Sermon for the Feast of the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord

‘Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.’

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It is an uncomfortable truth of the Old Testament that the
Lord requires of all flesh the sacrifice of their first born. Whether beast or
human, that which opens the womb shall be set apart for the Lord, and unto the
Lord it shall be sacrificed.

Indeed, before the revelation of the Law, God spoke to
Abraham, and demanded of him that he take his son, his only son, whom he loved,
Isaac, and go unto the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt
offering.’

Abraham took Isaac unto a mountain of which he was told.
And there burdened his son with wood and fire. Isaac asks: ‘Behold, the wood
and the fire, but where is the sacrifice?’ His father replies: ‘The Lord
shall provide the sacrifice: my son.’

Too often this is misunderstood as Abraham lying to his son
to get him to keep going, yet we must either assume that Abraham was
preternaturally convincing or that Isaac was on the very lowest end of the
distribution curve for intelligence, for how could Isaac otherwise allow
himself, a strong youth, to be bound by his aged father who was as good as
dead?

We must understand Abraham’s answer to his son’s question
differently, then; we must understand it as the Hebrew in truth reads: ‘The
Lord shall provide the sacrifice, that is, my son.’

Abraham tells Isaac that he shall be offered, and Isaac
obeys, even unto death. It is for this reason that this passage of the
Old Testament is known as the ‘Binding of Isaac’, for the important
thing in it is not merely that a father would kill his own son out of obedience
to God, but that the son would freely go forth to the slaughter out of
obedience to his father.

Isaac is bound, Abraham pulls back his head, and raises the
knife, that he might drain his blood; yet and angel of the Lord descends, and
stays the murderous hand of Abraham, saying ‘Abraham, Abraham’, even as he
cries out, ‘I am ready!’ A more accurate rendering of what is so shamefully
translated as ‘Here I am.’

The sacrifice of the beloved son was stopped. But do not be
deceived, thinking that God changed His mind, for the Lord is the same
yesterday, today, and forevermore. The sacrifice of the beloved son was
stopped, but it was not cancelled. It was merely postponed. For Isaac was not a
victim without spot or blemish. He was but a mortal. A pure sacrifice is
required, of a perfect son, in complete obedience.

In Isaac’s place, a ram was offered, this ram not replacing
Isaac, but transferring the self-immolation, the burnt offering of Isaac to
another. Abraham and his son left that mountain, and called it ‘The Lord
shall provide the sacrifice.’ The sacrifice still demanded; yet still
unfulfilled.

In the Law of Moses, it is commanded that ‘you are to set
apart to the LORD all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your
animals that are males shall be the Lord’s. Every firstborn of a donkey you
shall redeem with a lamb, or otherwise, you shall break its neck. Every
firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.’

They, like Isaac, shall be redeemed with a lamb, lest their
neck be broken. And like Isaac, this lamb does replace the self-sacrifice
demanded of every firstborn man. It merely designates that man as an unworthy sacrifice
unto the Lord, for the Lord accepts only that which is without spot or
blemish.

A child is born in Bethlehem, born of the Holy Spirit by
the Virgin Mary. His mother brings Him, but a small infant, to that house
of blood, the Temple of slaughter, built upon the very mountain on which Isaac
was bound, to present Him unto the Almighty.

This child shall not be redeemed with the blood of a lamb,
but be consecrated with two turtledoves the offering of peace, the offering
demanded of only the poorest, for in His incarnation, our Lord has become poor,
and in His presentation, He has been declared pure.

An old man approaches the Christ child, and declares ‘mine
own eyes have seen thy salvation.’ For he has seen Him who shall finish the
sacrifice first begun in Isaac. That act of perfect obedience required of
Abraham’s son shall come to completion in the Son of God, who has now
manifested Himself as the Son of Man.

‘And he worshiped the Lord there.’

‘He himself took part of flesh and blood, that through
death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the
devil.’

He is now presented before the Father as fully man, flesh
and blood, a perfect sacrifice pleasing unto the Lord.

Leave then, O Christ, this house of sacrifice, for you have
become the altar of God. Leave now this place, and return to your humble land,
an infant lowly. Grow strong and wise, increasing in wisdom and stature, that
you might help the offspring of Abraham.

For no lamb shall take your place, for you are the Lamb
that shall take away the sin of the world, and the very son of the
Father; His Son, His only Son, whom He loves.

In the fire of Your passion you shall bear the wood of
offering to that very mountain upon which Isaac was first bound. You too shall
be bound upon a tree, strong and unbending. All generations shall look upon
this tree and declare to you, ‘The Lord has provided a sacrifice: His son.’

No angel shall descend, nor heavenly voice prevent Your
slaughter, for You must accomplish Your Father’s will: ‘to destroy the one
who has the power of death.’ To descend into hell.

Leave then, O Christ, this house of sacrifice, and return to
your humble land, an infant lowly. For all generations shall look upon
you, held within the arms of your holy mother, and say what all humanity has
longed to say from the beginning of time.

‘For this child, I have prayed.’

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Preached
by Pastor Fields

Sermon
Texts: 1 Samuel 1:21-28; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-32.