God is Enough

Genesis 22: 1-14
Matthew 10: 40-42

God asks a lot from the people that dare to believe in something greater than themselves. Many nonbelievers think being a Christian is all about love and forgiveness. They aren’t wrong, but it’s not the whole picture to what it means to be a faithful, active disciple of Jesus Christ. Throughout the last 3.5 years I have made it a point over and over again to remind all of you that we are a called people. That Jesus expects us to continue to follow him whether we are 8 years old or 80.

Helen Smith used to ask me all the time, “I don’t know why I’m still here. What is the point of my existing in this place, living out my life in a chair?” And I reminded her of the many people who stopped by to see her smile and grab a piece of candy she kept out for them. I reminded her of her roommate, who for the longest time was comatose and so whenever she spoke, Helen wrote down what she said and read it to her family when they’d come visiting every week. And then, when the lady came out of her comatose state, they became good friends that talked late into the night. Helen brought people hope until the day she died. Helen was a faithful disciple.

It wasn’t an easy choice that Helen made. She had her bad days. She had her doubting days. And then I’d come to visit and I’d remind her of these things and she’d say, “I guess you’re right. I never thought of it that way.” She’d remind ME of my reason for being a pastor – to help people see things in a new way. It’s a circle of trust and faith and doubt and pain and back to love and forgiveness and trust and faith. It’s a circle that we need others to help us with because being a Christian is about being in community with one another. You cannot be a Christian by sitting home alone.

Abraham and Sarah’s story is one of my favorites in the bible. It’s actually the first sermon I ever preached to all of you, my candidating sermon. The idea of this older couple, in the twilight of their lives, daring to believe such an audacious claim made by a God that doesn’t fulfill the promise made to them for another 20 years just astounds me. Their faith is a miracle. Their lives are a testament to what it means to follow wherever God would lead, no matter how crazy it seems to everyone else and sometimes to ourselves as well!

Then they have this beautiful, miraculous child and God isn’t done testing their faith. Hadn’t they been through enough with Hagar and with 20 years of waiting, and Sarah’s bitterness and Abraham’s foolishness? But no, God wasn’t done teaching them. He calls out to Abraham and tells him he must sacrifice his child, his precious Isaac that he’s waited 90 years to receive.

He didn’t tell Sarah what God had called him to do, you can bet on that! He didn’t even tell Isaac for when Isaac asks where the sacrifice is Abraham merely replies, “God will provide” to him. Abraham tells Isaac to lay down upon the altar and because he loves his father, he obeys. Abraham ties him down the way he would an animal and raises the knife high above his son’s heart.

What thoughts were racing through his mind? Were tears running down his face? Was the knife slick with his sweat as his arm trembled from the regret and pain he was feeling? Could he look upon his son’s face as he went to plunge the knife into his heart or did he look away, unable to bear seeing the life seep from his son’s eyes?

We know the ending of this story is a happy one. Abraham and Isaac had no idea. All we know is that Abraham’s faith is so radical and intense that he’s willing to let go of the one blessing he’s waited his whole life to receive. Are we that faithful to God?

I want you to think of your greatest blessing. Is it your child? Is it your family? Is it your career? Is it your ability to provide a roof over your head when you grew up dirt poor? Is it the respect of the community after a life of disrespect from your peers? Is it your ability to read and write and educate yourself when no one thought you’d amount to anything? Picture your blessing in your mind. And now picture being asked to let it go; to destroy it in the most horrific and intimate of ways.

Could you do it? Could you let go of your greatest blessing because God has asked you to?

Why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son? Well, this is the same God that sacrificed his own Son, Jesus for all of us. Is that why God did it? Was it a tit for tat sort of thing? Is God sadistic and cruel and vengeful? No.

God asked Abraham to remember that Isaac is a blessing provided by God. God was asking Abraham if now that he had received the ultimate gift from God, would he continue to follow and be faithful to what God has called him to do? God was asking if Isaac was gone, would Abraham also be gone or was Abraham’s faith and belief in God so strong that nothing could break the bond between God and him?

The point of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is NOT the blessings we receive. It’s not just about the love and forgiveness and good things. God calls us to be faithful based on the one blessing that God gave the world – the blessing of His Son who died to bring us into an eternal relationship with the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit. And that’s what we ask ourselves today: If God asked us to give up our greatest gift, the best blessing we ever received in our lives – would we, could we obey?

God doesn’t actually ask us to give up what we’ve been given, but God does ask us to love God more than we love everything and everyone else in our lives. The only way to love God more is to be willing to let go of what keeps us from God. If you love your spouse more than God – then your spouse is your god. If you love your child more than you love God – then your child is your god. If you love your career or your car or your friends or alcohol, gambling, and drugs more than you do God – then they are your god. Whatever you don’t think you can’t live without and refuse to part with – that is a barrier between you and your Father in heaven.

It doesn’t mean you have to give it up forever, it’s about being willing to sacrifice the temporary for the eternal. It means giving your blessings into GOD’S hands to keep rather than trying to hold on to them yourself. What God has given, God will protect. We need to let go of our possessive hold and instead trust that Jesus has a purpose and plan for every one of us. Even the bad things have a purpose because from ashes of our old life and ways, gives birth the beautiful gifts of tomorrow.

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means trusting that God is all the blessing we need in our lives, and everyone/everything else is icing on the cake. And we all know cake is sweet enough, which means God is enough without the extra blessings. When we understand and act like God is all we need – we are free of worry and guilt and fear as we try to hold and protect what God has blessed us with. We are free to give those blessings back to God for God to protect and hold onto. We are free to just be disciples of Jesus and we will be happier for it.

Amen.