It’s a matter of
trust. Can God trust you? You are a disciple of Jesus Christ. You are
called and empowered to carry on the ministry of God’s own Son. You are
entrusted with the good news of the Gospel that transforms the world. Can
God trust you? As a steward of this great divine treasure, can you be
trusted? This is important, this question of trust. Can God trust you to
be faithful and loyal in the fulfillment of the promise of love?
It’s a matter of
trust. Can God be trusted? When God’s human agents prove to be
untrustworthy and even defy, deny, and betray the promise, can God be
trusted? Can God be trusted to fulfill the promise and still save the
world when we fail?
It’s a matter of
trust. That’s what this story of Abraham and Isaac is all about. Why
does God ask this bizarre thing of Abraham? Why would God even dream to
ask the unthinkable? The Bible says God needs to know if Abraham can be
trusted. Abraham is the one in whom God has entrusted the promise. As
you remember, God has said to Abraham,
I will be your God and you be
my people. I will lead you to a land flowing with milk and honey. Your
descendants will number as the sand beside the seashore. And through you
all the nations of the world will be blessed.
God has placed upon Abraham the hope
of the world. Long before humanity had turned its back upon God leaving
human relationship with God in shatters. But God did not give up. God
chose Abraham and his descendants as the people through whom God would
mend that relationship and build again a life of blessing, hope, and
peace. As a sure sign of the promise in that relationship with Abraham
and his descendants God miraculously granted him and his wife Sarah their
son, Isaac, when they were very advanced in age. Upon their son Isaac
rests all the hope for the future of humanity as well as the validity of
the trustworthiness of God. Without Isaac there are no descendants.
Without descendants there is no people. Without a people there is no
blessing. With no blessing there is no promise. With no promise humanity
is left desolate and God can’t be trusted.
Can God trust Abraham?
If we read this text carefully enough we learn that God just does not
know. This is not some cruel game that God is playing here, God just did
not know for sure. The Bible says God needed to know if the divine
promise and plan for the blessing of the world is in good hands with
Abraham or whether God needs to find another way. God had to find out
whether or not this treasure was entrusted to a good steward. So God
tests Abraham. Now Abraham’s people later understood that God could
require the first born as a sacrifice but in their actual experience God
always provided for their redemption. As a matter of fact, Abraham seems
to reflect that same confidence as he reports to his servants that,
following the sacrifice, they both will return to them and, in response to
Isaac’s question, states that God will provide the lamb.
In the end, with
confident trust, Abraham passes the test and God learns that Abraham can
indeed be entrusted with the promise and the world’s blessing. He is a
faithful steward of treasure. This entire scene is summed up so
appropriately by Abraham’s naming of the place as “The Lord will
provide:” a clear reflection of Abraham’s trust as well as an affirmation
of the trustworthiness of God. God, too, can be trusted.
But can God trust you?
What does God do when God doesn’t know? The text says God tests. Does
God still test us today? We may not be faced with the kind of stark and
bizarre choices that this story relates today but God does test our
faithfulness. There is a sense in which God is always testing our
trust—not as some kind of malicious and spiteful overseer trying to catch
us doing wrong but our loving Creator who intends to save the world; God
who is ever testing, sifting, refining to place the right disciples in the
right place at the right time to save the world. If discipleship anywhere
is not quite up to it, God finds another way. If God can’t quite trust
disciples in a particular place at a particular time, God will make for
faithfulness somehow, some way, somewhere to bring forth life. If one
steward doesn’t do the job the master will find another. God will never
leave creation ultimately in the hands of those who cannot be trusted.
History is replete with
the failures as well as the faithfulness of God’s people. And in every
moment of human failure the trustworthiness of God’s is always on the
line. Abraham’s great grandson Joseph’s faithfulness overcame the
jealousy, treachery, sin and failure of his brothers, maintaining the
promise and carrying on the faith. In the middle ages Galileo Galilee
discovered the fascinating movement of the stars and the earth through his
invention, the telescope, while the church condemned him for defying
church teaching that the earth was at the center of the universe. In the
1800’s in the United States the Methodist Episcopal Church South broke
away from the main Methodist body to, in part, maintain and support the
slaveholding of its membership. In the days before World War II the
mainline Protestant Church of Germany at best tolerated, at worst
supported, the Nazi regime while the minority Confessing Movement within
the church, of which Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a part, defied it. We can
name any number of moments of failure and faithfulness of the church. It
is in these moments of testing, sifting, and refining that God is always
searching for a way to properly place divine trust, always providing the
means for the redeeming of God’s failing people, and always patiently
waiting upon the outworking of the never failing divine promise for the
salvation of the world. It is in these moments of human failure,
hesitancy, and disobedience that the divine promise of God is also put to
the test, testing the trustworthiness of the divine intention to save the
world.
In Victor Hugo’s novel
Les Miserables a priest of the church is entrusted with the
treasure of the parish. As resident of the parish house he was charged
with the stewardship of the parish silver, place settings and candlesticks
used for particular occasions when the priest hosted special guests. One
night, as you may remember the story, the priest entertained a guest: an
escaped convict at his doorstep one night. This escaped convict had found
his way to the parish house for refuge as he, unbeknownst to the priest,
sought to hide from the authorities. The hostess, upon seeing this very
bedraggled man at the door, urged the priest to send him on his way. But
the priest invited him in, offered him a meal and a place to refresh
himself and rest for the night. As the hostess was reluctantly heading
for the kitchen to prepare the meal the priest called to her, “And bring
out our best silver, for we have a guest in our home!” The hostess had to
be instructed at least twice by the priest, because she had every reason
to question his stewardship. What did he think he was doing? Was he not
risking the parish’s wealth by showing this vagabond where all the
valuables were stored? Was the priest not placing them in a very
vulnerable position by having this potential thief in the house? The
table was set, the meal shared, and all retired for the night. Sure
enough, in the middle of the night their guest took silver and stole into
the night. Early that morning a loud knocking at the door awakened them.
The authorities had captured the man. Although they had not recognized
him as an escaped convict, they knew there was no way this man could
possibly own the wealth found in his possession. They asked the priest if
he recognized the valuables. The priest replied,
Ah, yes! I am so glad you have returned, my
brother, for I believe you have forgotten these!
With that the priest
walked to the mantle, retrieved the only remaining silver in the house,
two silver candlesticks, and placed them in the thief’s bag. Totally
bewildered, the authorities questioned the priest further but he
steadfastly confirmed for them that he had indeed given the parish silver
to this man, they could now release him and go on their way.
The thief, Jean Val
Jean by name, was dumfounded. When the authorities departed, the priest
addressed him, My son, today I have bought back your soul. Take this
silver and make a life for yourself.
As you may know the
story, Jean Val Jean had escaped from prison where he had served his
sentence under the cruel French penal system for 17 years for stealing a
loaf of bread. Jean Val Jean goes on to make quite a life for himself,
becoming a successful businessman and benevolent mayor. This one act of
grace by this one priest, this one good steward of treasure, saved his
life.
Now I don’t know how
others might judge the stewardship of this priest of the church. That
congregation’s leaders would probably have good reason to question whether
he could ever be trusted again with the treasure of the church. But can
you not imagine that the priest must have heard God ask him to something
that was absolutely absurd, even bizarre? “Take the parish silver
entrusted to your care and give it to a thief!” It was a real test of his
faithfulness. It was also a real test of God’s trustworthiness. In the
end the treasure served to save a child of God.
Now there is a great
deal of difference, obviously between silver and a son.
But from our Christian
tradition it is very clear that God did not ask of Abraham anything that
God was unwilling to do. Where Abraham only affirmed his intention to
sacrifice his son, God gave an only Son to suffer, die, and rise in
fulfillment of the promise. The suffering, death, and resurrection of
Jesus Christ our Lord, when the trustworthiness of God was put to the
ultimate test, left no doubt whatsoever that God can be trusted.
Can God trust you?
That’s the point of the message today. When push comes to shove, when
truth is on the line, while the good news of the Gospel is in your hands,
can God trust you? Can God count on you to be true or must God, while
never ultimately forsaking you, entrust the promise to another? God never
leaves creation ultimately in the hands of those who cannot be trusted.
What do you do with the treasure entrusted to you? The Bible says today
that if you give it all to God, you can trust God.
