Gen. 22 Ps, 13 Sermon Notes 6/26
The Bible reflects the story of a people's relationship with God over time. The Bible contains an often-unvarnished account, some very unpleasant material. Some would like it only to reflect the highest aspirations of spiritual life, but that is not true to the human experience.
We all know that life carries its troubles. With some, complaint becomes an art form in the face of troubles. Can it be prayer, or mere whining to God? The Bible honors complaint as prayer, for any human response can be placed in the envelope of prayer. The lament forms prayer-allows us to be candid with god-puts troubles into an envelop of prayer-Notice that the usual form has a surprise ending. They rarely end in gloom or despair. They end like our prayer of confession with a rousing gloria. Maybe it's cathartic, Getting things off one's chest is a step toward healing. When we are upset, sometimes, it is hard to put a prayer into words. The lament form gives a way to fit our experience into this honored biblical model of prayer. Lament unbinds our pent up feelings and places them in the safe envelope of prayer.
Gen.22 is a harrowing story of Abraham being put to a terrible test. How could Abraham be tested in sch a way?how could such a long delayed premise now be snatched from him? Moriah (teaching? place?) Note that he already allowed Hagar and Ishmael to suffer.-This is a test of loyalty for readers too. Hear the artful slowing down of the narrative In Hebrew class we took some time to see how it becomes a series of verbs. "God will provide, my son" is a counter game of chicken-Neither complain or lament that we hear. Abraham tries to bargain for Sodom, why not his own son? I think the answer lies there in his word to his son that God will provide.for Abraham this is a test of god too
What of Isaac (Laughter)? What sort of scars did this near death experience leave him with? What sort of psychic wounds needed to bind him to heal? Maybe his trust in his father was so complete that he never feared for a moment, although one of the words for God in Genesis is the Fear of Isaac. Maybe heaven itself prayed a lament on Good Friday?
We all know that life carries its troubles. With some, complaint becomes an art form in the face of troubles. Can it be prayer, or mere whining to God? The Bible honors complaint as prayer, for any human response can be placed in the envelope of prayer. The lament forms prayer-allows us to be candid with god-puts troubles into an envelop of prayer-Notice that the usual form has a surprise ending. They rarely end in gloom or despair. They end like our prayer of confession with a rousing gloria. Maybe it's cathartic, Getting things off one's chest is a step toward healing. When we are upset, sometimes, it is hard to put a prayer into words. The lament form gives a way to fit our experience into this honored biblical model of prayer. Lament unbinds our pent up feelings and places them in the safe envelope of prayer.
Gen.22 is a harrowing story of Abraham being put to a terrible test. How could Abraham be tested in sch a way?how could such a long delayed premise now be snatched from him? Moriah (teaching? place?) Note that he already allowed Hagar and Ishmael to suffer.-This is a test of loyalty for readers too. Hear the artful slowing down of the narrative In Hebrew class we took some time to see how it becomes a series of verbs. "God will provide, my son" is a counter game of chicken-Neither complain or lament that we hear. Abraham tries to bargain for Sodom, why not his own son? I think the answer lies there in his word to his son that God will provide.for Abraham this is a test of god too
What of Isaac (Laughter)? What sort of scars did this near death experience leave him with? What sort of psychic wounds needed to bind him to heal? Maybe his trust in his father was so complete that he never feared for a moment, although one of the words for God in Genesis is the Fear of Isaac. Maybe heaven itself prayed a lament on Good Friday?
We consider it normal to make sacrifices for our children, but not of them.We can live through them vicariously a bit much. We sometimes project our dreams on to the screen of their lives.
To what degree do we sacrifice our children to the altar of our dreams? How we subject them to our harried lives We recoil from this story but do not flinch at the cascade of death we recall on Memorial Day not long past. It is no accident that we employ the religious language of sacrifice when we honor them. How do we bind them from becoming their best, fullest selves? How have we been bound up with old tapes that run through our minds on an often unconscious reel? We underfund the public schools, yet shell out a fortune for private education, We made great strides in leaving a legacy of cleaner water and air and a more egalitarian social system. The difficulty of following greatness. Do you feel as if you ever measure up? JQA
Lament helps break the bonds that inhibit candid prayer. Awareness of them and determination to loose them is critical. Give sorrow words, said Shakespeare.We give them more strength than they possess. we do well to lament for people caught in a terrible vise of circumstance where no choice seems a good one, let alone the best one.
To what degree do we sacrifice our children to the altar of our dreams? How we subject them to our harried lives We recoil from this story but do not flinch at the cascade of death we recall on Memorial Day not long past. It is no accident that we employ the religious language of sacrifice when we honor them. How do we bind them from becoming their best, fullest selves? How have we been bound up with old tapes that run through our minds on an often unconscious reel? We underfund the public schools, yet shell out a fortune for private education, We made great strides in leaving a legacy of cleaner water and air and a more egalitarian social system. The difficulty of following greatness. Do you feel as if you ever measure up? JQA
Lament helps break the bonds that inhibit candid prayer. Awareness of them and determination to loose them is critical. Give sorrow words, said Shakespeare.We give them more strength than they possess. we do well to lament for people caught in a terrible vise of circumstance where no choice seems a good one, let alone the best one.
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