Making Sacrifices

I’m preaching this weekend on God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac after decades of waiting for his birth. I’m sure many at my church will be thrilled - another depressing, shocking story in the saga of Abraham and Sarah at a pretty uncivilized time in our world’s history..

Abraham is obedient, tying Isaac up and putting him on the altar, not unlike other pagan god followers back then who offered child sacrifices. Just in the nick of time an angel speaks for God and says that Abraham has proven his commitment by being willing to offer his son. God provides a ram in a thicket nearby and the replacement is made, Isaac is spared, and no doubt tough conversation ensued on the trip home. Next week on Christ the King Sunday we look at how God provided the Son as the sacrifice for all of us.

What a bizarre and jarring story. Who would tie up a child and be willing to follow a God who asked something so terrible of them? And as I thought about it, I wondered what sorts of lesser gods we are willing to give up our children and the next generations for. While I’m relieved that the current President doesn’t appear to be returning to the White House in January, still nearly half of Americans voted for him. Many of them were okay with a legacy of hate, of sacrificing migrant children and keeping them in cages, of trigger-happy violence instead of peaceful discussion, of the economy being valued over the planet and people’s lives.

We aren’t much better. We’re happy in this country to sacrifice our indigenous peoples and minority groups, wetlands and countless species, and our children’s future health and well-being for the sake of current profits and “progress”. When the pandemic closed down much of our entertainment avenues we jumped back on the mindless bandwagon as soon as filming and series returned (I count myself in this) if we hadn’t already binge-watched everything out there. And what important things were sacrificed in our own lives because we did?

I’m amazed at the rhetoric in this pandemic around sacrifices. For many, wearing a mask is too great a sacrifice of personal freedom. It’s just too much to ask, the science isn’t proven enough, the outcome too unsure. For others, they have become virtual hermits, sacrificing almost all human contact and shriveling up as a result. Children have sacrificed in-person schooling and play with friends. Adults have sacrificed sanity in trying to home school and work at the same time. We all sacrificed the privilege of having our needs met and services provided 24/7.

It leads me to wonder which sacrifices are most important and most shocking that the God of Love is asking of us right now. If we’re really listening, what is God asking us to put on the altar to turn us from our sin, to clear the decks in our lives and re-set? What is God wanting us to give up that we cling to and find our identity in rather than our Creator? For Abraham, Isaac was a huge sacrifice - his son, his dreams for a future of many descendants, his own flesh and the carrying on of the family name and God’s promise. He was willing to go through with it, painful as it was, if this was truly God’s desire because he feared and was in awe of God.

So many possible answers swirl in my head about sacrifices we are needing to make in order to protect the generations coming after us and their needs and humanity. They range from the practical like eating less meat and more vegetables to the heart and head - our need to be right, our pride, our tight control on so many aspects of our lives, our selfishness, our worship of technology and hedonistic freedom. Really, anything that stops us from having the same attitude of Abraham - one of awe and putting God on the highest pedestal and priority in our lives, of being so devoted and attentive that even what sounds ridiculous or the opposite of God’s nature we are willing to embrace. And then quickly to find out that God has another even better plan in mind for the faithful..

As we start earnestly thinking about Advent and why we need a Saviour, about humanity’s brokenness and inability to heal on our own, this story points to God’s provision and our need to take notice and to see what God offers to us that is so much greater than our often feeble efforts. We worship a God of sacrificial love made known in Christ. May we, as we inch back towards pre-Covid ‘normalcy’, look and listen carefully to the sacrifices and changes we are called to make to save the sons and daughters coming after us who also have important places in God’s plan for the world.