A family Feud: Gen. 22:1-14
June 29, 2008
A. The text for today’s message is not the sort of text Joel O’Steen would select—indeed most ministers I think want to avoid it; I know that I have struggled with this story throughout my ministry.
1. The story is about Abraham’s “dark night of the soul.” He believed that the God who had spoken to him promising him a son in his old age was now asking him to sacrifice that son. What a horrible, unthinkable act! Surely God would not ask that of him!
2. There were some in those days who did practice human sacrifice, but certainly Abraham was not one of them! In fact, some have conjectured that that may have been why he left Ur in the first place.
3. This story plays against our logic, our emotions, and our sense of what is right and wrong. In fact, Soren Kierkegaard asked if this story was a “teleological suspension of the ethical.”
4. Does God sometimes call people to do things they know are wrong and that they choose not to do?
5. That certainly seems to be the case here doesn’t it? And one has only to recall Deitrich Bonhoeffer.
B. Both Jewish and Islamic scholars have given interpretations of this story; they, too, seem to struggle with it.
1. Some have read it as a repudiation of the concept of human sacrifice.
2. Others have seen it as a paradigm for Jewish martyrs who willingly would die for the Divine name.
3. The Moslems, on the other hand, hold that it was Ishmael who was bound and that because of Abraham’s absolute willing– ness to follow God, a second son was born—Isaac.
4. Christian theologians have wrestled with this difficult story as well—Some have seen this story as a foreshadowing of the substitutionary atonement.
5. They say it foreshadows God willingly offering God’s son as a sacrifice for human sin.
6. I have some difficulty with that idea, because would seem to present a God who permits the death of a child to save others. The ultimate child abuser.
C. This story challenges our idea of God; it reminds me of the statement in C. S. Lewis Narnian Chronicles, when the children see Aslan, the great golden lion, they are told, “He is not a tame lion, but he is good.”
1. The God revealed in this story is definitely not “tame.”
2. There are people today whose idea of God is quite “tame.” They see God as their personal genie who will make sure they prosper and their needs are met.
3. But the picture we get of God from the Scriptures differs, because God is exalted, holy, and righteous, and God is working in the creation to bring humanity to its highest potential.
4. The highest potential of humanity may not be living at ease in a situation where every need is immediately met!
5. It may be that God expects more from us than that!
D. And in the Christian scriptures, Jesus challenges his followers to go out proclaiming the rule of God, and being prepared for hardships.
1. As we suggested last week, Jesus’ demanded that his followers be ultimately committed to him—more than their own wealth, prosperity, and happiness.
2. If Jesus is our model, then the gospel of prosperity, easy Christianity, and cheap grace, is not what we should expect!
3. Jesus prepares his disciples for rejection and for acceptance, and he assures that whoever accepts them and their message, accepts him, and whoever accepts him accepts God.
4. This acceptance is a matter of submitting ourselves to God’s service; not a matter of enlisting God to serve our agenda.
Just as Abraham, and the Disciples of Jesus had to face an Ultimate Test of their Loyalty and Love of God, So may we today!
I. The Test of Abraham’s Faith was Whether He Feared and Loved God more than anything or anyone!
II. The story of Abraham’s Test is Painful, Horrific, and Unthinkable for a loving parent!
A. Surely Abraham had to question “why” would the God who had promised him a child in his old age, would ask him to do such a thing!
1. It made no sense! It was repulsive and opposed to everything that Abraham was about!
2. He loved his son, he doted upon him; his life centered in him.
3. Not doubt Abraham was tempted to rational about this matter, and he might have concluded that the voice telling him to do this was not the voice of God!
4. He certainly must have considered refusing to do so on moral grounds; insisting on being righteous according to his own standard.
B. What went through Abraham’s mind as he traveled for three days to the mountain that God showed him?
1. Did he question his own sanity? Did he feel anger that God would ask this of him? Did he hope that even if he did sacrifice his son, God could raise him up? What went through his mind?
2. And what went through Isaac’s mind? Traditions vary about how old he was some say he was in his early teens, another tradition holds that he was 37.
3. If that was the case he would certainly have had to be a willing participant in the act, and indeed that is what one Jewish tradition holds.
4. What do you suppose the two young men accompanying the pair thought about this journey; they must have wondered about it, too!
C. But such is the faith of Abraham that he does exactly as God directs, until he raises his hand to his son, and the angel of God stops him.
1. He assures Isaac that “God himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering” Did Isaac accept that explanation?
2. At the crucial time, the angel stops Abraham from hurting Isaac and he sees a ram caught in a thicket—the Lord did indeed provide!
3. So he names the place — “on the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided.”
D. God blesses Abraham for his obedience and his passing this ultimate test.
1. He receives the promise of many, many descendants, and that his descendants will possess the gates of their enemies. And through his descendants all nations will be blessed.
2. And even though the story ends happily, we come away from it troubled, because it reminds us of how little we really know about God, and how far we are from thinking God’s thoughts after God.
3. The God presented here is dangerous, and God’s will is mysterious1
4. To see this Deity is to experience fear, and that is how God’s judgment of Abraham is expressed, “Now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your only son from me.”
5. Yet it is Abraham’s obedient response that marks him as the father of the faithful.
II. Jesus’ Commissioning of his Disciples for Ministry Puts them to the Test; and their Ministry Puts the Hearers to the Test!
A. In this passage, the entire 10th Chapter of Matthew, Jesus is commissioning his twelve apostles to go out among the people of Israel to proclaim that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
1. They are given authority to heal the sick, cure lepers, cast out demons, and even revive the dead.
2. They are told to take nothing with them, no money, no provisions, and to stay at whatever house welcomes them. And they are told that if any one does not receive, they should shake off their feet, the dust of that town, and go elsewhere.
3. Jesus warns them of the opposition, the dangers they will face, and the rejection and persecutions they will endure.
4. And he even tells them that they will be opposed by their own family members; the test is, will they value God even over family?
5. This seems like a very extreme demand that Jesus is making of his followers.
B. At the conclusion of this commissioning he reminded his followers that whoever receives them, is also receiving him and the One who sent him.
1. And whoever rejects them is actually rejecting him and the One who sent him.
2. They are reminded that their mission is not about them; it is about the rule of God; just as Abraham’s test was about the rule of God.
3. The passage ends on a softer note as Jesus tells them that anyone who gives a cup of cold to one of these little ones because he is a disciple shall not lose his reward.
C. But there is a test to be passed, and that test is absolute commitment to God’s rule, to God’s kingdom.
1. This commission by Jesus is not optional for his followers and it is not negotiable—it is a categorical imperative.
2. This commissioning was for brief time period and in a specific area, but do the principles of the cost of discipleship and the rewards may extend beyond that one event?
3. When God’s call comes to people to undertake specific tasks it does not come with a guarantee of ease, of luxury, of prosperity, or even of success.
4. But it does come with the assurance that will be with us in the endeavor, and God will reward our efforts, whatever the result!
III. What Do These Stories have to Teach This Congregation?
A. Sometimes God calls upon people to do incredible things!
1. When a psychiatrist friend of mine was told about the task I was undertaking here in Portland, he asked, “Has he lost his mind?”
2. Having been here a year, I am being to wonder about that.
3. The God we worship is holy, exalted, God is the Other! And God is no tame lion!
4. Sometimes the call of God is baffling to us and seems to call us beyond our understanding and our abilities.
B. This congregation voted a couple of years ago to recommit themselves to the ministry of this downtown area, and to reinvent this congregation’s ministry in a way that moved it into radical and extensive change!
1. You entered into an agreement to tear down the old buildings and make way for the new!
2. That was a visionary act and real commitment of faith.
3. And just this spring when asked to pledge the funds to finance your portion of this transition, you responded overwhelmingly pledging 36% more than was requested! A remarkable display of solid commitment.
4. But there is another test that you must pass and that is to give of your time, your energies, and your judgment in helping this congregation through the transitional period.
5. Like individuals, congregations develop habits over time, and some of these are good and helpful, and some are not. In order to function effectively as a congregation, we must be willing to look at our own behaviors as a congregation; to see where we need to improve, and to commit ourselves again to that hopeful vision of the future.
Conclusion:
Forty years ago, Robert F. Kennedy, in speaking to a divided and conflicted nation, called for unity, and reconciliation. He said, “some people see things as they are and ask why? I see things that never were and say why not?” This congregation has seen things that never were and said “why not?” I feel a great pride in being part of a congregation that has such a dream as you share! And you now see those dreams starting to be realized. It is imperative that now you look carefully at how you are helping those dreams to become reality.
For in following God’s call to realize those dreams, you will face, and I am convinced you will pass the Ultimate Test. Amen.
