[Sorry, no audio today. Video is on our Facebook and YouTube pages. This is not the sermon I preached. It is the one I prepared which overlaps but is not the same.]]
Sermon – Trying to Live and Die in Faith
Genesis 21:1-7; 22:1-8; Hebrews 11:17-19
Farmville Presbyterian Church
February 20, 2022
- The almost very short life of Isaac
How many of you remember serials? You can tell how far removed this question even is from modern sensibilities. You probably jumped immediately to Frosted Flakes and Fruit Loops. To be honest, I’m a Honey Nut Cheerios kind of guy, but I am not trying to plug anything but the fact that the word cereals is a homonym for the word I meant. Those serials with an “s” are stories that are built on the last one – chapters in a story, so-to-speak, that often leave the audience with cliff-hanger moments meant to get you to come back next time to find out what happened. I imagine soap operas still operate this way with some kind of dramatic and unsettling ending each week to hook the audience to come back in the next episode, and many story driven shows do this to some extent but not like the old serials.
Yes, I imagine many of you were fans of serials back in the day. The closest thing I ever watched to a serial was probably the old Batman television series in which at the end of every episode, Batman and Robin were in some impossible trap or situation that was sure to end their crimefighting days. It really looked like the villains were finally going to win this time. The announcer would then invite you to some back to see how they might possibly survive – if it was even possible. You remember when and where we were supposed to find out: the same Bat-time and the same Bat-channel. The following week would pick up exactly where it left off.
Believe it or not, the story of Abraham works in a similar way. At the beginning, this amazing unknown God calls Abraham and sends him and Sarah to an impossibly faraway country to start an impossible family that would be impossibly large, so much so that it would bless all the families of the earth one day. God laid out the prospect for a family for them, just the hopeful outline of one or maybe like a whisper in a wished-for promise. As a candle in the deepest darkness, the slightest breeze might make their dreams disappear. Turn after turn, Abraham and Sarah wander in the face of trouble. He almost loses Sarah as a wife, they get older and older and older, wars pop up, there is another child who might take the place. Each chapter in their section of Genesis is one threat after another to this idea of promised family, one serial episode after another with a cliffhanger at the end that only God can work out.
That all seemed to change in chapter 21 with the long-awaited birth of Isaac. Finally, God gave them a child, their own flesh and blood child. Just when all seems to finally be OK, though, another cliffhanger. Another serial. When Isaac seems to be a full-fledged boy, God shows up one morning and gives Abraham the shock of his life. We don’t know if he told Sarah or not. I suspect he did not because of the heartache it would have caused. We can imagine she might well have prevented Abraham with her tears.
This story has plagued us ever since as we try to make sense of the Bible and God. There is no other passage in Genesis, maybe in the whole Old Testament, that gives us this picture. God is adamantly opposed to child sacrifice. This also seems like such a cruel thing to do to Abraham AND to Isaac. This kind of testing makes God seem manipulative, maybe petty, but there is something very important going on here that we need to see, especially today. To help me tell this story, I am going to need the help of four volunteers who each have different views of God and will see this story in their own way.
The first volunteer is Kerry. He sees what is going on here in Chapter 22 of Genesis. There is a test and there is a promise that God will provide. These two things are key, and all of my volunteers understand the sacrifice of Isaac has both of these two things. God tests Abraham but also promises to provide for him despite the test. Test and provision.
But Kerry has a hard time seeing how God is really doing both of these in Genesis. They do not seem to both fit as easily in his understanding of God. He has always known a God who does test us and proves us to be faithful. He has always believed that we are responsible for our relationship with God. It is not God’s job to take our test for us. We are all our own responsible creatures, and God gave us free-wills for a reason. It is up to us to follow God and to prove that we can pass the test. After all, Jesus is with us now and will help us meet the test. The Holy Spirit is supposed to be at work in us bringing us through times of testing and trials of faith. Yes, God tests us to see what kind of people we are and gives us love and approval in relation to how well we reflect God’s heart.
Both Luke and Matthew have Jesus tell us that his winnowing fork is in hand to see which of us is the good grain, and so many other New Testament books promise our testing to see how we stand up to God’s expectations.
My second volunteer is Lynn. She is the opposite of Kerry and never really cared much for his legalistic view of God. She just does not buy that God is in the testing business, not so much anymore, anyway, BUT she does dearly cling to the notion that God is the good and loving provider. She has carefully noted God’s provision for God’s people throughout the Bible, even and especially in the person of the Christ. God takes care of us and gives for us and guards us in a world that wants to steal all we have. God’s goodness is even greater, however, and God gives us what we need. God is too kind and forgiving and loving to be worried about testing us, anyway. That just seems harsh on people who live in a harsh enough world, as it is.
God the provider will always give us what we need, even if it is not what we want. God knows what is best and what it is that we really need to be the people God is calling us to be. God is good all the time; all the time God is good.
Roger is a different bird. He has been a bit jaded and sees himself as the most realistic of the lot. It is simplistic to believe God tests us, as if we are in a class or have to prove that we are really people, even God’s people. We are all made in the image of God, after all. Nothing will change that. People are pretty tough necked anyway. Why should God bother?
AND also, God may give the basics like life and some abilities. Those are pretty big but most of what Roger has gotten in life was because of his own sweat and effort. He has worked pretty hard to not need anyone, even God. He has been successful because he does not wait around for others, even God, to give him anything. And there have not been many lovely wrapped presents raining down from heaven in his experience. God honestly does not care that much about playing games with us, and God has given us the ability to achieve and earn and create so that we can take care of ourselves.
Kerry, Lynn, and Roger all represent different perspectives that actually and really exist out there in the world, maybe even right here. Lynn may be particularly appealing because this is the Santa Claus god who just gives us whenever we want or have need. Who would not want that? Roger is also a very real possibility because people, especially Americans, especially especially Southside VA Americans like to be self-reliant and don’t need a God who meddles in our lives or stirs up trouble. Basically, God, just set us up and stays out of the way. We can take care of ourselves. Roger would also be the least likely to feel he owes God a whole lot. Kerry, who wants God to test us to prove our faithfulness, our purity, our worthiness, is a dangerous one. He will never really measure up, or if he feels he DOES, he will be delusional.
All of these options have real-world applications right here, but is there another way?
Sure, that’s Susan. Susan is walking in the example of Abraham here. She recognizes that there is a long biblical precedence in both the OT and NT that somehow God tests us to make us more into the people God wants from us. Life is a such a constant challenge, but whose challenges are we working to meet? Hopefully, God’s first. While we may not like the picture here in Genesis 22, God was finishing Abraham in his road to faith. This passage is the culmination of Abraham’s walk with God. Once he does this, he has essentially finished the journey. This is his moment to see his faith on the line. God knows Abraham’s heart. He wants Abraham to know what his heart is like, too. This is a really interesting point. It is almost as if the point of the testing is more to show us who we are and less for God to see who we are. Our trust in God is on display. We can see how well we live into the love of God. Also, if we are willing to be tested, which is NOT an easy place to be, then we are more open to seeing God at work in our lives and the world around us.
The provision part is easier. Susan does see everything good and not so good in her life as a gift from God, a blessing for which to be thankful, a grace to share with others. God provides and provides and provides, even things as small as each breath. Susan knows God knows what we need before it is even on our lips, but when we see God as our loving and faithful provider in everything, then we will be the most grateful that we can be. This even applies to the struggles and challenges through which she gives herself to grow and trust and learn and love through whatever comes her way. Her objective is to be thankful in ALL circumstances. Abraham most certainly did not want to travel to that mountain expecting to sacrifice his son, but he wanted to prove himself faithful to God after all that they had been through, and he wanted to find God still faithful. That is what this passage is all about.
God is still working in our lives today in some surprising ways. From our very first breath to our very last, God wants to hold us in the embrace of faith. One reason why we like to baptize babies is so they begin in the family of faith before they even know what it is. Through life in faith, God pushes our trust, our faith, our confidence that God is truly with us. If you have ever struggled or doubted, and I would be surprised if there is anyone who has NOT, then you know you came through that time of testing, that trial of faith, with God’s help. This should have grown you as a person. Always, we will see who we really are and how God has taken care of us.
Your homework is to figure out which one of my volunteers you feel most comfortable. I hope we all believe God is working in our lives, even right this very second. God’s Spirit is stirring in our hearing and thinking. The Spirit is warming us to open ourselves to embracing God in a deeper way. We offer ourselves and all that we are and all that we have, just like Abraham, just like Isaac. God will take care of us no matter what happens. God will provide. To God be the glory. Amen.