Vulnerability of God

I preached a sermon two weeks ago on the story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac. The New Interpreter's Bible commentary for this story brought up a very interesting idea, the vulnerability of God in this story. I am sure I am not alone in being uncomfortable with the command that God gives Abraham to sacrifice his own son. Even if it is just a test it seems a very cruel test. The commentator for this passage makes the interesting point that while this is a test of Abraham and his faith, God has a stake it in as well. If Abraham fails the test and lacks faith, what happens to God's promise? Will God still make Abraham the founder of a great nation? Could God be wrong about Abraham? If God cannot be wrong, then is it really a test? Since God already know the answer it does not seem to be a good test, nor is it really a teaching moment since there is no hint of anything learned from the experience, other than the faithfulness of God and of Abraham. Strange as it may be, for me the vulnerability of God is comforting. If God is as unchanging and unchangeable as more orthodox thinkers like Aquinas believe, then my life makes no difference in God's eyes. It cannot make a difference. In order for my life to mean something to God, for God to want me to be saved, there has to be something that God wants and cannot, or choses not to control. If this is the case then God can be let down, God can lose, at least on a local level. If God truly wants the world to be redeemed
(which I believe is the message of Scriptures) it seems that one of two things must be the case, God will redeem the world regardless of what we do, or in fact it is possible through our actions for God to not get what God wants. While God may or may not choose to redeem the whole world, I believe that at some level it is possible, through the gift of free will that humans have, for God to not get what God wants, this is perhaps the real way that humanity can sin. While I cannot be certain of all of this, and I am certainly open to a third option, I wanted to say what strikes me most about the second option, that it is possible for God to not get what God wants, it means that what we do really matters. Not simply matters on the small scale of how it affects our own lives, but matters in the grand scheme of things, matters to God. Suddenly the imperative to go into the world, to make the world a better place becomes all the more real. What are you doing to help God today?