Sunday/The Seduction of Angels

On this day:
1054
Siward, Earl of Northumbria invades Scotland and defeats Macbeth, King of Scotland, somewhere north of the Firth of Forth.
1794
French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre is arrested after encouraging the execution of more than 17,000 “enemies of the Revolution”.
1919
The Chicago Race Riot erupts after a racial incident occurred on a South Side beach, leading to 38 fatalities and 537 injuries over a five-day period.
1964
Vietnam War: 5,000 more American military advisers are sent to South Vietnam bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000.
1974
Watergate Scandal: the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee votes 27 to 11 to recommend the first article of impeachment (for obstruction of justice) against President Richard Nixon.
1996
Centennial Olympic Park bombing: in Atlanta, United States, a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics. One woman (Alice Hawthorne) is killed, and a cameraman suffers a heart attack fleeing the scene. 111 are injured.
2005
STS-114: NASA grounds the Space Shuttle, pending an investigation of the continuing problem with the shedding of foam insulation from the external fuel tank. During ascent, the external tank of the Space Shuttle Discovery sheds a piece of foam slightly smaller than the piece that caused the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster; this foam does not strike the spacecraft.

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U.S. states have built less than 400 electric vehicle charging ports through April under $7.5 billion federal infrastructure programs, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday.

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A survey:
1. Less than half of all adult Americans can name the first book of the Bible (Genesis, in Hebrew, unfortunately, Bereshit,) or the four Gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).
2. More than 80 percent of born-again or evangelical Chris­tians believe that "God helps those who help themselves" is a Bible verse.
3. More than half of graduating high school seniors guess that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife.
4. One in ten adults believes that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. (My personal favorite.)

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Sunday/The Seduction of Angels

In those days, the LORD said: "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great,
and their sin so grave,
that I must go down and see whether or not their actions
fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me.
I mean to find out."

God as explorer? As learner? And Sodom's crime is extraordinary: the attempted seduction of angels.

In today's Old Testament reading, God goes on an expedition to learn about Sodom. Abraham negotiates with God over the future of the city. It is a wild story, funny and grim. God seems to be egging Abraham on, conceding moral points, finally settling on not destroying the city if ten good men could be found.

The gospel reading has another parallel point. It is the "ask and you will receive" gospel where Christ introduces a rather surprising element of life to spirituality: Persistence. He encourages continual prayer as if God can be fatigued into acquiescing. Tenacity, not righteousness, rules. It is a funny idea, especially when connected to the Old Testament reading where Abraham bargains with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.  
God sits in almighty judgment; man wheedles.

But it should be remembered, God does destroy Sodom.