David Bahn - Reflections

I'm serving at Fishers of Men Lutheran Church in Port Isabel, TX during September 2021. This message is about the Priesthood of All Believers and our calling to pray for the lost and erring.

Perhaps Zoar is a symbol for Jesus: a little town, a man of little human consequence (cf. Isaiah 53). But his commitment to doing the right thing never wavered. He never flenched from loving God. He never failed in his pure and perfect love for sinners. He is our refuge from the coming destruction of every evil power, plan, pretension, or place known to man and the powers of this world. But step through the door of this city and discover just how large is God's heart and love, his grace and kindness. The joy of his salvation knows no bounds. It rings through eternity. To the praise of his glorious grace!

How easy it is for us to dismiss the urgent call to repent, reorder our lives, abandon evil pursuits, or escape judgment or destruction! Lot almost falls prey to the lure of waiting and ignoring the imminent danger that will soon befall Sodom and Gomorrah. Had the angels not compelled him - taken him by the hand - he likely would have perished.

I suspect there are some lessons for me here. There may be a sin to confess, a promise to claim, a warning to heed, a hope to embrace, a vice to abandon that I need to act on more urgently. Perhaps you do too. While it is day, there is time to do so. But we who really do need to recalibrate must not be lulled into a false sense of security in our laxness toward God just because The End has not yet come.

We may have a lot in common with Lot. His prayer is weak and pleading. We might occasionally feel very weak. While there may be times for us to claim a faith like Abraham's, we can lean into the goodness, mercy, and kindness of God in every situation. In those weak and uncertain moments, we can remember this encounter with Lot and the promise of Isaiah 42:3, which says that God "will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle." Knowing that may make even the weakest prayers stronger.

Here in Genesis, God's mercy delays the city's destruction to allow Lot and his family to escape. Ours may not be as dramatic or obvious. But one thing remains: God's mercy is a precious gift. If grace is receiving something we don't deserve and mercy is being exempted from punishment we do deserve, we can rejoice in both. We see it here in Genesis. We ought to look for it every day of our lives and give thanks to God for it.

Is there a warning you’re ignoring? Are you too ready to conclude that people are crying wolf when they sound the alarm? I have no strong opinion about the current crises call about climate change. I’m pretty certain that the COVID-19 crisis is real. But I’m totally convinced that God’s call to repent and believe the gospel is absolutely vital. It is a message that must be heard. And believed. And heeded.

Maybe it’s a relationship that gets patched up. Perhaps it is a sin to be abandoned. It could be an overall laxness toward God’s word and will. It might be a failure to pray. But wherever God is calling you to repent and believe, take heed! And rejoice! God’s call is to life, salvation, blessing, and true joy.

It may not be obvious that we should care to multiply God's kingdom...until we give thought to what Jesus did to bring us into his gracious reign and rule, and why he did it. 

Some people, for fear of rejection or other loss simply don't speak up. They don't want to look silly in the eyes of others. They don't want to sacrifice relationships for the sake of a clear witness. They don't want to sound extremist, or alarmist. Or fanatical. Maybe I'm one of those people.

I haven't always been. In college I took my Bible to a philosophy class and shared Jesus' words from Matthew 5. I was jeered at and summarily dismissed. The girl I was really interested in dating told me, "Don't be a fanatic, Dave." That hurt. I've had other times when I've sounded the alarm, and it had short-term success. But it was short term, and I abandoned the clarion call - for reasons only God can ultimately judge. More recently Diane and I have had conversations with a family member or two about Jesus, faith, grace, and godly living. We've not been shown the fullest extent of our effectiveness. We do at least hold on to hope that we will see the impact of God's word.

We might think we can distance ourselves from a dismissive attitude toward God. We might assume that we always pay attention to God's warnings. We might even labor under the false idea that since God hasn't done one of his direct and dramatic acts of retribution in our recent memory, he won't deal summarily with us. We've skated this long. We've been able to bend God's will to ours all this time. He won't come down on us. If you know how this story unfolds, you'll recall that the sons-in-law and Lots's wife's nonchalance will not be well-rewarded.

Maybe you've seen or felt the rescuing hand of God. Maybe you've not. But the angels of God watch over his people. And sometimes circumstances unfold that can only be the providential care and rescue of a loving God who wishes none to be lost, for all to be found and be saved from eternal doom.