Brief synopsis of the readings: Our first reading recounts God putting Abraham to the test. After years of infertility Abraham and Sarah welcomed a son, Isaac. But here God orders Abraham to take his son and sacrifice (kill) him. Abraham then takes Isaac to the place and places him on the altar. But when Abraham raises the knife to sacrifice his son, God orders him not to harm Isaac. God then praised Abraham for his “not withholding from me your beloved son.” God then promised Abraham more descendants than stars in the sky or grains of sand on the seashore. Mark’s Gospel recounts Jesus climbing a mountain with with Peter, James and John. Once there Jesus was transfigured in the presence of Elijah and Moses. Overwhelmed, Peter suggested they build three tents to commemorate the occasion. Then a voice said: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” As they came down the mountain Jesus told them not to tell anyone until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
Last week I suggested that we don’t need to find ordeals as they tend to find us. This week makes my point: I find the events of Noah’s Ark troubling but I really have a hard time with our first reading this week from Genesis. Just the idea of a Abraham who, after decades of infertility, finally finds himself blessed with a son is told to kill him. That’s the stuff that even Edgar Allen Poe or Stephen King couldn’t write.
In my ministry I’ve known several couples who found themselves unable to conceive a child. Some adopt or use other means to conceive. Still others simply live without the new life they yearn for. The pain is ever present. As they struggle to understand this cross we need to realize those in history nearly uniformly believe they are cursed by God. All the years they were unable to conceive children they (and all their neighbors) assumed God had forsaken them.
But the pain of infertility dwarfs the pain of losing a child. Whether through disease, accident, or gun violence it’s a pain that never leaves. There’s an adage that says you can get through the death of a child but you’ll never get over it. Eighteen years ago, as a hospice chaplain, I presided at the funeral for a sixteen day old patient. I’m still amazed I made it through and I wasn’t even a family member.
Given all this how do we look on our first reading with anything other than horror and revulsion over what God demanded of Abraham? I once met a man who found this reading so awful that he wouldn’t attend mass when it was the read. The reading itself doesn’t give us much wiggle room. It began with “God put Abraham to the test” and ended with God blessing Abraham for his obedience.
It’s true that sacrifice of animals was well known at the time and the purpose of sacrificing animals was seen as a recognition that all we have ultimately belongs to God. Our ancestors sacrificed only the most valuable animals: those without blemish or defect. They did this to show that God didn’t get the leftovers but only the most valuable. In years past I suggested we can look at this reading against the background of high incidents of child mortality and posited the idea of losing a child wasn’t as painful then as it is now. Yeah, I no longer believe that. I have a hard time imagining worshiping a God who would demand this of anyone.
Perhaps (and bear with me on this) it wasn’t God who stopped Isaac’s sacrifice but Abraham. Perhaps, at the last minute, Abraham just couldn’t go through with it and refused to sacrifice his son. If our modern sensibilities can’t conceive of a God who would demand human sacrifice, perhaps ancient sensibilities couldn’t conceive of disobeying God’s command. This interpretation may be startling but it certainly makes this reading more palatable. And we believe Scripture is inerrant in terms of faith and morals but not necessarily fact; that’s what separates us from fundamentalists. It doesn’t mean that the human writer of this event was wrong, only that succeeding generations of believers can understand these events in different ways.
When we read in Scripture about communication from God it’s pretty clear that it is from God. God speaks to Adam and Eve, to Noah, to Moses and nobody wonders if that really is the voice of God. But with us it’s not so clear. We’ve all had the experience of struggling with what God wants us to do in a certain situation.
But more often I think we struggle with hearing from others what God wants of us. These are hard memories but I’ve had parents tell me about missing the wedding of their child because the wedding happened outside of a Catholic church. They were told that since the church didn’t bless the marriage it would be a sin for them to attend. Likewise parents who struggle with their children’s sexual orientation or gender identity are sometimes told that their child is “disordered” and needs to repent. Worse yet they are told that God will condemn not only the child for his or her path but also the parents for their support.
Our belief in an all loving and benevolent God demands that we not check our choices at the door. If we believe, or are told to believe, that God calls us to something that violates life and love we need to reconsider.
I’m aware that my suggestion is controversial and I don’t anticipate it being the final word. This reading will come up again in three years and I hope I’ll still be struggling with it then. In the end I believe Scripture is intended to speak to every generation and if we believe that “this is just something that happened a long time ago” we devalue it. But I also think we devalue our lives if we take a fundamentalist approach.
In the meantime I’m glad Isaac survived.