¹ Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" “Here I am," he replied. ²Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about. ³Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. ⁴On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."

⁶Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, ⁷Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"  "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

⁸Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. ⁹When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"  "Here I am," he replied. ¹²"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

¹³Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."

Matthew 10:32-42   Worthiness defined

³² "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. ³³ But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.  ³⁴ "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— ³⁶ a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'^{(Micah 7:6)}

 ³⁷ "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸ and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

 ⁴⁰ "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. ⁴¹ Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. ⁴² And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."

“Testing the Tenacity of Love”

The two scriptures assigned for today both test the tenacity of love.  Abraham is tested by God when he has to choose between God and his only begotten son.  The story will reverse when God has to be willing to offer up his only begotten son.  Then in the gospel of Matthew we read of the sermon given to the disciples as they were being sent out.  Love of God must precede all other love, even that of father or mother, son or daughter.  In essence, by the power of Holy Spirit, keep the priority of your love in your mind focused on God.  Only then will you be able to truly love one another.  Remember Jesus words: “Love one another as I have loved you!”  That God love is exercised first in relation to God.

Both of these passages push our normal limits of emotions.  Yet, we rarely test the tenacity of our love for God.  The love of husband and wife of parent and child are so primary in our lives and is frequently tested.  It seems impossible that Abraham would be willing to sacrifice his only son, particularly when he had waited a lifetime for that gift.  Yet Abraham seemed to have a lifetime of tenacious obedience to God.  It was Abraham who left the comfort of his home and set out on the amazing journey to find the Promised Land.  How could he be so convinced that God was calling him and leading him?  Then we encounter these unbelievable saying of Jesus: “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”  What are we to make of this drama where we are told that we are not worthy of God when we place those we love ahead of our love of God. 

Perhaps when we get to heaven, we will understand.  Remember when Jesus is asked the trick question about multiple marriages and to whom will we be married in heaven?  Jesus says there is no marriage in heaven because our love becomes boundless when we are released from the limitations of our physical self.  Yet Jesus turns everything upside down by telling us that we are to experience heaven on earth as he opens the way.  Remember the prayer Jesus taught us: “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”  By Jesus great sacrifice, we come to know what it is like to be back in the garden of Eden.  Christ has opened the gates which God locked behind Adam and Eve.  Christ reverses the curse of Adam.  We now understand something of what it means to live beyond the struggle of simply having to choose between good and evil.  As we come to love God more than all our earthly loves, then we find God choosing the good naturally through us.  The truth is written on our hearts and we recognize it because we have come to love God for than anything else.

When that happens, we seek to spend time with God on a regular basis.  We call it prayer and/or meditation.  We also come to appreciate the way God speaks to us through dreams both day and night.  We go back to the written word of the Bible and see truth through new eyes.  That is when we recognize that we now love God more than anything since we are compelled to live an alternative lifestyle from that of the world.  Let me share several examples of that I have experienced.

First, I realize that God in Christ taught a radical new lifestyle.  No longer are we to see others as inferior or superior.  I am learning the meaning of the tenacity of love beyond cultural boundaries.  I was taught as a child to stay away from evil.  There were certain people I wasn’t supposed to associate with.  Back in my childhood, Protestants didn’t worship with Catholics.  Back in my day, no one talked about homosexuality.  Back in my day, torture only existed in bad movies.  Then I came to experience Christ and discovered the meaning of the scripture where Paul said: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  

Looking back at history, I began to realized that God is working his purpose out step by step.  Once I believed that there was a superior race to which I was privileged to belong.  I thought the purpose of missionaries was to take my cultural values to those ignorant savages living in sin in distant lands.   Now I recognize the meaning of Christ is saying: “the last will be first and the greatest among you will be humbled.”  

Once I believed that Christians were better than pagans and those pagans lived in sin.  Now I understand that Christ can live in the hearts of people who call him by a variety of religious names and it is not my task to judge.  Once I believed that homosexuality was a sin. 

Now I recognize the every person is a child of God and created in the image of God.  I realize that sexual preference is not an aberration but coming to honestly accept who you are, one who is loved by God and one called to love God more than anything.  That anything means not retaliating the fear and hatred of those who condemn you. By the grace of God I have overcome my own homophobia and can recognize the love of Christ in persons whose sexual preference is different from mine. 

The church has changed over the years to recognize it’s false understanding of others.  Once African American persons were considered go be inferior people.  As that reality was challenged a civil war ensured.  Once women were thought to be inferior to men and should be prohibited from the sacred duties of the clergy.  A religious civil war ensued in church circles.  We called it the Protestant Reformation.   Slowly, I observed that change and today can envision the day when there is neither Protestant nor Catholic but one people in Christ. 

Today the dividing lines seem to be around sexuality.  Another civil war seems to be brewing in the church as some embrace differences while others condemn them.  At this General Assembly, I once again heard the threats of separation based on two dramatically different understandings of the word of God.  I was especially proud of our sister church in Palo Alto who took out a full page ad in last Sunday’s paper affirming their understanding of what it meant to be a Christian community.  They boldly affirmed that their love of God has convinced them for the past 20 years that since God created everyone in God’s image, they embraced the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families in the life, ministry, and witness of the faith community.  They boldly stand against those who belittle and batter those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender persons.  Instead they encouraged everyone to follow Jesus while sharing hopes, hurts, joys and struggles as an inclusive community.  Finally they welcome all who seek to love God more than they fear the loss of others' love.  They embrace equality with all regardless of gender, race, economic condition, or sexual identity.  They embrace the love of God beyond human prohibitions.  They embrace peacemaking whose social expression of love is justice.  And perhaps you also noticed the abundance of hand-knitted prayer shawls in a rainbow of colors affirming that very diversity in the body of Christ. 

Last month, your session voted to boldly join other churches around the country who exercised their Christian values as they said to the government and all citizens that torture is wrong.  Like many pronouncements, this can be seen by some to be divisive or even unpatriotic since some have justified these various practices of our military using torture with detainees whom they seek to interrogate and break down.  How hard it is for us to deal with fear of terrorism after 9/11.  Yet we serve a God whom we believe came to us in the person of Jesus and taught us to love our enemies, even those who would put us to death.  Jesus recognized the power of fear and ignorance.  Perhaps, we shall soon have more light on this subject too as new revelations surface.  In the meantime, we seek to put love of God over even friends and family to stand with those we believe are unjustly treated.

Jesus taught his disciples about the cost of discipleship.  He described it as taking up your cross daily as you risk the condemnation of others.  Imagine, if you will, about those 50 years after Jesus death and what it must have been like for Jesus disciples.  Before the last one died, their efforts brought 500,000 men, women, and children into the new community of the People of the Way.  We often talk about the sacrifice of Jesus to usher in the new kingdom on earth but rarely talk about the cost of those early disciples.  History tells us…

1. John died of extreme old age exiled to the island of Patmos.
2. Judas Iscariot hung himself having betrayed his Lord.
3. Peter was crucified; head downward, during the persecution of Nero.
4. Andrew died on a cross at Patrae, a Grecian Colony.
5. James, the younger, son of Alphaeus, was thrown from a pinnacle of the Temple, then beaten to death with a club.
6. Bartholomew was flayed alive in Albanapolis, Armenia.
7. James, the elder son of Zebedee, was beheaded at Jerusalem.
8. Thomas, was run through the body with a lance at Coromandel, East Indies.
9. Philip was hanged against a pillar at Heropolis.
10. Thaddeus was shot to death with arrows.
11. Simon died on a cross in Persia (now called Iran)
12. Matthew was first stoned and then beheaded.

What sacrifices!  What tenacity of love of God compelled each of these to push the limits of their own safety in this way?  Paul, who was executed in Rome, explained that they were slaves to Christ.  The tenacity of their love was tested again and again.  Yet, they experienced God in such a way that they could not hide nor turn back to a safer way of life.

Today, we in the church, rarely have the tenacity of our love of God tested with such intensity.  Yet it is the same God whom we worship and praise.  It is the same God that calls us to pick up our cross daily and follow.  It is the same God who seeks to bring about the transformation of the world as God’s own kingdom.  Perhaps there are many ways in which we can stretch beyond our safety zones in proclaiming our love of God without having to condemn others in the process.  Whoever loves father or mother or family more than me is not worthy of me!  And yet such small acts of love such as offering a cup of cold water to one we fear or would condemn reveal again the presence of God among us.