Yikes

 Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church

 A warm welcome to each worshiper today. We celebrate you and offer you our friendship and love. We are a congregation of people who seek to grow spiritually, to become more like Christ in His compassion and acceptance of everyone while growing more aware of what it really means to be Christians today.

As a Reconciling Congregation, EPUMC affirms the sacred worth of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities and welcomes them into full participation in the fellowship, membership, ministries, and leadership of the congregation.

 

 

 

943 Palmer Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12309 / 518-374-4306 epumc943@gmail.com / www.easternparkway.org

Order of Worship

July 2, 2023

10:00 a.m.

*You are invited to rise in body or spirit.

 

Prelude

Greeting and Announcements

Mission Statement:

We are a faith community striving to be, to nurture, and to send forth disciples of Jesus Christ.

Call to Worship:

Good morning! Welcome to our church.

We’re glad to be here.

Come let us worship with great joy the Lord who greets us.

Let us praise God who lifts our hearts and spirits.

Come on everyone, open your hearts to the Lord.

Thank you, Lord, for your welcome through this church. AMEN.

*Hymn               This Is My Song          #437

Prayer of Confession:

Patient Lord, we want to extend the hand of welcome and friendship to all whom we meet, but you know that sometimes we shy away from reaching out. We make judgments about others based on their appearance and other surface factors, and we neglect your mandate to be a welcoming presence. That lack of welcome extends further when we see needs that must be addressed and choose to turn our backs. We turn away from the pain and suffering, protecting our own lives. Yet you remind us that as we welcome others, so we are also welcoming you. Heal us and give us strength and courage to always be welcoming others in your name. AMEN.

Assurance:

How wonderful it is to be welcomed by our Lord through God’s church. Rejoice in God’s welcoming love for you. AMEN.

Scripture Reading Genesis 22: 1-14

The Command to Sacrifice Isaac

22 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “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.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. And the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them walked on together.

9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill[a] his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 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.” 13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide,”[b] as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”[c]

Sermon   Yikes

So…this scripture passage. God commanding Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.Yeah.

I’ve only ever heard one sermon on this text.

My chaplain from college shared with us that this passage is the only one in our whole Bible that she has intentionally avoided, and won’t preach on. When we asked her why, she just said “Yikes, I just hope it didn’t really happen.”

I kinda hope that, too. And I think a lot of you already know this about me, but to put it out there one more time: I’m not what you would call a “biblical literalist”. I take scripture with the deepest level of seriousness, but not literally. I don’t think it’s necessary to our faith journey for every blot of ink in these 66 books to be historic fact. And actually, I believe it can even compromise both our faith and our understanding of scripture if we insist every word of the Bible has to be literally true. I don’t think God had to create the whole universe in 6 days as depicted in either of the very different creation stories in Genesis. I don’t think a senior citizen had to build a huge boat all by himself and then float around in it for a month and a half with 2 of every animal. I don’t think a little kid had to kill a giant with a slingshot, or that a prophet had to light a soaked log on fire, or even that Jesus had to be born from a virgin mom, turn water into wine, raise the dead, reverse a bunch of illnesses and disabilities…or resurrect.

I’m not casting doubt that those things happened, either. There’s a few key questions that I ask of every scripture passage I read, especially if I’m going to preach on it:

-How does this story make me feel?

-What does this story teach me about God?

-What does this story teach me about people?

-What should I do now that I have read this story?

The Bible is better than a book of literal fact. It’s an anthology that gives us life. And our interpretation of a scripture passage will inform those four questions.

So that’s what I keep in mind while finishing up this series of messages about Abraham. I also give you this warning that fits a lot of Bible stories: don’t try this one at home.

Despite how notoriously avoided this text is among preachers, it’s been quite heavily commented upon. The most old-school, classical interpretation holds that this is a story about absolute obedience to God. Even if God tells you to kill your kid, you obey, and God will reward your faithfulness by…not killing your kid? For the record, that interpretation doesn’t cut it for me. But boy was it hard to get away from that read. That one doesn’t work for me because it fails by all the questions I told you about before, that I ask myself when I read scripture. If this is a story about always obeying God, even if the Divine tells me to kill my kid, it makes me feel confused and angry. That’s fine, I’m not afraid to feel confused or angry while reading the Bible. But that interpretation tells me that God is cruel, that God dangles our innocent children over the sharks, over a burning altar, or in front of a knife to “test” us. And that goes against literally everything else I know of God. That interpretation tells me that some people who have done appalling things might have just been trying to appease God. Unfortunately, that holds up in history, and we have plenty of wars we can point to that were fought over religion and little else. But I refuse to believe God gave any of that the green light. And if God telling Abraham to sacrifice his son was a test of his obedience, then what I want to do now is curl up in bed and never come out.

So let’s look at a different way to read this infamous story. My Old Testament professor from seminary, Mark Brummitt, is the only person I’ve ever heard preach on this text. And he’s the kind of guy who doesn’t shy away from the hard ones. In fact, one of the classes I took from him back in the day was called “Preaching Difficult Texts”, and it was all about what we should do with passages like this one. Mark borrowed some inspiration from our Buddhist friends when he preached this one, and talked about the impermanence of all things and people. Even our own children. Nothing is forever in this life, and, really, nothing is ours. The only permanent, lasting reality is God. Everything else–family, friends, home, health, wealth–we have to hold very lightly. We live with no guarantees on any of those things. But God stays with us throughout. Abundant love to Mark, I owe a lot to him. And I love many parts of that interpretation. I especially love what that interpretation teaches us about grief. It might be the most universal human experience. But, again, I go back to the questions I ask of every text. If I read the text that way, how do I feel? Still angry and confused. This interpretation teaches me that we face loss in this life because God takes people from us, and even tells us to kill them. Nope, not buying that one. And it teaches me that human love is too weak to defend those we care about. As far as what I want to do after reading the text in that light? Curl up in bed and never come out. So, let’s try one more interpretation.

This last interpretation that I’m going to present to you is one favored by a number of rabbis that I and my colleagues have relationships with. It’s also trauma informed. It looks at what has already happened in this story–the horrible treatment of women, that we talked about last week, the slavery, the abandonment of Hagar and Ishmael. It looks at what happens after this story–we never read about God talking to Abraham again. In the very next chapter, Sarah dies. Abraham has a short remarriage, to a woman named Keturah, but then he himself dies. Sacrificing Isaac killed both of his parents. 

The interpretation encourages us to ask this question: what if God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as a test, AND Abraham failed the test? What if the test wasn’t one of his obedience to God, but rather was one of his understanding of who God really is, and Abraham’s morality? 

Abraham should have questioned why God would tell him to kill his kid. He should have known that God wouldn’t ask that of him. That God wouldn’t view human life as expendable. That this isn’t like God. But Abraham, at the end of his life, still just doesn’t get it. In verse 2, God calls Isaac “Abraham’s only son”, and Abraham should have immediately said “Wait, that’s not true, what about Ishmael?” But he fails. In verse 5, Abraham lies to the two other men he brought with him and Isaac, and tells them he and Isaac are only going to the mountain spot to worship. In verse 8, Isaac asks “Hey, wait, I see the altar and the wood, but where’s the lamb for the sacrifice?” And again, Abraham lies, and tells Isaac a lamb is coming along later. In verse 11, when Abraham ties up Isaac and gets out his knife to kill him, God tells him, “Dude, stop, don’t hurt your kid!” And Abraham sacrifices a ram instead. 

Can you imagine how awkward that walk home must have been?

A lot of people can. This one specific moment, of a guy almost burning his kid because he thought God told him to, may have only happened once, if it really happened at all. But so, so, so many people have survived a violent parent. So many have survived an abusive man in their midst, toxic beliefs about the Holy, and religious zealotry. And so many more haven’t. The only place, ultimately, where Abraham did well was in not actually killing Isaac. In my read, sparing Isaac’s life is what God was commending when the Creator says “Because you did not withhold your son from me.” It was the one time Abraham listened, and listened well. The pages of scripture, of our history books, of survivor memoirs, and of too many untold stories to count, record the lives lost.

We have a complicated history. Abraham’s two oldest sons, Isaac and Ishmael, come together to bury their dad. Even after the deepest hurts, the human spirit is capable of healing. If you keep reading, Isaac’s life is no less full of awful moments than his dad’s was, and he makes just as many mistakes, as do his own sons. But, slowly, over many generations, what keeps rising to the top, despite all the bad, is the good. The love. The triumphs. And the survival.

So, how does this interpretation hold up to my four questions? Let’s take a look:

-How do I feel after reading this story this way? Concerned, and warned. At any moment, depending on how well I understand God, I could make either my best decision, or my worst.

-What does this story tell me about God? That God values life, and fights for the powerless. And saves us.

-What does this story tell me about people? We are fragile, and flawed. We can be violent, and ignorant. But we endure. And in the end, it’s the love we remember, and we let the rest wash away.

-What do I want to do now that I have read this story? I want to love my kids, and not pass the mistakes of my ancestors on to them. Going into Independence Day, and another celebration of our country’s history, which has been as complicated as the pages of the Bible, I want to work to make my country reflect the goodness of humanity, because when we choose the good we reflect our Creator. I look around and see a Supreme Court that just tossed out both student loan forgiveness and affirmative action, and that affirmed a website designer’s choice to not work with a gay couple. I see a lot of hurt, a lot of deep social sins. I see leaders who fail, and bad theology that kills. Do I see the goodness of humanity? Our love, our ability to survive, our determination to grow?

Maybe not yet, but if I choose to be more loving than my ancestors and my peers, and you help me, then maybe love is what others will see in us.

Amen.

*Hymn For the Healing of the Nations                           #428

Offering

Offertory

*Doxology #94

*Prayer of dedication           

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

Here’s a prayer for peace written by Jack Knox, pastor of Salem Mennonite Church in Oregon.

Prayer for Peace

Gracious Lord, we dream of a world free of poverty and oppression, and we yearn for a world free of vengeance and violence. And we pray for your peace.

When our hearts ache for the victims of war and oppression, help us to remember that you healed people simply by touching them…, and give us faith in our ability to comfort and heal bodies and minds and spirits that have been broken by violence.

When the injustice of this world seems too much for us to handle, help us to remember that you fed five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two fish…, and give us hope that what we have to offer will turn out to be enough, too.

When fear of the power and opinions of others tempts us not to speak up for the least among us, help us to remember that you dared to turn over the tables of money changers…, and give us the courage to risk following you without counting the cost.

When we feel ourselves fill with anger at those who are violent and oppressive, help us remember that you prayed for those who killed you…, and give us compassion for our enemies, too.

When we tell ourselves that we have given all we can to bring peace to this world, help us to remember your sacrifice… , and give us the miracle of losing a little more of ourselves in serving you and our neighbors.

Walk with us, Lord, as we answer your call to be peacemakers. Increase our compassion, our generosity and our hospitality for the least of your children. Give us the courage, the patience, the serenity, the self-honesty and the gentleness of spirit that are needed in a world filled with turmoil and terror.  Amen.

~ written by Jack Knox, pastor of Salem (Oregon) Mennonite Church. Posted on Glocal Christianity: the blog of Matt Stone. http://mattstone.blogs.com/

Our Father, Mother, Creator God, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.

The Lord’s Supper

*Hymn                            My Country ‘Tis of Thee                            #697

Benediction

Postlude

---

Staff

Natalie Bowerman Pastor

Betsy Lehmann Music Director

Joe White Custodian

Cassandra Brown Nursery Attendant