“Here I am.”

Hebrew word Hineni: pronounced “hee nay nee”

Based on Genesis 22:1-14.

Rembrandt, “The Sacrifice of Isaac”

There are three calls to Abraham in the text today: a call from God, a call from his son Isaac, a call from an angel.

From God:

God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Hineni- Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and offer him there as a burnt offering.” So Abraham goes, and the two of them walked on together with all the supplies for this sacrifice, when. 

From Isaac

Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Hineni - Here I am, my son.” Isaac inquires- , “where is the lamb we need for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a 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, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 

From an angel

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Hineni - 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.

The response we hear to three calls in Genesis this morning from Abraham is

“Here I am.” In Hebrew: Hineni.

Different than “yep I’m here.” Hineni is intentional— really present. It’s meaning is more like: ”I am here for you fully, with the trust and vulnerability to do whatever it is you ask of me.” It is full presence, trust, acceptance. This response, hineni, (hee nay nee) signifies a turning point, a potentially life changing moment requiring decision, action, resolution. It’s big deal, this phrase hineni.

Here I am, Hineni.

I hear your call.

I am alert and totally focused on what you are saying to me.

The response Hineni occurs eight times in the Torah. Three of those eight times are in our text from Genesis today. That’s a really big deal- it means there are three callings in our short Genesis text, although we usually focus only on the first.

Hineni- is the response of love, of connection, of a heart open to possibilities.

A heart open to God.

A heart oopen to others.

A heart open to a cause or a purpose.

Three calls for Abraham’s presence in the text today- we might explore them as calls we could also hear.

A call into trusting relationship. 

A call for understanding. 

A call against violence.

Abraham is open to the call from God, from another person (his own son), and from an angel.

Abraham says Hineni to:

God - who asks a terrible dark troubling thing of him

Isaac -who asks him to reveal this terrible truth

Angel - who prevents the dark violence from happening

Abraham grew up in a polytheistic Mesopotamian tribe, and is learning how to establish a new tribe, a new way, with the one God. And so we might understand this story as an important early teaching story. This one God (of Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Hagar and Ishmael) will not be a god who requires human sacrifice.

Our God calls us!

God’s call to us is

a call to relationship,

a call to sacrifice,

and in the end… not a call to violence.

It is possible that Isaac knew the cultic practices of sacrifice from the previous religion, it sounds like he is familiar with the basic concept of animal sacrifice. In the text, the younger generation suggests an alternative way for going forward, the younger generation asks to make sense of what is happening. And it is an external spiritual being that redirects the event, that stops the violence.

I am reminded of several dystopian young adult fiction titles, especially Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, that have as their premise some tradition of violent sacrifice that whole communities accept as a tradition, a way of life that cannot be altered. And then the younger generation asks a challenging question, or a particularly wise outsider notices the strange custom, and the community struggles to shut down the voices that question, that ask why? Why do we do this? What is going on here?

We guard against such dystopian fiction turning into reality by questioning the ways we live, the decisions we make, by listening to the younger generations and outsiders who challenge long-accepted yet potentially violent traditions in society.

While we may focus on Abraham’s faith in listening to God and binding up Isaac, we may also consider Abraham’s faith in redirecting his actions, his openness to a different way, a different outcome. 

And, we may open ourselves to being called, hearing the questions, being redirected. In our faith journey of discovering God’s call in our lives, we can learn from this difficult ancient story a pattern…

A pattern that begins with showing up- showing up with ears open to the possibility of God calling you, a possibility that God will ask something of you in this life.

A pattern that continues when you or I say to God: Here I am - I am available for God to transform me.

A pattern that is open to questioning, to curiosity, to a younger generation who has key questions to ask about the ways we are going about things.

And a pattern that remains flexible in its faithfulness- offering us the flexibility to re-imagine life according to God’s dream for us, which does not include violence against each other.

That’s the faith life in a nutshell- Showing up, being present and available. Remaining curious, open to questions and flexible, flexible in how we turn from violence and trust in God’s ability to provide a way forward for us.