25thSept2022 26thSUNinORDINARY C
1. AMOS6:1,4-7
- Read 5:1-6.14! Aloud&slowly! Empathise with both TheShouter&TheShoutedAt!
- But so outlandish&hysterical&remote-in-time&space! Not-cool! Not our-world!
- Who are the ‘socio-religious’Shouters&ShoutedAt in my local church? &So-what?
- What ‘alien’ socio-political institutions are Christians consorting-with? (vv1-3)
- ‘Joseph!’ Rachel’sFirstBorn! DreamerEntrepreneurSaviour! TheBelovedPeople!
- ‘TheRevelryIsOver!’ Who ever thought (apart from Amoses), it’d happen to them?
2. THE PSALM 145:6-10
- Read 145(146) 1-10! If you’re Yahweh, Prince, or Poor, who can you trust?
- ‘JusticeFoodFreedomSightDignityLoveSecuritySustenance!’: Yes, but for-whom?
- In IrishChurch&Society, what 20Groups or Individuals do I ‘class as wicked’?
- ‘TheLord/Yahweh!’ A strictly-potential-dynamic, a possibility, yearning to be
- valued&incarnated, that all oppressed should be appropriately ‘freed’!
3. 1TIM6:11-16
- Read 6:1-21! But does the ‘blessing given to slavery’ vitiate all the rest?
- Will mere exhortation release me from anxiety about Money&Honour&Health?
- How has desire to control dissent&controversy affected TheChristianChurches?
- In an era of ‘privatised religion’, how will the call to ‘witness’ be received?
- Why did ‘TheEarlyChurch’ fervently anticipate an imminent ‘Return-of-Jesus’?
- For what competencies&Qualities are bishops chosen? &How is this decided?
4. LK16:19-31
- How do I understand&picture the circumstances of HisStorytelling? How He
- derived&introduced them? Whether He ‘explained’ them? Who ‘remembered’?
- But has ‘exhorting&explaining” since then, usurped the ‘storytelling’ & ‘action’?
- This neglected story-of-the-Lord! Which of the three male characters is most significant?
- Which is not passive or blasé? Which is my ‘role-model’?
- Why is the ‘poor man’ made so much of, though he’s apparently totally inert?
- Why is ‘Abraham’ so seemingly harsh&vindictive&self-righteous?
5. The presence& action of the BlessedOne, is it like this?
Too late I’ve realised how I’ve lived my whole life, birth to death, in a state of total
passivity! always looking to others to feed or protect or value me! letting dogs&angels use me for their own ends! I suppose I’d fallen into that habit of decrepitude from necessity&self-interest from the womb really, &then failed to see how my life was deeply blighted! not because I was a poor scabby beggar, but the passivity! so it was with an inundation of joy&horror&rage&combustion that the precious knowledge leapt on me, not long after my death! I was in a blessed place, at peace, but at the same time, as I now see it, typically passive I overheard a most ungracious conversation between a desperate sinner & a self-righteous saint, in which I was mentioned in a strange&striking fashion! like lightning, heaven-touched-me-with-realisation! I was enlightened! for the first time ever, I chose to act! I left that blessed prison, though not without a pang! &now wander through the worlds! yes to the cost, yes to the harsh grace, forever!
6. RIDDLE Which is most acceptable nowadays? TheProphet TheEnslaved
TheWellHeeled ThePatriarch TheSanctimonious TheOrator
ThePerformer TheAscetic TheMystic TheChristian?
Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie