This is the story of how God put Abraham to the test to find out whether he really had what it takes.

God called to him, saying, “Abraham!”

“At your service,” Abraham replied.

God said, “Go and get Isaac, your son, your only son whom you love. Take him to the mountain that I will point out to you in the land of Moriah. There you are to sacrifice him to me on an altar as a burnt offering.”

So Abraham got up early the next morning and chopped wood for the fire on the altar. He saddled his donkey and set out for the place that God had told him to go with Isaac and two of his hired hands. After three day’s journey, Abraham could finally see their destination in the distance. He said to the two hired hands, “Wait here with the donkey while the boy and I go on up there to worship. We will then return and meet you back here.”

Abraham got Isaac to carry the wood for the burnt offering, and he himself carried the knife and the coals for starting the fire. As the two of them walked on together, Isaac spoke to Abraham saying, “Father!”

“At your service, son,” Abraham replied.

“Haven’t we forgotten something?” Isaac asked. “We’ve got everything we need to get the fire going, but we haven’t brought a lamb to sacrifice as a burnt offering.”

Abraham said, “God will personally provide the lamb for the sacrifice, my son.”

So the two of them walked on together. When they arrived at the spot that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar and stacked the wood on it ready for the fire. Then he tied up his son Isaac, and laid him on top of the wood on the altar. He took the knife in hand and was about to kill his son, when the messenger of the LORD called to him from heaven, saying, “Abraham, Abraham!”

“At your service,” he replied.

The messenger said, “Put down your knife and don’t hurt the boy in any way, for now I know what I needed to know. Since you have not even drawn the line at giving up your only son for me, I know that you trust God, no matter what.”
As he looked up, Abraham saw a ram with its horns entangled in the scrub. So he went and got it, and offered up the ram on the altar as a burnt offering in place of his son.

From then on, Abraham called that place “The LORD will provide,” and a saying was coined that you still hear today: “On the LORD’s mountain all will be provided.”

©2002 Nathan Nettleton Laughingbird.net

How long will this go on, LORD?
Have you written me off permanently?
How long are you going to keep turning your back on me?

How long do I have to put up with feeling sick in the guts,
and with my heart breaking from the pain of it all?
How long will my enemies get to kick me around?
Come on, LORD. You are my God. Give me an answer!

Let me see some light at the end of the tunnel;
something to keep me from losing the will to live.
Don’t let my enemies think they’ve won;
don’t give them the pleasure of my downfall.

I have put my trust in your rock-solid love;
my heart will burst with joy when you save your people.

I will sing your praises, LORD,
because you have treated me with great generosity.

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Do not let sin get hold of your reins and force you to respond to every selfish desire that pops up within you. Don’t give it access to any part of your body, or you will find that part of yourself being put to work in spreading corruption. Instead, as people whose lives have been saved from death, hand yourselves over wholly and solely to God, and give God unlimited rights to put every part of your body to work in promoting what is right. Sin won’t hold the reins if you don’t let it, because your agenda is no longer set by a complicated list of rules, but by the generous love and mercy of God.

So what does that mean? Should we consider ourselves free to indulge our selfish desires because our agenda is no longer set by rules, but by God’s love and mercy? Of course not! Surely you realise that the lifestyle you hand yourself over to will become an addiction, and that addiction will then determine the course of your life. You can get yourselves hooked on sin, which will destroy your life; or you can get yourselves hooked on doing what God wants you to do, which will put your life on the right track. Fortunately, though you were once addicted to sin, thanks to God you have cleaned out your system and allowed your desires and actions to come under the influence of the teaching of Christ instead. Thanks to God you have been set free from the deadly grip of sin, and are now hooked on doing what is right. I am speaking about it in these down-to-earth terms, because I want to make sure that it is not only the highly educated among you who get the picture. I hope it is clear then, that in the same way that you used to deliberately expose parts of yourself to the addictive power of corruption and deepening dishonesty, you should now do all that you can to get yourselves hooked on honesty and integrity so that you will grow into the wholeness that God intended for you.

What sort of freedom did you have when you were addicts of sin? You were free to opt out of relating rightly to anyone or anything, but what good did that do you? Looking back on it now, you feel nothing but shame. The things you were doing were draining you of life. But now that sin’s grip on you has been broken, and you are hooked on doing what God wants, the benefits are enormous: the scars are healing and you are growing into whole people. There will be no end to the richness of the life that will result from that. The kicks that people get out of sin are kicking them to death, but God will give you the ultimate high, free of charge: life without limit in union with the Messiah, Jesus our Lord.

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

While briefing his followers about their mission, Jesus said:

“You are my representatives in this, so anyone who gets on side with you is getting on side with me. And anyone who gets on side with me is getting on side with the one who sent me. Those who make God’s message known and those who welcome and support them will be rewarded by God as equal partners in the work. Those who stand firm for what is right and those who support them in their stand will be rewarded by God as equal partners in the work. No matter how insignificant someone’s contribution may seem – even if they just provide a cold drink to the most ordinary of my workers because they are doing my work – I kid you not, God will give them full credit for it.”

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prior to the revision of the Lectionary in 1992, the 1st reading and the psalm that responded to it were chosen to link thematically with the gospel reading. After hearing the critique of those who said that the Hebrew Scriptures, from which the first reading is usually chosen, should be allowed to speak with their own voice rather than just add support to the gospel reading, the Lectionary was revised so that during Ordinary Time, the 1st reading runs in its own semi-continuous series, working through various books of the Hebrew Bible. The older themed series continues to be available as an alternative.

The weekly prayers offered here at LaughingBird Resources are based on the four readings above, and do not draw on the themed 1st reading and psalm.

In front of the priests and all the people who were gathered in the LORD’s Temple, the prophet Jeremiah stood up and responded to the preaching of the prophet Hananiah, saying:

“Amen! May what you say prove to be true! I hope and pray that the LORD will indeed do what you have said, and bring back home all our people who were marched off into exile and everything that the Babylonian invaders took from this Temple. But take note of what I have got to say, and let everyone here witness that I said it to your face. There have been many prophets before you and me, and ever since ancient times they have preached against the evil done by many countries and nations, and warned of disastrous wars, famines and plagues. So any prophet who stands up and says that things are fine and peace is on the way, is not on the same wavelength as the prophets we have heard before. Therefore we must be cautious about such a prophet. Only if what the prophet preaches comes true will we be able to conclude that such a prophet was really sent by the LORD.”

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

LORD, we will never stop singing about your rock-solid love;
we will transmit the story of your faithfulness
on down to every generation to come.

Your love and loyalty were built to last for eternity;
we’ll go public with that message.
Your faithfulness is beyond measure;
as infinite as the sky above us.

You said,
“I have formed an alliance with my chosen leader;
I have given my word to David, my servant.
I have guaranteed a firm foundation for his family forever;
there will always be one of his descendants on the throne.”

We are on cloud nine
when we are celebrating in your presence, LORD.
We all know what to do and say,
and we bask in the light of your favour.
Every mention of your name has us bursting with enthusiasm
from dawn till dusk,
and we tell the stories over and over
of how you have done the right thing by everyone.

Whatever glory and strength we have comes from you.
Because you have been good to us, our power has grown great.
Our safety and security are in your hands, LORD;
you are our one and only, the ruler of Israel.

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
— trusting and rejoicing in your love —
for you save us with a free gift of eternal life
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

You created all things
and everything we have belongs to you.
You commended your servant Abraham
for his willingness to offer you his beloved son,
and from his family you called a people to follow your ways.

In Jesus the Christ, you have offered to us your own beloved Son.
Whoever welcomes him welcomes you,
and whoever welcomes the teaching he entrusted to us
finds the way that leads to righteousness and life.
When he was killed
you brought him back from death to life,
and through his grace,
you have freed us from slavery to sin
and bound us to Christ,
so that we might be sanctified
and follow him in pathways of life.

Therefore with .....

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

We give you thanks for your free gift of eternal life
in Jesus Christ our Lord,
given to all who welcome him
and are set free from slavery to sin,
being bound to Christ and brought from death to life.

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
trusting and rejoicing in your love,
for you save us with a free gift of eternal life
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

You created all things
and everything we have belongs to you.
You commended your servant Abraham
for his willingness to offer you his beloved son,
and from his family you called a people to follow your ways.

In Jesus the Christ, you have offered to us your own beloved Son.
Whoever welcomes him welcomes you,
and whoever welcomes the teaching he entrusted to us
finds the way that leads to righteousness and life.
When he was killed
you brought him back from death to life,
and through his grace,
you have freed us from slavery to sin
and bound us to Christ,
so that we might be sanctified
and follow him in pathways of life.

Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Trust in the love of God, for God saves us.
Though once you were slaves of sin,
you have been set free and now live in God’s grace
where sin can have no dominion over you.

Sisters and Brothers,
  your sins are forgiven;
    be at peace.

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Go now as those who have been brought from death to life,
and welcome the Christ in all whom you meet.
Present yourselves to God
to be put to work in the service of righteousness.

And may God provide for you in mercy;
May Christ Jesus greet you as you welcome the stranger;
And may the Holy Spirit lead you in the ways
of sanctification and eternal life.

We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
   In the name of Christ. Amen.

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net