We don’t know how much time had passed since the end of
chapter 21 and we don't know how old Isaac is, we only know he is able to talk
and to carry the wood for the fire up the mountain. In yesterday's lesson we saw Abraham sending
off his child by the slave woman and today we see him taking his son, his only (really?) son, the one he loves,
to sacrifice him because God told him to do so.
What sort of God must Abraham have thought he served? This same God had told him that through this
child his offspring would be numbered, and in our reading from Hebrews
yesterday we saw that he believed the Lord would give the child back. We don't see Sarah anywhere in this story do
we? (Here is one midrash
on Sarah with relation to this event.
This is an overview of midrashim with respect to Sarah and if you go
about 2/3 the way down the page to the heading "Sarah's death and
burial" you will find this particular episode. It is all worth reading if you have the time
though.) The last sentence of the
passage tells us that faith is all that mattered, the Lord would bless not only
Abraham's offspring but "all the nations of the earth" because
Abraham obeyed the voice of the Lord.
Remember where you have heard obey the voice before (Genesis 3 of
course, Adam obeyed the voice of his wife?)
As Abraham offered his son in faith on the mountain that
day, and received the blessing of God for doing so, so we take the bread and wine
in faith at Communion believing that we receive blessing by doing so. It would seem more was required of Abraham
but not so, sacrifice wasn't required, faith was and is the only requirement. The faith to believe we have eternal life is
the faith that calls us to lay down our lives, not the lives of our children,
but to lay down everything that has a claim on our hearts. The rich young ruler was asked to lay down
what was important to him in the same way Abraham was to offer Isaac. What do you hold dear that would be difficult
to offer if He asked for it today? Offer
it up.
The words of Jesus are incredibly offensive taken at face
value. "Those who eat my flesh and
drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for
my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and
drink my blood abide in me, and I in them." Certainly it seems He is proclaiming some
sort of cannibalism here, just as it looked like the Lord was calling Abraham
to child sacrifice. In the classical
Anglican liturgy there is a prayer, the prayer of Humble Access that formulates
this passage thus: " Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the
Flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his Blood, in these holy
Mysteries, that we may continually dwell in him, and he in us, that our sinful
bodies may be made clean by his Body, and our souls washed through his most
precious Blood." Eucharistic language is just this sort of
metaphorical language used by Jesus that we need not fear in our worship. John Donne, the 17th century
Anglican priest and poet gave us the formulation that explains Anglican
understanding of the eucharist, "He was the Word that spake it; He
took the bread and brake it; And what that Word did make it; I do believe and
take it"
Moses aligned himself with the Hebrews when it would have
been easier to align himself with Pharaoh, just as Joseph could have done in
his own day. This faithful obedience
caused him to lose all his rights and privileges as a child of the household of
Pharaoh. It was the faith of Passover,
that if they were obedient to God's instructions regarding that meal they would
be delivered not only from His judgment but also from the Egyptians. It is always faith that is called for in our
lives, and it always means, like Moses, like the people, like Rahab, leaving
everything behind to follow.
No comments:
Post a Comment