John 1:25-29 on September 7th, 2025
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
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So I've got a few questions. The binding of Isaac is a story from the Bible that most of us are familiar with, but even so it is one that we readily gloss over. We don't talk too much about it at church and definitely not in Sunday school. And for good reason, it's terrible. Shockingly, God asks Abraham to give up his only son after the repeated promise that he would be the father of a great nation. That his descendants would number the stars. And that promise had just started to be fulfilled with the birth of Isaac as we hear at the beginning of our lesson today. And now God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son.
This is not at all how we view God and not what we think that God would be asking of anyone, let alone someone so important to the covenant. Last week we heard about creation. The God who creates life and wants it to flourish, who continues to create new ways and share life and love. But now God wants to take life away. We thought God would be totally against something so barbaric. And think about Abraham's situation. Does he disobey God? Or does he kill Isaac? Both options seem pretty bad.
So what do we do with this story? It's hard for many of us to see how this is okay. The story just brings so many questions. Where was Sarah during all this? Did Abraham tell her what he was going to do? What was Abraham thinking and feeling as he journeyed three days with his son? Did he have doubts? Did he want to turn back? Why didn't Abraham say anything to God in protest? After all, he had negotiated with God just a few chapters earlier over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Why not now? Why would God demand a child sacrificing the first place? Why would God test Abraham at this point in the story anyway? Was it for God's benefits or for Abraham's?
And here's the thing. None of those questions are new. They have been asked for generations. And here's another thing. None of those questions have easy answers. I want to assure you that it's okay to ask difficult questions. It's okay to question long held beliefs. It's okay to question if the way things were done then are the way things need to be now. Because God is big. God can handle those questions. And questions don't show doubt as much as a desire to understand, to stay committed, to be in relationship. Questions are a way to engage with God and take that relationship more seriously.
So in an effort to engage with God and to live into the relationship more seriously, let's dig into that main question. Why? Why did God test Abraham? Did God need to learn something more about Abraham? Did God need to see more commitment, more faith, more gusto out of this father of all the nations? Did God need Abraham to realize who was really in charge? Valid questions. But the truth is we're never really going to know why God tested Abraham. We wrestle with that question when we go through our own trials. In Abraham's scenario and in our own we may ask, was this a test? And if so, what was God hoping that we were going to do?
So right after the why comes another question that I think is more interesting. Did Abraham pass or fail the test? Maybe a more fruitful question. Not why, but what? What was Abraham supposed to do? Is sacrifice really what God wanted? Did God expect Abraham to obey wholeheartedly, repressing any paternal feelings toward this long, awaited, and promised son? Did God expect Abraham to ignore morals and ethics and instead commit murder? Or did God expect Abraham to ask some questions? To protest, to say, Lord, this can't be who you are. Because the sacrifice was stopped, it proves that killing isn't at all what God wants. While Abraham made a serve credit for his motivation and devotion, his actions were stopped and corrected in order to save a life. All God wanted really was for Abraham to stop being so wishy-washy about his trust in God.
So while Abraham often gets lifted up as a model of faith, in some ways I think he failed the test. He took everything that he had previously known about God, a God he trusted, a God of relationship, a God of covenant, of keeping promises, a life bringer, and Abraham threw it out the window. I wonder if we aren't guilty of the same thing. When we look at the violence around us, the endless shootings at schools and places of worship and university violence on trains, it seems that we as a people have taken what we know about God and set it aside. The God we worship is a God of life. The one who calls us to love our neighbor, the one who in Jesus shows us mercy and peace. Yet too often when these things happen, our debates cling to the wrong things. We don't pause to ask enough questions of ourselves, of others, of our leaders, or of what God is truly calling us to do in response. And because there are no easy, comfortable answers, we just tend to dig in instead of coming together.
So as violence continues, and it will, maybe the most faithful step is not returning to the same arguments, but to ask with humility and openness what God truly desires of us. And I think what we glean from our difficult story today is that God wants to save and preserve life. That is much more consistent with the God whom Abraham met way back in Genesis 12, who promised a child and descendants to old and barren people. And when God asked something of Abraham that contradicts who God is, Abraham failed to ask questions to gain new insight, insight which he now has through a traumatic experience. There's no doubt about it that this moment changed Abraham. He knows in the most profound of ways that life with God is a gift, and that God's blessing is freely bestowed, he did not need to do anything. God will provide generously and wondrously, and if Abraham had stopped to ask a question, maybe he would have seen that sooner.
Because what we see from beginning to end is that God is one of life, that God provides. God stops death and God gives covenant blessing. God isn't wrathful or demanding of sacrifice. This God provides, this God blesses, this God loves. And what did Abraham or we have to do to earn those things? Nothing. Our relationship with God is not about us giving us, doing us, sacrificing us, being question free. Instead, it's all built on God giving to us, God blessing us with grace, God giving us forgiveness.
And this matters because the world around us is still so full of violence and loss. When lives are taken at schools and churches in our neighborhoods, we can't simply shrug or settle for repeating the same old arguments. As people of faith, we are called to ask what God truly desires of us in such a time. How can we honor life, love our neighbors, and bear witness to the God who gives life rather than take sit away? That's what we trust. Our faith lies in a God who gives life here and now. God gives us new life and forgiveness in a baptismal washing that that continues throughout our life. Reminding us that we are always every day made new. God feeds us with Christ and the communion meal strengthening our relationship with Jesus.
And we can live. We can live knowing that the promises to Abraham are true for us too. Now we are blessed. We are loved. We don't need to question where we stand with God because we know that God stands with us. Knowing that our questions can turn away from what do we have to do to appease God toward what do we get to do because of God? How do we share the blessings that we have? How do we protect the life that God so desires? How can we point others to that covenant love that God has for this world? And so we share, we serve, we worship. Not to gain or to earn or to put forth an infallible answer, but because God has blessed us with covenant promise. God stops death. God gives life. God blesses us to be a blessing. Any questions? Amen.