Sunday 15th October 2023 (02) : 28thSUNinORDINARY : A
1. IS25:6-10
* Read 25:1-12! Yahweh, Scourge-of-Oppressors, Comfort-of-TheOppressed!
* ‘MountainAllPeopleBanquet!’: Not only for certain ‘chosen-ones’! (Read EX24:1-18)
* But does this sound too inclusive&egalitarian in a hierarchical power-structure?
* ‘MourningVeilShroudDeathTearsShame!’: This ancient prophetic ‘wishful thinking’!
Have we struggled hard to transform human woe? Or just lobbed it onto ‘heaven’?
* ‘Cos actually, what is hoped-for from Yahweh, is actually for ourselves to-do-in-love!
* In 25words, what’s the marrow of my ‘hope’ as an adult disciple?
* Can I trust ‘Yahweh’ when He says, or promises, or rants-about, things?
2. THE PSALM : 22(23)
* What are the peculiar characteristics of ‘YahwehShepherd’?
* How far is the ‘idealised’ portrait-of-Yahweh here, truly dependable, &verifiable
in my own adult experience? &What criteria do I apply to all ‘divine promises’?
* As regards sheep&shepherd, how is ‘the right path’ to be discerned?
* ‘HisName!’ The ‘power-of-yahweh’! To lead HisBeloved From-Bondage-to-Freedom!
* Were captured foes starved, &forced to watch the victors feasting sumptuously?
* What&where is ‘Yahweh’sHouse’ in my local church?
* Struggling into adult discipleship, what (if anything) is ‘Yahweh’sGreatestGift’ to me?
3. PHIL4:12-14, 19-20
* The tone&content of this, how do they affect my own experience of ‘being-disciple’?
Moment-to-moment, am I struggling to embody ‘awakenedness-to-being’?
Or am I OK with ‘occasional-devotional-catholicness’?
How have I been/am I being ‘initiated into adult-disciple-in-the-world’?
Mood-to-mood, crisis-to-crisis, mired-in-mire, what ‘always-empowers-me’?
How do ‘poverty&richness, hunger&satiety, sweet&bitter’ occur in me?
Who ‘shares my hardships&softships’? Do Jesus&TheLady know about them?
On balance, am I inclined to under- or over-confidence? &If so, what then?
4. MT22:1-14 (What? a ‘shorter form’ too!)
* What other ‘royal wedding’ stories or songs from TheBible (Or elsewhere)?
* What other ‘divine/royal rage’ stories? (‘Cos aren’t royalty reckoned divine!)
* Is ‘absolute power’ corruptive, as claimed? Or is it compatible with ‘compassion’?
* Today, which roles&archetypes&fantasies seem to be endowed with absolute power?
* In what ways have I been enabled to question&resist all ‘absolute power’?
* ‘Good&BadAlike!’: Why was his ‘garment’, but not his ‘inner disposition’, queried?
* ‘ManyCalled, FewChosen!’: Does an ‘elitism’ lurk in this innocent-sounding cliché?
* In what ways is the ‘power-structure’ of my local church, &of ‘TheChurch’, ‘elitist’?
5. The presence&action of the BlessedOne, is it like this?
Everyone will recognise&confess who is Master in this land! By TheHorns-of-TheAltar-of-Incense I swear it! Whatever is called for, TitlesEdictsExamples, I will at last consolidate my regal endowment in the ears&eyes of my subjects! so that beyond love or hate they shall all embrace me as in every respect their OverLord! I have mounted Heaven’sChariot, nothing impedes my advance! One such Example I offered four days ago, to illuminate for all the land my prowess in regard to the large business & the small! You will know that my prowess threatened&trembled the royal household ever since my birth! Add to this my destined proximity to TheAscension-of-TheThrone, Heaven’sChariot-on-Earth! My aged tottering father Majmij was counselled both by his InnerWhisper & TheWhispers of TheCautioners, to destroy me! Or if not (I myself destroyed every treacherous Approacher, whether women or man or child), then to continue to reign until I was no longer in proximity to TheAscension! Perhaps I nudged Majmij, perhaps Heaven called him, perhaps his soul’s-wick snufft-with-a-sigh, at all events when I mounted Heaven’sChariot a short time ago, I was determined to offer an Example to all my subjects, of my prowess in great&small! You’re already familiar with the dramatic circumstances of TheHighBanquet which I produced for TheCrown Prince’s SolemnNuptials! Very satisfying indeed! But the bright fang of that Example, concerning the slovenly peasant, will take longer in being percolated-abroad, but its penetration into the soul of my land will be all the deeper!!
6. RIDDLE Who gets to participate in the banquet? The clerical elite?
The symbolically naked? The divorced & the otherwise-irregular?
Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie