Today we worship outside for the first time this summer. We get to enjoy the beauty of the garden and worship in a more casual style. It would be great if our readings this morning reflected our surroundings, but we have some tough words to hear today. We begin with Abraham attempting to kill his son. I think we would all rather think about something else on such a beautiful day, but now that we hear it, we have to think about it.
We are now following a lectionary that follows three separate lines of narrative. This summer we will be hearing the stories of the patriarchs as we read through the book of Genesis. We will also be hearing the book of Romans throughout the summer and we will continue reading from the Gospel of Matthew. Unlike out previous lectionary, there is no attempt to link readings by similar themes. We will simply hear passages in order, no matter how they sound together. This is part of our problem today. If there is any theme, it is the challenge to reconsider our relationship to God (and you could argue that scripture always does this.)
Our first lesson is the most difficult. Abraham tries to sacrifice his son, Isaac. We are horrified – and we are right to be horrified. The story relates something that happened in the ancient past. Perhaps it doesn’t help us to know that child sacrifice was common in ancient times. Maybe it doesn’t help us at all to remember that Abraham was the first person to have a faithful relationship with God. He didn’t have any commandments or scripture to guide him. Maybe he was doing the best he could.
We might be willing to give Abraham a little slack – but why was he commanded to offer Isaac in the first place? I don’t think there are any good answers. I think the best we can do is declare what we believe now and why we believe it. We have the advantage of the whole story of the people of God as we find it in scripture. God condemns child sacrifice as well as any kind of murder. This story doesn’t fit with what we know about God. We have serious reservations about a God who would “test” Abraham in this way.
There are a few things we should be careful about. We should not try and explain away what happened. This horrible event is in our bible and we have to live with it. It may seem shocking to hear it, but that may be because we are living with only a Sunday School memory of scripture, where stories like this are edited out so as not to trouble young children. Maybe it’s good for us to know that God does not edit out the horrible things of life. God knows all about child abuse and violence towards the innocent. I also think we should be very careful about spiritualizing this text. Abraham shows great faith, but we should never try and prove our faithfulness to God by over-riding one of the commands of God with another.
We should also be careful to make a distinction between what the bible reports and what the bible commands. There is a difference between a description and a proscription. The story of the sacrifice of Isaac is described. There is no sense that we are to copy what Abraham does. There are passages later where Abraham has the courage to question the commands of God. Perhaps what we should learn from this story is not that we need to be ready to give up our blessings to learn to trust God. Maybe we also need to learn to test the vision God gives us to learn if it is truly what God intends.
Paul uses an analogy based on slavery in the passage from the letter to the Romans. He is describing a common example to help his hearers understand their relationship to God. Some scholars estimate that half the population was owned by someone else. He also lived in a culture of honor where everyone described themselves with reference to a master. Everyone belonged to some sort of household, whether they were slaves, indentured servants, relatives, or household servants. Paul uses this example to help the church in Rome think about to whom they now belonged. Once you were slaves of sin, and forced to do what sin told you. Now you are slaves of righteousness, to do good works. We were once servants of a way of life that broke our relationship with God. Now we are owned by the right way of living. Now we can live in such a way that we will be doing what God wants. The wage or pension we earned from the old master was death. The reward we get now is life.
Paul is not commending slavery. But he is proscribing or commanding us to live as if we were servants of God. In the convention of his time: a master could sell a slave and take them to a new master and say, “You obey him now.” In the same way we now belong to someone else. We have no choice now but to follow a new set of rules and earn a reward of eternal life.
The gospel also uses an ancient example to describe how we represent Jesus. In that day, the servant or ambassador of a person was treated as if they were that person. If a messenger spoke, it was as if the king or general or dignitary was themselves speaking. This is what Jesus is alluding to when he talks about welcoming in his name.
We often read it a little backwards. True, we should welcome the stranger. We should offer hospitality to the least of these. In so doing we entertain Jesus and we will certainly be blessed by doing so. But this passage is at the end of a long teaching about what the disciples can expect as they go out and share the good news. He is telling them that whoever receives them, receives him. He is telling them that as they are welcomed, those who welcome them will be blessed.
This is good news for us. As often as people receive us, they will be receiving Jesus. People will be blessed through us. This only works if we are bearing Jesus with us – if we are bearing good news. We have to make sure that we are acting as disciples of Jesus. This means we have to be aware of how we are acting. Maybe we can’t lean on the horn in traffic. Maybe we have to be patient and friendly when we are stuck in a line at the grocery store. Maybe we have to intentionally offer good news when others would rather gripe. If we are intentional about bearing good news, we can be a blessing to others. Maybe with this final thought we can relax and enjoy the blessings of this place as we consider how we may be a blessing to others.
We are now following a lectionary that follows three separate lines of narrative. This summer we will be hearing the stories of the patriarchs as we read through the book of Genesis. We will also be hearing the book of Romans throughout the summer and we will continue reading from the Gospel of Matthew. Unlike out previous lectionary, there is no attempt to link readings by similar themes. We will simply hear passages in order, no matter how they sound together. This is part of our problem today. If there is any theme, it is the challenge to reconsider our relationship to God (and you could argue that scripture always does this.)
Our first lesson is the most difficult. Abraham tries to sacrifice his son, Isaac. We are horrified – and we are right to be horrified. The story relates something that happened in the ancient past. Perhaps it doesn’t help us to know that child sacrifice was common in ancient times. Maybe it doesn’t help us at all to remember that Abraham was the first person to have a faithful relationship with God. He didn’t have any commandments or scripture to guide him. Maybe he was doing the best he could.
We might be willing to give Abraham a little slack – but why was he commanded to offer Isaac in the first place? I don’t think there are any good answers. I think the best we can do is declare what we believe now and why we believe it. We have the advantage of the whole story of the people of God as we find it in scripture. God condemns child sacrifice as well as any kind of murder. This story doesn’t fit with what we know about God. We have serious reservations about a God who would “test” Abraham in this way.
There are a few things we should be careful about. We should not try and explain away what happened. This horrible event is in our bible and we have to live with it. It may seem shocking to hear it, but that may be because we are living with only a Sunday School memory of scripture, where stories like this are edited out so as not to trouble young children. Maybe it’s good for us to know that God does not edit out the horrible things of life. God knows all about child abuse and violence towards the innocent. I also think we should be very careful about spiritualizing this text. Abraham shows great faith, but we should never try and prove our faithfulness to God by over-riding one of the commands of God with another.
We should also be careful to make a distinction between what the bible reports and what the bible commands. There is a difference between a description and a proscription. The story of the sacrifice of Isaac is described. There is no sense that we are to copy what Abraham does. There are passages later where Abraham has the courage to question the commands of God. Perhaps what we should learn from this story is not that we need to be ready to give up our blessings to learn to trust God. Maybe we also need to learn to test the vision God gives us to learn if it is truly what God intends.
Paul uses an analogy based on slavery in the passage from the letter to the Romans. He is describing a common example to help his hearers understand their relationship to God. Some scholars estimate that half the population was owned by someone else. He also lived in a culture of honor where everyone described themselves with reference to a master. Everyone belonged to some sort of household, whether they were slaves, indentured servants, relatives, or household servants. Paul uses this example to help the church in Rome think about to whom they now belonged. Once you were slaves of sin, and forced to do what sin told you. Now you are slaves of righteousness, to do good works. We were once servants of a way of life that broke our relationship with God. Now we are owned by the right way of living. Now we can live in such a way that we will be doing what God wants. The wage or pension we earned from the old master was death. The reward we get now is life.
Paul is not commending slavery. But he is proscribing or commanding us to live as if we were servants of God. In the convention of his time: a master could sell a slave and take them to a new master and say, “You obey him now.” In the same way we now belong to someone else. We have no choice now but to follow a new set of rules and earn a reward of eternal life.
The gospel also uses an ancient example to describe how we represent Jesus. In that day, the servant or ambassador of a person was treated as if they were that person. If a messenger spoke, it was as if the king or general or dignitary was themselves speaking. This is what Jesus is alluding to when he talks about welcoming in his name.
We often read it a little backwards. True, we should welcome the stranger. We should offer hospitality to the least of these. In so doing we entertain Jesus and we will certainly be blessed by doing so. But this passage is at the end of a long teaching about what the disciples can expect as they go out and share the good news. He is telling them that whoever receives them, receives him. He is telling them that as they are welcomed, those who welcome them will be blessed.
This is good news for us. As often as people receive us, they will be receiving Jesus. People will be blessed through us. This only works if we are bearing Jesus with us – if we are bearing good news. We have to make sure that we are acting as disciples of Jesus. This means we have to be aware of how we are acting. Maybe we can’t lean on the horn in traffic. Maybe we have to be patient and friendly when we are stuck in a line at the grocery store. Maybe we have to intentionally offer good news when others would rather gripe. If we are intentional about bearing good news, we can be a blessing to others. Maybe with this final thought we can relax and enjoy the blessings of this place as we consider how we may be a blessing to others.
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