“Obedient Faith in God Receives Gracious Blessings from God”
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Dear fellow Lent travelers, grace, mercy, and peace from God the
Father and Christ Jesus our Lord [Amen.]
“God spoke by the prophets long ago,
His promise on oath recalling—
To Abraham made in former years:
Of vanquishing foes appalling,
That those He delivered from their fears
Might gladly and truly serve Him.
“You, child, will go on before the Lord
As prophet, His way preparing;
To speak on behalf of God Most High,
His counsel of truth declaring:
Rich mercy and grace for all whereby
Iniquity is forgiven.”
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
936:2-3)
Old Testament
Reading........................................................ Genesis
22:1-18 (esp. 15-18)
15And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven
16and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have
done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17I will surely
bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven
and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess
the gate of his enemies, 18and in your offspring shall all the nations of
the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Prologue: Obedience. Absolute obedience. Absolute full and
complete obedience. That’s what God demands in His Holy Law, namely, “… to
keep His commandments perfectly in thoughts, desires, words, and deeds.”
(Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation. Copyright © 1991, 1986
Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page 95.) Yahweh Himself
declared so when He said: “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”
(Lev 19:2 ESV) And, Jesus Himself echoed that when He declared to the lawyer
who attempted to publicly embarrass Him: “You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is
the great and first commandment.” (St Matt 22:37-38 ESV)
Well, today’s Old Testament Reading brings us face-to-face with a
severe challenge to that obedience especially as it relates to Spirit-given
faith in almighty God. It’s the well-known account of God testing Abraham’s
faith by telling him to sacrifice his only son Isaac as a “burnt offering.”
In so doing, God helped Abraham to become more fully aware (even as He does
with us as well) that …
“Obedient Faith in God Receives Gracious Blessings from God.”
Just what is “Lent”? Simply stated, Lent is a time to review and
rehearse confession and absolution. That is, it’s a time to practice
confessing our sins to God and gratefully receiving His forgiveness. That
is, it’s a time in the course of the liturgical church year to call to mind
the seriousness of our sinfulness and, at the same time, remember the
graciousness of what Jesus did to wash away our sins. It’s largely about
remembering and rehearsing what Jesus referred to in today’s Gospel Reading:
“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the
gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is
at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (St Mark 1:14-15 ESV)
In addition, Lent is 40 days (counting from Ash Wednesday to Holy
Saturday, but not the Sundays since every Sunday is a celebration of our
Savior’s resurrection) of penitential preparation to joyfully celebrate the
resurrection of our Savior back to life after He took on Himself the
suffering and death that we deserve for our sins. We do so knowing that His
resurrection validated what He did to atone for our sins by proving that “A.
Christ is the Son of God; B. His doctrine is the truth; C. God the Father
accepted Christ’s sacrifice for the reconciliation of the world; [and] D.
all believers in Christ will rise to eternal life.” (Luther’s Small
Catechism with Explanation. Pages 139f.)
Ultimately, we grow to more fully realize and, by the Holy Spirit’s
power alone, increase in our desire and ability to …
I. Be Willing to Obey God’s Severest Commands. (1-8)
1After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he
said, “Here am I.” 2He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you
love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering
on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3So Abraham rose early
in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him,
and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and
went to the place of which God had told him. 4On the third day Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5Then Abraham said to his
young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and
worship and come again to you.” 6And Abraham took the wood of the burnt
offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and
the knife. So they went both of them together. 7And Isaac said to his
father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said,
“Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
8Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering,
my son.” So they went both of them together.
Having grown in the faith the Holy Spirit planted into his heart,
Abraham responded with willing obedience to this severe command of God. He
did so trusting that God would provide a substitute or raise Isaac from
death back to life. His faith was what was later defined in the New
Testament as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things
not seen.” (Heb 11:1 ESV) Many of us older or aging people memorized that
verse as “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen.” (Heb 11:1 KJV) The unknown author of that statement
points our attention in two directions: 1. backward to the historical Jesus,
whose historical birth we formally celebrated less than two months ago and
whose historical death and resurrection we’re even now preparing to once
again formally celebrate in about six seeks; and 2. forward to the same
historical Jesus, who “will come again with glory to judge both the living
and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.” (Nicene Creed)
But what is that “faith” that the Holy Spirit gave Abraham then
and us today? It’s none other than the product of the divine recipe that
includes the following three ingredients: “knowledge” (namely, what the
Bible tells us about Jesus), “assent” (that is, agreement with what the
Bible tells us about Jesus), and “confidence” (in other words, trust that
what the Bible tells us about Jesus is true, reliable, and, well,
trustworthy). Instead of the written Holy Bible that we have today in and
through which God speaks to us, Abraham had the personal, probably even
audible, word of Yahweh (the covenant God, who did then and would later
reveal Himself in the person and work of Jesus Christ), both of which reveal
that “faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
(Rom 10:17 ESV)
Of course, Abraham passed the test of faith at that particular
time, but there were and would be other times when he failed. With us today
there are times when we pass the test of faith … and other times when we
fail miserably. When we pass the test of faith we find the words of James
to be very personally reassuring: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you
meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith
produces steadfastness” (James 1:2-3 ESV) as well as today’s Epistle
Reading: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he
has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised
to those who love him. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good
gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of
lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own
will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of
firstfruits of his creatures.” (James 1:12, 16-18 ESV) And, when we fail
the test of faith, and pray as did King David, “Consider my affliction and
my trouble, and forgive all my sins,” (Ps 25:18 ESV) we find Yahweh’s words
to the Israelites recorded by Jeremiah to be graciously redemptive, “I will
cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive
all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me.” (Jer 33:10 ESV)
That gracious removal of our sin-guilt that Jesus accomplished for
us with His holy life, innocent suffering, and crucifixion death, and
validated with His resurrection from the dead fills us with renewed resolve
to gratefully glorify God with sanctified thoughts, desires, words, and
deeds of love for and toward our neighbors. In fact, even as He did with
Abraham, so also …
II. God Provides What We Need to Honor Him. (9-14)
9When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the
altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him
on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then Abraham reached out his hand and
took the knife to slaughter his son. 11But the angel of the Lord called to
him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.”
12He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I
know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only
son, from me.” 13And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold,
behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went
and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
14So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it
is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
Abraham personally experienced the generous goodness of Yahweh
when He provided the substitute ram for him to offer instead of his son
Isaac. God Himself many years later fulfilled all the Messianic promises He
gave throughout the Old Testament years with His only-begotten Son, the
God-man Jesus Christ. In so doing, He liberated us from the punishment we
deserve for the sins we commit by laying all our sins on our Substitute Ram,
Jesus Christ.
The wonderful God-given provisions of forgiveness, salvation, and
eternal life that Jesus gained for us and God graciously gives to us in Holy
Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Communion, and His Holy Word all serve to
comfort, sustain, reassure, equip, and motivate us to strive to honor Him
with sanctified lives that show forth God’s love for us by us loving one
another. Even as God did for Abraham, so also He provides resources for us
to honor Him, resources that include hymns and hymnals, prayers and prayer
books, Bible study resources that contain instructions for how to honor Him,
Christian parents, Sunday school teachers to assist parents in nurturing
their children’s faith, vocational church workers, yes, and even the new
Synodical Catechism that provides commentary that addresses contemporary
issues … and much much more.
In conclusion, therefore, a manmade Lenten tradition is giving up
something in order to more readily identify with Jesus, who gave up His all
for us. Although that tradition has benefits, it’s much better that we
focus not on what we can give up but on what Jesus gave up for us as today’s
Gradual encouraged: “[O come, let us fix our eyes on] Jesus, the founder and
perfecter of our faith … .” (Heb 12:2a ESV) As we do so, the Holy Spirit
will lead us to realize ever more fully that …
“Obedient Faith in God Receives Gracious Blessings from God.”
As we gratefully rejoice over both the faith the Holy Spirit gave
us and the countless blessings we receive from God through that faith, let’s
always prayerfully strive to …
I. Be Willing to Obey God’s Severest Commands. (1-8) After all, today’s
Introit antiphon gives us Yahweh’s ongoing supportive and comforting
promise: “When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in
trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.” (antiphon Ps 91:15-16 ESV) With those
commitments of Yahweh to us ever before us, we also know that …
II. God Provides What We Need to Honor Him. (9-14) So, with joyful
hearts and spirits uplifted by the Holy Spirit Himself, let’s travel through
this Lenten season and beyond, always keeping today’s Collect in our minds
and on our hearts: “Guide the people of Your Church that following our
Savior we may walk through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of
the world to come.”
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our
holy Savior. [Amen.]
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
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