At my last church, we had a campaign to read through the Bible in a year. We handed out free Bibles on Christmas Eve, had the sermon series and small groups coincide with the reading schedule, and celebrated together on New Year’s Day the following year. It was a great endeavor, and it was fun to see the church come together over a shared goal and to have so many people committed to reading the bible. One thing we noticed, however, is that many gave up on the Old Testament readings a few months in. Many admitted to us pastors that they just couldn’t understand the God of the Old Testament. God seems harsher, angrier, and seems to be okay with Israel committing violence against other nations. I have sympathy for this because the Old Testament is a hard read!
I wish I had more time from the pulpit to get into how to read the Bible depending on the genre of literature and to go more in-depth into the context. I encourage you to attend Matt Bruce’s class: How to Read the Bible, not just because he’s my husband, but because he gets more in-depth into those topics. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, get a good study bible. If you need recommendations come talk to me after worship.
Now that we’ve established that the Old Testament is a challenging read, naturally, our window today features great figures of faith who are all from the Old Testament. The I Am statement of this window is “I have come not to destroy, but to fulfill.” This window refers to how Jesus is the fulfillment of all that was prophesied in the Old Testament and how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law God gave to Israel.
We see this at the center in how Isaiah, whose prophecies about the Messiah were fulfilled by Jesus, and Moses holding the 10 commandments, which is the beginning of the Law. Both point to the Lamb at the top. Jesus is described as the lamb of God who was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Speaking of sacrifices close to the center, Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac
The scripture describes Isaac as Abraham’s one and only son,(sound familiar? Hold on to that connection). Isaac, whom Abraham and his wife Sarah were miraculously gifted with by God after years of infertility. Isaac was the beginning of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah that their heirs would outnumber the stars in the sky. Their heirs would become the people of Israel.
So why would God ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, as this went against God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah? It doesn’t make sense. How terrible that God would even ask Abraham to do this in the first place!
So what are we supposed to take from this passage, and what does this have to do with Jesus, who came to “fulfill and not destroy?” As always, it’s essential to understand the context of scripture. During Abraham’s time, human sacrifices, specifically child sacrifices, were a common practice. While it was a terrible thing to ask of Abraham, it was not out of the ordinary.
Biblical scholars think it’s important to highlight Abraham’s faithfulness in what God asked of him. I agree with this, but he wasn’t always faithful. He lied to the Pharaoh about Sarah being his sister rather than his wife so that Pharaoh wouldn’t kill Abraham in order to take Sarah as his own wife. It would’ve been understandable for him to show a lack of faith in this situation.
Jesus, however, is the ultimate embodiment of faithfulness in a way that we could not and never will be. We will always lack faith like Abraham, who is still seen as one of the great faithful. Other heroes of faith in this window had their moments of doubt. Moses asked God to appoint someone else to lead Israel out of slavery in Egypt. Here, David has slain the giant Goliath, but when he is King, he commits adultery and murder. Think of the disciples who doubted Jesus’ promises, resulting in their deserting Jesus when he needed them most.
So, the story of Abraham is better understood as a picture of the faithfulness of God rather than the faithfulness of Abraham. As with all passages of the Old Testament, they are fully understood in light of what Jesus did in the New Testament. Everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus, who is the ultimate revelation of God. The theme of God sending a Messiah to be the Savior of all Israel is found throughout the Old Testament. So too this passage about Abraham and Isaac alludes to Jesus.
There are so many allusions of Jesus in this passage. Abraham is asked to bring “your one and only son, that you love.” This brings to mind John 3:16: “For God so loved the World God gave his one and only son.”
On the third day Abraham brought Isaac to the mountain top to make this terrible sacrifice. Jesus was raised from the dead after three days. Luckily, God sends a messenger to stop Abraham from harming Isaac and in the end, God provides a ram to be the sacrifice in place of Isaac. Likewise God provides the sacrifice to end all sacrifices as God’s own self in Jesus Christ.
Side note, one criticism I’ve heard about the crucifixion is to call it cosmic child abuse. The Son of God is sacrificed at the cross by his own father? However, if we believe in the Trinity, that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three in one, not three separate entities, then God actually sacrificed God’s own self on the cross. God did for us what we could not do ourselves: be perfectly obedient to the point of death.
But as we know, death isn’t the end of the story. Christ’s resurrection ushered in a new era where Jesus invites us to be a continuation of the resurrection story. Where we can be Christ’s hands and feet in the world bringing about new life when there only seems to be death.
While we no longer make animal sacrifices like ancient Israe didl to respond to God’s love for us, our responses to the love of Jesus will most likely include sacrifices. Not in the form of animals, but in the act of letting go.
That’s what the people of Heartsong Church had to do. They had to let go of their fear and prejudices in order to answer Christ’s call to be welcoming neighbors.
In 2010, Steve Stone the pastor of Heartsong Church near Memphis, TN, read in the paper one morning of a Muslim Islamic Center that was planned to be built across the street from Heartsong Church. Pastor Steve’s heart drops. His first reaction was that this was not a good thing. But then Pastor Steve prayed. Prayed to God for guidance. And he discerned that God was calling Pastor Steve and the whole church to love and welcome this new community. So they put out a sign on Heartsong’s yard that said: “Heart Song Church Welcomes the Islamic Center to the neighborhood.”
Some in the congregation were not happy with this. One congregant named, Mark, shared his anger with Pastor Steve. Pastor’s Steve’s response was to ask Mark to read the Gospels. In tears, Mark admits that after reading the gospels the problem did not lie with this soon to be Muslim neighbors, but the prejudice in his own heart. He shares this story through tears of humility.
Since 2010, Heart Song Church and the Muslim Islamic Center do joint food and clothing drives. Every September 11th, together they host a blood drive. This is a beautiful story of how a church sacrficed or in other words let go of their fear and prejudice to embrace their neigbhors as Christ calls us all to do.
Please watch this video about this church here: https://heartsongchurch.net/about-us/the-mosque-across-the-street
Or google Heart Song Church near Memphis, TN and the Islamic Center across the street.
I’d like to end this sermon with more words from the Old Testament. This is from Micah 6:6-10:
“With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8
He has told you, O mortal, what is good,
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God?
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.