The Sound Charlie Brown's Teacher Makes
June 15, 2008 Father's Day at church today. Every Sunday morning the kids come up to the front of the church just before the sermon and they're prayed over and then sent downstairs to "Junior Church". Today the Associate Pastor asked the kids if they wanted to say one thing they liked about their dad and then went down the row of kids with microphone. Some of the younger ones were, understandably, shy and didn't say anything at all. One or two of them were so delightfully cute. Then one kid said, "He's nice", and the most of the others repeated it. Most that is. One child simply said, "I don't know."
Then the Pastor preached the Abraham sermon. You know the one, where God tells him to kill his son and he says, "Okay". Doesn't argue, doesn't question, doesn't resist, doesn't ask if there might be another way, nothing. Packs up his son, packs up his knife, off they go. That's the Father's Day sermon - some guy heading off to kill his son because God told him to. Nice. The lesson? We should have such faith.
Oh.
I've been hearing exactly the same sermon since I was a kid. Word for word. And you know, I could live with it if the lesson were about how willing we are to sacrifice our sons to the gods of our own making. I would be uncomfortable with this story no matter what, but perhaps less so if the message was that workaholics sacrifice their sons to their careers, that addicts sacrifice their sons to the god of the bottle or the syringe, that all those soccer moms and hockey dads bellowing and cursing at the referee - and the coach and their own kids - might well be sacrificing their kids to the gods of their own failed dreams, their own ambitions. I could live with that a bit easier than the shopworn goods I endured this morning, which boils down to we should have the same faith as Abraham, the guy who was willing to kill his child because God told him to. Of course, the story doesn't present us with any of the options I would prefer. No, the story forces us to confront a God who would ask a man to murder his own son, and the father who was all too willing to do it, but we don't want to talk about that, do we? Because somewhere in that conversation - as opposed to the monologue church is now - we'd have to acknowledge that not everyone comes from a perfect nuclear family, that some of us carry the weight of an almost unbearable emptiness that, given both our failings and those of our fathers, only God can fill. Of course, we'd then have to talk about exactly how God does that, which ought to be an interesting conversation; an enlightening conversation, one that may lead us to healing, freedom and wholeness even.
So tell me, seriously - Is it too much to ask for church to treat us like adults? Really too much to ask? That maybe we can handle the tough questions, that we might actually, you know, need to talk about the really difficult stuff, that it might be the very soil in which God wants to plant his new life within us, to nurture and grow his presence into our healing and our love for him and for one another, that this might be the very desert God wants to bring to bloom as we begin to minister to one another where and when and how and why it matters most.
Right. Never mind, then.
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Reader Comments (30)
We are so comfortable; we know the stories of old and we are quite happy to leave it at that. How many of us go deeper, ask God to take us deeper, regardless of what may be revealed in our own hearts?! (This is the fear behind not asking - what will be revealed in our own hearts?)
I believe that it is in that place, a place outside our comfort zone, does the Lord transform us to be more like Him. Not in the familiar, but in those places where we get real and ask those "hard" questions that may bring us to our knees before the Lord.
Goodness, we may even get to know God better if we did this!
~mp
The story of Abe and Ike on the mountain is so not-simple. Their family was so not-perfect. When we're honest and non-patriarchal enough to look at the crap that had led them to this point, when we consider that Abe's first recorded words to God were a complaint, when we think about the pain and dishonesty and infidelity and disappointment and rationalization and the hours spent staring up at unreachable stars that represented an unkept promise, it's amazing that God and Abe were still speaking to each other.
It's an awful story (especially for Father's Day. What the heck?) but it's there for a reason and we all need to come to terms with it.
Obviously Sunday morning isn't the time or the place. It's a heart story. A story to be read and talked about. A slow-cooker story, not a microwave TV dinner one.
Ain't nothing can kill a story like a sermon.
But it was the same thing, because there was no conversation, no listening to each others' stories. It was an attempt to seek healing without getting into the real dirt of our lives and seeing what will bloom. For me it seems a kind of magical thinking -- if I go up and get someone to pray for me, I won't have to deal with my pain, my sin, etc. It will all go away. In the end that kind of faith seems as far away from real life as whatever kind of faith you're inspired to have after the Abraham sermon.
i am getting to be an old lady now, so i can get away with calling everyone "honey" now. isn't that great?
well, honey, i would be more than willing to talk about your tough questions with you. i am part of the body/church and i will listen to you anytime.
not that i will have the answers, but, we can surely talk about them.
Love to you...the sweet, sweet Love of Jesus.
When you've run into enough people that tell you that they lost their faith in God because of God's sadistic streak in stories like this one, then it seems natural enough to either avoid serious discussion of the story or try to paint it as rosy as possible. It reminds me of this post:
http://www.conversiondiary.com/2007/10/be-not-afraid.html
I think I've come to terms with this story; if you want to discuss it, I'd be happy to.
God bless.
Yeah, I like that.
That's not talking, it's about you consuming the words of a man - you don't get to have a say.
You do here, and so do we. Thank you.
The lady at the end of the couch... Sometimes it seems like a miracle that any of us still believe...
Maria - I know, I know... rambling, imperfect, ineffective even... but I really, really prefer that to just pretending...
nancy - Lots of people call me lots of things... but only one gets to call me 'honey' :^)
barrenmind - I agree. I sometimes wonder, though, if the exact opposite may be true, for a larger segment ofthe population - that we do, in fact, want to talk about this stuff, that we do want to ask the hard questions. Creating a space where it's safe to do that - well, that's another thing altogether, isn't it?
Anna - I come across this brutal god who goes on killing sprees through throughout the Old Testament and don't quite know what to make of him - he's so unlke the God I know today. For me the thing is to not quit trying. I may never figure it out, and maybe that's okay too.
BD - The best part is the conversation. By far. Don't ya just dig it?
Joanee - I've often wondered about the reaction of the son as well. What if - and this is a huge "if" - the story is about the son's obedience, even unto death. What if the hero of the story is the son? We don't know because we don't have a record of his response. And, come to think of it, I wonder if Abraham told the boy's mother what he was up too... :^)
this makes my head spin.
what i the world do people want? i don't get it!
we do not go to flipin church!
we are the church!!!
what does it take for people to get it?
when we talk about the "church"
we is talkin bout our self
i complained so long about "church"
bla bla bla !
now i am not gonna do that anymore
either i act like the church
or i don't
and if anyone has something they do not like
about other people and how they are
then they can just point that old finger
in their own direction
and flipin do something about it.
we should BE
what we think the "church" should BE.
I've struggled with the God of the OT, too. Often I have found that the key is to understand the Hebrews better. If I can see through their eyes, then I can see that they are encountering the same loving God that I know. Their encounter looks different, not because God is different, but because they are.
In Hebrews 8, the author writes of the difference between the old covenant and the new, and verse 10 says "I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts." Consider this for a moment. We have a conscience that is shaped by this new covenant, by Jesus and the Spirit that dwells within. The immorality of killing a child is stunningly obvious to us - so obvious that we cannot conceive how someone could ever think otherwise.
But they did. In Leviticus 18:21 and 20:1-5, the Hebrews (generations after Abraham) still had to be told not to sacrifice their children to Moloch. Jer 32:35 suggests they still hadn't learned that lesson.
So if you read the Abraham story from the point of view of someone who really, honestly, doesn't know any better than to think it's ok to sacrifice a child to a god, than what do you get?
God asks for Abraham to sacrifice his son. Instead of seeming like God is asking Abraham to do something evil, from Abraham's point of view, God is asking how much Abraham loves Him. "Will you give me your child? The son of the Promise, all of your future hopes and dreams, the delight and desire of your heart - will you give him up for my sake?" And Abraham says yes. How many of us could give up our children for God's sake - for example to see them taken in illness, or to see them go serve God somewhere where we will never see them - with even half of the uncomplaining love for God that Abraham showed?
And then, because God is NOT sadistic and does not desire child sacrifice, Abraham's hand is stayed and Isaac lives. This is God's kindness showing through; Moloch would have insisted that Abraham go through with it. I imagine it was a revelation to Abraham that God did not want children sacrificed to him. A true encounter with the loving God. (And a lesson about what he wants and doesn't want that the Hebrews appeared to have taken some time to learn).
Does that help? It's pretty much how I see that story. God bless.
Much of the time the only difference between Junior Church and the adult service is that the kids get a snack.
Told the story (7 minutes or so)... and then opened up a "whole community" discussion... say what you want, but no pat answers... and then we broke into smaller discussion groups to go even further with the discussion.
What a difference to the "monologue church" I used to not only be part of, but help lead.
Peace.
Anna - Thanks for that, I appreciate the perspective. It's not Abraham's character I struggle with, though - at least not so much. In an odd way it's comforting that the great patriarch Abraham was so mind-bogglingly flawed. But given the idea that Abraham is simply incapable of knowing it's wrong to kill his child (far too long stretch for me, I'm afraid) God's behaviour becomes... well... I'm not sure what it becomes. The best thing I've read about this particular story is that there was a rabbi's commentary that asked if what God really wanted was for Abraham to argue with him. That makes perfect sense to me - that God wanted to get into that conversation/argument with Abraham to get at some deeper issues.
Wilsonian - Yup.
Pernell - I'm glad you didn't mention how good the Chatty Matty is. A guy can only take so much.
truth. A little sugar coating can divert the whole idea. You go on one extreme or the other.
i am helping my father-in-law take care of his wife that is going down fast with alzheimer's disease and i am having a hard time between feelings of compassion, needing to be her parent, and fatigue of not getting sleep.
but, this church on earth thing really does flip me out. i think i have wanted it to be this perfect thing, and it just is not! and we end up pointing fingers at each other, and it does not do a bit of good. so i guess i got frustrated with you and just lost it. again, sorry. i am not good at all when i am tired and away from home and dealing with a woman that is not there but makes her presence a force to be reckoned with 27/7.
please forgive me for spouting out nonsense at you.
>what God really wanted was for Abraham to argue with him
To me, that violates what the text says. The story begins with "Some time later God tested Abraham." This tells us from the beginning a basic idea of what God has in mind. When the test is over, God doesn't say "You should have objected to killing your son." He says, "Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. ... I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you". Those are hardly the words of a disappointed God. And we see now what God was testing - whether or not Abraham feared Him, whether he would withhold his son from God. And Abraham passed the test because he did fear God and would not withhold his son from Him.
That "fear of God" thing used to bother me. But the more I read the OT, the more I saw that the authors didn't mean being scared and afraid of God, but more something like a trembling awe, even a love of God. Deut 10:12-13 gives what I would consider almost a definition of fearing God: "And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?"
So maybe you can see why I think that the test was God's way of asking Abraham "How much do you love me?" It was a test of Abraham's devotion to God. Other examples of God testing people are Exodus 16:4, Deut 8:2, Judges 2:20-22, the whole book of Job, and I think Luke 18:18-23.
Another way to say it is that I think the story of Abraham has rather the same message to it as when Jesus says (in Luke 14:26) ""If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple."
Maybe you think that, if Abraham was really so ignorant that he didn't know killing his son was wrong, that God ought to have addressed that first. But I think God had a different priority: to see how well Abraham was living out the greatest commandment of all, to love God with all his heart, mind, and soul.
God bless.