So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”

I have always thought this to be such an awful story.

And an especially awful story on a day when we celebrate the baptism of a child.

Here we have, at least on the face of it, a God who tests us by seeing if we will kill our children for his brief pleasure, as he enjoys our obedience.

And yes, again on the face of it, God relents. Apparently he was, as the current language would have it, “just messing” with Abraham, “goofing on him” was how we put it when I first started my long struggle with this story. But it is a story that has always haunted me and therefore intrigued me, on the face of it.

Is it, as I have long thought, a story of generational conflict?

On the campus of Princeton University there stands a statue of Abraham and Isaac, dedicated by sculptor George Segal to May 4, 1970 and all who were involved on the campus of Kent State that day. Segal said his sculpture was "an attempt to introduce difficult moral and ethical questions as to how older people should behave toward their children." Segal stated his belief that the shootings at Kent State represented a "genuine tragedy in that both sides were well meaning, each convinced of its own point of view and unable to see the other's."

How many of us can look at choices we have made as parents and the impact those choices – where to live, where to work – have had on our children?

As the years have passed I find myself looking ahead at the world that we are turning over to our children, a world that will be the place where our grandchildren live and work, love and laugh and I worry if we have poisoned their well and tainted their future. I don’t know what the answers are to the limitations of oil, the increasing population,the decreasing tolerance for anyone who is different, the ongoing distrust and animosity over faith and race and wealth.

But what if the story is not only about parents and their children?

What if the story is not just about Sarah and Morgan and the rest of us have done to Liam today?

What if the story is not really about us, or even Abraham and Isaac, at all?

Here is how I read the story these days, and some of you have heard some of this before, but it is an evolving story. Even as my perspective changes I see things differently, perhaps you will as well.

And it is not the only way to read it, perhaps not even the preferred way, maybe the wrong way but I believe it and so I offer it to you for your consideration.

Perhaps the story is primarily about God, rather than us.

Abraham was so anxious to respond to God’s goodness in his life that he knew that he must be willing to sacrifice the most valuable thing in his life. But he never talked to anyone about it, he never tested his sense of call out with others, he never allowed God’s spirit, working through other people, to say to him, “maybe that isn’t exactly what God wants you to do. Abraham is called by God, he hears God’s word, but God’s call, God’s word, in scripture and in our lives, must always be heard and confirmed and tested and focused and continually nurtured in the context of our lives, our relationships, our realties, our community.

You see, in Abraham’s deep devoted relationship with God he loses sight of God’s deep devoted relationship with all people, including Isaac. I don’t believe that God called Abraham to kill his son, nor do I believe that he was just playing with him to see how far he would go.

I do believe that Abraham believed it and I do believe that God straightened him out.

I have had, maybe I’m the only one but I don’t think so, I have had dreams and visions that I was sure were given to me by God, things that I believed absolutely and I have pursued them, but through other people, through countless “what if’s” and “what do you think’s” and “how about’s?” I have found God saying “no, that’s not what I want you to do or to be” and moving me, then, into a different and far better direction.

So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”

This is the lesson that that Abraham learned that day, “The Lord will provide”.

Abraham wanted to provide what he thought was appropriate; Abraham wanted to be in charge. We can get ourselves so worked up about things in our lives and we insist that we need to have the answer figured out before the situation ever emerges and we need to hear of God’s hospitality, God’s providence, God’s grace.

“The Lord will provide”

That is primary to who we are and what we do as a Church, as families and as individuals. We need to believe that “The Lord will provide” and, as we believe it, we begin to see it over and over and over again. It is through faith that we gain vision, not the other way around.

All through this month we have been speaking of what our faith is: a collection of foundational memories and of future dreams; a common sharing of how and where and why God has come into the lives of people like us; a source of joy in the midst of sorrow, laughter in the midst of tears; a courage for living each day with an awareness that it is not your first or last depending on which old saying you like best, but more importantly it is the only day you have to live; and today I summarize faith with the word “compassion”.

Compassion means to suffer with and to want to do something to make it better.

That’s all.

And that’s everything.

Compassion is God’s style of loving us, God suffers with us and provides us with what we need to make it better.

I rarely question anyone’s faith, except my own, but let me tell you how I do test my faith and how I see if it is slipping and needs strengthening.

When I find myself glazing over at stories of the victims of war and natural disaster or when I find myself overwhelmed by the magnitude of a tragedy, I worry about my faith, I know that my batteries need recharging.

For at those moments, I am losing my compassion.

And it happens.

They call it compassion fatigue, this concern for so many others that we feel overwhelmed and our compassion shuts down, we no longer suffer with them, we no longer want to find a way to make things better, we no longer try to provide the cool water to the thirsty traveler.

We mat still feel sorry for folks, we still feel pity, we can still commiserate over the hard times we all know, but we lack the fire of compassion.

Fortunately I know where to go to get reignited, I go to where God will provide direction for me. A stretch of beach, a back yard chair, the company of people whom I haven’t seen it too long, the solitude of a morning walk with coffee, in these places God speaks to me of what I should do and gives me direction in how to do it.

And all of us need to find those places where God provides for us.

That’s what the story is about, isn’t it?

So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”

It isn’t about what we give God, it isn’t about our love for God or our service to God, it is about God’s love for us, God’s compassion for us.

God looks at our lives and, we had the words last week in the gospel lesson, is filled with compassion for we are like sheep without a shepherd.

Are we called to reflect that in our reaction to others who suffer? Sure, of course we are, there are plenty of thirsty people out there who need to taste God’s love.

But compassion is first given to us, provided for us, and until we are willing to realize that and stop pretending that everything depends upon us, we will never be able to provide compassion, we will burn out quickly and completely and then we just become cranky and critical of others.

So let your faith, as children, as parents, as neighbors, as citizens, let your faith be shaped and nurtured, let God’s compassion shower down upon you, stop worrying about carrying the weight of the world and start opening yourself up to the light of the world, stop looking for someone who is less faithful than you to criticize and start looking for someone who is more faithful than you to emulate, stop thinking that you alone understand God’s will and start talking with others and praying to God and talking some more with others.

Whatever it is that you need, maybe not what you want, but whatever it is that you need, from a cool drink of water to the chance to enjoy your children and their children, whatever it is that you need God’s compassionate faith in you will provide it. For in the end, it is God’s faith in us, much more than our faith in God, that makes the difference in our lives. God believes in you and me and us and the Lord will provide, always has, always will.

So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”