I recently had a visit from an old friend whose story is pretty common, at least around here. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. My friend grew up in a very religious home and a very conservative church. In fact, her father was a pastor. And out of love and respect for him, for God, for her church, and her family, she tried to do everything right and be who everyone wanted her to be. She grew up and married young. Her husband was a good man of the same faith and from the outside her life looked perfect. 

But not long into her marriage, she realized she couldn’t live a lie any longer. She came out to her husband and her family and then left them all behind. She left her church and the only community she had ever known and made her way here to Northampton where she could start over. It’s been many years since then and I’m happy to report that soon after her arrival, my friend met a lovely woman and they have been married now for a long time. Things turned out alright for her. But it’s still a painful and all too common story. 

Well I bring this up, because the week before last, she and her wife came to my office and handed me a small packet of precious jewels: a sapphire and some diamonds. It turns out that after she left her marriage, my friend melted down her rings, had the jewels appraised, put them in a safe, and pretty much forgot about them. However, like many of us, she has been watching with increased concern as things are becoming harder and harder in this country for people on the margins, and she wanted to help.  

Although she is not a church goer anymore, she knows that First Churches is an advocate for people in the LGBTQ community. And so she brought the jewels to me and said: “These are yours now to sell or use however you see fit.” Well, I thought immediately of our work with Trans-relocate and told her I’d do my best to find a buyer and give the money to them so they can keep helping trans people from around the country resettle here in a place where they can thrive. It felt like a beautiful echo of her story and she loved that idea. 

But it’s a painful echo as well. Painful because even after all these years of progress, there are still so many people who feel forced to make a choice between staying in their churches, their families, their communities, sometimes even their bodies as someone they are not, or leaving it all behind in order to live somewhere new as the person they truly are.  

It’s painful because religion still plays such a huge part in all of this suffering, rejection, and dislocation. And it’s painful because there are still so many Christians who believe it is okay to censure, reject, harm, or even kill someone because they don’t believe what you believe or behave the way you think God would want them to behave. 

We saw it just two weeks ago in the death of state representative Melissa Hartmann and her husband Mark…and I have no doubt we will see it again, because there are still way too many Christians out there who have more in common with James and John than they do with Jesus. Am I right? Yeah. 

But what might surprise you, is how much Christians like you and me have in common with James and John too, and how much we still have to learn from Jesus. Didn’t see that one coming, did you? And nether did I until I really started to dig into this passage. But if we take a step back and look at the bigger picture here, some really mind-blowing connections start to emerge.

As you just heard, Jesus and his disciples are making their way to Jerusalem where Jesus plans to take his last stand against the powers that be, and they want to stop and find rest and refreshment in a village, but the Samaritans who live there want nothing to do with him. 

You may know that there was an ancient enmity between Jews and Samaritans, generations of prejudice and abuse that have left the Samaritans behind. And the fact that Jesus is heading down to Jerusalem to make some good trouble gives them even more of a reason to tell him to keep on trucking. They have enough problems of their own without the government showing up to punish them for aiding or abetting a rabble rouser. 

But you also need to know that to refuse someone hospitality in the ancient near east wasn’t just rude, it was a sin,; a sin, because your willingness to offer someone bread or water could well be the difference between their life and death. James and John would not have been predisposed to like the Samaritans to begin with, but their refusal to show Jesus and his disciples even basic human decency would have been all the excuse they needed to condemn these people. 

And yes, raining down fire to consume them for their lack of hospitality may sound like a bit of an overreaction, until you remember who else rained down fire and brimstone when He was angry with a group of people? Anybody know the story I’m talking about in Genesis? Who rained down fire and brimstone?

God. Yeah. 

It is, to this day one of the best known and least understood stories in the Bible. Most people - even non-religious people - know that God rained down fire and brimstone on the cities of …. Sodom and Gomorrah.  But what most people don't know, is that God did that because God was angry about of their lack of hospitality too.

It’s true! Lack of hospitality was the big sin that led to all of their misbehavior and ended up dooming those two ancient cities to destruction. 

Rabbi Sharon Brous, in her wonderful little book, “the Amen Effect,” says that according to Jewish Tradition, Sodom and Gomorrah were once:

abundant in natural resources, blooming oases in the middle of the desert…but as often happens, the city’s natural abundance fueled a spirit of scarcity among their inhabitants, who sought to safeguard their riches. 

(Stop me if you’ve heard this one before)

‘Outsiders will only try to divest us of what is rightfully ours’ they said.  ‘Come, let us eradicate foreigners from our land…” And so they did. They forcibly deported foreigners and sealed off their borders. They’d share with no one! 

But it was not enough to criminalize outsiders, those who sought a better life in their midst. They also ruthlessly targeted the poor…and they took sadistic pleasure in violating and dehumanizing women.

All of this, according to Rabbi Brous, was propped up by law. “A high court comprised of habitual liars and perverters of justice…passed zero-tolerance policies that meted out torture to anyone who exhibited the slightest compassion for a struggling neighbor.” 

Like the Fugitive Slave Act here in the U.S. or Nazi laws that criminalized giving any aid to Jews, “Laws like these…” says Rabbi Brous, “fueled a culture in ancient times…of distrust, betrayal, and callousness. Neighbor against neighbor. A cynical, concerted, legal effort to quash human goodness.”  

Well, you may remember that Abraham’s nephew Lot lived in one of these cities. Lot wasn’t a bad guy, but he wasn’t a stand up kind of guy either. More like a keep your head down and go along to get along kind of guy. But according to tradition, Lot had a daughter named Plotit, “who saw every person as an image of the Divine (such) that when she came across a poor person starving on the street…her soul ached.”  

Well, Plotit started helping one poor man in particular, slipping him bread when she thought no one was looking. And when the the people of Sodom noticed that he wasn’t dying of starvation, they grew suspicious. They started spying on the man and caught Plotit in the act. According to Rabbi Brous, they immediately:

marched her to the town square for a public execution, a warning to others who might be tempted to open their hearts to someone in need. In her final moments, Plotit wailed. It was a terrible, anguished cry that echoed across the land, a cry so piercing the Holy One could not ignore it. According to tradition, it was Plotit’s cry that awakened God to the injustices perpetrated in Sodom and Gomorrah and compelled God to take vast, punitive action against the people there” (p 55-58).

And I think you all know what happened next, because this is where the Biblical narrative picks up. God told Abraham that he was going to destroy the cities and Abraham, thinking of his nephew Lot, said what if there are righteous people there? Will you destroy them along with the wicked? 

And God said, no if I can find 50 righteous people I'll relent. And Abraham asked well, what about 45? And God was like, ok 45. “What about 40,” asked Abraham? 35? 30? Till God said, fine, I’m sending two angels in to see if there is anyone worth saving and if there is anyone good, I’ll relent. 

Well, when those two angels came through the gates they ran into Lot who immediately offered them …hospitality. They said they’d just sleep in the square and he said, “that’s a very bad idea.”Lot scuttled them into his house right away to keep them safe, but even that action brought too much attention. 

All of the men of the town came out to punish Lot. They surrounded his house and told him to send the strangers out so they could sexually assault them and Lot refused. He then offered them his virgin daughters instead - not great - at which point the men of Sodom were so angry that they started to break into the house to hurt everyone. 

Well, that’s when the angels said, “enough!” They struck the people outside the door blind and rushed Lot, his wife, and his two remaining daughters out the back door and away from the city, warning them not to look back…but one did. Who looked back?  Lot’s wife! She looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.”

So that gives you a little more context for today’s reading and perhaps a little more compassion for James and John. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were cruel, heartless, awful people… who deserved to be wiped off the map not because they were gay, but because they lived in a land of plenty and refused to share. In fact, they were such a greedy, fearful, violent people that they made it lawful to shun, abuse, deport, and destroy the poor and the strangers in their midst.  

Fast forward a thousand years or so, and James and John - having been raised on stories like the one I just told you, are offended by the Samaritans lack of hospitality. However, it’s worth mentioning that by this point the Samaritans are probably as poor as they are. The anger and suspicion on both sides is really based in prejudice and old wounds. Withholding hospitality was both an easy way for the Samaritans to strike a blow at some people on the other side of the culture war of their day and a convenient excuse for these two disciples to hit them right back. 

And Jesus wants none of it. In fact, he is so annoyed with James and John for even suggesting they rain down fire that his rebuke is not even fit to print. He’s already told his disciples to love their enemies. He’s already instructed them to simply shake the dust off their feet and move on when people reject them. And now he shares three more warnings that underscore what it will cost to follow him. Very quickly:

1. Following Jesus means having no safe place to lay your head.

2. Following Jesus means rethinking your sense of social obligation.

3. & Following Jesus means looking forward not back.

There is an urgency to Jesus’ words here, which is why he sounds so cold and rude. You get the sense that there is no time to waste. He’s on the move and if you want to follow him then you will need to be on the move as well. Jesus has come to upset the stars quo, and he knows that nothing will change if all you are willing to do is play it safe like Lot, go along to get along, and just stay home. 

Following Jesus also means expanding your definition of family, which may mean disappointing your family of origin or even leaving them behind. Remember a few weeks ago when J.D. Vance said that Christians are people who love their family first, then their neighbor, then their country? He can find plenty of Christians throughout history who agree with him, but that doesn’t mean they’re in agreement with Jesus. The truth is that Jesus blows all that up. 

Quite simply, Jesus calls us to love all people as if they are family, even our enemies. In fact in the very next chapter he will tell his most famous parable -the parable of the Good … anybody?…. Samaritan - right after being rejected by this village in Samaria. 

Sometimes following Jesus means disappointing the people who matter most because you’ve finally decided to live as if all people matter…even your enemies.  Jesus loved all the wrong people, and he calls us to love them too.

Which brings us to his last statement about keeping your hand on the plow and not looking back - not looking back like who? - like Lot’s wife. Now, no one knows why she looked back, but if she really did lose a daughter to the evils of that city, I can’t help but wonder if she looked back to see them get what was coming to them? 

And I get that. I get that more than I want to admit. Who here doesn’t want to call down a little fire from heaven right now to, oh I don’t know, maybe melt some ICE? Who here isn’t tempted to call down blame and shame on people who voted for all this cruelty or who condone it? 

But disciples of Jesus don’t have time for that kind of thinking. Where Jesus is going, there is no place for old grudges, ancient prejudice, or the bitter joys of retribution. All that baggage will only slow you down. No, God’s mercies are new every morning and ours need to be too. 

Friends, Jesus didn’t hold anyone’s past against them and neither should we. If they don’t want to work with us, fine, but we need to love them anyway. If they don’t want to come with us, fine. We shake the dust off our feet and keep moving on without them. But if they do...if they do want to come with us, then Jesus says, “let them,” because we’re going to need all the help we can get. 

Maybe you’re starting to pick up what I’m laying down here. I’m so animated about this because I firmly believe that we are living in an urgent time as well. Following Jesus right now may well mean leaving the comfort and safety of our homes in order to protest unjust laws, advocate for the poor, and accompany the vulnerable. 

It may mean having difficult conversations with family or even leaving them behind to follow Jesus. 

And hardest of all - I’m thinking of James and John and Lot’s wife now - it may mean forgiving people we’ve already left behind or written off or been hurt by, if they’ve had a change of heart and want to come along too. 

There is perhaps nothing more satisfying or unproductive then uttering those 4 little words: “I told you so.” But as people are waking up to the lies and abuses of this administration more and more I am hearing some variation of: “This is not what I voted for.” Or “This is not what I thought would happen.” 

Friends, if we need all the allies we can get, then now is not the time to rain down blame or shame on anyone, but to find common ground wherever we can so more and more of us can move forward and help the people who need it most. Which brings me back to those jewels.

After my friend left, I reached out to a local jeweler who I know is queer friendly and she didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with them. But her assistant suggested I reach out to Hannoush, so I called over and the owner, Abbdalah Hanoush, just happened to be in. His assistant said he was leaving for Lebanon in the next few days so we would need to meet soon. “If you can come over now, he’ll take a look at what you have.” So I grabbed the jewels and went to see him. 

Now, I made a lot of assumptions walking into his establishment, all of which were wrong. First off, I assumed Mr. Hannoush was Muslim and so I wasn’t sure how he’d feel about supporting an LGBTQ cause. 

Turns out he is Catholic, but because I assumed he was coming from a more conservative religious worldview I felt it was really important to be up front with him. I told him my friend’s story and what we hoped to do with any money from a sale. And then I said, “Look, I also fully understand if this isn’t a cause you feel comfortable supporting.” 

And friends, he looked at me - really looked at me - and said, “I appreciate how open minded you are about that. Here’s what I’m going to do. These are beautiful, but you’ll never get their worth while loose. I’m going to fashion them into a pendant and two diamond stud earrings and give them back to you. I’d suggest you host an event and auction them off. That way you’ll get the most bang for your buck and be able to do the most good.” 

“Do you want to take a commission or can you get a tax break for work like this,” I asked?

“No. Don’t worry about that. What I care about is helping people. What you care about is helping people. I’m going to do this for free so we can help some people.” 

Mr. Hannoush gets it and I pray that more and more of us will get it too. Because that should be our goal: to share what we have, to use the gifts at our disposal, to give as we are able to make this world a safer and more hospitable place for all of God’s children. 

That’s the call, the path - the challenge of this present moment, the challenge of following Jesus. And God knows we need all the help we can get. So I think it’s high time we retire the fire and brimstone, the blame and the shame, and whatever feelings of superiority we might have no matter what side of the divide we are on. It’s time to let go of the past and start moving toward a better future for all God’s people… together. Amen.