The Back Story
In our Scripture reading, we read the account of Sarah’s death and how Abraham
took care of her burial. Let’s look at the back story leading up to the end of
their lives.
The story begins in Genesis 12. God calls Abram and
Sarai, and they leave their home in Haran for Egypt. They go with God’s promise
in their ears, that God would make them into a great nation through whom all
people on earth will be blessed. In chapter 13, Abram leaves Egypt with Sarai
and settles in Canaan, near his nephew Lot who had accompanied them.
Chapter 14 contains further adventures in Canaan,
leading to Abram’s encounter with Melchizedek, who gives him a special
blessing. In chapter 15, God repeats and deepens God’s covenant with Abram. In
chapter 16, Sarai is frustrated with not having any children. She gives her
servant, Hagar, to Abraham so that she might have a child as a substitute for
Sarai. When Hagar conceives, Sarai is jealous and drives her away, but God
sends Hagar back to Abram and Sarai with God’s blessing on her child. Her son
is then born, Ishmael, Abraham’s oldest son.
Chapter 17: God renews the covenant and promises
Abraham and Sarah their own son (Abraham is now 99 years old), the son of the
covenant. God also institutes circumcision as a sign of the covenant. Chapter
18 tells of a further promise of a son, even though Sarah is now past
menopause. The son’s name will be Isaac, echoing Sarah’s laughter at the
thought that she would have a child in her old age.
Chapters 19 and 20 break the narrative with some other
miscellaneous stories from Abraham’s life, which brings us to the story that
concerns us this morning. Chapter 21, then, is the fulfillment of the
long-awaited promise: Isaac is born, the son of Abraham and Sarah. You would
think that this great event would lead to a joyful climax, but the worst is yet
to come!
Chapter 22. One that I have not preached on before. A deeply
painful chapter. It begins:
After these
things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the
land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains
that I shall show you.”
I wonder what Sarah would have thought. She might have
thought: “It was bad enough when we were young that you took me away from
friends and relatives to travel through Egypt to Canaan. Egypt! Telling Pharoah
I was your sister! It was bad enough that you made Hagar like another wife, and
she had a son before I did. It was bad enough that I spent my whole life
waiting for God to keep the promise that he made to you. And now that finally
things are working out, you want to take our son and sacrifice him on an altar
in the mountains? Burn him up? Never!”
The text doesn’t tell us if Abraham told Sarah what
was happening. It just says that he got up early in the morning and left with
Isaac and two servants. I’ll bet you Sarah was a night person and never saw
them go. All she knows is that Abraham and Isaac have gone off on a father-son
bonding adventure. And what an adventure!
Isaac has his suspicions. “Dad, where’s the lamb for
the sacrifice?” “God will provide.” They go up the mountain, and Abraham
changes his answer, “You are the sacrifice.” Isaac was a healthy young lad, but
it seems he didn’t run away. He allowed his aged father to tie him up and lay
him on the altar. Finally, God speaks. “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord:
Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I
will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars
of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall
possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations
of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”
And God did indeed provide the substitute sacrifice so that Isaac lived, and
Jacob his son became Israel, and their descendants became the children of
Israel, and the Messiah was born into their people, and the whole world is
saved – because Abraham went on this crazy father-son bonding adventure.
It’s a wonderful climax, but also a deeply
unsatisfying ending. The next verses suggest as much. Abraham goes back, but he
doesn’t go home to Sarah. Perhaps he thought that trying to explain to her what
he was willing to do was too dangerous. In any case, he settled in Beer Sheba,
some 40 miles or so from their home in Kiriath Arba. Chapter 22 tells us that
Sarah stayed there and died some years later. They may have still lived
together, but the way the text reads led the rabbis to speculate. Maybe they
got divorced, or maybe just separated. Maybe Abraham took Keturah has his wife
instead of Sarah (chapter 25). We don’t know. What we do know is that the story
of Abraham and Sarah is full of twists and turns, dangers and difficulties,
possibilities and problems. And in it, God keeps God’s promise.
What Do We Do with This Story?
What does the story of Abraham and Sarah say to us
today? A first basic point is to realise that the stories of the patriarchs are
not morality plays. They do not simply tell us how we should act. So, we don’t
read how Abram passed off Sarai his wife as his sister and think that this was
a good idea. Don’t do it! We don’t hear how Abraham took Isaac up the mountain to
sacrifice him and think, “that’s a good idea!” Don’t do it!
Instead, we listen to the story for what God is doing
and ask what that action says to us. Here’s one thought. When God first called
Abram and Sarai, they had no idea who God was. They knew about the gods of Babylon
and the other countries around them, but they had no idea about the Creator,
the one who made them, God who wants all people to find life in close
relationship with him. “The God who saves” was a mystery to them.
As we read about Abraham and then the Children of
Israel, they were a tribal people who mistrusted everyone around them – a lot
like the tribes of Afghanistan today. They knew you can only trust close
family. Somehow, God had to break through their insular worldview and reshape
them so that God’s Messiah could come into the world. The first step was to
gain their full and total allegiance. That is what happens by the end of the
story.
Here’s a second thought. Abraham and Sarah lived
through crises and dangers greater than anything I have ever faced. As we read
the story, we see that God was present at every step – even in the most
horrible moment of all as Abraham thought he must sacrifice his son. I take
comfort from these two thoughts. If God can work patiently among the tribal
family of Abraham, God can work in Canada today. If God is present even when
Abraham is faced with the worst test of all, God is with us whatever we face in
our lives.
John 12
The climax of the story comes when God says, “You have
obeyed my voice.” This little statement provides us with a connection to the
story in John’s Gospel. The passage we read comes just after Jesus raised
Lazarus from the dead, a foretaste of his own more effective and complete
resurrection. After raising Lazarus, Jesus entered Jerusalem for the Passover
Feast: We call this “the triumphal entry”.
With all the excitement from raising Lazarus and from
the entry into Jerusalem, many people crowded around, trying to get close to
Jesus. Among them were some Greeks. It is not clear if they were Jews, or just
interested people wanting to see what Judaism was all about. They found Philip,
one of Jesus’ disciples, and asked if he could take them to Jesus. Philip went
to Jesus to see, and Jesus replied in a curious way. He didn’t say yes or no. Instead, he said, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain
of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if
it dies it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who
hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me
must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.”
Essentially, Jesus
said what he always said when someone asked him how to be saved: “Follow me.
Take up your cross and follow me.” That is what Abraham had done, although he
came so many years before. He followed God all his life. He wanted to see God,
and that meant following God wherever God led. The Greeks said, “We want to see
Jesus.” That meant following Jesus, even to the cross.
The Point
I think that’s the
point of the whole thing. Those who want to see Jesus must follow him; and
those who follow Jesus will see him.
I do some visiting on
a regular basis, especially when people face some sort of health crisis. I
wonder sometimes what each one wants. We want healing of course, but more and
more I am convinced that what most of us want most is to know that God is
there. We want God to make sense of things for us. We want God to make life
come out right, to make everything fair and good. We want God to answer our
questions. But most of all that means simply we want to know that God is there.
I am also convinced
that having our questions answered and our needs met means meeting God. The
experience that Abraham had on the mountain was that he met God. He followed
God all his life, and he met God. His life wasn’t magically sorted out. The
problems with Sarah remained. The weirdness of taking his son up the mountain
was still weird. But he met God. Just as the Greeks at the Passover wanted to
see Jesus, he saw God.
C.S. Lewis wrote a book at the end of his life, his
last book, called Till We Have Faces. The main character goes through
all sorts of trials throughout the book and pleads with God for answers, and she
gets no answer. At the end of the book, when she finally meets God face to
face, she says, “I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself
the answer. Before your face questions die away.” You are yourself the answer.
I think that is what Abraham experienced on the mountain. God did not answer his
questions. God was the answer.
I don’t mean “Jesus is the answer” in a trite way that
simplifies the difficult issues of life. Such simplifying is usually false. I
mean something like Paul said in Colossians 1: “He is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven
and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for
him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” In
Jesus life holds together, coheres, makes sense – not because he answers our
questions, but because Jesus is life, and life makes sense when it is lived in
Jesus.
A Conclusion
Vachel Lindsay has a moving poem titled “General William
Booth Enters into Heaven”, which captures something of my deep desire – our
deep desire – to see Jesus.
Booth led
boldly with his big bass drum—
(Are you washed in the blood of the
Lamb?)
The Saints smiled gravely and they
said: “He’s come.”
(Are you washed in the blood of the
Lamb?)
Walking lepers followed, rank on
rank,
Lurching bravoes from the ditches
dank,
Drabs from the alleyways and drug
fiends pale—
Minds still passion-ridden,
soul-powers frail:—
Vermin-eaten saints with mouldy
breath,
Unwashed legions with the ways of
Death—
(Are you washed in the blood of the
Lamb?)
The poem continues for several verses describing the
way that Booth and his band march around Heaven as though they own the place.
Then Jesus works the work of Heaven on them.
Jesus came
from out the court-house door,
Stretched his hands above the
passing poor.
Booth saw not, but led his queer
ones there
Round and round the mighty
court-house square.
Yet in an instant all that blear
review
Marched on spotless, clad in raiment
new.
The lame were straightened, withered
limbs uncurled
And blind eyes opened on a new,
sweet world.
Several more verses describe the transformation and
wonder that comes in the New Heavens and the New Earth. And then the final
verse.
And when
Booth halted by the curb for prayer
He saw his Master thro’ the
flag-filled air.
Christ came gently with a robe and
crown
For Booth the soldier, while the
throng knelt down.
He saw King Jesus. They were face to
face,
And he knelt a-weeping in that holy
place.
Are you washed in the blood of the
Lamb?
I cannot read that final verse without tears – “You
are yourself the answer, and before your face all questions die away.” I
believe that was Abraham’s experience, and that is God’s gift to each of us in
the perplexities and struggles of this life.
Steinbach Mennonite Church
22 September 2024
Texts
Genesis 23: 1-4, 17-20.
Sarah’s
Death and Burial
23 Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years; this was
the length of Sarah’s life. 2 And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba,
that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah
and to weep for her. 3 Abraham rose up from beside his dead
and said to the Hittites, 4 “I am a stranger and an alien
residing among you; give me property among you for a burying place, so that I
may bury my dead out of my sight.” ...
17 So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the
east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that
were in the field, throughout its whole area, passed 18 to
Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, in the presence of all
who went in at the gate of his city. 19 After this, Abraham
buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah facing Mamre, that
is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan. 20 The field and the cave
that is in it passed from the Hittites into Abraham’s possession as a burying
place.
John 12: 20-26
Some
Greeks Wish to See Jesus
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival
were some Greeks. 21 They came to Philip, who was from
Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip
went and told Andrew, then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 Jesus
answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24
Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth
and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit. 25
Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in
this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves
me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever
serves me, the Father will honor.
Sermon in a Sentence
One of our deepest desires is to make sense of life – especially
the confusing parts – which can only happen in a profound encounter with God.
Living Our Faith Questions
The story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 is about
as difficult as it can get. What did Abraham and Isaac's trek up the mountain
do to Sarah? What happened to Abraham and Sarah's relationship as a result?
Where can we turn when our lives are turned so completely upside down?