So Much and So Little

Genesis 22: 1-14; Matthew 10: 40-42

God asks so much of us.

Last week’s gospel, we wrestled with Jesus’ words – to choose him over all. Over family, father, mother, son, daughter. Over all possessions. Over all our own hopes and dreams. Over our career plans. To have no priority above God.

This week it comes right back to that, as we hear the story of Abraham and “the binding of Isaac”, as it is often called. Its subtitle should probably be “God demanding child sacrifice of Abraham.” As I come to this text and consider how to preach it for my first time, I learn by reading commentaries that many pastors try their best to avoid it. And it’s understandable, frankly. How do you help others comprehend a God who would ask Abraham, or us, to do such a thing? Is God a child abuser? Does God really mess with us this way in order to test our loyalties? How is that a loving God?

This is not the first test or difficult request that Abraham has received from God. This has actually been going on for years. From the first time that God said to Abraham, look at the stars in the sky and the grains in the sand on the shore – your descendants will number the same as those – the tests have steadily come, one after another.

First, God tells Abraham to leave his home and to travel to a new land. Abraham was 75 when he started out on this journey, and even though he and Sarah had not had any children up to this point, when God told him that he would be the father of a great nation, he trusted God’s word, and obeyed God’s call. Time passed, and still no heir. Abraham had times of doubt, when he feared for his life and so deceived others by saying  his wife Sarah was his sister, and even letting her be given in marriage to another, so that God had to intervene. But when God came to Abraham again, and reassured him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars, Abraham trusted. Ten more years, and no offspring, so Abraham tried to take control of things again, and conceived a child by a slave woman who served Sarah. By then he was 86. A son was born, Ishmael, but God made it clear that Ishmael was not the heir that would be the root of the great nation Israel. Finally, when Abraham was nearing 100 years of age and Sarah was over 90, she conceived, and Isaac was born – the heir that God had promised.

By the time of our scripture reading today, Abraham has sent Ishmael away, and Isaac is probably 12 years old or more – old enough to carry the wood that will be needed to create a fire for the sacrifice. And one day, Abraham wakes up with a new instruction from God – to take his only son, Isaac, whom he loves, and travel three days’ distance away, to a mountain yet to be identified, and there to sacrifice him as a burnt offering.

Sacrifice your only son, whom you love, as a burnt offering.

How can this be?

This son is to be the patriarch of a great nation.

Abraham has obeyed God, step by step, all along the way, to put all the pieces in place for this to be possible.

And when this day comes, with its awful instructions, Abraham obeys. He saddles up the donkey, takes two young men with him who will only go so far, cuts the wood for the fire, gets Isaac, and off they go. As they draw close, several days’ journey later, he leaves the donkey with the young men, and he and Isaac continue alone, with Isaac carrying the wood on his back. The young boy, Isaac, asks where the lamb is for the offering, and his father says only, “the Lord will provide.”

What must Abraham have been thinking all this time? and what about Isaac? and what on earth did he tell Sarah? Certainly nothing close to the truth, we would imagine, because how would a mother ever let this terrible escapade go forward?

But Abraham trusts God, right up to the point of binding Isaac on the sacrificial altar, and raising his knife. Did he perceive this was a test? And perhaps, was he testing God as well? Was he putting God to the test by taking it this far, wanting to prove that the Lord would never do such a thing? And sure enough, God does intervene, and God sends angels who stop Abraham, and God does provide a ram for the sacrifice instead.  Abraham has proven that family does not come before God, even this beloved son, this gift from God, given to them for this special purpose, which was revealed by God.

The Lord’s prayer says “lead us not into temptation.” Other translations say “save us from the time of trial” or “save us from testing”.  Jesus gave us this prayer, knowing our human hearts, and how often we fail such tests and trials. But God does test us, in ways large and small. And to be honest, we test God as well. Will God only forgive us for the small stuff? Is there a limit to God’s grace? Can we exceed the quota? And what about that other guy and his sins?

Even Jesus said, just before his arrest, in prayer to God, “if it is possible, take this cup from me.” How often, I wonder, did Abraham silently pray these words as he journeyed with Isaac over those three days? But both of them clearly landed in the same place, “not my will, but yours, be done.” And both recognized all too well that their journey was not leading to a happy ending. Still, they obeyed.

God asks so much of us. As the song goes, All to Jesus I surrender, I surrender all. This story of Abraham and Isaac takes these words and makes them real.

And yet – God also asks so little of us. The gospel passage today is the ending of what we heard last week, when Jesus said, don’t place anything or anyone ahead of me. Here he goes on to say, an act of love as small as a welcome, as seemingly insignificant as giving a cup of cold water, is just like bringing Christ to another, and through him bringing God to them.

Whoever welcomes you welcomes me.

Whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to a little one in the name of a disciple – all will receive their reward.

We know that grace is freely given, not earned.

We know that faith like a mustard seed is sufficient.

We know that Christ’s yoke is easy, and his burden is light.

We know that the greatest commandments are to love God and love our neighbor.

Come to me, all you who are weary and bearing heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

All sounds pretty easy.

If we start with the small things, and do them with great love, and we continue to increase our small things to bigger things, and we don’t cross the street to avoid the needs of the other, we become more and more generous, and more hospitable, and more welcoming, and more loving.

And we become more open to being obedient to God’s call, however strange and challenging it may be.

Until we are truly ready to say, I surrender all.

Let us pray.

Lord, you know how hard it is for us to give everything over to you – all our fears, all our possessions, all our lives. And so you give us eternal life as a free gift, ours for the taking. In gratitude to you, help us to act on every opportunity you place before us, small and large, to let go of ourselves, to give to others as freely as we can, as freely as you have given us your light, your love, your hope, your grace. Amen.

Fear and Faith

Matthew 10: 24-39, Genesis 21: 8-21

Fear and faith.

I have found myself focused on these two topics so much these past few weeks. They may have planted themselves as themes in my head and my heart just from reading this gospel passage as I began thinking about this sermon, or it may be, once again, the way the Holy Spirit tends to work on me, by putting something in front of me and then proceeding to offer me example after example after example on how I ought to be thinking about it; how I ought to be proclaiming the Living Word to all of you about it. Often it’s not the way I’d like to say it, but it is always the way I feel compelled by God to proclaim it. So please pray with me as we begin.

Gracious and loving God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Our gospel text today is a very challenging one. In only 15 verses, we have these messages:

·      If Jesus has been accused of being Beelzebul (or Satan), how much worse can be expected of Jesus’ disciples?

·      If you are going to fear someone, don’t fear the one that can kill your body; instead, fear God, to whom you belong, both body and soul, and before whom you will face judgment one day for your actions.

·      But don’t be afraid for your life, because God’s will extends to the sparrows, and of course you are of greater value than them. Even the hairs of your head are all counted. God knows you completely, and your life will be ordered according to God’s will.

·      Here’s all you have to do, says the Lord: have complete faith in me; trust me completely. With everything you have. Put me above all other priorities. Acknowledge me before others. Choose me above all others. Center your life around me and not around any others or any thing. Let go of your life and I will take care of it for you, in the way I know best, in the way you can trust.

·      However. The converse is also true. If you put your own protection, your comfort, your family, your convenience, your safety, your possessions, your wealth, your idols, your ideologies, your life, if you put anything ahead of me, before me, says the Lord, then you do have cause to be afraid. If your fear of losing these things takes priority over me, then you have something else to be afraid of.

So with these messages in my mind and my prayers, I found them resonating everywhere I went.

·      In the Old Testament passage, where God told Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away, and then God intervened in Hagar’s fear and sorrow, providing for them, reassuring them, caring for them – certainly not in the way they had been cared for prior to this, but caring for them nevertheless. She just had to trust.

·      At Vacation Bible School, where the scripture texts ranged from the Beatitudes to the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr, but were all focused on the theme of centering our lives on God, and trusting that the rewards from that kind of life mean more than any rewards we might collect otherwise. Focus everything on glorifying God, give God the glory for everything, don’t keep any glory for ourselves. Live your faith, don’t be afraid. That was the message of VBS.

·      At the hospital with Calli, and with all the expressions of support on her FB page, Caring for Calli, I watched and waited with two parents who clearly had practice rolling with the punches of life. When I asked Heather about their ability to stay calm and present in the midst of this (now) 13 day crisis, she said that they both operate with this sort of focus: Could they have changed what happened? (no…) Can they influence the outcome?(no….)  and Can they see God in the day to day things going on? (yes!....); so therefore, they abide in Christ, continue to rely on the prayers of so many, and place their confidence and trust in the almighty One. This seems to overcome fear for them.

·      In the midst of observing that, I read an article about a breakfast that was held the first day of General Assembly. A well-known theologian, Stanley Hauerwas, was the speaker, and he was speaking about American Christianity. This quote caught me in particular. He said: “Ever since 9/11, ‘the self-proclaimed most powerful nation in the world has run on fear,’ he said – mostly the fear of dying, which he called ‘our desire to get out of life alive.’  Hospitals have become our cathedrals, he said, and doctors, our priests. Medical schools are now more interesting places than divinity schools, he said. Why? ‘Because people believe that inadequately-trained doctors can hurt them. What we fear is death, not God.’” I think this explains why so many of our prayers are about physical health, and why we go to such extremes to try to protect ourselves and our loved ones from anything bad that might happen to us.

·      And as I continued preparing to write my sermon, I began to put together my current list – just for this week – of the things that I feel fearful about. This is probably a partial list, but I’ll share it with you:

1. 1.    Will Calli fully recover from this brain bleed that has the potential to change her life so significantly?
2. 2.    Will this congregation overcome its significant challenges – spiritual, financial, and communal, and be able to ever fully merge?
3. 3.    Will members of this congregation leave this church, leave the PCUSA over the marriage decisions of the General Assembly this week?
4. 4.    How will my American Jewish friends treat me when I see them in a month at our high school reunion, based on the divestiture vote at General Assembly?
5. 5.    Will the new member class after worship today go OK; will I be able to answer questions that arise, and will I do a good job preparing others to become members of this Presbyterian church?
6. 6.    Will I get to the pet supply store before my cats eat all the food left in the house this week?

Please take a moment, right where you are, and think about the top three specific things that are the cause of fear for you this day, this week. If you have a pen or pencil, make a note of them in your bulletin or on the scratch pads in the pews…

Now consider with me how those fears are addressed in the good news we hear from Jesus. For all of mine (except probably the one about the cat food), Matthew’s gospel tells me what to do. It tells me to let go of fear, and to trust, to have faith, in God’s providence. It tells me not to put fear of death, or loss, or conflict, ahead of seeking God’s will and sharing God’s love. And it tells me to tell all of you that you, too, are called to hand over your fears to God, and to trust that no matter what, God is in control. We can live in faith and in trust that we worship and serve an almighty God, who loves us and who wants what is best for us, and who actually knows what is best for us, better than we ever can know. And so, dear friends, let us hand over our fears to God, and focus with all our hearts and minds and strength on loving God and loving our neighbor, and trusting that God is in control and God will prevail. And that is good news. Amen.

With Us Always

Matthew 28: 16-20

The weeks since Easter have brought us a number of stories about Jesus’ time on earth after the resurrection, leading up to his ascension. During that time we have heard the various ways that Jesus prepared the disciples for the time to come, when he would no longer be on earth with them.

He told them about the work that lay ahead for them.

He told them that the Holy Spirit would come to help them. He reminded them over and over to not be afraid, to abide in God’s love, in his peace.

In our Gospel text today, this Sunday after Pentecost, this Trinity Sunday, we hear the closing words of the Gospel according to Matthew, where Jesus meets the disciples on a mountain in Galilee. We are told that they worship him, but that some doubted. We are reminded that “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus”, and then Jesus gives them what has come to be known as The Great Commission.

And his last words, according to Matthew’s gospel, are these: Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

On this Trinity Sunday, it’s good for us to consider together how it is that the Triune God is with us always. Because it is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit who is with us always, who has been with us from the beginning, who came to us in the flesh, and who abides with us always as our advocate, our comforter.

We heard the Genesis story of Creation as our Old Testament reading for today. You may not realize it, but this is a Trinitarian story. This creation story provides us with specific reassurance that from the beginning, God in three persons is with us. In the beginning God creates. The Spirit of God moves over the waters, even before there was heaven and earth, before there was light, before there was land to separate the waters from the sky. And God brings each creation into being by speaking it into being.

The Word of God.

The Logos, which is Jesus Christ, God the Son.

This is confirmed in the beginning of the Gospel of John – the New Testament counterpart to this Genesis beginning of the Old Testament. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Jesus the Word of God.

So in the beginning there is God, there is the Word of God, there is the Spirit of God. The trinity, the triune God. In the beginning.

Then when God became flesh and dwelled among us, the triune God was there. At Jesus’ baptism, God’s voice proclaimed pleasure with the beloved Son, as the Spirit of God descended upon Jesus. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

And now, since Jesus, God the Son, has ascended to heaven, he intercedes for us with God the Father. The ascended Christ is fully human, still, as much as he is fully divine.

And so he perfects our prayers for us to the Father, and he understands the sorrows and the pains as well as the joys of this world – he understands them first hand. He has experienced them.

And, as he promised, he has not left us orphaned or abandoned. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, has always been with us, and now gives us guidance, and comfort.

Just as the disciples could trust Jesus as they followed him, we can trust the Holy Spirit to always be with us, to be our guide and strength, because the Holy Spirit is God with us, just as Jesus is God with us. The triune God is with us – God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told the disciples, I am With You always. I AM – the Words God used in response to Moses when Moses said to God – tell me your name. God said – I AM. Jesus said – I AM With You Always. I AM is God. Emmanuel is God with us. Jesus promised – and delivered – on the Holy Spirit to be with us Always. The Triune God is with us always.

What does this mean for us? Does it place a shield around us from the troubles of the world? Certainly not.  Or, as the apostle Paul liked to say, “By no means!” The apostles and the early Christians went forward into terrible danger, torture, oppression, death. We are not promised a life free of troubles and pain, any more than they were. What we do know is that pain and suffering, sorrow, and even death do not have the last word – that Jesus has conquered them all.

Jesus said, “In the world you will have distress; you will face difficulties; you will be persecuted. But take heart – I have conquered the world!”

We are offered the peace that sustains us, the grace that redeems us, the love that never ends, from the triune God of mercy, of hope, of love.

I think I am speaking for most of us here today when I say that we often wish and perhaps would even prefer to have that protective shield around us, that magic wand that would make our troubles go away, that would make it all better.

We want to be able to touch the hem of Jesus and make pain go away, touch the hem of Jesus and mend broken relationships, touch the hem of Jesus and heal the sick, make the blind see, repair damaged backs and hips and brains and souls. We know that God’s power can heal, that Jesus healed all who came to him, and we want this healing for ourselves.

We pray for these miracles, don’t we?

We want God to fix what is broken in our selves, in those we love, in our world. Because we believe it is possible, we want to claim it for ourselves. We don’t want to settle for anything less, if we are honest with ourselves and with God.

Into the midst of this, here is the promise that we have been given: I am with you always. I love you, and you are mine. You are my beloved child. There is nothing that can happen to you, and there is nothing you can do, and there is nothing anyone else can ever do to you that can separate you from me, from my love. There is no sorrow you can bring to me, no sin you can hand to me, no worry you can turn over to me, that will ever change my love for you.

I have loved you from the beginning, I love you now, and I will love you to the end of days. My love and peace are not like anything else the world can give.

Abide in my love.

Trust in my Spirit.

Rest in my grace and peace.

These are the gifts of the Spirit that go beyond healing, that go beyond making our mortal lives easier or more comfortable. These are the gifts that give us true rest, true peace, true joy, the gifts that transcend the troubles of the world. These are the true gifts of God, freely given for you, for me, for all of us, for all time.

Even when we cannot see you God, even when your guiding hand can only be sensed with the faintest of touch, even when we cannot see the path ahead, when we do not know where we are going, still we will trust you, because you have told us, Do not be afraid. You have told us, peace be with you. You have told us, I will give you rest.  You have told us….

Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Amen.