The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a devastating one. The evil practiced in the city reached the ears of God and two angels are sent to verify and destroy. No one will be left, not a babe in arms, not an old mother. All will be gone. It is as though God is responding to the call of the psalmist, “Rise up, O Lord, in your anger.”
What is the evil? Historically, people have said it was homosexuality. After all, the men of the town want to rape the angels. Lot, horrified and horrifyingly, offers his virgin daughters in the place of the visitors.
We live in a time of sexual terror. Gangs of men rape a woman on a bus in India. Rape is a weapon of war. The gift of sex changed into the rage of a person; wounding, degrading, humiliating.
In Matthew we hear that we are not to judge, so that we may not be judged. Perhaps is in our deciding which violence, which rape, which evil is worse that we find ourselves judged as well. There is no good rape. There is no violence which is better against a woman rather than a boy; a child over an elder; a man over a girl.
As we read these texts may they speak to our violence, to our rage, to the ways we have dishonored the guests in our lives. Then may we act to make this world safer for all souls.
The Rev. Cori Olson, Priest in Charge, St. Luke the Physician, Miami, FL
What is the evil? Historically, people have said it was homosexuality. After all, the men of the town want to rape the angels. Lot, horrified and horrifyingly, offers his virgin daughters in the place of the visitors.
We live in a time of sexual terror. Gangs of men rape a woman on a bus in India. Rape is a weapon of war. The gift of sex changed into the rage of a person; wounding, degrading, humiliating.
In Matthew we hear that we are not to judge, so that we may not be judged. Perhaps is in our deciding which violence, which rape, which evil is worse that we find ourselves judged as well. There is no good rape. There is no violence which is better against a woman rather than a boy; a child over an elder; a man over a girl.
As we read these texts may they speak to our violence, to our rage, to the ways we have dishonored the guests in our lives. Then may we act to make this world safer for all souls.
The Rev. Cori Olson, Priest in Charge, St. Luke the Physician, Miami, FL
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