Sermon Tone Analysis

Me

Back in maybe 2005 or 2006 Danielle and I were living in New York and driving a 1986 Buick Century Wagon.

We loved this car, especially because we lived on campus and we had several people in our college who would ride with us to and from Synagogue in Long Island on Saturdays and the car would seat eight people with no problem.

For those who remember the old GM station wagons, this wasn’t one of the monster land barge versions, this was the new generation that was slightly more sleek.

It was definitely not your typically college student car, but it was our car, we got if for cheap, it got us from point A to point B with no issues, and a close friend actually helped us afford it after we moved to NY with no vehicle at all.

We use to drive this car back and forth to Long Island for synagogue every single week.

Let me setup the picture of this drive for you for a moment… Our drive to synagogue every week was maybe 45 minutes to an hour, but we also had to drive through quite a few major thoroughfare interchanges.

It was a drive that if you weren’t paying attention it was extremely easier to miss a turn or an exit.

But, that wasn’t all, we had to drive across I believe three toll bridges each and every week costing us about $35 round trip, plus our fuel.

Where it got even worse was the drive home… That same 45 minute to an hour drive to synagogue on Saturday morning took us on average around 3-4 hours to get back home every single week, never failing.

And an overwhelming portion of it was either stop and go, bumper to bumper traffic, or a lot of sudden stops as traffic backed up then flowed again at exits and interchanges.

It was a constant back and forth from gas to brake and back again over and over and over again for a solid 3-4 hours every week.

But this one particular Shabbat it was just Danielle and I in the car, we didn’t have anyone else riding with us that week.

We drove to synagogue and had absolutely no issues at all.

The drive was smooth, traffic was flowing favorably, the weather was perfect… There was legitimately nothing to complain about (besides the tolls).

But on the way home, that was a whole different story.

On the way home we hit all the traffic… We hit all the stop and go… All the bumper to bumper.

We were putting the brakes to work the whole 3-4 hour drive home.

We finally got on the New York State Thruway, I-287 and we’re home free.

We roll across what was then the Tapanzee Bridge (which has since been torn down and replaced) and the exit we were taking was about three exits off the bridge.

Traffic is pretty heavy across the bridge and through our area of the Thruway but we were moving smoothly.

I put on my blinker indicating our intention to exit right at the next exit, get on the off ramp, and push the brakes to slow down… However, the brake pedal just slammed straight to the floor and we didn’t slow down at all.

Pushed the brakes again and again no slowing down… I began lightly pumping the bakes a little at a time until I finally was able to get the car to a stop at the end of the ramp and we rolled across the intersection into the mall parking lot to try and figure out what was going on.

I had Danielle move to the driver seat, I got down where I could see under the car and asked her to push the brake pedal.

As she did I was able to watch brake fluid just spraying out a busted brake line… No lie, it was 100% by the grace of God we made it that whole drive back to Nyack from Long Island in bumper to bumper traffic without our brakes acting up and us smashing full force into the back of another car or going off the road, or whatever else.

By far, this was one of the scariest experiences of my life… But, God saw us through and protected us.

We

Have you experienced something like this?

A crazy scenario that could have easily gone terribly wrong and yet somehow things panned out alright...

Maybe you were walking down the street and out of nowhere you a car comes raging around the corner and you had to take a nose dive to the curb to not become a hood ornament...

Maybe you were at the gym doing heavy bench press and realized the weight was way too heavy for you and was crushing down on your chest and making it hard to breath, then all of a sudden you accidentally tipped a little to the left and the weight on that side fell off and the bar flung off your chest the other way just in the nick of time…

Or any kind of crazy situation where you still can’t really explain how you’re standing today besides God’s hand on your life…

God

This week we read Parasha Vayera, Genesis 18:1-22:24, which opens with the Adonai appearing to Abraham with two angels.

The narrative tells us that Abraham, in his vast hospitality heart, made sure a tremendous meal was prepared for his visitors and washed their feet.

Then the Lord tells Abraham that Sarah will have a son in a years time, and given Abraham’s and Sarah’s age and progression in life, she laughs and says to herself, “After I’ve grown decrepit, can I have desire—and my lord so old?”

And while she thought she was laughing and talked to herself, the Lord knows our hearts and thoughts and called her on her laughter, to which she rapidly lied and said she never did.

Then Adonai informs Abraham that He is about to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah out for their terrible sins.

Abraham then, as only a righteous man would, intercedes on their behalf and asks the Lord would He really allow the righteous to parish because of the wicked.

Adonai said he would spare the city if there were any righteous found and Abraham went from 50 all the way to 10, and ultimately none were found… I’d venture to say, not even Lot would have qualified, but he was saved on account of his relationship to Abraham.

Then in chapter 19 we read of the angels going to Sodom in the evening and Lot seeing them and welcoming them to his home for the evening because the plaza would be unsafe.

We soon realize why as the entire city of all ages come to Lot’s door and began trying to beet the door down and force him to hand the men out to them to have their way with them.

In a very awkward turn of events, Lot then offers his own daughters to the townsfolk if they’d spare the messengers.

This was not a deal they were willing to make and the townsfolk are ready to kill Lot and his family to get to the visitors.

The angels drag Lot into the house and then they struck the townsfolk with blindness and everything went chaotic.

The angels tell Lot to grab everyone in his family and to flee the city and never look back because they are going to destroy it because of their wickedness.

Lot’s wife looks back at Sodom while they are running away and is turned into a pillar of salt.

The next thing we see is Abraham wakes up early in the morning to see if the cities he interceded on had been spared for the sake of any righteous found there and all he saw was the cities’ wreckage in smoke...

Next we see the unexpectedly awkward relationship between Lot’s daughters and their drunk father and the offspring that would ultimately become thorns in Israel’s side for generations to come.

In chapter 20 we see Abraham again tell Sarah to say she was his sister in stead of his wife, and another king (this time Avimelech) tries to take her as his wife.

But God appears to Avimelech in a dream and saves him from making a grave mistake.

But, feelings are already hurt and the relationship between Abraham and Avimelech is now ruined.

In chapter 21 Sarah does in fact become pregnant and gives birth to a son, just like HaShem had promised, and they name him Isaac (laughter).

This is followed by Sarah getting her own hurt feelings over Ishmael and Hagar and them being banished.

Then in chapter 22 we read the Akeidah, the binding of Isaac and the substitutionary sacrifice in place of Isaac.

Now, there is a very specific aspect of Parasha Vayera I want to focus on today and one of which I feel teaches us a lesson that we must get our heads wrapped around in order to experience the fullness of what God’s got in store for our lives.

And from this we learn the following principle:

Unless we are willing to fully run from the ways of the world we will never live fully in the Kingdom of Messiah.

(Repeat)

So let’s dive into the text together.

Lot was not necessarily a righteous man, but he was saved from the wickedness he was more than comfortable living in because of the righteousness of one man… His Uncle Abe.

The messengers from HaShem come to Lot and tell him what’s about to happen.

They witness first hand the horrid wickedness of the city of Sodom as the people of the city attempt to take advantage of them.

But, they also witness how Lot was perfectly ok with the status quo of the worldliness of Sodom.

So much so that he was willing to sacrifice his own daughters… And even though Lot was well aware of how bad the lusts of Sodom were he had no shame about making the town his own home.

But, because of the righteousness of Abraham, Lot and his family were allowed to be saved.

The angels tell give lot a few very select and very key rules of which they absolutely should follow…

Rule no.