Sodom & Gomorrah versus Nineveh

Thursday, 2nd Day of Lent

On this second day of Lent, I wanted to share with you two recent readings from the Anglican lectionary that stand in stark contrast to one another and are specifically meaningful for Lent and our times as well.

Yesterday, on the eve of Ash Wednesday the first lesson was from the 3rd and 4th chapters of Jonah http://www.commonprayer.org/offices/cal_b_n.cfm and relate to Jonah’s mission to prophesy to the city of Nineveh before God destroyed it for its sin.

This morning, the reading beginning in the 19th chapter of Genesis where God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah http://www.commonprayer.org/offices/cal_b_n.cfm

On the one hand, we see that God repented of his evil that he planned against the city of Nineveh when the king and all the people, in great remorse, contrition, and repentance, fasted, and the king dressed in sackcloth and sat in ashes. (Which upset Jonah to no end)

On the other had we a city that God told Abram he would spare if there were only to be found ten righteous men. A city that God utterly destroyed because of the wickedness within it.

Do these reading say anything about cultures and the consequences of corporate sin and immorality to you?

They speak to me about the consequences of cultures that depart from the moral ways established by God and known to men not only from Scripture that give us his Word, but from the moral laws that all men know in their hearts – what CS Lewis called the Tao in his book The Abolition of Man. It speaks to me of God’s desire that all cultures may flourish and his love for them as their creator. It speaks to me of the consequences to cultures when morality is disregarded.

A few days ago I posted a comment on article that was a review of the effect of amoral thought and action on Nazi Germany. I was stationed there for a tour of three years and saw the pictures of the near total destruction that they endured. I cannot help recall those visions as I think of Sodom and Gomorrah.

I pray my community and yours may not depart from morality. I pray that the trends that I see toward immorality, what has been coined the "slippery slope", might stop. I pray for communities, families, and all people might turn to God's Way.

Visit the Order at www.OrderofCenturions.org