Abraham and Ishmael

I did it! I wrote my first Spirit Play story, and told it today!

It went really, really well. It was risky. It was the story of Abraham and Ishmael, told as part of a Children's Chapel service about the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which occurs in a week and a half.

It's a tough story for some UU's to sit with. There's Abraham, a key dude in the Bible, Torah, and Quaran. There's God, the angry Father in heaven. And there's that part about Abraham unquestioningly agreeing to murder his son since God told him to.

Some UU's strain mightily to find the wisdom in stories such as this one from our Jewish and Christian heritage. But that's something I like a lot about Spirit Play. Spirit Play works with stories. All stories are true. They are true stories. "Once upon a time..." "As the story goes..." "And they say..." There is an acceptance of the validity of the genre that allows us to hear the truth of a story and hold it in a different--but no less important--place than the truth of physics or geological time or cell biology.

No one at a UU church is asking anyone else to swallow the truth of a story whole. We are hearing and feeling and thinking about the story together. We are wondering about it together. We co-create a place that is safe to explore, where our questions are taken seriously and appreciated, and where we share what truths we discern for ourselves as we muddle through this beautiful business called Life.

So today, eleven children and I examined this story--the inspiration for one of the two official holidays of the 2nd largest religion of the world--to see what we could see.

Here's the story:

Spirit Play Story

“Abraham and the Sacrifice”

Materials:

White underlay, 36” square

2 peg people, one large and one small

4 strips contrasting, natural-colored, textured fabric (to represent 3-day voyage up mountain plus one strip laid horizontally at the top)

Brown textured fabric cut into oval about 6” long

Ram cut out of felt or sewn

Shrub cut out of felt or sewn

[Spread out white underlay. Lay the three fabric strips going up in a rough stair-step like a mountain, with the fourth one laying flat across the top as the top of your mountain where the sacrifice will take place.]

As the story goes, Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.

[Set Abraham at bottom of mountain.]

This story is about only one of his sons. Jewish and Christian people believe this story is about Isaac. Muslim people believe the exact same story is about Ishmael. It’s the same story, but a different son, depending on who’s telling the story.

Today, I’m going to tell the story with Ishmael and Abraham, because this is the Muslim story.

[Place Ishmael on overlay next to Abraham]

Abraham loved his God and trusted Him and believed that He was always good and right.

One day, God told Abraham to take his son Ishmael up to the top of the mountain and kill him. God told Abraham this would please Him.

Abraham was confused, and worried. He loved his son and didn’t want to hurt him. But he also trusted God and believed that everything God said and did was right. He chose to obey God.

Abraham and Ishmael went up the mountain. Abraham carried a knife, and Ishmael carried a bundle of wood.

[Move characters up the mountain. Roll up the wood bundle so that Ishmael can “carry” it. At the top, place the pile of wood next to the shrub.]

When they reached the top of the mountain, Abraham tied Ishmael up, laid him on the pile of wood, and held the knife over him. Just then, an angel appeared to Abraham and told him to stop. The angel said God didn’t want Abraham to sacrifice Ishmael after all, but wanted him to sacrifice a ram instead. At that moment, Abraham noticed a ram—a male sheep—who was tangled in a bramble bush nearby.

[Place shrub next to pile of wood. Place ram in shrub.]

Abraham untied Ishmael. He caught the ram, and sacrificed the ram instead.

[Move Ishmael from pile of wood and next to Abraham. Move ram into pile of wood.]

The son Ishmael lived a long time, and became an important prophet of the Muslim people.

Wondering questions:

I wonder what about this story surprised you?

I wonder how Ishmael felt when he heard Abraham’s plan to sacrifice him?

I wonder if Abraham thought about refusing God’s order that he kill his son?

I wonder why the ram needed to be sacrificed at the end of the story?

I wonder why this story is important to the Muslim people?

***

One child added, "I wondered why God changed his mind. Or maybe the angel wasn't right about God changing his mind?"  Another chimed in and wondered why God didn't just say the ram to begin with, since he was God and all.

Because we didn't do this story in the Spirit Play classroom, but rather used the Spirit Play method of storytelling in a Children's Chapel service, I opened and closed with some information about Eid al-Adha. Here was my closing text, which we followed with a "feast" of dried dates:

The Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha celebrates this story in several ways. First, families and neighbors and friends get together to pray to God. Muslims pray five time a day, every day. Muslims also give to charity on this day. In honor of the sacrifice of the ram, it is a Muslim tradition for a farmer to slaughter one of his or her animals and give 1/3 of the meat to the poor, 1/3 of the meat to friends and neighbors, and keep 1/3 of the meat for his or her own family. In the United States, there are not that many Muslims who are farmers. So instead, many Muslims give food to a food bank, contribute money to an animal rescue (maybe if they are vegetarians), or find another way to give to charity. Giving to charity is very important to Muslims. Muslim families also feast together on Eid al-Adha. A traditional Muslim feast food is dates. Have you ever had a date before? That is our feast today.