Before my sermon on our gospel lesson, I want to make a brief comment on our lesson from Genesis (Gen. 22:1-14), one of the more problematic passages in the scriptures.
Abraham is a significant figure in the religious and ethical culture of the world:
• in Hebrew , he is called Avraham;
• in Arabic, he is called Ibrahim;
• in Greek, Latin, and other European languages (including English), he is called Abraham;
still, identifiably the same bloke.
Following the command of God, he journeyed forth into the unknown future. The three monotheistic faiths (the three faiths worshipping a single God):
• Judaism,
• Christianity, and
• Islam
all trace the beginning of the sacred story back to Abraham’s journey of trust. That’s why these three faiths are sometimes called the “Abrahamic faiths.”
But Abraham did not begin his life in a monotheistic Abrahamic faith. He began his life in a community and a culture that worshipped many different gods. He began his life in a community and a culture that believed the gods expected their worshippers to do all sorts of strange and repellent things, even sacrificing their own first-born children.
Abraham’s encounter with the one God was a revolutionary occasion.
• Not only was there one big-G God rather than many small-g gods.
• But this big-G God was the God of all people, and all the world, not merely of a single tribe.
• And (as they say in the steak knife ads on TV) there’s even more. this big-G god wanted worship and service that was grounded in the ethical quality of our lives; lives of justice, integrity and mercy.
This was all part of the process by which our human view of God began to grow up.
Abraham’s journey of faith was an occasion that shook the religious and ethical foundations of our world.
• Obviously, Abraham’s experience set the religious goalposts for people who came to follow the faiths we now call Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
• Abraham’s experience also set the ethical goalposts for all people - believers and non-believers - in our modern society.
But Abraham didn’t know this at the time. It must have been rather lonely for him. He was the lone worshipper of the one big-G God in the midst of a community of people who worshipped their own petty little small-g gods. There were times when Abraham was tempted to worship his big-G God in a small-g way.
That is how I believe today’s story really started. Abraham was somehow convinced that his big-G God was calling him to do what the worshippers of the small-g gods did: human sacrifice. In those days, the worshippers of many of the small-g gods sacrificed their first-born children. Abraham listened to the voice of his culture and thought it was the voice of God.
And so, we have this morning’s lesson from Genesis: the story of a sad old man and a terrified little boy. And in the midst of it, God is speaking. God is saying:
• Avraham, spare the child!
• Ibrahim, put down the knife!
• Abraham, you idiot, stop now! (By that time, God’s cries were even louder those of Isaac.)
Abraham, eventually heard God’s voice, just in the nick of time. Had he closed his mind and wielded the knife, the consequences would have been devastating:
• for two great nations
• for three great faiths, and
• for the whole of the world’s religious and ethical culture.
Instead, Abraham realised that the big-G God that he worshipped did not demand human sacrifice as a part of worship. Abraham went home with
• a living son, and
• a living God.
Both were essential.
For us, and for all people of faith, there remains this challenge:
• never to let God take the blame for human stupidity,
• never to let God take the blame for human ignorance.
• never to let God take the blame for human violence.
As God called Abraham to put down his knife, let us support all efforts by which people of faith - of all faiths - may find in their faith a motivation for peacemaking, rather than an excuse for violence.
Copyright: Robert J. Faser, 2011
