Sunday 20th August 2023(’05) : 20thSUNinORDINARY : A
(Remember Maximilian Kolbe, who died Being-for-Others!)
1. IS56:1, 5-7!
In my local church, are ‘foreigners’ also finding a ‘house of prayer’?
2. PS66:2-3, 5-6, 8!
Speaking about&to God, is there a presumption, ‘He’s closer to us than to TheOthers’?
3. ROM11:13-15, 29-32!
Is it credible that ‘Rejection-of-TheJews’ is ‘Mercy-for-Us’? &What are TheJews doing, vis-a-vis God, in the meantime? Have nonJewishChristians ever read Paul carefully?
4. MT15:21-28!
Here, how did Jesus transcend traditional Jewish intolerance of Canaanites&Women?
NINE SHOUTS-IN-THE-BREATH OF A NON-JEWISH DISCIPLE!
Amen! Praise for TheBreath, that carried TheWord-of-Wholeness!
Amen! Chokmah, Yahweh, &Elohim!
Amen! TheGreatWomen, that bodied Suffering&Courage!
Amen! TheFolk’s insatiableYearning, an UnfailingCovenant!
Amen! TheStrongThreads, woven as Jesus-of-Nazareth!
Amen! TheImages-of-Grace, Water&Blood&Breath!
Amen! TheShepherds! Moses&David, Rachel&Esther!
Amen! TheBrightVoices! TheBlessedTimes&Festivals!
Amen! TheWord-ParExcellence! “Love-for-All!!”
4. God-is-Love!
Frequently quoted, usually out of context (So, what’s new then, pussycat, regarding TheBible?), rarely wondered about! What is the significance of each of the words, &how they are related, &is it as much a question or a riddle, as a declaration or factual statement? Sometimes too, it is reversed in a facile way, ‘Love-is-God’… But,
* What, experientially, is That-which-I-call-‘God’? Where does It palpably occur in my experience? Which ritual grounds It for me? As an adult, howdo I negotiate with It? What advantage is it, to say, ‘It’s really TheTrinity’? In what ways is its Presence&Action limited (or enhanced) by the ‘church mindset’ I’ve been given? Have I been encouraged&trained to dialogue, addressing&listening&responding, to ‘God’? Or, have I been vaccinated to babble mere platitudes about It?
* &That-which-I-call-‘Love’? Where do I imbibe the best understanding of ‘Love’? From Parents, Preaching, TheMedia, ThePoets, Saints’Lives, or Jesus? Is it self-interest, narcissism, sexual attraction? The best grasp of ‘Love’ is embodied in Jesus’ TotalLife : To seek the utmost Wholeness & Unfolding-of-all-TheGiftedness,
of oneself or another! What a tremendous focus for one’s life!
* That innocent word ‘is’, that connects ‘God’ & ‘Love’ in the English version! Does it represent ‘identity’? Or does it hint at a nuance, especially if both ‘God’ & ‘Love’ are taken more as verbs… Say,
It is TheNature&Desire
of TheUnimaginableCreationalOutsurge called ‘God’,
to Seek TheFullestWholeness&Emergence
of EveryOne & EveryThing!
5. The One True Church!
This, learned&repeated from the cradle! Is it a statement, a riddle, or a question? Or a programmatis aspiration?
* Remembering that in mental&literary context, ‘one’ can mean ‘only’, ‘unique’, ‘preeminent’… Yahweh (DEUT6) said, ‘Yahweh is your god, Yahweh alone…!’ But Yahweh also knew that TheOtherGods offered alternative, &often more attractive, ways-of-being-in-TheWorld! So, what would render Yahweh’s ‘uniqueness’ normative? ‘Fear’? Or ‘deeper meaningfulness’? Or ‘better evidence’? Or the sheer ‘weight of Temple authority’?
* ‘True?’, someone said, ‘What’s-that?’
The Greek understanding of ‘true’ was, ‘factual’!
The Hebrew understanding of ‘true’ was, ‘worth living one’s life within’!
So, is it something to do with the intellect? Or, something more to do with the heart?
* ‘Church’ seems (like the Irish term ‘Domhnach’) to be from a Greek word meaning ‘Lord’! Proximately, then, it refers to Jesus-as-Lord, but through this, it evokes the OT way, ‘TheLord’, of referring to ‘Yahweh’!
Biblically then, is ‘TheOneTrueChurch’ more realistically heard as a programmatic aspiration?
We are a unique kind of society!
We see ourselves as pledged to embodying in every situation
The Blessed Way-of-Life of ‘Yahweh-in-Jesus’,
Namely, Compassion&HealingLove for All Humans, &All-that-Lives!
Come you too, &with-us be part of
This SelfGiving-for-TheLife-of-TheWorld!
Reflections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie