THEOLOGY THURSDAY
BY DAVE HOLZHAUER
Every year I was in high school, there was a fundraising event called Mud Tug, which, as you may guess from the name, was a large tug of war event held in a mud pit. There were two ways a team could lose: the first was if the flag suspended from the rope crossed a certain line; the second was if the entirety of one team fell into the mud at once. Well, three ways: the third being a combination of the first two. And the third option almost always happened.
One of the more famous Bible stories occurs in Genesis 19, where angels physically visit the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to get a firsthand report of how bad things really are there. Keep in mind that the cities were described in chapter 13 as "wicked, great sinners against the Lord" and in chapter 18 " the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin very grave" (Gen.13:13 & Gen.18:20). When Lot sees the angels, he insists that they stay at his house and makes a feast for them. Later, when the entire male population turns out to do indecent things to the men-who-are-secretly-angels, the angels strike all of them with blindness and tell Lot that they are going to destroy the cities; he needs to evacuate post-haste, he and his family. Lot warns his future sons-in-law what is going to happen, but they think he is joking. Why they think he is joking is soon explained, as Lot lingers and does not seem to believe what he himself is saying. Fortunately for him and his family, the angels take him by the hand and send them out of the city. On the journey, Lot's wife is turned into a pillar of salt for beginning to turn back. The chapter ends with Lot and his daughters living essentially as hermits in caves, with nothing left to their names.
Among the multitude of topics, what strikes me is how Lot, who was described as being extremely wealthy earlier in Genesis, lost everything. I wonder if he tried to hold tightly onto the physical blessings in his life: the respect he enjoyed in the city (he sat in the gate, a place where the revered elders sat in ancient Near Eastern cities) and the fantastic herds of livestock he owned (how wealth was most often measured); unable to get everything out, he was unwilling/unable to leave any behind. Like the folk tale, he couldn’t get the pickle out of the jar, so he had neither hand nor pickle. The angels still showed him mercy by escorting Lot and his family out of town, but by not getting when the getting was good, he lost out.
There’s something so human in this story, that we as humans cling so tightly to what can be so easily taken away. Rather than accepting defeat and staying out of the mud, we choose to lose AND end up in the mud pit. Jesus warns us against this line of decision making in John 12:25-26, that “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” When escaping from a disaster of biblical proportions, it helps to know what to take and what leave behind.
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