I borrowed the title for this column
from a friend of mine, The Rev. Evan Garner, who shared a story on his blog
about an opera by the Title, “Abraham on Trial.” Evan tells of having seen this
opera in Cambridge, England when he was a seminary student there. Apparently he
was not impressed by the singing or scenery, but shared that the story
influenced him profoundly. The opera compares Abraham’s call from God to
sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering to God, with a modern father who truly
believes God has called him to kill his own son. Evan shared that “the only
meaningful difference between the two murderous attempts was the lens through
which the modern day believer judges the actions of the parents. We praise the
faithfulness of Abraham and we condemn the lunacy of his contemporary analogue.
Why? Because the Bible is the lens and the Bible says so.”
So, let’s look at what the Bible says
in Genesis 22:1-14. “God tested Abraham and said, Abraham. And Abraham
responded, ‘here I am.’ Then God tells Abraham to ‘take your son, your only
son, Isaac, whom you love, and go and offer him there as a burnt offering.’”
As Abraham and Isaac are climbing the
mountain, Isaac calls out to his father who answers, “here I am.” Do you notice
a pattern? Isaac continues, “we have the wood and the fire, but, where is the
lamb? Abraham responded, “God will provide a lamb for the burnt offering, my
son.” Abraham builds the altar and lays the wood for the fire and then binds
Isaac and puts him on the altar. As he raises the knife to kill him, the Angel
of the Lord stops him and says, “do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to
him. Now I know you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only
son from me”. Most of us know the rest of the story: Abraham looks up, sees a
ram caught in the brush and sacrifices him instead of Isaac.
So the story ends well, but I have to
ask: how many of you gasped or had knots in your stomach or were very angry when
you read that Abraham was about to kill his son, on God’s command? I have to
admit that every time I hear or read this story, my stomach is tied in knots
and I almost become physically ill. This truly is a Biblical Text of Terror,
God’s Terror, and it brings up lots of questions to faithful people. Many of
these questions have no answers or, at best, unsatisfactory answers.
Some of the questions that come to my
mind are: what does it mean to believe in a God who would ask someone to murder
his or her own Son; do you or can you believe in a God who would ask this of a
parent; why would a loving God do this.
To become more personal, would you do
this? Would I do this? I cannot answer for you but I can answer for myself, and
my answer is a profound No! I do not possess the faith of Abraham.
Whatever happened on that mountain,
whether it happened this way or not and whether you and I believe it happened
or not, what can we learn from this powerful story? What can we learn about
ourselves, about God? I believe we see in this story a pattern of faithfulness
in both Abraham and Isaac that leads us to embrace a pattern for our own
faithfulness. The questions it presents us are where the lessons are to be found.
As my friend, Evan, asks, “where was God in each moment?”
We must ask ourselves the same
question. Where is God in each moment of our lives? In those moments when our
children are in pain, when our friends are ill or dying, when our burdens are
heavier than we can bear, when our most important relationships are broken. I
believe that like Abraham our first answer, no matter the question, should be,
“here I am.” Once we establish that relationship we can, with God’s help, deal
with our selves, family, friends, powers and principalities and even death.
Like Abraham, we do not have all the answers. Like Abraham we may be tired,
worn, burdened and afraid.
And like Abraham we will do the best
we can to do what we believe God wants us to do. And finally, like Abraham, we
will continue to believe, to know and to proclaim, “The Lord Himself will
provide!”
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