Sacrifice is not a very popular idea today, especially in a consumer America where we are taught over and over that mine is mine, and the accumulation of wealth, power, prestige, influence is seen as the highest good. Giving over of what we have been given, the intentional offering of oneself for the sake of a new relationship with others or with God, seems at the best naÔve and at the worst ludicrous, impractical, and stupid. What then are we to make of the story of Abraham and Isaac? And what is Paul telling us in Romans when he speaks of the gift of God in Jesus Christ? What indeed is the relationship between sacrifice and gift?

Over the last four weeks we have been hearing the story of Abraham from the book of Genesis. We have learned how Abraham and Sarah were blessed in their old age by the gift of their son Isaac and then how Abraham betrayed Hagar and Ishmael (Abraham’s other son) by forcing them out of his household. This all leads us up to today’s gut-wrenching story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. God appears to Abraham and says "Take your son, your only son Isaac whom you love more than anything, and go into the mountains and offer him there as a burnt offering." Offer his son, the child Abraham and Sarah had waited and longed for, for so long, to God? Why would God say such a thing? Why would Abraham do such a thing? Our rector, Michael Povey, in a powerful sermon last Sunday suggested that "perhaps Abraham, in offering Isaac was really trying to punish himself for the shameful way in which he had treated Hagar, Ishmael and Sarah." Michael implied that perhaps Abraham was so full of self-loathing and shame over his unfaithfulness to God and to those whom he loved, that he believed he deserved some kind of horrible retribution from God.

But is this the kind of relationship that a loving God would want, a relationship of retribution and revenge? Or is Abraham, once again, so self-absorbed and pre-occupied with himself that he misses the whole point of sacrifice? Did he see sacrifice as a way to get right with God or is there something else going on here?

Our lesson from Genesis tells us that Abraham, being a righteous man, makes his way to the mountain with Isaac. He takes only wood for the sacrificial altar and while going up the mountain adroitly redirects Isaac’s questions about the lack of a sacrificial lamb. Arriving at the sacrificial altar, Abraham takes his son Isaac, binds him up and raises the knife to kill him. It was then that God intervened; prohibiting Abraham from doing anything that might harm Isaac. God immediately provided a ram to be sacrificed in Isaac’s stead. Not a young lamb (as was the religious tradition) but a ram. It was not the young Isaac’s heart that had been laid bare in the sacrifice but rather the old grizzled Abraham’s. Not the young but the old had been offered up on the sacrificial altar.

The whole idea of sacrifice here is turned on its head here. The story of Abraham and Isaac on the mountain is not about Abraham paying back God for his transgressions. It is not a story of a vengeful God who keeps a chart of accounts and seeks repayment for wrongs done. No, sacrifice is not a quid pro quo action where those who have messed up seek to appease a judgmental God.

The story of Abraham and Isaac on the sacrificial mountain is instead fundamentally a story about gifts given and gifts received in the hopes of new life in right relationship. For sacrifice is not about the receiver, but rather about the one making the offering. It is about a person’s free-will offering, of that which is most meaningful, to another without expectation of return. Sacrifice is about turning over one’s will and personal desire in the hope of new relationship, right relationship, with another. Sacrifice, understood in this perspective then, is not payment for wrongs done, but a free gift that yields new life in right relationship. Let me say that again: Sacrifice, understood from the perspective of Abraham and Isaac, is not payment for wrongs done, but a free gift that yields new life in right relationship.

This new life in right relationship with God and with one another is what St. Paul is speaking about in our epistle from Romans this morning when he says: the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23) Paul is emphasizing that the gift that God has given of Godself in Jesus, is a gift for the whole world. In Jesus, the loving creator God, has become real and accessible to the world in new ways. In Jesus, through God’s grace, the promise of new life in and with God has been given for all people, for all time.

It is in light of God’s the gift of Jesus that we should understand Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Through the cross we are passionately connected with God, with one other and with all creation. On the cross, Jesus’ pain and suffering meet our pain and suffering. This is what we mean by Jesus’ atonement. As Martin Smith, a former brother of the Society of St. John the Evangelist has written, Jesus’ atonement is our at-one-ment: our at-one-ment with God, and our at-one-ment with each other. On the cross is where the gift of a new relationship, a right relationship, with God and each other is effected. In Jesus’ resurrection three days after the agony of the cross, we are given the promise of restored life in him. Thus, in the gift of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the divisions between God and humanity are overcome, and the promise of new life is made real for all. Paul is on solid ground in his proclamation: the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus out Lord? (Romans 6:23)

So what does this understanding of sacrifice as gift of oneself in the hope and promise of new life in right relationship mean for us in the Anglican Communion, especially those of us who are members of the Episcopal Church?

Recent pronouncements from the gathered body of Archbishops of the churches of the Anglican Communion, seconded this week by an inter-Anglican body made up of lay and ordained members from each church in the Anglican Communion (known as the Anglican Consultative Council), has asked the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to voluntarily withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council until the next Lambeth Conference of Bishops in 2008. These actions were taken, ostensibly, as a result of the Episcopal Church’s and the Anglican Church of Canada’s more open and affirming position on the place of gay men and lesbians in the life of the Church.

Now from one perspective, the quote "invitation" to withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council, can be seen as an act of retribution for erroneous actions on our part. Some vengeful elements in the Anglican Communion have claimed that the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada are thus getting thrown out of the Anglican Communion, and we deserve to do so. The same folk say that the sacrifice that we are being called to make by not sending our members to a meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council is sound punishment for wrong actions. I do not believe, however, that such a vengeful and punitive position is life giving, of God, or builds up the Body of Christ. Sacrifice is not about retribution and vengefulness. No sacrifice is about invitation to new the new life of relationship with God and each other.

Instead, of giving in to the vengeful and coercive perspective of the "sacrifice" that we are being asked to make in not sending our members to the Anglican Consultative Council, what would happen if we saw the sacrifice as an opportunity to discover new relationships outside of the power politics of inter-Anglican machinations. Perhaps what God is calling Episcopalians to think about in this "voluntary withdrawal from the Anglican Consultative Council" is how we are in fact related to sister and brother Anglicans around the world, and why such relationships matter. In all of the fights over human sexuality in Anglicanism over the past few years, I have been continually surprised, and frankly heartened, that many American Episcopalians have discovered for the first time that we are deeply connected to the world-wide Body of Christ through sister and brother Anglican in every corner of the world. The incredible outpouring of love and connection with people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa through the Jubilee ministry of the Diocese of Massachusetts is but one example of how God has gifted us new relationships, right relationships, though our giving of ourselves for others. I would like to suggest that the sacrifice we American Episcopalians are being asked to make in voluntarily not sending our members to meetings of the Anglican Consultative Council is instead a gift of the realization of other relationships, new relationships, right relationships with sisters and brothers in Christ throughout the Anglican Communion beyond the power politics of internecine church infighting.

So let’s no longer see sacrifice as a repayment for wrongs done. Instead let us understand sacrifice as a free gift, a gift of ourselves for the other that yields new life in right relationship. God did establish a new relationship with Abraham by turning the sacrifice of Isaac on its head. God gave us a new relationship with God and each other through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. And God is giving us new relationships across the Anglican Communion through the sacrifices that we are being asked to make as American and Canadian Anglicans. I pray that we continue to live in the new life of gifts given; joining with Paul in proclaiming and living the reality of that ultimate gift, the free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. AMEN