My friends, let’s jump right in today tackling that 1^st reading from Genesis that on face value, is simply horrible—at least the beginning! As I always suggest, we must go deeper.  And we need to go deeper because in the 2^nd reading from Romans, we hear Paul say, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Additionally, in the gospel reading from Mark, we hear our impetuous brother Peter exclaim, “How wonderful it is for us to be here!”  So, how are we to fit this all together?

   Now, the hierarchy within our Church that put these three readings together probably didn’t have as much trouble uniting the three as the common folk with children do because their theology comes from the head alone, instead of from the heart as well.  For them, connecting this reading of sacrificing Isaac to show faith in a seemingly, unfeeling god is not a problem, but is united in their belief that our God sent Jesus as a sacrificial offering for the sins of humankind.  I even picked up a bit of a reflection on TV for this Sunday from a male priest, inviting folks to listen to his message today, and he was saying the same about Jesus coming to save us from our sins. 

   Present day theologians, men and women of the likes of Ilia Delio, Richard Rohr, Sandra Schneiders, and John Shelby Spong, all deny that this cruel sending and mission was given to our brother, Jesus, by our loving God, the same God that Jesus often referred to as Abba—Loving Parent, Daddy, Mommy, as you may want to look at it. 

   Also important in understanding this 1^st reading is remembering that the Jewish people up until this time were used to the ritual offering/killing of their own. But even with that understanding, I personally find it hard to understand a “Loving Parent” choosing to sacrifice their own children. The grief shown us almost nightly on the news from Ukrainian parents, from the innocent Palestinian and Israeli parents confronted with the deaths of their children is proof of this.

   Now, if it is the consequences of how someone lived and acted in the world, then I can understand it more.  This past week, we had a present-day example of this in the murder of Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison camp for speaking against the totalitarian regime of Vladimir Putin.  Our brother Jesus continues to die in our world, over and over again in those who challenge, as he did, injustice anywhere in our world, paying the price for that action.  We need to see anew the Eucharistic “presence” here, in the present, in the suffering, poor and rejected, instead of spending our energies worshipping Jesus’ presence on Catholic altars, alone, apart from the world where Jesus told us we would find him.

   So, once we get past that horrible first part of the Genesis reading, understanding it a bit more in the cultural, ritual context, we can move on to the good piece of this reading that does indeed unite it to the other two readings for this Sunday.  “I will make your descendants as many as the stars in heaven and as many as the grains of sand on the seashore.”  This line speaks volumes about a God who loves us in an over-the-top way! And I think it was ultimately written to tell us that our God doesn’t want such ritual killings, but instead, our living to be our best, for others and for ourselves. 

It says that this loving God wants us to have a human experience that is alive and well and full with family, not one who needs the life of our children in payment for our imperfections, or as a sign of our faith. 

   If the true nature of our God was in this negative vein, then how could Paul in his letter to the Romans speak this lovely line— “if God is for us, who can be against us?” He could speak this line because Jesus had already come, lived, loved, and showed us how to do the same. 

   Jesus’ life was such that as is recorded in today’s gospel from Mark, Abba God spoke through the clouds of transfiguration that [Jesus] “is my Beloved, my Own, [and that the apostles, ourselves included should] listen to [him]” –be like him! 

   Mark’s gospel today also included the lovely line from Peter, “how wonderful it is for us to be here[!]” Now, we could discount this comment as “impetuous” on the part of Peter, or we could consider it as a challenge to ourselves, living in a world that so needs people who will look for the good, proclaim it as such in other people, animals, plants—all of creation really, and do all that we can to make life and existence all that it can be.

   So friends, I started out today lamenting the 1^st reading and its mis-guided connection to the mission of Jesus in the Incarnation.  I believe this is a prime example of how, when we read Scripture very literally, we miss the depth of the message. 

   For us to see Jesus’ coming as no more than “saving us from our sins,” as reparation to a mean-spirited god who made us “imperfect,” which means that, we will probably “sin,” is as Shakespeare said in one of his plays, “Much ado about nothing.” And while this theme isn’t about “nothing,” I would say it certainly is about the wrong theme!

In truth, for the hierarchy of the Church, to make Jesus’ coming and ultimately, his death, all about “reparation for our sins” is to short-change our Loving God, who doesn’t want to control us as the hierarchy does, but wants us to be our best, living out our human experience for ourselves and others.  Such a God wants me, wants you, to proclaim with Paul, “If God is for us, who can be against,” and with Peter, “how wonderful it is for us to be here [!]” Much to do friends—let’s be about it!  Amen? Amen!