It's Not Too Late
Today is one of those days when I kind of roll my eyes at serendipity. Or at the Holy Spirit.
Today we celebrate the confirmation of seven amazing young people – and right alongside that we tackle one of the hardest texts in Hebrew scripture about the sacrifice of Isaac…who I assume was an amazing young person.
All the while, we are still considering that tough concept of blessing introduced last week, something God promises Abraham. Who is blessed and will be a blessing to the world.
Pull that rock out.
Remember, the rock we put in our handy backpack? It seems like maybe we need it today.
Let’s start with the texts.
Last week, God said “go,” and Abram went without many questions. This week, we begin with Abraham and Sarah in their tent, visited by three mysterious strangers who receive hospitality and assure them that when next they call, the couple will (finally) have a child.
BUT…let’s do a quick tour of what we’ve skipped over between last week and this.
After Abram leaves his country, his kindred and his father’s house and sets off to see the land God promises his ancestors, he settles down elsewhere for a while.
Eventually there is a famine in the land and so he takes his entourage on another epic journey, this time to Egypt…where he suggests that if Sarai will say she’s not his wife, they might be able to work the system for while.
Pharaoh’s people are out looking for beautiful women for the harem, and Sarai is beautiful (even at advanced age?). Abram asks her to lie…and he actually lies and says Sarai is his sister…and as she poses as a beautiful available woman, Abram receives livestock from Pharaoh’s court.
This seemed to work out well…until God plagued Pharaoh for his dalliance with Sarai. So Pharaoh kicks Abram and Sarai out of Egypt.
God once again promises Abram future generations and the land to go with it…
Abram keeps building altars to say thanks to God.
And STILL no babies show up.
Sarai and Abram hatch a plan — Abram should lie with Hagar, Sarai’s servant. They can make a baby. (Have I mentioned most stories in the Hebrew scriptures are at LEAST PG 13?). So Abram lies with Hagar and they have a baby named Ishmael.
But it turns out that that just makes Sarai jealous. So Abram casts Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness.
God shows up in spite of all of this, takes Abram outside into the night, points to the brilliant stars that fill the sky and promise him, once again, that his offspring will be a great nation. And so as if to drive the point home, God changes his name – from Abram to Abraham. From “exalted father” to “father of a great nation.”
And Sarai gets a new name too – Sarah – a name that suggest she will be a mother of kings.
And then we arrive at our first text for today.
The promise that has been reference again and again gets more specific now. At 99 years of age, a mysterious visitor promises that Sarah will bear a son within a year, a son who will be named Isaac.
And Sarah laughs. Because what could be funnier than being “promised” a son when you are 99 years of age? And God asks, why did Sarah laugh? (C’mon God?)
Time and time again for this couple, God keeps showing up though. God keeps promising that this couple will have their own family. God shows up even though Abraham has lied, has cheated, has let his wife dally with Pharaoh, has laid with his wife’s servant and had a baby, has turned that servant and that baby out into the wilderness.
God keeps showing up and keeps promising Abraham it’s all going to work out.
And it does.
And then….
After Isaac has arrived and grown up a bit, God surfaces again. And the text says, God tested Abraham. It’s a hard test. Take that sweet, sought after boy and sacrifice him over there on the place you see.
Specifically, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.”
Remember when God first directs Abram? Go from your country, your kindred and your father’s house? There is a strange echo here – with each of the three descriptions of what is at stake growing closer to Abraham’s heart.
Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love
The text describes Abraham obediently doing as he is directed, saddling up a donkey, some wood for the offering and a couple of servants and heading off.
What is going on?
Why is God asking this of Abraham?
This is one of those texts that is painful to read. There are chapters of commentary written about this text. And maybe we aren’t actually equipped to fully understand the nuances. We can’t fully understand the context in which it happened, in which is was recorded, in which it was read again and again in community.
Abraham really doesn’t get any dialogue – he certainly doesn’t question God. He does as he is told. And we are left to wonder what he was thinking, what he knew, what he believed, what he hoped for…
He goes and he takes Isaac with him. And when the boy asks where the lamb for the sacrifice is, Abraham answers – God himself will provide. What powerful potential double-meaning. Double hope.
And indeed, God does provide. As Abraham raises up the knife preparing to offer a human sacrifice, a voice calls out to stop him and a ram appears caught in a nearby thicket.
In the book We Make the Road by Walking, author Brian McLaren unpacks this as a shift in culture. In a time and a place and a culture where human sacrifice might have been an acceptable norm, God is stepping in to make a new way. And this is why McLaren has paired the familiar text from Micah 6 with this story. God doesn’t require a sacrifice in order to keep God’s promises. What God asks is that Abraham follow.
All God asks is that WE follow – that we keep trying to do the right thing, in all our humanness. It is as if it is as simple as doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God.
So now, let’s go back to that theme of blessing – and the rock we stowed in our backpack. On the mountain rocks to which Abraham is called to sacrifice, he once again offers thanks and gives the place a name – a name which meant “the Lord will provide.”
Looking out over Canaan, Abram built an altar and worshipped God.
Arriving in Bethel, Abram built and alter and worshipped God.
Abram and Sarai found provision and safety even as they found trouble on their life journey.
Abraham and Sarah were blessed by the birth if Isaac. They were blessed to have Isaac spared. He will indeed go on and be a source of many generations of descendants for them.
But my, the cost and the heartache they have experienced.
I resist thinking that we have to experience heartache in order to receive a blessing. And yet I am aware that life is hard, always. As humans we are constantly tripping up and making mistakes. And bad things happen even to good people.
And then there are these amazing moments when God shows up.
Blessings. Thresholds. Moments of clarity, of presence, of provision, of goodness.
My husband I decided that a blessing is somehow a “You Are HERE” moment. A moment where suddenly in the midst of whatever you have been encountering God is very much with you and you know it. And in knowing it, you know who you are and whose you are.
Blessings are the places God shows up.
Blessings are the places God is with us no matter what.
Just when we think it can’t possibly happen (whatever it is), there is a breakthrough and God shows up.
You are here.
And God is here too.
Abraham was blessed to be a blessing to all the people of the earth.
As we welcome young people into the life of the church, as we greet members who come to us in this season, we have serious work to do to understand how we are blessed.
As we recommit to faithfully to participate in the ministries of the Church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, let us remember from where we have come:
As image-bearers we are blessed to bless others.
Thanks be to God.
May it be so.
Amen.
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