A Reflection for IV Pentecost (and
Independence Day observance) July 2, 2017 Thomas E. Wilson, Rector All Saints’ Episcopal, Southern Shores, N.C.
Genesis 22: 1-14 Psalm 13 Hebrews
11: 8-16 Matthew 5: 43-48
Binding of Isaac
The
story from the book of Genesis for today continues the Abraham saga we have
looked at for the last several weeks with the story of the binding of Isaac. Abraham
is convinced that he has heard God telling him to take his son, his only son,
the son he loves, to the Mount of Moriah and there bind him and offer him to God as a sacrifice to show God that he loved God
more than his only hope for life, his son. In the Hebrew though, there was no
life after death, and the only afterlife was to be remembered by one’s sons. If a man had no sons to carry on his name,
then it would have been as if he were never born. Abraham is called to do the
unthinkable and in so doing, commit suicide.
Some
see this story as a precursor of God’s sacrifice of his son Jesus, his very
being, on the cross so that we might be saved from our sins. I find that way of
thinking repulsive for it makes God a monster demanding blood. We see this with
religious extremists of all the major religions who kill others or themselves
because they believe the tenets of their religion call for that kind of sacrifice,
a sacrifice of the enemy and the innocents.
Many commentators want to get around this dilemma by saying that the
story is a way of moving away from the earlier practice of the sacrificial
slaughter of the first born on the altar to a slaughter of animals for the
giving of the first fruits of the harvest.
The
ethical question for the three great Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity
and Islam: is it permissible to kill others and oneself to show one’s obedience
to God? Kierkegaard in his Fear and Trembling
observed;
The ethical expression of
what Abraham did is that he meant to murder Isaac, the religious expression is
that he meant to sacrifice Isaac – but precisely in this contradiction is the
anxiety that can make a person sleepless, and yet, without this anxiety Abraham
is not who he is.
Abraham’s
living into the human contradiction is reflected in the rest of the Bible and
the rest of life. Do we allow the murder of children - our own and the children
of others - or do we sacrifice them to the dictates of the Gods that we really
worship?
We often
use the phrase “Children are resilient” as our way of looking for redemption
from the sacrifices we make our children pay as we get busy pursuing our own
goals to appease the gods of our own egos and schedule. What is the God, the
center of life and meaning, that parents pass to their children? Do we share
and entertain questions for deeper spiritual journeys or just acceptance of
conformity to religious doctrine? Do we fill their schedules with “busy stuff”
to keep them entertained with things that will get them in the right school or
group, when what they really need is parents who love each other and who share
time and love together with their children? Do we teach our children to learn
expertise in “stuff” or how to care for the world they will inherit? Do we
teach them to pass judgment or to pass on love? Do they see the world and
neighbor to be cherished or as things to be exploited? Do they see, as the
prayer says, that failure is not the measure of their worth but a chance for a
new beginning?
This
week we remember the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.” It has been claimed that we are a Christian nation, but
the reality is that while we have many people who identify themselves as
Christian, our nation really worships other Gods on a daily basis.
Do
we teach our children not that charity begins in the home but that it stays
there out of fear of not having enough? Do we teach our children that profit is
the main reason for being and not compassion? Do we teach our children that
children destroyed as collateral damage in wars that we engage in our national
interest is mildly regrettable, but judged acceptable due to the complexity of
our technology of death-dealing? Do we teach our children that housing, food,
quality education, or medical care are luxuries based on how much you are able
to earn; that living and dying is a matter of economics? Do we teach our
children that difference of opinions can be cause for capital punishment dealt
by the one with the bigger weapon? Do we teach our children to hold on to
grudges rather than surrender to giving grace-filled forgiveness?
One
of the mixed blessing perks of being an Episcopal Priest is that I am often
called “Father”. I often make fun of the
title when I turn to the person who addressed me and ask, “Yes, my child?”
Grown up people are uncomfortable with being addressed as a child. However, in
the confusion, there is a deeper truth that in this family made in the Image of
God, we are all images of God our parent, and as such, we see that we are given
the parental responsibility for all of God’s children. Jesus, when faced with
children who were bothering the disciples who had their own agendas, did not
say, “I agree with you; we don’t need to be bothered with children whom have no
blood claim to us. Let us withdraw our time and love from them, setting up the
sacrifice to the gods of this world.” Jesus said rather, “Let the little
children come to me.” Jesus gave them
holy space, sacred space, sanctuary - and we are called to do the same for all
children, no matter what their age. Or as the Gospel relates Jesus says:
“You have heard that it
was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you,
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be
children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on
the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you
love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax
collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what
more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be
perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
When
the writer of Matthew remembers the account, he will use the word in Greek,
“telios” which does not mean “without flaw”; rather it means that it is mature,
finished, completed in love and mercy. Luke will have a parallel and he will
say; “Be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful.” None of us will be
without flaw, but we can move towards loving perfectly, as God loves.
Binding
of Isaac
Back
from the hospital I held my daughter in my arms;
thinking
nothing would ever take her away from my grip
but
I kept letting her go for down her road into more trip
away
from me to school, friends, work, to husband arms.
She
was never mine to hold forever but only to cherish
for
the short time that we had. Unlike Abraham I couldn't
raise
my knife and offer her to a testing God for I wouldn't
keep
her from her own journey to appease the God jealous.
But
who is that God demanding the sacrifice, blood or no?
Was
it my greed wanting to move to better paying jobs to
pay
for things that we will throw away? Or time to slew
Dragons
or topple windmills as a way of giving ego glow?
Like
the old joke that determines me not nice;
All
we are doing is arguing about the price.
