Prevo and the mayors veto

Monday July 26th, Genesis 18: 32 Finally, Abraham said, "Please don't get angry, LORD, if I speak just once more. Suppose you find only ten good people there." "For the sake of ten good people," the LORD told him, "I still won't destroy the city." We have a hard time fathoming the depth of God’s grace. As the story goes, it was not even his last bid of ten that remained righteous. What was happening was Abrahams growing awareness of just how gracious God was. Was it God that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah or was it that God allowed Sodom and Gomorrah to destroy themselves? Truth be told, we will never know for sure. As we read the stories of old through the lens of the cross, even this looks to me as if it could be a story of grace. Heavenly visitors for Abraham being shown hospitality and showing blessing upon blessing in the form of a long ago promise being fulfilled. Sodom and Gomorrah imploding in upon themselves with the lack of grace and hospitality, and still the righteous among them being saved. Though on the surface some of the ancient stories may not seem so grace filled in our eyes, it is not God, but our eyes and ears that are in need of correction. In reading these stories, if you are not seeing God’s grace, you need to re-read it. Last year when the LGBT community was added to the Anchorage anti-discrimination ordnance the person sitting in front of me at the assembly meeting (wearing his T-Shirt from the Anchorage Baptists Temple) exclaimed, echoing the rhetoric of their pastor Jerry Prevo, that it looked like Sodom and Gomorrah won. (which was actually true as the mayor later vetoed the amendment) What they didn’t realize is that the whole story is one of hospitality and including the LGBT community in the anti-discrimination ordinance moved the community in that direction. The mayor’s veto moved us back to Sodom.