There oft comes a time in a relationship between parent and child when the. parent must insist on something that makes the child wonder what kind of

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "There oft comes a time in a relationship between parent and child when the. parent must insist on something that makes the child wonder what kind of"

Jesse Dalton
5 years ago
Views:

1 There oft comes a time in a relationship between parent and child when the parent must insist on something that makes the child wonder what kind of monster is standing before me. The rational parent has tried everything to get their point across. Finally, the parent is out of patience, out of explanations, and moves to the retort of last resort: Because I m the parent, that s why! Don t argue with me - Just do it! Whatever IT was. Pick up your room. Do the dishes. Clean the cat box. But, never, ever, ever take your child, your beloved child, and sacrifice to me. No. Never that. But, that s exactly the position in which Abraham finds himself. This morning s pericope begins with the words After all these things, God tested Abraham. What things? Let s review: Abram hears God s call to move his family from Ur to Haran and then south into the land of the Canaanites, Kenites, Hittites, and other ites. God promises good things will happen to Abraham and his family the generations succeeding will be a full as the star-lit sky. Abram goes. 1

2 Sarai, the impatient wife, convinces Abram to take her Egyptian servant, Hagar, as a wife so that he would have a son through her. Abram goes. God makes a covenant with Abram, changes he and Sarai s names, requires circumcision of him and his household, then tells him to go make a baby with Sarah. After a reasonable amount of healing time, Abraham goes. Abraham argues with God and saves Lot and his family (well, minus Mrs. Lot) from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Then Abraham and Lot misbehave (see chapter 19-20) but God moves King Abimelech to gift Abraham with sheep and oxen and land so that they would leave. Abraham goes. Sarah conceives and delivers their son Isaac. Sarah asks Abraham to do something about that meddlesome Hagar and her kingdom-threatening son Ishmael. Abraham does. What s interesting about all of these things is that each time Abraham obeys, rewards follow or rescue is required. 2

3 Up to now, obeying the voice of the Lord, or the voice of Sarah for that matter, doesn t take much thought. It s always turned out okay, you can hear Abraham think. Why should this time be any different? And then the Lord says, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you. And Abraham goes. Without argument. Without doubt. Without a second thought. And we are captive, watching a scene like it s an Alfred Hitchcock movie. No Abraham! Don t go up that mountain! No! Isaac, drop the wood and get out of there! He has a knife!!!!! (eee eeee.eeeee) Abraham goes to the limit, binding his beloved son so that he can t get away. 3

4 Lifting him to the top of the rock where he will take Isaac s life and destroy the promise of his posterity. When at the very last minute an angel stops the scene, a ram appears, and Isaac is saved. Who is testing whom? Traditionally, Christian interpret this passage as Abraham s victory. Abe shows God that his faithfulness is beyond reproach. This perspective turns God into a capricious bully! Some rabbis consider this story as Abraham s failure. He argues for 10 people in Sodom but won t argue over his own son? God still comes out as the bad guy. What a horrible way to prove someone s fealty. Perhaps, both Abraham and God went too far to the extremes. Maybe Abraham s guilt over sending Hagar and Ishmael into the desert has a part in this story. Maybe his reaction to this request has sent him to a mental state where he just cannot think? Could this be the end of Abraham s trust in the Lord? 4

5 Maybe God s risked God s plan for the universe on this one guy and his family and just needs one last reality check on the choice. Perhaps, this isn t all about Abraham s faithfulness, but it s also about God s. Did you notice that it was Godself who gave the command to Abraham, but it was an angel of God who saved Isaac from the knife? Were the angels unwilling to take part in this test? Was God embarrassed that this went so far? Could God no longer face Abraham? God blessed Abraham through Isaac and Jacob and Esau, but God didn t talk to Abraham again. What we have here is a failure to communicate. God s covenant with Abraham depended upon Abraham s willingness to trust in God completely. It also depended upon Abraham using the brain God gave him. There is an inherent tension between Creator and Creature. God requires dialogue. Discernment requires prayerfulness and trust. Relationship with God seems to be rife with dilemma. The world feels this dilemma right now. 5

6 There are those who believe they know the will of God. God s will commands them to eliminate anything that offends them. There are those who believe that mindless obedience will enable them to enslave and destroy the dignity of human beings. Today, Isaac continues to be bound and taken to high places to meet his fate as far away as Syria and as near as the streets of Baltimore, or DC, or New York. What do we do? Abraham looked up and saw a ram, the solution to the dilemma, caught in a thicket. Did that ram just appear out of nowhere? Or, was it there all the time, waiting to be discovered? How much are we caught up in our seemingly inescapable day-to-day lives that we don t see miracles just in front of us. How much have we been caught by the horns of technology that we don t understand that we might hold the answer to someone s dilemma. The key to loosing someone s bindings may be some sacrifice on our part. The key to escaping a dire dilemma may be to look up and see the miracles that surround us every day. 6

7 God is testing us. Do we have the will to save the Isaac? Are we the miracle? We can be. We can be the miracles children need through prayer and fasting. We can educate ourselves about the binding of children in our world: Some by poverty, some by trafficking, some by addiction, some by violence, some by disease or disability. We can support organizations who work to loosen these young people from their bonds. Most of all, we can love our own in our homes, in our church, in our communities. God wants them to live and flourish. It s up to us to be angels and stop the assault on the world s children. Sarah is waiting for them to come home. Amen. 7

Reflections on the Binding of Isaac Harvard Hillel, Rosh Hashona, 2006 Marshall Ganz (9/23/06)

Reflections on the Binding of Isaac Harvard Hillel, Rosh Hashona, 2006 Marshall Ganz (9/23/06) Good morning, Thank you for the opportunity to reflect with you this Rosh Hashanah on perhaps the most challenging