Just Soil and Ash...

Genesis 18:23-32

“It’s not like you to do this!”

That seems quite a statement to make to God. Maybe Abraham can pull it off, but are the rest of us allowed to talk to God like this? Are creatures able to demand that God act like God? Abraham even seems to suggest that he’s a bit out of line when he says, in verse 27, “I know I’m nothing more than soil and ash, but since I’ve already breached the topic…”

“Just soil and ash.”

“A mere mortal made from a handful of dirt,” is how the Message paraphrases it.

“Dust and ashes,” says the NRSV translation.

Does this remind you of anything? It’s a direct reference back to Genesis 3:19, which we used in Ash Wednesday worship at the beginning of Lent. In Genesis 2, we read of a Creator God whose breath lifts to life a sculpture of soil. By the breath of God, dust and dream combine, soil and spirit fuse, all of creation becomes integrated with the divine imagination. In Genesis 3, the creature rebels and acts in defiance of the will of God...to which God responds with these words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return.” Not a threat, but a reminder…”You’re acting out of character,” God tells us (through Adam and Eve), “This is not how I intended for you to behave when I created you.”

The conversation between Abraham and God in Genesis 18 echoes this, except it is Abraham questioning the character of God, while simultaneously questioning his capacity to do so. “Don’t be angry with me, Lord,” he keeps repeating as he confronts God with the perceived problem of a God willing to destroy the innocent alongside the guilty.

I’ve heard from many people who struggle with what they call: the “Old Testament God.” Maybe you’re one of these people. “The God of the Old Testament is just too violent,” they say. Or, “I have a hard time reconciling the God of the Old Testament with the God who is made known to us in Jesus Christ.” For those of you who relate to this struggle, I wonder how you feel now knowing that Abraham is on your side. He doesn’t like angry, vengeful, violent God either. And it is passages like this that prevent us from comfortably being able to throw out the whole Old Testament as irrelevant. Abraham, just like I do, struggles with a creator God who is willing to act like a destroyer. Abraham, just like I do, worries about whether it’s his place, as a creature, to think such thoughts.

The Old Testament is full of theological innovation. Even Genesis 1 is an innovation, very intentionally offering correction to the theology of the Babylonian culture. What I particularly like about Abraham’s approach to theology is his caution to take into account his own “dirt”...his creature bias. Theology is not the act of creating God, but rather the act of speaking about God. The character of God doesn’t change when we change our theology, we’re simply adapting what we say to more closely approximate our experience of truth. The theological innovations of the Old Testament give us insight into the maturing faith of an entire people as they struggle their way through experiences of betrayal, deportation, violence, injustice. Bible scholar, Walter Brueggemann, points out the theological innovation in today’s passage “concerns God’s valuing the righteous more than craving the destruction of the unrighteous.” He also points out that Genesis 18 was likely added to the text after Genesis 19, the scene which describes the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah...added as a corrective. Genesis 19 presumes that “innocent people only have power to save themselves. Guilty people can take down with them others who may be innocent, but the guilty may not be saved by those same innocent ones.” Abraham stands before God and questions this conventional understanding...an introduction of radical grace into the maturing theology of Israel. “Will you indeed destroy the innocent with the guilty?”

Remember, Brueggeman’s scholarship suggesting that this conversation from chapter 18 is actually a later addition, inserted ahead of the story from chapter 19 where God destroys Sodom and Gomorroah. The community responsible for this addition to the text demonstrates a markedly more mature faith and understanding of God than the community writing about a God who destroys the wicked...which just so conveniently happen to be the enemies of the community writing the story. As a direct challenge to a story which proclaims a God of retribution, is a conversation that demonstrates “a fresh discernment of God” which “provides for the intrusion of grace.” Follow this maturation of faith through the scriptures and you’ll arrive at the theological innovations of a young rabbi who teaches his followers that they must “love their enemies, and pray for their persecutors.” Do any of you recall how he begins this lesson? Matthew 5:43, “You may have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’”

“You may have heard it said…” An indication that Jesus is directly challenging conventional wisdom and understanding.

When Abraham challenged conventional theology, he did so while recalling Genesis 3:19, “Remember that you are dirt.” A phrase that harkens back to the story of creation, in which we learn that humankind is created in the image of God. To reiterate an earlier point, our theology doesn’t impact how God acts, it captures a snapshot of our beliefs about that action. Our theology does, however, impact how we act as servants of that God. If we believe in a God who celebrates retribution against one’s enemies, then we will become a people who celebrate retribution against our enemies. We are created in the image of God, and when we, like Abraham, challenge the character of God, we are also challenging the way we feel called to demonstrate as God’s servants.

The temptation is to take too much control in this conversation, to forget that we are dirt...and to become creators, custom tailoring the God we serve to comfortably fit our creature bias. Another word for this practice of becoming the creator of our own god is “idolatry.” This is the sin being confronted by God when he scolds Adam and Eve for eating the fruit of knowledge, and offers the corrective framework with which we must use our capacity to think and speak about God: “Remember that you are dirt.”

All of this to say, I want you to feel bold enough to question God, to innovate your own theology, and to challenge what Scripture claims to be true in an instant against what Scripture demonstrates to be the “trajectory of truth.” All the while, remember that you are dirt, know that you bring a particular bias to the conversation, and be mindful of where your own opinion falls in relation to tradition and trajectory, and be aware of the constant temptation to idolatry, our hearts are, as John Calvin famously wrote, “idol factories.” I believe that when we, in faithful conversation with God, ask questions of how God is supposed to act and behave, God is using these conversations to help us to grow and mature in our faith and discipleship. So take heart, God still calls us to be servants, God still requires our participation in the ongoing “intrusion of grace” into a broken and hurting world still serving idols of retribution and violence. God is still using us, even though we are just soil and ash. Amen.