Bad Faith

Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.

“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”

“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.” So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife.

As the two of them walked on together, Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”

“God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.

***

Generally, the genres of stories haven’t changed much in four thousand years.  In the ancient world, they liked stories of superheroes and gods, buddy stories and romances with some fantasy. They liked epics with monsters and stories of con men.

The story of Abraham is different.  It is a story of a moral religious man who made mistakes, and who struggled with his wife to have a baby.  He was involved in one small skirmish, but otherwise no war. He lived a quiet life, an unassuming life, and even though great events were around him, his participation in them was often just prayer.  For the most part, his life is without great drama.

And yet his life is the basis of three major world religions. He is seen as an example to follow, an exemplar life.  And perhaps because his life is so quiet, it makes sense. But we also have more information about him than about almost any ancient figure of his time, passed on through oral tradition and ancient texts, carefully transcribed.

Why is his quiet story so important for so much of the world?  Perhaps because in his own quiet way, Abraham’s story is kind of crazy.  He was a family man that approached life… differently… but still succeeded in the long run, although he was on the brink of disaster again and again.   I guess we can all identify with that, a bit.

We hear that Abraham’s father moved his family from Ur in Mesopotamia in Iraq to Haran in Turkey,, and that he had quite a legacy to pass onto his sons. He originally wanted to go to Canaan, but ended up in Turkey instead, which was fine.   Then we move right away to Abraham. He is told by God to leave his family and his inheritance and his land and to go… just go. Don’t worry about where. God will tell you when to stop. And if Abraham does then God will make of Abraham an enormous nation, and the whole world will be blessed by him and his family.

We have no indication that Abraham considered it for a minute or if he weighed the pros and cons.  Pro-- great nation someday. Con-- leave everything I know to who knows where. Got it, let’s go!

So Abraham kept moving until he got to the land of Canaan and then God told him “Stop!”.  God told Abraham that someday he would have all of this land, but meanwhile he had to live homeless in it. So Abraham and his family lived in tents, increasing his sheep business.

One day, Abe sat down and had a talk with God.  “So God? You say that you’ll make me into nations?  Well, I don’t really see it happening as I don’t have a son.  Or any kid. And I’m really old, as is Sarah, my wife. How about if I adopt my head slave and you can make nations out of him?”

“No, Abe, you’re going to have a kid.  You. Not adopted. Out of your body.” “Okay, God, if you say so.”

See, Abe really trusted God.  He figured it would be okay if God said it was okay.  If God told him to do it, Abe did it. If God said it would happen, it would happen.

So did his wife Sarah.  But she was very particular about God’s words.  “Sure,” she said, “God said you would have a son, but not me.  Tell you what, my neighbors all have surrogate moms. Let’s use my slave, Hagar, as a surrogate mom.”  So they did. And she had a son, Ishmael. And Sarah adopted that son as her own. But Hagar kept acting like a mom.  And was kind of bossy. So Sarah got rid of Hagar. Abraham was worried about Hagar, but God promised that he would take care of Hagar and Abraham trusted God. God took care of Hagar

God made a a separate promise to Sarah that she would have a son, and she laughed to herself.  Because she was 89 and children weren’t a possibility. God said, “Did you laugh at me?” Sarah replied, “I didn’t laugh.” We always have this problem about lying to God, as if God doesn’t know.  God says, “You did laugh, but you will have a son.”

And… it did happen.  Abe had a son. . But Abe and Sarah had a kid named “Laughter” or in Hebrew, Isaac, and they were overjoyed and they raised their kid and they knew that nations would come from Isaac.

Then came the bad day.  The day Abraham’s trust turned bad.

The day that God said, “Abraham, I want you to take your son… your only son… the son whom you love  and go where I tell you to go and sacrifice him there.”

Again, Abraham didn’t argue with God.  He didn’t make a list of pros and cons.  If he had, it might have looked like this: Pro-- Do what God says to do.  Con-- Kill my son, give up on God’s promise of nations through him, do human sacrifice which is abominable, destroy that which I love most in the world.  Okay, here we go!

To be honest, I don’t understand this Abraham.  Maybe this is the same, naive Abraham who left his home and family just at God’s say-so.  But is this the Abraham who haggled with God about the lives of Sodom? Is this the Abraham who heard his nephew, Lot, was in trouble and he took three hundred servants to go and attack the huge raiding party to get him back?  Is this the “family first” Abraham?

This is an Abraham that had enough energy to do a three day walk, but not enough to tell God, “Can we think about this a minute?”  

He said to his son, “Let’s go on a trip.  Starting at three in the morning. And let’s not tell your mother.  Or anyone else. It’s a God-thing.” Isaac knew about his dad’s “God-things”.  So he got up and travelled with him. But Isaac figured it out eventually. He knew they were going for a sacrifice.  But there was no animal brought. And Abraham was being pretty coy when Isaac asked about it.

Both Jewish and Muslim traditions say that Abraham’s son was old enough to take his dad, to run away.  But he chose to stay, he chose to be with his father. He trusted his father, even when he was acting uncomfortably weird.

So when they got there, Abraham bound Isaac and was going to kill him.  And Isaac let his father do this to him. And in the last minute, God sends an angel and says, “Don’t do this!”

So why?  Why this drama, this exercise in futile obedience?  Why put Abraham and Isaac through this turmoil?

The first thought is, “This is the Bible.  This story is supposed to promote trust in God.”  So you have the author of Hebrews who says that Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead.  But we have no reason to believe that from this story than he thought that God would pull him back in the last second.

Many get the lesson that God was testing Abraham to see if he was really loyal to God first above everything else.  God’s statement seems to indicate that. But what God said is, “Now I know that you fear God…” Is this really a statement of praise or a statement of fact?  Yes, sure, now I know just how your trust goes over the line into insanity. I wasn’t sure before, but now I know for certain.”

In fact, the lessons from much of the rest of the Bible aren’t the lessons we would normally get from it.

Argue with God
If you think that you are hearing something from God that just doesn’t sound right, argue with God.  Don’t just accept it. No one just accepted what God told them after this. Moses argued God down when God wanted to destroy all the children of Israel after the Golden calf incident.  Ezekiel argued with God when God wanted him to cook his food over burnt human feces. Even Jesus argued with God about his sacrifice on the cross! Some say that true belief is, “God said it, I believe it and that settles it.”  But the whole of the Bible seems to say that trusting in God doesn’t mean just accepting what God says. Trust is a relationship and in a relationship either side could be wrong, even God. Sometimes we need to sit with God and have a discussion, not just be an obedient slave.

No Human Sacrifice
Abraham was asked to do human sacrifice.  From this point on, this act wasn’t even considered.  God is not the kind of God that asks for humans to die on behalf of others.  All three monotheistic religions are characterized by not forcing the innocent to die for others.  Jesus and the martyrs could die willingly, but if anyone forces them to die, then they are condemned and even the land on which they died is polluted.  The innocent who die in wars or famines are part of what we must stop in Jesus’ name.

We Beg God not to Tempt

Jesus taught us to plead with God to not put us in this kind of situation.  Where we have our faith in God on one side and our humanity on the other. Everyday someone has to make a Sophie’s choice between survival and God, between a love for their humanity or their faith.  Jesus tells us to ask God never to put us in such a spot.

Corrie Ten Boom tells a story about she and her sister, both of whom hid Jews from the Nazis in WWII.  In their minds they both determined what they would do if the Nazis showed up at their door, demanding where the Jews were.  When that day occurred, Corrie lied to the Nazis, who didn’t believe her and they ransacked her house, but didn’t find the Jews that were well-hidden there.  When the day occured for her sister, Betsie, her faith didn’t allow her to lie. So she told the Nazis that the Jews were hidden in the closet. They didn’t believe her, either, so they left.   Both acted according to their faith.

Trust in God can go very, very right, even if it seems crazy.  Perhaps this is part of God’s insurance for us. If we trust in God, God will protect us just enough.

Bad Faith
On the other hand, faith can go very, very bad.

The last couple weeks, laws have been passed in Alabama, Georgia and Ohio, in the name of God to end abortion.  These laws, of course, do not end abortion, just ends the ability to abort babies safely in an office. These laws harm innocent women, and it doesn’t matter which side of the abortion debate we are on.  One law targets women who go across state lines to seek an abortion, convicting them as a murderer. One law encourages the transplanting of an ectopic pregnancy into a surrogate. The latest denies abortions to victims of incest and rape.  These laws are not targeting abortion, but women. And it is done in the name of faith.

Someone asked me if I believed in heresy.  Yes. Yes I do.

I believe that when someone’s faith in God demands that people be harmed, that is heresy.

When someone says that war or terror must be committed in order to perpetuate one’s belief in God, that is heresy.

When someone harms innocent people in the name of God, that is heresy.

When slavery, rape, capital punishment, the destruction of other peoples or nations or hated is done in Jesus’ name, that is heresy.

When a faith community sees their protection or security over the support of the poor, outcast or marginalized, that is heresy.

And honestly, I see Abraham in this story as an actor of bad faith.  Just like he was an actor of bad faith when he threw out Hagar and Ishmael-- his co-wife and son-- to die in the wilderness at just the word of God.

Sure, it all worked out okay, but that doesn’t mean that Abraham was overly naive.  That his trust was misplaced.

Which God was he trusting himself in?  The God that encourages us to take chances?  No, I get that. Sometimes our trust in God causes us to take huge steps that might seem crazy to some.  But the God of love does not ask us to kill. The God of love does not ask us to sacrifice someone else. The God of love does not ask us to destroy our family.  To hear this from God and to blindly obey it is not just naive, not just foolish, but in opposition to the command of Jesus.

Jesus commands us to love God.  AND to love our neighbor. It is not either/or, but both at the same time.  To love God is to love our neighbor and to love our neighbor is to love God.  The God of love will never ask us to choose one or the other.

When politicians, police, the military, pastors or any other authority demand that we make a choice between God and our neighbor then they are asking us to put faith into the wrong God.  Some other God than that of love. Some other God than the God of Jesus. And I’m just not interested.

More Faith-ful Than Thou

i.

Arius was a teacher in Alexandria, Egypt in the third and fourth centuries.  The centuries of persecution of Christians just ended which gave him the opportunity to really focus on what  he really loved: He loved to really dig into Christian theology and work out the logical ideas. But he wasn’t too enamored of the influence of Greek philosophy in Christianity and he would warn his students about the creeping influence.  One of the issues he took on was the idea that Jesus was eternal and was of the same substance -- the same spiritual “stuff”-- as God the creator. While he agreed that Jesus assisted in creation, Jesus was completely submitted to the Father and some time in the ancient past was begotten from the Father.  

Unfortunately, Arius’ bishop, Alexander-- yeah, his name was Alexander of Alexandria-- strongly disagreed with him.  He said that Arius had to teach that Jesus was the same substance as the Father. Arius said, well, sir, I have to teach what I see as true.  This became a big issue. So big that people on the street of Alexandria-- and Rome and Constantinople-- argued about it. It was said that you couldn’t go down to the market without sellers arguing with buyers, “same substance!” “Different substance!”  “Eternal!” “Created!”

Alexander was miffed.  So was Emperor Constantine.  He didn’t like his newly supported religion brining division among the people.  He wanted a clean, pristine, pure religion to call his own. So he called a council of bishops from throughout the empire and said, “Decide this! Now!”  They took a vote and Alexander of Alexandria won. So the Emperor turned to Arius and said, “Now you and anyone who believes in your heretical teaching, leave the empire!  We want one pure belief, clean of heresy!” So Arius packed up his family, his disciples and left the Roman empire.

And from this point on, one of the essential ideas of Christianity was that the church would be endangered as a social entity unless everyone believed the same thing.  This is where people insist upon the idea that we need to have a single, unified vision of the church. Unless we agree upon the basics, no one will listen to what we have to say.  God forbid that we disagree-- in public even! The council of Nicea created a thing called a “creed” or a laundry list of beliefs, which was a tool for Christianity to use to clearly distinguish between who was in and who was out.  Of course, they had to update that about every century, but still, it’s official.

Of course, this isn’t a new idea.  Bishops were given authority in the mid-second century to quiet down heresy, whatever they thought that meant.  Paul said that there was “one faith” and he argued with other Christians about which faith that was, even desiring that his opponents be castrated (although that might have been a joke).  And in the text we were reading, we can see the disciples being pretty insistent about who is in and who is out.

ii.
The apostle John was kind of a hothead.  That’s why Jesus named John and his brother James, “sons of thunder” because they were always ready to zap people for not being a part of the right group.  Meaning their group. So John reported to Jesus their latest activity. They saw someone helping out a mentally ill person in the name of Jesus and they stopped them.  “Who gave you authority to use that name? Have you attended Jesus’ classes? Do you have a monogrammed sweatshirt? Where is your membership card? Yep. I thought not.  Sorry, until you belong to the right group, you don’t have the right teaching. If you don’t have the right teaching, you can’t use Jesus’ name.” So they shut this guy down.

Jesus’ response should have been, “Well, I totally understand that.  This guy could have been doing good works in the totally wrong way. What if he said the Lord’s Prayer with the wrong words?  What if he didn’t understand that I was the Messiah?” That’s what John was expecting.

Instead, Jesus got on John’s case.  “What are you doing? Wasn’t this guy doing an act of love?  Why did you stop him? Think of it this way: do you want the name of Jesus associated with sincerely someone helping someone out or being a self-righteous, judgmental jerk?  I think the former, eh?

“This guy was on our side.  We don’t know that because they took the right seminar, have the right degrees from the right college or belong to the right denomination.  We know that because he is doing an act of love. That’s the guy we want to keep doing that kind of stuff! Next time you see someone doing an act of love, don’t look at the basis of their authority, rather thank them!”

Jesus even went on to say, that this guy who belonged to the wrong group, probably had the wrong theology would receive the blessing of God.  He cannot be denied his reward. And anyone, Jesus said, who does good work in the name of Jesus-- no matter what their theology or outlook, no matter how heretical they are-- will receive God’s reward.   If we are going to take this seriously, than any work of love, no matter how small is God’s work, even if done by people who believe in the wrong things.

iii.
It’s easy to apply this to people like Franklin Graham who demands that Christian progressives are going to hell.  Or people like John MacArthur who insist that all pentecostals and Charismatics are part of a diabolical heresy. It’s a good thing that us progressives are so open-minded and accepting of all people.  

Of course, there is this guy that I’ve been reading lately, Bishop John Spong.  He insists that orthodox Christianity is “Unbelievable” and that “Christianity must Change or Die.”  His answer is to change the theology of Christianity, to recognize that Jesus resurrected in the spirit, not the body, to deny the virgin birth of Jesus, to deny the reality of the Exodus.  I am not here to argue that he is wrong in his assessment, although I do think that his theology tends to be pretty focused on scholarship in the 70s and 80s. I am saying that he, just like the orthodox teachers he is arguing with, are focused on the wrong issues.  Whether one does or does not believe in the virgin birth isn’t the issue at all. The issue is what foundation do you have to enact the love of Jesus.

If Jesus is bodily risen from the dead and so Jesus is the king of creation and so we must follow Jesus’ law of love and that is how you learn to love, God bless you.  If you find that Jesus’ bodily resurrection is on shaky ground, but you are inspired by the Sermon on the Mount to live a life of love, then God bless you. If you are a Muslim who believes that Jesus is a prophet, but finds his life to be guiding yours to act with greater mercy, then God bless you.

On the other hand, if we think that Muslims aren’t the right kind of religion because they don’t believe in the right things, even though they give more to charity per capita than the Christian church, then we aren’t listening to Jesus.  If we reject the good work of supporting women in pregnancies through poverty of the Pregnancy Crisis Centers, because they don’t agree with our politics, we have the same problem as those who reject Planned Parenthood and their good work.  If we reject all of conservative Christianity because of their doctrine, then we are also rejecting the hospitals, the shelters, the many, many cups of cold water throughout the world they have also delivered.

Am I saying that God is pleased with all the work of all churches?  Absolutely not. What I am saying is that God does not measure his people by words on a piece of paper.  That God does not judge any of us based on ideas of what the future has in store for us. That God does not judge us based on which party we vote for.  Rather, God blesses those who do acts of love.

Diane had a boss who owned a laundromat.  He was an avid watcher of Fox and he voted for Bush and he was always talking about people who need to help themselves and get out of poverty.  But when he saw someone in need, he was there for him. I have never liked Bill’s politics, nor did I care for his theology. But I cannot argue with his life.  With the fact that his faith wasn’t primarily about teaching, but about how he lived. And I saw how he sacrificed, sometimes his well-being, for people in need.  He may not be part of our group, but he is among the blessed of God because of his love. And it took me more than a minute to open my eyes and see that it isn’t about theology or posturing-- God’s blessing is about how we respond to someone in need.

I was a person opposed to the LGBTQ.  There are men and women and there is God’s commandment and that’s enough.  And then Vickie came into our lives. She would be classified as a transvestite by some, although her issues were more complicated than that.  She and I went into counseling, so I could give her spiritual guidance while she was living in our house. In the end, she is the one who taught me.  She taught me that the truest Christian may not have everything right according to the church, but is humble, serving and loving. In fact, the best Christian I know was thrown out of multiple churches because of issues that had nothing to do with love, but with the kinds of clothes she needed to wear.   I thank God for her to come into our lives. She, more than anyone I know, taught me that love is more important than doctrine. And I have never forgotten that lesson.

Should we ignore theology?  I don’t think so. Our theology can help us determine how best to love.  But I think that we should take care not to judge someone who has a different theology or politic than we, because those things sometimes matter less than the practical details.

The other thing is something I wonder.  Bible studies and classes are usually about making sure that everyone in the group is on the same page theologically, on the right page of belief and doctrine.  Sometimes we have Bible studies to actually explore God’s will about something. But here is something I’ve considered. Perhaps instead of all this focus of studying doctrine and theology is the wrong step altogether, as enjoyable as it is.  Perhaps we need to have love studies. How to best love and care for people. What is love in one context or another. When we have limited resources, who should be loved, this person or that? How do we make that determination? What is the loving and unloving way to obtain resources?  What is the best approach to love, through things, presence or community? I wonder if we should have more love studies and fewer classes on what we believe. In so long as each session ends in action, and not just in thought.

On other thing I’ve been thinking about this.  It has to do with trusting God, like what we talked about last week.  If faith is really about trusting God, then we trust God to lead us in the Spirit, to get us to the right place, eventually.  If we can trust God that much, perhaps we should trust that God is also leading other people who seek her as much as we do. That we should trust God enough to bring other people to the place they are supposed to be, even if we are sure that their way is the wrong way.