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Cathedral Evensong Sermon preached by the Reverend Christopher Honore
13th June 2010, Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Genesis 13; Mark 2:21-41

Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herders and my herders; for we are kindred.
Genesis 3.3

In the news this week we hear that a prominent political commentator has lost her position at the White House for injudicious comments about Jews and the nation Israel , the Gulf of Mexico oil spill continues to wreak havoc environmentally and is now threatening to strain US and British relationships; the Whaling and anti whaling lobbies are at a delicate stage in their relationships and the whaling commission may be disbanded. On Pentecost Sunday, The Archbishop of Canterbury issued a censure to those parts of the Anglican communion who either bless same sex relationships and/or have consecrated openly gay and partnered clergy to be bishop. This means that certain interAnglican commissions will no longer have Canadian or Episcopalian Anglicans as full members. In addition those Bishops from Africa or Asia who have consecrated extra bishops to serve in North America, are to be censured , but it was not clear in the case of the African Churches just what shape the censure will take.
All in all it is perhaps timely that we consider this text from Genesis 3
Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herders and my herders; for we are kindred.

The famine is over and Abraham and Lot are together again. Abram’s possessions have grown and he is now fantastically rich, there does not seem to be living spaces for both the Lot and the Abraham corporation to occupy the same market as it were, and Abraham graciously suggests that Lot choose a space and Abraham will take himself off to another place.
Lot chooses to stay in the Jordan valley to the east in the area where the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are. Already it is indicated in chapter 13 that God is not pleased with the behaviour of the inhabitants of Sodom. And we know about Sodom, don’t we?
13Now the people of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
So it is indicated in verse 13 that the people of Sodom were great sinners. This sets the scene for a famous speech between Abram and God which is introduced in Chapter 18 verse 16 on. Here Abraham bargains with God like a merchant in a bazaar, finally beating God down to a lowly ten righteous men for whose sake the city of Sodom would be spared. This is after the famous meeting of God at the oaks of Mamre and the promise of the son Isaac to continue Abraham’s line.
Note that this is before the episode in chapter 19 where the Sodomite townspeople demand Lot’s visitors and threaten to humiliate them by raping them. According to the text, God has already decided that the people of Sodom are so wicked that they must be removed before they contaminate others.
This text of terror is the mirror passage to the first part of chapter 18 where Abraham shows such elaborate courtesy to the divine strangers, treating them as kindred, honoured visitors and showering upon them the very model of Eastern Hospitality.
Hospitality in ancient near Eastern culture was far more important than in modern western culture. Travel through an often desolate wilderness was a tiresome process. Inns and safe places to spend the night were few and far between. Therefore travelers tended to stop and spend the night with whoever was friendly enough to offer shelter.
Imagine yourself riding or leading a camel through arid, dusty country day after day and you begin to appreciate the importance of hospitality in ancient times. Welcoming weary travelers for an overnight stay was common in the ancient near east. Hosts welcomed travelers passing through, expecting the same hospitality would be returned to them in their travels.

The people of Sodom by contrast are self centred, suspicious of strangers and are unwilling to succor the strangers as the hospitality code demanded they should.
It is salutary to consider what the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures say about the people of Sodom, here is one example
Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. Ezek 16.19
The key to the issues over which I began this reflection seem to me to lie in the inability of members of the human family to consider ourselves kindred, in the first place. Recognising that all members of the human family are sisters and brothers and offering generous hospitality to the stranger the widow and the orphan in our midst:- all of them minorities of some sort deserving of some special grace or consideration so that they might live protected lives, is a key Jewish and Christian value.
It is important that we interpret the bible in a way which leads us to life and liberation, I think Jesus had a phrase: John 10.10 I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.
The Bible seems to me to offer the guiding insight that we are kindred as Abraham and Lot were kindred and there is to be no contention between us.
We are familiar with the Summary of the Law, which we know so well from the 1928 prayer book or from Mark’s gospel 12.29-31.
Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’
Anglicans will be meeting later this month in Auckland to consider the interpretation of scripture. This year the Hermeneutics Hui will be looking at the 6 passages most frequently used in discussion of male same sex relationships.* What will be crucial for that meeting will be that spirit which existed between Lot and Abraham, where Abraham recalled that first of all they were kindred and had a responsibility toward one another of ongoing relationship; no matter how vigorous or tense their discussions might become.
So I invite your prayerful support of Archbishop David Moxon and the planning Team as they convene this third meeting of the Hui, praying that there will be a sense in which even if no common mind emerges over the most appropriate interpretation, that we are kindred, bonded by baptism and made one body of Christ as often as we gather to celebrate the supper of God’s liberation of humanity, through Jesus Christ the Crucified and risen One.