Genesis 21:8-21 Genesis 22:1-14
Over the past couple of weeks Carrie introduced you
to her process for approaching difficult scriptures. The process I use is pretty similar though
there are some differences. Not
surprising since we all approach scripture in different ways. We also need to practice techniques several
times before they become ingrained habits that are easy (or easier) for us to
use. So, rather than walk you through my
own way of trying to understand difficult texts in detail, I’m going to follow
the pattern set out by my lovely and talented co-pastor; though as you will
see, I plan to add a couple of things along the way.
Before we really get into things, though, let me go
over the steps that we used last week.
It will make things easier for those of you who were here, and it will
help the rest of us feel like we know what’s going on.
There are three stages in this process: preparation,
unearthing, and application. The first
involves reading (or hearing) read the scripture text and paying attention to
the feelings that rise up within us. We
sit with those feelings for a time … without
judgment … as we uncover our assumptions and preconceptions about the text,
and then we ask God to clear a way for us to hear a new word.
The second stage involves digging deeper into the
text. It is filled with history, socio-cultural
context, and literary analysis. At the heart of this unearthing is an effort to
step out of our cultural assumptions and understandings, including some of our
beliefs about the nature of scripture.
These words were written by people who lived a long time ago about their
own experience of the world, and they contain the interpretations and
assumptions of their cultures.
Finally we arrive at the step where we try to find
some meaning in the text for ourselves in our time and in our cultural
context. This is what most of us are
looking for when we read the Bible, and with the scriptures that we read and
preach on more often, it can be a fairly easy process. Difficult passages like this one and so many
in the narrative histories of the Old Testament are a whole other matter. The powerful imagery mixed with the violent
and the grotesque take them completely outside of our ability to relate to
them. I think that’s why we find them
difficult in the first place.
Genesis 22:1-14….
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, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled
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 awhile 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 or them when 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.”
[silence]
What are some of your initial feelings, reactions,
or questions? God ahead and share them
out loud, whatever they are ….
[space for sharing]
Good…. Thank
you for sharing. My first response is
one of disgust and disbelief. I simply
cannot believe that God would ask for such a sacrifice. Even if it were within God’s being to request
such a thing, I cannot stretch far enough to accept that God would grant
Abraham and Sarah the child that they had longed for – the child they had been
promised – and then take him away just to prove faithfulness.
I also feel pain, anger, and despair. I guess that’s because I am a father now,
too, and when I put myself into the story I find myself in Abraham’s place,
tying up my sons, laying them on the altar, and picking up a knife to cut the
joy out of my soul. Actually, if I were
in Abraham’s place I would probably be turning away from God. I would be shouting and cursing and crying at
the pain of the choice laid before me.
But that’s just me….
Now let’s look at our preconceived notions about
this text…. Have you ever heard anyone
preach a sermon about the testing of Abraham before? Did any Sunday School teachers ever discuss
it in class? This story is a bit more
well-known than Hagar’s tale. So, I’m
pretty sure you’ve been told what it means at some time or another. Why don’t you share your experiences or the
interpretations that you have been taught with someone near you….
[pause for sharing]
I know some that was easier for some of you than
others. For my own part, I remember
having two different themes from this story drilled into me during Sunday
School. The first was obedience and the
second was trust. Put together they made
the moral of the story: “faith means trusting God enough to obey him
unquestioningly.” If you know me at all,
you’ll know that it has always been the last part of that phrase the grates on
me the most. Unquestioning obedience
(especially to a God who demands human sacrifice) is not one of my strong
points. I need help discovering how to
do that.
Some of what I heard you all sharing was similar to
that.
Now that we have that out in the open, let’s pause for
a moment to ask God to help us clear a path through it all…. Take a moment to find a calm center. Take hold of all the feelings and struggles
that you have uncovered and hold them out to God….
God, take all that I am holding –
the
feelings, the assumptions, the messages that have been hammered into me again and again –
take them.
Hold them for me and clear a space where I can let go
so that my hands may be open to receive new insight…
so that I can flow into the grace of your love and wisdom
and receive a living word to light the way for me.
AMEN.
Okay so far?
Let’s add a little background and context. We don’t need to do much, I think, since
Carrie set the scene so well. We just need
to note that in the time of Abraham, sacrifice was understood not just to be
good, but to be a necessary part of worship.
It was the only way to make restitution for sins and/or to sooth angry
gods, and the more precious the scapegoat, the greater the debt repaid … the
greater the sin forgiven. So, sacrifice
– even human sacrifice – wasn’t seen as beyond the pale in the way that we
think of it now.
It might also be good to remind us all that the
stories in Genesis are narratives meant to shed light on the experiences of the
Hebrews and offer insights through retelling their encounters with the God they
knew intimately.
And Abraham knew God well. They had a long-standing relationship with a tradition
of God asking Abraham for obedience that may seem harsh to us. Over the years Abraham was sent to strange
countries, endured spousal mishaps, battle, circumcision (as a grown man I
might add), family feuds, Sodom and Gemorrah, a son saved and lost to exile,
and a son given according to promise.
Through it all, God walked with him and cared for him, and Abraham felt
himself to be blessed despite the difficulty of what had been asked.
Perhaps it’s not so surprising, then, that in this
story Abraham seems to trust God beyond what we would expect. That’s one interpretation that I’ve
read. Another one that I heard from a
student at seminary was that Abraham knew God well enough to know that this was
just a test – to know, as he told Isaac, that God would provide a lamb for the
sacrifice.
Maybe Abraham was really testing God to see if God would actually go through with
it. Everyone tests everyone else in a
family after all, and ultimatums (especially the extreme ones) often bring that
out in us the most. Or, maybe Abraham was just an idiot.
Sorry, it’s all those pesky judgments of mine coming
back out again, and we have put those things away for now.
So…, all of those interpretations could be
right. We’ll never know, and that’s why
we have to hold them all in their competing, confusing clamor as we wait for
God to provide clarity. But, and here is
another way that I’m different than Carrie, I can’t let go as well as she can.
My linear mind keeps on pushing for something – anything solid that I can hold
onto.
I like what Carrie had to say about looking at
ourselves in the mirror of scripture.
It’s not something I have thought of in that way before, and so I did
that this time. What I found was
surprising. It’s not so much that
Abraham went along with God’s demand in this text that makes it hard for
me. It’s more that I cannot see myself
doing the same thing.
Facing up to that truth is hard enough for me that I
keep on wrestling with the story. I try
looking at it from different angles and making different guesses. When I’m honest, I don’t really do that order
to understand it (though that would be nice).
I do it in order to explain it away – to take the bite out of it or
dismiss it all together.
And that has me wondering about the scriptures that
I don’t struggle with. What about the
ones that I am comfortable with? Love
you neighbors as yourself. Feed the
hungry and provide hospitality for the homeless. If you love me keep my commandments. What about those lovely gems? Should teachings that were challenging enough
to get Jesus killed in his own time be challenging for us as well or can we be
relax into their comfortable embrace?
I am comfortable with them, but I’m not sure that I
should be. If I step back and look at my
life, it doesn’t follow those guidelines … not really. I have heard those words often enough, made
my own compromises often enough, given in to the voice of my culture often
enough … that I have grown callus. Jesus
teachings should be a struggle, I think, at least as much as the stories of
Genesis, and I wonder what would happen if we spent as much time wrestling with
them.
How would we change if we opened ourselves up to the
old familiar passages in the same way we have over the past couple of
weeks? What new word of transformation
would the Spirit bring us if we ask?
Would we become something new if only we were to bind up our beloved,
comfortable lives and lay them on the altar?
I wonder.
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