Genesis 22:1-18; James 1:12-18; Mark 1:9-15
Our
lives are filled with tests. Some don't have much of an impact on our lives,
others have the ability to change our lives substantially. Consider the
difference between a test of your knowledge of state capitals for a geography
exam and a test for cancer in your body. The results of one will affect your
GPA. The results of the other may very well turn your life upside-down. Despite
the vast difference in the impact that these two tests could have in your life,
they share the same purpose of every test: to show something. Like other tests,
tests of faith are meant to show us something too.
Today's
texts include several tests of faith along with the ultimate test of faith.
Abraham's test was very dramatic. His trust in God's promises was tested when
God told him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Without any idea of how God would
keep His promise of a multitude of descendents through Isaac, Abraham obeyed
God. By God's intervention, Isaac was spared. At the conclusion of this test,
God told Abraham, "I have caused you to know …" The test showed
Abraham that he loved and feared God above all things, even his only son Isaac.
Dramatic, but not the ultimate test of faith.
The
Epistle reading calls for us to stand firm in the Faith when we are under
trial. We're promised that when we have "stood the test" that we
"will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love
Him." Those trials come to us in various ways, but, as the text indicates,
they always come to us with and through temptation. We are reminded that those
temptations are not tests from God, but the result of our own sinful desires.
God does not tempt anyone, but He tests everyone. His tests often involve
resisting temptation, but they are mostly about how we deal with our failures
to do so. These kind of tests bring us to the ultimate test of faith.
The
problem we have with the ultimate test of faith is that it isn't anything like
what we'd expect it to be. Since faith is so important, we look for its
ultimate test to be dramatic, like Abraham's, or oppressive, like the tests
James is talking about. But the ultimate test of faith seems rather ordinary
and far too simple. It's found in today's Gospel lesson, not in Jesus' struggle
with Satan in the wilderness but in His call for us to repent. Simple,
profound, telling, and life-altering, repentance is the ultimate test of faith.
Audio file of the sermon based on this reflection
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