Sunday Mar 6th 2022(2001) 1stSUNinLent C
1. DEUT26:4-10
- Read 26:1-19! Within this semi-paranoid, semi-jingoistic, ‘CultureCreed’, largely dictated by TempleInterests, can I yet glimpse a genuine ‘Yahwism’?
- Or is it acceptable to trample others’ Land&Culture, if ‘God’ says ‘OK! Do-it’!!?
- How did He end up in ‘The Temple’, rather than persevere in ‘TheWilderness’?
- ‘ThisLand’! ‘Canaan’ So, is this ‘creed’ an anachronistic re-reading of ‘history?
- Namely, ‘We subjugated these people, so how can we retroactively legitimate it?’
- What! Is ‘Yahweh’ so susceptible to the manipulations of storytellers?
2. THE PSALM: 90:1=2, 10-15
- Read 90(91) 1- 16! But how can the weak Yahweh so marvellously protect?
- What, in my experience of Yahweh, makes Him worthy of such trust?
- Isn’t this psalm mostly the tendentious wishful-thinking of a court-poet?
- ‘TheLion&TheGreatSerpent!’: What power can trample these? (Read GEN 3!)
- ‘I-am-with-you!’ Yahweh’s-own-mantra! &CanI carry such-weakness?
3. ROM10:8-13
- ‘NoDistinction!’ This dangerous incredible ‘word’! What? not only to be on-my-lips for devotion, but in-my-heart for valuation&embodiment!
- Wow! Who knows what risquéités Paul’s proclaiming in ROM as-a-whole!
- But then, isn’t ‘the true church’ safe! ‘cos who reads him anyway, except to carp!
- ‘CallOnTheName!’: Could access to ‘TheDynamicsThatMakesWhole’ be so simple?
- If my ‘christian formation’ predisposes me to ‘avoid wholeness’ Just prattle&dither!
4. LK4:1-13
- Read 1:5 – 4:44! Christian re-telling of ‘exodus narratives’!
- ‘Temptation’!Strenuous experiential testing of the realness of ‘faith-n-Yahweh’!
- However what if ‘YahwehFaith’ is importantly different from ‘ChurchFaith’?
- What 20 situations&Exemplars are testing either my ‘Yahweh-‘ or my ‘ChurchFaith?
- These 3Moments-of-YahwisticTesting’!
Which ‘exodus’ narratives are reflected in each?
What scenarios in my-own struggle-for-integrity are evoked?
Can I release this narrative from it pietistic shackles?
- ‘TheDevil’! Which other divinity wouldn’t enjoy subverting Yahweh? (DT6:4-25)
5. The presence&action of the BlessedOne, is it like this?
‘Sir’ Your time in the wilderness, wasn’t it really about TheWorld, TheFlesh,&TheDevil? A retreat, before you began your true work! Preaching TheGoodNews!’ ‘Friend, you speak in specious, but faded&empty words!’ ‘Your pardon sir! but how could… ‘ ‘Always, friend, from myDeath-in-Jordan to myDeath-by-Temple’s Resentment, I was always in TheWilderness! I was filled-with-TheBreath! I was tested in every way, to embrace TheOtherGods!’ ‘Surely, sir, that’s what I meant…’ ‘TheTruth, friend, is not the seemingly meaningful words beloved of TempleScrutiny! Truth is my costly embrace of TheEnslaved! how I might free them from TheSilkenShackles of Ignorance*Fear&Contagion!’ ‘Ah, sir! Such temerity, the cost…’ ‘Friend! Be filled with TheBreath! &then, what you call Temerity will be TheNewExodus-from-Egypt!!’
6. RIDDLE
Which is preferred? Live ‘faith’ vicariously through biblical ‘cherrypicking’?
Or step into our contemporary wilderness, ‘Filled-with-TheHolyBreath’?
Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie