Sadda Minga Morah! Yada Yada Yada...

I was almost sixteen when I landed my first real job at a Hallmark Card shop at the mall. I was excited about new responsibilities and opportunities, but more than that I was thrilled with the idea of having my own source of income. At the store, I rang up purchases in the cash register, counted back change (without the assistance of a computer or calculator--do kids still learn how to do that?) organized greeting cards, dusted shelves, and even learned how to enter the day's receipts into a general ledger. By hand. Today, just putting that in writing makes me sound ancient and the processes archaic, but oh how I loved it all.

After turning sixteen, I was able to drive myself to work, and it was on one of those blissfully beautiful days that I stopped at McDonald's for lunch before reporting for my Saturday afternoon shift. I sat alone enjoying the happy meal that I'd paid for all by myself, and listened as a golden arches employee sang with a heavy foreign (French?) accent as she cleaned a nearby table. I happened to be the only person in the section at the time and I vividly recall her looking at me curiously just before saying, "Ah so reedy for Christ come back, dis world one beeg sadda minga morah, no?"

I nodded my head in agreement, but had absolutely no idea what I'd just affirmed. She smiled. I smiled. And I filed in my memory bank that I'd need to ask my mother if she'd ever heard of a sadda minga morah when I got off work that night.

That evening, my mother explained that God had destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and that was probably what the girl had been talking about. It seemed to fit. After all, I had been able to ascertain that she'd referred to Christ, and she also seemed to be implying something bad about the world. Hmm. I didn't know that God had actually destroyed anything after he'd sent the flood, so I was both troubled and intrigued.

Today's scripture passage is Genesis 19-21. And yes, it's all about God's destruction of "Sadda Minga Morah"--places I first heard of at Micky D's one Saturday in 1974.

Scholars and thinkers have argued about this passage. Many are determined to offer a substitutionary reason for the destruction of these cities other than the pervasive homosexuality that was specifically mentioned in Chapter 19, verse 5. Some wishful thinkers hope to convince their audiences that the meaning of the Hebrew word, yada, which means "to know," meant that and only that in this reference, suggesting that the men of the city wanted to "interrogate" the angels who were staying with Lot. The many other passages that refer to the text, along with the precedent of the word's meaning in prior verses strongly suggest otherwise.

So what might be the primary takeaway from these chapters today? That God hates homosexuals and will destroy the cities (or countries) they live in? I don't think so. In fact, I know not. God doesn't hate specific people, God hates sin. He hated it in the garden, he hated it here, and he hates it now. Abraham did not have a really good frame of reference for God's hatred of sin prior to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. But as he watched the cities smolder in the days that followed, there could be no doubt.

My children, God is serious about sin. He recognizes its destructive power and he despises its wicked ability to blind us to the priority of his purposes and the potential of his love. My message for you is this: Sin--any sin, all sin, leads to death--eternal, complete and total separation from God. But just as he had mercy on Lot and his daughters by allowing them to escape the city before its annihilation, he offers mercy to us today. His offer is beautiful, precious, and free--but not cheap. He allowed his own Son, Jesus Christ, to be born into this sin-filled world so that he could live perfectly, sinlessly, and ultimately painfully in our place.

In order to escape destruction, (for we, too, have sinned grievously) scripture says we are to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead. (Romans 10:9) What a small price to pay for the things we've done to break his heart. What a huge sacrifice he made so that we could escape the punishment we deserve.

Thank you Father, that Christ's death is sufficient to cover my sins, and that you've offered the same to every person who by faith would be saved from separation from you.