Thursday, August 4, 2011

Sermon on June 26, 2011 (13th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

“A Sacrifice to God” (Genesis 22:1-19; Romans 6:12-23)
June 26, 2011 (13th Sunday in Ordinary Time)
Rev. John B. Erthein


It was not long ago that we celebrated Mother's Day, and then Father's Day. But someone once said that every day is “Children's Day.” Ideally, we value families. Those of us who are parents ideally love our children. We recognize there are too many times when the reality does not meet the ideal; children are abused, neglected and abandoned. But the ideal remains important. It is considered right that parents love their children and even sacrifice for them. And the last thing a parent wants is for any harm to come to his or her child. All of us as parents can understand that deep in our hearts.

So. this reading from Genesis is not one of the most desired passages on which to preach, because at its center it involves the concept of familial sacrifice, specifically the sacrifice by a parent of a child, because God commanded it. As I was writing this sermon, I kept thinking it would be much better to preach on something else. This was one of the lectionary readings for today, it was not of my choosing. But then, I thought that if a passage of Scripture is uncomfortable to preach upon, and if it is hard to listen to, perhaps that means it needs to be considered. The Word is God is always good, but not always easy. And the passage from Genesis has such a wealth of material that one can create many sermons based on it.

Why does this passage make us uncomfortable? On its surface, and in our gut reaction, this passage makes God look capricious and cruel. When I say “gut” reaction, I don't mean what we think we are supposed to think about God, and how as Christians we try to rationalize uncomfortable passages of Scripture. I mean, how do these words grab us? How do we react instinctively? And my instinct is to be disturbed and even upset. After all, God had promised Abraham and Sarah that their son Isaac was the child of promise. Through him their descendants would be numberless and the whole world would be blessed through them. And now God commands Abraham to do something we consider abhorrent, which also would destroy the promise God had made to Abraham.

And how does Abraham appear? The text has him rather flatly agreeing to sacrifice his son! Abraham had already lost his son Ishmael, daughter of his slave Hagar, because Sarah had insisted on their banishment. But Isaac was supposed to be the chosen one. How could Abraham agree without even protesting? He had protested when God was preparing to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, for example. And other patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament had struggled with God's will many times. But here, where Abraham is being asked to do something that looks monstrous, something that should go against the instincts of any normal parent and any moral person, he simply agrees. We see this confirmed when Abraham is getting ready to carry out the sacrifice, to kill his son and make him into a burnt offering. The angel of the Lord stayed his hand, which meant his hand had to be stayed. Abraham was going to go through with it!

I emphasize this to bring up an uncomfortable issue. Often, people are willing to do the most evil looking things because they are convinced that is what God would have them do. These people are sincere in following what they understand to be God's will. Why else do you think the Al Quaeda terrorists attacked New York and Washington ten years ago? They believed God wanted that, and who were they to disobey God? And even more than that, parents are encouraged to sacrifice their children in suicide attacks against Israel, according to a particular understanding of God's will expressed in Islam. So sincerely following God's will can lead to horrifying results.

So why do we consider such things with horror, even as we strive to follow God's will? I think we can understand this by going back to the time of this event in Genesis. Nowadays we talk about the “Judeo-Christian tradition” of ethics and values. Certainly, according to our “Judeo-Christian” traditions, it is an abomination to mistreat our children, much less to sacrifice them. But when Abraham was confronted by God's supposed command to sacrifice Isaac, there was no Judeo-Christian tradition. Abraham stood at the beginning of the line that would extend for thousands of years. When he walked this earth, there was no Bible. There was not a single church or synagogue to be found. There was no Pope and no Billy Graham. So what kind of world did Abraham inhabit?

It was a world of polytheism, of a pantheon of gods and goddesses commanding the allegiance of varying groups of people. And it was a world with a very different ethical code than our own. One of the gods was called Molech. The cult of Molech insisted upon the sacrifice of children by burning. Such an idea fills us with horror, and rightly so. But that was the spiritual atmosphere of the time. For Abraham to hear this dreadful command from God would not likely have shocked him as it would us today. That doesn't mean he liked the idea … but he might have said to himself that other gods would expect this, so why not the God who spoke to him? God was talking to Abraham in a way that he would have understood, asking him to make a severe sacrifice that was not, however, something as horrifying as we think it is today.

As we know, it was not God's will for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Indeed, God brought a new morality to bear in the world. It was not his will that his people would ever sacrifice their children to him! There are several places in the Old Testament where God and his people express their detestation. Leviticus 18:1 commands: “You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Molech.” Further, Leviticus 20:1-5 prescribes the death penalty for such an act, further threatening that God himself would punish any people who refused to punish such an evil act. The evil 8th century Judean king Ahaz committed such heinous acts (2 Kings 16:3) and in the next century the good king Josiah attempted to abolish such practices (2 Kings 23:10). Condemnations of child sacrifice can also be found in Deuteronomy and Micah. These books were written under very different circumstances, hundreds of years apart. This indicates that Molech worship and child sacrifice were well known among the people of Israel and it took centuries to finally stamp it out. This makes God's command to Abraham look more gracious … it is as if God were saying you must commit the ultimate sacrifice to please me. It was enough for Abraham to show that willingness. But God was sending a powerful message that worshiping him would never involve such an evil action.

So what else is the lasting value of this passage? What does it say to us in this time and in this place? In fact, God's people are still called to make sacrifices, including ones that test one's commitment to God. The sacrifices can be painful. They involve perhaps surrendering parts of ourselves that we do not want to surrender. Having said that, the best response is to trust in God's providence. His promises will be fulfilled, and in fact he has something planned for us that will more than make up for any sacrifices we have to make. In the case of Abraham, his willingness to make a terrible sacrifice was counted as righteousness. He had faith in God's providence and continuing goodness, even if God's specific command to him seemed strange at best.

Here, I think it is helpful to also consider the passage from Romans I read a few minutes ago. Paul is saying that Christians must make a drastic change in their lives. Previously, they had been enslaved to sin. Paul says that if they foresake sin they will find freedom from it, but only in slavery to God. A popular idea in modern times is the idea of total personal autonomy. You are supposed to be free to do whatever you want to do. No one should tell you what to do or control your life. But Paul argues that there is no such thing as total personal autonomy. We are under the authority of someone or something. Paul exhorts Christians to live under the authority of God, not the authority of sin. The authority of either is so encompassing that it equals slavery.

A slave owes his master perfect obedience. That was the context in which Paul wrote, where slavery was widespread in the known world. Perfect obedience … that is what Abraham was willing to show God. And that is why God would reaffirm his promises to Abraham, that he would have descendants beyond number who would bless the whole world.

God expects sacrifices of us as well. But thank God, he does not demand anything that is contrary to his own character, which overflows with love and grace. God's character is so beautiful that he would sacrifice his own Son, and not ours. That reminds me of a saying about the comparison of Islam and Christianity: Islam says you must sacrifice your son for God. Christianity says God sacrifices his Son for you. Praise our gracious God!

But we are still exhorted not to let sin reign in us. Nothing must come before God. We may say we love and worship God, but do our lives show that? Do we place God before money? Do we place God before careers? Do we place God before our race or ethnicity or nationality? Do we place God before drugs or alcohol? Do we place God before relationships? Do we place God before even our desire for intimacy? What must we sacrifice in ourselves to truly love and follow and serve the God who first loved us? But the sacrifice is not in vain, my friends, because God's providence is greater than any of our man made idols. People are searching for meaning and happiness, but so often they settle for counterfeits. People are enslaved to drugs and alcohol, or they compulsively accumulate possessions and hold onto them with a death grip; or they walk over everyone else on the way to a career with status and power; or they lurch from one dysfunctional relationship to another because they don't want to be alone; or they engage in unholy sexual practices because they feel that's who they really are. These poor people are enslaved to sin and brokenness.

But God promises them, and us, something much better. He promises us peace with him and an end to alienation. St. Augustine wrote that our souls are restless until they rest in God. Through Jesus Christ, we can have that rest. Through Jesus Christ, our lives can mean something. Through Jesus Christ, we can be happy in our existence and not fearful of the future. Through Jesus Christ, all things are possible.

Will you follow Abraham and obey God? Will you open your heart to Jesus Christ and trust in him? Will you sacrifice whatever keeps you from a right relationship with God, whether it is pride, or arrogance, or greed, or lust, or despair, or bitterness? Will you put these things where they belong, at the foot of the Cross? Jesus is waiting to take them upon himself, so that you may be freed from their burdens. Will you turn to him today?

May God be praised for his love and grace and mercy, and may we turn happily to him, putting the old self to death, and allowing the new self to shine in the light of God's countenance. Amen.

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