real love don't follow a straight line
it breaks your neck, it builds you a delicate shine
The closer they get to the top of the mountain, the more the tension mounts. I’m talking about, of course, Abraham and that child promised to him in his old age, Isaac. Isaac, that miraculous child of mirth.
Today’s passage has a way of scandalizing folks. And it’s not hard to see why. Is it? After all, what kind of a God would ask for something like that? The thing, though, is this passage is only shocking in a theoretical way. Because in the trenches of real life, this passage rings all too true. Doesn’t it?
Wouldn’t you agree that we only ever make it to the altar of the Lord after a harrowing journey? Maybe it’s that mountain of paperwork sitting on your desk. Maybe it’s that seemingly endless valley of grief you’ve been trying to make your way through. Maybe it’s that uneven terrain of family life. Maybe it’s that dense thicket of guilt you can’t seem to find your way out of. Maybe it’s the avalanche of newspaper headlines.
No matter what, though, one way or another, we’re all only here from traversing that stony path of life on this side of the grave. And whether we like it or not, none of us ever get here without our fair share of ups and downs. And sometimes, more down than up.
That was certainly the case for Abraham. Wasn’t it? After more than his fair share of twists and turns, life was finally straightening out for him. He and Sarah had their long-awaited, promised child. More than likely, Abraham planned to sail off into retirement. Happily passing along the reigns to the next generation.
Only that’s not how it worked out. If God’s first call to Abraham threatened his past. This one threatens his future. ALL Abraham’s hopes laid on Isaac’s young shoulders. And this call from God puts every last one of them on the line.
Now God had seen Abraham through so many other scrapes, Abraham couldn’t imagine bucking this one. And you can see that ambiguity play out in today’s scripture. However, there’s no doubt it all came to a head for Abraham like it never had before that day.
That day where he found himself facing a terrible fork in the road. Abraham could turn one way and disobey God. Or turn the other and lose his son. No matter which way he turned, though, neither direction held much promise for poor ol’ Abraham.
In the end, though, it was right at that intersection where Abraham got a full taste of all God’s promises. Wasn’t it?! Before he leaves that terrible mountain, he can’t help from naming it after God’s unlikely and unexpected provision! That wild and windy mountain, upon retrospect, turned out to be the very place God provided! “‘The Lord will provide’ as it is said to this day.”
And isn’t that just like God we’re here today to worship? Isn’t that just like this God to turn a treacherous mountain into the altar of the Lord? Isn’t that just like this God to transform an albatross into the table where all the Lord’s goods are handed over?
…Today’s passage shows that, for as good of a game as we can talk, we’re inclined to get God’s provisions totally backward! This is because we think God will get to work once we have our lives in working order. However, today’s passage reveals that God tends to turn up when it’s all going to pieces!
When God first calls us, it doesn’t feel like we’re climbing the mountain. On the contrary, it seems like our lives are sliding down into nothing. The path to the altar of the Lord tends to feel like the rocky ground of the boneyard. The Lord’s provisions always come across as too little, too late.
…For as scandalizing of a statement as that is, and it is, I happen to know many of you have plenty of experience with it. Abraham isn’t the only one who has found himself on a rough and ragged path. Is he? We’re all here today, before the altar of the Lord, bearing the scuffs and scrapes of the trek that brought us here.
Like Abraham, we know what it’s like to come to the Lord’s table a little worse for the wear. Don’t we? There are widows, widowers, parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and friends here who have walked this very same godawful path as Abraham. Plenty of you have heard from the God who would dare to ask for it all. Each one of us has climbed and climbed and climbed until we came to a fork in the road where neither direction held any good outcomes for us.
…I also happen to know, though, that there are those of us here who have met God on that very same trail sown with tears! And for those of us who have knelt before this unlikely altar of the Lord, today’s scripture isn’t so scandalous. Is it? In fact, it’s a little comforting.
It’s comforting to know we’re not the only ones who have been on this path. And that’s not all, either! Because it’s also comforting to learn, as Abraham did, that the God who bids us up this frightful mountain is the God who specializes in making a way out of no way! The God who provides, come what may!
…The truth is, this passage rings true. But it rings true in its particularly cross-shaped way. The cross-shaped way that turns our forks in the road into Christ’s very cross of salvation! The cross-shaped way that transforms the rugged paths we’ve been on into nothing less than the blessed path of salvation itself!
So, for those of you fresh off such a path, take a breath. For those of you who are in the middle of one, take heart. And the rest of us, well, take heed.
Take heed because you will find yourself on such a rocky path. And when that happens, because it does, the temptation will be to think your path is godforsaken. But by the power of the blood of the Lamb, that path will turn out to be the holy ground of Golgotha itself! The place where all of God’s provisions are bestowed!
There! Look up! Caught in the thicket of the cross is the promised Lamb of God! The only-begotten, beloved child of God who takes the wood along with every other consequence, the very sin of the world, upon himself. The one who lays down his life so that we might have new life in his name! By his stripes, we all are healed!
And so, before we go, let us too name this place “The Lord will provide,” as it is still said to this day. Because indeed, the Lord has provided! And it’s in that gracious provision that we walk. Not knowing where we go, but only that God’s hand is leading us and God’s love is supporting us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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