Sermon – June 26, 2011
If everyone identified with the victim, then there would be no oppressors!
Today we hear the shocking story of the near sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham. I find this to be one of the most dramatic in the whole bible. Abraham and Sarah are given the promise that their descendants would become a great and powerful nation, possessing the land in which the patriarchs would only be resident aliens. So when we hear of Abraham being led to do this sacrifice, not only is the life of a single child in jeopardy, but the life of the future people of God!
So the story begins with God testing Abraham. And, although we’ve heard the story before, we keep wondering “Will Abraham go through with it; will he pass the test?” And then we may ask the more urgent question: “Will Isaac live?” At the climax Abraham, who never hesitated in his obedience to God, will not be required to sacrifice the life of his son.
In our traditional understanding we may raise difficult questions like “Why did God need to test Abraham?” The ancient Hebrews wrote this story to deal with the meaning of the name of the place or perhaps, more importantly, to overcome the question of child sacrifice, which was practiced in some surrounding cultures.
The Hebrew people wanted to clearly, with some dramatic emphasis, state that Our God does not require child sacrifices. Sacrifice of a ram is sufficient. But, according to the story, our God does require obedience. Abraham’s faith is tested and this story is an answer to the question, “What is faith?”, in the form of an example. Faith is commitment, the directing of one’s trust toward all that is truly Sacred. Faith entails the courage and risk of action.
Now we Christians like to put this story together with the story of crucifixion, the execution of Jesus of Nazareth. And our standard theology is that Jesus – son of God – is sacrificed “For the sins of the world.” But by going in this direction we end up with a peculiar kind of God – one that requires, condones or, at least, plans the sacrifice of a human being – God’s only son – to reconcile the world to God. So why did God not require a child sacrifice of Abraham, but practices it God’s self? Is this where the “Do as I say, not as I do” rule started?” What kind of an example is this to us? The problems we begin to encounter in this way of thinking is the development of a theology of a world where evil originates in God, but then how do we put this together with a loving God? We end up with a God who sends tornadoes, earthquakes, car accidents and disease thus undermining our responsibility to make good decisions by providing us with a God who turns evil to good. We easily find ourselves in a confusing and desperate and irrational place.
I think we need to interpret the other way around. Instead of understanding Jesus’ crucifixion in light of the Isaac story, start with crucifixion. Let’s start with the unjust execution of Jesus our Messiah. Instead of a sacrificial lamb, let’s start to see Jesus as a victim and therefore God as victim, God as a victim, all that we consider sacred in our world as the victim of our anger and greed. Jesus was crucified, not as part of a divine plan, but by those who felt threatened by his teachings and his growing popularity (Like Oscar Romero being shot down while presiding at the Eucharist inEl Salvador). So Jesus was crucified, not as part of a divine plan, but because the powerful people of Jesus’ day were threatened by the divine plan, the plan to transform the world into a place of fairness, of mercy, of life, of love, of peace.
In this way of understanding, Jesus is the victim. If Jesus is the incarnation of God to us, then it is God who is the victim. And it is the victim with whom God is identified! So let’s take this awareness back to Abraham and Isaac. Isaac was almost victim. Why? Why did Abraham think that he needed to offer his only son (since he’d gotten rid of his other son) as a sacrifice to God? Where did the voice of the angel come from? We need to be careful about what voices we listen to and evaluate what we hear God calling us to do.
We believe in a God of love. Would a loving God require the sacrifice of a child? I think not. And so the story remains a story about our God not requiring child sacrifice. And so, rather than a story about God’s requirement that we be obedient, I think we have a story about the dangers of religious fanaticism. God provides ways and means for us to be faithful without doing things that are irrational or contradict common sense and the rule of Love. Where, then, is the loving God in the story of the crucifixion? When we identify God with the victim then we see more clearly where we stand. We can’t expect, that no matter how much we participate in sacrificing them for our gain, that God is going to rescue to poor, the refugee, the abused, the grieving. We need to see that God is in the victims of our society, of our world, of our neighbourhood.
When we identify ourselves with the victims, then we are identifying ourselves with God. We can’t make the evils disappear in an instant, but every time we stand with the victim we bring ourselves and our world one person or one community or one church closer to eliminating evil in our world. If everyone identified with the victim, then there would be no oppressors! It is that simple.
The God of love is a God of vulnerability. When we acknowledge our own vulnerability and stand in solidarity with those who are vulnerable, we stand in God’s shoes and God stands in ours! Who are the victims in our community? In other words, in whom to be truly see God?
Jesus says today, “whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little poor ones in the name of a disciple — truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
May we find the Holy Strength, the Sacred courage, and the Blessed grace that we need in order to stand with the victims in our society, to see God in the poor and the outcast, and give them that cup of water, and lift them up to stand with us, as God stands with us and as we commit to standing with God, the giver of life and love.
Amen.
Posted on Monday, July 11, 2011.
