A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

TRUST THE PROCESS

Genesis 22:1-14, Preached at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, June 24, 2007

The pope met with his cardinals to discuss a proposal from Ariel Sharon, the leader of Israel. "Your Holiness," said one of the cardinals, "Mr.Sharon wants to challenge you to a game of golf to show the friendship and ecumenical spirit shared by the Jewish and Catholic faiths." The Pope considered it to be a good idea, but he had never held a golf club in his hand. "Don’t we have a cardinal who can represent me?" he asked. "None who plays golf very well," a cardinal replied. "But," he added, "there is a man named Jack Nicklaus, an American golfer who is a devout Catholic. We can offer to make him a cardinal, and then ask him to play Mr. Sharon as your personal representative. In addition to showing our spirit of cooperation, we'll also win the match." Everyone agreed that it was a good idea.

The call was made and naturally Nicklaus was honored and agreed to play. On the day after the match Nicklaus informed the Pope of the result. "I have some good news and some bad news, Your Holiness," said the golfer. "Tell me the good news first, Cardinal Nicklaus.” "Well, I don't like to brag but this was the best I’ve ever played. My drives were long, my irons were accurate, and my putting was perfect. My play was truly miraculous." "There's bad news?" the Pope asked. Nicklaus sighed. "Yes. I lost to Rabbi Tiger Woods by two strokes."

Our text today is about meeting challenges in life and not backing down. Someday the challenge will arrive that will be or is today seemingly  beyond your power to overcome. It will test your soul. If you pass it, you will do so because you trusted and obeyed God’s call to walk the forward path. When your situation has you up to your neck in muck, just remember: “‘The Lord is our helper; I will not be afraid.’” (Hebrews 13:6) God will provide something better. So don’t just look for a short cut. Consider that this is the battle you are meant to fight and win. Life isn’t a fairy tale where we are transformed by pixie dust into a princess or prince. To become the better person means taking on tasks God has set before you.

The famous French sculptor, Auguste Rodin created a pair of statues that he placed side by side in an exhibit. The first statue is made of smooth marble, with soft, sleek lines. It portrays a human figure cradled in a gently cupped hand, complacent and relaxed. The second piece is rough, active and powerful; the fingers of the hand are raising a conscious human figure, carrying it upward. Rodin called the first work “The Hand of the Devil”; the second “The Hand of God.”

What we want to see this morning is that life-sized challenges are meant to transform you into something more God-sized.

When you are confronted with a God-sized struggle, you can only win when you become more than who you are. That is the challenge, and in this is the victory. I can’t play piano, so it would be a distinct challenge for me. The only way I could learn it is if I became more than I am right now. And that’s of course always a choice. There is a place in Death Valley National Park known as Dante's View. From here you have two views. You can either look down 200 feet to the lowest spot in the Western Hemisphere, a place called Badwater, or you can look up to see the highest point in the desert, over 11,000 feet with snow-capped mountains. From this one spot, you can choose to feast your eyes on the highest or the lowest. Your pick. When the chips are down, you ought to look up. God can do incredible things with anyone who looks up.

We all have our dreams, but we also all have our destiny. Abraham was no different than us. Do you think he wanted to leave everything and everyone he knew behind and wander out in unknown territory to fulfill God’s promise for his distant relatives? That is the first part of his story. Of course not. Nor did he want to hear anything about worshiping the Lord by sacrificing his son, which is today’s terrible and terrific story. But he “endured trials for the sake of discipline.” You see, God’s destiny awaiting us is often accompanied by the refashioning of goals dreamt by us. The promise of God is that through Isaac Abrahams’ descendants are to be named. The command of God is that Isaac must be killed.

Back in Abraham’s days, there were people whose religion told them that human sacrifice was what their deity ordered. Talk about a challenge that confronts the soul. What we want to believe is what Abraham tells himself and Isaac—“God will provide.”

Abraham’s faith says that God is more than the tester; God is also the provider.

But what we can’t avoid seeing is a man who is being tested with the thought that he may end up providing his beloved son as sacrifice. When you are challenged in the hope that God will provide, faith tells you everything is going to be all right. But in the meantime it’s your loved ones who are walking with the bundle of wood on their back, while you carry the knife and flame in your hand. God’s direction seems at time to be misdirection. And our faith in God who is good, who loved us first, whose mercy is boundless, means the more we follow him the better will our loved ones be, but often only in the long run. In the short run, we seem to be willing to sacrifice others close to us. This is the contradictory heart of faith in the one and only God, who is both freely sovereign to demand total loyalty and graciously faithful to provide for our needs.  Faith, to trust the process, is the readiness to answer to this strange contradiction in God. Faith says “yes” to the promise, which is no small matter. It also says “yes” to the command. So fulfill the call. Serve the Lord. Obey the command that is God’s right to utter. Be bold enough to choose what’s best in the long run, faith in God’s will, over our short term gain. (Walter Brueggemann, Genesis)

There are times when we are asked to be the one who will provide. When your family is struggling, your relationships aren’t working, your dreams aren’t happening, and it is upon you to find a way to get up and over the mountain. You are the provider when you are asked to be more mature, calmer, stronger, kinder, more insightful, faithful, and hopeful. At these times, it feels that you are on your own without any resource in sight. The fact is it’s just you and God taking a walk up a mountain and all you have is yourself to count on and faith in God to keep you going forward. The world gets turned upside down. I was supposed to be healthy until my dying day; I was supposed to have good kids; or they weren’t supposed to die before me. My wife/husband was supposed to understand me and care about me, not be my opponent. I was supposed to make money and not have to work a part time job after retirement. Trust in God during these testing times. Be transformed by faith into God’s destiny. When times get tough, get transformed.

A young woman brings home her fiancée to meet her parents. After dinner, the father invites the fiancée to his study for a father-in-law type of chat. "So what are your plans?" "I am a Minister," he replies. "A Minister. Hmmm," the father says. "Admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in, as she's accustomed to?"  "I will preach," the young man replies, "and God will provide for us." "And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring, such as she deserves?" asks the father. "I will lead my church," the young man replies, "and God will provide for us." "And children?" asks the father. "How will you support children?" "Don't worry, sir, God will provide," replies the fiancée.  The conversation proceeds like this, each time the young man insists God will provide.

Later, the mother asks, "How did it go, Honey?" "Well, the bad news is he has little work and no plans,” the father answers, “but the good news is he thinks I'm God."

There is only one God, who perhaps is a bit more father-in-law than Daddy, as Abraham learned, and that we would always want. But God is the Lord who delivers us freely and the Lord who demands from us fully. When the Lord tests, it is we who must answer in trust, and this trust is that God will provide. From God comes life, and all the blessings in life, and the hope for life after life. God is good, all the time. So believe, and don’t turn from God. The Lord provides.

Richard L. Culp says, “Two weeks after the farm credit company took our farm, I lost my job as ranch foreman. Our family moved into a compact rental unit, and [my wife] Geneva and I began working a series of minor jobs, including a stint at a fast-food restaurant. It was difficult to pay down the $100,000 debt that was left after the farm credit company seized all of our assets - our land, our equipment, our home, and our bank notes. There were many times that we didn't have money for groceries and living expenses, but God provided for us through our family, our friends and our church. A year and a half later, God gave us our new direction. Geneva and I were offered a management position at an exclusive 2,600-acre waterfowl hunting club between Gridley and Colusa in northern California. Our clients were powerful and wealthy. As we served at the club in numerous ways, our situation witnessed to the fact that money and possessions cannot bring happiness. We had lost everything, yet we had joy in our lives.

After we had been at the club for about a year, I received a call from the head of the credit company that had taken our farm. He needed to talk with me. Geneva and I offered to drive to town, but he insisted on making the hour's drive out to the hunting club. As we sat together at a table, he leaned across and said, "I want to ask you something personal. A friend of mine recently lost everything he owned. His wife just committed suicide. We at the office have noticed that you two are handling this crisis differently than most people do. Can you tell me what your secret is?" I was happy to witness to my faith. "We believe in the God of the Bible. He is sovereign over our lives, and he is in control. Even though the pain is very real, we are confident of this fact: God has proven sufficient and able to take care of us." Geneva added, "God's Word promises, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you' (Hebrews 13:5, NIV). We have never felt alone for a single moment." Later, as the head of the credit company rose to leave, he thanked us. "You've given me a lot to think about," he said quietly. (Richard L. Culp, "We lost everything: A farmer clings to his spiritual roots," Amy Writing Awards) 

May our faith give others quiet pause. May our faith give God unqualified praise. May your faith lead you up the highest mountains, through the deepest valleys, and straight on the path that God provides.

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