Here are the most interesting things I’ve read this week.
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.
Oh yes, and I nearly forgot. I saw a brilliant flash of blue darting over the River Kelvin yesterday. The sight of a glorious kingfisher. The kind of sight that makes you so glad you live in the city.
To Mother India Cafe yesterday for lunch with E. He does have a way with a curry menu.Then to Kelvingrove again. Still gloriously packed with people, many of whom had children with them. It is astonishing to make such a success from a object focussed city museum. I was wondering whether it will calm down…
I wish I had the time to do a research project on building healthy decision making processes in church life. It seems to me that a fundamental question is how we use patterns of democracy in decision making. People often pray for the involvement of the Holy Spirit or for God’s guidance at church meetings…
By the way, Archers fans, can someone tell me…Has Jazzer always been such a Pantomime Glasgwegian or is it new? The BBC website seems to suggest that he was born in Borchester in 1984. How come he sounds like he does?
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