recently i have started to open up books that at one time or another struck me as profound and/or moving.  one of my favorite collections of books are the 5 in the spiritual theology series by eugene peterson.  when i was looking at books to start rereading, my heart was churning with excitement when my eyes fell onto this series.  i chose to reread the 3rd one in the series titled The Jesus Way: a Conversation on the ways that Jesus is the way because i have become increasingly concerned that while many people in the united states know the truth of Jesus, they do not live it.  peterson argues that a person needs to know the Jesus truth and live the Jesus way in order to experience the Jesus life (John 14:6).  i also chose this because peterson journeys through the Bible and highlights the ways various people encountered certain situations and embodied a way that will later be fully manifested in Jesus’ ministry and kingdom.  my hope is that that i will further be able to grasp many stories in the Bible while understanding deeper how they mirror the way of Jesus.

the first stop is on mount moriah and the intense story of abraham being told by God to sacrifice isaac.  in some senses, i hate this story.  i hate this story because it is often pushed aside because it is so impossibly hard to comprehend.  isn’t it interesting reading this story with a smile in a church service with families there.  i wonder what people are really thinking when this story is read.  could God really want this?  what is God really doing?  what would happen to me if God asked that today?  one of the reasons i love working with children is because they are so honest.  while this is a common sunday school story, kids always understand that something intense is going on and ask how God could ever do this.  if only adults didn’t lose this childlike wonder and open honesty about the tough parts of the Bible.

sure, i understand this story does look forward to God sacrificing His Son.  yes, I know that it was only a test.  but still, this story is hard to stomach.  abraham has followed God from his homeland and was promised to be the father of many people and now this God, this Voice that he has been hearing seems to be going back on that promise.  what could God really be thinking here!?!  can you imagine the three day journey with your son, thinking about what is to happen in a few short days,.  i am sure abraham didn’t eat much on that trip.  yet, abraham follows God.  abraham trusts God even when it seems like God is going back on His word.  abraham doesn’t have a Bible to reread over verses to be comforted or many others people to rely on.  he relies solely on the Voice he heard speak.  abraham lets God be in control, even when he can’t comprehend at all what is happening.

peterson argues “the way of abraham continues today along these same lines.  somewhere along the way we realize that we are not in charge of our own lives.  the life of faith does not consist in imposing our will (or God’s will?) either on other persons or on the material world around us.  instead of making the world around us or the people around us or our own selves into the image of what we think is good, we enter the lifelong process of no longer arranging the world and people on our terms.  we embrace what is given to us-people, spouse, children, forests, weather, city- just as they are given to us, and sit and stare, look and listen until we begin to see and hear the God-dimensions in each gift, and engage with what God has given, with what He is doing.  Every time we set out, leaving our self-defined or culture defined state, leaving behind our partial and immature projects, a wider vista opens up before us, a landscape larger with promise” (45).

obviously, abraham had a relationship with God stronger than the few references we see in the Bible.  abraham knew God when God spoke, and by the time of mount moriah abraham knew that there was no use in trying to follow his own way.  abraham failed in egypt and failed every time we see in the Bible when he takes things into his own hands.  abraham has decided to follow God no matter what.  abraham’s reality is solidly based on God’s.  at the moment God spoke, abraham was ready.

i pray that as followers of Jesus, we are open when God speaks.  sometimes it is inconvenient.  sometimes the message is confusing.  but i pray that no matter what the message is, we are ready for God to speak and are faithful to what God says no matter what.  this is the faith of abraham.  this is ultimately the faith and way of Jesus as he was faithful even to death on a cross.

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