Standing in the Bite of the Line
June 7, 2015
Mark S.
Bollwinkel
God tests
Abraham.
Our
scripture lesson this morning is not a story about God plotting to murder a
child. It is easy to get that impression
from this vivid and disturbing drama of God’s call to Abraham to sacrifice his
only son on a mountain altar. But the
writer of the text wants us to know from the very beginning that God’s call
isn’t about taking Isaac’s life. It is
about testing Abraham’s faith. As
readers, we are supposed to understand that Isaac’s life is never in danger
from God.
This is a test. It is only a test.
But Abraham doesn’t know that.
He lived among cultures which
indeed took the lives of children as a part of their worship. Human sacrifices were common in that time and
persisted long into Hebrew history (Judges 11:29-40, 2 Kings 16:3). The people of Israel will understand such
horror as an “abomination” against God (Deut 12:31, 17:1). The roots of our lesson this morning comes
from that time and a people who refused to hurt children for the sake of
religious ritual. We come from such a people
who hold that the love and protection of children is one of God’s greatest
concerns. Which is why we find this
story so unsettling as Abraham binds Isaac’s hands and raises the knife over
his son’s chest. It is inconceivable
that God…our God…would be calling for such a thing. It’s a monstrous scene.
But it’s a test. It is only a test.
God does not hurt children. The story isn’t so much about what God will
do.
Rather the story is about what
Abraham will do when faced with the impossible.
We face impossible situations
every day.
Since 2011, the government of Syria
has bombed, gassed and murdered its own citizens with impunity. Thousands have been killed. Millions have fled as refugees. The resulting civil war has allowed a
terrorist group to take over large sections of Syria and parts of Iraq on its
border. At face value, the international community has been powerless to stop
this madness.
This preacher has observed these
events unfold and not said a word from the pulpit, other than to offer prayers,
because I do not know what to say. There
are no neat and tidy answers to offer, no Biblical or theological clichés to
share. We can’t stand by while innocents
suffer. Yet military efforts, however
valiantly applied, will not solve the problem.
It’s an impossible situation.
A family has to decide whether by
pulling the plug on a loved one’s medical care they are ending suffering or a
life.
A young woman has to decide
whether to keep a baby or give it away in adoption.
A spouse has to decide to stick
it out in a marriage knowing full well the obstacles to be overcome whether
they stay in it or not.
Life by its nature presents us
all with impossible situations. How do
we keep going when the path is not clear and no solution is in sight?
That is really the question posed
to Abraham.
“Take your son, your only son
Isaac, whom you love and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a
burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”
In response, without a word, Abraham saddles
up his donkey, takes along some hired hands, firewood and Isaac and off he
goes. God has threatened to take away the very promise which compelled Abraham
to leave his homeland in the first place (Gen 12:1-f). The promise which changed his name, which
moved him to circumcise himself and his family (17:1-f). The promise delivered by angels which drives
Sarah to laughter (20:1-f). Isaac is not
only Abraham’s beloved son, he is the first child of the promise of God to
Abraham to make from his progeny a great nation, a nation which will bless the
whole world. To kill Isaac would be to
kill the dream.
Surely Abraham is bewildered by
this request. Surely he is terrified of
its implications. He must be furious
with this capricious Deity who promises the future then demands to take it all
away. But we don’t hear an objection
from Abraham. The writer doesn’t let us
in on Abraham’s psychological state of mind.
All we are told is that when called by God, Abraham follows.
You see, just because one can’t
see a solution to a problem, doesn’t mean that there isn’t one.
So again, Abraham strikes out
into the unknown in faith.
Martin Luther, the great
Protestant Reformer of the 16th century said, “Faith is an active
and reckless trust in the goodness of God.”
At Stanford Hospital many years
ago, a little girl named Liz was suffering from a rare and serious
disease. Her only chance of recovery
appeared to be a blood transfusion from her five year old brother, who had
miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed
to combat the illness. The doctor
explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the boy if he would be
willing to give his blood to his sister.
He hesitated for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying,
“Yes, I’ll do it if it will save Liz”.
As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and
smiled as he watched the color return to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his own smile
faded. He looked up at the doctor and
asked with a trembling voice, “Will I start to die right away?” Being young, the boy had misunderstood the
doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood. He was willing to do so to save his sister.
That was an act of love. It was certainly an act of faith.
God knows that Abraham loves his
son Isaac. Abraham divides the labor of
the journey up to the mountain altar so that Abraham carries the knife and fire
which could potentially hurt the young man.
When Isaac asks his father where is the lamb required for the sacrifice,
Abraham responds, “God will provide his own lamb when we get there.” It spite of the ambiguity and terror of God’s
call, God has never let Abraham down before.
In active and reckless trust in the goodness of the God who has called
him, Abraham knows somewhere deep down inside that God will provide a way out
of this impossible dilemma.
Sometimes when life seems utterly
mysterious, bewildering and outright contradictory, all we can count on is that
God will provide. And sometimes that is
enough.
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for
26 years in South Africa jails for subversive activities against its
government. Never a communist, he was
indeed a subversive. As a lawyer he
actively challenged the South African apartheid system used by the white
minority to subject the African majority to terrible and demeaning living
conditions.
After release from prison, Nelson
Mandela was elected as South Africa’s first African President. The result was not the violence of
retribution by the majority against the minority as predicted by so many. Rather he instituted the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to expose and
purge the hatred and pain of that society.
Asked how he endured those 26
years behind bars, he has said many times, it was the love of his family, his
passion for justice and his faith in the God who promises the future.
Sometimes when life seems utterly
mysterious, bewildering and outright contradictory, all we can count on is that
God will provide.
At the mountain top altar, Abraham’s sacrifice is
stopped by the voice of God. Isaac’s
life was never really needed. It was
Abraham’s faith that was at risk. YHWH
God reiterates his promise to build from Abraham’s family the salvation of the
world. He then names the place for the
truth he knew all along. Abraham calls
the mountain top “God Will Provide”.
Abraham follows when called. Abraham risks what is most precious in his
life in order to grow in his relationship with the One God. He does so with a compassionate heart, bold
courage and dogged determination even when the circumstances are murky,
dangerous and contradictory. Abraham is
a person of faith in an impossible situation.
As a result from his heritage will
come David and the prophets and the Nazarene Jesus. Christians for 2,000 years have understood
this story as part of Jesus’ identification as “…the lamb of God who takes away
the sins of the world…” (John 1:29).
We all know folks like Abraham. They have shaped our lives for the
better. We need more like him to stand
in the “bite of the line”. [Intriguing
sermon title, isn’t?!]
In Gerald May’s book Addiction
& Grace, he describes a piece of large construction equipment used to
build the skyscrapers of New York City fifty years ago. While a crew of workers loaded material into
this machine one person had to stand with a special steel hook to capture a
heavy steel cable in case it should come off its wheels and whip out of
control, injuring the entire crew.
Members of the crew took turns
standing in that dangerous place, with that hook, in order to safe guard the
others. It was called, “Standing in the
bite of the line.”
That’s one way to describe what it
means to love.
It’s one way to describe what it
means to have faith.
In a world where too many innocents
stand in the line of fire, we need people who will listen to and follow the God
That Provides.
In a church facing new challenges,
we need people who so trust that God Will Provide us a way into the future that
we will risk change.
For the one in chemo therapy…for the spouse
struggling to keep the marriage going…for the High School graduate facing the
unknown of a college campus…we need someone with a compassionate heart to
boldly assert that no matter the outcome, God Will Provide.
Between the chaos of confusion and
the promises of God’s future stand good men and women with an active and
reckless trust in the goodness of God.
God knows in this world we need more
like them “to stand in the bite of the line”.
Amen.
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