Larry E. Lenow
FUMC
6-29-08
Pentecost 7A
“This Is a Test”
Text: Genesis 22:1-14
“So what would do if God told you to take a knife and sacrifice your own son?” Father Murphy, my Old Testament seminary professor glowered over his bushy eyebrows as he confronted the class with the question. There was an intimidated silence from the class until finally one brave but meek voice answered. “I think I’d go see a psychiatrist!” It was what all of us were thinking. And, by the way, if you hear God telling you to harm anyone a medical evaluation is not a bad idea.
It’s easy, isn’t it to dismiss this story of the sacrifice of Isaac. Very quickly we push it aside in that unofficial category we all have of bible stories that are hard to understand, hard to believe and certainly not relevant to anything going on in my life or our world. But hold on, not so fast! Let’s take another look. And there are a few things we need to know to put the pieces together.
In the lectionary in worship we often whip through these stories so let’s do a quick review. God called Abraham. Remember, we talked about that a couple of weeks ago. Abraham was a pagan. And this God he did not know comes to him and says, “I am the one true God. Follow me and I will be your God. I will lead you to a land you do not know and I will give you the land and make you the father of nations.” This is a surprising promise given that Abraham and Sarah are already in their seventies, which some people think is a little late for having babies. God then leads Abraham and Sarah to the land of Canaan (modern day Israel). Still a little skeptical of God’s promise Abraham has a son named Ishmael with Sarah’s maid Hagar. This was Sarah’s idea by the way. Then, lo and behold, just like God promised Sarah conceives. They name the miracle baby Isaac. Sarah insists that Abraham throw out Hagar the maid and half-brother Ishmael. And you thought your family was messed up. God tells Abraham not to worry about it, go ahead and send them away. I’m going to make one nation out of Ishmael and then I’ll fulfill the covenant with your promised son, Isaac. Abraham send away Hagar and Ishmael. You still with me?
Things are finally settling down. The family is functioning, things seem to be going according to plan, Isaac is starting to grow up. Until one day God says to Abraham. “Abraham, take your son, your son Isaac whom you love, take him up to Mt. Moriah and sacrifice him to me. Take your son, the miracle baby, the promised child, the one I gave to you, the next generation in whom all your hopes, all your dreams and by the way my promise to you, bind him on an altar and sacrifice him to me.”
Now again, in our pews that sounds like a crazy idea, our thoughts go immediately to a psychotic break. But remember God has led Abraham and Sarah to the land of Canaan. And the ancient Canaanites practiced human sacrifice. Everybody knows that you have to give one child back to the gods. It was Abraham and Sarah who were the bizarre ones. It was this unknown God of Abraham that was different from all the others. Or so he thought, until now.
Incidentally, beneath Mt. Moriah there is a gorge where these Canaanites kept sort a bonfire burning beneath them in their festivals. Sort of a lake of fire and that’s where they sacrificed the babies. To the Hebrews it was abhorrent. They couldn’t imagine anything farther from God. Its name is Gehenna. In the New Testament Gehenna translates as “hell.” So I’ve been to hell and I’m told that on a few occasions it has indeed snowed there. And I am so digressing from our story.
So here is Abraham, stunned by God’s totally unexpected command. And this where this story starts getting a little less fantastic and a bit closer to our own lives than we at first thought. I can’t help wondering how many of you feel like God reneged on the deal. Oh, not literally of course, there is no “deal”. At least not a formal one. And yet if you strive to live a righteous life; if you love God; if you do good and play by the rules things are supposed to work out, aren’t they? We raise our families, we expect everyone to be happy and healthy. God is supposed to protect us all from tragedy. If you raise your children in the faith, they’re not going to get into drugs or alcohol or pornography or crime. If we love God we will die peacefully in our sleep, all faculties intact, at the end a long and long and fulfilling life. How many of us feel that God has somehow reneged on the deal. That god has in effect said to you, “Abraham, take your son and sacrifice him.” Know the feeling?
Abraham, take you son Isaac whom you love and sacrifice him. Abraham do what everyone else is doing. Abraham, conform to the rest of your world. Surely part of shocked Abraham was that he thought God was different from all the other gods. Abraham thought that he and Sarah were supposed to be different from all the other people. Now that may be a difficult concept for us to grasp – that people who follow the God of Abraham are supposed to be different. You see, we already have conformed. We go to great lengths not to be different. Look at us; we are a paragon of respectability and conformity. Not to put too fine a point of it, but what kind of witness do you have? In the living of your life, in your attitudes and opinions, in your words and your demeanor, in your actions and your commitments can people tell that you’re a person of faith? Do people know that you’re a person of faith? Are you a person of faith? Does it make any difference?
This command to sacrifice Isaac rocked Abraham’s world. More than just losing his son it rocked every assumption, every conclusion, every understanding Abraham had about God, about himself about his world. You might say that it stripped away everything – everything except his relationship with the living God.
“But wait a minute,” you argue, “Abraham didn’t have to sacrifice Isaac, did he? The story has a happy ending. The whole thing was just a giant test. So is that what goes on with us? Is God responsible for all our problems. Are our troubles really just God testing us? I encountered that just recently. I was visiting with someone in the midst of serious crisis. A friend of this individual, a friend from a different faith tradition had visited and said that “God is really testing you.” This person was agonized by the thought that God was causing the crisis. You know it takes a particular arrogance to declare that the cause of misfortune is a test of God. I don’t say that because I don’t know that. Now, are we tested? Of course we are. Our faith is tested everyday. Our faith is absolutely tested in moments of crisis. Our faith is tested all the time at the church when other brothers and sisters disappoint us with their behavior. Our faith is tested by evil and pain and violence in the world. Our faith is tested when God seems silent. Is God the source of such testing? I don’t know. What I do know is that the real question, what’s really important, is how we respond to it.
You see, my friends, as it turns out this story is quite important to us. Abraham had everything stripped away, everything but his relationship with the living God, and that was the test of his faith. The same thing happens to us. Whatever else you depend on, whatever else we prop up: It may be prosperity or health, it may family or respectability, it may be this church or a particular worship style or biblical interpretation or political agenda, or position or someone else entirely, whatever house of cards you build up will get knocked down if your faith is built on anything else than the living God, God alone and God entirely.
Make no mistake, this may be an ancient story but you and I stand on Mt. Moriah every day of our lives. Abraham trusted God. He passed the test. God was faithful. And the story goes on. Think about it. This is a test. Life is a test.