Sunday 8th October 2023 (’02) : 27thSUNinORDINARY : A
1. IS5:1-7
* Read 5:1-30! But what would make me think this has any contemporary relevance?
* What other ‘vineyard stories’ & ‘disappointment stories’ in TheBible?
* Why does TheFriend blame&abuse TheVineyard for the SourGrapes? Had He
Himself done all He could? Or had He still lots to learn about ‘vineyards’? (cf ‘Eden’!)
* How do I understand the biblical Yahweh’s constant blaming&boasting&moodiness?
* Like TheSower, did He think things grow by throwing them on or into the ground?
* In my 21stC world, what is the equivalent of Yahweh’sVineyard, &of HisTantrum?
* Maybe all that invincible ignorance was just typically ‘jewish’, ¬ at all ‘christian’!
2. THE PSALM : 79:9, 12-16, 19-20
* Read 79(80):1-19! VineIsrael’s fervent plea to Yahweh for Restoration!
* Why did the poets refer to Israel as a ‘vine/yard’?
* Can I listen to this extract with the usual ‘true-church-nonchalance’? Or do I hear it
as an accurate mirroring of our own predicament as ‘people-of-yahweh’?
* But what if I’ve never been inculcated into the important ‘YahwehMythology’?
&Always regarded Jesus as a ‘god’ who literally ‘came down’! Not really a ‘jew’!
* Why do I still think that the ‘experience of Israel’ is of concern to a 21stC ‘church’?
* ‘BringUsBack!’: LIke a rejected wife, like a neglected vineyard, like a exiled child!
3. PHIL4:6-9
* Read 4:2-23! His reflections on their involvement with him in the ‘goodnews’!
* ‘No Need To Worry!’: But what is more endemic among our contemporaries!
* In 35words, my current understanding&experience of what I call ‘prayer?
* ‘Brothers!’: Is it thinkable that women weren’t addressed in his letters? (But, vv2-3!)
* What are The20PrincipalAnxieties represented in my local church?
* ‘LearntBeenTaughtHeardSeen!’: Who functions as such role models in my church?
* What actually gave Paul the authority to act&speak as he did?
* Compose a letter that he might send to my local church!
4. MT21:33-43
* This familiar Jesus-story has been re-told&re-contextualised&re-interpreted by MT!
Is it important that MT has Jesus pose the chiefpriests&elders a trap-question (v40!)?
Are the tenants punished for killing the son, or for withholding the grapes/wine?
This story is linked to IS5! But here, the grapes/wine is most desirable to all concerned!
What is the most excellent&desirable (&withheld?) aspect of my local church?
Is there an important sense in which MT’s story is potentially anti-semitic?
* TheKingdom! Not ‘TheCatholicChurch’, but the way of living-now of Jesus!
&That is collusively being substituted by the devotional worship-of-Jesus!
5. The presence&action of the BlessedOne, is it like this?
‘Well, no fun this weather, is it?’ ‘Begod, there was more nor enuff fun above there this mornin’, if y’ ass me!’ ‘Wha’…’ ‘If I heard i’ once, I heard it a dozen times! Funyard it was! First I thought it was a sorta swings an’ dodgems! But then they started atin’ each other…’ ‘Who…’ ‘…so I decided it was more like a slaughterhouse…’ ‘Wha’ was tha’ film…’ ‘Anyway, no fun in th’ funyard! in th’ end, whatever it was, no one owned it…!’ ‘Was it auctioned for charity?’ ‘It was give away t’ some crowd up at th’ north pole, I couldn’t catch th’ name!’ ‘That’s a quare one all right! Wha’ ‘d y’r man say?’ ‘Th’ usual kiss-me-hankie! “My dear people! What is more precious than th’ funyard of y’r immortal sowl! Never let a day pass without those three hail marys to our divine mother f’r holy purity!”…’ ‘Aw great! Tha’ calls f’r two ballsa malt! Kiss-me-hankie’s right! As th’ oul’ Canon ‘d say in ‘is own spick ‘n’ span, Comrades! An ounce a’ love ‘s better nor a ton a’ purity!’ ‘Aw he was th’ man f’r cuttin’ through all th’ bull! Guess what he ‘d a’ said about funyards? Comrades! he’d shout in that great Caruso voice a’ his…’ ‘Aw very much so! sing it out f’r ‘im…’ ‘Funyards hafta be used wisely, an’ not leck freckened teddybears! Go in there with y’r friend, practise true love, an’ make sure Our Lord’s always there too!!’ ‘Aw that man! Best thing in me whole life!’ ‘Me too, begod!!’
6. RIDDLE What is represented by TheVineyard?
The vulnerability of the potential unfolding of Yahweh-in-Jesus?
A dangerous resource that brings a curse if it’s frittered-away?
A desirable fantasy we imagine is there for-the-taking, &for-us!
Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie