The Sunday of Abram (NTA)

2 Peter 2:4-16

⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷ and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked ⁸ (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); ⁹ then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, ¹⁰ and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, ¹¹ whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. ¹² But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, ¹³ suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. ¹⁴ They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! ¹⁵ Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, ¹⁶ but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

Lot dwelt with the people of Sodom.  He dwelt in the midst of unrighteous people.  But Lot remained faithful to God.  It was not Abraham who had to remind Lot that he should be righteous and help others in Sodom to become righteous as well.  But the two Angels went to Sodom where Lot was dwelling in the midst of evil people.  Lot did the righteous thing, willingly sacrificing himself and his daughters on behalf of the Angels of the Lord.

St Peter reminds us that even children living in the land of the wicked may be able to remain righteous.  Noah   was just one in the midst of many who were wicked day after day.  Abram dwelt in the land of sinful people. You live in the land of sinful people.  But are you any better than the people at whom you look down your nose?

All of us are equally guilty.  We have all done what is evil in the eyes of the Lord.  We stand in the midst of wicked people and we even fall into their snares.  We like to act like one of the girls/guys.  We do not want to be treated as an outsider, so we do not keep ourselves from wickedness.

But nonetheless God knows how to keep people righteous even in the midst of wicked people.  God knows how to make you righteous in the midst of evil.  God knows all your ways, yet he still loves you.  He still offers you the righteousness of Christ.  Through the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you are made righteous.  God truly works in mysterious ways, and has the power to save.