Hard Conversations

Throughout our life we try to avoid hard conversations—the ones that may embarrass, leave you feeling a fool. Hard conversations have an impact on our relationships; they don’t remain the way they were. We sense a wedge driven between ourselves and another or we glimpse a greater possibility that vastly changes our sense of self, our relationships, and our per- spective on life and death—and life again.
A Jewish scholar, Martin Buber said there are only two kinds of encounters/conversations: the rst being I-it, a mono- logue where you purposefully manipulate the other in order to get what you want. There is no need to listen. However, the other conversation, I-Thou, is based on respect where a true dia- logue can occur, where listening to the other holds the potential of our being changed by the encounter.
Our passage today begins with a hard word from God to Abraham though it doesn’t quite meet the requirement for con- versation. God calls, Abraham responds. God’s request imperils the promise, the greater possibility that an heir offered Abraham and Sarah. Couched in the language of testing, God demands Isaac as a sacri ce. Does Abraham trust God and obey out of faith, or does Abraham desire relationship only for reward?
Call, response, request, silence. The conversation ends in Abraham’s obedience. He readies the wood and donkey and sets out with his servants and Isaac. Only as they reach the place of sacri ce do words come as Abraham addresses his servants: “Stay here . . . the boy and I will go over there; we will wor- ship, and then we will come back to you.” Father and son set out with wood, re, and a knife. Isaac himself inquires, “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Another hard conversation, but perhaps they walk toward a miracle.