WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
A Multigenerational Tapestry of Faith Program
WORKSHOP 6: THE BINDING OF ISAAC
BY REV. THOMAS R. SCHADE GAIL FORSYTH-VAIL
© Copyright 2011 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/30/2014 12:28:43 AM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Protest against unworthy images of God is a deeply religious act. — Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker, President, Starr King School for the Ministry
In the story of the binding of Isaac, God instructs Abraham to offer his beloved son as a burnt offering. The meaning and wisdom of this disturbing text has been debated for many centuries. Is this a test of faith for Abraham, in which Abraham demonstrates obedience even to the point of sacrificing his own son? Is this a story that shows that God disapproves of child sacrifice, a practice by many groups in Abraham's time? Is this a story which depicts God as engaging in a monstrous test, a test which renders such a God unworthy of worship? Is this a story that critiques patriarchal culture, where women and children were possessions of their husbands and fathers? Why was such a story preserved in the scriptural tradition? Unlike some other disturbing stories in the Hebrew scriptures, why does this one remain current and well-known in the popular religious culture of three religious traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam?
This story must be explored with sensitivity in a multigenerational group setting. The ground should be carefully laid before telling the story, and an invitation extended to all ages to judge the actions of God and Abraham. Invite participants to engage critically with the text, asking, not so much why this story was told, but why it was preserved. Why do people still tell it today? What wisdom can we draw from the story? What image of God is portrayed? Some of the activity options explore the story as a metaphor, while others are more concrete and encourage "talking back" to Abraham, to God, and to those in positions of power who ask us to do what we know is wrong.
This workshop continues a pattern of activities that frame all of the workshops in this program. Congregations may wish to establish their own patterns for this series of workshops, perhaps arranging for refreshments or a meal to precede or follow each workshop. Before leading this workshop, review the Accessibility Guidelines for Workshop Presenters found in the program Introduction and make any accommodations necessary for your group.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | 0 |
Opening | 10 |
Activity 1: The Binding of Isaac | 10 |
Activity 2: Retelling the Story | 10 |
Activity 3: Why? | 15 |
Activity 4: Explaining Small Group Options | 5 |
Activity 5: Discussion — Option 1 | 25 |
Activity 6: Rewriting the Story — Option 2 | 25 |
Activity 7: An Artist's View — Option 3 | 25 |
Faith in Action: Advocating for Children | |
Closing | 15 |
Alternate Activity 1: No | 25 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
The story of Abraham and Isaac is powerful and disturbing. If you are familiar with this story, recall the circumstances under which you first encountered it. What meaning was ascribed to it? How did it make you feel?
Read the story with fresh eyes, paying attention to the emotions and images the story evokes in you.
Reflect on how you responded (or might have responded) to the story as an eight-year-old child, a fourteen-year-old youth, or a young adult making your way in the world. Envision the way you will think about this story when you are an elder, looking back on your life.
Bring each person in your group into your mind and hold them in appreciative thought and/or prayer.
WORKSHOP PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
As people arrive, introduce yourself and invite them to make a name tag and sign in.
OPENING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Bring participants together and welcome them. Invite a volunteer to light the chalice as you share a favorite children's chalice lighting used by your congregation.
Ask participants what they do when they hear a story that makes them scared. Tell them that they are going to hear a Bible story which people have been puzzling over for a very long time. It is another story of Abraham, this time with his son, Isaac—a story that makes us want to say, "No!" when we hear it.
ACTIVITY 1: THE BINDING OF ISAAC (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Drawing on Leader Resource 1, The Binding of Isaac Background Information, briefly set the stage for the story. Keep the background information brief, and offer copies of Leader Resource 1 to those who wish to take it home. Say, "In this story, Abraham receives a very difficult command from God."
Read the story aloud.
ACTIVITY 2: RETELLING THE STORY (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to take on the various roles, asking questions to set the scene before choosing any volunteer actors. Ask:
After the actors are in place, ask: "What happens first? And next? Guide participants through a re-enactment of the story, asking at appropriate intervals, "What is Abraham thinking and feeling? How about Isaac? What do the two boys who accompany Abraham do? What do they think about what is happening? What is God thinking? How does God's voice sound to Abraham? Can Isaac hear it? Does he know what is going to unfold? Encourage those who are not actors to make suggestions and offer encouragement to those who are acting out the story.
After the re-enactment, invite participants to offer comments, observations, and insights about the story.
ACTIVITY 3: WHY? (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Give each participant a lump of modeling clay and invite them to create something about the story from their clay while the group talks about the story. Invite participants to discuss the story:
ACTIVITY 4: EXPLAINING SMALL GROUP OPTIONS (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain options for small processing groups and point out breakout spaces. Explain that participants may choose any of the options that appeal to them. There is not one group for children, another for youth, and another for adults. All groups can have a mix of ages. Invite at least one adult or youth participant to take part in each breakout group, and ask those volunteers to set a tone that welcomes multigenerational participation.
ACTIVITY 5: DISCUSSION — OPTION 1 (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to discuss the questions posted on newsprint. Use some of these questions to provoke, guide or further the discussion, as needed:
ACTIVITY 6: REWRITING THE STORY — OPTION 2 (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to talk together about how the story should or could be changed. How might Abraham have behaved differently? What if he had thought differently about God? What if he had talked this over with Sarah, Isaac's mother? What if Ishmael was part of the story, and not banished before this story took place? What if Isaac had protested?
After discussion, invite the group to work together to create a dramatic retelling of the story.
ACTIVITY 7: AN ARTIST’S VIEW – OPTION 3 (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to look at drawings and paintings of the story and for each one, talk about what the artist thinks about the story. What facial expressions do they see? What does the scenery look like?
Invite participants to paint their own picture of the story. How will their thoughts and ideas show up in their painting?
CLOSING (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Create a worship service, weaving together contributions from all of the breakout groups. Do not over-script the worship service, but rather create a worshipful "container" to hold all of the insights, thoughts, feelings, creations, and contributions of participants. At the end of the worship, extinguish the chalice and read the words of Elizabeth Selle Jones, Reading 456 in the hymnbook, or choose a benediction or closing words familiar to participants. Distribute Taking It Home.
FAITH IN ACTION: ADVOCATING FOR CHILDREN
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Work with your congregation's social justice committee, religious education committee or another appropriate group to plan a multigenerational project that supports or advocates for children in your community, the nation, or the world, rather than sacrificing children to hunger, violence, and instability. Publicize and carry out your project, inviting people of all ages in the congregation to join your efforts.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Take a few minutes to talk with your co-facilitator about how the workshop went, using these questions as a guide:
TAKING IT HOME
Protest against unworthy images of God is a deeply religious act. — Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker, President, Starr King School for the Ministry
Explore some of the ways in which this story is told and the many meanings that are assigned to it. Obtain the picture book, The Binding of Isaac, by Barbara Cohen (Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard: NY, 1978), in which an aged Isaac recounts to his grandchildren the story of how God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son, or check out children's or family Bibles to see what interpretation is given to the story. Ask family members or friends if they are familiar with the story. When and under what circumstances did they first hear or read it? What did they think about the story then? What do they think now? Have a conversation with family members and friends about the different ways a single Bible story can be understood or used.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: NO (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to tell of times when they have been asked to do something they know is wrong. If any participants cannot think of such a time, invite them to make up an imaginary scenario. As participants tell their stories, an adult or older youth should write down what is said so it is not forgotten. After participants have found their stories or scenarios, invite them to practice saying "No," using all kinds of different voices (loud, soft, whispering, silly, serious, mad, etc.) After practicing saying "No" to things that are wrong, invite participants to write "No" on pieces of craft foam with permanent markers. Invite them to create a "No" artwork, gluing the craft foam onto drawing paper and decorating with shapes and scraps of craft foam.
WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES: WORKSHOP 6:
STORY: THE BINDING OF ISAAC
Genesis 22: 1-13 (New Revised Standard Version)
After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you." So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to the young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you." Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, "Father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." He [Isaac] said, "The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" And Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.
When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES: WORKSHOP 6:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: THE BINDING OF ISAAC BACKGROUND INFORMATION
This workshop presents what is for religious liberals one of the most mysterious and disturbing stories in the Hebrew scriptures. In the story, God commands Abraham to take his beloved son, bind him, and make of him a burnt offering on one of the mountains in the land of Moriah. Abraham does as he is told, and is about to kill his own son when an angel of God stops him. A ram caught in a nearby thicket serves as the offering rather than Isaac.
The meaning of this story has been debated for many centuries. It has captured the popular religious imagination, serving as the subject of many musical, literary and visual works of art. Rembrandt painted it in 1634. Nineteenth century philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard used the tale to explore fundamental religious, philosophical, and ethical issues in the 1843 work, Fear and Trembling. Classical composers Benjamin Britten and Igor Stravinsky have made it the subject of musical compositions. Contemporary folk singer Joan Baez recorded a haunting piece called "Isaac and Abraham" in 1992.
What is this story of near-sacrifice that so captures our religious imagination? Why was it included in the founding stories of the Hebrew people? Is this a story that describes a test of faith for Abraham, demonstrating Abraham's obedience even to the point of sacrificing his own son? Is this a story that lets us know that God disapproves of child sacrifice, which was practiced by many groups in Abraham's time? Is this a story which depicts God as engaging in a monstrous test, a test which renders such a God unworthy of worship? Is this a story that critiques patriarchal culture, where women and children were possessions of their husbands and fathers? Was the God who demanded such a sacrifice a God of Abraham's imagining?
And there are more questions. Why was such a story preserved in the scriptural tradition? Unlike some other disturbing stories in the Hebrew scriptures, why does this one remain current and well-known in the popular religious culture of three religious traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? It is central to the Jewish observation of Rosh Hashana, where it is said to show that God is merciful. The story is told at Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice that follows the annual pilgrimage (Hajj) to remind Muslims that God requires obedience. [Note: In the Qu'uran, it is Ishmael who is the son Abraham nearly sacrifices, not Isaac.] Some Christian theologians link faith to sacrifice, viewing Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac as one that foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus.
This story reveals that there is a central ambiguity in the Hebrew scriptures: Does God demand sacrifice, or does God promote mercy? Throughout the texts, and in Christian scripture and the Qu'ran, these two themes are expressed.
We Unitarian Universalists can explore the story, consider its wisdom, and raise our voices to question and protest that which we need to in our own time.
WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES: WORKSHOP 6:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: CREATING THE CLOSING WORSHIP
In this program, the closing worship circle offers a time for the group to come back together to enrich each other’s understanding of the story and of their own life experience. This is not a show-and-tell experience, but rather a participatory, co-created worship experience. You will need to do just enough planning to provide a container for participants to share with one another and grow in spirit. You cannot script a co-created worship service, but you can guide it so that all participants feel heard and valued, and all hear and value the voices and experiences of others, regardless of age or life stage. With practice, you and the participants will become adept at co-creating worship to end each workshop.
Here are suggested elements for the closing worship for Workshop 6, The Binding of Isaac. Add, subtract, and adapt to fit your situation:
Opening music
Listen to a recording of Isaac and Abraham sung by Joan Baez. Lyrics, written by Baez, Wally Wilson, and Kenny Greenburg, can be found on the Joan Baez website (at www.joanbaez.com/Lyrics/isaac.html). The song was recorded on the 1992 Baez album, Play Me Backwards.
Chalice lighting
Use chalice lighting words familiar to your congregation or use Reading 452 from Singing the Living Tradition.
Isaac and Abraham: An Artist’s View
Invite the group who looked at the story in art and did their own paintings to share some of what they talked about, as well as their paintings. Place the paintings on or near the worship table.
No!
If you had a group doing Alternate Activity 1, invite them to share their “I can say ‘No’” creations and to place them on or near the worship table.
Rewriting the Story
Invite members of the Rewriting the story group (Activity 6) to share their alternate ending by acting it out.
About Sacrifice
Invite the discussion group to share some of their comments and insights.
Meditation/prayer
Begin a meditation or prayer as you normally would in your congregation. Then say, “This story is a hard story, one that makes us want to protest and say no! We think about Isaac in the story and want badly to change it- to have his father behave differently or to have God behave differently.” Invite participants to remember in their hearts times when they have been asked to do things they know are wrong.” Then say, “Sometimes we go along and do something even when we know it is wrong. In the silence of this community, let us forgive ourselves for doing wrong. Invite participants to promise that they will try their hardest to be strong; doing what is right even if others are doing wrong. End your prayer by saying, “Help us to/may we remember that we are not alone when we make a mistake and act unfairly or with violence. We can admit when we are wrong and try again, and our family, friends, this congregation, and God/Spirit of Life/Spirit of Justice will be with us when we do that. End the meditation or prayer as you normally would in your congregation.
Hymn
Sing Hymn 95, "There is More Love Somewhere" or Hymn 101, "Abide with Me."
Closing words
Do all the good you can,
In all the ways you can,
To all the people you can,
At all the times you can.
As long as ever you can. — R. Monckton Milnes
FIND OUT MORE
To read the full text of Fear and Trembling, by Soren Kierkegaard, visit religion-online.org (at www.religion-online.org/showbook.asp?title=2068). The Text This Week (at www.textweek.com/art/abraham_and_isaac.htm) website has links to many classical and modern paintings and other art depicting The Binding of Isaac.
Listen to a recording of Isaac and Abraham sung by Joan Baez. Lyrics, written by Baez, Wally Wilson, and Kenny Greenburg, can be found on the Joan Baez website (at www.joanbaez.com/Lyrics/isaac.html). The song was recorded on the 1992 Baez album, Play Me Backwards.