Ripples of Faith
Ripple Effect: Power in Faith
Genesis 22:1-14
Common Time 2023
Year A / Proper Week 8
PRAYER
Almighty God, in you, we place our hope and faith. Prepare our hearts and minds to encounter you so that we may grow in your love and peace through Christ, our Lord. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable to you. Amen.
SCRIPTURE
Today’s scripture lesson is a familiar text that I learned in Sunday School. We are looking at the story of Abraham and Issac in Genesis 22:1-14.
Join me in reading today's scripture passage: 1 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” 3 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. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 5 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.” 6 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. 7 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?” 8 Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
9 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. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 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.” 13 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. 14 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.”
The Word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God.
In 2018, Incredibles 2 was in the theater. As a person who likes Pixar and superhero movies, I was excited to see this one. It was 14 years in the making, and the anticipation of watching it was palpable. The other day I talked with my wife, and she told me she could remember we were seated two rows from the back in these big cushy chairs. Before the movie began, like all Pixar movies, it started with a short film. Bao.
This movie begins with a shot of hands working the dough, and then you see this woman's face after she’s pieced together these most delicious-looking steamed buns filled with meat and veggies. She looks longingly out of a window and then places the meal in front of her husband, who eats voraciously while she methodically sits, breathes, and then eats. On her second bun, she takes a bite when shockingly, the bun sprouts eyes and a mouth, arms, a body, and legs, and begins to cry. We then see the baby bun grow in a montage while the woman, now the buns mother, shapes it and molds it each time the bun falls over or gets hurt. She measures it as it grows. It’s this lovely tale of life with a child. Teaching and helping this being know how to live. Then as life happens, children grow. This bun now wants to know what it’s like to play games with the other children, but his mom wants to hold on as long as she can to her baby bun. He continues to grow into adolescence, and at one point, he gets annoyed at his mom for interrupting a phone call. He has a “keep out” sign on his door. The bun continues to grow, and the mom is saddened and seems sullen from his absence. Then a knock on the door comes, and she jumps up to find her son and… his fiancee. The Mom did not know this was coming and had the biggest shock of surprise on her face. The bun then packs his bags, gives his mom a hug, and then starts to go out the door. The mom runs in front of him, shuts the door, and won’t let the bun leave. With tears streaming down her face, she grabs the bun in her hands… and eats him up.
In the theater, you could hear an audible gasp from every person in the room. This was an unexpected twist. None of us saw it coming. To give you a resolution, it was just a dream of her and her actual son, and she knows she has to let him go. Every time I watch this short film, I’m less and less disturbed by that shocking twist. I see new meaning. I see a mother’s love and the child’s growth.
Our scripture today has just as shocking a twist. The more I’ve read it and have been exposed to it, the more I see things in a new light. If we’ve grown up in the church, this is a story we hear in our childhood. It’s in almost every kid's bible I’ve ever had or seen.
Old Testament scholar Walter Bruggemon said it “... is among the best known and theologically most demanding in the Abraham tradition. It poses acute questions about the nature of faith and the way of God with his faithful creature.”
This passage in Hebrew is called the Akedah, or “the binding.” It has been debated and discussed for centuries. With questions arising each new hearing. Things like why did God test Abraham in this way? Why was Abraham so complicit in almost killing the son who was promised to help outnumber the stars with his offspring?
To understand this, we have to start at the beginning of Abraham’s story. Ten Chapters before, we are introduced to Abram, the son of Terah. God called him to move to a new land and that God will make a great nation from him. God seals this promise in Chapter 15 with a multi-animal covenantal act where God tells Abram that his descendants will inherit the land; today, we know this land as Israel. In Chapter 16, Abram and his wife Sarai are getting older, and as the story unfolds, we see their impatiens. Sarai has her slave Hagar bear her husband a child. Then 13 years later, in chapter 17, we see God coming before Abram and making another solemn covenant to make Abram exceedingly numerous with his offspring that is to come through Sarah, that he will name the son Isaac and that through Isaac God will create an everlasting covenant. This is the moment when Abram became Abraham, meaning an ancestor of a multitude.
And in Chapter 22, we see the most shocking twist. God asking for a sacrifice of this covenantially promised son. As the readers of this story, we begin with a little reassurance. This is a test. Bruggemon said this story is framed with God beginning as the tester and ending as the provider. It is in this testing and providing we have some of our biggest questions on the motives of God. “That God provides shows God’s gracious faithfulness. That God tests is a disclosure of God’s free sovereignty. Abraham comes to an awareness that the two marks of God are always encountered together. The problem with this narrative is to hold together and embrace both the dark command of God and his high promise.”
In this moment of radical obedience, Abraham, who in previous chapters questioned God, moves in silence. In a lot of biblical passages, you can find the meaning of the story centrally located in the text. Today is no different. After Isaac and his father had been traveling for three days, Isaac asks, “The fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” We find the theme in verse eight. “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” The Hebrew word for provide in this context means literally means to see. God will see to it. This word is used four times in this passage, twice describing a moment of looking up and twice describing the gracious expectation of God.
Abraham was willing to act solely out of his fear of God, even when he could not see clearly the logic of the divine command. In doing this, he passed the test and also reached a new insight about God, namely that God is present, God sees, even in situations where we do not see clearly see God.
This moment, this dark moment where a father is asked to do the unimaginable, this moment of testing with only the hope of provision, this moment of radical faith ripples and reverberates throughout history. This imperfect father became the forebearer of people whose lives are bound to the graciousness of God. Imperfect people have carried this faith; they have been tested, and God sees them. One commentator said that Abraham’s obedience echoes through the generations, and, like him, his offspring will become God’s instruments to bring blessings to “all the nations of the earth.
Bruggemon said that this idea of testing and providing is paralleled in the testing and providing of Godself through Jesus. In three instances in the gospel of Mark called the passion sayings of Jesus, where he mentions crucifixion and resurrection intertwined. “These two events belong together and cannot be separated. The two together, the giving of Jesus’ life and the receiving of new life…And just as the passion sayings speak of the testing of the crucifixion, they also speak of the resurrection as God’s ultimate providing. The resurrection is the miracle by which God provides new life in a situation where only death is anticipated.
Hope can be found even in these bleak moments. I don’t know where you are in your faith journey. I don’t know what life looks like for you. I don’t know what test you’ve been or are going through. I know we all fight our battles, and I know we all have those moments that are hard for us. In Psalm 13, the psalmist asks, “how long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long must I bear pain in my soul?… Consider and answer me.” Then they go on to say, “I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.” Even in the bleakness of life, God sees you.
John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, said, “God did tempt Abraham – not to draw him to sin, so satan tempts; but to discover his graces, how strong they were, that they might be found to praise and honor and glory.
How are you seeing God’s graces now? In what ways are you connecting in your faith?
Each week in our online service, I welcome our congregation by sharing the mission of our church. Which is that Our hope is to discover persons in need of God’s grace, connect them with Jesus and His family, grow them to become devoted followers of Jesus, and send them to serve and share God’s love.
In walking in faith, how are you connecting with Jesus and with others? God asks us to do hard things so that God’s faithfulness can be shown. Have you felt called, like Abraham, to do something with your faith? I pray it isn’t as drastic as this was. But I hope you step into that moment and trust. Maybe you feel called to teach during this fall’s Wednesday Night Alive. Maybe you feel called to do the hard thing of raising finances to attend one of our church’s mission trips? Maybe you’re called to bless people in your community but don’t know how to get started. Maybe you’re in your workplace and you are called to show the love and grace of goad to all that you come in contact with there.
Since working at Madisonville First United Methodist Church my understanding of Christianity has deepened with a fuller understanding of what it means to be interdependent. This was a theme that kept coming up in my Wednesday Night Alive class this past spring. As a selfish being by nature, I focus a lot on myself, but our faith is more than that. We are connected, and our faith grows when we rely on God and each other when we understand that God sees us.
Today I pray that you know that God sees you. Whatever you are facing, whatever you’re challenge or test is, know that God, in his steadfast love, sees you. The God that tests and provides is still in the ministry of seeing and providing. Thank God for the crucifixion and, ultimately, the hope that comes from the resurrection.
Summer before last, My family went to Splashin’ Safari. At the time, I was holding my youngest son under a giant mushroom rainfall thing while watching my eldest son and his mom go down water slides. My wife went down first and they got disconnected for a few moments, I could see both of them. My son became anxious and didn’t know what to do. He could no longer see me or his mother. But neither of us took our eyes off him at that moment. He was cared for and loved even when he felt alone. May you know that the God who tests is the God who sees. You are cared for You are loved. Go from this place and love as you are loved.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Let's Pray:
Lord, grant that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
BENEDICTION: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.