Out of the Question...Into the Mystery by Leonard Sweet

This is the actual last book i read. (finished last night at the coffeshop)It's for school. I liked it a lot - once i got past the annoyingly little profound sentences that the first several chapters are overstuffed with. Lines like "Evangelism is not leading people to right beliefs about Jesus. It is introducing people to a relaitonship with Jesus the Christ." and "Christianity is not a system of laws and principles, but a pattern of relationships." I like these thoughts, and agree. but i got slightly annoyed when every paragraph had at least two of these its not this, but this formulaic sentences. okay, i'm exagerating a bit on the actual number, but just barely. anyway, once you get past that i thought it was pretty great. i think the best part was his take on the abraham/isaac sacrifice story. i have never liked nor been comfortable with the interpretation/take on/reason this is okay and in the bible sermons or explanations. it just makes no sense to me that God would actually want someone to do something (sacrifice their kid) so horrific and barbaric and that he had specifically said don't do earlier on. Sweet felt the same way and lists some of the questions he's held about the text and its traditional interpretation of a messianic forshadowing and that it was a test of faith that abraham passed with flying colors. Here's some of them: -Why didn't Abraham argue with God about the killing of his innocent son like he did when God told Abraham about God's intention to kill the Sodomites' sons and daughters? -Why did God no longer speak to Abraham after the outcome of this test was known? God delivered the Mount Moriah test in person, but as Abraham was about to carry out the the command, an angel intervened and stayed his hand. Why didn't God show up to intervene? And after the conclusion of this episode, God never spoke to Abraham again. The intimacy of their relatioship was over, Likewise, from that point on, Abraham "never speaks to God; but only speaks about God. -How did Isaac deal with the fact that his father had to be forcibly restrained from cutting his throat? -Abraham climbed Mount Moriah with his son, but he arrived alone when he returned from the mountain. And he never spoke to his son again. Isaac never saw his father alive again - only reuniting with his brother Ishmael to bury their dead father. Even though God gave Abraham back his son on the altar of sacrifice, Abraham never did get his son back [i should add here that i'm not sure we know that for sure - but there's no record of it in Genesis. -How can it be a good thing that Isaac and Abraham no longer "walk together" after Abraham's triumph of faith? -Why did God choose to name the people of God after Jacob - or Israel - "One who wrestles"- and not abraham? Anyway, i won't list them all...but he suggests that not only was this a test of faith or obedience, which by the way abraham only sorta passed, but it was a test of relationship. and abraham failed that part. he didn't talk to god about this crazy thing, he just said sure and went to go do it. he didn't 'argue' or try to change god's mind like his did about he sodomites or like any person in relationship would do with another. his point is that god wants our relationship much more than anything else.abraham and god had a history of relationship that involved tons of two way conversation, of arguments, of abraham 'changing' god's mind. it would be a fair expectation of abraham to talk about this as well. this was no 'i bellow from the heavens and you little person jump and run scared' kinda thing. ..and abraham only sorta passed the obedience part because he wasn't obeying whole heartedly - he just said fine and walked off without talking to anyone about it or feeling confident that this was the right thing to do and this was really 'gods will'. kinda like when your mom tells you to wash the dishes and you sigh and say fine and you take forever and do a crappy job - not fully obeying. i feel like i'm doing a lousy job of explaining what his point is, and i've probably been inadvertantly heretical at some point, but hopefully you understand what i'm trying to get at. so the main point is that its all about relationship relationship relationship - with god, and with people and with the world. For the last couple chapters he starts talking about art and nature and that you just can't be a follower of god and not love and appreciate beauty and life and all that has been created. towards the end the cute little not this but that sentences reappear but that's really my only complaint. definitely worth reading.