Thursday in the Second Week of Lent
This morning at Morning Prayer, we heard Genesis 22 -- "The Binding of Isaac". This is a difficult and confusing story, in which Abraham is instructed by God to sacrifice the child of promise.
In the Sunday School of my childhood, we heard this story because there was no Mainline Protestant Bible Story Police around to make sure that only the sanitized version of the Bible (with "happy stories") was presented.
The teachers in my childhood church always moved quickly to the end of the story in which the "Angel of the Lord" appears just in the nick of time to prevent Abraham from following through on God's command. Apparently, (according to my teachers) God simply was "testing" Abraham's faith...and he passed with flying colors!
"Isn't that wonderful, boys and girls?" the Sunday School Teacher asked.
"What would have happened if Abraham hadn't heard the angel?" someone from the back of the room queried.
"But Abraham did hear the angel, because Abraham had faith," came the reply.
"But why would God ask Abraham to kill his only son?" someone countered.
(The Fundamentalist Sunday School Police had seen to it that we 6th graders didn't know about Hagar and Ishmael -- a patriarch with a concubine and an illegitimate son was apparently more difficult to explain than deity-initiated murder.)
"Well, God needed to know just how much Abraham trusted him," said the teacher.
"But if God's all-knowing, didn't he (God was still a "he" back then) already know that Abraham would do it?" came another question.
"This isn't about God being all-knowing, this is about someone following God's commands, like we're supposed to," the teacher's voice was now a bit more exasperated.
"But how did Abraham know it was the voice of God and not the voice of the devil? I mean some people who kill other people say that they heard a voice telling them to do it, isn't that right?" came another question.
"We're getting off track here! The important thing is to remember that GOD told Abraham what to do and Abraham did it!" the teacher emphasized, her face tinged with frustration.
"But you didn't answer our question...how did Abraham know it was God?" several kids chimed in.
"He just knew it because he was righteous. Case closed. Can't you just be good children and listen to God's Word and trust that it's true?" Oops...this was the sort of circular reasoning that meant we were supposed to shut up and move on.
"Yes ma'am." We replied
We looked down ruefully at our little desk tops...and the puzzling picture of old man Abraham, his long beard flowing, his arm raised menacingly, the point of the knife glinting in the sun as it hovered over the chest of his teen-aged son (who was only a year or two older than any of us) -- a pale angel shouting from the upper right hand corner of the page.
The story was frightening and confusing then...and it still is.
I pulled my copy of Fear and Trembling off the shelf and reaquainted myself with some of Soren Kierkegaard's ponderings about this terrifying text. I came across this sentence and think that it is almost as frightful as the biblical story:
"...how monstrous a paradox faith is, a paradox capable of making a murder into a holy act well pleasing to God, a paradox which gives Isaac back to Abraham, which no thought can grasp because faith begins precisely where thinking leaves off." (p. 82)
I'm grateful to be in a community of Christians that can openly question texts like Genesis 22. We are free to wrestle with them. I wish we exercised that freedom more often.
This morning at Morning Prayer, we heard Genesis 22 -- "The Binding of Isaac". This is a difficult and confusing story, in which Abraham is instructed by God to sacrifice the child of promise.
In the Sunday School of my childhood, we heard this story because there was no Mainline Protestant Bible Story Police around to make sure that only the sanitized version of the Bible (with "happy stories") was presented.
The teachers in my childhood church always moved quickly to the end of the story in which the "Angel of the Lord" appears just in the nick of time to prevent Abraham from following through on God's command. Apparently, (according to my teachers) God simply was "testing" Abraham's faith...and he passed with flying colors!
"Isn't that wonderful, boys and girls?" the Sunday School Teacher asked.
"What would have happened if Abraham hadn't heard the angel?" someone from the back of the room queried.
"But Abraham did hear the angel, because Abraham had faith," came the reply.
"But why would God ask Abraham to kill his only son?" someone countered.
(The Fundamentalist Sunday School Police had seen to it that we 6th graders didn't know about Hagar and Ishmael -- a patriarch with a concubine and an illegitimate son was apparently more difficult to explain than deity-initiated murder.)
"Well, God needed to know just how much Abraham trusted him," said the teacher.
"But if God's all-knowing, didn't he (God was still a "he" back then) already know that Abraham would do it?" came another question.
"This isn't about God being all-knowing, this is about someone following God's commands, like we're supposed to," the teacher's voice was now a bit more exasperated.
"But how did Abraham know it was the voice of God and not the voice of the devil? I mean some people who kill other people say that they heard a voice telling them to do it, isn't that right?" came another question.
"We're getting off track here! The important thing is to remember that GOD told Abraham what to do and Abraham did it!" the teacher emphasized, her face tinged with frustration.
"But you didn't answer our question...how did Abraham know it was God?" several kids chimed in.
"He just knew it because he was righteous. Case closed. Can't you just be good children and listen to God's Word and trust that it's true?" Oops...this was the sort of circular reasoning that meant we were supposed to shut up and move on.
"Yes ma'am." We replied
We looked down ruefully at our little desk tops...and the puzzling picture of old man Abraham, his long beard flowing, his arm raised menacingly, the point of the knife glinting in the sun as it hovered over the chest of his teen-aged son (who was only a year or two older than any of us) -- a pale angel shouting from the upper right hand corner of the page.
The story was frightening and confusing then...and it still is.
I pulled my copy of Fear and Trembling off the shelf and reaquainted myself with some of Soren Kierkegaard's ponderings about this terrifying text. I came across this sentence and think that it is almost as frightful as the biblical story:
"...how monstrous a paradox faith is, a paradox capable of making a murder into a holy act well pleasing to God, a paradox which gives Isaac back to Abraham, which no thought can grasp because faith begins precisely where thinking leaves off." (p. 82)
I'm grateful to be in a community of Christians that can openly question texts like Genesis 22. We are free to wrestle with them. I wish we exercised that freedom more often.
posted by FrGaryB | 11:30 AM
3 Comments:
Speaking of difficult readings, Gary, on Tuesday we had Mark 3:19-35, including the always troubling
28 "Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"— 30 for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."
Last time this reading came up in Forward Day By Day, the author gave an answer not unlike Kierkegaard's response to "The Binding of Isaac." Basically he or she said that "no thought can grasp it." I'm at a loss as well, though I confess I'm not finding myself quite so able to just let it go.
Any ideas for struggling with this one?
Hey Kyle:
This passage from Mark ranks right up there with the first few verses of Hebrews 6 and seems to convey the notion of an "unpardonable sin".
There are several difficulties with reading this passage in this way:
1. Scholars debate exactly what Jesus means by "blaspheming against the Holy Spirit"...but scholars pretty much agree that only God gets to make the call (personally I'm glad for that!). In the context, "blaspheming the Spirit" seems to be about attributing the work of God to the work of the Satan (i.e., Beelzebul)..but that seems a bit too simplistic.
2. I've always wondered if "being guilty of an eternal sin" meant a sure fire sentence of eternal death...I'm not sure the text is completely clear about that. Is there a sin that is unpardonable, yet the sinner still receives mercy?
3. If there is a sin that is unpardonable, does that mean the particular sin is more powerful than God's forgiveness, or does it mean that God is unwilling to forgive in this case? If the latter, what sort of soteriology does that leave us with?
4. Does divine judgment always preclude mercy and forgiveness? Or is such judgment an instrument of mercy and forgiveness?
I'd much rather contend with these passages than either be too quick to invoke some version of "you just gotta believe" or pretend they don't exist.
Thanks, Gary, and thanks for your comment over at Contraria.... I've borrowed the Krauss/Plant album from a friend but haven't really absorbed it yet. Hopefully soon...
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