5th Sunday of Pentecost, Proper 8: Genesis 22:1-14; Psalm 13; Romans 6:12-23;
Matthew 10:40-42
Everytime the story of the binding of Isaac comes up in the lectionary, I get upset. It is a story of child abuse: the fact that Isaac in the end is not sacrificed does not make up for the terror he experienced. He knows what is happening, and knows that his father is willing to sacrifice him. It is also the story of an abusive God, who demands that Abraham sacrifice his only son. (Well, the only one living with him, which was all that counts for him.) If Isaac is terrified, Abraham is clearly distraught.
The end of the reading gives us Abraham’s lesson from this: “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided”. I am always relieved that Isaac is not sacrificed. But I am always angry that the Lord puts Abraham and Isaac through this. We can’t pretend that this is just the Hebrew scriptures: last week Jesus told us that he came not to bring peace, but a sword, dividing parents from children and siblings from each other. I am not comfortable with this.
This year, I decided to think about this reading in light of the Gospel. Today we read in Matthew the section of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus talks about welcome. Jesus calls us to welcome everyone. Here, following the Lord is providing water and welcoming the righteous. This is the God who calls us to love, to welcome and to community.
What I have come to think in all this is that following the commands of the sermon on the mount, following Jesus in the way of love, will sometimes put us at odds with others. It is now, for instance, illegal in Florida to provide housing to undocumented people. Christians there have choices: we can love our neighbors, all of them, or we can follow the law. These choices create division.
I do not want to follow a God who would ask me to sacrifice my child. But I know that following Jesus in the way of love may lead me to make choices that may divide me from others. Then we can hope, with Abraham, that “it” (whatever “it” is) shall be provided.