Abraham and Isaac: A story for today

Genesis 22: Abraham is commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac, until at the last moment an angel tells him to stop.

Palestine, Syria, Mosul, Nigeria  etc... We are living in difficult times.

The story of Abraham and Isaac is an important yet difficult one. A difficult story for a difficult time.
Abraham is revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims as the Father of their faith. This story is important for all 3 of the Abrahamic faiths. (In the Muslim story, the child is Ishmail) Yet his actions here are abhorrent.  Even though he doesn't go through with it, he intends to sacrifice his child. He climbs up the mountain, with the knife and the firewood. He ties Isaac, his much loved and longed for little boy Laughter, to an alter. It isn't reported what Sarah said when she found out, but I don't imagine she was happy.

I am going to explore two interpretations of this story, and what these say to Abraham's children today.

The first interpretation is that it is about unquestioning obedience to God. Some writers commend Abraham for his absolute obedience. Kierkegaard for example calls Abraham a Knight of a Faith. For the Knight of Faith, obedience to God must come before everything, before reason, before morality. To me, this view is abhorrent. If we believe in a God of love, we could never accept that to do harm could be from God.

The second interpretation is that what made Abraham great wasn't that he intended to sacrifice Isaac, but that he didn't. Genesis was written at a time when sacrifice, including child sacrifice, was commonplace. (Such as in the lists of burial sacrifices of the kings of Ur.) Sacrifice was a recognition that everything belonged to God, and we should be prepared to give back anything that we have. This   was a society that regarded children (and wives!) as property, so the devout should be prepared to sacrifice them  also. Yet, as far as we can understand it from the records, one of the things that marked Israel out as kdifferent from the other nations, was that they didn't sacrifice children. This story is a way of saying that this is not what God requires. Abraham thought His God wanted him to sacrifice Isaac, because that's what all the other gods around at the time were asking. But he was wrong. Yahweh is not like other gods. As the prophet Michah was to later put it, "This is what Yahweh asks of you, only this, act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God."

What is this to say to us to our situation today?

The first interpretation of the story, that we should unquestioningly obey the voice of God, has caused immense problems for Abraham's children. Throughout History Jews, Muslims and Christians, have wielded their knives in response to what they thought was God's command. The crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, 9:11, Northern Ireland, the current situations in Syria, Israel and Palestine. People so often get the voice of God spectacularly wrong. The Yorkshire Ripper, Peter  Sutcliffe, thought that God had told him to murder prostitutes. In 2013, a diabetic 12 year old girl,  Syble Rossiter, died after her parents prayed for her healing and thought God wanted them to stop giving her insulin. Richard Dawkins in his book the God Delusion, suggests that all religion is about unquestioning obedience, and all right thinking Scientific people best avoid it. If I thought that this is what our faith required of us, I'm afraid I would have to agree with him.

So what about the second interpretation, that Abraham's greatness was not in his unquestioning obedience, but in his willingness to humbly  recognise that he had misunderstood God's voice. To listen again, to hear the voice of an angel, "Put down the knife, Abraham. Do not harm even one hair on his head."  It took Abraham great courage to put down the knife and untie Isaac. To climb down the mountain. Some today show a similar courage. Steve Chalk was for many years the leader of the   Evangelical Alliance and campaigned against homosexuality, believing this stance to be God's will.   Quite recently he changed his mind. This happened through coming across homosexual people in pastoral situations, and seeing the hurt that his church's position had caused them. He felt that to  include people, and show the love of Christ, he needed to change his view about what God wanted.  There are others who have the courage to be the voice of the angel. When harm is done in the name of faith, they stand up and speak for peace and compassion. Zaki Badawi, who was the chief Iman an London Mosque spoke out when the ayatollah issued a fatwah against Salman Rushdie.

Stand up for the Isaacs of the world. Reflect on our own actions, and those done in our name by our religious communities, or our Nations. Be critical, question things. Join with others such as Amnesty International to stand together for Peace and Justice in the world's troubled situations. Wherever harm is done in the name of faith, let us dare to be the voice of the angel. "Put down the knife Abraham, this is not what God wants."  Yahweh is good, Allah is merciful, God is love.

http://www.christianaid.org.uk/emergencies/current/gaza-emergency-appeal/index.asp  http://www.christianaid.org.uk/emergencies/current/iraq-crisis-appeal/ http://www.amnesty.org.uk http://www.aworldatschool.org https://www.facebook.com/events/580242122084490/?ref=25https://www.facebook.com/groups/365311285573/?ref=ts&fref=ts

What do we believe?

With Trinity Sunday coming up, I thought I'd post some ideas about Creeds, those old statements of belief sometimes read out in Christian Churches. Are they relevant today?

The creeds and statements of the Councils of Nicaea, Ephesus and Chalcedon are seen as the bedrock of Christian Theology. Despite the changes of the Reformation, these have remained, accepted by all major Christian traditions in the West. (And with slight differences in the Eastern Church). I am going to argue that the way in which Creeds are used presents a major obstacle to Spirituality and Faith in the 21^st century.

My problems with the way creeds are used: -

·      They are used to exclude others.

·      They present a picture of absolute truth.

·      Much of the language and concepts in them no longer has meaning.

1.    The exclusion of others.

From their very inception Creeds and doctrines were designed to exclude. The Early church was surrounded by different ideas. (Gnosticism, Arianism etc.)  Many of the statements in the Creed are designed to distance themselves from these views. eg. “Begotten not made, One being/substance with the Father.” against Arius who argued that Christ was a created being. These discussions often involved power play by various factions of the Early Church. The losers like Arius and Nestorius were branded heretics and sent into exile.

This approach to “heretics” developed as the church grew. The History of the Church is shockingly littered with atrocities against those deemed heretics or infidels; the bloody battles of the crusades, persecution of the Jews. The development of scientific theory came into intense conflict with a church threatened by the new ideas of Galileo and Copernicus.

This is so very far from the carpenter’s son who welcomed tax collectors and sinners.

Of course we don’t exile or execute heretics these days. Can we comfort ourselves that those days are over? No. I would argue that there are many in the church that use our creeds to exclude. People say things like, “What, you don’t believe in xyz. Well, you can’t really be a Christian.” Many people exclude themselves. They think, “I can’t possibly believe that, “ and instead of being able to explore their developing spirituality in a loving community, they look with despair at the list of seemingly ridiculous things they are expected to believe, and don’t come any more. We are a society with a “tick box” mentality. Too many people see the Creed as yet another set of boxes to be ticked.

This leads me to…

2.    The presentation of absolute truth

The creeds, as they stand and are used, present the idea that we have the answers, the truth. It presents the idea that this formula contains the truth about God.

Philosophers and Theologians over the centuries have thought deeply about the idea of religious truth and what it means. Thomas Aquinas thought that no human language could fully express anything about God. He said therefore that all religious language was “analogical”. The neo-Wittcenstinian’s in the 20^th century went further, arguing that religion itself was a “language game” in which believers developed “concept words” through which to make meaning out of their lives. Tomes of writings have been devoted to how religious language expresses truth, and I don’t propose to resolve those discussions here! Suffice to say, that the way we use words to express faith is a complex matter.

Many people are led to believe that we have to accept the creed as an expression of factual, literal truth. As with much religious writing, it is more complex. It contains Historical truths (crucified by Pontius Pilate), metaphor (Light from light) and a whole load of stuff about which there is considerable debate. (eg. Born of the Virgin Mary).

Rather than presenting the Creed as a tick box list for Christianity, perhaps we could engage more creatively with the language within it, gleaning the deeper meanings that lie within it. However, as we try to do that, we come across another problem…

3.    The language and concepts of the creed

I blame Aristotle! It wasn’t really his fault. In fact, he was very forward thinking for his time. (384BC). He has some very interesting theories about how stuff in the universe was made up. Things all had natures, substances, essences and accidents. At the time of Nicaea, the Aristotelian theory of matter was accepted by everyone, and is the language used in all the early formulae of the Christian Church.

However we no longer think in those terms. To say that Christ had 2 Natures, and was Consubstantial with the Father, to someone with an Aristotelian world-view makes perfect sense. Now we think in terms of atoms, genetics, evolution, the space-time continuum and gamma particles, we get in a bit of a muddle! For this reason, many of the formulae fail to touch us deeply, or say anything meaningful about how we can understand the way God is present in Jesus Christ.

Perhaps what we need to do is give our creeds and doctrines their proper place. They express the understandings of our ancestors. They can be meaningful to us, but only if we engage with them as expressions of faith of an earlier and very different time. As the Church of Christ we must seek repentance of the harm done in their name. Most importantly, we need to find new ways to express faith that will touch the hearts and minds of the twenty first century.

Warning! Dangerous stories!

A couple of recent news stories:

Michael Gove changes the English GCSE so that children would no longer read novels written eoutside the UK. This provoked outrage and widespread protest, including a sit in at the Department for education, with people passionately reading Of Mice and Men, Catcher in the Rye, To kill a Mockingbird.

Richard Dawkins said children should not be told fairy tales as it gave them unrealistic expectations. ( although he does say the BBC got him wrong). Others, such as the children's writer, Laren child's, came on to defend the Fairy Tale.

Stories are powerful.

They are ways we make sense of our world. They encourage us to exercise our imagination. To ask, "what if?" "Why not?" In a story we can look outside our own limited experience of life. In an imaginary landscape we can try new things, explore emotions and apply them to our own lives. We can ask big questions about life, death and morality. We can experience fear, suspense, adventure, laughter and tears in relative safety. We can empathise with characters, and wonder about situations in our own world.

Is this why repressive regimes ban books? Is this why people who want to control women want to stop girls from reading?

In some states in America people have tried to ban books about magic such as Harry Potter from schools. They site the danger that young people might be led to experiment with witchcraft! I think no such thing. They might however, do something much more dangerous. They might read more books, and start asking questions.

Sometimes people who argue for  a literal interpretation of religious texts say, "if it were only a story, people would not have risked their lives for it!" I think that if the story was important enough, people might indeed have done so.

So, go on, do something dangerous today! Read a story!

The Hunger Games: What do we tolerate?

A little while ago I went to see the film The Hunger Games with my teenage daughter. Discussing the film afterwards, we wondered why the people in the film seemed so accepting of their situation. (For those who aren't familiar with it, every year each district has a draw to select 2 young people to enter an arena as "tributes". They are forced to enter a televised contest, in which only one will survive as victor.) "why don't they do something about it?" I wondered.

Apart from displaying my ignorance. (" Mum, read the books!" My daughter replied.) This also made me think about the many things we tolerate, that are as equally abhorrent as the Hunger Games.

As we remember the anniversary of World War 1, we can recall the many young men who were placed in situations where the odds of survival were no better than the Hunger games contestants. In war and conflict situations today children are used as "soldiers" or placed in danger. The clothes we wear often depend on children working in unsafe sweatshops. Refugees risk their lives every day to escape from situations they find intolerable, only to be met by hostility. Children die every day for a lack of safe drinking water, the cost of which could be provided for a fraction of what we spend on bombs.

Perhaps a film like this can make us think about the things we tolerate. We need to be less tolerant of things that do harm. Ask more questions. Demand more information. If  it is doing harm, join campaigns against it, don't buy it, and tell those who we elect to speak on our behalf not to support it!

Prayers for Pentecost

1.     Prayer of adoration for a Pentecost service

Spirit of Life,

You hovered over the waters at the world’s beginning,

And hover over us still,

As creation continues with this new day,

All Creatures join our hymn of praise.

Spirit of God present with us now,

Response: Alleluia, alleluia.

Divine Advocate,

You stand alongside us,

You defend and council us in times of trouble,

You enable and empower us to stand firm against injustice.

Spirit of God, present with us now

Response: Alleluia, Alleluia.

Holy Fire,

Burning within our hearts,

The gentle embers of a soft and comforting warmth,

Or a raging inferno that challenges and changes,

For some a tiny flame seeming precarious amid the darkness,

The same fire, burning within each one.

Spirit of God, present with us now.

Response: Alleluia, alleluia.

Breath of God,

Your soft kiss touches us gently as we sleep,

Your howling gale rattles at our windows,

You blow where you will, often in unexpected places.

You encircle us with the whirlwind of your love.

Spirit of God, present with us now

Response: Alleluia, Alleluia.

2.     Prayer of thanksgiving for a Pentecost service.

For your Spirit at work in Creation,

In the growing, breathing and moving of life on our beautiful planet Earth.

Response: Thanks be to God.

For your Spirit working through History,

In the poor hearing good news, in captives seeking liberty and in eyes opened to new ways of seeing.

Response: Thanks be to God.

For your Spirit at work in Your Church,

In Traditions that root us and in challenges that move us.

Response: Thanks be to God.

For the unexpected people and places through which your Spirit is moving,

In all those moved by compassion, strengthened with courage and comforted with hope.

Response: Thanks be to God.

For the gifts of the Spirit evident here today,

For music, art, architecture, hospitality, preaching, flower arranging, serving tea and nurturing children.

Response: Thanks be to God.

For the future to which you are calling us,

For the challenges and joys for which you have chosen us.

Response: Thanks be to God. Amen.