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The Worst Possible Test Genesis 22:1 – 14 Years ago — about three years following my divorce — the scripture passage related to divorce came up in the lectionary. There are always four options when we preach from the lectionary: a passage from the Hebrew scriptures, one from the Psalms, one from the Gospels and one from the letters to the young Christians. I could have avoided that passage, but chose instead to get something helpful out of it. Midweek – I wondered why in the world I had decided such an option. Months ago I thought it would be helpful for us to try to deal with this passage from Genesis. Early this week, I wondered again — why in the world did I decide that??!! So, first of all, a bit of a disclaimer is in order. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has, in our 200-year history, claimed that the Bible is our authority. It is the book of wisdom for our faith. We have also decided that it needs to be read carefully and with as much scholarship as possible and available. Twice in our official history and many, many times on a weekly basis preachers, pastors, scholars and informed congregants have claimed that we do not take the Bible literally, but, rather, interpret its truths as they relate to our own context. In the time of Abraham and Isaac, the cultures surrounding the Israelites practiced child sacrifice. Thankfully, that is a reality we cannot appreciate and is a total abomination to our psyches. Through the years (the ages) the retelling of this story verbally and through art images has had a devastating effect on some — children who have heard the story and cannot get to the meaning beyond the hideous details; abusers who have sensed some license to harm children because of the story; and observers who just cannot get below the surface. Somehow we must get through those details and the images of the context so that we can glean the kernels of truth within the story. We must examine the story so we might understand IF it has something for us today. Let’s try.
We are tried and tested throughout our lives. Before we make any major move or intentional change, there are hoops, trainings, examination periods we must endure before we are given the right to be where we want to be. So it was with Abraham. God needed Abraham — wanted Abraham — to be the father of the faith. God wanted Abraham to be the ancestor of the People of God. God wanted Abraham to be the one to whom scores and scores of Israelites would claim as their heir in the faith. And Abraham had heard God’s claim and call on his life and seemed to want the very same thing God had desired. There had been some glitches along the way. One of them had been the way Abraham allowed Sarah to intervene — both in the conception of Ishmael and in Ishmael’s dismissal from the community. But now, God needed to know that Abraham was depending solely on God and would be able to hear and see God as the years continued to open. This was a test. Two stories come to mind: one a very familiar one; the other a sad teaching story. The police knocked on all neighborhood doors asking people to leave their residences. The floodwaters were rising. One man chose to stay put. “God will save me,” he claimed. The floodwaters rose. Boats came down what had been the streets, helping residents to safety and implored the man to get into a boat. “No,” he said, “God will save me.” The floodwaters continued to rise. The man got on his roof. A helicopter came by and the rescue worker yelled down to the man to take the rope and get into the chopper. “No,” he said, “God will save me.” The man drowned. As soon as he got to heaven, he made an appointment with God. The man was furious. “Why didn’t you save me?! I told everyone you would!” And God said, “I sent the police to knock on your door, a boat to pick you up, and rescue workers in a helicopter. What more did you want?!” The sadder tale comes from Jack Kornfield’s book, A Path With Heart. (From Joyce Rupp, The Cup Of Our Life. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press. 1997. P. 101) A father was away from home when robbers came, set fire to his home and took his son away. The father returns to the ashes left of his house and believes his son has died there. The son is able to get away from abductors and eventually gets home. He knocks on the door many times. “Papa, Papa, it’s me.” The father refuses to open the door, believing that the children of the neighborhood were taunting him. The son finally leaves – never to return. Our resistance in seeing and hearing God’s messages doesn’t come just when we are in crisis or grief. But it is in those times that we are least likely to be able to see God in new ways, because we are relying on what we know best and the comfort of stability helps us survive. The two major issues of this Genesis passage today are whether we can be alert enough to see and hear God when it may be crucial to us, and whether our relationship with God allows us to be in a testing and trial time with God. The first issue is undoubtedly easier than the second. Abraham heard God give him an order. Abraham also was able to see where that order was to be carried out. But it didn’t stop there. Abraham kept listening and kept watching for new signs. He assured his young son that God was going to provide even though Abraham surely didn’t know in the process how that was going to happen. At the right moment, however, Abraham once again heard God’s voice. There was great risk here. God was risking that Abraham wouldn’t hear him. Abraham was risking that he wouldn’t hear God. But they ventured out together believing their relationship would endure the risk. As individuals — no matter what age — we are where we are in our faith journey because we have listened and been led. We can stop right now, OR we can keep on moving forward, proactively working to see where God is leading us to change. So it is with this congregation. God hasn’t stopped working with us. God isn’t satisfied that we do things tomorrow like we did them yesterday. We’ve got to keep our eyes open and be ready for new ways! This concept of God as one who is testing us is a more difficult one, I believe. There is a tension between thinking that God plays games with us, giving us challenges, hurling difficulties our way to build our character (which is not my understanding of God) and thinking that God is constantly tugging and pushing us to move ahead, to take on greater challenges, to check out the resources we have in our own character, to fly when we have only been able to crawl before. That’s the God I know. That’s the God with whom I am in love. That’s the God that keeps after me every day — every moment — and that’s the God who challenges, tests and gives us trial periods because God needs us for a growing mission in this world! So, that’s what I believe was happening to Abraham that awful and awesome day. And those are the kernels I believe we can take from this rather gruesome tale. God is asking us to keep looking and to continue listening for God’s appearance and voice will continue to change daily on our journey. But also God is assuring us that we can meet the challenges that open up to us and that when we know they are God given we can believe the resources to meet them will also be God given. Our context is different today in St. Louis than it was for Abraham and Isaac. There is no testing related to abuse of a child. There is testing related to whether we can see the new way God is appearing to us; the new challenges that God gives us; and the new resources God is giving us to present the message of love, justice, and faithfulness to those we encounter today. May we see and hear in new ways. May we stay with the trials and tests. SW |
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