Genesis 22:1-14

So much is written on this story and I really feel that my sermon helper is more about the unusual stuff, so I will try to keep this at the usual length. I preached to this once as a lay speaker. I told my pastor that I wanted to preach the lectionary and that whenever she needed me, I'd take whatever came up. Lucky me. I mentioned Bruce Feiler's book on Abraham and I went with the classic theme of “commitment”. Not my proudest moment. Since then I've heard alternatives, like it's a story about ending the practice of child sacrifice, something that pops up now and again in the Bible. The story might be saying; God is not going to ask you to sacrifice a kid anymore, but let's not forget He's in charge and He could if He wanted to.

You can have a lot of fun filling in actual thoughts or even just expression of the characters. Like Isaac cocking his head to one side and very slowly pointing out the obvious facts that there is fire and wood, but no lamb. And what went on as Abraham was binding his son? No details are provided. What we do have is a good and faithful servant. One who, when called upon says, “Here I am”, whether it is the Lord God Almighty, or just his kid. We can assume Isaac has observed this behavior all his life and come to admire and trust his father. Things have worked out often I'm sure, even though Isaac didn't always see the wisdom of his father's ways until he saw the outcome.

Jeremiah 28:5-9

Imagine the words here being spoken by a man wearing a wooden ox yoke. The yoke represents Babylon, the ones who are conquering all over the place and putting up their rulers in place of the locally sanctioned ones. You would think he would want to throw off that yoke, but God is telling him to recommend they accept it, that if they don't, there will terrible wars. God promises to restore Judah later. Just before these verses, Hanahiah has said he will be the one who breaks the yoke of Babylon.

Jeremiah responds with some excellent politicking. First agreeing with Hanahiah, because ultimately that's his goal too, the goal he just received from God himself. But, then there's a “but”. He points out this is typical prophesy; war, destruction, then deliverance. But the one who prophesies peace, that must be shown, only then will we know if they are indeed a prophet.

In the verses that follow, the drama continues, and it's pretty awesome. Hanahiah grabs the yoke and breaks it, saying that's what he's going to do with Babylon. Jeremiah walks away from the fight. Walking the walk of peace, as it were. He knows God is on his side, and God comes through, telling him that breaking a wooden yoke is just going to make it worse. The chapter ends with the death of Hananaih. If only more of the prosperity preachers and false prophets of today could come to such an end. I would be happy with their symbolic death, that is, a good public shaming.

Romans 6:12-23

We have a diatribe from Paul this week. No, really, that's what it's called, the style that he is writing in. He's defending a position, unlike his other letters where is usually attempting to straighten out some misunderstanding. The choice of passage is a bit of an echo of Abraham, “presenting your members”, “obedience”, these lead to eternal life. This now must come through Christ, no matter who you are, so just obeying the Law is not good enough, but God has not gone back on his word and rejected the Jews. All can find salvation. And although the promises have been fulfilled, you still don't get to engage in any wild activities.