourself a cup of coffee. After hearing that story, I checked Potter’s net worth -- $113M! A case of mistaken identity for sure! We’ll hear more about mistaken or confused identities later when we look at today’s gospel.

Two weeks ago, we heard about Sodom and Gomorrah and how Abraham bargained with God in hopes of saving these sinful cities from total destruction (Gen 18: 20-32). And today’s Isaiah reading also speaks of these cities, mentioning again that their horrible sins which made God so angry were social justice sins about not attending to the needs of the poor, etc. “Wash yourselves;” says God, “make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (v 17-18). And by the way, orphans and widows were much more vulnerable in that time and place, so when you hear that phrase – think of the most vulnerable people today, like the homeless and refugees, etc. This was also what we heard from Ezekiel 16 (49-50) about the sins of Sodom. And yet despite these strong biblical sources explaining that it’s disregard for the poor and other injustice issues that made God so angry, still many people persist to this day in citing Sodom as proof that God hates homosexuality. Hence the various meanings of sodomy … and I’m pretty sure that the bishops who tried to hijack Lambeth 2022 into condemning gay marriage use that misplaced ‘sins of Sodom’ reference as part of their “proof” of God’s disapproval. Sad and disappointing, although it’s part of the perhaps unavoidable divisions of a global church with some members in countries where homosexual people are put in prison, while in places like Canada you can be convicted for any discriminatory practices against the LGBTQ+ community.

Yes, Abraham bargained with God in Genesis 18; and in case that sounded rather odd, today we have God saying: “Come, now let us argue it out …” (v18). That’s so cool – God also likes a good argument or debate! Creator God gave humans immense intelligence – intelligence that often needs to question old assumptions, so as to better respond to new realities. This need to question old assumptions is especially true in science, but also in the life of faith and families and other human groups. However, given this interesting scripture we heard today with God inviting people to ‘argue it out’ … hmm, well sorry to mention this, but God sounds more Italian or Irish or East Indian than many calm and polite Brits I know. Arguing may be part of the perpetual strife of our evolving universe. Nothing changes or grows while we remain comfortable with the status quo. If caterpillars like being caterpillars, then there’ll be no butterflies.

Before leaving the Isaiah reading, let’s take note that the reason why God angrily criticizes their various worship customs is because of their unethical behaviour about matters of justice. So perhaps it’s not true that incense is an “abomination” the way eating shellfish and wearing two types of fabric are an abomination (Leviticus) … but rather having fancy liturgies without addressing situations of grave injustice – is what offends God. In recent news, the Secretary General of the United Nations, spoke strongly against unethical behaviour in our times, for example. He spoke of the “grotesque greed” of “immoral fossil fuel profits” that made $100bn in the first quarter this year “on the backs of the poorest people and communities, at a massive cost to the climate” https://www.theguardian.com/.../greed-of-fossil-fuel....

Greed, of course, is one of the seven deadly sins, so I’m glad to hear this brave and accurate language in the public sphere from a world leader. To me it sounds like Guterres is doing exactly what God asks us to do in today’s Isaiah reading. And while we’re not in his high position of influence, we all have some opportunities to support and promote justice, as well as asking questions about the many injustices in our world. Both globally and personally, we can re-examine assumptions that have been shown over time to cause much more harm to others, than we had earlier realized. There’s no shame in thinking and saying that now we’re in a more informed position, so we can speak and act differently.

And finally, our gospel from Luke 12 is full of surprises. Jesus describes different little scenes in which the unexpected is to be anticipated, especially in terms of when and how God enters our lives. We are called to be servants of God, but the master in this story also serves the servants. We’re asked to keep our lamps lit in anticipation of the Master’s return, but then we’re told that the THIEF comes at an unexpected time. I like what J. M. Neal had to say about this https://www.workingpreacher.org/.../commentary-on-luke...

“Everything hinges, of course, on who readers imagine themselves to be. Our identities shift in the passage as well. We are frightened sheep, and we are heirs of a kingdom. We are keepers of treasure, and we are slaves. … But the command to be “ready” makes us sound complicit in this divine caper—creating a disturbance in the kitchen perhaps or turning a lock when we hear a soft knock. It makes us sound like we have a part to play in the Son of Man’s stealing back of creation.”

May we indeed serve to help the Cosmic Christ ‘steal back into Creation’ by resisting the malignant forces of grotesque greed that are destroying our planetary home, Amen.