Don't Look Back

Genesis 19:15-26

January 3, 2010

Some time ago our worship design team heard an idea used in another church that we liked and wanted to try. It was a series on favorite Bible stories. So in October we asked you to submit your favorite Bible stories to us. The team looked at them in November and discovered that many of them were stories that involved women. We had found a common denominator, and as a result we chose six stories to use at the beginning of this New Year. Five of them were your ideas, and the sixth one – Jesus and women – we decided to tack on the end just because it seemed like a good way to round out the series. That works out to take us up to the beginning of the Lenten season, a perfect time to start a new series. So there you are – the background of “Scripture Sisters”. Thank you for submitting these ideas to us. It worked so well, we’ll have to try it again.

The first woman to make the cut is chosen for this first Sunday of the year on purpose. She looked back; that in itself is not such a horrible sin, is it? There must be something about this story that the story teller wants us to know from this incident. Let’s unpack it.

Lot settled in this region because after he and his uncle Abraham moved into the area their flocks and herds were so large the land would not support both of them. Abraham invited Lot to choose where he would like to settle – either where they were already, or take the rich, fertile land to the south. Lot looked over the inviting landscape, and decided that he’d head south because it was so beautiful it reminded him of the “garden of the Lord.” (Genesis 13:10).

Things did not go as well for Lot as they did for Abraham. In fact when enemy armies overthrew the King of Sodom, Lot and his family were kidnapped and carried away. Abraham heard this and gathered 318 men of his family (they had big families), pursued the enemy, routed them and brought Lot and all his goods back to Sodom.

I want to pause for a parentheses here, and say that it would be interesting to take a side trip down the road that leads to the nasty reputation of the cities in this region. What was it that caused such outrage that the outcry against them reached God?

“the outcry against the people has become great before the Lord…” (Genesis 19:13)

But that is the subject of a rather lengthy Bible study itself. I’m going to leave that for another time because it’s a path that will distract us from Lot’s wife and her plight. Her story itself is our focus today.

So let’s get on with Lot’s wife. At some point, the story doesn’t say when, Lot got married. Was his wife a local woman, and was that why she looked back, perhaps longingly at the city she was leaving – her home – the place where her daughters were born? Or was she someone who had already been among the women and children who moved to this area when Lot and Abraham separated? We don’t know for sure.

I know this much: It doesn’t take much to identify with her. I’ve looked back as she did. Every time our family moved away from a community to a new church, as we pulled out of the driveway, moving van leading us, I could never resist a glance in the rear-view mirror, one last look at the home where our family lived for whatever number of years.

It didn’t matter that we were looking forward, anticipating a new church community, a fresh start, the excitement of meeting new people and settling into a faith community with yet unknown potential…

There was this irresistible pull for one last look.

Have you had that experience?

I’ll bet if you had a few minutes you could think of a time when you had that experience…

Was that such a big deal that when Lot’s wife couldn’t resist a glance back, she was frozen in her tracks?

I suppose we could speculate forever about this…

As you heard Sarah read the story, you learned that Lot and his family were warned of the coming storm in the region where they had settled at the southern tip of the Dead Sea. And included in the warning was, “Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills or else you will be consumed.” (Genesis 19:17)

Do not look back.

So I ask again, what was it that was so wrong – so sinful about her glance backward? And in a larger sense, what is so wrong about looking back for us?

Let’s first narrow it down by eliminating what we are not talking about. These are obvious and hardly need to be mentioned…

· It is not wrong to study the past. In fact the philosopher, George Santayana is famous for saying, among other things, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

The study of history is an examination of what has happened…and we endanger our future when we fail to look at the past.

· Or perhaps you’re familiar with the words of another great philosopher, Satchel Paige: “Don’t look back; something might be gaining on you.”

· If you are scuba diving and a shark swims up behind you, you probably don’t want to look back because you will be startled and any quick movement might frighten the shark; and it’s dangerous to be swimming near a frightened shark.

· But there are good reasons for looking back as well. We memorialize with gratitude those who have made their mark on us. We would not be the persons we are without their influence. In a sense, our memory of them is a way of looking back, and keeping their spirit alive after they are gone. That’s a good thing.

· Sometimes we look back in order to gather research to help us make a decision. How was this done successfully before? What do we not need to do because someone else has already tried that and it doesn’t work?

So I’m not suggesting there is never a time for looking back.

And yet there are times when a rear-view perspective causes fear, and fear freezes us in the past or present; that can be a greater risk than looking forward. It isn’t likely that any of us will be literally turned into a pillar of salt, although with Michigan winters I suppose with the right set of circumstances…. But figuratively, here at the beginning of a new year, I wonder if a backward perspective caused by fear of the future, could have some negative consequences.

I think there might be three kinds of fear that will freeze us and hinder a new start.

1. Fear of failure can freeze us in the past. This reminds me of a scene in in Episode I of the Epic film series Star Wars. 9-yr. old Anakin Skywalker is recruited to receive training to become a Jedi Knight.

If you have been asleep for the past couple decades, Anakin Skywalker is Luke Skywalker’s father, but more importantly, when Anakin grows up he is seduced by the Dark Side of the Force and becomes Darth Vader. This scene happens long before that, where he is still a young boy. As he is leaving his home he is momentarily gripped by the possibility that he might fail; he freezes and turns back. His mother gives him advice that would be difficult for any mother to give. “Be brave. Don’t look back. Don’t look back.” She knew how it could be dangerous for him to linger in the past and hold too close to his relationship with her; as much as she wanted him to stay with her, she let him go.

It’s science fiction of course; and yet there is truth in it. Fear of failure can freeze us.

2. Fear of the unknown. Do you like the circus? I think my favorite act in a circus is the trapeze. It is frightening and thrilling at the same time. I cannot imagine what it takes to let go of a secure grip, fly through the air with the confidence that someone is going to be reaching out to grab you at just the right moment. And yet that is exactly what it takes. What if the trapeze artist doesn’t let go of his trapeze? Pretty boring circus act, huh? No one here is likely to plan on joining the circus any time soon, but one thing we can do is remember the lesson: we can’t walk through a new doorway into a new room without leaving another. Even a destructive relationship can seem better than no relationship and we will put ourselves through misery rather than step into the unknown. Fear is the culprit.

3. Fear of losing control: John Wesley saw the need to renew our covenant with God on a regular basis. He formed small groups called Societies where people met in homes weekly to hold one another accountable in faith; he also practiced an annual service of Covenant Renewal every year on New Year’s Eve. He knew that Covenant making is at the heart of Christian devotion; it’s the sense that we are not our own, but through God's claim upon us we are God's servants. The covenant prayer begins, “I am no longer my own, but thine”

From time to time, Christians need to make a solemn renewal of the covenant, lest we hold back from God what we once confessed we would give, but over time began to hoard for ourselves. The early Methodists adopted a form of covenant renewal and found that New Year's Eve or Day was a very suitable time for this.

Covenant-making is the solution to this fear of losing control.

What do we really control?

Can you control when you will die?

Can you control the economy?

Can you control what other people will think of you and what you do with your life?

Can you control the choices your friends and relatives will make that affect your life?

The TV remote – there – that’s one thing I can control --- because we have two TVs!

As this new year begins, we can’t predict the coming year, whether we’ll be healthy or not, whether our job will be there or not, whether our kids will be happy or not.

What we can control is how we will respond to whatever does happen to us.

We can decide that we will speak up rather than lock up our voice when a word of justice is needed;

We can decide we will act when a kindness will bring life where there is death;

We can decide we will release our vice trip on whatever crutch is fooling us into thinking we are secure, and take a risk that might improve our life or someone else’s.

…Last summer the bathtub faucet in our spare bathroom stopped producing hot water. The sink on the vanity was fine; it was just the bathtub. We don’t use that bathtub or shower very often now that there are just two of us at home. So we had no way of knowing that only cold water could come through that faucet until a guest stayed overnight with us last July, and he informed us he had no hot water for his shower.

Some of you will already know what was wrong, but I didn’t. I didn’t know there is a doo-dad called an anti-scald valve that does pretty much what the name suggests. Nice idea. Only when there is no water moving through the line for a while and your copper pipes are 15 years old, the doo-dad can freeze shut. Lack of use can cause a corroded valve to freeze shut.

Is there a better time than worship – when we are connecting with God and others – to decide that fear will not be the corrosion that renders us immobile?

Is there a better time than right now, for renewing our faith in the God who has promised “I am with you always, to the end of the age”? (Matthew 28:20)

And is there a better time than when we come to the Lord’s Table to receive the Sacrament that he authored for all who will receive it? Is there a better place than this table of grace, to find the courage to overcome fear of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of losing control?

Come and see – receive the gift from God – the life of Christ who goes with us into every time and place, present with us; even ahead of us in the future where we are heading.

Come to the table where there is no need of fear; don’t look back, for this Sacrament is all we need.