Month: November 2022

Sunday 4 December 2022 (‘0) 2ndSUNofADVENT : A.

1 IS11.1-10

• ‘Jesse!’ Read 1SAM16′ Grandson of Ruth-of-Moab & Boaz-of Bethlehem!
• The idealised king alluded to here, where are these attributes in my local church”
• The symbiosis of humans&animals, what is it really an allusion to’
• Especially since the basic imperative uberall is still, ‘Eat, or be eaten’!
• Apart from the political&economic ‘peace-stratagems, what 20Initiatives are afoot in my local church, to nurture understanding&tolerance&courage?
• ‘Rod/Death”‘: This threat of violence, well, ‘Maybe it’s OK in a good cause

2. THE PSALM 71:1-2,7-8, 12-13, 17 (What’s wrong with the other verses’)

• Read 71(72):1-19! An exceedingly flattering&unrealistic prayer for the monarch’
• What religious or political leader can claim (or would wish to claim) all this
• If Jesus is ‘king’, in-what ways are the ‘wretched of the earth’ benefiting’ 
• With the approach of ‘TheMustBuy&Have’ season, how will ‘ThePoor’ be seen?
• Will Santa&HisExpandingEmpire succeed in oppressing me, along with them’
• What other agenda is concealed in the bland piety of this extract?
• Is this ‘controlling’ of PS71(72) a hint to other sorts of blatant ‘control’?

3. ROM15:4-9

• Read 14:1 – 15.33! A_ dense exhortation to christians in the local church of Rome to understand&tolerate each other’ Why did he lay so much emphasis on this?
• What sorts of rivalries&disputes&bitternesses prevail in my local church? &Who is adverting to this widespread malaise, &making ‘Christ’ actual&relevant”
• What of the claim that ‘Harry Potter’, along with ‘Rock&Rap’, is ‘it’ for-many? 4 MT3:1-12
• What ‘baptism’ was I ‘plunged-in’? Water? Breath&Fire? Or claims about Abraham?
• What is the contemporary equivalent of,

Repentance with a view to the closeness of TheReign-of-Heaven? Pharisees&Sadducees presenting for John’sBaptism?

Trees that fail to produce good fruit?

Clearing the threshing floor to winnow out wheat&chaff?

5. The presence&action of the BlessedOne, is it like this”

‘One thing that puzzles me about John-the-baptist. .’ ‘Careful now! even though he’s only ThePrecursor. !’ TheOfficialBeliever’s interruption was expansively genial, but still was seen to be laying down an institutional marker’ ‘He’s portrayed so outlandishly’ everything about him, milieu&garb&diet&discourse, so bloated&theatrical’ also the ritual of drowning sinners in the river ..”Not just any river! but the sacred stream of the people’s primordial crossing! into ThePromisedLand!”Sure, other people’s land .’ ‘However! it’s the outlandish bit I really object to! such a casual way of referring to . ‘

.”only the precursor” ..”TheVoice crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye “I don’t wonder he was so dramatically wiped-out.. ‘ ..’martyred for his faith by a debauchee. ‘ ‘He just sounds so fanatical’ like one of those Egyptian hermits, crazed by fasting &solitude&glare! How could anyone normal come out of the desert?”Look, get it right’ He preached repentance, he baptised TheLordJesus, he died courageously! Does it matter a drake’s waddle if you think he’s outlandish?” Probably not! Though I still think he has set a skewed example for…’ Bleahhh!!!’

6. RIDDLE What is the core of discipleship? Tolerance among Christians?

Struggle to emancipate the oppressed? Focus on piety&prayer?

Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie

SUN27NOV2022 (’01): 1stSUNofADVENT A

1. IS2:1-5

• Read 2:1-4:1! Oracle depicting the fluid spectrum of Yahweh’sMoods, both for &against Jerusalem & its various categories of people! notably the women
• ‘SwordsIntoPloughshares!’ Which power-structure has ever done, or hinted at, this?
• What happened when ‘TheMountain-of-Yahweh’ was removed to the (holy) city?
• ‘TheDays-to-Come!’ Has ‘ForwardLooking’ disempowered ‘Presence’?

2. THE PSALM:121:1-2, 4-5.6-9

• Read 121(122) 1-9! Celebration of the city of Jerusalem, &its Peace-with-Security!
• How will I undertake to recite this song in our present circumstances?
• When TheTemple is destroyed, & questionable events occur in ‘TheHolyLand’?
• What of the suggestion that I should have ‘TheVatican’ in mind?
• ‘Peace!’: What would the ingredients of ‘Wholeness’, 25centuries ago?
• Might women nuance this psalm differently from men?
• What ‘good’ am praying-for & struggling-towards in my local church?
• Have years of ‘peace’ lulled ‘christians’ into a ‘perverse&uncaring slumber’?

3. ROM13:11-14

• Read 13:1-14! Some relatively simplistic exhortations about ‘authority’ & ‘love’ & ‘awakedness’! But was he more circumstantial in face-to-face settings?
• How is Paul’s demanding ‘agenda’ being inculcated in adultChristians?
• Especially in a society dedicated to all the behaviours he proscribes?
• &What if the persuasions of TheMedia&TheOtherGods are much more powerful?
• &The warning-for-now, ‘Daylight is rapidly being trampled on by night!’?
• ‘Armour!’ will devotion to TheSacredHeart suffice? Or is this-other-talk for real?

4. MT24:37-44

• Read 24:1-25:46! Warning&Comfort fo all Times-of-Persecution!
• Do contemporary Christians still find reassurance in being told that they are ‘the true church’, &have nothing to fear when ‘TheSon-of-Man’ manifests?
• ‘TheSon-of-Man!’ Perhaps the powerful presence of Heaven in human form? Or another way of referring to ‘Jesus’? Or each human being I encounter?
• ‘Stay awake!’ In 45 words, let me describe my own experience of this?

5. The presence&action of TheBlessedOne, is it like this?

‘Begod,that’s some change in th’ weather since las’ week! It’ll soon be..’ ‘Y’ mus’ be psychological! Y’r man took off this mornin’! ‘Off?’ ‘Advent an’ all that! Th’ man above comin’ like a thief in th’ night!’ ‘Wh’ was tha’ film? Some fella usedta climb in th’ winda an’ them.’ ‘But I thought the whole thing was rather somethin’ or other, he started in th’ middle of it. Givin’ out about Santa’ ‘ Th’ bishop wi’ the deer pullin’ hia chariot.’

‘I felt like stannin’ up an’ shoutin’, “Santa’s really th’ man above! Don’tcha know y’r bible?” ‘ ‘Naw, y’ couldn’t interrupt proceedins like that! OK at a union meetin’. ‘ ‘ Anyhow he got back on track!Tho’ I couldn’t folly ‘im, I was so het-ip about poor Santa.’ ‘I got me photo wit’ ‘im at th’ circus when I was twenty.’ ‘Thinkin’ o’ th’ oul’ Canon.’ ‘ Aw, no thief in th’ night there!’ “Comrades!” he’d shout, “No matter where y’ look, or who y’ meet, it’s always th’ man above!”…. ‘God, he was spot-on! It’s always th’ man above! Santa too…’ ‘It’s prob’ly th’ way they’re trained above, a’d say’ ‘ So was..’ ‘Aw, say no more! It’ll on’y get between you an’ y’r sleep! Get y’r mouth around that pint, an’ let be!’ ‘Begod, sure what more can a body do nowadays!!’

6, RIDDLE TheHour! Jesus’Death? MyConversion? EachCrisis? NightFall? MyDeath?

Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie

SUN20NOV2022 (’01): OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST UNIVERSAL KING

1. 2SAM5:1-3

• Read 5:1-6.23! David’s establishment as king in Jerusalem!
• How dis ‘Yahweh’ actually point to David? (read !SAM16:1-13?)
• How are bishops(&other church-leaders) pointed-to &assessed?
• How was/is ‘ThePresence-of-Yahweh’ created established tested subverted?
• Or was ‘ThePresence-of-Yahweh’ a euphemism for ‘male authority‘, as embodied in tribal elders, prophetic brotherhoods, temple priesthoods, royal courts….
• What made David-of-Jerusalem such a deeply-cherished biblical icon?

2. THE PSALM. 121:1-5

• Read 121(1220:1-9! A GoingUp YahwehSong for Jerusalem’s Shalom/Peace!
• ‘Shalom!’ What glimpse here of the ingredients of biblical ‘peace’?
• ‘God’sHouse/David’sHouse!’ In my local church, how do the religious & the political claims-to-power collaborate? &What of financial&media power?
• ‘Thrones-of-Judgement!’: How is ‘justice&equity’ assured to each in the local church?
• Or is that one ignored, or left to the vested interests of the other-arenas-of-power?
• ‘Strongly Compact!’ Necessary in a city ever liable to siege! But will a striving for it in our contemporaryChurch engender unimaginitive&unfruitful authoritarianism?

3. COL1:12-20

• ‘SaintsLightPlaceFreedomForgiveness!: Keystones of this writer’s ‘good news’!
• That intriguing&sparkling & yet opaque-as-Golgotha ChristSong!

Let me first&foremost chant this, more than once with a friend!

How is this related to TheLogosChant of JN1:1-18?

What 7Layers-of-Reality can I glimpse in this ChristSong?

How much of it is being realised&tested&repressed in my local church?

Isn’t all of ot somehow recapitulated in the unsurrenderable image, ‘Body’?

4. LK23:35-43

• ‘Save!’ Playing on the name ‘Jesus/Yeshua/YeHoshua/YahwehSave!’
• Is there a certain repression of the horror of’Crucifixion’, &emphasis on His’Regality’?
• What significant problematics are being mooted?

Who actually encompassed Jesus’Death? &Who can witness it?

The apparently shameful defeat of the great charismatic hero from TheNorth?

The relation of Jesus, especially in death, to Jewish Faith&Hope?

The imagining that Jesus, in death, was more a ‘King’ than ever!

The need for impartial testimony to the ‘innocence’ of ‘Lamb?Jesus’!

5. The presence&action of the BlessedOne, is it like this?

Amen! Asa I fitfully struggle for sips of precious breath, as I vainly push away, oh abba sustain me, wave-on-wave-on-wave of never-anticipated pain, oh sweet body, oh the mother, hands feet thighs, oh fire-of-thirst more than those who walked in that furnace-of-hatred’s-tyranny! Oh my head, crowned like Absalom, teeth&claws of some desert demon’ &How will I not succumb? &How will I not blaspheme&curse-the-name?even a moment’s strong defiance, worth perhaps any loss of punishment! Oh the cruel mockery of the titulus, ‘King! King!’ What I always glimpsed in their hungry eyes, &fled-from, &warned my own disciples against! Oh the people’s thirst for a king! Oh the hunger for an emperor! Old Samuel knew, &warned the zealots! But who ever heeded old Samuel?

RIDDLE But what sort of king? IntrudsiveDictator? ProphetShepherd?

PrivelegedFromAlways? ListeningFriend? StrugglerFor TheTotalWeave?

Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie

Sunday 13^thNovember 2022 (’01) 33^rdSunday in Ordinary Time Year C

1. MAL 3:19-20

• Read 3:1-4-6! A polemical Yahweh-word, peevish&tender&recriminatory!
• What is fruit-for-now of ironic alertness to this & similar ancient oracles?
• Or are the HebrewYahwisticProphets merely obsessive paranoiacs?
• ‘TheArrogant & TheEvilDoers!’ : Granted it’s never one’s own crowd!
• Probably it’s you-know-who in Northern Ireland or Palestine or that housing estate!
• What-really is ‘ Yahweh’ that it expresses itself in such sectarian fashion?
• What 3Factors will reorientate society’s slither- into- nihilistic-chaos?

2. THE PSALM : 97:5-9

• Read 97(98): 1-9! A ShoutSong for TheReturn-of-theConqueringHero! &
• Is it purely ‘pathetic fallacy,’ or does ‘Yahweh’sReturn’ constitute a palpable change?
• Not to ignore the omitted references to’ HisHand&Arm&Victory!’ Say-it, ‘War!’
• But has ‘ Yahweh’ even got to ‘rule-the-world’ never mind ‘justice?’
• Unless ‘Yahweh’ is over-hastily equated with ‘colonialist Christainity!’
• Why am I still clinging to the fantasy of ‘Yahweh’ or(‘ God’ or ‘Jesus’) as ‘King!’
• & perhaps theMusic &EarthApplause is actually another divinity…

3. 2THESS: 7-12

• To whom have I serendipity to offer myself as ‘role-model?’
• What are the 10 ‘Acceptable’RoleModels’ in my local church? Who are boo-boo?
• Which ‘ChristianMinistries’ are not, in some respects, ‘free-loading?’
• In the absence of a properly- negotiated ‘Aim’ for the local church, how will it be feasible to determine what is’ Imitation’ & ‘Idle’&’ Example’ & ‘Work’ & ‘Food?’
• Currently, what are The10Rules-of-Engagement in my local church?
• From this excerpt, what’ UtterPriorityForTheLocalChurch’ can I derive?

4. LK21: 5-19

• ‘RestorativeJusticeWeek!’ : Formerly Prisoner’s Week! Which-justice?
• Which- prisoners?
• ‘The-Temple!’ But which-religion’s ‘fine stonework & votive offerings?’ One’s-own?
• Has anyone ever truly-read ‘The-Signs-of –the-Times,’ & been subsequently heeded?
• ‘TakeCare!’ How would I know that someone was deceitfully speaking-for-Him?
• ‘WarFaminePersecutionBetrayalHatred!’ : This must be about TheEarlyChurch! Or
• Some other crowd, like TheBuddhists! Sure, won’t ourChurch last-forever!’
• In what 15Ways are IrishDisciples being Persecuted&Betrayed&Deceived?
• ‘NotAHair!’ : What signs, that ‘ AdultDiscipleship’ is being nourished&deepened?

5. The presence & action of TheBlessedOne is it like this?

‘Friend! I must say you appear to be more preoccupied than usual!’

‘Sir, I greatly value your sensitive words! & The opportunity to speak…’

‘As always, Friend, speak your-mind, friend-to-friend!’

‘This, Sir, is my question! As chaos re-asserts, &our all-to-flimsy discipline, &our all-too-ramshackle-for-now structures have already buckled, where are you, Sir, in the truculent disorder?’

‘Friend, I am always here, &always there! &always stationed-in friendship with you.’

‘Only with me?’

‘&whoever struggles to root their totality in deepest-friendship! With-me, all-other, the-earth!’

‘Sir! You enthuse & yet you disturb me! What of the ancient&traditional&canonical&institutional voices that beg to speak for you?’

‘Friend! You know from our fruitful struggles together how it is between us! &How it must be with the flimsy structures & faltering advocates! What-more?’

6. Riddle Justice-for-whom? Prisoners Mothers Children Teachers

Animals Immigrants Disciples Poor Aged?