3 February 2010
Psalm 72; Gen. 22:1-18; Heb. 11:23-31; John 6:52-59

This passage is frustrating to me because I always want to ask why God felt it necessary to test Abraham after making him wait 25 years for the fulfillment of the promise of a child. The reality is that He is never done with us, we always are able to receive more of Him, we are never filled and He is never fully revealed to us. Growth is His desire for us and here Abraham’s faith is tested to see if it is in the gift of God or in God Himself. The language should not be hurried through. Abraham speaks of Isaac as the boy when he speaks to his servants before he and Isaac go up the mountain but on the way Isaac begins speaking to him with the word, “Father” which begs the response “my son.” There will be no avoiding the relationship, no distancing himself from the pain. Abraham’s faith is proved and in the process one has to think that Isaac exhibits faith in his father and then sees that God is the one who has saved him, faith is passed from one generation to another here in what Abraham referred to as worship. Isaac had to have reflected on this incident many times in his life, marveling at the faith his father showed and the action of God in saving him.

Jesus was clear that we must share in Him or we have no share in the kingdom. In order to be born again, we must partake of His sacrifice of Himself. In our tradition, believers partake of the bread and wine representing the body and blood of Jesus on a weekly basis. We believe that the sacrament is an important part of worship because it is our way of constantly reminding ourselves that we live and hope because of the cross. In partaking of the sacrament we connect not only with the death of Jesus on the cross, however, we participate in the hope of the resurrection through taking in the eternal Spirit of Jesus. We don’t believe that the bread and wine are more than bread and wine, we take the elements in the spiritual way Jesus speaks about his body and blood here in this passage.

Faith is the key to life. We believe that God is able to do more than we can ask or imagine but all of that is built on the last words of the Genesis passage, obedience to the voice of God. In this Hebrews passage we see Moses’ obedience to God’s voice in leading the people, keeping the Passover, and at the Red Sea and we see Joshua marching around the city of Jericho by faith in keeping with the word of the Lord. In attempting great things we must be certain that God is calling us to those things. Faith, however, sees beyond the signs or the dangers to the heart of the matter and beckons us to obedience. At communion we receive the elements by faith believing that spiritually we are obedient to the commandment of the Gospel and in that faith we leave in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!