As preachers, we are told to always preach the good news in scripture, but sometimes its hard to find. Our first lesson is one that is hard to listen to, and to talk about, but it is a lesson about faith, faithfulness, and trusting in God’s promises. Some say this is a pre-figuring of God’s giving of Jesus to death on the cross. Some say it is about Abraham’s obedience. Some say its about letting go.
If you will remember, Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born and Sarah was about ninety years old. This was the promised child. In chapter 15, God promised Abraham that his own flesh and blood would be the heir of his estate. And God told Abraham that through Isaac, he would be the father of more descendants than the stars in the sky. And if you go back and read chapter 17, it says that Sarah will be the mother of nations.
Abraham had another son – Ishmael, born of Hagar, an Egyptian maidservant. We talked about Hagar and Ishmael last week. God promised that Ishmael would also be the father of nations, but that the covenant with God would be made and continued through Isaac. So the promise that Abraham had received was that Isaac would be the source of unnumbered descendants and of the covenant with God.
So Abraham hears God tell him to take Isaac, the son he loves, the one who is to be the father of numerous descendants and the continuation of the covenant, and to sacrifice him on the mountain. And Abraham, full of grief and yet fully confident that somehow God will do exactly what he said he would do – he takes his son and starts out. Isaac asks him, “Father, here is the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb?” And Abraham says, “God himself will provide the lamb for the offering…”
Have you ever been in a situation that seemed like a train racing along at breakneck speed headed for disaster? One you felt helpless to derail or put off on a siding? Where you feared the expected outcome, but yet still hoped in the Lord for some kind of reprieve? That was Abraham – step by step moving toward the moment he dreaded – trusting that somehow, someway, God would redeem the situation.
This may be to remind us that life choices are hard. Sometimes in our life, we come across those places where we have to make choices and there doesn’t seems to be any good option. Some of those times that come to mind have to do with end of life issues - the decision to take a family member off of life support, or issue a “do not resuscitate” order. These are times where often the answer is not good, anyway you go.
When difficult times come in this life, sometimes it’s enough to just be able to sit down and cry in the midst of extreme drama, at how unfair life seems to be at times. Sometimes God redeems those situations and sometimes He doesn’t. Sometimes His way of redeeming a difficult situation is to simply take us home. For God, death is not a tragic end - it is a crossing over where He brings us to new life; where he rids us of every illness, strife or unpleasantness that plagues us in this life.
At least one theologian has said that this is about letting go of that which we have placed above God. When our grandson was born, it was almost two months early. At a weight of 3 pounds, he spent at least 6 weeks on life support in NICU. I remember Andy calling me one night pretty much in tears because the doctors wanted to try some special treatment that he wasn’t sure about. And I remember Andy telling me, “Mom, I didn’t know it was possible to love this much.” We do love our children - this is often the place where we begin to get a glimmer of just how much God loves us - to give us something that precious, that dear. But it is possible to get an unhealthy attachment/love for someone or something, and at that point we are asked to let go.
Now I don’t like to think Abraham’s love for Isaac was necessarily unhealthy - or that God was just ‘testing’ Abraham, but there does come these times in life that we don’t want to face and this was that situation for Abraham. Abraham, who loves his son and is filled with dread for what he is doing, heads up on that mountain with Isaac, hoping against hope that God would redeem this situation.
And God did – He provided the lamb for the sacrifice. And in doing so he clearly demonstrated that human sacrifice as a burnt offering was not an acceptable sacrifice to our God, Yahweh.
Because of Abraham’s faith (that God will provide) and his faithfulness (following through even though he couldn’t bear the obvious outcome) and his trust in the promises that God had made to him – for those reasons, God deemed mankind worthy as a whole - because of Abraham’s obedience. And so we know that when we follow in obedience to God, he will provide the sacrifice for us.
And that sacrifice as we know was Jesus Christ, God’s own son. Jesus was the sacrifice that was given for us. Our Psalm today says, “I put my trust in your mercy; my heart is joyful because of your saving help.” That was Abraham’s victory on the mountain, he trusted in God’s mercy and rejoiced in God saving help.
In her book, Challenging Prophetic Literature, Julia O'Brien writes: this questioning faith, this mourning about the tragedy that all too often permeates life occurs in a space framed by the underlying belief in the goodness of God who does not want suffering for God's children; a God who will provide. Genesis 22 after all is a story of life coming into a situation of death; a story of redemption; a story of faith in the midst of extreme trauma. It is true that it sometimes is difficult to see God's provision and goodness in desperate situations when tragedy strikes. Nevertheless, the text calls upon us to look up and see God's goodness breaking into situations of despair. The true act of faith on the part of Abraham thus is not the blind faith that often has been the dominant message emerging from this text, but rather the ability to recognize God's provision in the ordinary, especially in those circumstances when everything appears to be futile.
Just as a follow up, yesterday as Sam and I were leaving a family party, Jareth called out across the pool, “Bye, Mimi,” in this low voice that really took me by surprise. That little baby is now beginning to show signs of the young man he will become. So glad God works in miraculous ways.
Our Collect today asks that we be made a holy temple, acceptable to God. It is through obedience and faith in God’s providence that we are becoming that holy temple fully acceptable to Him.
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