A Better Way

Genesis 22: 1-14 Rev. Marianne Niesen June 26, 2011

I don’t like this text. I don’t like the story and I don’t like what it seems to say about God – or about Abraham, for that matter. What kind of God would ask a father to sacrifice his son? What kind of a father would do such a thing? Quite frankly, I do not believe I have ever preached on this text before. This is one of those Bible verses I ignore. When it comes up as a suggested text, I do the logical thing - choose another one. The fact is that this text assaults just about everything we want to believe about our faith and our God. How can the sacrifice of a child be an act of worship? But here it is, in our Bible. I could have ignored it again but – like many of you – I still know it is in there and that very fact begs the question. What do we do with it? How can it be part of ‘sacred scripture?’ Is our only option as civilized, enlightened people of faith, to simply cut it out?

That, after all, is not unlike what Thomas Jefferson did with many passages of the Bible. If you visit Jefferson’s home in Monticello, Virginia, you will see his edited copy of the Bible. And, if you haven’t seen it, you’ve likely heard about it. This great intellect who crafted the Declaration of Independence and commissioned his secretary, Mr. Lewis and another Mr. Clark to find a passage to the ocean and who established the University of Virginia – this man simply cut out – literally, with a razor - cut out of his Bible certain passages "of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, or superstitions, fanaticisms, and fabrications." The ‘Jeffersonian Bible’ focused on the New Testament. Jefferson’s aim was to better understand and live the teachings of Jesus whose ethical system, he believed, was the finest the world had ever known. But, because he dared tamper with the written text, he was denounced as a "howling atheist" and "a confirmed infidel" known for "vilifying the divine word, and preaching insurrection against God." Translation? Christians didn’t like it one bit! But, the fact is the very Christians who complained and vilified Jefferson for his razor blade study did the same thing. Christians have always been selective about their Bible reading. Even literalists are selective about which parts of the scripture they take literally.

We are no exception. Though we may not do our selective reading with quite the flair of Jefferson, we too make choices. We ignore or discount lots of passages in the Bible we find discomforting. Jim Wallis in his book God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get it exposes liberals and conservatives alike for ignoring what the Bible really tells us about what is important to God. The heart of the Biblical message, he says, is working toward a world where economic justice reigns – where all have enough. [1] But that’s another sermon. The point is that we are all ‘picky’ in our reading and our reflecting. In the end, Jefferson claimed that his redacted, revised, New Testament "is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus." For him, the "sum of all religion" was to "fear God and love thy neighbor."[2] So his work on the New Testament was about clearing those ‘doctrines of Jesus’ from things that he found superfluous – like miracles and water-walking.

Thomas Jefferson would have done well in the computer age, don’t you think? He could have edited the Bible so much more easily! And, even though I don’t really recommend his method, I admire his intent. He clearly wanted to eliminate the fluff – and the distractions - and get to the heart of the matter - which is, really, what faces us every time we read scripture. The question, as I have said many times, is what does this mean? What does this teach us? No matter how troubling the story, the question is what is God’s intent in this event, this story, this parable?

That being said - I’d still like to erase, take a razor blade to, cut out, eliminate, eradicate, eviscerate this story of the sacrifice of Isaac!

Timothy Owings suggests another tempting option for dealing with this text in his sermon in The Abingdon Preaching Annual. It is to “hear and accept the story but interpret the passage as a metaphor or allegory. In other words, make the text fit our world rather than taking the risk of entering its world and time. This raises a curiously challenging problem for anyone who reads the Bible. There are roughly four thousand years between 1900 BCE and 2011. Time, space, culture, language, values, religious practices, family customs, political arrangements, even dietary choices are but a few of the differences between Abraham and Sarah’s world and ours. What we do when faced with these differences is predictable. We walk into an old story as if these people had friends on Facebook and ate pizza on Friday nights. In a word, we think we can overlay our story on the Bible’s story and in so doing, we miss the Bible’s power and dismiss the Bible’s message.” [3]

So if we aren’t going to ignore the story and we aren’t going to cut it out and we aren’t going to allegorize it (i.e. this is what they really meant to say) what are we going to do with it? What can a person of faith, a serious student of scripture, a thoughtful believer – someone like you and me – do with this text?

And the answer, quite simply, is that we must first of all admit this text is there, accept it on its own terms and then – as I said a moment ago – seek to understand the deeper truth within. Abraham and Sarah – our ancestral parents – lived in a world where child sacrifice happened. People sacrificed children to appease gods, to curry divine favor, atone for sin. However shocking such a thing is to us, it was part of reality for Abraham and Sarah. It was part of the acceptable divine/human interaction. But before we breathe a collective sigh of relief that we are beyond such things, let’s be honest. Child sacrifice continues in our day. Far too many children, especially girls, are sold into slavery – yes, slavery – even today, even here in our own country. And far too many children are abused by the very people who are supposed to love them. Children continue to be victims all too often and so our outrage at the premise in this story could be tapped to help bring about needed change. If you need proof about what I am saying, read Nicholas Kristof’s Half the Sky or Mende Nazer’s own autobiography that she titled simply Slave. [4] Yes, sadly, these things exist in our world.

Of course, that doesn’t really help at this point because that leads us to wonder . . . and God approves? You mean we have a God who tests Abraham by resorting to divine child abuse – AND THAT’S OKAY? We all ought to be horrified by that kind of possibility and at least in part that is why this story is so unsettling. Just what does it tell us about this God who called Abraham and Sarah out of the wilderness? And with that question, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and Insight has us precisely where She wants us. Because that is the question.

What does it tell us about God? Let’s look. Yes, Abraham has trekked with Isaac to the mountain. Yes, he has built an altar. Yes, he seems to fully intend to carry out the blood sacrifice of his son. That’s how the gods are, after all. Giving gifts of bounty with one hand and demanding brutality with the other. Humans were just pawns in it all. That’s just how things were and would always be. That was the worldview with which Abraham lived. But as Abraham raised his blade, God cried out no more! Stop! This is not how things will always be. There is another way. This God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Jesus and Mary was different. The God who stopped that raised arm challenged the ‘way things have always been’ and offered another way. Do not lay your hand on the boy! The final words of the story capture the fundamental intent of it all…the Lord will provide. Abraham, it’s not about you…the Lord will provide. Your God is a God of bounty, not brutality. No matter what they say . . . your God is different.

Folks, the Bible is full of stories of violence – and it is not just in the Old Testament. The Book of Revelation in the New Testament is perhaps the most violent of all the books in the Bible. This is not a Jewish/Christian dichotomy as it has often been portrayed. (The Old Testament is about violence while the New Testament is about love.) No! Woven throughout the biblical narrative is a thread the counters violence and fear with generosity and love. Too often, we as a human community tend toward violence. We want our way or we walk out. We use words and actions to demonize the other. The Bible is full of stories of wars fought in the name of God and violent actions justified because God was on our side. But, woven throughout even the most violent of stories, like the one today… are moments where God intervened on how things were and said there is another way. This is what God asks of you, only this – to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God . . . . I will turn your mourning into dancing . . . . do not fear, I will redeem you.[5] Jewish rabbis, reflecting on that most important of stories – the Exodus – said that when the waters of the Red Sea drowned all of the Pharaoh’s army, the angels danced in heaven. And, when God saw it, God rebuked the angels saying how can you rejoice when my children, the Egyptians, are drowning? [6] When Jesus faced Pilate and he dared him to fight, to show his stuff, Jesus responded my kingdom is not of this world . . .if it were, I’d tell my guys to get your guys but instead I told them to put away the sword. [7]

Putting away the sword . . . finding another way . . . that sounds a lot like the message Abraham received that day on the mountain so long ago. We live in a world where children are still sacrificed and where violence is too often the preferred path. Today’s text, as distasteful as it is in so many ways, also offers a glimpse at the transformation of the human/divine relationship. We are not called to be God’s warriors, sacrificing others to defend God or to appease God’s needs. Our call is to sacrifice ourselves in service to this God who will provide, who is generous, whose bounty abounds and whose loves is everlasting.

Fundamentally, while this story is often understood to be about God’s testing of Abraham’s faith, it is even more about God’s challenge to all humankind. Are we willing to face the raised knives in our own lives – the ways we prefer to cut someone down, discount a differing opinion, write off a whole group of people we’ve judged sinful? Are we willing to face our own prejudices and narrowmindness and listen for the voice of God who still calls us to another way? Do we trust that God will provide?

I want to end this reflection by reading the scripture again – but this time using George Harper’s version of the story. [8]

I like George’s image of Abraham in tears at the end. This is a text that in more ways than one should bring us all to tears. God’s better way is always the way of life, of working together, of caring for the children, sacrificing ourselves for the greater good. There are other ways of course but only one leads to life in fullness. Just ask Isaac.

[2] These quotes found in Thomas Jefferson’s Cut and Paste Bible, by Steven Prothero. Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2011.

[3] Abingdon Preaching Annual 2011, Ó2011 p. 204. (His reflections on this text overall encouraged me to develop this sermon.)

[5] Micah 6:8, Psalm 30:11, Isaiah 41: 14

[6] Often cited story from the Jewish Talmud.

[7] John 18:36, Luke 22:50.