[CatherineTorpey]

In honor of the Trans Day of Remembrance, we have a special guest preacher, ALOK. You may read about them here: https://www.alokvmenon.com/about
The scripture reading is Luke 17:20-21. In Luke chapter 17, Jesus is still on his way from his home in Galilee (which he left in chapter 9) to his fate in Jerusalem (which he enters in chapter 19). This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26z_KhwNdD8 gives an overview of the second half of the book of Luke.

The two verses that ALOK will use are appealing verses, set in a larger framework which might be quite ripe for conversation.
Something quite interesting to me about this chapter is that Jesus makes reference to the times of Noah and the times of Lot. These are two stories in the book of Genesis from the “Old Testament” (Hebrew scriptures). The book of Genesis is filled with stories of the beginnings (genesis) of humanity. In a non-literalist approach to scripture, one would say that it is a collection of mythic stories of our collective pre-history. The story of Noah is found in Genesis, chapters 5-9. In that story, God is quite unhappy with humanity. Note that this would have been long before the stories of Abraham; so this is thought of as a story about early humanity, long before there was a particular people covenanted with God. God finds Noah to be the only righteous one alive, has him build an ark and to assemble his family and only enough beings to repopulate the earth, and God wipes everyone else out. Afterward, God regrets having done this and puts the rainbow in the sky as a promise that a flood will never destroy all the earth again.

The story of Lot is similar but on a much smaller scale. Lot was the nephew of Abraham, and so this story has to do more particularly with the Hebrew people. Lot was also a righteous man among unrighteous people, and God wiped out everyone in the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah, allowing Lot to bring his family with him. However, Lot’s wife looked back toward Sodom and Gomorrah and was therefore turned into a pillar of salt.
So, both are tales of God’s wrathful destruction of people. Jesus seems to be saying that this kind of destruction is on its way again, and that it will come when no one expects it.

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts about our scripture!

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