Blessed to bless others?

    

Sacrifice of Isaac, Marc Chaggall

The story for this week has always troubled me.  It is the portion of The Story which talks about Abraham - the surprising man through whom God chose to build a nation of people - people who would eventually bring about God's salvation for the world.  Now most of Abraham is a great story of faith, miracles, human missteps, and imperfect miracles. 
     God chooses two people in their 90s who are unable to have children to have a child from whom would come a nation as numerous as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the ground.  These two people don't entirely believe God, and so plot to help God by providing a surrogate mother for Abraham's offspring, a son born to Sarai's servant (and likely Abraham's second wife).  Yet God assures them that the son to be born will truly belong to Sarah and Abraham - and now God has to 'clean up' the mess that Abraham made.  God promises that this first son born to Abraham, Ishmael, will also grow into a great nation.  It is commonly believed that Ishmael's line is the line that eventually founds Islam. 
     And so finally, approximately 20 years after the promise, Sarah becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son, and Abraham names him Isaac.  Abraham and Sarah celebrate and take joy in this miraculous son - giving praise that God has blessed them in this way.  And then the story seems to take a wrong turn.
     Genesis 22 is the story of God testing Abraham.  God comes to Abraham and says, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will show you."  The thing that surprises me each time I read this story is that after this request from God, the text simply continues, "So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey..."  From Scripture it seems as if Abraham blindly follows.  There is no arguing with God, no pleading for Isaac's life, no questioning, he just gets up early the next morning and goes.
     As I've heard people talk about this story, a few themes usually emerge: Abraham is to be exemplified for his deep faith in God and trusting that God knows best; this is a foreshadow to God's own sacrifice of the 'one and only son'; we can learn from Abraham about sacrificial giving, and willingness to give up what it important.
     None of these are bad.  In fact, they are each a good attribute of faith, and of being willing to let the Spirit lead and guide into situations that may be uncomfortable because God might be up to something new.

     But I have to tell you that I wouldn't have done it.

The thought of tying up my Frankie with the intent to sacrifice her is horrifying and brings tears to my eyes.  Granted we are far removed from the culture of animal and child sacrifice (archaeological studies have proven that child sacrifice was a common ritual in that area and period of history).  Granted I've never heard God's voice asking me to do anything, let alone move to a new place and kill my child.  Granted I am not Abraham.  Because if I was, the story would have gone differently.
     If I was Abraham, I would have choked on my beverage (for whatever reason whenever God talks to me in my imagination we are doing so over a cup of coffee or tea), eyes bugged out, and the arguing would have ensued:

But God!  You promised me this son!  You said that we would be a great nation!  I love this kid!  NO. WAY.

Last week as a group of colleagues was talking about this text, we actually pondered if the real test was not if Abraham would do what God asked, but if Abraham would question God's seemingly irrational request to kill Isaac.  What if God really wanted to see what Abraham was made of?  After all, Abraham did have another son, even if the text calls Isaac his 'one and only.'  Ishmael was off in the desert somewhere, and if Isaac died Abraham could always have gone looking.
     What if God was waiting for Abraham to come to his senses and NOT do what God asked?  And then, when Abraham was on the mountain, had Isaac bound, and was lifting the knife, it was God who choked on the beverage-of-choice, and had to scramble and make a ram appear in the thicket so that Abraham wouldn't do it?
     It could have been this cosmic game of chicken - who would back down first?  God?  Or Abraham?  In the end, it was God who ended up backing down, and I can imagine God saying, "I really didn't think it would get this out of hand."
     Maybe all of this is my attempt at rationalizing the irrational.  Maybe I am as faithless as Abraham was faithful.  Maybe I am uncomfortable with a God who asks us to sacrifice our children just to 'test' us. 
     So what do we do with this story?  Abraham through the Biblical narrative is a hero of faith, for his willingness to do what God asked of him, and I cannot discount that, or take away from Abraham this honor.  I also cannot applaud God for asking the death of a child.  What I can do is contemplate the mystery of my faith. 

• What would I be unwilling to 'sacrifice' to God?  
• Why?  
• Is that, in the end, an idol I have made for myself?

And even after those questions, there is the bigger question of Abraham's story.  God promised to bless Abraham in order to be a blessing to others.  It is, according to the story, because of Abraham's great faith that 'all the nations of the earth gain blessings for themselves.'  Apparently, I am an indirect recipient of the blessing of Abraham's faith.  Which leads to an even deeper and greater mystery:
Isaac and child sacrifice aside, how am I using my blessing to continue to bless others?