A TEST, A SIGN & A PROMISE

A sermon by George R. Pasley

Genesis 22:1-14; Matthew 12:38-42

Would God ask any of us to sacrifice our child?

No, we would answer with certainty, emphatically, quoting scripture and shouting if we needed: NO, GOD IS A GOD OF LOVE WHO DESIRES MERCY, NOT SACRIFICE.

But Abraham was a man who walked with God his whole life through good times and bad times and in between times, yet he did not know what we know. The whole history of Israel’s relationship with God was ahead of Abraham. The Ten Commandments had not been written. Abraham knew nothing about a Messiah or Jesus or even the commandment to Love his neighbor as himself.

What Abraham knew was that God was like a wild animal who refused to be leashed and harnessed. God was wondrous and mysterious and steadfast, but not tame. So even though we will insist on certain things about God, primarily God’s compassionate nature, we must remember that our God will not be leashed or harnessed. Our God is a wild moose, strange and beautiful but definitely not under our control.

So Abraham put his knife in his pocket and called his son and set off to make sacrifice of the one thing in all the world that was most precious to him.

Now, tradition says that God was testing Abraham, to take measure of the strength of Abraham’s faith. But was it really a test, or did God know already?

I say God knew. Scripture says that God sees our hearts; God knows our inmost being; God knows things about us that we do not even know ourselves.

So what in God’s name was God doing?

At the very least, I think God was making another demonstration for our benefit.

If you read through the first five books of the Bible you will see a lot of references to sacrifices and burnt offerings. That’s what people did in those times when they wanted to worship God- our God or any god.

So in those first five books there are a lot of instructions for when to make a sacrifice and how to make a sacrifice.

For the Jewish people sacrifices ended when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. No Temple, no sacrifice. That was the rule.

But Christians have always said that Jesus was God’s sacrifice, on our behalf. We have said that Jesus was a sufficient sacrifice, so that no sacrifices needs to be made ever again- at least, not the bloody gory types that are supposed to appease God for our sins.

But I think we have it wrong, at least in part. I think all those Old Testament verses about when to sacrifice and how to sacrifice are not some sort of spiritual law that has to be met in order for us to be forgiven.

Instead, I think what they are a description of how God intended to save humanity from sin and death. They were like clues, given ahead of time, so that when we finally saw the real thing we would say, “Oh, I get it.”

So what we see when we read about sacrifices in the Old Testament is a description of life lost, and reconciliation happening. Those are the clues.

But Jesus was the real thing, and when he came he loved unconditionally, trusted God completely, and lived generously. That sort of life bothered people, and it still does. It makes some jealous, and it makes some irritated, and it makes others angry. For Jesus, it made some angry enough that they conspired to kill him. But when he died, the giving of his life was total trust in God and total love for us, and his death- combined with his teachings and his resurrection- they bring peace between God and us.

So what happened with Abraham and Isaac? It was a little demonstration. It was God saying, this is how I will do my great act of love, only it will not be you that makes a sacrifice, it will be me.

So when Abraham said to Isaac, “God will provide a lamb,” he was speaking a truth he could not have completely understood. But we do. God provided a lamb and Isaac was spared, that much they both understood when they walked down from the mountain. But God has provided another lamb, and that lamb is Jesus. That act of love, of complete trust and sacrificial generosity- that lamb is making us friends with God and with each other.

But all that is the very least of what God was doing with Abraham. Because as I have gone through the events of this week, I realized something else was happening on that mountain so long ago.

This year I have seen that though God does not ask us to sacrifice our children, sometimes we lose them anyway. Rick and Joy lost a son. Floyd and Donna lost a daughter. Many of you have suffered the same horrible experience, and others will testify that though your children live they can be lost in other ways.

But Abraham’s testimony is good for all, for any who have suffered the death of someone they loved deeply. God will provide a lamb, so trust in God even when your lamb has died. Trust in God, because God is busy loving unconditionally, living generously, and working out all that is broken and tragic and horribly wrong in life. Trust in God, and wait for the day when we walk reunited down the mountain in peace with God and each other.

Would God ask any of us to sacrifice our child? No, but God does invites us to trust, when our child is lost.

But not only our child. Sometimes life denies us things that we dearly want. Sometimes it is God doing the denying and sometimes it is merely the facts of life that are doing the denying. Sometimes the things we are denied are worthy and noble, and sometimes they are simply vain. But in every single case God is inviting us to trust, and Abraham whispers to us: God will provide a lamb.

Because Abraham actually knew two things. Abraham knew that God is like a wild animal who refuses to be leashed or harnessed. We cannot control God, and Abraham knew it.

My grandfather once sent two of my uncles to retrieve some horses that were in another town, being trained. They mounted the horses, thinking they would have a nice long ride home. Well, they had a ride home and it was long but it was also a wild adventure.

Life with God is like that, and Abraham knew it.

But Abraham knew something else: God can be trusted to keep a promise.

So here’s what God promises us in Jesus, the one Christians call the “Lamb of God.”

God promises that we are deeply loved.

God promises to forgive our sins.

God promises to raise the dead back to life.

God promises to make peace between nations.

And God promises to wipe away every tear.

For every one of those promises we can find evidence that the promise has been sacrificed on an altar. But Abraham insists: God will provide a lamb.

So God invites us to trust in God. Hang on for the ride, because a sign has been given to us: Jesus died and rose again, proving what Abraham knew- God can be trusted to keep a promise.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.