Proper 12 Year C

Proper 12

Genesis 18.20–32
Colossians 2.6–15
Luke 11.1–13

This story from Genesis is often told as though it is about Abraham bargaining with God. Abraham, the generous and merciful, pleads with God, the bloodthirsty and violent, and gradually manages to calm God down and get him to agree to keep the killing to a minimum.

But actually that is not what the story is about at all. In the verses immediately before the reading set for today (17–19), God debates about whether or not to let Abraham in on his plan. You could read this to mean his plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, but it is actually much more likely that it is his larger plan, of how the mighty should treat the weak – a plan that is to come to its fulfilment in Jesus...