The Command to Sacrifice Isaac

Abraham Caressing Isaac

Rembrandt van Rijn, c. 1637

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Abraham-Caressing-Isaac--fe93da0c9c3f398da04cbad5c3628b97

Even when things didn't make any sense, Abraham had faith.

Not “I believe because–” but simply “I believe.”

Go to the mountain that I will show you. Take your son. Take firewood. Take a knife.

Not as happy a portent though entirely as strange as when the command was, Go to a land that I will show you and I will make you the ancestor of nations. And all nations will find their blessing in you.

Not as happy but at least as strange. What did Sarah think as she waved goodbye to her husband and son? She had seen him send Hagar and Ishmael away. What was he doing with Isaac? 

We are going to a distant mountain, that God will show me. 

Trust me, I’ll be back? We will be back? He could make no such promise. Just, trust me. I have to go. I have to do this thing, I have to do what God commands. 

And what is required of thee O man? To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God? And how does this fit into that?

Perhaps, we hopefully conjecture, God simply wants to show the progress of mankind from human sacrifice to the sacrifice of other animals. After all, they did it in the Iliad. Why not us? Though come to think of it, those soldiers mostly feasted on what they put to the knife. We can hardly expect Abraham - and Sarah? - to do that. 

No, this is beyond that, beyond human comprehension. It does not make sense, really, not in any human way. The command is absolute: ultimate and strange. 

And Abraham sets out.

He takes the boy, and the wood, and the knife. And he goes to the far mountain.

There he stretches out his hand, takes the knife - and …

And what? An angel, a messenger of God, stays his hand. Wait, look around you. There is an alternative. God provides.

Perhaps the message is this: have faith, God provides. 

God provides. Over and over in this passage that message is repeated. And it fits what has gone before. And what continues. From the moment of departure from the land of his family, Abraham has put his faith in God and God provides. 

Abraham travels a strange way, a long way, a journey down and up again from Mesopotamia through Syria and down through Canaan to Egypt and back at last to the land of promise. Indeed, the place Abraham lands at last is called Beer-sheba, in Hebrew, well of the oath. Promise fulfilled. Oath kept.

So was his faith well-placed? Was it worth it? 

So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

The story continues in Genesis 22:15-19: The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba, and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba.

And they all lived happily ever after. Was it worth it?

Certainly when they got back to camp, Sarah, who now goes unmentioned until she is dead and buried, and mourned by father and son, must have been relieved to see them. What ever had they been up to? Did they tell her? What would Isaac have said to her? 

And what did he think, all along? Kierkegaard says that he lost his faith on the mountain. I don’t read it that way, but he does seem to have played the innocent. And not only here: at the end of his life he will be bamboozled into giving Jacob his blessing.

Okay, Dad, I’m coming. Wow.

No wonder he missed his mother. Even though Abraham gave all he had to Isaac --except for the gifts he gave the sons of his concubines as he sent them away (25:5, 6).

***

Abraham had faith, even when the promise no longer made any sense. 

He was old, and his wife was old. Thinking perhaps that it was the way to keep the promise, he had a son by Hagar. But that’s not it. Sarah bore him a son, in her old age. But that’s not it. That is not enough. He must sacrifice that son, the only son he loved. God commands.

God commands. Abraham obeys. Abraham trusts. He keeps the faith. God provides.

Somehow there will be a way through this. 

No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Maybe that’s it?

Maybe not.

Maybe it is as radical as it claims to be. It is beyond reason that faith begins.

And sometimes, we admit, life does not make sense. Things happen to us, awful things.

But here is something unreasonable that happens, not just to us, but because of us.

Abraham obeys. And he believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3) And he became the ancestor of all who believe – and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them  (Romans 4:11b).

Obedience. 

Beyond obedience with any hope for himself was this sacrifice. For Abraham it was giving up what he held most dear, what he loved more than his own life itself. 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Is that what is happening here? Is Abraham becoming the ancestor of nations by giving up his right to be a father on his own terms? 

He gives up. And God gives. 

Not gives back. Don’t throw your car keys in the collection plate, hoping for a Ferrari in return. 

God provides. First, last, always. Can we trust that?

Perhaps only as we become children of Abraham, children of the faith of Abraham. He becomes the father of faith, the first ancestor of all people of many nations who have faith. 

We find righteousness, our right place in the universe, by receiving God’s providence. 

Not by works, lest anyone should boast. But just by trust. By faith. Incomprehensible, and all comprehending. 

***

“So, either there exists a paradox, that the single individual, as the single individual, stands in absolute relation to the absolute, or Abraham is lost.” – Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (1843). Bruce H. Kirmme, trans. New York: Liveright, 2022. 145.

JRL+

28 June 2026

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 8

Track 1
Genesis 22:1-14 Psalm 13 Romans 6:12-23 Matthew 10:40-42 Even when things didn't make any sense, Abraham had faith.

Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away

Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael

Rembrandt van Rijn (mentioned on object), 1637

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Abraham-Casting-Out-Hagar-and-Ishmael--b5b3de7539a7183bca26da0836477906

God sees God hears Interesting to have this reading the Sunday after Juneteenth. That federal holiday commemorates the day word finally reached people in southern Texas that they were free, and had been since President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. “Texas was the farthest of the Confederate states, and slaveholders there made no attempt to free the enslaved African Americans they held in bondage. This meant that President Lincoln’s proclamation was unenforceable without military intervention, which eventually came nearly 2.5 years later. Juneteenth celebrates the date of June 19, 1865, when enslaved people of African descent located in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom from the slavery system in the United States.” Here is what they heard:

General Orders No. 3. The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, “all slaves are free”. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. . . . By order of Major General Granger F.W. Emery Major A.A. Genl. Hagar never had a Juneteenth. She had exile. Twice. Flight, then expulsion. In an earlier chapter of Genesis (16:6ff) we learn that she had fled from the sight, and jealous anger, of Sarah, only to find that she had been found, and seen, by the unseen God. She was not alone. She was not unheard. She was seen. In her prayer she named the God of seeing, or God who sees. Her son was named Ishmael, God hears. And so she went back. "According to ancient surrogate motherhood customs, a wife could give her maid to her husband and claim the child as her own (30.3,9)" Thinking that this is how God would keep his promise, Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham to bear him a child. But after Hagar gives birth to Ismael, Abraham's son, Hagar and Sarah regard each other differently: Hagar disrespects her mistress, while Sarah sees her handmaid as insufficiently submissive. Relations between mistress and servant become fraught. Meanwhile Abraham continues to have faith that his son Ishmael would be the father of princes, but that Sarah would bear the son of the promise. Trouble brews. Two nations are being formed, at least: Arab and Israelite. Both from children of Abraham. Father Abraham, father of many nations. In a wisely-excised scene from the movie "Holiday Inn" Bing Crosby appears as a sort of comical Abraham Lincoln. He is portrayed as the benevolent father of freedom for the formerly oppressed. The connection is made between slavery, freedom, and Lincoln. Children of Abraham, that Abraham. Like Hagar, enslaved. But Hagar was never freed. She went into the wilderness. After she gave birth she raised her child for some years. Peace in the tent of Abraham. Then Ishmael gets a new little brother. He makes Isaac laugh. Sarah sees it and she is not laughing. Hagar is cast out: Abraham has divine assurance she will be okay, but she is cut loose. In the desert once more, she seems despairing, but God, or an angel, rescues her and reassures her. She finds water in the desert. She finds hope, and courage. She lives, and her son will grow up. Hagar finds Ishmael a wife from her own people, from Egypt. And he will have children, as God had promised. *** June 19, 2026: Juneteenth National Independence Day (USA) June 20, 2026: World Refugee Day (UNHCR) ‘Each year, 20 June marks World Refugee Day, the international day to honour people who have been forced to flee. Together, we can champion their right to seek safety, build support for their economic and social inclusion, and advocate for solutions to their plight.’ ‘World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on 20 June and honours the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution.’ Hagar reminds us of people who have been forced to flee. She reminds us, and exemplifies for us, the strength and courage of people who have fled their home country - or in her case, been thrown out of the home they thought they knew. Hagar had been brought up, probably, by Abraham and Sarah from her homeland of Egypt. Whether she was enslaved there already, or not, by the time she comes into the story of Abraham and his family, she is serving Sarah. And in those times, apparently, it was considered legitimate for a woman to give her servant to her husband to serve as a surrogate parent (both egg-mother and birth-mother). Legitimate, but hard to live with. Was it exploitation? Our modern customs may not apply. But Hagar fell into a trap of expectation and subservience. What would become of her and her child - who was also the child of Abraham? They are cast out into the desert, away from the home they knew, in the opposite of hospitality. It is through divine reassurance that she bears up and raises her son. And they became the progenitors of princes. This may be a just-so story, to explain how Jacob’s children came to have Arab cousins. More important to us is that it shows God sees, God hears, even the outcast, even the people on the margins, and through them does extraordinary things. What happens nowadays with surrogate mothers is different. There is, in the United States, a practice of surrogates carrying another woman’s child. This can be a family member. Or it could be a commercial transaction. Sometimes these latter lead to legal disputes or poor treatment of the children and their birth mothers. (As reported in The New Yorker.) Certainly Hagar could speak to the modern women and children who are at the receiving end of the abusive possibilities. But in the Biblical story she is twice told by God of unfailing acceptance and a hopeful future. We would wish the same mercy and protection for all women and children who are exiles or refugees. We would wish them a welcome and support. Lutheran Social Services, through its partnership with Global Relief, is directly involved in this ministry in Arizona. Hagar can speak to all mothers who have faced the challenges of exile and migration, refugees, wanderers, and trafficked human beings. And to mothers and children, and fathers too, all who have had hope dashed or squandered, or raised and fulfilled. Whether their voices are raised in sorrow or praise, like Hagar, they have a place in God’s kingdom. So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” (Genesis 16:13, ESV) Almighty God, you rescued your people from slavery in Egypt, and throughout the ages you have never failed to hear the cries of the captives. We remember before you our siblings in Galveston, Texas who on June 19, 1865 received the glad tidings of their emancipation. . . . Anoint us with your Spirit to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of your favor; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Loving God, open our hearts to be generous, hospitable and welcoming to our neighbours. On this week of World Refugee Day, help our communities, our countries and indeed the world be generous, hospitable and welcoming to the increasing number of refugees and displaced peoples. Help us to be advocates for these our world neighbours, your beloved children in need. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Collect at the Prayers of the People: Holy and righteous God, you created us in your image. Grant us grace to contend fearlessly against evil and to make no peace with oppression. Help us, like those of generations before us, resist the evil of slavery and human bondage in any form and any manner of oppression. Help us to use our freedoms to bring justice among people and nations everywhere, to the glory of your Holy name through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ###

https://www.episcopalct.org/resources-for-juneteenth/

https://www.clwr.org › wp-content › uploads › 2025_wrd_prayer_01.pdf

https://faithinformed.org/resources/juneteenth-liturgy

https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/13th-amendment

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/npscelebrates/juneteenth.htm

https://www.britannica.com/topic/General-Order-No-3

https://www.genealogy.gailbrinsonivey.com/cousin-chart-family-relationships-explained/

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-jordan/the-end-of-refugee-resettlement

https://www.unhcr.org/get-involved/take-action/world-refugee-day

https://www.gcsynod.org/news/world-refugee-day-walking-alongside-our-neighbors-in-hope

https://blogs.elca.org/disasterresponse/world-refugee-day-a-call-to-accompaniment-justice-and-hope/

https://blogs.elca.org/elcaracialjustice/juneteenth-know-that-you-are-free/

https://os.dc.gov/am/page/dc-emancipation-day

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/what-is-dc-emancipation-day-history-behind-april-16-observance

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-19-2026

21 June 2026 Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Proper 7 Track 1 Genesis 21:8-21 Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17 Romans 6:1b-11 Matthew 10:24-39

A Son Promised to Abraham and Sarah

This summer the church of St Raphael in the Valley, Benson, Arizona, using the Revised Common Lectionary, is following the semi-continuous track 1 for the first reading, beginning in Genesis... 

In the story last week, we heard of Abraham and Sarah leaving their family to follow the promise of God into a new land.  There God would make them a blessing to many nations.

Now we are getting deeper into the cycle of readings about Abraham and his family, which begins in the 12th chapter of Genesis and continues through until the 36th chapter. Last week began that cycle as soon-to-be long-suffering Abram and Sarai left the place their family had begun to settle and ventured south into the promised land. Only to find that it was a temporary respite. 

In today’s first lesson, they share that respite with others. They extend classic Middle-Eastern hospitality to strangers, offering water and rest and food to three travelers. Sarah and Abraham are tent-dwellers, with their herds and flocks and servants around them, and they are resting under the trees and the tent-flap on a hot day. 

[This reminded me of the journey of the Odyssey, where a long-suffering hero travels through many countries before he could reach his own. Like Abraham and Sarah, on the way he encountered divine messengers.]

We can imagine who these three travelers are, who turn up at the Oaks of Mare. What comes of it, along with the hospitality, is a promise. “I’ll come back this way next year and Sarah will have a son.” A pleasant prophecy but unlikely to be fulfilled - unless God is speaking. 

And so there is a promise given. It will be renewed and repeated, to Abraham and then his son and then his grandson. Abraham and Sarah are already traveling, venturing, on the basis of earlier promises. Go to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. But how are you to become - here it is! the Fathers’ Day reference - father of many nations? Abraham and Sarah are old, they have journeyed far already; they are in the midst of – what proves to be – a very long wandering navigation of the Fertile Crescent, from Iraq to Syria through Palestine, down to Egypt and then back north again to Palestine where they settle down at last. 

And yet they are following a promise that will be fulfilled: for a child will be born to them, as subsequent events bear out.

There is a promise - and there is more: for faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love. 

We see faith at work in the relentless courageous obedience and trust of Sarah and Abraham as they venture forth from home ground, seeking beyond the familiar what is only familiar to them as they are God’s people.

We see hope at work. Hope that persists beyond toil and travel and despair, injury, bad weather, woeful barrenness and impossible pregnancy, there will be a child, and children. There will be a place for them at last, in the promised land. War will not prevent them, nor drought, nor incapacity. They will make it there. They will find it home.

We see love at work. Love between husband and wife. Love, compassion, caring for the strangers. Love, in the expectation of a child. Love, in seeing a future with hope. Love, in the strangers’ promise. And love, in its fulfillment.

This is part of the ongoing story of Abraham and Sarah, and their family. Of love, hope, and faith. And through faith, hope, and love, it is our story too.

We seek a future with hope. We come to expect the fulfillment of the promise. The promise that is behind and beyond all these other promises. 

Beyond despair or deprivation or strife, animosity or the cessation of good will, there will be and is, a greater good, a greater peace. And we are called to proclaim it, and to live into it. The peace of God, the love of God, hope in God, faith in God.

You will see from the day’s prayers, and from the gospel, that we can have that expectation, that is more than a dream, a hope and faith and love that will bring God’s love into the world, in the children of Abraham that are all those who share his faith. And that promised land will begin right here, as we, children of the promise, of faith and hope and love, seek and make a new community and a new home with all those who respond to the call.

###

As he sent them out for the first time, Jesus commanded his disciples: “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’” 

That is the message. The one who sent Abraham and Sarah on their journey is the one who is sending the disciples on theirs – a mission that belongs to all his followers, from then on. It is ours as well as theirs. 

Abraham and Sarah were told that they would be a blessing to many nations. Those nations are us. And the message that in those nations would be established the kingdom of peace. The reign of God is what encompasses and embraces all who seek the peace of God.

Jesus sends out those first disciples on an early mission. They go before him into the villages of Israel, with a message and a ministry. We too proclaim the kingdom in both deed and word. This congregation, I am told, has many ministries to those around us, strangers and residents, as they are in need.

This congregation has a ministry to those around us as we welcome them into our celebrations. In these ministries we proclaim the good news, we live the good news, we celebrate the good news. The ministries make manifest the reign of God. We show that the kingdom of heaven has come near. 

Those early disciples, messengers of the reign of God, were so urgent on their mission that they traveled light. Lucky for them that ancient Mideastern tradition of hospitality had not worn off. 

As they entered villages where they might find a welcome, and be able to rest and even, we can imagine, receive water and food. They might find a welcome for their message. Not everywhere, nor with everyone. Where they did not, they could move on. 

Where they did receive a welcome, there was much to talk about with those who received the message: How do we live out the good news? How do we live as citizens of the kingdom of heaven? What does the reign of God look like? How does it begin to show? How do we live into it?

We receive, and we give. May God’s love go with you today and always. May you carry with you Jesus’ message of peace, and the promise of Abraham and Sarah. May faith, hope, and love abide with you, and go with you.

For the kingdom of heaven is near. Right on top of you. Proclaim it with joy.

JRL+

June 14th 2026 : 3rd Sunday after Pentecost. San Rafael, Benson.

The Lessons Appointed for Use on the Sunday Closest to June 15

Proper 6, Year A, RCL, Track 1  

Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)

Psalm 116:1, 10-17

Romans 5:1-8

Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-23)  

 

The Collect (Episcopal)

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Prayer of the Day (Lutheran)

God of compassion, you have opened the way for us and brought us to yourself. Pour your love into our hearts, that, overflowing with joy, we may freely share the blessings of your realm and faithfully proclaim the good news of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

***

From the Lectionary Page (https://www.lectionarypage.net/):

"What are “Track 1” and “Track 2”?

During the long green season after Pentecost, there are two tracks (or strands) each week for Old Testament readings. Within each track, there is a Psalm chosen to accompany the particular lesson. The Revised Common Lectionary allows us to make use of either of these tracks, but once a track has been selected, it should be followed through to the end of the Pentecost season, rather than jumping back and forth between the two strands. The first track of Old Testament readings (“Track 1”) follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. In Year A we begin with Genesis, in Year B we hear some of the great monarchy narratives, and in Year C we read from the later prophets.