MOUNT MORIAH – Place of sacrifice

Readings: Psalm 13, Romans 6:12-23, Matthew 10:40-42, Genesis 22:1-14
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on June 29th, 2014

A printable PDF file can be found here

This morning’s scripture reading gave us the familiar, but  shocking, account of God’s call for Abraham to sacrifice his son of divine promise, Isaac. What kind of God would ask that of anybody? What kind of father would consider actually going through with such an act?

In our contemporary setting, it is probably this aspect of the story that troubles us more than others; that Abraham is prepared to kill his child and do so with the justification that “God told him” to do it. At first glance it seems scandalous to suggest that we can learn anything from this passage about the love of God or the responsibility of those who put their faith in God.

But we need to dig deeper. We need to allow this account to speak to us from within its’ historical context, not interpret it according to the morality and expectations of the 21st Century.  This is not an account that seeks to justify the abuse of children. On the contrary the climax of the story is the fact that Abraham does not go through with the murder of his son.

As far as revealing the character of God, this passage certainly suggests that God is more 'unknowable' and 'unpredictable' and a lot less ‘safer’ than the Deity we sometimes seek to define and imprison within our carefully worded theologies and doctrines.

The core of this story is that it’s about sacrifice.  It suggests that to fulfill our destiny as the people of God,  requires surrendering our dreams to God. It is a passage echoed in the words of Jesus to His disciples “To find yourself, you have to lose yourself”.

Applying this bible passage to the story of our own lives, it suggests to us that if our dreams are ever to be fulfilled then we need to let go of them. This fly’s in the face of conventional wisdom which tells us that if we are going to achieve anything great in life we have to hold on to our dreams with all that we are!

Abraham, though possessed by a dream – a dream that he was to be the father of a great nation – a dream that through his son Isaac such things were to be fulfilled – Abraham was not to put his faith in the dream, but in the God who gave the dream. Abraham had to take a ‘hands off’ approach if ever that dream were to become a reality.

It’s a spiritual principle that is hard to see. We so easily confuse our own desires with what God desires for us. It’s a spiritual principle, that before God can truly use a gift God has given us, we have to be prepared to give it up.

In my own life the thing that comes to mind is music. I was weaned on the Beatles and in my teens loved to play in bands and dream of maybe one day making a bit of money out of it. Some of the folk I grew up with succeeded in doing just that.

Becoming a Christian didn’t mean my musical hopes went away. On the contrary I then had the desire to use my skills for God’s glory. This was back in the seventies where in the area of the United Kingdom I lived in the idea of Christian Contemporary music hadn’t yet been dreamed up.  So I formed a Christian band... and everything went really well and I thanked God for giving me this ministry of music which excited me and seemed to be working.

No sooner had such thoughts entered my mind then the whole thing fell apart. I felt God calling me to the ministry of the Word and Sacrament and I didn’t see how the two could work together. And I was really mad about it. This had been what I lived for up till then. The band. The music. I loved it!

This is what happened. I reached a point where I got on my knees and said to God, 'O.K. Lord. I don’t see the sense in this. I don’t understand why you would gift me with something and then take it away... but go on... take it… I’ll rip up every song I’ve ever written, I’ll sell the guitar and the instruments and I’ll never play a note again.'

I wasn’t fooling. I wasn’t playing games. I loved the music, but I loved God more. I sensed that spiritually if I didn’t sacrifice what I felt was one of the most blessed gifts God had given to me, then I could no longer be of use to God or anybody else. So I was convinced that I had to give it all up.

Having reached that point where I was prepared to give the whole thing up, it was as though God said, 'Just Testing. Just wanted to see what was really important in your life. Music or me! Now that we’ve set that straight, keep the guitar, O.K?'

The crazy thing is that since that time hardly a season has gone by when music hasn’t played a part of what I’ve been doing. I find myself playing music, writing songs, leading worship at Retreats, playing in church... in all sorts of unexpected little ways music has been a part of the ministry God has called me to.

Once I’d abandoned the dream of music being my ministry, God was able to use my musical abilities in the way God wanted to. As long as my hand was on the wheel, it was an idol, a sacred cow, a passion not under God’s complete control. I had to let it go!

Something of that seemed to have been going on with Abraham. He had to let go of the dream before it could ever be fulfilled. Nothing could be allowed to take the place in the heart that God was meant to occupy. Abraham needed to see that. We need to see it too.  So I suggest to you that this account is about 'Seeing God'. Through his willingness to sacrifice what was closest to his heart Abraham broke through to a deeper revelation of God and to a heightened sense of God’s presence around him and within him.

The action takes place specifically on a mountain named ‘Moriah’. In Hebrew Moriah translates as ‘The Lord Provides’ or ‘The Lord Sees'. On a number of different occasions in the passage the idea of ‘seeing’ is mentioned. This ‘seeing’ is both on the part of God and the part of Abraham.

It is God who 'sees' the place and the content of Abraham’s sacrifice. It is God who directs Abraham towards that place. It is God who looks deep into the heart of Abraham and 'sees' that this test of faith that he is being subjected to will result in Abraham having a deeper fellowship with God than he had ever experienced. Abraham’s 'seeing' comes by the way of obedience to what he believes God is showing to him. Abraham goes to the place God has shown him. Abraham recognizes the importance of sacrifice in this meeting he has with God.

At the stories conclusion, Abraham clearly sees that God did not require the sacrifice of Isaac, and it cements his trust in the God whom he had now encountered in a deeper and more powerful way than ever before.  In the context of what I was saying earlier about my own dreams, music was my ‘Isaac’. I had to be bought to a place where I was prepared to sacrifice it, before God could use it.

As you think about your life, do you have an 'Isaac'? Is there a dream that is in your heart that takes precedence over doing the will of God?  Where’s your passion? What has God gifted you with? And … what if God wants something more for you? Are you prepared to lay your heart on the altar and do with your life whatever God wants?

Or are we setting the conditions? Is our commitment to God along the lines of  'God, I’ll do whatever you want me to, I’ll go wherever you want me to, I’ll be whatever you want me to… just as long as I get to set the terms and define the conditions and specify the game-plan!' Whose hand is on the driving wheel of our life? Who’s steering our course? Who’s the Lord? Who’s the Master?

I do not believe that God would call us to do anything as unspeakable as sacrificing one of our children.  I do though believe that God calls us to sacrifice our dreams on the altar of His love, in order that our whole lives can be under God’s care and guidance. Mount Moriah was the place of sacrifice.

As most of you know, we have a congregational meeting this morning after worship that has to do with myself being in transition from one church to another. Letting go of what you love is never easy. I have been greatly blessed by this congregation. You are a wonderful group of people and do some amazing things. It has been hard to even think about leaving. But time moves on, circumstances change and we have to go where we feel God is leading us as we sense the guidance of God's Holy Spirit. That's never easy.  It often involves sacrifice that leads us toward deeper commitment and fellowship with God.

So I pray for us all that there may be “Mount Moriah Moments” in our spiritual journey's. That there may be those moments when we realize that God sees and knows what is best for us and we, correspondingly are prepared to give our best to God.

To God's name be the glory. Amen.

The Reverend  Adrian J. Pratt B.D.