“Willing to wheedle?” {Genesis 18:25}
Clarence Johnston was a neighbor of ours for many years. He was an older man whom my younger brothers found remarkable, not so much for his personality as for his hair. Clarence always groomed his hair in the same style he chose his automobiles. Just as his Cadillacs always carried those large, wide wings on their tail fins, so Clarence wore his hair with large, wide wings sweeping out beyond the temples on his head. When my parents were not around, my brothers called Clarence “Wings.” When my parents were not around, I heard our neighbors call him “Cousin Cheap.”
What I found most interesting about Clarence Johnston was not his hairstyle but his lifestyle. Clarence was the kind of a guy who was happy only when he had made a deal, meaning that he had worked out some kind of financial arrangement where he had taken a profit instead of a loss. Clarence was called “Cousin Cheap” by our neighbors because he never took a sales tag or a statement at face value. If he needed to replace a tool in the hardware store or get a tooth pulled at the dentist’s office, Clarence never simply paid his bill. He would argue, bully, complain, or wheedle that bill down!
My father remembered Clarence Johnston as a singular man not because Clarence was one of the wealthiest members he knew in any parish that he ever served but because Clarence’s funeral was the least attended of any that he ever conducted. I still remember Clarence Johnston every time I hear the word, “wheedle,” today.
In today’s Lesson, Abraham is engaging the Holy One over the fate of the city of Sodom known for the extensive evil going on within its city gates. The Lord God has come down to righteously deal with its injustice. Abraham, however, seeks to intercede on behalf of its citizenry. He doesn’t necessary argue or bully or complain about the justice of the Lord’s cause but he is willing to risk wheedling the Lord down over the Lord’s judgment. Abraham begins with a question that resonates with our question, “Will you have the righteous suffer the same fate as the unrighteous?” Seeing that his question has caught the Lord’s attention, Abraham then pursues his argument. “Suppose there are fifty righteous people living in Sodom. Will you destroy the city and the righteous along with the unrighteous? Shall not the Lord who judges everyone in the whole world do what is just?” “Well,” says the Lord God, “if I find fifty righteous people in Sodom, I will forgive the whole city for their sake.”
Seeing an opening, Abraham pursues his case with the Lord. “Would you destroy the city if there are only forty-five righteous living in it?” “No,” replies the Lord, “I would forgive the whole lot for the sake of those forty-five.” The wheedling continues as Abraham keeps pushing the Lord God to bring down his numbers: 40, 30, and 20. Then Abraham takes a deep breath—it seems in today’s Lesson that he is more realistic about human nature at this point than the Holy One—and he says, “O Lord, do not be angry with me if I but ask you this question once again: if there are but ten righteous in the city, would you destroy them, too, for the deserved punishment of the wicked?” The Lord God, wearied, perhaps, by such wheedling, replies, “No, for heaven’s sake, Abraham, for the sake of ten righteous, I will forgive the whole lot!” How much, beloved, are we willing to wheedle then for the Lord to save not just us but the whole world? Is the Lord almighty and righteous not only in justice but also equally so in mercy? Thanks be to God who saves us from ourselves! Amen.
