The Language of Sacrifice

I don’t like to lose stuff.  Even worse, I hate it when someone takes something from me.

With a 2 year old, my car keys have been lost several times, my wallet goes missing and in general I’m a person who may not be not be neat, but I leave things in the same place all the time.  It’s my way.

Having my house broken into I felt violated, stolen from, cheated.  That was my stuff!  But through the process of replacing items and upgrading many the excitement of getting my stuff back and waned to the feeling of, “I didn’t need that anyways.”

All of that leads to…I like stuff, at least I think I do.

As much as I don’t like it when my wife uses my car keys (they’re mine!), I find the most meaning and inspiration in those that freely give and are blessed with the spiritual gift of generosity.  This giving being of money, time or other resources.  I’m extremely inspired when they actually give themselves.

I believe I secretly speak a language of sacrifice.  I believe we all do.  We respond positively when we hear of a heroic act of giving or laying one’s life down for the good of others, and we make movies out of people who lay it all on the line for the chance at a dream.

This past Sunday I preached on Genesis 22, the mountain top experience in which Abraham is asked to give up his future in faith by sacrificing his only son Isaac upon the altar.  Whether good or bad…this passage strikes us.

In seminary the professor questioned, “how could a God ask us to give up something so personal?”  “Why would God need us to suffer like that?”

But the same professor also questioned, “how can we say no to God?” 

After The Enlightenment (1800’s) in Europe and around the world, a mature, responsible, enlightened person represented absolute self-control, self-responsibility and self-awareness.  Any need for “the other” was considered weakness or immaturity.  But as one of my college professors said, “the Enlightenment as the worst thing to happen to humans…if it hadn’t been for all the good things that came out of it.” 

What turned out great accomplishments in science, medicine and scholarship also turned human beings away from their true fascination with sacrifice, and ever since we have really loved our stuff, our families and ourselves above everything else…even God.

But God speaks our true language.  God knows we cannot fully be disciples and cannot fully bring about the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth without giving up those things that distract us.  And secretly, we know that too.  We know that there is something bigger than us, our families, our stuff out there.  We know that when we take a little hit in the pocketbook to enable a family to eat…we feel good about it.  Crazy?  Not in God’s world.

The best feelings we’ll ever get are when we follow God.  And following God goes back to sacrifice, which does not just mean giving something up.  Sacrifice means acknowledging that you are not the center of the universe, and in fact you exist to make the universe more complete and whole. 

So imagine a world in which we love to lose our stuff.  Imagine a world in which we love to give our lives away.  Jesus said there is no greater love than this.  Who doesn’t love to love and be loved.  To do this…we have to speak a language of sacrifice, and be willing to take a loss for the greater good.