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