I need to tell you, Cynthia, that it's nothing personal. I don't wait until the Sundays you're a worship leader to pick Bible stories that are so painful to read. The story of Abraham and Isaac is one of those Bible stories most of us hate to hear. I chose it because I think it shows some of the main differences between psychology and theology. And I've chosen to preach on "psychology vs. theology" and "creationism vs. evolution" at the same time. Because these two topics raise the same issue for me.

I'll speak to the second point first. These two topics raise the same issue for me. Theology and science, and theology and psychology, seek to answer different questions. And we get into trouble when one discipline tries to answer the questions that another discipline is equipped to answer.

Simply put, science answers the question how? How did the universe come to exist? How did life form on planet earth? How did humans evolve from these earlier life forms? Science answers the question how?

When theology tries to answer the question how?, we get into trouble. We end up with fruitless debates between creationists and evolutionists. The words creationist and creationism exist because there are Christians who are trying to turn the Bible into a scientific textbook that can answer the question, How was creation created? When the Bible can't answer that question. The two creation stories in the book of Genesis are not scientific explanations of how the universe came to be. Christians can't say the first of those creations stories proves God made the world in seven days. Or proves the theory of evolution is wrong or anti-God.

Because the main question theology and the Bible try to answer is why? Theology talks about why God created creation. God made the world because God wants companionship. God wants partners with whom to bring creation to its fullest, most glorious state. God created the world because God is a God who loves to create. God loves to give life to what before had no life. God created the world because God loves to share sparks of the divine with other life. God doesn't want to hoard divinity and sacredness and holiness. God wants to shower creation with them because God is a God of inexhaustible love. Creation exists because God wants us to know we are not alone. God wants us to know She walks through this world by our side.

These are some reasons why Christian theology says God created the heavens and the earth.
Science cannot answer the question why God created creation. Because science doesn't address questions of the meaning and value of what exists. Deep meaning and value are questions for philosophy and theology to address.

That's why scientists and theologians need to listen to each other. Because to live morally and intelligently we need to address both the hows and the whys. When Christians oppose letting students be exposed to the theory of evolution free from the distraction of pretending creationism or intelligent design has a scientific basis, all we do is look foolish and imprison students in ignorance. When scientists continue to develop ever more sophisticated means of destroying God's creation without having to face the question of why they believe they have the right to use this knowledge, we find ourselves possessing weapons that we have no moral authority to possess. Science and theology need each other.

Just as psychology and theology do. Psychology answers questions about human thought, emotion, and behavior. Theology answers questions about the nature of God and God's interactions with creation, and what following this God looks like. Since God relates to humans, and humans relate to God, then psychology and theology have a lot to say to each other.

One of my favorite social work professors said the purpose of counseling is to "assuage pain and rekindle will and purpose" in the client's life. Pure psychology would say humans don't need a supreme being to be able to relieve their pain and rediscover a reason for their lives and recommit themselves to living fully and contentedly. Some psychologists would say religion is an obstacle to healthy living. Sigmund Freud believed religion reflects a deep human insecurity and fear, a childish need to be protected by an all-powerful father figure, and a profound need to be comforted in times of suffering. Freud said science, creative work, and an ability simply to accept the reality of suffering offer a superior form of comfort than what he called "the false consolations of religion". Of course other psychologists like Carl Jung, believe religion can offer powerful tools for healing and wholeness.

When I think about clients and parishioners I've worked with over the past 20 years, I am struck by the extent to which theology offers psychology a vocabulary for the hardest issues we face in our lives. Many of those who have come to me are living with theological and Biblical issues like sin and salvation, alienation and reconciliation, guilt and forgiveness, judgment and grace, spiritual death and rebirth, despair and hope (Howard Clinebell, Basic Types of Pastoral Care & Counseling, Nashville: Abingdon, 1984, p. 50).

These disciplines have a lot in common.

What's different about psychology and theology is illustrated by this Bible story we hate to hear - the story of Abraham and the almost-sacrifice of Isaac.

Isaac comes into a counseling office for his first appointment and slouches down in a chair. He and the psychologist chit-chat a bit about the weather. She asks if he had any trouble finding the agency. Then the therapist asks, "So, what kinds of issues are you most interested in working on together?" Isaac says, "Well, last week my dad took me up this mountain and almost sacrificed me because God told him to." It's not hard to imagine what would happen next. The psychologist calls Children's Protective Services, and they hightail it over to Abraham and Sarah's place. Abraham is involuntarily committed to the local psychiatric ward where he undergoes a battery of tests to determine if he is fit to stand trial. And poor Sarah is left to wonder why she didn't know any of this was going on.

Isaac's therapist would ask the questions theology asks. She's look for answers to a lot of whys. And that would lead her to look at the environment or the context of Isaac's home and family. What is this home like? What values do Abraham and Sarah live by? What mental illness might explain why Abraham believes he heard God tell him to kill Isaac?

To our ears this story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac is more than extreme. Many of us Christians probably would prefer it were not among the stories in our Bible. That would be one less story we felt embarrassed or angry or defensive about.

But what if we look at this story we hate to hear through the lens of theology – with some history and sociology thrown in as well? How does that change what we see and hear in this story? This is what makes reading the Bible really fun for me. Because freeing these different disciplines to offer their insights means we're not limited by the smallness of our individual history and experience. Drawing on the insights of all these disciplines frees us to hear a new word – an unexpected word we never knew was there.

In the Middle East 3000 years ago, children had no value as children. The value of children was measured by how much they increased the status and wealth of their father. And certainly a part of a man's status and wealth was how the local gods felt about him. Did the gods look on this man with favor? Were they pleased with his devotion and his offerings? Or had he done something to anger them? This is the context of the story of Abraham and Isaac. God tells Abraham to offer his beloved son Isaac to God as a sacrifice. And Abraham does what any self-respecting male of his time would do. If sacrificing his son will increase Abraham's status in God's eyes, that's all that matters. Besides, God gave Abraham and Sarah Isaac in the first place. So God has the right to take Isaac awiiay (RWL Moberly, Genesis 12-50, Sheffield Academic Press, 1995, pp. 43-45).

It's as straight-forward as that. Today we can't believe Abraham goes along with this supposed demand from God. If this happened to us today, we'd tell God to take a hike. And rightly so. Yet we can only interpret this story fairly by remembering this fact. Three thousand years ago, there's a group of people sitting around a campfire. Someone is telling this story of Abraham and Isaac. No one, not a single person there, would ask why Abraham did what he did. They would feel the unbearable anguish Abraham probably felt knowing he had to kill his own son. But everyone around that fire would have done what Abraham did. They would have been faithful to the God they worshiped and served. This is what being a man in that culture demanded.

We can criticize Abraham's behavior in this story. And criticize God's behavior. More faithful, I believe, is to ask what this story meant to the people sitting around that campfire hearing it. And to ask what this story demands of us today.

I had dinner with a good friend last week. I mentioned I was preaching on this story of Abraham and Isaac. I talked about what I just said to you. And I said I thought that story was all about the need to be faithful to God above anything and anyone else.

My friend got very quiet. Then he said, "I can't go there with you, Dave. For years my parents put God and the teachings of the Church above everything else. That was why they said they couldn't support me when I told them I was gay. That was why they wouldn't let my partner and me stay in the same room when we visit them. That was why I wasn't allowed to tell any of my relatives about this man I loved. Being faithful to God was why my parents didn't even come to our wedding. They said coming to our wedding would mean disobeying God. Throughout all of this, I've felt like Isaac. And my dad has been Abraham. Sacrificing me to his god."

Psychology might ask my friend's parents what their faith and their church community mean to them. And why they give these church teachings the power to endanger their relationship with their son.

Theology names what my friend's parents are doing as idolatry. Idolatry means worshiping gods other than the capital "G" God. I believe theology says my friend's parents are sacrificing him to the god of homophobia. Worshiping this god instead of the God Jesus reveals has led them to harm someone they deeply, deeply love. They do not wish to harm him. But their actions, and Church teachings that justify his parents' behavior, have harmed my friend. They have helped slowly to strip him of his faith. He no longer believes he is the beloved son of a compassionate God. Because he sees how his parents' faith has led them to treat him.

In this same spirit, I hear the story of Abraham and Isaac say to us: Go ahead and fault Abraham for being willing to sacrifice Isaac to his God. And then ask yourselves, what gods to do offer-up your children to as a sacrifice?

There are many false gods we follow. Following these gods can cause great though unintended harm to ourselves and to those we love. Offering up our children to the god of success and achievement can leave them depressed because they know they'll never be perfect enough, and leave them isolated and lonely because they form relationships only for the purpose of getting ahead.

Singles or couples worshiping the god of freedom can become so self-absorbed they do not feel responsible for nurturing the lives of anyone else. So they offer-up those in need whom they refuse to share their lives with.

Many liberal Christians offer-up our kids to the god of 'I don't want to tell you what to believe so I'm going to let you find your own religious path.' So we leave our kids without the tools they need to know how to build a relationship with God. Our kids don't learn how to really feel God's love. And when we need to know God is there, we end up lost. We can't trust we're forgiven or don't know how to forgive. We can't face the death of a loved one or our own death. We don't know how to listen for where God is calling us to go.

Nations routinely offer-up their young to the gods of nationalism and pride and false patriotism. We send our children off to war when war could have been avoided. And nations and individuals offer up our children and our families to the gods of greed, lust, and fear. All false gods whom to whom we offer-up our families. While we criticize Abraham for offering-up Isaac.

Theology invites us to hear both old words about God, and new words about God. Theology invites us to live lives in which we listen always to the new, living word God speaks to us. The new and living word that comes through the Bible. The new and living word God speaks through current events, through mountains and streams, through our favorite authors and through our enemies and our friends. Theology shows us what it means to follow Jesus, in whose name we have been baptized.

Theology shares much with psychology. But what makes theology different is that theology speaks first and finally of God. For Christians, theology speaks first and finally of the God who comes to us in Jesus. This Jesus shows us how we find meaning and value in our lives. Because this Jesus had a special love for the people who lived on the margins of society. This Jesus kept telling fragile and hidden people they were first in line at God's banquet table. So we can be sure that, for us, following Jesus means befriending some fragile, hidden life. And we can be sure befriending that life will help us understand what following Jesus is all about.

Father Henri Nouwen taught at Yale and Harvard. He lectured all over the world. He had the life most academics only dream of. But something was missing. During the last years of his life he discovered his true calling: did he find his true calling: working and living as a chaplain in a community of people with mental handicaps. With them, Nouwen learned what following Jesus really means. Here is what he discovered.

"Just after I moved in[to community with handicapped adults] they asked me if I would be willing to take care of Adam. Adam cannot speak. Adam cannot walk. Adam is what some people might call 'a vegetable.' 'Would you be willing to wash Adam?' they asked. 'Would you be willing to dress him and give him breakfast?'

As I began to take care of Adam, I slowly discovered what life is about. Adam began to teach me about the smallness of living. As I bathed this twenty-five-year-old man, washed his face, combed his hair, fed him, and dressed him, I began to realize what an incredible gift life is. Adam spoke to me in a language I didn't know he could speak. He told me how hidden, vulnerable, and deep life is. Being with him gave me a sense of being closely in touch with living. After a while I felt an enormous desire to leave my office and my books and be with Adam, because he would tell me what life was about."

Nouwen realized when we say 'yes' to life we give hope to each other. When we say 'yes' to unborn life, 'yes' to life on death row, 'yes' to the life of the severely handicapped, 'yes' to the life of the broken and the homeless – we give hope to each other. He said, "Adam strengthened my hope. It wasn't optimism. Adam is never going to get better. But he offers me hope. This hope can form a very strong bond among people who are willing to go where life is fragile and hidden (Henri Nouwen, "Fragile and Hidden," in Paul Rogat Loeb, The Impossible Will Take a Little While, Basic Books, 2004, pp. 114-15).
For some of us, these fragile and hidden people are right there in our lives – in our families, our neighborhoods, on the streets we walk, where we eat and shop and work. For others of us, these fragile and hidden people in whom we see the face of Christ might be further away. Which makes being their companion harder.

People of faith draw on the wisdom of psychology to understand ourselves and others in a deeper way. And people of faith keep coming back to theology because we know our deepest joy comes from following the God who made us, and the Christ in whose form God comes to us. Which means theology can make demands on us that we can find reasons not to agree to. I might find all kinds of reasons why I shouldn't follow what I hear as Jesus' call to go to Darfur, or give up my car, or become a vegetarian. And a therapist would likely find wisdom in these justifications for not following Jesus. But as a person of faith, I also must heed the wisdom of theology. Because if I do not follow Jesus, I inevitably will not find the joy and contentment I seek. Theology reminds me I need to follow Jesus instead of following false gods and offering-up myself and others to their false promises. Theology reminds me being faithful to God today means befriending some fragile and hidden life just as Jesus did.

Where Jesus was is where Christians need to be. Because where Jesus was is where most people in the world never go.

If you are not doing so already, somewhere there is life on the margins of our world that you are called to befriend. Not a life to sacrifice to some false god. But a life to see as sacred. A life to commit yourself to. A fragile, hidden life that will confront you with hurt and brokenness. And that will show you perhaps for the first time what following Jesus is all about. Which is finally the life-saving gift of theology. Amen.