| Annual Meeting | Church of the Covenant |
| May 7, 2006 | The Rev. Dr. Robert J. Campbell, D. Min., D. D. |
| Printer-Friendly Version |
Free for Faith
Genesis 22:1-19
In Old Testament parlance, it's called "The Sacrifice of Isaac." It is one of the cornerstones of our faith, but what to make of it?
We know a lot about human sacrifice these days. We know about life laid waste by faith-filled fanatics all wrapped up in religious rags and patriotism. What to make of this story captured by Benjamin Britten in beautiful music, but all so terrible when we contemplate its realities in Abraham's time and our own? It's a tough one!
There's an old German wood cut that captures the moment. There's Isaac all tied up, lying on a pile of brush; huge empty eyes staring, dark circles like those TV pictures of third-world youngsters looking off into nothing. Above him stands Abraham, both hands held high, ready to plunge the knife. Over to the side, peeking out of a bush stands a lamb waiting. What a strange story! It has troubled religious folk for centuries, everyone from Augustine to Karl Barth, terror and grace, and how to explain it?
First, we need to remember Isaac is much, much more than an "only" child. Isaac is hope all wrapped up in human flesh. All the promises of God were riding on him. Remember how God dropped in on Sarah and Abraham telling them they would give birth to nations. Remember how the old folks giggled, because according to all reliable medical knowledge, it's pretty tough to have a baby when you're 90. But Isaac was born! A miracle child that God provided! Through Isaac long forgotten fantasies would come to life. Isaac was more than an only child.
An American playwright tells the story of his Jewish family that scrimped and saved to give him everything. They bought him new cloths three times a year, bundled him off to private schools, college. "Everything we've got is wrapped up in you boy," his mother would say.
How easy it is to focus our hopes. God gives us a land of freedom to live in and before you know it we're chanting, "love it or leave it." Everything we have is wrapped up in you, America. Pretty soon we're building fences to keep people out. Everything we've got is wrapped up in our jobs or our companies. Everything we've got gets wrapped up in our house, our kids, our families. Everything we've got is wrapped up in our church. We focus our hopes, narrow our perspectives, it's easy.
Isaac was more than an only child, much, much more. He was all of God's promises. "Everything we've got is wrapped up in you boy!" Isaac was the hope of the world! So what happened? God spoke. "Kill him off," said God! Take your son, your only son, and kill him!"
Hear the words? They're appalling! We talk about God's love, spelled with lots of "Os," but these words are shocking to our delicate ears. "Kill him off," said God!
All of a sudden life isn't what we thought, a comfortable therapist couch called prayer where we can spill out our hurts and pains, expose our souls to a distant cosmic counselor. Instead, we're stuck with a cold stone alter to stretch out on – a funeral fire and a knife blade flashing in the afternoon sun.
God gives and God takes away. What kind of God is that? "All our loves," cried the British heroine, "all our loves, you take away!" For every child, for every joy sooner or later there seems to be a knife blade flickering in the sun. God gives and God takes away. Maybe the cynics are right, we need to re-think our ideas about God to include the dark side.
God might be terribly good, but notice the adverb, "terribly." God spoke a terrible word to Abraham as he stood staring at all of his hopes and dreams. God said, "Kill him!" and of all things, Abraham obeyed. Imagine, flat-eyed, grim Abraham as he led his boy up the hill, muttering all the way, "God will provide. God will provide." With biting irony, Abraham obeyed.
For most of us our religion is pretty easy. A little "liberal persuasion" to counter the Wall Street Journal. It's even okay to share our thoughts in the halls of academia or on the campaign trail these days so long as we don't overindulge. But when you flip through the Bible and come upon wide-eyed Abraham passing out a bomb filled backpack to his only child, then even our brand of religion violates our sense and sensibilities.
As late as the 1950s in the southwest there was a group of American Indians called the Penetentese who would crucify a volunteer. "What kind of people practice human sacrifice," an FBI agent asked the tribe's leader? He replied, "You don't take God seriously." You bet we don't and we're not about to.
We come to church, calculate our pledges, elect our officers, serve our years, confess a few sins, schedule our mission opportunities, volunteer our time for a cause or two, but we get nervous when it comes to excess. Then we open our Bibles and along comes Abraham, forbearer of our faith, a fanatic full of blind obedience. God commands and he seems bent on doing God's will even if it means slaughtering all of his hopes and dreams. Abraham went up on a hill to kill Isaac. God spoke and he obeyed. It's pure fanaticism!
But then there is the clatter of a knife blade falling on stone. Abraham's arms slowly lower as he catches sight of a lamb, trapped. "God will provide," he cries! "God does provide!" Hear the triumph?
A friend who lives in New York City and worked at ground zero told me, a few months back, of the first days. At one point a volunteer asked if he wanted to see the chapel. Curious he followed the worker through the rubble and there, surrounded by remnants of the twin towers, stood two pieces of metal in the shape of an empty cross. Maybe you've seen pictures of it surrounded by all the evidence of a cruciform world.
One of the earliest pictures of the crucifixion is a Byzantine wall painting. A stone hill with a wood-stick cross, but instead of Jesus hung high, there is a huge lamb nailed to the cross bar. "Lamb of God!" "The sacrifice of Isaac." What to make of it?
Look, if God will hand over God's child as a sacrifice for our rigid sins, then can't we see it? Behind the hard hurting surface of life, there's not only terror, there's total love. Love so amazing, love so divine, love so utterly intense it will sacrifice itself. Lamb on a cross, then lamb on a throne. Abraham caught sight of a trapped lamb and shouted for joy. The knife fell from his hands, his arms sank as he muttered, "God will provide. God does provide!"
Can you see it? What this story is really about? It isn't about Isaac. It's about Abraham whom God sets free. Free for faith! The Bible calls the story a "test," but that's too tame a word. On a high hill, God set old Abraham free. Free for faith, free from blind obedience. On a high hill, God transformed law into grace and turned the world upside down. That's our faith, a story about fanaticism, you bet, but not ours. It's about God's. It's about God's fanatic love for all the world!
How easy it is to pin all of our hopes on God's gifts, forgetting the giver. God gives us Holy Scripture and we frame it in a hard leather binding and call it infallible. Everything we've got is wrapped up in our Bibles, in our brand of religion. Is there any idolatry like religious idolatry?
No wonder God speaks and shatters our souls. "Kill it off!" God called Abraham to a high hill with his dreams and there with amazing, fanatic, ruthless grace, God set Abraham free just like God wants to set us all free. Free for faith and nothing else.
So here we are with our Bibles and our grand architecture, our services of worship and the workings of the church's Book of Order, but maybe they can be a little different than we once thought. Maybe a little of the gloss and glitter can be rubbed off. Maybe we won't hold them so tightly. We can be moved by our music, we can enjoy our buildings, love the words of our Bible, and even hold close our favorite verses without having to defend every page. We can do that because we trust a self-giving God who provides.
Like the minister in one church I visited out in Denver; she had the walls of her office covered with custom made paper. Repetitive words all around the room, "Trust God, let go." "Trust God, let go." She sits at her desk surrounded by that verse; "Trust God, let go." She can do that because there is a lamb on the throne of God. and we can do that too as we stumble into our world filled with doubts and fear.
So, now do you get the picture? A stone hill, a pile of brush, an empty-eyed child, and a knife blade raised high. "Kill him off," cracks the voice of God!
But then there is another picture. One almost forgotten along with the lilies sitting out with the trash. A wooden cross on a rock in the middle of a rubble strewn world with a lamb nailed high. "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." "God will provide." God has! God has set you free. Set us all free for the faith God has given us.
Keep both of those pictures in mind. "You God, you take away all our loves, but you give yourself!" "Trust God, let go; trust God, let go." It's our test, yours and mine, and God has set us free.
Credit given to David Buttrick
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