Pentecost 5 - It’ s tough being a disciple, Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac
Why should I be a disciple of Christ? Isn’t it all too hard?
This Sunday’s readings aren’t easy to understand at all. The first, about Abraham’s sacrifice of his son, has put many people off Christianity entirely. Paul seems to be rabbiting on in impenetrably long sentences and the Gospel is cryptic as well.
So let’s start off with the sentence – the wages of sin are death! This sets up the context for the readings: those acts which are life denying for self and others (greed, selfishness, hate, vanity, idolatry etc) lead to the death of the soul. Acts which are life giving to self and others, (compassion, generosity, tolerance, perseverance, self-control etc) build spiritual muscle and lead us into fullness of life with God for ever. Following self, what seems easy, doesn’t end up bringing life. Discipleship is hard at times, but it brings great flourishing.
So what about Abraham? Isn’t he a hero of the Bible and so why does he have to be tested? And what about this God who wants the death of Isaac, an innocent boy? Except, actually, God doesn’t want the death of Isaac, and Isaac is not killed. What God wants is for Abraham to recognise what is his first priority, and what it is that is blocking him from giving himself fully to following God.
Because until we put God first on our lives, we will continue to be distracted and fall into self-willed ways. The tricky part of living a Christian life is that those self-willed ways often disguise a selfish motive as a very good motive. We need to look to the intention of our hearts. Abraham should love and protect his son, and God wants Isaac to flourish, but he also wants Abraham to put God first.
Isaac has become an idol for Abraham. The childless and very old Abraham sees in his son Isaac everything he wants to fulfil his dream of being the Father of many nations. Without Isaac, that dream will crumble. There can be no more children. When we put all our eggs in one basket, when our will is invested in one particular dream or idol, we can fail to see any other basket that God may be offering. Under threat, we fail to see that God is a God of goodness who will bring some form of new life, because that is who he is. Instead, we focus on hanging on to our idol.
We start to see, if we don’t read it literally, that this passage is not about a blood-thirsty God, but about a God who is trying to reach into Abraham and bring him more closely into trust in God, so that he will be strengthened for his walk, no matter what is happening.
We do put idols ahead of God, often unconsciously. Family comes first, say many, and yet become miserable and resentful as they are manipulated by a family member into servitude of that person. Family is important, and the place where we can exercise God’s love for others. But unless we put God’s will first, we can put pleasing family members first. And when we seek to please people, we can unintentionally keep them trapped in their sin of selfishness. Or we can make an idol of ‘happiness’. If a family member is not happy, then neither are we. But our centre and life should be in God, not in another human being.
Paul writes about how following idols traps us into sin. We end up pleasing people and not God, we follow our fears which close us down and stop us seeing options, rather than letting God guide us through those fears to something life giving. Yes, being obedient to God does mean putting him ahead of our will, and that is often painful. Paul calls ‘obedience to God’ being a ‘slave to Christ’. However, this is not a harsh punishment but one of ever-increasing freedom from the chains of cultural expectation and self-condemning thoughts and fears.
Do not be afraid of things that lead to death of the body, but to that of the soul, was last week’s Gospel. That is, we can’t always avoid bad things, but those bad things do not have eternal significance. What survives is what is of God. If hearts are in God, then death does become a doorway to new life. If hearts are in self, in the darkness, then we can’t see the doorway through death.
Being a disciple of Christ means standing up against sin in all forms – in others and in ourselves. That is not easy, which is why in the Matthew reading Jesus offers his disciples a good reason why being a disciple is important and good- it isn’t all persecution and saying ‘no’ to family and culture.
Being a disciple of Christ, standing against sin and trying to spread the compassionate love of God to others, is a valued part of building the kingdom. God’s will is that all humans enter the kingdom. And acts of grace to one another are part of building personal spiritual muscle so we can be ready to enter that kingdom.
We are encouraged to do Christ-like acts so that we can, with Christ, sit on the right hand of God. But being human, we can tend to keep focussed on our development.
And this is where today’s Gospel really challenges us to look beyond ourselves, to look beyond what we are doing for God, to see what God is wanting to do in other people. Every one who welcomes you, as a disciple, who supports and encourages you is welcoming and loving me, and will be rewarded, says Jesus.
How many of our actions are really motivated by the desire for that person to grow into the joy of the presence of God?
Being a disciple does not mean bible bashing others. Rather, it should take the focus off ourselves as we connect to others in the compassion of God so that they can be blessed. Outreach isn’t meant to make us guilty because we don’t do it, but it is mean to bring us joy as we see God joy grow in others.
I think mission is sometimes frustrated in churches because people fear they are not equipped, good enough, pious enough to change others, and become paralyzed in this self focus.
Can we take the focus off what we are doing for God, and focus on what God is actually doing in my life and around me? What about if we think of ourselves as disciples, sharing the grace of God to others? We live in God’s world who is moving through others to reach you, through you to reach others, so that this grace and peace can be spread to the ends of the earth.
One way to move into this divine perspective is to take to heart today’s Gospel: whoever supports a disciple receives God himself, because the disciple is, or should be, carrying the presence of God.
Spend some time pondering deeply how those who support anyone in ministry are welcoming God himself into their hearts. And rejoice for them. When we rejoice that others know God we are building the Kingdom.
What is happening in your parish to encourage God’s ministry in all its various ways? Meals on Wheels, lay ministry, preparing for worship, chaplaincy in the schools, those who go into nursing homes, hospitals and prisons? Do parishioners realise that your prayers and active support for those who minister in all these ways are opening the door to your experience of God?
And to those who are ministering to others- do you know that your actions, and obedience to the call of God, are bringing others into the presence of God? Can we give God thanks that he is so active through us, and that in simply doing what we are doing we are fulfilling his will that more may know him and his presence?
God is very active in our everyday lives but we don’t necessarily see it because we are too focussed on something else.
Gnerally ourselves.
This week: How are you supporting someone else who is sharing God’s love? What support can we give to those who are ministering? Are we focussed only on raising money or are we focussing on increasing the experience and therefore blessing of God in the community? And am I ministering for me? OR am I ministering so that God can spread his presence, not only to those I see in front of me, but to all those who are praying for and helping me? Am I giving God thanks for the growth of his Kingdom here and now in this place? Amen.