Loving God, you know what it is like to give your only son for the life of the world.  Make us aware of your gift of salvation this day, granting us the gifts of faith and love, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.  Amen.

            If the story about Abraham almost sacrificing his son Isaac raised some questions for you today, you are not alone.  This story has been questioned for many years by both Jewish and Christian readers.  For one thing, would God actually test somebody like this?  Did God actually want Abraham to offer up his son?  And what about Isaac?  Wouldn’t you be traumatized if your father suddenly tied you up and laid you on an altar with some firewood?  And some have actually asked, is Abraham good or creepy?

         For those who hear the story today, it’s hard to fathom what kind of a god would demand child sacrifice.  However, for Abraham, he was surrounded by people and nations who worshiped their gods by sacrificing their children.  And so, it was not a big stretch for him to think that his God – the Lord of heaven and earth – also wanted him to sacrifice his son.  At the same time, Abraham and his descendants believed that children belong to God, and not to their parents, and so, Abraham might have thought that he was just giving back to God the child who already belonged to God.  Isaac, however, was not any ordinary child.

         Isaac was a miracle child – born to Abraham and to Sarah in their extreme old age – after having been promised by God many years before.  In fact, it took so long for the promise to be fulfilled that Abraham and Sarah had both tried and proposed other options for producing an heir.  That’s how Ishmael came on the scene – a brother from a different mother.  Isaac, however, was the child of promise who would produce many descendants for Abraham and Sarah.

         And so, try to imagine that you have waited many years for this miracle child that had been promised by God, and now you think that you are being asked to give him back.  And if you can’t imagine that, imagine something or someone that is very dear to you – perhaps something for which you have worked and wished and prayed for many years.  Imagine taking that person or place or thing and offering it to God in such a way that you will no longer have access to it in this world.  Can you even imagine how much faith and love it would take to do that?

         However, what if this isn’t actually a story about Abraham and how faithful he is?  What if the story is told in order to show that God doesn’t want people to sacrifice their children?  What if the hero of the story is actually the God who saves – in fact, the God who always acts to save.

         In the reading from Genesis, it is God who provides the lamb (Gen. 22:8).  And then, many years later, we hear John the Baptist proclaiming, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29).  Once again, God has provided the lamb, but this time, it is God’s only begotten Son, Jesus.  In this case, however, Jesus has a choice.  He is not forced to come and live among us and give his life for ours.  Rather, he offers himself out of love.

         To be sure, people have come up with many things over the years that they think that God wants.  Jephthah (one of the judges) makes a rather misguided vow and ends up sacrificing his only child – his daughter – in order to keep his promise to God (Judg. 11:29-40).  Two of the kings of Judah – Ahaz and Manasseh – sacrifice their sons just like the nations that surrounded them (2 Ki. 16:3; 21:6).  And later, in the New Testament, the religious leaders focus on the tiniest details like tithing their mint and dill, but forget all about justice and mercy (Mt. 23:23).  And then, today, we have those who are absolutely convinced that God wants them to ignore science and public health orders, even if it puts both them and their neighbours at risk.  Whatever happened to, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:39)?

         Many years after Abraham and Isaac made their trip to Mount Moriah, the prophet Micah spoke about what God really wants.

“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?  Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?  Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”  He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Mic. 6:6-8).

For, we worship and serve the God who always acts to save, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Pentecost 17 (NL 4)                        Genesis 21:1-3; 22:1-14

September 19, 2021                       John 1:29

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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