Year A, Pentecost 2, June 26, 2011

Genesis 22:1-14 (click on the scripture to read it)

Today’s Old Testament story about Abraham and Isaac was as ancient to Jesus as the stories about Jesus are to us today.  Without arguing over exact numbers, let’s say the stories about Jesus are 2000 years old, but the stories of Abraham are twice that.  The stories about Jesus are so
 important to us and our faith that we still tell them after all this time, but why was this almost horrific story about a father and a son so important to the people of Israel that they kept telling it.  Only the most important stories kept being told over and over again to each generation as the tribes gathered their families around the camp fire at night.  So many were never written down and lost, but this one is still alive today.

Why was this one so important?  This is one of those stories that make us cringe, but for the Israelites it is a story that summed up their relationship with God from as far back as they could remember, and it was a story that continued and continues to speak to each generation.  God’s relationship, or even better put, our relationship with God is circular… it goes up and down, round and round, a relationship of closeness and a relationship of distance.  We feel the goodness of God in our lives and then without warning something happens that makes us feel that God is testing us or that God has simply forgotten we are here….the same was true in ancient times.

God’s people were lost in bondage; they were slaves to someone else’s culture and someone else’s god; but then their God, the one true God sends Moses to rescue them and gives them freedom.  The people were happy; God had saved them and given them directions.  Then the Israelites felt that God was not providing the right things, or that God was taking way to long to provide for them.  They began to feel lost again …abandoned…or even that they had done something wrong and God was punishing them.

Then God saved them again, or could it be that they hit such a low point in their lives that they could again see God working in their lives?  This cycle of the Israelites understanding of God’s relationship to them can be traced repeatedly throughout the Old Testament. 

For Abraham, God repeatedly promised him that he would be the father of a large nation, a great nation, but this promise was taking forever.  His wife Sarah could not seem to get pregnant, so Abraham takes on another wife, Hagar.  She births Abraham a son named Ishmael.  This didn’t work out, but that is a whole different sermon.  Now Abraham was back to square one and he and Sarah were getting really old.  Abraham continued to have faith that God’s promise would be fulfilled and finally Sarah gave birth to Isaac. 

Now, the promise, God’s promise is in jeopardy!  How will Abraham be the father of a great nation if Isaac is dead?  Abraham held tight in his faith and this was not a blind faith. He and God had a real relationship…you may remember how he and God had a little debate over the worthiness of the city Sodom. 

Abraham’s faith was not blind, but learned and trusted.  Abraham trusted God, even when things seemed to be impossible to overcome. 

In today’s reading, he and Isaac are heading up the mountain for the sacrifice, Abraham tells his men this, he says, "Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you."  Abraham knew in his heart that even though things were looking grim, God would fulfill the promise that was made.

As Abraham was setting up the altar they did not see the ram that God had provided.  Abraham was so focused on his son and his son was so focused on his dad that they missed it.  They missed seeing the ram.  The text does not say that ram magically appeared.  I think it was there all the time, and that God never meant for things to get to the point that death almost happened.  An angel of God had to speak up and stop it, and it was only then, at their lowest point, that they were able to see the ram.   God’s promise was to be fulfilled, but on God’s time.


How much do we miss because we are not able to see clearly?

A year ago I went to a conference in Portland Oregon.  While driving from the airport to the conference it was raining and I really had a hard time seeing the street signs; I had to squint and really focus to read them.  I partly chocked it up to the rain, but for the next two days it was eating at me…was it the rain or was I really having trouble seeing those signs which were to help direct me where to go?  The day I left Portland, the Sun finally came out.  It was beautiful.  That afternoon I headed back to the airport and I began to see that it was not the rain that was blocking my vision, it was my sight.  My struggles to see clearly in the rain actually helped me see the truth… it brought to my attention that I could not see the signs even in the sunlight and that I needed to do something about it.

My eye doctor said that I hadn’t realized my vision had changed because most of my driving was done in comfortable situations, places that were familiar enough to me that I didn’t need to read the street signs; I knew where I wanted to go and how I wanted to get there.  He said that my vision was not even close to being bad enough to need glasses to drive, but that I could get glasses if I wanted…it was up to me.  I didn’t want glasses, but I also didn’t want to struggle seeing the signs I needed to see when finding myself in uncomfortable situations or unfamiliar territory.

While driving home for the first time after picking up my glasses I was very impressed that the city had driven a street sweeper pretty much all of the 9 miles from the church to my house.  When I got home I commented to Tricia about how the streets had been swept so well that I could see the definition or detail in the asphalt.  She laughed at me and said the streets had not been swept, but that now I could see what others with clear vision could see.  I didn’t know what I was missing…it was like going from a black and white TV to high definition techacolor. 

In our relationship with God, our vision problems have more to do with the vision of our awareness then our eyesight itself.

The circular relationship of God and God’s people is still going on today.  We have moments of pure joy and Grace that strengthen the way we perceive God working in our lives.  These moments are heavenly and they boost our faith….But then at some point life throws something at us that catches us off guard.  It is during these times that we sometimes feel that it is somehow God’s doing; maybe God is testing us, (you know the saying, “God only gives us what we can handle”), or maybe God is punishing us for something we did wrong, or maybe God has just forgotten about us and left us abandoned in our own struggles. 

Today’s Old Testament lesson is just that…it is a lesson.  It shows us that God does fulfill the promises made, even the promises made through his son, Jesus.  Jesus tells us that he will be with us always and that the Holy Spirit will guide us through our journeys, no matter how easy or hard they might seem at the time.  A loving God does not cause pain and suffering, but embraces those who are suffering and comforts them by giving them what they need to continue though the situation. 

The challenge for all of us is to keep the vision of our hearts open and focused on God in Christ…  We need to choose to see the signs, even when we feel all is lost and we need to remember that as members of the Body of Christ we are never alone.

Blessed be the name of God.