What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • What people are looking for

    The following search terms have all brought people to my blog in the last month:

    • Lucy Winkett married (I’ve no idea)
    • friendship as sacrament (if only the churches were this wise)
    • Old St Paul’s homosexuality (A number of searches on this one suggesting that people are not finding what they are looking for from their website)
    • health guidelines for thuribles (Keep it clean and use the ethanol to clean the inside. And do it outside)
    • humorous reading for mothers’ union (I’m saying nothing)
    • can you get a 4 berth sleeper on scotrail caledonian sleeper (I think you can – 2 adjacent apartments with an open internal door)
    • evensong gaidhlig (because Evensong is not esoteric enough)
    • believing that god has a plan for us all (Ah, probably best not coming to me for this one, I don’t)
    • can you have a christening during lent in anglican faith (oh yes – great preparation for Easter)
    • he has a unique plan for us (Oh no he doesn’t….)
    • Episcopal churches Edinburgh (I’m probably not the primary source on this one)

One response to “Eid, Pride and Abraham’s Sacrifice”

  1. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    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.

    Reply

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