inspiral blog

As part of the lectionary reading for this week was, “At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” So we handed today over to Chelsea and Ella to decide how we’d explore God.

Chelsea decided on four questions:

1. What has Jesus said to you this week?
2. Who do you love?
3. How do you feel?
4. Draw prayers.

All of these were answered or explored using either coloured pencils and paper, or playdough, or both.

I think we did pretty well for a bunch of old people.

Started with the context of the passage – that of child sacrifice and the history of sacrifice in Jewish culture (this is the first sacrifice on Mt Moriah, which becomes the site of the temple). Discussion ranged over a whole lot of territory, from Girard’s mimetic violence theory to this speculative version of the story by William Loader where Abraham goes through with the sacrifice.

We finished by asking ourselves what sacrifices we make (both to false gods and the true God) and whether God actually requires them of us.