Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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Abraham, as you will remember, was 100 years old at his point in his life. And literally for decades God had been promising Abraham land and descendents, and so far he had neither! The land in question was what we call "the holy land," "the land of milk and honey," roughly modern-day Israel. This was the land in which Abraham had sojourned, as a nomad, for much of his life. Now he would own it, according to the promise, not just be a passer through. Abraham's descendents, according to God's other promise, were to populate the earth -- they would be "as many as the stars in the sky and the sands of the sea." But God had not yet deigned to give old Abraham and Sarah even one child! It now seemed certain they would die without heirs. And then along came Isaac, precious child of his mother and father's old age, bearer of the covenant. And, just as things seemed finally to be going well, God orders Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. (The Jews never practiced human sacrifice, but some of their neighbors did, so the idea that a god might demand human blood would not have been as unimaginable to them as it is to us.) In response to God's command, an obedient Abraham, full of grief, takes the boy (this precious child on whom everything depends) to Mt. Mariah, and prepares to give him to God. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. At the last minute, as you know, the Lord stops him and provides a ram for the sacrifice.

In truth, we hate this story. It runs afoul of every modern value: that God should demand human sacrifice in the first place, that he would have so little regard for a child's life, that he would toy with Abraham in such a heartless way. We often skip this Chapter in Genesis. We'd rather not go there, as they say.

But rather than avoid this ancient story, let's look it in the eye. We must, for it is the rock on which all three great monotheistic world religions are built. Judaism can never forget this man, whose faith and trust in Yahweh was so great that he was willing to obey an unthinkable command. Muslims (although they believe Ishmael, Abraham earlier child by his wife's maid, and father of the Arab people, was the son to be sacrificed) - Muslims have built one of their greatest mosques (The Dome of the Rock) over the place in modern Jerusalem where Abraham is said to have offered Ishmael. Christians inherit all the Jewish wonder and awe, and also see a clear pre-figuring of Christ, the Son carrying wood on his back - being offered on a hill, by his Father, as a sacrifice. None of us can avoid the story. When the going gets tough….

Sacrifice is the heart and soul of our faith. The Christian message, itself, is a message of sacrificial love: God's for us and ours for others. Not just "love," you understand - that's Hollywood - but sacrificial love - that's Jesus. As one preacher said, we prefer God "lite." L-I-T-E You know: "tastes great," "less filling." We would rather emphasize what seems to be the positive part of God, the part which encourages us to develop our skills and express ourselves; and play down that seemingly negative part that calls for giving, for obedience, for losing, and serving, and dying. But they go together, live and sacrifice. They encompass every in our faith. They are the alpha and omega. And that's the point of my sermon today. There is no growth in love (and God is love) without suffering and sacrifice.

It's the Christian secret, you see -- something Christians understand and others often don't - that we are fulfilled even as we are poured out. People developing their full potential, and making real contributions to the world, often suffer, often give until they have no more to give. Composers, artists, poets, revolutionaries, saints, great teachers. We know their stories. We glory in their accomplishments - often the high-water-marks of human endeavor. But we don't like to think about the prices they paid. They had plans, and by discipline and fortitude, they stuck to those plans. They knew where they were going. They refused to live what Etty Hillesum called "accidental lives." And loves with purpose and meaning often involve great sacrifice. If Abraham was to be the father of God's people, there could be no question about his faith - no lingering doubts. The whole history of Israel would be built on Abraham's faith. If Jesus was to be the savior, there would be a price to pay: obedience and suffering. That is how good comes, and no other way, if we understand his message.

I got a crown up in'a that kingdom, Ain'a that good news!
I got a crown up in'a that kingdom, Ain'a that good news!
(Now listen, if you want to know what the good news is.)
I'm gonna to lay down this world, gonna shoulder up my cross.
Gonna to take it home to my Jesus, Ain'a that good news!

How? How could it possibly be good news that we should lay down the world and shoulder up our crosses? Because that is the way to spiritual growth, and that is the way to heaven. And no other way. When the going gets tough….

The kind of suffering, servanthood, sacrifice Jesus talked about, and exemplified, was neither being a "doormat" (the passive acceptance of abuse), nor was it sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice…two ways to get derailed in all this. Doormats aren't saints. They are cowards, afraid to assert themselves. But they do, sometimes, hide their cowardice behind distorted Christian values ("I do whatever my mother wants me to do, because the Bible says to honor your father and your mother." That's not what it means. "I let my neighbor throw trash on my lawn, and don't say anything, because the Bible says "Blessed are the peacemakers.") Come on. Jesus was not a doormat like that. And neither were the Disciples and Apostles, and the other early Christians. They stood up with great courage for what was right.

And sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice (wearing a hair shirt under ones clothing, or whipping oneself, or fasting excessively) is seldom a good idea. Remember, the Christian message is sacrificial love. So it's not just sacrifice but sacrifice in the service of love we're after. Most parents don't begin parenthood dying to sacrifice for their children, but, in their love for their children, they sacrifice a lot. And they grow, personally, and spiritually in that sacrificial love. Athletes, composers, artists don't wake up each morning and say, "What can I sacrifice for my sport today, or for my music, or for my painting?" but in the course of that day they will sacrifice a great deal, and even suffer for their love. We don't suffer for the sake of suffering. We suffer and sacrifice for our loves, our passions.

Time is a hard commodity to sacrifice today, even in the service of love. Husbands and wives don't have time for each other - or for the kids. Doctors don't have time for their patients. Lawyers for their clients. Ministers for their people. When a machine answers my telephone call, and rattles off a long menu of choices, I get a sneaking feelings that someone has decided I'm not worth a real human being's time. For time is money. But, if you want to be in the service of love, as a follower of Jesus, you have to be willing to give, to lose some time. Sometimes the intellect has to be sacrificed in the service of love. The people who need our help may not be the brightest, may not be able to carry on a scintillating conversation with us, may not be a challenge for us mentally. We may even find them boring. But, in their service, we are called upon to set aside our educations, our credentials, our sophistications. That can be a major sacrifice. We put a lot of stock in these things. They define us in some perverted way.

Sometimes, in true sacrificial love, we have to take risks and be willing to look foolish if we're wrong. True love is always risky. Someone said there are three kinds of people in every church: there are risk takers who reach out with new and innovative ideas; there are caretakers who always defend the status quo, and then there are undertakers, who bury everything, especially every new idea. Why aren't more of us risk takers? Because we might be wrong, and others - the caretakers and undertakers -- will laugh at us! So what? We're not called to be popular - we're called to love, sacrificially. When the going gets tough….

Abraham trusted God, even to this terrible moment, and God made him the father of many nations. Faith entails sacrifice. It is in sacrifice that we bear witness to our faith, and it is in sacrifice that we grow. Ain't that some kin'a good news!