An admiral on his flagship was sailing the seas one dark night, when the lookout spotted a light in the distance, but dead ahead of the ship. The admiral was told ‘vessel sighted straight ahead sir’. The admiral gave orders to radio the other ship and order it to turn to starboard.

The reply came back ‘will you please turn to starboard’. The admiral who was used having his orders obeyed rather than obeying the orders of others sent a further message. ‘I am an admiral of the fleet, turn to starboard’. Back came a reply; ‘I am a petty officer, will you please turn to starboard’.

The admiral sent another message. ‘As your superior officer and master of HMS Arrogance I command you to turn to starboard immediately’. Back comes the reply. 'I am a lighthouse. Turn to starboard’. I hope anyone who is familiar with naval protocol and procedures and has spotted any unauthentic aspects in that little scene will forgive my ignorance of such things.

But you get the picture. HMS Arrogant, unwilling to alter her decided course steaming straight towards the rocks. That gives us such a lucid picture of the pride and arrogance of mankind, bent on its course of wilful disobedience. Adam and Eve, heading for the forbidden fruit; or Cain, determined to release the fury of his jealousy and hatred on his brother Abel.

We see here in chapter 19 of Genesis the people of the Sodom and Gomorrah with relentless determination hell-bent on their own destruction. Some people question how a God of love could bring such a judgement of complete destruction upon whole cities. The story in Genesis shows the patience of God, and his willingness to go to great lengths, both to determine the truth regarding the people of the place, as well as his willingness to be patient and merciful.

Before we come to the part of the story we read in chapter 19, there is the part of chapter 18, where God talks with Abraham about Sodom. Read Genesis18 v 20-32. God is incredibly tolerant of sinful human beings. If there are only ten righteous people in a city, for their sake, God patiently forbears towards that city. That’s a reminder to us believers. God calls his faithful people to be there within our communities, Jesus says to his followers, ‘you are the salt of the earth’.

He says to us, ‘you are the light of the world’. We should speak and stand for truth and goodness, as well as pray for the community in which we live. It is amazing how much darkness is dispelled by a comparatively small number of lights. A Christian presence in a community, even a small one can have a terrific impact upon that community. But there is no such community in Sodom. Their sinful attitude has got to such a level that it defies all the standards of decency.


Notice too that God is just in his judgement. ‘Will not the judge of all the earth do right?’
God’s judgement falls on those who justly deserve it. But even an individual with a weak faith such as Lot, is graciously rescued and brought to safety.

God also ensures that the people are warned to turn away from their sin. In verse 8 Lot pleads with them not to violate the accepted laws of hospitality and decency of the ancient world. But it is to no avail. What depths they had sunk to. The whole male population of the city gather for an act of mass homosexual rape.

God’s judgement on unrepentant sin falls. Sodom and Gomorrah are completely destroyed. God destroyed the ancient world with the flood because of violence and evil. These cities of the plain are destroyed for similar reasons. The story in itself is a warning for all time to the human race that we are answerable to God for the way we behave as a society.

Society often thinks that it can make up it’s own rules to suit itself. In some respects it legitimately can, each age faces different situations, and different ways of regulating society may be appropriate in different times. But there are underlying, God given laws that do not change. God in his wisdom has given mankind ten commandments. They are as relevant to society in the 21st century as they when God gave them. When a society flouts or discards them, then that society is in for trouble.

God’s law is fixed because it is for mankind's own good. When individuals or societies refuse to acknowledge that, when they insist on substituting an alternative morality that is in conflict with God’s moral law, in the end they bring destruction on themselves. This is not a popular notion in our day and age.

We believe in freedom. Freedom is good; in fact we should be thankful to those in our Baptist tradition who stood up and fought for the freedoms that we take for granted; freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and freedom regarding worship. But yet when people regard freedom as an excuse for anything they choose to do, they find that they are not free at all. In fact they become prisoners to the consequences of their actions.
This is a fact that history and experience teach us. We reap what we sow. What goes around comes around. That is a result of the principle of justice that God has built into his creation. God hears the cries of those that suffer the injustices of the sinful, just as he heard the outcry that went up against Sodom and Gomorrah.

Sometimes in Christian circles you hear our present day society compared to Sodom and Gomorrah. I do not believe that Southend, or London for that matter compare at all to Sodom. The total corruption of that city was way beyond what we see around us. The unanimous choice to engage in homosexual or any other type of rape is not what we see in our society. We also have the reality of Christian communities, living churches in our cities, being salt and light, keeping the darkness at bay.

But we should be very concerned regarding the direction in which modern western society is heading. I believe that there are warnings that we need to change course. In the Royal Navy on HMS Cumberland a member of the crew has become the first person in the services to have his religion registered as Satanist. ‘We have to be an equal opportunities society’. But HMS Cumberland along with our politically correct society is heading in the wrong direction. Figures this week for Britain show that violent crime is up 11%. Sexual offences are up 18%. HIV infection is up by 20%. As a nation we are heading in the wrong direction.

It is also rather concerning that there is great resistance in our society to those who do give any warnings of the dangers of ignoring God’s law. Also this week, one of the new European commissioners who has stated that he believes that homosexual practice is a sin has faced such concerted opposition that there is a serious threat to the whole team of commissioners for the European parliament being voted out.

Many of the leaders in society are behaving like the admiral who refuses to heed the warning and alter course. The tragic thing in some ways is that many in the church fail to pass on the warnings that are there in scripture regarding the consequences of homosexual practice or promiscuous heterosexual practice.

The ravages of AIDS are another stark warning to society and its attitudes to morality. The tragic thing is that the failure of many Christian clergymen to teach a God-given morality that is there for our good will in some cases have resulted in tragic premature death from AIDS and the associated bereavement for mothers and fathers.

As Christians we are sometimes accused of being homophobic, and this should never be so. As Christians we believe in brotherly love and supportive, caring relationships, but the place for the expression of sexuality is in lifelong, committed relationships between man and woman.

One of the besetting sins of the human race is that instead of worshipping God, people worship sex. Sexual gratification becomes the dominating principle for many people’s lives, sexual gratification devoid of love. Much homosexual activity springs from this attitude to life, the ethos is get sex wherever you can, and people adopt expressions such as bisexual to give an excuse to immoral behaviour. There is a desperate need for our society to alter course in behaviour and attitudes.

What is in store for western civilization? We have thought today about our neglect of Christian sexual morality. It’s not the only or the worst of our sins. Greed and materialism is just as much a threat to our moral integrity. Western society has historically been blessed by the gift of the gospel, but if we fail to heed the warning to turn back to God’s ways, we could still go the way of civilizations of the past. Maybe other civilizations will come to predominate our world. The rise of the church in places like China, or Africa could mean that while God’s judgement falls on us, others will be blessed, and bring God’s blessing to others.

We need to alter course. Jesus used another word for it. His message was to repent. He told people in his days on earth that unless they repented, a worse fate awaited them than that of Sodom.

Whether our society will repent, whether it will see the folly of a mindset of pride in modern liberal amoral values, and turn to God’s wisdom for a right direction remains to be seen. God is patient and merciful, but his patience is not endless. What we can do as an individual is to be determined in our lives to follow the ways of Jesus, to seek to walk his path of purity, of truth, of generosity and courage. If we do that, we can be sure that we will be safely brought through in his care, protection and mercy. And maybe we shall also be a blessing to the society in which we live, keeping at bay the darkness, bringing God’s truth and forgiveness and direction to those among whom we live.

The way of forgiveness is still open to the repentant. God’s love and grace are still there for those who will accept them.
 

Amen.

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