Sept 19 Binding of Isaac

Living into this God Given World: Struggling with Trauma

Call to Worship

God without name

You are the Great I am

As we journey up the mountain with Abraham and Isaac, may we offer only the sacrifice of Praise.

Come let us praise God together.

Prayer of Confession: God, I confess that it is hard to know who it is who is hearing you right. Do you call us to sacrifice children? Will you provide for us when we forget to bring the sheep? We confess that sometimes we do not have the answers to hard questions. We confess that sometimes the struggle is real. Help us God, when we do not know what to do, or who to ask for help. Help us to make the right decisions, help us to do that which is right we pray. Amen

Assurance of Pardon: Jesus promises that all we need to do is confess, and already our sins are forgiven. Know and be comforted by the truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God, we give thanks for the sheep, for the clarification, for the opportunity to give God the sacrifice of Praise. May we go into the world knowing, that Our God is good and merciful, may we go into the world assured that our God will only ask for acts of love and grace. May we be dedicated to do only those things today and everyday we pray. Amen.

Hymns: Immortal Invisible God Only Wise, Amazing Grace,

With Children: Discuss sacrifice, and how our God would never ask us to sacrifice our children and only asks for the “sacrifice” of praise.

Some Things to consider when interpreting this very difficult text:

From the perspective of a parent trying to explain the story to her child: by author Cindy Wang Brandt who wrote “Parenting Forward” https://cindywangbrandt.com/child-abuse-in-the-near-sacrifice-of-isaac/

From the perspective that Abraham was abused and that might have figured into his own response to one of his children being exiled and the other being potentially sacrificed from Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg: https://lifeisasacredtext.substack.com/p/why-didnt-abraham-protest-on-behalf

More Narrative Lectionary Year 4

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Author: katyandtheword

Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ. She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible. "Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal. Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times. View all posts by katyandtheword

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