“First Fruits”

As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray:

Ever giving God, everything we have is a direct product of your grace. Make us truly thankful, so that we might let go of what we think is ours, and give everything we have and are to their original owner, you. In this time, grow your Spirit within us so that we might increase in grace, love, and wisdom, and live life abundantly. Speak Lord, your servants are listening. Amen.

Hear now The Word of the Lord in the familiar and frankly peculiar account of Genesis. Genesis 22.1-18.

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 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 that I shall show you.” ³So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. ⁴On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. ⁵Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” ⁶Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. ⁷Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” ⁸Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
  9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. ¹¹But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹²He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” ¹³And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, ¹⁶and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, ¹⁸and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”

The Grass withers, the Flower falls, but the Word of the Lord endures forever

…Thanks be to God.

Father Abraham, the Father of Faith, didn’t have seven sons. He had two, technically. We think of Isaac as his only son. But before that he had Ishmael by Sarah’s maidservant Hagar. Ish, as he was surely nicknamed, became Abraham’s superfluous son when Isaac was born.

Imagine, if you can, that you are Abraham. You have a bizarre situation on your hands. You want children, like anyone of the day does, and you and your wife, Sarah are unable to have children. So Sarah sends Abraham to the fertility specialist, which back then was to send a maidservant to your husband so that he might have a child with her. But then again, you and your wife were promised by God that you would be parents, and God helps those who help themselves, right? So, it seems like an odd situation, but it was what it was.

Then Sarah does get pregnant, and has Abraham’s second son, Isaac. And what ensues after that seems the most obvious thing to an outsider. The living situation that Sarah had made for herself doesn’t really work for her. She finds that she is jealous of Hagar, the maidservant, and Ishmael. So, in the chapter right before today’s passage, Sarah makes Abraham send Hagar and Ish out into the wilderness.

So, I’m going to presume here, but I think anytime we talk about sons, plural, and we are in Sarah’s presence, Abraham gives us the look. You know which one, the ‘why-are-you-bringing-that-up, are-you-trying-to-get-me-in-trouble-again’ look. I’m sure Abraham learned quickly how to answer the questions. You know, the, “Isn’t our little Isaac the cutest boy ever?” That wasn’t just a question, it was a test, and he’d better answer it right. Parents can be a little protective of their children. Imagine having to wait until you are nearly 100 years old to get the child that you have wanted since before you can remember. And this is no regular son that came to Abraham and Sarah, this is a promised child from God, who will make Abraham and Sarah the parents of a nation. This is privilege, but it is also responsibility to keep up so that God’s plan won’t get messed up. Maybe Abraham and Sarah had a couple of extra reasons to be especially careful with Isaac. So, when God calls Abraham and says get me a son, in his best Bob Dylan voice, my guess is that Abraham’s mind could have instantly gone to Ishmael. We can’t mean Isaac, he is your gift to us God, and he is what makes us laugh. Since, after all, it was just a few verses ago, perhaps Ishmael and Hagar aren’t too far away, and perhaps they can be found. Ishmael is already dead to Abraham, this would be an easy solution. Maybe Abraham can get away with giving God the leftovers, since there are some. \\ But God is clear, “Abraham, Get your son, your only son, the one you love.” \\ Abraham could think when God says “Get your son,” that God means Ishmael, because Ishmael fits that bill. And when God says, “Your only son,” well, Ishmael was his first. But God does not mince words. “The one you love.”

How tempting it is to give God less than the first fruits. God can use any gift we decide to give, why does it have to be the first fruits? Can’t we just get by giving God the second cut? The mantra rings in our ears, as it is repeated three times in this passage, your son, your only son, the one you love.

How did Abraham get away from Sarah, do you think? Do you think he told her? “Honey, I’ve got to take Isaac for a couple of days? Why, well…” What do you think he said? Or did he tell her anything at all? We read that Abraham woke up early in the morning, and then went on a journey of no less than 3 days. Perhaps he left her a note. Perhaps not even that. Perhaps he kissed her on the forehead and said goodbye. If he isn’t coming back with Isaac, do you think he is coming back at all? I don’t know. Any way around it, this is going to change his life, giving this first fruit to God. It’s going to cost him not only his son, but the promise from God, possibly his marriage, who knows what else. Make no mistake about it, this is not just offering up his first fruits, I believe Abraham knows that in so doing, he is offering up his life to God, he is being asked to trust God for his entire future. Perhaps God knows that in asking for first fruits, God also gets complete commitment.

Bring your son, your only son, the one you love.

This is the same God that wants us to have nothing in front of God that can take our worship. Easy it is to worship first fruits. They are a sign of how much we have, how hard we work, how well we manage. And God knows what a temptation that is. Perhaps that is why God asks for first fruits, because if you can’t give God your first fruits, how can you really give your heart?

Your son, your first son, the one you love.

I once participated in an exercise aimed at getting people to try something like that. It was in college, and we were asked to give our favorite shirt to the local Good Will store. They had a program where they took donations to give to people, not to sell in the store, but to give away to homeless people. When I was in college, most of my wardrobe came from the store portion of that very GoodWill, or when I came back home I’d go to Last Chance Thrift, over on Buford. The professor of religion who remains a dear friend once looked at me, scanned what I was wearing, and laughed. Another time she called me, and I quote, “An onslaught to fashion, and an insult to all who wear clothes.” We figured that, after you take out the nudists, that covered the rest of the entire civilized world. Anyway, that said, I knew which shirt of mine was the best to give away, which one the homeless people would need most. It was my third or forth favorite shirt, a green flannel shirt, with black checks. It was one of the warmest shirts I owned, and clearly was the best shirt for the use needed. But there was a problem, it wasn’t my favorite shirt, and my roommate reminded me of this. And so I struggled back and forth. My favorite shirt was this really great t-shirt, it had sentimental value, and it was just plain cool. I didn’t want to give it up. Whoever got it wouldn’t appreciate it the way I did. Perhaps they wouldn’t even like it. To them it would be just another t-shirt. But it was more than that to me.

But the call was clear. Bring your shirt, your favorite shirt, the one you love.

It’s not the same, obviously. But I certainly learned about how hard it is to give up something I loved, something I enjoyed, something I needed – clothing is one of the basic needs you know.

How difficult is it to give up the thing that we need, the thing that we all need to meet our needs, money. And we can rationalize it with the best of them, can’t we? We can give in so many ways, and hands-on work is rewarding, satisfying, is good for the soul. Giving is not always giving money. There are worlds of things we can give that do not cost anything.

And all of that is true.

I see a lot of folks who are just about to get married. I always do some sort of meetings and pre-marital counseling with folks whom I am to marry. You know what I’ve learned about marriage? There are a lot of things to it, and a lot of things required to do it well. You’ve got to work well together, know how to compromise. Communication is key. And I see a lot of folks and they are all in love. Gushy love. We’re engaged and getting married soon love. And I tell them that you need more than love to make a marriage work. You need compromise and communication. You need to work at it, sometimes. Marriage isn’t all about love, but there better be love involved.

Giving isn’t only giving money either, but if those first fruits aren’t involved...

Your son, your only son, the one you love.

When we find Abraham on the mountain, God provides. Abraham calls the place “The Lord will provide.” Because of his faith in God, Abraham gets even more faith, and is still, to this day, known as the Father of Faith. And then Abraham is again given the promise in verses 16 and 17, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, you will be blessed.” It reminds me of the parable of the Lord who went away, and gave his 3 servants some talents to keep for him. The first was given 5, and made 5. The second was given 2 and made 2 more. The last was given one and buried it in the ground. When the Lord came back, the one who had not made any, his money was taken away. “Give his to the one with 10 talents, for to all who have, more will be given.” Abraham found that to be true in faith. He had it, passed the test, and more was given. Because he did not withhold his son, his only son, the one he loved.

Would you like to grow in faith, to have more given to you? Like in marriage, which is more than love, but love better be involved, giving is more than money. Your time, your presence, your sweat, all of those will enrich your experience of the life of faith. Giving is more than money, but it is certainly nothing less.

I’d like to tell you that I made my shirt decision relatively quickly, that I didn’t struggle with it, and that it was easy and completely 100% satisfying. I’d like to tell you that, but I can’t. It was tough. Like I said, the t-shirt had sentimental value. But now, so does this shirt. This green flannel shirt, that is warm, and has black checks and was my third or forth favorite shirt in college has come to have some sentimental value as well. It is a reminder of that struggle. It is a reminder of how much I was rewarded, blessed to use the term that is used in verse 17, for giving first fruits.

It never is easy to give first fruits. But it is rewarding. Give first fruits, and watch as faith deepens. Amen.