Genesis 22.1-14, Matthew 10.40-42
West Camel, Sparkford, Weston Bampfylde, Trinity 2, 29 June 2014
You who build these altars now
to sacrifice these children,
you must not do it anymore. [1]
One of the most disturbing aspects of the revelations about the crimes of Jimmy Saville against children [2] is the silence which surrounded them for so many years; about the way that the cries of the children he abused went unheard for so long, the way that those who dared to speak out at the time were silenced. And sadly, this is not an uncommon thing, for in our society all too often we do not listen to children; and so in extreme situations like the Jimmy Saville case we bear the consequences of asserting that children ‘should be seen but not heard'. We romanticise childhood but in reality our world is often an unsafe place for children. We hear about, but lack the will to eliminate child poverty, child soldiers, trafficking, to care for the 100 million homeless youngsters living on the streets of a world of adults who are somehow able to let our children be sacrificed in these ways. [3]
But we do have some sensibilities: most modern men and women would recoil from the idea of making a blood sacrifice of our child to our God, unlike Abraham who in ancient times willingly led his son Isaac to the altar.
‘Why would Abraham do this?’ is the question raised in modern minds. But if we want to understand this story properly we need to dismiss that question now. We need to comprehend that that question would never have entered Abraham’s mind. We need instead to grasp that in ancient society, child sacrifice was the norm.
The story of Abraham and Isaac is a crucial turn in our understanding of God and his ways in the world; and so it is crucial to understand it properly. And so I invite you to imagine yourself into their world for a moment:
Imagine that you and everyone you know believes that God is a severe and demanding deity who can bestow forgiveness and other blessings only after human blood has been shed. Imagine how that belief in human sacrifice will affect the way you live, the way you worship and the way you treat others. Now imagine how hard it would be to be the first person in your society to question such a belief. Imagine how much courage it would take, especially because your blood might be the next to be sacrificed! [4]
Such was the position Abraham found himself in when in an unprecedented move God refused the child sacrifice; God refused Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac - and provided the sacrifice himself in the form of a ram.
To the ancient people this was a shocking move. It completely overturned everyone’s understanding of God. This was God acting absolutely out of character. It was God saying, no more do I need human sacrifice. An animal will suffice. And - even more fundamentally still - no longer do I need you to sacrifice to me; if there are any sacrifices to be made in the world, I will make them for you.
Now, Abraham was used to having his worldview turned upside-down by God, after that earlier episode when he and Sarai became parents at the grand old age of 99. And so he had the faith to follow God through this latest earth-shattering turn of events.
When Isaac asks his father: ‘The fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ Abraham’s answer is extraordinary, and one of the most significant points in the whole of the Bible: ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering’, he said. [5]
Those who take significance from a close reading of theology note that in this passage, the word used for God at the start - the God who orders the human sacrifice - is a word used to describe the ancient gods, the bloodthirsty gods of old; but the word used for God at the end of the passage - the God who stops the human sacrifice and offers a sacrifice of his own - is Yahweh, the Lord, our God. ‘[It is as if this story is trying to] sort out the gods. Abraham begins hearing the common tribal gods of ancient polytheism who demand human sacrifices. On the mount of Yahweh, however, he begins to hear and envision the one true God who wants us to stop that nonsense.’ [6]
Yahweh is not like the old gods - he is a new and entirely different God. A God who demands no sacrifices from us. But who instead sacrifices for us.
The prophets of old were so awestruck by this tremendous insight that they developed this truth further and realised that under Yahweh’s compassionate hand even rams can escape the bloody fate of the altar. Psalm 40, for instance, says, ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, ... burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.’
And in the the finding of the ram that will replace Isaac, Christians have always seen a prophetic allusion to Christ as well [Jesus, the Lamb of God]. God, in this sense, will give the one who will sacrifice himself in order to do away with all sacrificial violence. It is not ridiculous, it is marvellous. ... The Bible provides not merely a replacement of the object to be sacrificed, but the end of the sacrificial order in its entirety. [7]
Now I wonder if you have ever experienced a moment in which your perception of God changed, unalterably forever, like Abraham’s did, not once, but twice, in his long faithful life?
I think that can happen to you when you’re particularly open to God, open to allowing God to speak to you, when you open your mind and heart to him. And I think that it’s so important for each of us to listen and take note of a God who may surprise us, especially today. It’s important that we bring this ancient story home.
For Abraham is central to three of the world’s great religions, to Jews he is the founding patriarch of the children of Israel; to Christians he is the spiritual forebear of Jesus; and to Muslims he is the messenger of God who stands in the line from Adam to Muhammad.
And when these religions are at war with each other, as they increasingly are today, those longing for peace between them, might just find in this story at the heart of their common scriptures, a direction they may take so as to be able to begin to walk together towards healing.
And Isaac is a child, representative of all those children who today are sacrificed to the brutal desires and thoughtless ignorance of uncaring adults. And the story of his salvation might just offer understanding to those who care to put the concerns of children in the centre of the adult world, just as Jesus put a child in the centre of the disciples when they were having a theological argument about greatness in the kingdom of God, and said, ‘Whoever welcomes a little child like this welcomes me.’ [8]
So let us recap on the lessons we have learned from this story today.
It was commonplace in the ancient world for a man to lead his son up a mountain to be sacrificed to his deity. It was extraordinary for a man to come down the mountain with his son still alive. Through that ancient story Abraham’s descendants explained why they had changed their theory or model of God, and why they dared to be different from their neighbours who still practiced human sacrifice. It wasn’t too late to challenge widely held assumptions and change their theory of God!
But they still weren’t finished. Many generations after ritualised human sacrifice was left behind for ever, prophets and poets arose among Abraham’s descendants who made the shocking claim that God doesn’t need animal sacrifices either. They realised that God could never need anything from us, since God provides everything for us. Not only that, but they realised God isn’t the one who is angry and hostile and needs appeasement. We humans are the angry ones! Our hostile, bloodthirsty hearts are the ones that need to be changed!
So over many centuries, led along by many teachers and prophets, Abraham’s descendants came to believe that God wanted one thing from humanity ... not sacrifice, whether human or animal, but this: to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God. The only sacrifice that mattered to God was the holy gift of humble hearts and lives dedicated to his Way of love. [9]
In the present predicament our world is in, it’s not inappropriate to say that we need to lose our grasp of the idol of sacrifice which we still hold onto, all Abraham’s descendants in our different ways, and to be open to recognising that our God - Abraham’s God - demands no sacrifices from us: no sacrifices from Zionist freedom-fighters, no sacrifices from Christian boy soldiers, no sacrifices from jihadist suicide-bombers. We need to open our eyes to the revelation that comes from the cross of Calvary: that the rhetoric of sacrifice is a form of abuse.
Recognising that our God - Abraham’s God - asks only that we offer the the holy gift of humble hearts and lives dedicated to his Way of love: this is not provide direct answers to the terrible - and increasingly hardening - conflicts between the three world faiths who each have roots in Abraham; but it does offer us a different direction in which, like Abraham and Isaac, we can choose to walk.
As he did with Abraham and Isaac, so God invites us to imagine a world where we, child and adult, walk hand in hand down the slopes of our Mount Moriah, turning our backs on the place of slaughter with our hostile, bloodthirsty hearts changed. Committed together to doing justice, to loving kindness and to walking humbly with our God. [10] And to finding in that place, now, his generous, sacrificial heart of love reaching out to save us all.
Notes
[1] Leonard Cohen, Story Of Isaac. Thanks to Robert Gallagher for sharing this with me.
[2] Wikipedia: Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal. Saville's victims were largely but not exclusively children.
[3] Haddon Willmer, Keith J White, Entry Point - towards Child Theology with Matthew 18, p. 30
[4] Brian D. McLaren, We Make the Road by Walking, p.34, my italics.
[5] Genesis 22.1-8 expressed by René Girard, Evolution and Conversion, pp. 203-04, quoted in Girardian Lectionary, PROPER 8 (June 26-July 2) - YEAR A
[6] Paul Neuchterlein, Exegetical Note in Girardian Lectionary, PROPER 8 (June 26-July 2) - YEAR A
[7] René Girard, Evolution and Conversion, pp. 203-04, quoted in Girardian Lectionary, PROPER 8 (June 26-July 2) - YEAR A
[8] Extremely grateful to Haddon Willmer and Keith J White for their exploration in Child Theology, Entry Point - towards Child Theology with Matthew 18. (the chapter quoted here). See also www.childtheology.org.
[9] Brian D. McLaren, We Make the Road by Walking, p.36, my italics.
[10] Micah 6.8
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