God Keeps God’s Promises - A Sermon for September 14 2025 Holy Cross Day

Welcome to week 2 with the Narrative Lectionary.

Last week, we heard the first creation story.

God brings order and beauty out of chaos.

God speaks, and it happens,

You are created in the image of God,

you are part of what makes God’s creation very good.

God’s work of bringing order and beauty out of chaos

continues in the story of the binding of Isaac;

and we learn that God always keeps God’s promises.

God said to Abram in Genesis 12,

Go to the land I will show you,

I will make of you a great nation,

I will bless you so you will be a blessing.

Abram did as he was told.

He went.

But did he really trust God’s promise?

Not long into their journey,

Abram and Sarai were faced with a famine

and resided in Egypt as aliens.

Abram came up with a plan.

He thinks murder is likely, but adultery is not,

so he had his wife, Sarai, pretend to be his sister.

The trick worked, Abram lived,

but Sarai became the Pharaoh’s wife.

Lies and trickery are not faithful -

God did not ask for deception to be part of the journey.

God, however, redeemed the situation

through a plague in Pharaoh’s house

and then Pharaoh proceeded to tear a strip into Abram,

and rightfully so.

“Why didn’t you tell me Sarai was your wife?”

It was Pharaoh tearing into Abram,

but it might as well have been God.

“Why didn’t you just trust my promise?”

Moving along,

God reassured a childless Abram of the promise

in chapter 15, -

“Look toward heaven and count the stars;

if you are able to count them.

So shall your descendants be.”

God always keeps God’s promises.

Invite reader forward.

God is speaking.

God is creating,

God makes a way in our impossible situations.

So let us open our hearts and minds to God’s Word

to hear what God is saying to us today.

NARRATIVE LECTIONARY READING: Genesis 21:1-3; 22:1-14

The reading may be announced:

A reading from Genesis.

Chapter 21

  1 The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. 2 Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him.

Chapter 22

  1 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He 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.” 3 So 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. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 5 Then 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.” 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. And the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac 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?” 8 Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” And 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. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He 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.” 13 And 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. 14 So 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.”

Word of God, word of life.

Thanks be to God.

SERMON

God changes Abram’s name to Abraham,

which means “ancestor of a multitude”.

His wife Sarai, now named Sarah,

can laugh - she bears Isaac, which means laughter,

at 90 years of age, no less.

Abraham was 100.

90 years - 100 years

is a long time to wait for anything,

especially for a child.

In ancient times,

barrenness was understood to be a sign of shame,

a sign of curse from God,

whereas fertility was a sign of blessing.

Put bluntly, fertility was life and barrenness was death.

But God keeps God’s promises.

Wait for God.

Wait for God.

I should pause to say that this story of the binding of Isaac

is not without its difficulties.

Is God testing Abraham,

or is that simply how the story had been perceived?

We are not to put our God to the test,

but does God test us?

Or does life just feel like a test, sometimes?

Perhaps most challenging,

at least for me:

Who would actually follow a God

who would demand you to murder, kill, sacrifice

your only child?

These are difficult to reconcile.

Abraham finds himself in an impossible situation.

If you sacrifice your child,

you’re wrong.

If you don’t sacrifice your child,

against God’s command,

you’re wrong.

Catch 22.

The ancient mindset says that sacrifice brings reward.

For example,

if you offer the gods grain in sacrifice in famine,

the gods will provide for you.

Similarly,

people believed that the god who provided fertility

was entitled to your first born.

Child sacrifice was a thing.

It was a terrible thing, but it was a thing.

Child sacrifice is wrong.

It was practiced,

but it was also forbidden.

I wish I could say that this story

ushers in the end of child sacrifice,

but that is not what it is about.

But there is an invitation from God,

an invitation found echoed in the prophets and psalms:

Our God desires mercy, not sacrifice. 

Our God desires mercy, not sacrifice.

God calls people into faith.

God brings order and beauty out of chaos.

God always keeps God’s promises.

When situations are impossible,

remember that all things are possible with our God.

God will make a way.

Most of all,

the binding of Isaac is about God’s character.

It’s not about the perception of

God putting people to the test,

but that God always keeps God’s promises.

Throughout Abraham’s life,

God continually reminded him of the promise.

But I think he struggled to have faith.

I mentioned earlier;

Abram’s actions weren’t always based in trust,

but self preservation,

particularly the lie and trick of Sarai being his sister.

But, I think Abraham finally got it,

When God said to a 99 year old Abraham,

“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love,

… and offer him as a burnt offering.”

Abraham seemed to simply trust the promise.

Even if Abraham has to follow through

with sacrificing Isaac,

God promised descendants outnumbering the stars,

so let the ashes be the promise.

It reminds me of a conversation between Peter and Jesus.

Jesus asks “who do you say that I am”

and Peter says “You are the Messiah,

the Son of the living God.”

Just a couple verses later,

Jesus says that the Son of Man must suffer,

be killed and then raised on the 3rd day.

Peter, perhaps fuelled by self-preservation

or Messiah-preservation

rebukes Jesus and says this can’t be.

Jesus says to Peter “Get behind me Satan,

for you are setting your mind not on divine things,

but on earthly things.”

Faith says follow Christ to the cross,

because God keeps God’s promises.

Doubt, fear, and self-preservation says otherwise.

Anyhow, I’m convinced that Abraham finally got it.

I’m convinced that Abraham was finally able

to live without self-preservation

at the top of the priority list.

And it only took him 100 years,

so I guess there’s hope for the rest of us.

There are three little details that were eye-openers for me,

As God calls out to Abraham, he answers

“Here I am”

which can also be translated as “Ready”

Abraham is ready for what God is about to command.

Then again, in chapter 22:5;

on the journey towards sacrifice,

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.”

We will come back?

The men must have looked at him funny,

they must have known they were on their way

to sacrifice Isaac,

but Abraham knew that

Isaac was coming back down that mountain.

And again, Isaac said to his father Abraham,

“The fire and the wood are here,

but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

Abraham said,

“God himself will provide the lamb

for a burnt offering, my son.”

Talk about trust.

It might have taken a hundred years,

but Abraham trusted that God keeps God’s promises.

Abraham trusted that God would bring about

the possible amidst the impossible.

Even Isaac had this faith.

He was old enough, strong enough

to carry the wood and knife.

He is old enough to understand sacrifice.

And, the story doesn’t detail any objection

from Isaac to being bound.

He didn’t fight it.

100 year old Abraham didn’t need to overpower him,

Isaac went willingly.

He trusted his dad’s words,

and better he trusted God

to provide the lamb.

Somehow, someway,

God always keeps God’s promises.

God provided the way.

I would go so far as to say that God was the way.

It wasn’t just a ram caught in the thicket,

it was God

who was that ram caught in the thicket.

God took the sacrifice on Godself,

God became mercy,

for Isaac,

for Abraham and Sarah,

for all of Israel.

This is what our God does.

God is mercy.

It was our God who was hung on the cross of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus died, God died.

Our God takes on the sacrifice,

Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God

who takes away the sin of the world,

who has mercy on us,

the only Son, whom the Father loves,

who willingly takes on suffering and the death

so that we might live.

It was God caught in that thicket that saved Isaac,

because that’s God’s character,

that’s who our God is and what our God does.

God always keeps God’s promises.

God kept the promise to Abraham,

to Noah,

to Moses,

to Elijah.

Christ promised to rise,

and Christ rose.

God always keeps God’s promises.

So let us be clear,

what does God promise you?

God has not promised you wealth.

God has not promised you above average health.

God has not promised you fame,

nor emotional comfort.

But, in your Baptism into Christ,

God promises you new life in Christ,

God promises you the gift of the Holy Spirit

with you always.

God promises you an inheritance

in the kingdom of God

with all the saints.

God promises you forgiveness,

and freedom from the chains of sin and death,

God promises you unconditional love

and welcome

and acceptance,

God promises you an invitation to live a life

of justice,

peace and mercy, not sacrifice.

And God promises you death:

and even this death is good news,

for we are invited into death to yourself

and to rise to new life in Christ.

These promises are yours,

whether you faith in them or not.

God always keeps God’s promises.

So learn from Abraham, Sarah and Isaac,

that our past unfaithfulness

need not define our current faithfulness.

The mistakes we have made

will not stop God from blessing you.

Like Abraham, and like Jesus’ disciples,

we are sent,

blessed to be a blessing;

success is in the sending,

When we hear God call,

May we respond in faith, saying

“Here I am. I am ready.”

May we trust in the God

who is the Ram,

who is Christ and him crucified,

who is mercy and the sacrifice.

May we trust that in our own impossible situations,

our God will provide the way,

that even if it comes to death,

the ashes would be signs of the promise.

Thanks be to God. Amen.