Accompanied by two “men” (we readers are to understand that they are angels), the Lord came to Abraham’s tent and accepted his offer of hospitality, eating cakes and veal and cottage cheese (Genesis 18:1-8). Then God and the two angels headed for Sodom, to destroy the city for its great wickedness: and Abraham accompanied them part way on their journey (18:16).

It’s an odd story, isn’t it? We see the Lord considering whether to inform Abraham regarding the plan, and deciding that it is proper to tell him, since Abraham has been chosen to become a great nation, a blessing to all the world (18:17-19). The outcry had been great regarding Sodom’s wickedness , and so now God was going to go see whether it was true. We need to recognize that sometimes the language we use to talk about God just has to end up being anthropomorphic, since that is the only kind of language we have. But even after making all due allowance for that, it seems very strange to portray God as having heard a rumor about the sins of Sodom, and therefore having to check it out to see if it’s really that bad. Doesn’t omniscience mean that God already knew how bad it was?

Abraham apparently knew how bad it was, and began an interesting negotiation. What if there were fifty righteous people living in Sodom, he asked; would God “sweep away the righteous with the wicked? … far be it from you to do such a thing … shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (18:23-25). And God replied, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake” (18:26). But what if five were lacking from that fifty, so there were forty-five? Or forty? Or thirty? Or twenty? Or just ten? Each time God acknowledged that for the sake of that diminishing number of righteous, the whole city would be spared.

It is a striking example of intercessory prayer, urging God to be merciful to the city despite all of its troublemakers. Perhaps there are a handful of people who work diligently at being good and yet often fail, another group of people who are always out to get you, and the mass of people in between who mostly follow the path of least resistance, which often leads them astray. What if we were to pray earnestly that God would forgive them all, for the sake of the Righteous One who makes atonement for all our sins – and not only for ours, but for the sins of the whole world.

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Grant us the boldness of Abraham, O Lord: to pray amidst the lostness of all our communities, to pray that your mercy would overflow despite how far we are from deserving it, to pray yet one step further, and yet one more after that, in the confidence that your grace can fill the whole world.