What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Pentecost Dress Code

    Fabric

    Don’t forget now – if you are coming to St Mary’s on Sunday morning you are invited to wear your own national dress if you have it. We’re remembering the story of Pentecost – how the Spirit came upon the people of God in Jerusalem who were gathered from all parts of the world and who heard the glories of God being spoken in their own language.

    The invitation on Sunday at St Mary’s is to say the Lord’s Prayer in your own language too.

    If you want to wear something special for the feast and national dress isn’t appropriate for you, then please wear something red – the liturgical colour of the day.

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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