Great Expectations

Genesis 22:1-14 Psalm 44 Matthew 10:40-11:19 It is expected that every Graduate of Skaneateles High School has read Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. Not only is this one of the great pieces of literature, each of the characters have a twist, such that their expectations, and our expectations of them, must change. This is a weekend of Great Expectations and Change. We know that at the end of the Ceremonies all the Graduates will go jump in the lake in Cap & Gown, but this morning they were our children, who went to Nursery School and Waterman, State Street at the Central Schools; this afternoon they are Graduates beginning the next chapter. They go off on Rotary Exchange, to the Military, or to College and University, we expect to study and to learn, but in the experience each will also be changed and mature. I am increasingly convinced that it does not matter one iota what we choose to do the first two years out of High School. In part because our expectations of ourselves and of life, change. We have to be responsible for making ends meet, doing our own laundry and feeding ourselves. We are exposed to other people and expectations and opportunities than we had in this town. Just as in the first two years of life our minds took in and began processing differently so also in the next two years, whether going to Dartmouth or Afghanistan, whether going to China or Cayuga Community, our expectations and hopes and dreams will mature. Yesterday, we celebrated two weddings, and just as they had planned for that event over the last many months and years, so also the next several months and years will take their expectations and allow each to live more and differently. The obstacle this morning is that life does not happen according to our expectations. We do not simply follow instructions and life will work out, sometimes we face circumstance that test and change us. There are few stories as well known, as horrific, or as misunderstood as our reading from Genesis. Realize that this passage of Scripture is in the Christian Bible and the Jewish Bible and Muslim Koran. The expectation for Christians is that this is the Testing of Abraham. But Judaism and Islam, each tell the same story with differing expectations. The traditional expectation is that the great Patriarch Abraham had wandered the wilderness with God for 30 years, hoping against reality for the fulfillment of Promise, the fulfillment of the Covenant. God had promised Abraham would be the Father of a Child, the Father of Nations, whose name would be known and respected, whose descendents would possess a land of their own flowing with milk and honey. Now the Miracle Child is born, to a couple far beyond the age of having children, and 40 years after the Call, when Abraham is 110 years of age, God commands to test whether now that Abraham has the child, will he still be faithful. Abraham had followed with expectation of a great reward, a payoff in the end, that the barren could conceive. So for Christians, the Sacrifice of Isaac, similar to Baptism, is returning to God what God has given us. Recall that Christianity was given to us who were not previously Jews, as an historic reality. While we were still sinners, before we ever knew God, the Word of God became incarnate, was born and called disciples, taught and healed, working miracles, and suffered and died and rose, ALL before we ever knew. As Christian Believers, we have received the promise, with no greater goal than to live with God in whatever circumstance will come; living with the resurrection, can we continue to be faithful? According to Islam, it was not Isaac Abraham took up the mountain, but instead Ishmael. The story is exactly the same, with a different first born son. The expectations are different, because in the Muslim faith this is a passage about Obedience to God. Abraham knows that he is now too old to have another child, the promise has been fulfilled, the miracle has been given to the couple. Now that you have everything you desire, will you obey God? Will you take the child up the mountain to sacrifice? Reality, and morality, laws against murder and child-abuse are not as important as Obedience to God. Judaism, tells the same story, but with differing expectations. The emphasis is not upon Ishmael but upon Isaac, not upon the Sacrifice of Abraham, or the testing of Abraham, this passage of Genesis is identified at Akedah, this described as The Binding of Isaac. Last week as we read together, Abraham and Sarah had had a good and full life together with God, but the lack of resolution about a child had given Sarah terrible fear. So she bound her fears to her slave, and had the slave Hagar given to Abraham, Ishmael was conceived out of Sarah's fears, then the miracle took place and Isaac was born. Sarah bound all her fears and anxiety and hate to this other woman and her child, such that Sarah wanted them dead and they were sent away, cut off from the family because of being bound to Sarah's fears. Now, Abraham takes Isaac, his son by Sarah, his only son, and Abraham recognizes his life is changing. Never again will life be like it was 40 years ago. So they go up the mountain. Abraham puts a load of wood on the child to carry, then binds Isaac as representing all his hopes and dreams and fears of a lifetime, that are never going to be the same again. But Judaism has two different interpretations from Islam or Christianity, believing in the same God, we can learn from these. First, as Abraham builds the Altar and the fire and binds his child, we replay the whole story of Genesis, that for the first 11 Chapters was about all the world, and for these last 11 chapters has all been about Abraham. How often our lives seem to be all about us! The binding of Isaac, is realization by Abraham that his life has been all about himself, and this is the future, this is the child of God who will also have a covenant relationship with God although different from Abraham. Also, there is something curious in this passage, that at the beginning the Word of God came to Abraham telling him to obey, and atop the mountain as he prepared to kill his child, an angel spoke. Do angels have the authority to overrule God? There is a subtle shift in expectations with binding Isaac. Abraham obeyed God up to the point of taking the life of a child, when ethics, and morals and right and wrong entered in, and Abraham took a ram instead. There is obedience to faith in God, but there can also be ethics, and personal responsibility of saying No. From which, the laws of sacrifice provide a substitution. There is a sacrifice of the first-fruits, the birth lamb born, the first heifer, but when it is a beast of burden, or a child, a substitute can be made saying God life is precious, so I offer this sacrifice hoping my devotion is enough. There is a change that comes through the Binding of Isaac. From this point forward, the story does not follow Abraham, but instead Isaac, and from this point forward God does not speak to Abraham again. Be it in a Charles Dickens' novel, or in the story of Abraham, Ishmael or Isaac, or in the Gospels, our expectations of God and the world tell us less about reality, and more about ourselves, what we perceive, what we are ready to understand and do. Many saw John as the fulfillment of their expectations of what an Old Testament Prophet would be. They followed the instructions of his prophecy and were baptized by John. Many saw John the Baptist as a Radical. He was trouble, he named abuses for what they were and called people to repent and believe. Imagine yourself as John the Baptist in prison, or even as a follower of John, one of those who was Baptized. And you hear of another, described as being like John, he preaches repentance, but he also offers something new, redemption, forgiveness. Do you imagine, John cared about the people he baptized? In all the years we have baptized children of God, new believers, adults and infants, what have been your expectations about these vulnerable ones? Jesus says to tell John, that among these, the Blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, and by implication for Genesis the Bound up receive freedom and new covenant with God. Repentance is in there, but it is also about Redemption. When we read the Psalms it is usually the 23rd about The Lord is my Shepherd, or Psalm 121 about Whence does my help come, my help comes from the Lord, Psalm 100 about Making Joyful noise to the Lord! But sometimes, as we read, we come upon upon passages like Psalm 44 and we can hear the voices of those who had unrealized expectations. They imagined God providing for their needs, and instead they experienced Exile, Holocaust, Neglect and Abuse. The difficulty with believing in an All Powerful God, is questioning WHY LORD, did the Holocaust happen? Why are lives and things built to help destroyed? We have great expectations of our children and our children's children, and they may become far greater and different.