June 17 Worship: "Binding: The Challenge of Abraham's Faith"

On Sunday, we shared a special Father's Day worship, including a tribute to fathers, a special children's lesson adapted from the parable of the Prodigal Son, and gifts of candy for all of the fathers of the congregation.

The sermon marked the middle of our five-week series on Abraham, exploring the difficult story of God testing Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac.  In "Binding: The Challenge of Abraham's Faith," I tried to focus on the image of God testing Abraham at this moment, many years after Abraham had accepted God's covenant.  Considering this test, I wondered if perhaps Abraham had begun substituting his own vision for God's promised future -- as the father of nations -- in a particular way, focused on his son, Isaac.  If so, we can learn to question how often, after we have grown comfortable in our faith lives and our relationships with God, we might substitute our vision for God's vision, mistakenly thinking that the two are the same.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with someone else, you can listen to an audio recording here.