2026 06 28
Pentecost 5A Proper 8
Genesis
22:1-14 Psalm 13 Romans 6:12-23 Matthew 10:40-42
Last week’s readings
were tough, but this week is my least favourite reading. It is the one about God testing Abraham by
asking him to take his only son, go to the land of Moriah and sacrifice him. This
is just such a revolting idea. As a
mother, my instinct is to cry, “surely not, Lord. This is a detestable thing!” How could this be something that God told
Abraham to do? What on earth is going on
here?
We know something of
Abraham’s thought process at the time of this event, from New Testament
writings. The letter to the Hebrews tells
us that Abraham figured that God could raise the dead. Abraham knew that God’s promise to make him
into a great nation was to be fulfilled through Isaac, and Isaac was already a
living miracle, as he was the son of an old man and born of a barren woman, who
was 90 years old at the time. If God
could enable a barren 90 year old woman to bear this child, then God could
surely raise Isaac from the dead.
Something else to
note is that at the time of this journey, Isaac was NOT a child. The wording in the original text that is
translated a “boy” can mean boy or man.
It was Isaac who carried the wood for the sacrifice. Which tells us this was the action of a
strong, young man. What’s more, is that
this capable, strong man was travelling with his VERY elderly father. Various sources put Abraham’s age at
approximately 115 to 125 years old, and Isaac was likely between 15 and 37
years old” So, what is really going
on here?
God does not simply
say, “Take Isaac”, but instead, he specifically tells Abraham to take his only
son, who he loves. Abraham had a life-long
relationship with God. Through all
that Abraham experienced, he had always trusted God, but he had grown to completely
trust him. Abraham’s wife, however, saw
that not only was she barren but after going through menopause, she figured she
would help bring about God’s promise. The
New Testament tells us that the resulting son, Ishmael, represents the law, and
the things we do FOR God -often resulting in us assuming that we are good
enough to earn God’s favour. Abraham
loved Ishmael, but God did not recognise Ishmael as Abraham’s legitimate son of
the covenant. Notice that our reading
today tells Abraham to take his only son Isaac.
Isaac, through his miraculous birth is a gift from
God. He and his descendants ONLY exist
because of God. As Abraham goes to
offer Isaac to God, God gifts Isaac back to Abraham again – the miraculous gift
of life a second time. God himself
provides a substitute for the life of Isaac and figuratively Abraham received
Isaac back from the dead.
Our second reading
today follows on from last week’s readings explaining that we should consider
ourselves to have died to sin through Christ.
And this week we read, “For sin will have no dominion over you, since
you are not under law but under grace.”
In reality, we still
struggle with sin – we become entangled much like that ram that was caught in
the thicket. Sin is anything that is not
of faith…. Anything that falls short of perfection…. Anything that falls short
of the glory of God – and in reality that is all of us. However, we are not under law, but we are
under grace. Spiritually, we are set
free from sin.
The best way to
explain this is to liken the law to gravity and grace to aerodynamics. We all are subject to the reality of gravity
and sin! Sin is anything that is not of
faith, therefore, failing to trust in God is the origin of sin. The first sin in the garden of Eden began as
doubt and lack of trust and then it became a conscious choice to go against
God. Sin not only severs our
relationship with God, but with each other when we covet, murder and the like –
but ultimately it stems from a failure to trust in and follow God. We all, many times a day, might sin in this
way. How can we overcome the gravity of
the situation? – Pun intended! We need a
new way… aerodynamics… But how does this new way come into being?
Abraham completely
trusted God – He did not doubt. God
had promised to make him into a great nation through Isaac. Abraham already knew, and told the men who
were travelling with them, that he and Isaac would be back. He figured that God would raise Isaac from
the dead. He also told Isaac that God
would provide the lamb. The story of
Abraham and Isaac is a prophetic sign of God the father and God the Son.
Isaac was carrying
the wood for the sacrifice on his back, and they were travelling up the mount
of Moriah. Isaac was obedient to the
father and trusting. He was strong and
capable, but he was “obedient unto death”.
Does all this sound like someone else we know?
The mount of Moriah
is the place that would eventually be the site of the first temple – a place
where sacrifices were offered. Then that temple was destroyed and another built
nearby. It is believed that this site,
of the sacrifice of Isaac, the site for the foundation of the first Temple, …was
also the site for the cross of Jesus
In our reading about
Isaac, a lamb or ram, was provided in place of Isaac. We could quite correctly refer to this as the
Lamb of God. A lamb that died in the
place of Isaac. Isaac was a miraculous
birth, but he was also miraculously “born again” - he received life again, through the Lamb of
God.
At this point, Isaac
becomes an example of our spiritual life.
Through the “Lamb of God”, we also gain life. God knew us in the womb and gave us the gift
of this life, and through Christ we receive the gift of eternal life. Our human ego will often think that we can be
good enough for God to love and accept us, but the fact is that even the best
of us fail. We are figuratively bound –
powerless. How do we escape from the law
of gravity – the law of sin? Our very
existence is a gift from God and not something that we earn. That undeserved gift from God is called
Grace, and we enter into it by trusting/ believing God…. By faith… and by
accepting that lamb of God who was sacrificed in our place.
The way of grace can
be likened to the law of aerodynamics.
It isn’t that sin doesn’t exist anymore – You don’t have to look far to
see that sin is alive and active in our world. But, for us who have given our lives to God,
Jesus is the aeroplane… saving us from the gravity of sin in our own lives. He
is the one who is perfect and can fly above.
We enter into him through baptism, and accept his life. It is a gift that we did nothing to deserve –
undeserved favour is the definition for Grace.
Many people after
hearing this great news get rather confused.
They grasp the truth that no matter what we do, God’s grace has saved
us, but in their newfound spiritual freedom they can sometimes think that God
is accepting and happy with them no matter what they do, which is why this
letter to the Romans explains; “What
then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!”
This week I witnessed
an example of this on social media. A
comment was made which was basically saying, that sinning is OK because God
will forgive. This kind of attitude was rife
in the early Christian communities. They
had discovered the freedom we have in Christ – the aerodynamic aspect - and the long reaching extent of God’s grace,
but they didn’t get it. This isn’t and
should never be an excuse to go on sinning.
God rescued us, not
because we are good enough, but because he loves us, and now, he calls us to
love each other. To care for each other-
to see each human as a precious child of God.
We might do this by various good works, but it is important to note that
it is never our giving or doing that saves us.
We give and we do because God has loved and rescued us.
We are the body of
Christ and so the rescue and deliverance of those who are suffering or in
danger, is an automatic part of our union with Christ. What life, that Christ died to save, is God
calling us personally to advocate for today?
Let’s pray and obey.
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