Worship Service Sunday, March 16, 2025
Traditionally, the second Sunday in Lent is Transfiguration Sunday, say that 10 times in a row. But you know me, I like to be a rebel. And I thought talking about sacrifice would be good for today because of what’s going on in our world.
Irina Sandler, born February 15, 1910, was a Polish humanitarian, social worker, and nurse who served in the Polish underground resistance during World War II in Germany’s occupied Warsaw. Her father, who was a physician, was also a humanitarian who treated the very poor, including Jews, free of charge. He died in February 1917 from typhus contracted from his patients, a sacrifice he made. During World War II, Irena participated with dozens of others in smuggling Jewish children out of Warsaw’s ghetto and then providing them with false identity documents and sheltering them with willing Polish families or orphanages or other care facilities, including Catholic nun convents and saving all these children from the Holocaust.
She was smart. She got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto as a plumber sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive though. She knew what the Nazis had planned for the Jews, her being German. Irina smuggled infants out in the bottom of the toolbox she carried, and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack for larger kids. She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in or out of the ghetto. The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog, and the barking covered the children’s noises.
Smart woman. During her time doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2,500 children. She also would sneak in medications, food, clothing, cleanliness items, because they had nothing, and other necessities into the ghetto. Giving any kind of assistance to Jews in Germany-occupied Poland was punishable by death, not just for the person who was providing the help, but also for their entire family or household. In October of 1943, Irina was arrested by the Gestapo. As the Nazis ransacked her home, Settler tossed a list of children to her friend, who hid the list in loose clothing.
Should the Gestapo access this information, all the children would be compromised. But Irina’s friend was never searched. Don’t Nazis. And I’m German. The Gestapo took Sadler to their headquarters. The Nazis broke both her legs, both her arms, and beat her severely. Withstanding torture and imprisonment, Irina never revealed anything about her work at the location of the saved children. She was sentenced to death by a firing squad, but narrowly escaped on the day of her scheduled execution after Zagada, which was the council to aid Jews, an underground organization, bribed German officials to obtain her release. Irina kept a record of the names of all the children she smuggled out and hid the names by keeping them in a glass jar buried under a tree in her backyard.
They never thought to look there, did they? After the war, Irina continued her social activism, but also pursued a governmental career. In 1965, she was recognized by the State of Israel as righteous among the nations. Among the many decorations Irina received were the Gold Cross of Merit granted to her in 1946 for saving the Jews. The Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honor, was awarded late in Irina’s life for her wartime humanitarian efforts. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and reunite them with family. Unfortunately, most of them had been gassed.
The children she helped got placed into foster homes or adopted. At every stage of her career, Irina worked long, hard hours and was intensely involved in various social work programs. such as helping teenage prostitutes in the ruins of the post-war. She organized a number of orphanages and care centers for children, families, and the elderly, and a center for prostitutes. She was known for her effortlessness and displayed a sharp edge when confronted with obstacles or indifference. Irina Sedler was quoted as saying, every child with my help is the justification of my existence on this earth and not a title to glory.
Are those, how incredible. Sedler was the inspiration and the prime mover for the whole network that saved Jewish children. Now more than ever, with Iran and others claiming the Holocaust to be a myth, it is important to make sure the world never forgets because there are others who would like to do it again. There were 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved, and humiliated. Such a horrible time.
I remember my grandmother, a little side note, she was German and came from Germany. And she always felt responsible because when they moved to this country and she had, when my mom and uncle were young, when my uncle would go out and play, the kids, because my grandmother spoke to him and called to him in German, the kids would call him a Nazi.
And my grandmother always felt responsible, even though she had nothing to do with it. She wasn’t a Nazi, but she always felt, because of her German roots, that she was responsible. I always felt bad about that. I said, “ah, don’t feel bad about that”. But she did.
Anyway, in 2007, Irina was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. But she was not selected. It went to Al Gore for a slideshow on global warming. Really? She died May 12, 2008 of pneumonia at the age of 98 in Warsaw, Poland. Out of that horrifying time came many selfless people who sacrificed the security and the well-being of their own lives to save others. Amazing. I don’t know that I have the intestinal fortitude to be able to do that, to hide people knowing that if I got found out, I don’t know if I could do that. What a woman! And she was only one of many.
So, sacrifice. Wow! A sacrifice returned. Genesis 22:11-12. “But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. He said, Do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him. For now, I know that you fear God, since you have not repelled your son, your only son from me. Abraham was willing to do the unthinkable. to sacrifice his only son. Again, I don’t think I could do that. Not only was the child undoubtedly precious to Abraham, but he was also a miracle, the fulfillment of a promise given by God himself. So Abraham probably said, hey, you gave me this kid, now you want me to kill him? What’s up, God? I’m sure that’s what he said, but who knows? Imagine how Abraham felt when God wanted him to sacrifice something he’d been wanting for a long time. How sad. Abraham, that this promise that he had been given, now he had to sacrifice this. But wait, that’s not the end of the story. Immediately after Abraham’s willingness to obey God, God showed himself willing to return his son to him, a sacrifice returned.
Maybe there might be someone out there that we know that has experienced what Abraham and Isaac’s experience was at the point of their Christian journey. Maybe we also have experienced something similar in our walk with Christ. The story of Abraham and Isaac reminds us of God’s goodness, and his desire to reward and bless those who fear him. At times, I know we receive back what we have sacrificed to the Lord, and that should cause us to rejoice and be thankful. Sometimes God instructs us to give up things for his sake that we will not directly receive again in this life.
This can be very disconcerting to us. We should not expect God to always return our sacrifices as he returned Isaac to Abraham. However, the Lord may bless us in other ways. For example, in the Old Testament, Hannah vowed to give her first and only son Samuel for the service of the Lord. 1 Samuel 1, 11. Chapter 1, verse 11. She made a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and a razor shall never come to his head.
Hannah was unable to conceive. After she had promised her son Samuel to the Lord, She made good on her promise, verses 21 and 22. Then the man, Elkanah, went up with all his household to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and pay his vow. But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, I will not go up until the child is weaned. Then I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and stay there forever. While God did not send Hannah’s son back to her, he did bless her with five additional children.
This was a sacrifice truly rewarded. Ultimately, no sacrifice goes unrewarded. The words of our Lord Jesus give us the best encouragement on this matter. Mark 10, 28 through 30. Peter began to say to him, behold, we have left everything and followed you, Jesus. And truly, Jesus says, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brother or sisters or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and for the gospel sakes, but that he will receive 100 times as much now in the present age houses, and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions and in the age to come.
We remember the story of Job. Job got everything taken away from him. His wife, his kids, Maybe his wife needed to go, who knows. But then what did God turn around and do? Because you are faithful, I’m going to reward you. And he got everything back even that much better.
So a little side story. When Marlon and I first got together, my ex-husband and his mother took everything. We had a plywood table with lawn chairs for our dining room set. We had our beds and that was it. But we went out to garage sales and we got stuff better than the stuff that they took.
So guess what? Feeling down and disgusted with the people that took our stuff, what did God do? He rewarded us with much better things. So remember, reward sacrifices have rewards. And he tells us that a hundred times. This passage is telling us whether or not the Lord chooses to return exactly what we have given up for his sake. Jesus promises to return us 100 times an unimaginable profit for what we’ve given up. So just think if you have a dollar, he’s going to give you a hundred times that dollar. Have you sacrificed something in order to obey the Lord and feel it has not been returned to you?
Don’t grow bitter if you have not yet seen it pay off. Trust and take God at His word. The reward will be far greater than anything you can imagine. Though you may not recognize the reward on the side of heaven, you will fully realize it with eternity’s perspective. On the other side of the coin, we have the sacrifice in the Bible that were not accepted. Cain’s offering in Genesis, Genesis four, three through five. So it came about in the course of the time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.
Abel, on his part, also brought of the firstlings of his flock of their fat portion. So that means he bought the best lamb he had. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering. But for Cain and for his offering, he had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Cain’s offering was not the best he had to offer, and God knew this, so he rejected his so-called sacrifice. The Israelites also made empty sacrifices to God, and he was very aware of that. That’s why they ended up wandering for 40 years in the desert.
There were people in the Bible whose sacrifices and offerings were rejected because they did not repent of their sins. as God had asked, and they didn’t have the right heart condition. True worship involves a spiritual sacrifice of a willing heart, good deeds, and a life lived in obedience to God. That should be our sacrifice to God. God values a contrite and humble heart more than outward rituals or sacrifices. Sacrifices offered without a sincere heart or genuine repentance are not pleasing to God. In the end, no matter what we have sacrificed for Jesus, the cost cannot surpass the benefits of what he has promised.
Eternity in his presence, where all our needs and desires were fully met in Christ. So What’s your sacrifice? That’s between you and God. But whatever you do, do it with a humble heart and a repentant spirit. In today’s world, it’s easy to get discouraged when we feel we have sacrificed and have not seen or feel anyone else has sacrificed. Many times we can feel as if our sacrifices go unnoticed to the world. That may be true, but God always sees our sacrifices and in his way and time will reward our sacrifices. Yes.
You know, one of my favorite stories is that a little old lady throws her last couple of coins in the plate and Jesus notices it. Yes! Points her out. Yes. Yeah, and all the Pharisees were putting gold and stuff, and she had the last of it. It was nothing, but it was more than anything.
Right. Very true. And she sacrificed all her belongings. Everything she owed went into that plate. And you know she got rewarded.
During this Lenten time, remember God’s ultimate sacrifice. And Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice is death on the cross to save us from our sinful nature. The greatest man in history named Jesus had no servants, yet they called him master. He had no degree, yet they called him teacher. He had no medicine, yet they called him healer. He had no army, yet kings feared him. He had no military battles, yet he conquered the world. He committed no crime, yet they crucified him.
He was buried in a tomb, yet he lives today. We believe, amen. Amen.
