What'd Sodom Do Wrong Again?

What’d Sodom Do Wrong Again?
By Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee
Sunday, October 18, 2026
Reading: Ezekiel 16:48-49, 53-63

I don’t remember where I heard this story, but I like it.

A couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on the door of a Roman Catholic home. Now, you probably just know the Witnesses as people who proselytize at annoying times. They’re also hyper-Protestant. Nothing not in the Bible. They don’t celebrate Christmas because it’s not in the Bible. Or birthdays, which are also not in the Bible. I’m not sure how they get away with having a website, since websites are also not in the Bible, but never mind. And they take their name, Jehovah, from a mistake. God’s name is unknowable. So, Jews don’t put vowels in the manuscripts with the divine name. No vowels means you can’t say a Hebrew word. But some medieval Christians decided, ‘let’s say it anyway.’ We have the consonants JHVH, let’s pronounce it Jehovah. If, instead of persecuting Jews, we’d sat down for Bible study together, we’d have known better. So God is called Jehovah a few times in the King James Bible. We have the great Welsh hymn: Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah. It’s a banger. Well in the 19th century German scholars said ‘that’s probably not right, let’s go with Yahweh.’ Same consonants, only a softer Y and W. But we’re guessing different vowels. The whole process is wrong. Jews left out the vowels for a reason. No one can say the name of God. If someone said it correctly, they’d probably be incinerated on the spot. Or immediately elevated into heaven. I don’t call God Jehovah or Yahweh up here. They’re both failed efforts to say what can’t be said. When Jews come to that name, they’ll either say Adonai, which means The Lord (that’s where we got the wrong vowels for Jehovah). Or they’ll say this, which I like better. They’ll say, “the name.” Ha Shem. One thing I do pray up here often is that we all would know how great God’s name is. A name no one can say because it is too beautiful.

This intro is already going on too long. So, the Witnesses are at the Catholic’s door. Catholics love the Bible. But they know you can’t interpret it by yourself. It’s a big difficult complex book. You need friends, and guides, to help. In the Catholic church that means the pope and his bishops. Among us Protestants it means scholars and folks ordained by fellow learned clergy. But this Catholic woman trusts her church. The Witness says look, bring me a Bible, I’ll show you where it says Jehovah. Out comes the family Bible. Look here, Jehovah, in this psalm. And the Catholic lady rips that page out. Balls it up. And then asks, where else does it say Jehovah in this book?

See: one trusts the Bible so much she’ll do something as weird as knock on a stranger’s door: Takes courage. And the other trusts her church so much that she doesn’t need the book at all. In fact, she can throw away a page that confuses. Can you blame her? She’d had her afternoon nap interrupted after all.

The book of Ezekiel shows just how big and complex and confusing the Bible is. For example. If there’s one thing you’d think was bedrock in the Bible, it’s what happened at Sodom and Gomorrah. The sins of those two cities mean their names are still synonymous with immorality. Barbarous sexual practices and so God destroyed them. It’s been casually assumed that those practices were simply homosexual ones. In some places they’ll still speak of queer practices and people as sodomy, and sodomites. But did you hear our text for today? What’s it say about what actually happened at Sodom?

As I live, says the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. 49 This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

Hmm. Sodomy is actually being proud. Having too much food and ease. And not aiding the poor or needy. Pay attention when the Bible talks to the Bible. Here Ezekiel is saying to Genesis, and to us, I know you’ve heard something about Sodom and Gomorrah. And you’re right, they’re bad. You know how bad? They wouldn’t offer kindness to the poor. Sex not mentioned. Sodomy redefined. You might have mistakenly thought it had to do with queer people. Nuh uh. Sodomy is sitting on a pile of money and food while your neighbours go unfed and unhoused. Ouch. That’s a little close to home, now isn’t it, my fellow Torontonians?

The thing is you could have gleaned this from the story in Genesis itself. This is why the term “sodomy” has fallen out of use. It’s not that we’re more enlightened or inclusive today. It’s that the story in Genesis isn’t actually about who you marry. Let’s do a rewind. Abraham is visited by three strangers. He serves them, feed them, and he learns again he’ll be father of many nations, Sarah mother of multitudes. Good thing he greeted the strangers as royalty. They’re actually angels in disguise. That’s true for us too—a stranger could be a royal visitor, a heavenly emissary, treat them as if you’ll be judged on judgment day by this interaction alone. Abraham is called the friend of strangers. In Christian tradition these three are a glimpse of God the holy trinity. Good thing Abe was on his game that day. Salvation hung in the balance, not just for him but for all humanity.

Well two of these angels go on to visit Sodom, and are received very differently. They plan to find a comfy spot to sleep outdoors, like many of our neighbours in Toronto. But Abraham’s nephew Lot won’t hear of it. He begs them to stay with him. But the people of Sodom gather around Lot’s house and demand that he expel the guests. They want to consume them. Just to note: this is a story about the abuse of guests, of strangers. People in need of shelter and protection shouldn’t be used for their bodies and discarded like trash. Now, Lot doesn’t cover himself in glory here. Abraham’s nephew says no, don’t take my guests, they might be angels, take my daughters, use and discard them instead. Honouring guests is good. Dishonouring family to do it: not good. You could just as well take this story as a condemnation of heterosexuality as homosexuality, whatever ality, throwing people away is bad, ok? The revulsion we rightly feel—God wants us also to feel that revolted at hardhearted inhospitality to strangers.

I got to visit Amsterdam a few years ago. Amazing city, more canals than Venice, and the Dutch ones don’t smell. As a trading city the place was absurdly rich for centuries. That’s why its art was so good. Without all the worldwide trade we wouldn’t have had Vermeer or Rembrandt. It also became a hub for tolerance. The Spanish ruled the Netherlands for years and the Dutch didn’t care for the Inquisition. That’s why they became such avid Protestants: if this is Catholicism, no thanks. Many Jews also found safe harbour in Amsterdam. The Puritans too before coming to North America. If someone wants to abuse you for your faith, Amsterdam said come on in, we’ll shelter you. This is the opposite of Sodom devouring its guests. The city also became a home for free-thinkers and atheists. Hence its reputation for licentiousness going back centuries. Pot, red light districts, all forbidden things permitted here. Here’s the thing: once pot is permitted everywhere and porn is available on every screen, what do you need naughty Amsterdam for? Today its problems are more severe: how do you show tolerance when one group of people wants to insult religion, and a few fringe members of one religion will murder in response? We had a Dutch missiologist named Jan Pass here a few years ago. He started a podcast for a few fellow nerds on church and state. It’s among the most downloaded in the Dutch language worldwide now, especially listened to by politicians. Why? What holds Dutch society together when tolerance isn’t enough? Could Holland’s deep Christian memory work where secular tolerance is failing?

I’d visited the city before, but I’m a preacher and a bit of a prude, so no red-light district or hippie lettuce for me, thanks. I have my vices, just not those. Here’s what interested me. Amsterdam is now like many great cities: crushingly expensive. But red-light districts require seediness, which requires cheap rent. Without that the economic model fails. So, Amsterdam has had to prop up its red-light district artificially for tourists. Keep that light on. And here’s a cheque from the Chamber of Commerce. You wanna know what’s growing in Amsterdam today? Not pot shops or skin for sale. But churches. Amsterdam’s anti-Catholicism became anti-religious, so you know what’s naughty now? Jesus. And his surprising people. You want real titillation? Find you an African immigrant church in sin-city. There are a bunch of ‘em. And even some white churches are growing. That’s subversion. Jesus-style.

The book of Ezekiel, like Amsterdam of old or the internet today, treats women’s bodies as a spectacle, a metaphor for sin. We’re so much more advanced now we also use men’s bodies as a spectacle. Our Ezekiel chapter for today is a long metaphorical description in this vein. So long we didn’t read the whole thing, please go home and do so on your own, during breaks in the Bills game. Remember this is what Ezekiel does. Blasts God’s own people for the first chunk of his book. It’d be like me wailing away at how wicked y’all are for the first part of every sermon. If I did that, not many of you’d come back, and you shouldn’t. So, this is the blasting phase. And God, through the prophet, starts out saying this. Your father was an Amorite. And your mother a Hittite. I can’t not think of Monty Python: your mother was a hamster, and your father smells of elderberries. But this is actually a serious insult. God is saying your mother isn’t Sarah. Your father isn’t Abraham. You’re a foreigner. Not God’s family at all.

This sermon is not starting out well.

When you were born, the prophet says, you were abandoned. There was no one to wash you off. Clean you up. Swaddle and nuzzle and nurse you. No, you were left in filth to die. The image is of infanticide, abandoning a child for being the wrong gender or another mouth to feed. One way ancient Christians grew is that we took in abandoned children. There were a lot of ‘em in ancient Rome. Christians were no richer than our neighbours, but we took in an unreasonable number of kids anyway. That’s not just one more mouth to feed. This is someone in the image of God. Jesus all over again. An angel. Treasure them. And our pagan neighbours did notice: ‘the Christians don’t just take in their own. They take in our abandoned infants.’ What would be the equivalent today? Lord, send us the people no one else wants.

God says you were an abandoned infant and I took you in. Raised you. Clothed you. Brought you up in royalty. And if you’d wanted more, I’d have given it. The original rags to riches story, street urchin to princess, right here in Ezekiel, now you know where Victor Hugo and Disney and Horatio Alger and everybody else got it. Ezekiel says “As you lay in your blood, I said to you ‘Live! And grow up!’” This reminds me of my favourite saying from the rabbis: an angel is appointed to every blade of grass there is, praying over it, “grow! Grow!” Only this is a human, not just a blade of grass, and grow she does, into glory.

Then the metaphor changes. Metaphors are allowed to do that. God marries this orphan. The princess becomes a queen. “You were adorned with gold and silver, while your clothing was of fine linen.” The renown of her beauty spreads to the nations. Now, we’re familiar with the image of God as a parent, usually a Father in our prayers, sometimes as a mother, raising us children. We’re less familiar with God as spouse. A lover. One who woos us, romances us, marries us. But that’s in scripture too. You could argue marriage only exists to reflect God’s love for Israel, Christ’s love affair with the church.

But then things go badly. We, Israel, trust in our beauty, not in the one who raised us, marries us, adorns us. And we prostitute ourselves. We take our jewelry and make it into idols. We take our children and sacrifice them. The images are meant to be repulsive. After we’re revolted, we wonder: what do we sacrifice our children for? For false notions of beauty that require surgery and drugs and eating disorders? In the US we have a notion of freedom for gun ownership that requires sacrificing a certain number of children. As if my freedom requires your dead child, so be it (other people’s idols are easier to identify, aren’t they?).

Ezekiel keeps going. Ezekiel always keeps going. Israel not only prostitutes herself. She sets herself up a platform at every intersection. This is a red-light district that takes over Amsterdam. All the city is now, is red lights. And Israel doesn’t accept payment. She gives out money to customers. The metaphors are bending credulity here. Now here’s the thing. Adultery, marital infidelity, is always an image for idolatry. God marries us, his bride. But we have a wandering eye for other gods.

Here’s an example in our day: some of my fellow sports fans are now buried in their teams’ colours and logos. What you hope will you from death: that’s probably what you worship. The Bible would use a sexually rude epithet for that. If I’m being honest, I probably have my own smarts as an idol. If I’m in a setting where I feel not-smart-enough for whatever reason, I just ghost out. And that’s a good way to be sure you never get challenged or learn anything. Who was it who said she used to admire smart people, but as she aged she learned to admire kind people? Another sexually derisive epithet here. You know the famous question to John D. Rockefeller when he was the richest man in history: how much money is enough? His answer: just a little bit more. Find me someone who’s not like that with money and you’ll have found me a saint. And to think we have trillionaires now (who have how many kids, by how many mothers? Who go out of their way to destroy food and health programs for poor people. Ezekiel is not that obscure y’all). When we prostitute ourselves with idols, God won’t have it. God says I raised you, gave you everything, married you, and you think you’re self-made? You unfaithful spouse.

Here is where the whole diatribe is going—God says you know those people you look down on? Sodom? She’s your sister. Your own flesh. That’s when we learn about Ezekiel’s view of Sodom. Ezekiel has already used heavily sexualized language. Would get him cancelled today. So, what does he say about Sodom? Oh God, brace yourself. Sodom: you despise the poor; you devour them like you do food and drink and money. That’s it? Nothing sexual? Really?

Think of what our neighbours imagine Christian faith is about. Isn’t it a bunch of obscure stuff that adds up to this: you’re bad? I remember studying abroad in Spain and making new friends and learning they thought two things of Americans. One, we were way too religious. The other thing? We were obsessed with sex. I remember wondering: how can both those stereotypes be true at the same time? Hyper religious and hypersexual? Apparently, they can, they weren’t wrong. What’d they think of us Canadians? Anyone with a Canadian flag on their pack was just an American trying to avoid getting glared at. Didn’t work. We tried.

But here’s what folks maybe don’t know is in the Bible. God is not satisfied with the way things are. And when we are faithless, God is only ever faithful. God does more than forgive. God makes all things new: “I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, . . . and I will restore your own fortunes along with theirs.”

The people you loathe: the “Sodomites.” They are your moral superiors actually. I don’t think that’s a message we get in our world without the church. That the first will be last. That the enemy you can’t stand Christ loves as much as you. He’s bringing a world where fortunes are restored. The message is not ‘behave better and you’ll be rewarded.’ No, it’s that God making creation right this time: you included. See here’s what doesn’t happen. God doesn’t wait till judgment day, when our report card is revealed, and it’s like a "D-", and we’re sunk. No, God rips up all the report cards. And hands out new ones. That say “A” on em. That’s what Jesus Christ earns. And God scratches out Jesus’ name and writes yours. You’re good to go. Wait, what about my record? Your record? It’s forgotten. His record is the only one I remember.

I want to return to the metaphors in Ezekiel we didn’t read, the heavily sexualized ones. Here’s something else in the early church that impressed our neighbours. We didn’t organize our lives around sex. In fact, we said sex isn’t necessary to be a full human being. And the best option is not to have it. Really? How do you make babies? Don’t have to have babies. Christ is coming soon. The only child who has to be born already has been—Jesus Christ. But if you have unwanted babies, we’ll take em in. Sex isn’t important? Shouldn’t you affirm your desires, or you’ll be a repressed prude? Uh, lots of our desires are bad! Lots of mine are for revenge against my enemies and glory for myself. Our desires need major reconstructive surgery. And women’s bodies? Lots of the forms of religion that are growing are very traditionalist on sexuality, and so you know what that means: women are the problem. Cover up. Hide yourself. Retreat from public life. Don’t tempt me. Jesus says something different. Don’t blame her. Blame yourself. Brotherman, if your eyes bother you, pluck them out. Ain’t her fault. And you know what the alternative is to looking at lots of skin? Having only one God. Lust is idolatry and vice-versa. Have eyes for Christ alone. He’s the one who stripped himself of everything. Denuded of power and glory. Shed his outer garment to serve us as a slave and washes our feet. And dies naked before the world. If “whore” is the ugliest noun in the English language, “lynch” is the ugliest verb, and guess what happens to Jesus? And you know what he does after his resurrection? He clothes us in all the glory there’s ever been. That nude infant mewling in blood, a child of the Amorites and Hittites, who grows up to make a mockery of marriage? That’s us. He clothes us, raises us into royalty, marries us, and forgives us. And God knows we need it. Amen.