Sun. Mar. 4, 2012 (Rosie Perera)

Rosie Perera spoke on the Lectionary texts, finding them to be held together by cognitive dissonance'. For example, when Abram was a poetic 99 years old and childless, he was told that his descendants that would become a veritable nation (Genesis 13), and then the very part of his anatomy required to get this fertility going first had to be threatened by circumcision. In our Gospel reading (Mark 8), immediately after disciples proclaim Jesus as Messiah, Jesus launches into predictions of his impending death. Romans 4 portrays Abram as being unwavering in faith, in spite of having a son with Hagar and laughing in the angel's face. Do we, like Abram, and like other humans portrayed in scripture, have cognitive dissonance in our lives, dissonance between our thinking, our professions, and our living? [JEK]

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