1 Eid al Adha; October 28, 2012 Genesis 22; Al-Saaffat 37:102-112 St. Paul s United Church of Christ; Karen Delaney, preacher Genesis 22 Abraham Commanded to Offer Isaac 1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. 2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Mori'ah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. 3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. 9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. 12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah ji'reh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. 15 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, 16 and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son 17 that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 18 and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. 19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer sheba. The reading today, the Sacrifice of Isaac, is one that s always caused me a lot of problems. I believe it s the ugliest story in the entire Bible, uglier than: The rape of Tamar (David s daughter) by her half brother, Amnon, which was the root cause of Absalom s rebellion against their father;
2 The rape of Jacob s daughter, Dinah, and the subsequent murder of her rapist and his entire family; The sacrifice of Jephthah s daughter to fulfill her father s promises; The murder of Uriah to cover up the affair between his wife, Bathsheba, and King David. But these were all acts of men, not God, or of God acting through men. I think of it as some very sick joke on God s part. What kind of god asks a father to sacrifice his child and then stops him at the last possible minute, saying I was just testing you. I didn t really mean it. So I m happy to say I m not the only one to struggle with this story. There are books and monographs and sermons in the Christian tradition; there is Midrash more books and discussion in the Jewish tradition; and there is al Tafsir yet more books and discussion in the Muslim tradition. All three Abrahamic faiths struggle with this story, but only the Muslims have turned it into a celebration of thanksgiving for their own children. (Pardon me. I should have said Muslims and those religions whose borrow from them the Druze and the Baha i. ) The celebration is called Eid al Adha the Great Sacrifice. It began last Friday and ends today and was the basis of the four day truce in Syria that was broken yesterday. Muslims are encouraged to prepare themselves for the Eid by doing the following: 1. Make wudu (ablution) and offer Salat al-fajr (the pre-sunrise prayer). 2. Prepare for personal cleanliness take care of details of clothing, etc. 3. Dress up, putting on new or best clothes available. There are special prayers called Takbir for the three days of the Eid. These must be offered in congregation in other words, when attending the local mosque. At the conclusion of the prayers and the sermon, Muslims embrace and exchange greetings with one other, give gifts (called Eidi ) to children, and pay visits to one another. Many Muslims invite their non-muslim friends, neighbours, co-workers and classmates to their Eid festivities. Those Muslims who own livestock and can afford to sacrifice their best animals. The meat is divided into three parts: the family retains one third; another third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors; and the last third is given to the poor and needy. In some countries, families who don t own livestock make contributions to a charity to provide meat to those who are in need. (Vegetarianism doesn t seem to have a much of a place among Muslims, but that s a topic for another day.) The celebration reminds me a lot of our own Thanksgiving, without Black Friday; or Christmas, without all the commercial whoop-de-do; not to mention Easter. Particularly the part about new clothes. I remember very well my sisters and I who were not raised in a religious
3 household getting special dresses for Easter. And the idea of celebrating an escape from or celebrating a resurrection from death... Well, it s a lot to think about. Since the Muslim calendar isn t in sync with the lunar calendar, their holidays migrate backward. For instance, in 2003 (at the start of the Gulf War), Eid al Adha began on February 12; in 2004, it was February 1; in 2005, January 21; etc. This year, it began on October 26 and, as I said, ends today. Last August, at the close of Ramadan, we heard some stories of Solomon from both our Old Testament and the Qur an. Today, we heard the story of Abraham s sacrifice from Genesis. Here s the same story from the Qur an, Surah al Saaffat, verses 102 112: from Al-Saaffat 37:102 Then, when (the son) reached (the age of) (serious) work with him, Ibrahim said: "O my son! I see in vision that I offer thee in sacrifice: Now see what is thy view!" (The son) said: "O my father! Do as thou art commanded: thou will find me, if Allah so wills, one practising Patience and Constancy!" 37:103 So when they had both submitted their wills (to Allah), and Ibrahim had laid him prostrate on his forehead (for sacrifice), 37:104 We called out to him "O Ibrahim! 37:105 "Thou hast already fulfilled the vision!" - thus indeed do We reward those who do right. 37:106 For this was obviously a trial- 37:107 And We ransomed him with a momentous sacrifice: 37:108 And We left (this blessing) for him among generations (to come) in later times: 37:109 "Peace and salutation to Ibrahim!" 37:110 Thus indeed do We reward those who do right. 37:111 For he was one of our believing Servants. 37:112 And We gave him the good news of Is-haaq, a prophet from among the righteous. Both stories are essentially the same, though the Biblical story is much more detailed (and easier to imagine as happening right in front of you). But there are a couple of significant differences: in the Qur an, the unnamed son is consulted so that he consents to the sacrifice, not lied to as in the Genesis version. And he is Ibrahim s first born, Isma el, not Sarah s son, Is-haaq. The reader or listener can infer which child is the intended sacrifice from the final passage, And We gave him the good news of Is-haaq, a prophet from among the righteous. If the first boy had been Is-haaq, there d be no need to add any good news about him because he was already there, stretched out on the altar. Many Muslim commentators say this verse isn t just an afterthought, but Allah rewarding Ibrahim with a second son for his willingness to sacrifice the first one. As I said, this story is a problem for all three Abrahamic faiths.
4 My own acquaintance with the Eid began in 2005, when my son joined the Army. Dee came home from boot camp that summer and told me a story he d heard from a couple of veterans returning from Iraq. When I shared it with the members of the church I where I worshipped before I came to St. Paul s, the first question out of anyone s mouth was Is it true? I have to tell you that I was tempted to quote Pilate s question to Jesus What is truth? but I knew that was a dodge. And, realistically, I can expect that question whenever I share this story. Above all, a serious question deserves a serious answer. So here it is. I have no way of tracking down the truth or fiction behind this story. Dee believed it was true and he s got a pretty good nose for what I ll politely call bovine excrement. Nor can I think of any reason returning veterans would tell this story to new soldiers unless they, too, believed it happened. Yet, I ve heard a similar story from my former husband, a Viet Nam veteran, and another from a dear friend who was a forward spotter for a tank battalion in Germany during World War II. The outline is the same: a ruined village coming back to life; our soldiers making friends with the local children; and a child in danger. Again, that doesn t mean it isn t true. The 19th Century German writer, Goethe, once said, There are only 36 basic stories we authors just change the details. He could have substituted history for authors and been just as accurate. All that being said, in 2005, Eid al Adha was, as I said earlier, celebrated in mid January. If this is a myth, it s one worth preserving. Eid al Adha, 2005 Corporal Bud s unit was through that village maybe a dozen times on patrol. It d been evacuated and bombed out, but the folks were coming back and rebuilding and taking up where they left off. They didn t have anything beyond the basics, so, around Christmas, the unit takes up a collection to buy some toys for the kids. Now the captain s a real stickler about not stepping on the locals toes. He does some checking and finds out the village is due to celebrate something called Eid al Adha a couple weeks after New Year s. He explains it s a big deal to them because it s the day Allah told Abraham it was wrong to kill Ishmael and substituted a ram for the boy. One of the Bible geeks in the front pipes up with, Don t they mean Isaac, his legitimate son? Ishmael was his bastard by one of his slave girls. Now Bud s standing at the back (he was usually the drag man when they were on patrol and he just automatically took that position wherever the unit happened to be), and HE pipes up with Doesn t matter squat which boy s head was on the chopping block. No God wants kids getting hurt. And that pretty much ends that.
5 So, comes the big day, and everybody pitches in loading toys and food into the Humvees and off they go. The grown ups are glad to see them and the kids aren t shy at all about coming up and taking the toys and trying out their American slang on the troops. You know just being kids. All except this one little girl who just hides out behind her big sister. So Bud takes a teddy bear out of the Humvee and walks over and squats down so he s about eye level and holds out the bear to the shy one. He smiles and says, It s ok. It s for you. The big sister sort of nudges the little one forward, and she takes the bear and smiles at Bud and starts jabbering away in Arabic. And when the two girls walk away, the little one s got that bear wrapped up in her scarf the way the women there carry their babies. And Bud s feeling pretty good about the whole thing. So, a couple weeks later they get word of some insurgent activity in the area and they set out on patrol to see what s up. When they get close to that village, there s the little girl with the bear standing in the road and won t get out of the way. They try to wave her off, but she just shakes her head and won t move. The second Louie s wondering what the hell to do he doesn t want to run her over, and he sure as hell doesn t want to shoot her, but he also doesn t want to touch her in case it s some sort of ambush, or some asshole s wired her with explosives like they ve been known to do. Now Bud can hear the chatter in his headphones, and like I said, he s in the drag position, but he comes forward to see what the noise s all about. When he sees the kid, he tells the second Louie, I know her. Let me see if I can find out what s what. He gives his weapon to one of the other guys cause he doesn t want to freak the kid out. Besides, he figures, if this IS an ambush, even with his Kevlar, he ll be down before he can get a shot off. Bud walks over to the kid, and hunkers down like he did before so he s eye level. Then he takes off his glasses and shoves his helmet back so she can see his face, wondering all the time if someone off to the side s going to blow the two of them to Kingdom Come. She nods at him as if to say, I know you, then reaches for his hand and tugs on it like she wants to show him something. They walk away from the convoy and everyone s fingers are on their triggers, wondering what s coming down. The two of them go maybe 50 yards before they halt so she can show him where somebody s dug into the road to plant a bunch of mines. She saved their butts. And all because Bud gave her that bear. You know something? When Jesus said, Cast your bread upon the waters and it ll return a hundred fold, he was dead on. Amen.