"What God Provides" - Sermon for Pentecost 4 Proper 8 Lectionary 13 7-2-2017
Sermon
Text:
Grace
and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who provides
for us.
This is one of the more difficult
texts of the Old Testament I feel. It often is raised up as a wonderful text,
look at the faith and obedience of Abraham! But, looking at what he’s asked to
do seems barbaric to me. Human Sacrifice, and potentially child sacrifice, it’s
unclear how old Isaac is in this text. I get heebie-jeebies when reading it, it
makes you a little uncomfortable, I don’t like a God who would ask for human
sacrifice, and I don’t know if I like an individual who would go through with
it with no argument, Abraham says nothing in this text besides words of
obedience.
Let’s jump into the text then before
we get too far. If you think of how this story starts what do you remember? I
tend to think, God calls to Abraham, Go take your son Isaac, and sacrifice him
on the mountain I will show you. Which is part of the beginning, but not the
whole beginning.
Our text starts with, God tested Abraham. That’s very
important, it sets up what’s all going on in the rest of the story. A test is
not a command, it’s not something that has an expected outcome, it’s a test to
see what the person will do. And since it’s a test, all of the elements are
placed as part of the test. So, we then ask, why is God testing Abraham? What’s
the purpose here?
I am reminded of one of my favorite
movies growing up, Aladdin. In it there is a repeated line from Aladdin to
Princess Jasmine, Do you trust me? He asks her this before doing some crazy
stuff, jumping off a building into a pile of hay, off a balcony onto the flying
carpet, in those moments it seems like she is risking her life, but each time
she takes his hand and goes with. This text is God asking Abraham, Do you trust
me?
As you look through Abraham’s story
with God, routinely he has not trusted God. In one story that we did not read
God has sent Abraham to Egypt for safety, but Abraham is afraid that the
Egyptians will attempt to steal Sarah from him and kill him, so he lies and has
Sarah say that she’s his sister. He did not trust that God will protect them on
the journey. When Abraham is promised that he will be the ancestor of many
nations he doesn’t really trust that God will provide. So, he talks to Sarah
and she suggests having a child with Hagar, like we talked about last week. The
fallout of lying about Sarah being his sister, and the whole drama and issues
with Hagar are all because Abraham doesn’t trust that God will provide.
So, when we get to this test, I know
that God knows this history with Abraham, and I assume that Abraham remembers
all this as well. And so, this time when God asks Abraham to do something, he,
in his mind, trusts. God wants me to do this, so this time I’m going to go do
it, I’m not going to question, I’m not going to argue, I’m not even going to
say anything in response, I’m just going to go do it with a single-mindedness.
So, Abraham sets out with Isaac and
some servants. They reach the mountain, Abraham takes Isaac with him to the
top, they set up the wood and set up the altar. Isaac finally asks something,
Hey Dad, we’ve got the fire and wood for the sacrifice, but where’s the lamb
for it. Abraham answers, God will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my
son.
Abraham binds him and places him on
the altar and reaches out to kill him with his knife.
Abraham, Abraham! Stop! Don’t lay
your hand on the boy! I know that you listen to my commands, you won’t withhold
your son from me, your only son. Abraham looks up and sees a ram in the
thicket, and he sacrifices that.
Did Abraham pass the test? I think
many times our answer is a resounding yes, yes he did, look at that faith. I do
think he did, but I don’t think he got the perfect score that’s often
attributed to him. I think he got an A in obedience, but I think he failed the
perception test.
Because I think there are two tests
going on here. The first is will Abraham give up his son. He passes that, just
by starting the journey. In the middle east of Abraham’s time, fathers owned
their children, not just until they grew up and moved away, but until the
father died. The father could tell their kids to do anything and they would
have to. No matter how much of an adult them may be. In this first test God
tells Abraham, you don’t own your children. They are mine, not yours. They are
themselves before they are yours. This is a test we face ourselves often, do we
let our children be themselves? Or do we live for them or through them? And
also, do we allow ourselves to be controlled by our parents. The reverse holds
true in this test, if parents don’t own their children, children are also not
controlled by their parents. It’s not your parents who own you, it is God who
claims you. Now, this is all directed mainly to adult children and parents,
sorry kids, your parents giving you rules and parenting is not controlling you,
even if it may feel that way to teenagers.
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