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.