The room was impeccable: everything was beautifully organized and arranged. My visit to an elderly lady who was a radio listener was something that she had looked forward to for a very long time. Although she had at one time been a member of this church, she could no longer get out of her room. So, the radio became for her the church. She invited me to go and spend some time with her, and to have a visit at her home, and so I went. There, ready for my presentation and my visit, everything was laid out as she lays it out on a Sunday morning. There was a Bible from which she could read and follow along. There was a Hymn Book so she could sing the hymns every single Sunday as we were singing them here. She had been taken an Order of Service by a friend, and sometimes the Order of Service was there, though not every time.
She said that she had created in her room an altar, a church, a place of worship, and that every Sunday at 11 o’clock she made sure that her phone was off and she made sure she had time for worship. We had a glorious time in prayer, talking about how The Word and music and prayer were important to her. She said, “You know, I would like to thank you Reverend Lucyk for your years and years of preaching at our church.” Well, that was quite a name to invoke, and I was proud of it – although I did worry about her at that moment! She continued, “This means so much to me. It really does! It is a part of my life.”
I have thought of that woman many times, and I thought “She is no longer with us. How dedicated she was to create an altar, a place of worship where she was.” I thought it was refreshing, because I hear from people that worship is outmoded, that it is of a former time, that the need to join with others no matter where you are and to worship and celebrate God has been replaced by a personal devotion and a personal life of faith. There is no need to belong to anything; there is no need to join anything: you can worship God if you want to, but basically it is an outdated and outmoded thing.
Then, on the other hand, I run into people who worship out of guilt or out of a necessity, because they think that they ought to, or they should do, or they must worship God. Therefore, they feel compelled, whether they want to or not, whether they have a lot of faith or not, just simply be present in worship because it is the thing to do. That group of course is diminishing over time. I thought that somewhere between the sense that worship doesn’t matter and worship only matters because it is an obligation stands a woman like the one I visited, for she had what I call “Abraham’s Reason” to worship. She worshipped because she had a deep and abiding and a sincere faith in God and in Jesus Christ. She did what she did, and she created that altar because she believed. Therefore, no matter where she was or what was going on in her life, she in some way wanted to remain connected with a community of faith.
This morning, “Abraham’s Reason” comes to us loud and clear through the Book of Genesis. The story of Abraham and Sarah and their call is, according to most Old Testament scholars a turning point in The Old Testament. Prior to the story of Abraham, we have the creation story and the pre-history. We have stories of Adam and Eve’s sin, and we have the Tower of Babel being built, and praise and glory to humankind. We have sin vaunted and experienced in some of its darkest moments. We have the story of Cain and Abel and other forms of horror. But then the story of Abraham appears. It is not about Creation and fall, it is not about sin; rather it is about promise, it is about blessing. It is about God calling someone and saying, “I want you to set an example to the whole of humanity. I am calling you in order that the nations of the earth might respond in the way that I pray you will respond.” God spoke to Abraham, and in his words to Abraham offered him a blessing, and said that his descendants would be greater than all the grain of sands in the world. It is a glorious moment!
Not only was it a turning point, it was a statement about how God wants to deal with us. God wants to speak to us. Now, I know we are all very suspicious of people that go around saying that they have been hearing God speak to them. In many ways, this is a psychological pathology for some! Nevertheless, God does speak, and Abraham listened.
I liken it in many ways to our own conscience. When we have done something wrong, often we know it. It is as if there is a voice within us that is telling us, “Oh no, you really shouldn’t have done that.” Well, there are moments when we feel compelled to do something beyond what would normally be expected of us, and it is a driving force in our lives and we just do it. It is as if there is a voice within us. Maybe the voice is not always audible, and it is not as if God is a sound that hits our ears, but nevertheless God speaks to our consciences, God speaks to our will, God speaks to our hearts and our minds.
Clearly, in Abraham’s case, he spoke so loudly that he left his father’s home, he left his place of safety and security, and he entered into a journey of the unknown. That journey of the unknown left some of the great responses in the history of humanity, for Abraham clearly, God wanted him not only to follow him, but also by doing so, to be an example for us all to follow. Look what he did. When he began in his travels, he went to different lands. One of the lands that he arrived in and set up a place of worship in was a difficult land. The first place that he really stopped in his journey had been a place called Shechem. This is where the Canaanites lived. The Canaanites were of course famous for their paganism, they were famous for their idols and their many Gods. Abraham could not have set up an altar in a more difficult and more dangerous place than Shechem.
Later on, in the Book of Joshua for example, as the people are about to enter the Promised Land, Joshua stops at Shechem and he reminds the people of what Abraham had done there, and this is what Joshua said in Chapter 4:2:
Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your ancestors Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor lived beyond the Euphrates and served other Gods. Then, I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and led him through all the lands of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac, and Isaac I gave Jacob, and to Jacob I gave Joseph.
From that moment on, Joshua lists all the things that God did through Moses and others to lead the people into the Promised Land.
Joshua understood that moment by Abraham when he, in the land of Canaan, set down an altar to praise God was a powerful and a seminal and a central moment in God’s work. It was a moment when God did great things, and it took courage for Abraham to do that. It took courage for Abraham in a difficult place. Under the Tree of Moreh and by the Tree of Moreh, he set this altar, an altar to God in a difficult land and in a difficult place. That is what God wants us to do. No matter where we are and what situation we find ourselves, he wants us to create an altar even in difficult places.
As many of you know, a couple of weeks ago I was at the Indianapolis 500, and one of the things that I and the team did was to pray with those who were facing danger. There were some who made fun and belittled the prayers. We faced some opposition! One of them said, “What is the difference between one of your prayers for the drivers and a rabbit’s foot? You might as well give them a rabbit’s foot. It does just as much good as your prayer.”
I thought about this, and I thought about the criticisms, and I thought I could understand that: if you think that prayer, that worship is purely and simply something symbolic to make you feel good, then maybe it is like a rabbit’s foot. But, if prayer and the worship of God is born out of a real and genuine faith, if it is born out of ‘Abraham’s reason’. Therefore, even in difficult places and in difficult times, invoking the name of God makes sense because it is predicated on the faith of who is praying.
What made Abraham so absolutely outstanding in the history of The Old Testament and in the history of humanity is that he set up his altar in the most dangerous and difficult places in Canaan precisely because he had faith, precisely because he believed in his heart that the loyal, mighty God had called him.
In the twentieth century, one of the most difficult times was faced by a man called Alexander Solzhenitsyn and he wrote this about prayer:
How easy it is Lord for me to live with you. How easy it is for me to believe in you. When my understanding is perplexed by doubts or at the point of giving up. When the most intelligent men see no further than the coming evening and know not what they should do tomorrow, you send me a clear assurance that you are there and that you will ensure that not all the roads of goodness are barred. From the heights of earthly fame I look back in wonder of the road that led through hopelessness to this place where I could send mankind a reflection of your radiance. And whatever I in this life may yet reflect that you will give me and whatever I shall not attain that plainly you have purposed for others.
Solzhenitsyn wrote these words from the gulag. He wrote them knowing that no matter where God had sent him, no matter what difficulties or pain he was facing, he would be for God’s purpose if he would maintain his faith.
I never know what difficulties each and every one of you in this church might face in your life. I don’t know from broken relationships to ill health to your concern about the world and the environment or your desire for peace. I do think about the tragedy that happened in Moncton this week but will never know the depth of suffering the RCMP families face. I have no idea what people think or remember of the difficulties of D-Day 70 years ago. I have no idea what difficulties will lie before you, and you have no idea either. But commend you to do as Abraham did: no matter where God had sent him, he decided to set up his altar and worship him.
Abraham also worshiped in good times as well as bad times. He moved on, and he moved on to Bethel. He took with him his whole family. It must have been incredibly disruptive! Can you imagine taking your whole household, taking your nephews, taking all your animals, and moving from place to place not knowing where God was going to lead you ultimately! Abraham and Sarah went where God had instructed them, and they end up in Bethel. Bethel became a place of blessing and a place of joy. Not only did he set up an altar there, we are told significantly he set up a tent. It was a place where he would dwell for a while. Abraham was confident because he knew deep down in his heart that wherever God was, he was home. Abraham never had anything to fear. Abraham never had to worry. Abraham could rejoice because he knew that he pitched his tent where God wanted him to be.
Before all this could happen Abraham had to listen. This is true for us as well. Where does God want you to be? Where does God want your life to unfold? Where does what we are doing this morning in worship have an impact on your life and on your desire to follow God. This is a question that every one of us should ask. It is the moment when in a sense what we do here in worship has a massive impact on our life. Oh, I know that the trite and the trivial say that people worship God because of a desire for some kind of reward, some kind of eventual recognition by a higher power that they have done something great and good, and that the only thing that really motivates people, so the cynics say, is the desire for a reward.
It reminds me of a story of a Scot who went to church one day, and the Offertory came along, and he reached into his pocket and picked out a Crown, which was a very valuable coin, and he placed it in the Offertory Plate. But, as it went back to the deacon he looked and realized he put a Crown in when really all he intended to put in was a penny. So, he stopped the deacon before the deacon walks away, and he says to the Deacon, “Do you think I can have my Crown back and put in my penny?”
The Deacon said, “No! You can’t. You have already given it.”
So then, the man says, “That’s okay. I will get my reward in heaven.”
The Deacon looked at him and said, “Yes. The reward will only be though for a penny!”
In other words, it is not something that we earn. It is not something that we expect a reward for at the end. Abraham did not expect a reward when he set out to Bethel and put up his tent; he went out in faith. He went out knowing and believing that if God had called him, God would be with him. He knew that there was a promise, but that promise was a result of his faith in God first. Faith is the thing that matters most: not the outward appearance of an altar; not the creation of a tent; not a public act of worship. Faith changes everything. That is what I loved about that lady that day in her room. I knew the sincerity in her heart. Even though she mistook me for another minister – God bless her – I loved her for it. She seems to me to be an example for us all. She showed us Abraham’s Reason.
The Apostle Paul hundreds of years later memorialized Abraham in the famous words of the Book of Romans. Paul said of Abraham, “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, for if Abraham was justified by works he had something to boast about, but not before God, for what the Scriptures say is that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.” The true reward for Abraham then came from his faith.
On this Pentecost Sunday, on this Sunday when we celebrate the church, when we recognize the power of the Holy Spirit moving in us and creating the Church, it is really in true faith that this becomes a reality. May you, and all those that you know and you love worship with ‘Abraham’s reason’! Amen.