Sinners and Colorful Characters

Then God rained brimstone and fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah - a river of lava from God out of the sky! - and destroyed these cities and the entire plain and everyone who lived in the cities and everything that grew from the ground.- Genesis 19-24-25 (The Message)

Here we go with "God the Destroyer" again.  It makes for some exciting reading and good movie material for sure.  But this story has also been used by Christians to hurt others.  It is used as "proof" that God hates homosexuals.  And every time a natural disaster brings a lot of destruction to a city or region, you will always hear someone saying that it was their fault because of their sin.  And still.... some of the most sin-filled cities in the world thrive.

Did this story happen just the way it said in the Genesis account?  Or maybe the story got embellished a bit as it was handed down generation to generation until it was finally written down.  Or maybe it was simply a natural disaster and, like what happens today, God got blamed.

However it happened, it should never be used to bash others.  The bible can certainly be our sword, but it is not intended to use to cut  our brothers and sisters. But that is what people do, even if it's not expressed in words.  When something terrible happens to someone else, we want to believe they brought it on themselves.  That way, we feel safe. We can think "God took that couple's child because they weren't good parents." Or, "God caused her husband to leave her because she's not a real Christian" or "God sent that earthquake/flood/tornado/hurricane/wildfire to that city because they legalized gambling (or were mean to Jim & Tammy Bakker! ;) )."

Just knowing that this is the tendency of people, I would bet that God has once again been blamed for a completely natural event.  Perhaps he did send his angels to bring Lot and his family out before it occurred.  God must have really need Lot, after all... he tried to give his daughters up to be raped, and then his daughters tricked their dad into having sex with them so they could get pregnant.  Wow... if God's purpose was to wipe out sin, I'm thinking he saved the wrong family!

But then I remember that the child of one of those daughters was Moab.  And Ruth was a Moabite and an ancestor of King David who was an ancestor of Jesus.  Wow!  Jesus had some pretty colorful characters in his lineage!  You gotta love it!

God of Crazy and Colorful Characters,

Help us to be less judgmental of others, both as groups and individuals.  No matter what kind of crazy or sinful things we have done, you can still use us to further your kingdom and for that, we rejoice.  Amen.