The Road of Gratitude

1 Corinthians 12:12-30             Nancy Willet, Seminary Intern

Bethany Presbyterian Church, Dallas                  June 26, 2005

Let me start off by saying that I have a really hard time with this text, as I'm sure many of you do as well. But being one not to shy away from the hard texts, and since this is the Old Testament reading from the lectionary for today, we will wade through this together.

One of the very important theological things I learned as an intern here at Bethany, was to look at a biblical text in a more metaphorical way (as opposed to a literal, or even traditional reading of the text). I learned that when a person reads a biblical text from a metaphorical view, the reader doesn't actually lose any meaning through this type of interpretation, but actually gainsa wider perspective and can actually understand the text in a fuller, more meaningful way.

A literal interpretation of this text might sound this way: God has realized that Abraham has been pretty faithful and righteous to God throughout his life, but maybe God is not too sure. Abraham has done some things in the past, like try to sell his wife two times to other men, and now God wants to give Abraham one final test—a really big one. If Abraham is willing to sacrifice his only son, whom he loves very much, then God will reckon him faithful and righteous.

Abraham was willing to go through with the test from God—he made all the arrangements to go up on the mountain, taking Isaac, his son with him. When Isaac asked his father, "where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham simply told him that "God would provide a lamb for the offering." Abraham sort of skirted his son's question, giving a rather fuzzy answer to Isaac.

Pretty soon, however, Isaac must have realized that he was going to be the sacrificial lamb when his father was poised above is bound body laying on the alter with knife in hand. Isn't it interesting we never heard a word out of Isaac during this climax of the story? Well, an angel of the Lord stepped in and spoke to Abraham telling him to stop—don't kill your son. "Now I know," said God. Now I know you fear me and love me—I guess God had to really make sure.  Then, Abraham spotted a ram caught in the thicket and sacrificed him instead of his son. Abraham called this place Jehovah-Jireh, meaning "The Lord will provide."

So, what do you think of the literal translation? It's a little hard to believe our loving God would ask any man or woman to sacrifice their child, isn't it? Just how does that spell love?

Now, let's look at this text from a little wider, more metaphorical position, and see what we can learn from it. I read an article on this text by John Claypool, an Episcopal priest in Birmingham, Alabama. He said the way he saw this text, a person could go down one of three roads in search of meaning for our lives.

The first road is "the road to unquestioning resignation." How many times have we been told to take that route? God knows what God is doing. How could we, or Abraham, ever understand why God would want us to kill, to sacrifice one of our children? There's no way. I don't think we could ever figure that out, so we'd  just better accept it and believe that God knows what God is doing. The way out is quiet resignation—submission. The road of no questions.

Well, I've never been one to be totally resigned to anything or to totally submit to anyone—at least without some serious questioning going on first. Where did so many Christians get the idea that it is wrong to question God? And there are many Christians who take this road everyday.

To never question God is not Christian wisdom. Didn't Jesus question God and plead with God in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion? Jesus told God exactly what he was feeling in the garden, then the next day he cried out from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Questioning is far better than submission. In fact, when we ask questions of God, it shows that our faith in God is great enough for us to understand than an answer can be given. Claypool says "Would the verse, 'Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you' ever have appeared in Holy Scripture if unquestioning acquiescence had been the way to meet tragedy" or suffering or tough dilemmas in our lives?

I don't think God wants us to be like rocks or little infants in our relationship to Him. Relationships are two sided. Relationships are personal. In a mature relationship, that means holding each other accountable for our actions. We are held accountable by God, and God is accountable, too. You probably have heard other people say, and I know I have said it myself at times, that "God has a lot of accounting to do one day." I believe God will do the accounting. We will receive a full accounting of God's intentions one day.

We honor God by continuing to ask, to seek, and to knock, rather than resigning ourselves to be like rocks or leaves being blown in the wind without direction.

So you see, this first road out of trying to understand this story by unquestioning resignation is really a dead end. We get no where and we feel no better. We still don't really understand why God would ask Abraham to make such a sacrifice.

The second road we might take is trying to intellectualize the situation. If we could just totally understand and completely figure out what God was getting at when he ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, then we would feel better and understand this story. If we could just put some logic towhy innocent children die in wars, or from cancer, or why a friend of ours is now a paraplegic after a terrible auto accident, maybe then we would feel better.

When I served as a chaplain at Methodist hospital in Dallas a couple of summers ago, I had many people ask me to pray for them. They asked me to pray that God would heal them, that God would spare their lives, or that God would take away the horrible pain they were in. Many times the people did recover, but there were also many times the patients died.

The fact is, friends, that we live in a stark paradox of reality. We live in the paradox of lightness and darkness, of ultimate joy and ultimate suffering. As I thought about that paradox and how it related to the patients in the hospital dying, I was reminded of all the goodness that was going on around me at the same time. I saw families brought together that hadn't been in each others' presence in years. I saw the love and care and sympathy of the hospital staff that they gave to the patient and the family. I saw experiences that were full of love and purpose, and meaning—everything that was the opposite of the pain and suffering the patient had gone through.

The good things don't cancel out the unwelcome facts of life. It is up to us to weigh both sides of a situation. You can't always figure life out, but you can be aware of reality. We must continue to ask questions, but not expect, at least within history to find all the answers.

The third road to understanding this passage is what Claypool calls the "Road of Gratitude." What God was trying to teach Abraham was that "life is a gift."  The gifts we receive in our lives, you see, even if they are taken away, are still gifts to be received with gratitude. God's original promise to Abraham—God's promise of land and the promise of descendents as numerous as the stars, came as a gift to Abraham. This gift came out of the blue, Abraham didn't ask for it, God merely gave it, and Abraham was called to receive and accept these gifts with gratitude.

This is how God intended humans not only to relate to Godself, but to other humans as well. We are to relate to life—to existence itself with open arms, with grateful hearts.

Maybe God thought that Abraham had gone a little astray and was not honoring his gifts with gratitude. Perhaps God was trying to restore Abraham, and therefore all his descendents back into the right vision of life and back to a right relationship with life and with God.

Abraham, and his wife Sarah, had waited so long for a son, which God gave as a gift to them when they were very old. Then, God asked for Isaac, their son back. What was God doing? Maybe Abraham didn't realize the precious gift he had been given. Did he realize that the life of his son was not something to be earned or possessed, but something to be received as a gift and handled with gratitude?

How about us? How do we handle the precious gifts we have been given? Do we treat our sons or daughters, our husbands or wives or our partners as something we have earned or something we possess, or do we treat them as precious gifts from God, giving God gratitude for these blessed gifts?

These are the three roads which we could take to understand this passage, and how we might be able to apply it to our lives today.  The road of unquestioning resignation doesn't get us anywhere—keep asking questions—I think God expects it. The second road has got to be a dead end—we will never, in our lifetimes figure out what God is about or why God does one thing or another. I believe the road of gratitude, is the only road that doesn't lead to a dead end. It's the only road paved with hope.

 I probably will never be totally comfortable with this story, even if I take the road of gratitude. But that is ok. That means I will continue to question, I will continue to explore with God, and I will continue to be grateful for the gifts of the lives of the people that are in my life.

How about you, which road will you take?