Second Sunday in Lent 2009...On the One Hand...
Genesis 22: 1-2; 9-13; 15-18
“After these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I."
He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Mori'ah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you…”
And you know the rest of the story.
This is not an easy read! In most bible versions and in the commentaries on it, this story of Abraham and Isaac is entitled The Test. The theory is that God needs to measure – again – Abraham’s fidelity. Some test…more like a gruesome trick perpetrated by a bully.
The story appears in chapter 22 of Geneisis and manages to contradict everything we’ve been told so far about God (to say nothing of the retrospective of thousands of years of God’s love and fidelity to the covenant.) How are we supposed to make sense of it when even the biblical commentators don’t agree?
Let’s come at this a little differently, let’s come at it from our own experience of god. This version, entitled Abraham’s dilemma” says that Abraham heard God speak…but did he really? …maybe not…there are all kinds of ways this happens. We can justify lots of our ideas as “God’s will for me", or "what God is asking of me here” or "where God is calling me”. On our more creative days we can cite scripture and tradition in support. The only thing is, if we listen a little more closely, gods voice sounds suspiciously like our own
And so with Abraham. His ancient traditions tell him that sacrificing his firstborn is the ultimate act of appeasement to the gods. There can be no finer gift. This is his tradition, this is what he knows and believes, and for Abraham, as painful as this is, (and the story tells us just how painful it was), this is as good as a command.
And then the dilemma…God has also told Abraham and told Abraham he will be the father of many nations…..
And so in a scene that would pay itself out again in Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof Abraham holds his hands out and weighs the options; on the one hand..on the other hand …on the one hand...
Abraham knows two things; what reason tells him and what God promises.
And at some point Abraham is able to make that act of trust in the promise and we know how the story turns out.
What might we come away with?
The presence of a tender God who often saves us from ourselves.
A God who values fidelity over “getting it right”
What does this reading tell us about our response to the chaos and mixed messages of our time:
What does our own personal history tell us about God?
Genesis 22: 1-2; 9-13; 15-18
“After these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I."
He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Mori'ah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you…”
And you know the rest of the story.
This is not an easy read! In most bible versions and in the commentaries on it, this story of Abraham and Isaac is entitled The Test. The theory is that God needs to measure – again – Abraham’s fidelity. Some test…more like a gruesome trick perpetrated by a bully.
The story appears in chapter 22 of Geneisis and manages to contradict everything we’ve been told so far about God (to say nothing of the retrospective of thousands of years of God’s love and fidelity to the covenant.) How are we supposed to make sense of it when even the biblical commentators don’t agree?
Let’s come at this a little differently, let’s come at it from our own experience of god. This version, entitled Abraham’s dilemma” says that Abraham heard God speak…but did he really? …maybe not…there are all kinds of ways this happens. We can justify lots of our ideas as “God’s will for me", or "what God is asking of me here” or "where God is calling me”. On our more creative days we can cite scripture and tradition in support. The only thing is, if we listen a little more closely, gods voice sounds suspiciously like our own
And so with Abraham. His ancient traditions tell him that sacrificing his firstborn is the ultimate act of appeasement to the gods. There can be no finer gift. This is his tradition, this is what he knows and believes, and for Abraham, as painful as this is, (and the story tells us just how painful it was), this is as good as a command.
And then the dilemma…God has also told Abraham and told Abraham he will be the father of many nations…..
And so in a scene that would pay itself out again in Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof Abraham holds his hands out and weighs the options; on the one hand..on the other hand …on the one hand...
Abraham knows two things; what reason tells him and what God promises.
And at some point Abraham is able to make that act of trust in the promise and we know how the story turns out.
What might we come away with?
The presence of a tender God who often saves us from ourselves.
A God who values fidelity over “getting it right”
What does this reading tell us about our response to the chaos and mixed messages of our time:
What does our own personal history tell us about God?
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