Global Action Week.
Call to Worship
Jesus said:" Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me
welcomes the one who sent me."
Let us welcome a stranger.
Let us welcome God. (Welcome one another to worship)
Song: For the beauty of the earth
Prayer
A prayer of assurance
In our tiredness –
when we want to approach
and walk a few steps, but grow weary.
Are you with us still when we fail?
In our hesitation – when we want to give time to you
yet are torn by conflicting demands.
Are you with us still when we fail?
In our lack of attention –
when we wish our prayers were not meagre
yet our minds continue to wander.
Are you with us still when we fail?
Remind us of your constancy, our God,
that, even in the darkness,
we may hear your breathing
and be content that you are there.
Amen.
Song As the deer pants for the water
Holy Friend, from an all consuming preoccupation with our own thoughts, prejudices and wants, we turn to you in worship.
Disturb us that we may drop our defences,
unsettle us that we may be open to change,
overawe us that we may cast aside our self centeredness and find our true centre in you.
Please confront us with your glory.
Bring us to that point where we let go of all that is tatty or second rate and launch out into sincere and joyful praise.
Through Christ Jesus our divine Brother. Amen!
Silent Intercession
FORGIVENESS: In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I invite you to accept God’s saving grace, putting your sins and mistakes behind you, and letting go of regrets and fears. Now face the future with the measured optimism of those who know they are destined to ultimate victory. By saving grace you are released; you are at liberty! Amen.
Notices and Offering
Mat 10: 40-42 (The Message)
40"We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. 41Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God's messenger. Accepting someone's help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I've called you into, but don't be overwhelmed by it. It's best to start small. 42Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won't lose out on a thing."
Setting The Scene
A cup of water
You will need lots of cups of water - the number is only limited by your imagination! I've tried to think of a number of ways water is used, but add your own examples - especially any relevant to where you live.
Tell how in the reading from the Gospel today, we have a very simple picture of
what Jesus wants us to do as people loved by him and who want to do what he
asks us to do. Jesus says that when we are kind to people it is as though we are
being kind to him. He says that we can show our kindness by giving someone
even a cup of water. That doesn't sound like much to give does it? But, if we
think about it, water can be used in lots of ways.
Ask the children/young people to suggest ways in which water can be used - each time they suggest something, hold up a cup. Hopefully suggestions will include drinking, washing, cooling, refreshing, cleaning, watering plants, cleaning wounds, etc etc . Point out how we can reach out to lots of people in different ways by the simple use of water. So, by saying what he did, maybe Jesus is telling us something more than we first realise. Water is vital for life and necessary for health - and what we do as
followers of Jesus might be just as important as giving a cup of water. Water is
also used here in church in another very special way. When we are baptised,
the use of water declares our belief that we are washed clean - made new - in our
hearts as members of God's family. It is as though Jesus' love is poured into us
as water is poured on to us and that love helps us to be more like him in all we
say and do. A cup of water - it really is important isn't it.
Song: Give thanks (Children leave)
Bible Readings Gen 22:1 - 14
Song: How deep the Father’s love for us
Sermon:
"Gracious God - bless now the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your Spirit into us and grant that we may hear and in hearing be led in the way you want us to go. Amen.
Intro: Abraham and Isaac
To set this Old Testament story of Abraham and Isaac into context we have to understand something about the world of Abraham. Abraham had been called by Almighty God - by Yahweh, to follow him alone. Already in the world there were other people following other lines of spirituality and searching for truth.
There is very little in Genesis between the story of Noah and the building of the tower of Babel, only a great list of people - when suddenly we arrive at God calling Abram to follow him. At Babel there was a great scattering of people, a confusion of language and ideals - God must have known that rather than unity this would lead to great diversity within the known world.
Some religious writing from other groups have survived, and we know that those who followed the Phoenician religion practiced child sacrifices often - believing that these sacrificed ensured health and well being of the community.
There are other references in the Old Testament where the whole concept of child sacrifice is strictly prohibited. (In 2 Kings 23.10 King Josiah who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord forbade his people from using an area in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, for the purposes of sacrificing their son or daughter in the fire to Molech. God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah about these detestable practises of sacrificing sons in the worship of Baal.
Exo 22:29-30 NIV) ""You must give me the firstborn of your sons
No child sacrifice is involved, the firstborn sons were redeemed. They belong to the Lord, but are to be bought back (redeemed)
(Num 18:15-16 NIV) The first offspring of every womb, both man and animal, that is offered to the LORD is yours. But you must redeem every firstborn son and every firstborn male of unclean animals. {16} When they are a month old, you must redeem them at the redemption price set at five shekels of silver. Almost like a child tax!
Carthage
In 1921 archaeologists uncovered thousands of jars with the cremated remains of children's bones, dating back to the time of Abraham - on the site of ancient Carthage in North Africa. And to their surprise some of these jars contained animal bones, which perhaps indicates substitution of an animal (cf. Abraham's sacrifice of a ram in place of Isaac).
Abraham was a man set in a time when he would have known of the practise of other faiths, he would have known of the lengths people were prepared to go to exercise their faith and to appease their gods. The story of Abraham and Isaac we know well, but this historical context brings about an interesting layer for us to grasp.
Fire
But what of today's context? What of the world where we live. What I should be saying here is in 2005 we are far removed from this thought that child sacrifice can in anyway appease God, that this kind of behaviour is now locked in distance history and it would never happen in out post modern culture. Sadly, as you are aware, this is no the case.
Only this month a confidential report from London's Metropolitan Police leaked to BBC Radio 4's Today program claiming children are being trafficked into Britain as religious sacrifices within the certain strands of the Christian faith community. The report was particularly critical of immigrants' attitudes toward demonic possession. This comes on the back of recent headlines which have focused on the torture of an 8-year-old girl her family had called a witch., and in 2000, another 8-year-old, Victoria Climbie, died after violent and cruel exorcism rituals. The report goes on to say "Often Preachers have created a "lucrative business" in exorcism.. "A number of pastors maintain that God speaks to them and lets them know when someone is possessed … The report says that often the church leaders will not accept that they played a major role in inciting such violence."
It's all crazy - it is barbaric, humane, madness.
Surely God would never speak to pastors in this way?
Yet - what kind of God challenged Abraham in this way?
Abraham and Isaac
In Genesis we see the great patriarch of our faith Abraham confronted by God to sacrifice his own son. This is indeed a shocking story.
And people today, as in centuries gone by, have problems with what we hear in the news and what we read in the scripture,
problems with understanding it,
problems with accepting it,
problems with interpreting it.
We may grasp the Old Testament historical context, but it doesn't take away from the fact that many people have debated and marvelled over this story throughout the centuries, just we do this morning.
Because of its position in scripture this encounter between God and Abraham is no longer personal, it suddenly evokes in all of us some very deep feelings.
Did God really ask Abraham to sacrifice his son on a fire on an alter?
How could God ask that?
What kind of God would ask that?
The feelings that we have - fuel our questions - fuel our debate:
Those of us who are parents, cannot conceive this challenge,
All of us who were once children share the fear that Isaac as he asks:
"Father, the fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
A lot of feelings and a lot of thoughts are evoked by this story:
thoughts and feelings about God and thoughts and feelings about Abraham.
What kind of Father was Abraham?
What kind of man could even contemplate offering up his own son?
Should he really be held up as a model of faith for us all?
What kind of a God would call for such a test?
Martin Luther King
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote words of comfort to the bereaved parents of four little girls who were murdered when the Birmingham Alabama Baptist church was bombed on Sept. 18, 1963. A former member of the Ku Klux Klan was convicted of the crime. Addie, Carol, Cynthia, and Carole had been praying inside the church.
King writes: "These children – unoffending, innocent, and beautiful – were the victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity,".
Luther King gives voice to how we see children - unoffending, innocent, and beautiful. It may not be how we always view children, or how we recall our own childhood, but there is something unoffending, innocent and beautiful within a child.
Let us not loose sight of the fact that Abraham would have loved Isaac - this son, his unoffending, innocent beautiful son - long awaited for, His and Sarah's miracle baby - born in their later years when child bearing was deemed impossible, God did provide for them. Yet now God says " "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love,… Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering"
Isaac and Ishmael
Just a thought - but how many sons did Abraham have?
Two - Isaac to Sarah, and Ishmael to Hagar . Note Gods words "Take your son - your only son!". Did God forget about his Ishmael?
Our friends within the Muslim faith carry a similar story of Abraham in The Qur’an - yet they tell the story with Ishmael as the child to be sacrificed. Similar sentiments to the Genesis story, Abraham is responding to a dream Allah has given him and Ishmael is laid prostrate on his forehead, when a Ram is found for the sacrifice.
Both major faith texts contain this story of testing.
Gen 22: 1 begins with the words: "After these things God tested Abraham."
We may not understand why God tested Abraham, yet we all know that at times we are tested. In the Lords prayers we say each week we acknowledge that we are tempted and tested and we need help. When we are tested it is usually because we are about to discover something about God and ourselves that we previously had not fully grasped.
When Isaac asks the question regarding where is the lamb for the sacrifice - Abraham replied with those three great words "God will provide"
The bound lamb
And God did provide
Abraham had faith and was wiling to give of his dearest and best
Abraham had faith and no sacrifice was to great.
Abraham had faith, and God did not hold back on his providence
God had confirmed on this day that Abraham was indeed 100% committed. Deeply sincere and unwavering in his allegiance to be the father of a great nation. A great man of faith! Never again would God test him in this way - the test was set and the test was passed with flying colours.
But the story is not just about Abraham's faith, In fact it is much more about who God really is and what God does for us. In Abraham's readiness to give up his son, something marvellous happens. His son comes back to him. God provides the sacrifice - as Abraham tells Isaac God would.
In this narrative God learns about Abraham, but much more Abraham learns about God, we find something new about the character of Yahweh. Remember the Phoenicians - who worshiped gods who needed to be appeased, gods appeared to demand much and give little. Abrahams God was not like the gods of his neighbours - those gods who not only demanded the sacrifice of the first born, but who took the sacrifice and gave nothing back for it. The God of Abraham did not require such a sacrifice, Almighty God provided the sacrifice for his servant. Yahweh is not like other Gods. He does not make unreasonable demands upon his people - but he did and still does require our complete devotion, the kind he found in Abraham.
In the providing of the lamb for the sacrifice - Isaac was set free. Free to worship, free to live, free to grow into the man of God and leader of a nation he would become.
In the providing of the sacrifice Abraham was free - free to be the father he wanted to be, free to offer thanks to God, free to journey on, free to look his wife in the eye without shame.
What emerges about God is that he is like the pagan gods, he loves enough to give, to provide, to care for our needs. The death of Isaac would never appease him, the willingness and faithfulness of Abraham was all that was required.
Giving Christ
Crucifixion
Yet the story of Abraham does not end there, for the God who asked Abraham to give up his beloved son - and who then gave the son back to him, goes on to give up his own son, giving him up out of love for us . The test God set for Abraham was indeed one God himself was prepared to go through
And in the process of God giving up his son Jesus for us - something marvellous happens. As the Lamb is sacrifices (The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the earth) we go free. Free to worship, free to journey on, free to serve, free to be the people God has called us to be, free to look our fellow brother and sister in the eye, free from shame. And God gets His Son back - the victor who has saved us.
God has provided.
Mother daughter
The congruent psychologist would say that within each one of us lives a child - the child who we once were, the child who we still are. Many people grow and embrace the childhood memories and fears, others because of situations, trauma in the developing years, wrong teaching - etc - learn to bury the child deep, distancing themselves from their former years - seemingly sacrificing the child as they journey towards mature adulthood. Maybe there is shame in childhood, guilt, hurt, feelings we would rather not visit - and our child is sacrificed as we can not face the painful recollections.
Within this story of Abraham and Isaac we find something here about embracing who we are. When Isaac was restored to Abraham the child and the adult were at one together, here we see symbolised this picture of unity and peace. Often we see pictures of Jesus welcoming the children with open arms. I recall a picture in my Sunday school room of an Arian Christ welcoming the children onto his knee - nice clear children, well dressed, smart, polite. But kids are not always like that - children are often dirty, cut from a fall, snooty noses, crying, messy. Yet we have a God who embraces all of our being - and wholeness is found when we learn to do the same. Don't sacrifice your inner childhood for the sake of spiritual maturity and deeper faith - God always accepts the child within us, the child he has loved for a long time. The child he says we need to become like to inherit the Kingdom.
Gods love
The writer to the Hebrews says: Heb 10: 12 When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, "he sat down at the right hand of God,"
Sacrifice was not required in this way again, Jesus work was complete and now we are to simply live sacrificially - to give cups of water in the name of Christ, to show mercy, to demonstrate love, to stand for justice, to celebrate God's greatness.
We celebrate God having provided the perfect sacrifice. There is a mystery to God. A mystery to Christ. His suffering redeems our suffering and through him, our suffering also redeems the world.
Our God is a mystery. But our God is a mystery of love.
May we each know His great provision at our point of desperation and need, when we face the difficult trials - that the God of Abraham and Isaac, through Jesus will provide.
Amen
This week was World Refugee Day (Monday June 20)
God of all peoples, we ask your blessings upon the oppressed and homeless of this world and on those who minister to them. Guide those who are fleeing violence and terror and give them safety in their refuge. Open our minds and our hearts to your concern for the uprooted. Help us remember that your people were once strangers in the land of Egypt. Help us recall that their exodus was of refugees fleeing to a promised home. We hear the cries of each and every person who is a refugee today.
We have hear the cries of those who have no place to call home. O God, may we respond with your love, care, and concern to reach out to those who have fled from their homes.
Help your church to be a welcoming symbol of your hospitality. Give us the courage to be your people reaching out to those in need.
Amen
Song: Great is Thy faithfulness
Benediction