Sermon – 10th July 2022 St Oswald’s – 10.30am Eucharist
‘Sacrifice’ – what images
does that word suggest to you?
At the extreme level we probably think about the ultimate sacrifice. That of sacrificing a life so that someone else might live.
Yet at the other end of the
spectrum if we think about it, there are countless sacrifices we all make every
day to enable us to function as a human community and the world around us.
On Wednesday last I spent a couple of hours volunteering with Riding for the Disabled.
I made a sacrifice of my
time. I could have chosen to spend my time on something else, even indulging
myself.
I know if I were to ask you
would all be able to tell a similar story.
We sacrifice our time for our
children or grandchildren.
We sacrifice where we would
like to live.
We sacrifice careers to care
for people or move hundreds of miles to look after an elderly parent.
If we are alert enough, we
may even sacrifice a bit of time and road space to enable someone else to get
on their way.
And the world around us.
We sacrifice convenience so
that we may do less damage to the environment.
I know in this community
there are those who sacrifice their time and talents to clean up litter, weed
and help to make the streets and back alleys much more pleasant to walk down.
Sacrifice is built into the
warp and weft of life.
And sacrifice is writ large
throughout all of Scripture.
I have recently been
listening to a series of podcasts from the Bible Project exploring the larger
movements and motifs in the Old Testament.
The last couple of podcasts
have been diving deep into the Book of Leviticus and the sacrificial system.
I can’t say I have fully
grasped all the nuances that are presented but there are two big take-aways for
me.
One is obvious but certainly
something that I need to be reminded about regularly.
That Jesus, Paul and all
those who contributed to what became the New Testament, are steeped in the
practise of sacrifice. What we may want to call the liturgical practises of
sacrifices rather than the type of sacrifices we have already considered.
That is why it is important
to gain some understanding of the sacrificial system we find described in the
Old Testament.
But don’t worry, I am not
planning on a three hour lecture this morning. That’s way beyond my pay grade
anyway.
That’s your homework as we
continue to grapple with God’s Big Story.
The second take-away is the
very nature of the sacrifices.
This is highly significant
and sets the tenure for all references to sacrifices throughout Scripture.
It not only sets the tenure
it also sets Israel apart from other nations, societies and cultures and their
sacrificial systems and practices.
Question – what is the first
blood sacrifice we read about in Scripture?
Genesis 3:21 ‘The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.’
What is the last blood sacrifice we read about in Scripture?
That of the Lamb of God, Jesus.
So, what’s the important difference between the sacrificial system of the Israelites and that of other nations?
In most contexts and cultures
sacrifices were offered as a means of appeasing or placating god or gods or
spirits or whatever it was you believed ordered the world or it variant parts.
It was often thought that these
god’s and spirits were capricious and malevolent.
You never quite knew if the
gods were going to help or hinder you. Whether you would get a good harvest or
safe travel or safe delivery of a baby.
Life was focussed on seeking
to curry favour from the gods or spirits through a variety of sacrifices, and
we know that included human sacrifices including child sacrifices.
What’s different about the
Israelites then?
For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not
perish but have eternal life. John 3.16
Think back to God providing clothes for Adam and Eve – consider that God gave them these clothes to cover over their naked disobedience.
Think of Abraham being tested
by God and taking his son Isaac to offer him up as a sacrifice. Isaac said,
father I see wood and fire for the sacrifice, but no lamb. To which Abraham
replied, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the sacrifice.’
Consider that God gave his
one and only son…
The sacrificial system
outlined in Leviticus and elsewhere is a gift of grace, mercy, love, and
forgiveness initiated by God.
It is given to us as means by
which we can enter into God’s presence.
One of the very important and
overriding motifs in Scripture is that God desires to live amongst his creation
and alongside humans. Working in
partnership to push back the chaos and establish God’s good order and life in
abundance.
By their disobedience Adam
and Eve step outside this relationship. As a result, they are banished from the
Garden in Eden and cherubim and a flaming sword bar the way back to the Tree of
Life.
In mercy God clothes them
with skins – blood shed to cover over their sin and failure to pass the test.
Some years I work for
Spillers as an Animal Technician at a Food and Nutritional Centre sited just
outside Newmarket.
One of the units was the SPF
Unit – Specific Pathogen Free. In this
Unit were housed mice and rats kept in strict laboratory conditions. To enter
the Unit, you had to remove all your clothes, put on a special boiler suit, and
then step over a barrier.
I am sure you will be able to think of lots of other examples where you must wear specific clothing to enter a certain place or environment.
Now recall the ways in which God’s
presence is talked about, particularly in the Old Testament. God is a consuming
fire, all powerful, mountains shake, thunderstorms and lighting crack. This is not a God whom you can simply walk up
to and say, hello how are you doing.
As an aside I wonder if we
are too casual sometimes about our approach to God.
The sacrificial system outlined
in Leviticus was first and foremost offered as a way of enabling God’s covenant
people to enter into communion with God.
It was not trying to appease
an angry god, or a capricious god.
The Lord says, “I
do not want all these sacrifices. I have had enough of your burnt sacrifices of
male sheep and fat from fine animals. I am not pleased by the blood of bulls,
lambs, and goats. Isaiah 1.11
I want you to show love, not offer
sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. Hosea
6.6
Hold all of this in mind and
listen again to the first couple of verses of our reading this morning…
Therefore,
I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your
bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true
and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the
pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his
good, pleasing, and perfect will.
The first point to make is to
remind ourselves that sacrifices in their Scriptural context are a mediation of
grace – a gift from God so that we may enter into His presence.
God saved you by his grace
when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Ephesians
2.8
Remember the story of Ruth.
Elimelech because of a famine went to live amongst the Moabites with his wife
Naomi. First Elimelech died, and then both of her sons who had married Moabite
women also died.
Naomi decides to head back
home to Judah. She encourages her two daughters-in-law to return to their home and
perhaps they might find husbands. In very moving words Ruth begs to return to
Judah with her mother-in-law.
But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge
me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and
where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my
God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May
the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death
separates you and me.”
We don’t know what kind of
love and support Ruth had received from Naomi, but it was enough for Ruth to
offer herself as a living sacrifice.
And God honoured the living
sacrifice of this Moabite woman whose name appears in Jesus’ genealogy in
Matthew’s Gospel.
We offer ourselves as a
living sacrifice not to gain love but out of love.
‘We love because God first
loved us’ wrote John.
I am sure you will also be able to recall many others who did not let the world squeeze them into its mould be offered themselves as a living sacrifice in response to God’s love, mercy, and grace.
That is of course a special
calling.
I rather imagine for the most
part our calling will be a tad less exacting.
But we do well to ponder on
this call to be a living sacrifice as we go about our daily lives.
I am reminded of a little
chorus we used to sing some years ago – JOY.
JOY, JOY surely this must
mean, Jesus first, yourself last and others in-between, JOY!
Let that thought sit with you
as you go about your daily business.
Let us ask ourselves
regularly just whose agenda are we following, to whose tune are we dancing and
singing?
Richard Stearns the president of World Vision United States, an international Christian relief and development organization wrote, ‘We are called to live a sacrificial faith - not a superficial faith. A sacrificial faith always seeks the welfare of others even when it is personally costly. A person with sacrificial faith does not always demand their rights, they fight first for the rights of others.’
‘As you come to him, the living Stone, rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.’ 1 Peter 2:4-5
And so we say…
Jesus, what can I give, what
can I bring
To so faithful a friend, to
so loving a King?
Saviour, what can be said,
what can be sung
As a praise of Your name for
the things You have done?
O my words could not tell,
not even in part
Of the debt of love that is
owed by this thankful heart.
