God’s Faithfulness
Sermon preached at
St. Mark’s,
by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, June 29, 2008
Proper 8, year A: Genesis 22:1-14
Genesis 22:1-14 (NRSV) After these
things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the
So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey,
and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for
the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God
had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away.
Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I
will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.”
Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and
he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them
walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he
said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where
is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the
lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked
on together. When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham
built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and
laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand
and took the knife to kill his son.
But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and
said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your
hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since
you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up
and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram
and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called
that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of
the Lord it shall be provided.”
Today’s lectionary funnels the preacher into preaching on the Old Testament reading. The Gospel reading is barely three verses. The reading from Romans is a wonderful passage, but thick with theology and short on imagery. But the Old Testament reading from Genesis is vivid and begs comment from the preacher.
Of course, this is a tough passage to hear. God calls Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. We hear with great drama the preparation for the sacrifice, and Isaac himself begging the question—what’s going on here?
First of all, this is a very, very old story. The setting
for this event is roughly 4000 years ago. Back then, in the
But centuries later, the Hebrew people continued to preserve this story, when they were clear that human sacrifice was abominable. Why would they keep this story, what did it mean to them, and what did they hope to teach later generations? There is more to this story. We are shocked for Isaac’s sake, but Isaac plays a relatively silent role in this scene, and indeed in the rest of the Bible, Isaac doesn’t do very much, compared to his father and his sons.
To be clear, this is NOT an explanation of losing a child. Losing a child is not a sacrifice to God—losing a child is a tragedy for which God weeps. Neither is this a defense of child abuse. Indeed, Abraham plods through each step in this story. You can almost hear Abraham saying—OK, God, anytime now, you can step in and stop this…”
To better understand this story, one should listen to the whole story of Abraham. In the context of this long story, we see one common theme continue throughout. Often, the writer doesn’t spend too much time on sideline issues. The main focus of the story is of God’s promise to Abraham, and Abraham’s desire to see that promise become a reality. God has promised Abraham that his descendants would become a great nation. But until Isaac came along in their old age, Abraham and Sarah were childless. This story of Abraham and Isaac is the pinnacle of this saga of the promise.
This is a key part in the story of Abraham’s faith and God’s faithfulness. Would Abraham be willing to give up his long awaited promise in order to follow God?
Hearing Abraham face giving up his hopes and dreams begs the question for each of us—would we be willing to give up our hopes and dreams to follow God? What if we were asked to give up a dream job to follow God? What if you were asked to give up that overseas trip that you’ve been planning in order to answer God’s call to you? What if God asked you to give up that vacation home for which you had been saving in order to help someone in need?
How attached are we to our legacy, as Abraham was to his? We speak in our Capital campaign theme about building our legacy—what if, like Abraham, we were asked to be willing to give up that legacy? What if after all the fund raising and building, God asked us to close as a parish, so that we could share our gifts with another congregation who needed them, and thus strengthen the body of Christ? What if God wants his legacy rather than ours? Could we follow God there? Would we follow God there, trusting, as Abraham and Isaac did, that God will provide?
Michael Knight, the priest-in-charge of Transfiguration Episcopal Church went through just this kind of experience. His parish had been a church plant. But after over twenty years, they realized that they were not called to maintain their own budget and build a building. Rather, they were called to take their lessons of leadership and their vitality and faithfulness into other nearby congregations who needed them. So their legacy became a blessing to the diocese.
I don’t anticipate this scenario for St. Mark’s. Indeed, sometimes staying and facing the challenges of being a thriving congregation are more daunting than giving it up! But I wonder if we can hear the story of God’s faithfulness to his church, and the blessings given to God’s people when we are willing to trust in God’s call. That is God’s invitation to us in this reading today.
This is a story of Abraham’s faithfulness to God, and we hear the invitation to follow in Abraham’s footsteps in our own faithfulness to God. But like Abraham, we are not always faithful, and calls for sacrifice are hard to heed. But this story is not just about Abraham. This story is about God, and about God’s faithfulness to Abraham and God’s faithfulness to Isaac and God’s faithfulness to us.
Abraham had turned away from God many times in the course of his journeys—Abraham had often not trusted in God. But God remained faithful to Abraham and his family. From Abraham and Isaac and their descendants, God did raise a great nation to bear witness to him, and to bless all nations.
Christians hear another theme in this story about Abraham. We hear a foreshadow of how God so loved us and was so faithful to us that even when we continued to turn away from God, God came to us in Jesus Christ. God indeed provided the sacrifice for us—God the Father gave his only Son, Jesus, to bear death on our behalf—to break the bonds of death. God the Father also raised his Son to new life so that we also might have life.
This is a story of Abraham’s faithfulness, but also of God’s faithfulness. This is, perhaps, about our call to stand in Abraham’s place, and to follow God with great faithfulness, knowing that God is trustworthy and that God will provide for us. But this is also about how God the Father stood in Abraham’s place—about how God was willing to sacrifice his only son so that we might be his people—forgiven, restored, given new life that we might share with the world around us.
God made Abraham the father of a great nation. God made Isaac the father of a great nation. God gives us his promise of faithfulness—that God will care for us and give us new life in this world and in the world to come. As we trust in God’s great faithfulness to us, we discover anew God’s great blessings for the world.