Obedient From the Heart

A Sermon for the Proper 8 (RCL A) 6-26-2011

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:              Genesis 22:1-14; Psalm 13; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42

Themes:         obedience, sin, righteousness

Title:               Obedient from the Heart

My friends: what image comes to your mind if I suggest to you right now that God longs for each one of us to fully and willingly obey God’s commandments?

Do you think of a place like Jonestown, where blind obedience to authority leads to a dangerous loss of freedom and safety?

Well, let me suggest to you this morning that obedience from the heart, as St. Paul so carefully explained, is in fact the pathway to a life of joyful freedom and life.

Of course, obedience is a word which we shun in our society today. We do not like anything at all that suggests the curtailing of our individual rights and freedoms.

And yet, sacrifice and obedience are the themes of this Sunday, and we must grapple with these if we are to understand what it means to live in Christ.

We begin, rather directly, with the sacrifice of Isaac. The text is quite clear.

God tested Abraham’s trust and Abraham obeyed. Abraham did in fact offer his son.

Remember that what matters in the realm of the spirit is the intention of the heart.

For God’s purpose, the sacrifice of Isaac was complete, because Abraham clearly intended to obey the divine command, regardless of how it might appear to affect himself and his future.

But let’s also be clear about this: God had no desire for Isaac to die. And God had no intention of allowing this sacrifice to be carried out to completion. But it does seem that God needed to see what Abraham would do.

Abraham trusted in this God, the One who had spoken to him so clearly on numerous occasions before, the One who had made such profound promises to Abraham and his descendents.

In this relationship, Abraham had never had reason to doubt God. In fact, just the opposite! At this point in his life, Abraham trusted God completely. This trust means that he was willing to obey what God commanded.

Abraham was willing to sacrifice that which was closest to him – even his son, his heir – out of love and loyalty to God.

What are you willing to sacrifice to God? And, honestly, what do you think might happen if you actually make that sacrifice, if you actually take that step forward in trust and obedience?

OK. Abraham is a mythical kind of man, so far in the past and shrouded in the mists of time. It may be difficult to think of him as a real model which we can follow.

Here are two true, more contemporary examples of what happens when we step out in obedience.

There is a story retold by church workers in the mountains of southwestern China working among the Lisu people of a Lisu man early in the 20^th century who had a deep longing to worship a God of all things whom he did not know. One day, this man found on a mountain path a single page that was torn out of a Christian catechism book written in the Lisu language. On this page he read the following:

Question: Are there more gods than one?

Answer: No, there is only one God.

Question: Should we worship idols?

Answer: No…

And that was the end of the page. As soon as that man returned to his home, he destroyed the altars in his home and threw away his traditional idols, in obedience to these words he had read and which spoke to him with the force of truth. But immediately, his daughter became very ill. His family and neighbors taunted him, suggesting that he had offended the spirits whom he had thrown away.

This man knew nothing about how to pray to the one God, but he thought that perhaps he could reach God with his voice. So he went and climbed up to the peak of the highest local mountain, perhaps 14,000 feet up, and he cried out: “O God, if you are really there and you are the One I am to worship, please make my little girl well again.”

This journey of his up and back down the mountain took some time, but when he arrived home again, he found his daughter completely well, and also that she had begun to recover at precisely the time that he was praying on the mountain peak.

He was willing to sacrifice the comfort and safety of the traditions that he inherited, and he was willing to sacrifice the respect of his friends and neighbors. With enthusiasm, he was willing to follow even the smallest bits of truth that he had, eager for more. This man went on to study the scriptures in depth and he became an effective and powerful evangelist for the gospel throughout the entire region (Renovation of the Heart, by Dallas Willard, p.149-150).  

Now consider another true story of sacrifice and obedience, closer to home.

Henry Covington was not a good man. This Brooklyn native had become completely caught up in the inner-city world of violence and drugs which is all too common. After spending years in prison as a young man, he finally reached the very bottom when all seemed lost. One dark night, as Henry hid behind trash cans along his street with a shotgun in his hand, waiting for other dealers from whom he had stolen to hunt him down and shoot him, he prayed and asked for one more chance. “Jesus”, he prayed, “give me another chance, and I will give my life to you.”

His would-be assassins never arrived. So, in the morning, Henry Covington threw away his drugs, his money, his guns and the only life that he had ever known. Henry made the decision to become clean. It wasn’t easy and he continued to pray, especially one day soon after when the police came into his home looking for evidence. They had known that Henry was a dealer and now they came to take him in. Henry had thrown everything away, except for one thing. On his bedside table were two red notebooks: in one of these, he had been writing Bible passages, especially verses from the book of Proverbs. But in the other notebook were his notes of all of his past dealings, with names of suppliers and sources and dollar amounts and the types of products, the names of important clients and everything. He was going to burn that notebook, to destroy that evidence of his past, but he hadn’t gotten to it yet. Henry watched in silent horror as one of the officers walked over and picked up a notebook and looked through it page by page. But then, the man tossed it down on the bed with disregard and ignored the other one.

A few minutes later, the police officers left Henry’s apartment without finding any incriminating evidence. Henry Covington knew that God had spared him, and he has now gone on to become the pastor of a church in Detroit which offers vital assistance to that city’s homeless and drug-addicted population (Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom).

Did these crucial events in the lives of these men happen by coincidence or by the force of good luck?

What happens when we make the choice to be obedient to God, when we decide to live in harmony with God’s kingdom, as best as we know how?

What really happens when we begin to obey God as best as we are able?

Both the Lisu man in China and Henry Covington in Brooklyn were only able to begin to follow God with a small step, but they made that step in the light that was available to them at that moment. They obeyed, and God responded.

When we follow God by our own free will, we place ourselves within the realm of God’s kingdom.

And in this realm, God’s will is done. In the realm of the kingdom, we become willing participants in God’s on-going plan to spread the life-giving influence of this kingdom to more and more people.

Abraham is our original archetype of one who trusts and obeys God, even when this obedience demands sacrifice. But the sacrifice which God desires is in fact the obedience of love from the heart, and when we take the step that is before us in faith and in trust, we are able to become free and joyous co-workers with Christ in sharing his free gift of eternal life with all people.  

May it always be so among us. Amen.