Here’s the video of yesterday’s sermon – somewhere along the way I’ve managed to lose the text, but the video is here in full. It is about Adam and Eve and about how their story is about now not then. There’s a nod to temptation and a chocolate boutique. I had the atonement in the back of my mind when I was writing it. Oh, and I included a semicolon. See if you can spot it.
As one who grew up(?) in churches leaning toward the view “it’s a tough story for a tough world, how else would God be just?” in varying degrees, I agree the face-value-narrative understanding of the story is repellant.
One thing stood out for the first time during Sunday’s reading: the plurality in Abraham’s line – “…and we will return to you”. I’ve been idly wondering about that since.
It doesn’t make the story wholly acceptable as Abraham still ploughs on ever closer.
But if one’s goal is to find a “by faith, Abraham” in there, better to say it’s the prior confidence that things will somehow work out well (which I thought was how Hebrews was trying to define it), than to locate the commendable quality in violence (which, by rabbiting on about resurrection, Hebrews does).
In the absence of other clear & wholly mitigating contexts in which to place the story, certainly it’s simplest, easiest and probably best to file it under “that’s how they saw God back then” and move swiftly on.
Oofft.
We have a debate about how to define the membership of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Sally Gorton speaks against changing our current rules. She has done so before. Alan Thornton speaks against giving anyone other than the Rector the role of keeping the role. I think. John Armes speaks of the importance of keeping involvement of those …
We have an excellent presentation on the Millenium Development Goals. I missed who it was who did it. Can anyone help out? More information available at the back of the synod hall and coming to congregations. More here.
We hear from the Overseas Committee that the Scottish Episcopal Church is supporting training in West Africa, including paying University Fees and student bursaries. So, we are paying for university education for African Dicoeses which are growing and apparently full of life. We are not paying for such training or university degrees for people from…
Donald Reid asks us to point people towards the Festival of Spirituality website. Happy to do so: http://festivalofspirituality.org.uk/
Leave a Reply