On This Rock

PROPERS:          PROPER 8, YEAR A    

TEXT:                GENESIS 22:1-14

PREACHED AT ST. JOHN’S, PASCAGOULA, ON SUNDAY, JULY 2, 2023.

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The bracing story of the near sacrifice of Isaac is an indication of the expansive understanding of God’s movement in the world.   

 

            The first lesson from Genesis is one of the most startling stories in all of scripture.  Something of this sort would likely get a book banned two states over.

 

            This is the well-known story of the near sacrifice of the boy Isaac by his father Abraham. Keep in mind that Abraham and his wife Sarah have longed for an heir.  He had a son from a household slave, Hagar, but that child, Ishmael, and his mother had been banished to the wilderness.

 

            Isaac was Abraham sole hope for continuation of his lineage.

 

            And now he perceived a call to sacrifice his only son.

 

            It is potentially a tragic story.

 

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            A little historical setting and context might be helpful.

 

            Tradition holds that the place of the near sacrifice is modern-day Jerusalem.  In fact, it said to be the massive stone under the Islamic holy site, the Dome of the Rock. The rock is there, to be seen and touched today.

 

            This then-unpopulated land was known as Moriah. Ancient people saw high ground as holy sites, and that was the case with Moriah.  In the days before Abraham – more than 4,000 years ago -- various pagan groups worshipped in this area.

 

            Nearby this site, only a few hundred yards away, lies a valley, known as the Hinnom Valley, or Gehenna.  In the days before Abraham, various pagan religions would use this valley as a place to sacrifice children to their gods, such as Ba’al and Molech.

 

            Later, this valley would become a garbage dump for the growing town known as Jerusalem.  It was this valley and this burning garbage dump that Jesus would use as his word for hell.  It is also said to be the place in which Judas Iscariot chose to commit suicide after he betrayed Jesus.

 

            So, what does all this mean?

 

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            Abraham had chosen well for the place to offer his son as a burnt offering.  Such child sacrifices had taken place there for many years.

 

            But this story ends with a different twist.  Once Abraham had bound Isaac, placed him on the rock, and lifted his blade to slay him, he hears another call: “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

 

            The word was out.  In the old saying, “There was a new sheriff in town.” The mold had been broken.  This desert God Abraham had encountered did not demand the sacrifice of children.  It may seem to be an obvious point to us today, but in that day, it was radically different.

 

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            Of course, many years later the story would take on a different meaning with rich resonances for Christians.  We would see the crucifixion of Jesus as God’s sacrifice of his own son.  But that would come 2,000 years later.

 

            Today we acknowledge that gift, and we also see the message offered in the aborted sacrifice of Isaac.  We see the origins of the divine trajectory of God overcoming established patterns of human actions and previous understandings of God’s relationship to humankind.

 

            We now proclaim a God of love; a God who beckons to each of us and is eager to overcome the gulf which separates the human and divine realms.  We know not only that child sacrifice is not expected, we hear our Lord’s words, “Let the little children come to me, and forbid them not. For to such the Kingdom of God belongs.”

 

            The continuing movement of God in our midst opens our eyes of faith again and again.  Day-by-day, we understand God anew, though God never changes.  Our ability to see and understand him does, though.

 

            It leads us to why we are here today. We are not here for unrequited sacrifice, but to celebrate the love which is manifest to each of us in this sacrament.  We celebrate the copious gifts of forgiveness and love that overflow anyexpectation we might have.

 

            Each of us can look back on our lives and say: I have been forgiven for all that I have done; my past is past – it is gone; the hurts that I have caused are no more; the ways I have betrayed those I love are wiped clean; behold, I am a new being with a new life.

 

            As the old hymn says, “On Christ the solid rock I stand.” Not on the old rock on which Isaac would have been sacrificed.