WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
June 29th 2008
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“This is Trouble”
Genesis 22:1-4
This story, often called the Sacrifice of Isaac, is about faith and trust and about how even that which is most precious to us can become a hindrance to faith. It is a story where Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice his beloved son. It is a story about how God tests the first family of our faith. And it is a story about trust in God’s provision for life. At least this is most all the books, commentaries, and papers I can find on this passage.
However, this passage also is a story about other and frankly more disturbing issues. It is a story of how a young boy becomes a pawn to test a parent’s faith. It is a story that looks to be about a God who demands child sacrifice for appeasement. It is a story that ends with Isaac and Abraham never speaking to one another again. And it is a story where God ceases to speak to Abraham. It is obviously a story with which we need to wrestle. And wrestle is what I did this week.
Months ago it seemed like a good idea to preach this passage; though this week I began to question that wisdom. To be faithful to our biblical text we have to tell both the uplifting and the disturbing parts of the story. At this moment, faced with the disturbing parts, I find myself wanting some explanation from God. I am left wondering: “God, what is it that we are supposed to do with the difficult and disturbing parts of this passage?” At the risk of overstating this, I have envisioned myself playing the role of Job asking for an audience with God and an explanation for those things which simply cannot be explained away.
On the one hand it is an appropriate metaphor in that we are seeking explanation for something that is troubling. But on the other it is not because we ourselves have not suffered this trouble. But it is worthy of our attention anyway. As I wrestled with my indignation of this passage I had an, ‘aha’ moment. It was a moment both rewarding and humbling. As I thought to myself, “how could anyone sacrifice their child to appease God?” It occurred to me, children are sacrificed for far less divine reasons all the time. We do not often think in these terms because too often we do not see the children being sacrificed as ours. So I took my anger of thinking: “How someone could sacrifice their children, and thought what if I considered all children as my own? Or all people as my own flesh and blood?”
I must admit it got me a little fired up as I began to consider some things. It was not pretty and, in fact, rather overwhelming. So as I share these examples of child sacrifice, hang in with me because I promise that there are things we can do. I thought first of the calls from politicians for sacrifice over the last 5 and half years. But most, in fact, all but one, of those politicians who called for the sacrifice of children made sure that their own children would never face danger. I am left to wonder: How different would the situation be today, if each person calling for the children of others to go off and fight a war, had to send their own children?
Or to bring things a bit closer to home: Saint Louis is home to some of the finest medical institutions in the Nation while right outside their doors, children go without insurance and asthma has become a rite of passage. And compound this problem with the issue of health disparity and you begin to understand why the infant mortality rate is two and half times higher in the African American community. This is an outrage.
And moving from health to education, we know that Saint Louis is also home to some of the finest academic institutions beginning with preschools all the way up to our world renowned Universities. Yet in the same town our public school system is no longer accredited, something is not right with this picture. While it is true that the law of the land is no longer “Separate but equal,” the practice of our land has clearly become savagely separate and unequal. How different might this situation be if we saw the children who are sacrificed on this altar of inequality as our children?
As Christians we should be outraged and appalled by these realities because whether we know them personally or not; they are our children, every last one of them. But the harsh reality is that we cannot do everything. There is too much to be done, but we can be part of taking a stand against sacrifice in any form. We can take a stand, we can say: ‘Those children, are our children and will not stand idly by as they are sacrificed.”
And where do these words get feet? In a small way I believe that through our outreach ministries we do have the opportunity to make a difference. You may not know it, but there are many opportunities to volunteer our time working with children, our children. Through our work with UCM (Union Communion Ministries) we could get our hands dirty in the community garden, or tutor at Clark elementary school, or we could volunteer our time with the summer bible camp, or help to create a safe environment at our Halloween safe night in the West End Community center, or even participate in providing Christmas for children who may not have one through the Breakfast with Santa program. These are just some of the ways in which we can put feet to our words.
I believe that there is no way to explain away the difficult places of this passage. Nor do I think it necessary. Instead we must take our discomfort with God’s request, a request God does not accept once offered, and use that discomfort to make change. Use the discomfort at the sacrifice of one child to ensure the end of all child sacrifice. Amen? Amen.
June 29th 2008
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“This is Trouble”
Genesis 22:1-4
This story, often called the Sacrifice of Isaac, is about faith and trust and about how even that which is most precious to us can become a hindrance to faith. It is a story where Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice his beloved son. It is a story about how God tests the first family of our faith. And it is a story about trust in God’s provision for life. At least this is most all the books, commentaries, and papers I can find on this passage.
However, this passage also is a story about other and frankly more disturbing issues. It is a story of how a young boy becomes a pawn to test a parent’s faith. It is a story that looks to be about a God who demands child sacrifice for appeasement. It is a story that ends with Isaac and Abraham never speaking to one another again. And it is a story where God ceases to speak to Abraham. It is obviously a story with which we need to wrestle. And wrestle is what I did this week.
Months ago it seemed like a good idea to preach this passage; though this week I began to question that wisdom. To be faithful to our biblical text we have to tell both the uplifting and the disturbing parts of the story. At this moment, faced with the disturbing parts, I find myself wanting some explanation from God. I am left wondering: “God, what is it that we are supposed to do with the difficult and disturbing parts of this passage?” At the risk of overstating this, I have envisioned myself playing the role of Job asking for an audience with God and an explanation for those things which simply cannot be explained away.
On the one hand it is an appropriate metaphor in that we are seeking explanation for something that is troubling. But on the other it is not because we ourselves have not suffered this trouble. But it is worthy of our attention anyway. As I wrestled with my indignation of this passage I had an, ‘aha’ moment. It was a moment both rewarding and humbling. As I thought to myself, “how could anyone sacrifice their child to appease God?” It occurred to me, children are sacrificed for far less divine reasons all the time. We do not often think in these terms because too often we do not see the children being sacrificed as ours. So I took my anger of thinking: “How someone could sacrifice their children, and thought what if I considered all children as my own? Or all people as my own flesh and blood?”
I must admit it got me a little fired up as I began to consider some things. It was not pretty and, in fact, rather overwhelming. So as I share these examples of child sacrifice, hang in with me because I promise that there are things we can do. I thought first of the calls from politicians for sacrifice over the last 5 and half years. But most, in fact, all but one, of those politicians who called for the sacrifice of children made sure that their own children would never face danger. I am left to wonder: How different would the situation be today, if each person calling for the children of others to go off and fight a war, had to send their own children?
Or to bring things a bit closer to home: Saint Louis is home to some of the finest medical institutions in the Nation while right outside their doors, children go without insurance and asthma has become a rite of passage. And compound this problem with the issue of health disparity and you begin to understand why the infant mortality rate is two and half times higher in the African American community. This is an outrage.
And moving from health to education, we know that Saint Louis is also home to some of the finest academic institutions beginning with preschools all the way up to our world renowned Universities. Yet in the same town our public school system is no longer accredited, something is not right with this picture. While it is true that the law of the land is no longer “Separate but equal,” the practice of our land has clearly become savagely separate and unequal. How different might this situation be if we saw the children who are sacrificed on this altar of inequality as our children?
As Christians we should be outraged and appalled by these realities because whether we know them personally or not; they are our children, every last one of them. But the harsh reality is that we cannot do everything. There is too much to be done, but we can be part of taking a stand against sacrifice in any form. We can take a stand, we can say: ‘Those children, are our children and will not stand idly by as they are sacrificed.”
And where do these words get feet? In a small way I believe that through our outreach ministries we do have the opportunity to make a difference. You may not know it, but there are many opportunities to volunteer our time working with children, our children. Through our work with UCM (Union Communion Ministries) we could get our hands dirty in the community garden, or tutor at Clark elementary school, or we could volunteer our time with the summer bible camp, or help to create a safe environment at our Halloween safe night in the West End Community center, or even participate in providing Christmas for children who may not have one through the Breakfast with Santa program. These are just some of the ways in which we can put feet to our words.
I believe that there is no way to explain away the difficult places of this passage. Nor do I think it necessary. Instead we must take our discomfort with God’s request, a request God does not accept once offered, and use that discomfort to make change. Use the discomfort at the sacrifice of one child to ensure the end of all child sacrifice. Amen? Amen.
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