Had this weird dream involving Eric Idle, rollerblading nuns and some morris dancers.
Oh, wait a minute…..
One response to “Eid, Pride and Abraham’s Sacrifice”
-
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.
Previous Posts
-
Big Ben
I wonder why no-one has offered to resign over the protesters climbing Big Ben yesterday in the middle of the greatest security alert that Britain has ever been in the middle of. I would have thought that someone was responsible – some police-person if not David Blunkett himself. Strange.
-
Guest Sermon Slot
I'm not preaching today – someone else has kindly offered to do so.So here is a guest preacher, who begins his sermon on the Prodigal thus: The story of the Prodigal Son is most often seen in personal, psychological ways, as a story of family pathos. A self-centered child runs away from home, sows his…
-
I've just discovered rss
I've installed an aggregator. What wonderful time saving software – I wonder why i never used one before. Well actually, I think I did try one last year, but it did not work. An aggregator is used to monitor all the blogs and websites which one might have an interest it, polling them every hour…
-
Medical Report
Many thanks to all who have sent good wishes and offers to help whilst I have been laid low this week. I'm now starting to get back to normal.For those who are interested, I've had plantar fasciitis and very painful and debilitating it has been for three days. The treatment, recommended by my doctor, was…
Leave a Reply