Every time this text from Genesis read this morning comes around in our lectionary, I remember a seminary professor who once advised that anyone contemplating preaching on that text might want to think again.  “After all,” he said, “there are three other texts that day to choose from – don’t be crazy – steer clear of this rabbit hole.” He said that the one time he did preach on it, it was the worst sermon he ever delivered.  Now, I am hoping not to repeat his experience, but I am going to dive right into what is considered by most to be one of the most troubling texts in the scriptures. 

This story is known as the Akedah – called “the binding of Isaac” by the Jews, and the “sacrifice of Isaac” by Christians.  It begins with “After these things, God tested Abraham…”  I have to wonder about that – what “things” exactly?  Well, we will talk about that in just a bit.

Anyway, Abraham hears God tell him to take his son Isaac up the mountain and sacrifice him.  So, he does as he believes he is called to do, but just before he plunges the knife into his son, who at this point is bound to the wood of the sacrificial fire, a messenger of God intervenes and prevents him from doing it.  Instead, a ram, caught in a nearby thicket, is killed for the sacrifice instead.  If this is some sort of divine test, then they both – God and Abraham – failed it miserably.

Not for nuthin’, after this whole mountaintop hike with Dad, I am betting Isaac wasn’t keen on participating in any Father and Son events at the local lodge after his dad went all Psycho on him.  You have to wonder if this whole crazy episode marks the very beginnings of clinical psychotherapy, because I am sure Isaac needed years of sitting on a couch to recover from this one.  His mother Sarah likely wanted a fast divorce.  All we know is that she died soon after – I suspect of a broken heart. 

As for the ram, well – this clearly was a bad day.

The truth is – taken literally – this is a deeply unsettling tale that  folks through the centuries have reasoned was a measure of Abraham’s faithfulness.  I personally think it is a measure of his insanity.  Do we really want that type of blind mechanical obedience to voices we think are from God?  Isn’t that what we hear coming from those who do terrible things in the name of some God who supposedly told them to bomb the abortion clinic, take a plane into the World Trade Center, protest at the funeral of a veteran, threaten the lives of LGBTQ+ folks, or force thousands to drink poisoned Kool-Aid?  “God told me to do this?” 

Do we believe in that sort of God? 

And what about this being a divine test of Abraham? 

Most of us know times in our life when we wanted to say, “Really God?  I know that they say you won’t give us more than we can handle, I just wish you didn’t have that kind of confidence in me, okay?” But let’s remind ourselves that, while for centuries, even to today, many believe God tests our faith, and certainly those who first told this story likely believed that to be true, we have come to realize that God loves us deeply.  Love does no harm to another.  We know that bad things don’t happen to us or others as some sort of divine pressure test.  Things happen to us in this world.  Plain and simple.   Sometimes wonderful things, sometimes awful things.  God’s presence is alongside us giving us strength and courage, rejoicing with us and grieving with us – not messing with our heads and hearts with divine hoop jumping.

So no – God wasn’t testing Abraham with some horrific request to commit homicide.

Now that we have that cleared up, can you imagine God’s reaction when it all went down?  Maybe God is laying on a hammock, relaxing by the cosmic pool, after a hard day of creating planets and such, looks over to check in on Abraham and was like “What in the…????”

So, if not a test, what then was really happening here with Abraham?

Well, here is where a story from the Buddhist tradition can help.  I may have shared it with you before…

A Tibetan story tells of a meditation student who, while meditating in his room, believed he saw a spider descending in front of him. Each day the menacing creature returned, growing larger and larger each time. So frightened was the student, that he went to his teacher to report his dilemma. He said he planned to place a knife in his lap during meditation, so when the spider appeared he would kill it. The teacher advised him against this plan. Instead, he suggested, bring a piece of chalk to meditation, and when the spider appeared, mark an “X” on its belly. Then report back. 

The student returned to his meditation. When the spider again appeared, he resisted the urge to attack it, and instead did just what the master suggested. When he later reported back to the master, the teacher told him to lift up his shirt and look at his own belly. There was the “X”.

So, thinking on that for a moment, remember the lesson from last week? Abraham sent Hagar and his son by her, Ishmael, out of the camp to an almost certain death. Is it possible that he felt such guilt that it overwhelmed him and propelled him to believe that he didn’t deserve Isaac?  Is it possible that the voice he was hearing was actually his own?

This is where discerning what is of God, and what is not is critical. 

I have been listening to a series on spiritual discernment offered by Br. David Vryhof, of the Society of St. John The Evangelist, an Episcopal monastery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  In it, he leads us to consider how God speaks to us, how to be attentive to God’s voice, to what it is God is calling us to do, and to discern which voice is of God, and which is not.  He said “…the call of God is always of benefit to others. It always leads us to service of others. Every calling, every vocation, is directed to the welfare of others as well as ourselves. So, God’s call always stretches us beyond ourselves. It always involves service or benefit to others. There’s no calling from God that doesn’t benefit other people. ”

For Abraham, the voice he heard – telling him to sacrifice his son, the son promised to him by God – doesn’t align at all with who we truly know God to be. 

So, let’s look at this story differently…as metaphor, not a literal description of an actual event – which, as we know, is the way in which most of our scriptures are meant to be read.  Then it begins to make some sense.

Certainly the Jewish people throughout the ages can relate to a feeling that this covenant with God is one of constant sacrifice of themselves, and even of their children.  One only needs to consider the history of their people – slaughtered in ancient and modern day holocausts – to understand the meaning this story might have for them. 

But what about its meaning for us today?

Well first, we need to ask ourselves: Whose voice are we listening to?

Are we listening to those who would implore us to perform sacrifices of innocents to a God of greed, selfishness, ignorance, and bigotry?

For, while Isaac was saved on that proverbial mountaintop, today our children are being sacrificed.  Sacrificed to a God of humanity’s own making.

How many of our sons and daughters have been sacrificed on the altar of political aggression, hatred, religious intolerance, and war?

How many of our children are sacrificed on the altar of bigotry – often in the name God? – LGBTQ+ children, children of color, undocumented children, children of different faiths, indigenous children, female children, poor children, and more.

And…thinking of the ram here – how much of God’s creation have we sacrificed on the altar of ignorance and selfishness, to where our earth, the home created for us, and the innocent animals entrusted to our care, are suffering beyond measure.

Folks, let me be absolutely clear – the altar of God is built of one thing, and one thing only – unconditional and all-inclusive love.  And nothing, other than bigotry, hatred, ignorance, greed, or any other way in which we harm God’s creation, should be sacrificed on that altar. 

Yet just this week, we find that these sacrifices to our human capacity to hate continue, and we have much work to do if we are to build the dream God has for every part of creation – that Beloved Community where no harm comes to another.  

Over the past few days, our nation’s highest judicial authority would have us believe that racism no longer exists, that we are color blind.  Really?  Tell that to the families of Amadou Diallo, George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, Amaud Arbery…well, we would be here all day if we named them all.  Racism is a very deep and insidious sin, and our national disgrace, and it is still pervasive in our nation and around the world.  As for our nation being color blind – is that what we really want?  The colors of humanity are a beautiful part of God’s creative work.  I hope we don’t want to be blind to the magnificent mosaic of human diversity.  Rather, we must eradicate the hate that defiles the hearts of so many who see those wonderful differences as determinative of that person’s value, who does not see the image of God in anyone who doesn’t look like them.

But wait, there’s sadly more…

That same court would also tell us that, despite no one asking  for a service from a particular business, just the mere possibility that – God forbid! – an LGBTQ+ couple might want a service – in this case, a website design – well, that violates free speech.  And here is where it is truly absurd – they ruled this despite the plaintiff not having yet opened a business for designing websites!  This is all some sort of dream she has – a complete hypothetical vision of exclusion. And, lest we think this will only apply to LGBTQ+ people, the arguments on which the court made this decision could very well be used to discriminate against non-Christians, people of color, and more.  On top of all of that, the plaintiff claims this right to hurt, to deny, to pain another person, because she is a Christian!  A follower of Jesus!  Seriously!  You can’t make this stuff up.  Legal points about standing aside, this is bonkers, but as a Christian, it is also deeply offensive.  

Let me be absolutely clear – Jesus called us to love one another.  Again – love does no harm to another.  No one who follows Jesus should ever, ever, ever, do what this person, or this court, has done. 

But while the plaintiff in this case owns her sin, it is the church who formed it in her heart. Through the centuries, it was the church who misused scripture written in a different time, and placed our own bigotry into the interpretation – creating God in our image, and listening to the voice of our own hateful hearts.  The church told LGBTQ+ people they were sinful (as though everyone else in the church wasn’t?) and worse – that they were unwelcome here at the table. For that, we must continually atone for our sins, amend our lives, and take action in the world. 

And we begin by discerning the voice of God through prayer, through worship, through a better understanding of scripture, through moments of silence to truly listen well.

Because the voice we must listen to is not these voices of hate, but only of the one, true, God – who walks beside us in our pain, rejoices in our moments of celebration, loves us and all of creation beyond measure, and calls us to humble service. 

And as we follow our call, the good news for us is that, while we will experience very real – non-metaphorical tests – the tests that are not fair, tests like this past week that try our souls, the tests that …well, are not tests at all, but just part of what it means to be human, and to live in a very imperfect world – through all of it, we do not face it alone – God is always with us. 

So let us always ask ourselves – whose voice are we listening to?  God’s or humanity’s?  Because if we listen to God’s voice, we know that…

There are no divine tests to pass. 

There are no people excluded in God’s beloved community.

There are no creatures unworthy of God’s grace.

There is only love – absolute, unconditional love – for every single part of creation – here, now, and always.

Thanks be to God!

Amen.

The Rev. Diana Wilcox

Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge

June 25, 2023

Pent 3, Proper 8 – Year A – Track 1

1st Reading – Genesis 22:1-14

Psalm 13

2nd Reading – Romans 6:12-23

Gospel – Matthew 10:40-42