The Rev. Dan Rondeau
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church & School
Genesis 22:1-14 | Psalm 16:5-11 | Romans 8:31-38 | Mark 8:31-38
If God is for us who is against us? Romans 8:31
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. Proverbs 3:5
It’s powerful in its simplicity: 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 land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”1
And the story unfolds from there. It’s compelling. No matter how many times I’ve heard it, I still listen, wondering if Abraham will do what God commands. As Abraham sees the mountain and continues on with only his son I want to shout to Isaac to run, to bolt and run. As it becomes clear that Abraham will sacrifice his son, I anxiously explore for alternatives, for something to happen, for the senseless act to be averted. No matter how many times I’ve heard the story I hope that God will intervene to spare the life of Isaac; I need God to intervene, but wonder if God will be in time. The story of Abraham and Isaac and the test of God will forever grab my heart and mind. I do not believe I am alone.
But what are we to make of this story in 2006? Is there anything this story can teach us?
Biblical scholars, of course, will point out that this text helped the People of God move away from child sacrifice, a regular feature of life long ago, a feature that needed to be eliminated from the daily life of the People of God, the People of the Covenant. But as we share this text in worship it isn’t a reminder to shun child sacrifice.
No, we are led by the Holy Spirit to the heart of this story: Abraham trusted God; God provided, the trust was well placed.
We are called to be men and women who trust God. We are men and women, young and old who, with all our limitations and failings, strive to trust God. This story says in all its mystery, horror, and simplicity: God can be trusted, God will provide, never let go of that trust.
In the season of Lent this truth of our faith is told in the story of Jesus, God’s only Son, who is ultimately betrayed, condemned, crucified. Who as Good Friday concludes is placed lifeless in the tomb and a large stone is rolled into place. Trust God; God will provide. The words will seem so weak, so puny, against the enormity of the death of Jesus. And yet we tell the story precisely to remember: trust God; God will provide. Because, even better than the angel stopping Abraham’s hand, comes the news of Easter after the darkness of Friday: “He is risen.” Trust God; God will provide.
But let’s look again at Abraham. God had promised Abraham descendents as numerous as the stars in the sky. Isaac was the fulfillment of that promise. God asked Abraham to kill the fulfillment of the promise. For his part Abraham trusted the maker of the promise, not the promise itself, and trusting God the maker of the promise, Abraham went. And at the darkest moment, at the moment of least understanding and perhaps greatest despair, at the last second, Abraham’s trust in God held firm—and God provided.
Our stories will differ from Abraham’s, but the heart of our story, the question posed in the telling of our own story of faith will be the same: Can we entrust ourselves completely to the God who is beyond our knowing and who is beyond our control?
We complete the surgery, the chemotherapy, the radiation treatments, we pray for healing and yet we learn that the cancer has spread.
We do our best, and we do a good work, the employee evaluations and commendations say so and are in our file, but the pink slip comes anyway.
We play by the rules and we are a good citizen, a good teammate, but the promotion goes to the one who bends or ignores the rules and does it his way, or her way regardless of what is best for the whole team.
We refrain from gossip, walk away from those who are intent on telling stories and passing on rumors, but we are destroyed by the lies, the gossip, the half-truths told about us.
It isn’t about child sacrifice anymore, but the question at the heart of our story is the same as it was for Abraham: Can we give ourselves completely to the God who is beyond our knowing and who is beyond our control?
Again and again within the stories of our lives we encounter the tempter trying to convince us that it is too good to be true that God could love us unconditionally and forever. Again and again we find ourselves wondering where God is as we feel tested and tried beyond the limits of our resources and strengths. Again and again we encounter hardships, setbacks, disappointments, frustrations, betrayals and in each moment we discover the tempter working to magnify the negatives and suggest that this is the whole story, the last word, our trust in God being foolish and childish and ignorant.
We are filled with questions (and doubts):
Can we understand God’s promise to us, “I will love you always, I will be with you always” not as something we are entitled to, but as a pure gift?
Can we say “yes” to God in spite of everything?
In the Season of Lent, a season given to self-examination and repentance, these are the questions of faith that the story of Abraham and Isaac calls us to ponder.
Madeleine L’Engle addresses the mystery of a faith that does not know, but that continues to trust in spite of fear and doubt:
“Faith consists in the acceptance of doubts, the working through them, rather than the repression of them. Faith is beyond literal definition. If we could define it, or give a recipe for it, we could make a Fanny Farmer Cookbook of Faith, and all we’d have to do is check the index for the kind of faith that we needed at the moment.
“But faith, like prayer, is a gift, a gift of knowing that the light shines in the darkness, of knowing that the light cannot be put out, no matter how diligently the tempter tries to snuff it out. [A] gift, when it comes, that frequently alters our perception of reality, and the manner in which we pray.”2
Let us leave here, despite all our doubts and fears all our weaknesses and failings, trusting that God will provide. In our darkest moments let us look to Abraham and to Jesus and trust God. In the moment of our deepest despair let us be ready to receive the angel, God’s messenger, and know that God provides.
That kind of faith, that trust, was a gift given and used by Abraham and Paul and even Peter (who was even called Satan by Jesus). It is a gift given us today, thanks be to God. Let us use this gift to God’s glory; this we can do.
Amen.
1 Genesis 22:1-2
2 Madeleine L’Engle, And It Was Good—Reflections on Beginnings (p. 185) quoted in Synthesis, March 2000.
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