Words for Worship

Ministry Today

Abraham & Isaac

I am not normally

attracted to the humour

of Woodie Allen.

 

But for me

he does have

his moments.

 

In the epicentre

of his troubled marriage

to Mia Farrow,

he was asked

by a reporter –

if he had his life over

what would he

not do again.

 

After a moment’s thought

, he replied –

he wouldn’t reread

Moby Dick.

 

But he also tells

the tale of Abraham and Isaac

with God staying the fatal knife

by God

saying to Abraham –

do you always take

what I say seriously?

 

Go home and check in with me

tomorrow.

 

For you see humour

helps us

to escape

the other side of this story;

the story of

potentially horrendous child abuse.

 

The sort of behaviour

that today

would give rise to

a newspaper report like this:

 

A man was arrested today

after police received

an anonymous tip

about a bizarre religious practice.  

 

The man's son was freed

as the father

was in the act

of taking the boy's life with a butcher knife.  

 

Police said the man

told them

he had heard the voice of God

command him to sacrifice the boy.

 

But there is another way

to tackle this

most challenging

of bible passages

other than just laughing it off

as a divine joke

or cringing at its repugnancy.

 

And that is to focus

on the ancient wisdom

behind this strange tale;

the universal truth

which shines through

to these quite different times;

the truth of the need for obedience;

the truth of the need for sacrifice

and the need to trust God

to provide in his infinite love.

For there is

an old gospel hymn

entitled, "Trust and Obey."  

 

And this title

points out that

trusting God and obeying God

are absolutely central

to a vital life of faith.

 

Take Abraham –

he hears the voice of God

asking him

to do something

that   was unthinkable

yet he obeys.  

 

And the only explanation

can be that

this was not "blind obedience".

 

Rather it is an obedience

based on trust.  

 

For Abraham had learned,

over a long period of time,

that listening for

and obeying

the voice of God

resulted in real fruits

in his life.

 

And this was true

even if he cannot see

the why for a while.

 

 

To help us understand this

we can take

a contemporary example

from the world of aviation.

 

For, in flight training,

a time comes

when pilots have to learn

to "trust the instruments."

 

The reason being is that

they can become disoriented

if you depend solely

on their own sense of balance.  

 

And so during their "check flight",

they put on a hood

that prevents them

from seeing anything

but the instrument panel.  

 

Then the examiner

takes the controls

and does some manoeuvres

that give the inner ear

a real wobbly.

 

The result is you

would sense the plane

is climbing

while it is actually descending,

or you could swear

the thing

is in a right bank

while it is going left. 

 

Then the examiner

gives the controls back

to the pilot

who must put the plane

back on the straight and level

by trusting the instruments alone.

 

Therefore in this blind situation

there is no room

for seat-of-the-pants

self-reliance

only informed trust

and obedience.

 

And just as it is

in the training of pilots,

it is in our training

to be a mature Christians.

 

For just as there are old pilots

and bold pilots

but no old and bold pilots,

there are mature Christians

and untrusting Christians

there are no mature

yet untrusting Christians.

 

But as mature Christians

we know too

that Sacrifice is built into

anything that finally matters.

 

There is no deep friendship

without self-giving;

there is no thriving child

without enduring dirty nappies

and sleepless nights;

there is no parish

without the sacrifice

and giving

of all congregational leaders

and members;

there is no community

without the countless acts

of generosity –

time given to projects,

to charities

and to youth organisations.

 

Our own survival as a nation

is built on the sacrifice

of hundreds of thousands of people

who have fought to preserve us.

 

For the Ultimate One then

to demand sacrifice

in the story of Abraham and Isaac

is to say that sacrifice

is the cost of life itself.

 

Yet we need to be clear

what was being asked

to be sacrificed in this story.

 

For child sacrifice

was never a part

of Israel's religious life.  

 

Indeed, child sacrifice

is one of the reasons

Canaanite religious practices

were an abomination to God.

 

This is why

we must study Abraham's words

very carefully.

 

For he says to Isaac

 "God himself will provide the lamb...".  

 

Did Abraham really think

God would step in

and halt the sacrifice of Isaac

and provide a lamb?  

 

Or is he simply trying to calm

the lad?

 

Probably neither.  

 

Yet Abraham trusts

in but one thing.  

 

And that was the God

who called him

to become the father

of a "Great Nation"

is the God

who provides the impossible. 

 

For you see to Abraham,

God brought about

an impossible birth –

the birth of Isaac himself.

 

 Therefore to him,

God is the one who always

has provided for our need,

is providing for our needs

and will in the future provide

for our needs.

 

In return,

Abraham had still

to make a sacrifice –

the sacrifice of effort;

the effort to put self wisdom aside;

the effort to obey

when he could not see

the outcome

and the effort of expecting

the impossible provision

of his needs

despite every fibre saying no

 

. For that alone was,

is and always will be

the way to be supplied

with God’s eternal Yes!

 

But in the end of the day

what guarantee do we have

that our trusting

and obeying and expecting

of God will pay off?

 

Moreover, why should God

bother himself

to provide us

with the impossible

in any situation

we find ourselves?

 

Well, just after the Second World War

a German pastor

named Gunther Rutenborn

wrote a play

called The Sign of Jonas

that attempted

to answer those questions.

A trial is set to find out

who was responsible

for the terrible years

caused by Nazi Germany.

 

Charges are brought against

Hitler himself.

 

Some blame

the munitions manufacturers

who profit from the war.

 

Others blame

the cowardly German people

who refused to stand up

to Hitler.

 

None of it, though,

seems quite enough –

until a man stands up

in the audience

to say,

"Do you know who's to blame?

God is.

Isn't He the one who created

this awful world?

 

Didn't He give them

the power to do

that kind of evil,

didn't He allow it to happen,

can't the misery be laid

at His feet?"

 

So they decided to put God

on trial

for the crime of creation.

 

And He is quickly found guilty

of the crime and is sentenced.

 

The judge says that

because of the enormity

of God's crime,

His punishment will

be the worst conceivable:

"I hereby sentence

the Creator God

to have to come

and live in this world

under the same anguis

h and loss that everyone else

has to."

 

And he charges

the three Archangels,

Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael,

to perform the sentence.

Gabriel walks

to one end of the stage

and stands brooding,

and then says,

"When God has to serve

I want Him to see

what it's like to be an obscure,

enchained human being.

 

He'll be born

in the middle of nowhere

and grow up in a country

occupied by foreign forces,

a Jew in a Jew-hating world."

Raphael walks

to the other end of the stage

and says,

"When God has to serve

His sentence,

I'm going to see to it

that He knows

what it's like to be frustrated

and insecure.

 

He'll know what it's like

to be a refugee

with no place to lay His head.

 

His plans won't be fulfilled.

 

No one will understand him.

 

And He will go to his grave

a failure,

not sure He's accomplished anything."

Finally, Michael steps

to the middle of the stage.

"I'm going to see

that He knows

what it's like to suffer

in every conceivable way.

 

He'll be rejected

and know what that's like.

 

He'll suffer and know pain.

 

He will be spat on,

tormented, ridiculed,

die the slow torture of a common criminal."

And with that the lights go out,

and the audience sits,

utterly quiet in the dark,

as the awareness dawns:

God has served that sentence.

God served that sentence for Love.

God served that sentence

because of his love for us.

 

 

So as we ponder again

the ancient mystery

of the story of Abraham and Isaac,

let us be minded

to listen to God,

to trust God

and to obey God.

 

Let us then make sacrificial effort

in expecting

his meeting our need.

 

Moreover, let us give thanks

for God’ sacrificial effort for us.

 

For over four hundred years ago

the wife

of the great reformer

Martin Luther

listened as her husband

read this story

of Abraham and Isaac

and demanded,

"How could a loving God

ask Abraham to sacrifice

his only son?"

 

"Why Katy,"

Luther said to her,

"He did it himself.

 

Indeed, He did it

for you and me".

 

 

Amen

 

Offering

 

 

HYMN…………..