Friends, we are in the second week of September. During our worship services, we use a series of readings called the Narrative Lectionary that recommend our scriptures for the week. The scripture readings are chosen to fit together in a narrative – if we follow the suggested readings for the four year cycle, we will cover a large swath of the Bible and have a clearer picture of the story of our faith.
One of my seminary professors loved to say that people are messy – we rarely get everything right. We make mistakes. Tragedies befall us.
The story of our faith is also messy. The Bible is a record of believers and how they related to God. In the written words of the Bible, they wrote down how they experienced God. Sometimes they believed God to be loving and good; other times, they were afraid of God, and afraid of God’s vengeance. Sometimes, they were unsure – they didn’t understand why God did things the way God did them.
Today’s reading is one of the most difficult passages in our Bible. It is a “text of terror” – a story that we don’t usually hear preached about because it is so upsetting. Although I remember learning about this story when I was a little kid, it certainly is one of the uncomfortable stories modern parents probably avoid exploring with their children.
So, despite our discomfort, let us turn now to Genesis Chapters 21 and 22.
Scripture Reading: Genesis 21:1-3; 22:1-14
Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised.
Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.
Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,
Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray….
Message Abraham’s Real Test
This story sounds horrible to us – Isaac was the special son born to Abraham and Sarah after a prossibly 60 year wait. They longed for a son of their own during the many years of thier marriage. And, God promised them that if they followed God, left their homeland, and migrated aroud the Middle East, that they would one day have human descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Their opportunity to have grandchildren and descendants hinged on Isaac having children of his own. So, what was God thinking when God told Abraham to take Isaac and sacrifice him??!!??
This story is very troubling indeed.
Many ministers hestiate to preach on this text. We struggle to figure out what the “good news” is in this story from our faith.
But, we are not immune to sometimes thinking that God is cruel. Even though we like to think of ourselves as rational, and mature, and educated, and enlightened….we sometimes succumb to thinking in a very black and white way. If we experience a tradegy, or a loss, or a disappointment, we sometimes blame God for the problem – why did God let this happen to me? What did God allow this bad thing to happen to someone I love? Why is God punishing me in this way? Why is God out to get me?
When we read about God telling Abraham to kill Isaac, we read about a God that is punitive and irrational and cruel. He put Abraham through a horrible trial in order to test his faith and obedience in God. This doesn’t fit into a more New Testament way to imagine God – God is love. The Letter of 1st John explores this again and again: “ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.“ We are more comfortable conceiving of a warm and fussy and loving God, not the punitive, Old Testament version of God.
This story from Abraham’s life may tell us more about Abraham thant it tells us about God. Abraham lived in a time period when child sacrifice was common. Abraham lived in a area where child sacrifice was common. Abraham grew up in a culture where child sacrifice was common. When crops failed…when droughts occurred…when wars were looming, people sacrificed children. They thought that killing children would appease their gods, and motivate thier gods to do what they wanted.
In the events we read about this morning, Abraham starts to follow the child sacrifice rituals. He travels to a special worship site. He brings wood and the victim. He sends away the servants. He has the victim, Isaac, carry the wood himself – creepy but what they did. Isaac questioned his dad because this was something they hadn’t done before, but he was probably old enough that he knew the neighbors sacrificed human children and was worried about what was going to happen to him. Isaac was loyal and trusting and willing to do what his father demaded….Isaac allowed himself to be tied up. And, in the nick of time, God called the whole thing off.
In the moment that God made Abraham stop, God redeemed the situation. God provided a ram to be slaughtered. From this point onward, God said that no more children should be sacrificed. A custom of the ancient Middle East, that children must be sacrificed to appease the gods, was ended forever for the faith that came to dominate the Middle East….all believers from the families of faith that see Abraham as our forebearer are against the sacrifice of children…Jewish people don’t sacrifice children, Muslim people don’t sacrifice children, Christian people don’t sacrifice children. Child sacrifice is no longer a part of any world religion.
We weren’t there when this incident took place. We weren’t in Abraham’s head. Jewish scholars and rabbis have suggested that this story is part of our scripture to teach us that even when we think we are being directed to do something by the voice of God, if what we are being asked to do goes against God’s nature and who we know God to be, then the voice we are hearing is likely not God’s voice – We should therefore revaluate our actions. Some of the stories of our faith teach us what we are not supposed to do.
When God intervened, he saved Isaac’s life. Our God is a creative force for good – God wants life, not death. God wants good, not evil. God gave Abraham and Sarah an important mission, an important calling, to be the forebearers of countless people. When we chose to believe in Jesus, we were grafted into the line of succession, the line of descendants that were birthed by Abraham and Sarah.
So, even when people get things wrong, or when they may think God is telling them to do something wrong, we are called to strive for health, wholeness, and love in our relations with each other. God’s nature is good and just…let us work for goodness and justice in our world and in our relationships with each other. Amen.
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