Genesis 22:1-14 July
2, 2017
Today we continue
with the second of several stories from the Book of Genesis as we settle into
the summer lectionary readings. We
are exploring the saga of Abraham and Sarah and their descendents. These are complex stories and ones that
will, no doubt, make your eyebrows life, your face cringe at the very least and
be utterly repulsed in every sense of the word.
There is a part of
me that asks, ‘What made me think this was a good idea to use these lectionary
scripture readings?’ Good
question. But I tend to not shrink
from challenges and so we continue because they are the stories of our faith
and because they confront us with some unpleasant realities and push us
to a greater level of thinking.
They invite us to go deeper into our relationship with God as we explore
what it means to be a person of faith.
Today is about the binding or sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham’s
son. You’d think last week’s text
would be enough. That was a harsh
moment in the life of Sarah and Abraham not to mention Hagar and Ishmael
banishment to the desert and Ishmael’s brush with death. And yet God saved, God sent a well for
Hagar to draw from averting Ishmael’s death and giving him life. So these are the things that the author
refers to when we begin the passage for today.
After
these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here
I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to
the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the
mountains that I shall show you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled
his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut
the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the
distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the
place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey;
the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back
to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son
Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked
on together.
Isaac
said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He
said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt
offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt
offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
When
they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and
laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on
top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill
his son. 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 lay your hand on
the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have
not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a
ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and
offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that
place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the
Lord it shall be provided.”
Artists have depicted and theologians have written about the
binding of Isaac. There have been
many images throughout years of this story. There is a poignant Donatello statue sculpted in 1418
depicting Isaac at the mercy of his father, Rembrandt’s painting of the
Sacrifice of Isaac in 1635 is equally as emotional with the ethereal angel’s
light shining upon the face of Isaac and Abraham. Chagall’s image in red, blue
and browns shows a strong image of deliverance with the crucifixion in the
background.
And George Segal, sculptor designed the memorial for Kent
State killings in 1970 that equate the killings at Kent State to the sacrifice
of Isaac pointing out the moral injury of such killings. Rashi, a Jewish commentator from the 10th
century made comment, and theologian/philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote a book
entitled ‘Fear and Trembling’, in which he sets forth the idea of the
“theological suspension of the ethical” or the challenge of the moral system
for the sake of a higher law. All
this to say, the sacrifice of Isaac has haunted us for thousands of years and
it indeed asks us to suspend any ethical or moral fibers that are threaded
within our psyche so that we can pull out meaning for our lives and I believe
this too is that what God asks Abraham to do.
Let’s put it in context. Abraham has lost Ishmael, the son he fathered with Hagar the
slave woman to Sarah. Now he is asked by God to sacrifice Isaac, his long
awaited for son, the son promised to Abraham and Sarah while they were in their
90’s – the son that was supposed to be the progenitor of great nations. Another test?
What is important here is that we have to remember that
Abraham and Sarah are living in a time and place where there were many, many
gods, with a small g. Pearl S.
Buck has an interesting interpretation on this scripture, she says, “God had
one more test for Abraham and it was a difficult one. The Lord taught his people that he required their complete
faith and love, even their lives, and that they should be willing to offer
anything to ‘him’ [sic]”.[i] So listening
to or being persuaded by the surrounding polytheistic culture wasn’t going to
cut it for God.
And also, the Lord said that they should not shed the blood
of another that a burnt offering from the flock given freely is enough. The sacrifice of a human and especially
a beloved child was wrong in the eyes of God. Let’s get that straight. God was not like the other gods. God wanted to be sure that Abraham
understood this while he proved his love and faith. So God asks for faith and
love and to give of our lives but not in the sense of killing. God wanted Abraham to be sure he got
it, hence the test. Abraham obeyed
God but failed the test. And yet
God saves and God continued to love and bless Abraham.
The angel called to Abraham to which he answered, here I
am. The angel lets him know that
God now knows that Abraham loves God above all of the other gods out
there. Then, Abraham ‘looks up’ or
in the KJV ‘with eyes uplifted’ he sees the ram in the thicket and this is what
he is to use to sacrifice.
He hadn’t noticed it before, it was only at this moment that
the ram became apparent to him in plain sight. If ever there was a time to use
that platitudinous phrase, “God works in mysterious ways” this would be one of
them. Abraham had to redirect his
hand and his thinking away from his son and the awful sacrifice and to undergo
a change. He had to lift up his
eyes from what he was doing to see the ram. You just wonder what went through his head at that moment.
Midrash of the rabbi’s
say that “it isn’t so much about this mountain ram as it is about our
own potential to grow in understanding and insight and to find miracles to be
grateful for even under the direst of circumstances.” They suggest that the ram was always there in the sense that
God never intended for Abraham to kill Isaac, but the ability to see the ram,
to perceive a better choice can be understood as the everyday kind of miracle.[ii]
Miracles occur every day. It is a matter of how we see and interpret those miracles
particularly when we are in the ‘direst of circumstances’. It’s often when we are in those dark
places that it’s real difficult to see, I get that. It’s hard to see from where any help or relief will come. It’s tough to understand that there is
goodness and hope and that you are not alone when things come crumbling down
around you. And yet there is this
ram waiting to be seen.
It’s the miracle of the ram when a sick friend realizes that
your phone call to him was all he needed to get through the next hour of
pain. It’s the miracle of the ram
when you don’t have enough to cover the rent and your neighbor pays back a debt
owed to you. It’s the miracle of
the ram when someone is just there for you, could be a stranger or a friend but
they are there compassionately listening to you and lifting you up.
God is always providing for us, God is always there through
miracles seen and unseen. I once
saw a sign that said, ‘Bidden or not, God is present’. It is a reminder that God’s presence is
never far away but only as close as we can see and understand. While today’s story is one of the more
difficult ones it is also one that stands as a stark reminder of this
relationship between humans and God and the ways in which we feel tested by
life’s troubles but also relieved and redeemed by God’s care.
“The ram is always there, if we will but lift up our eyes.”[iii]
Amen
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