SUN 24APR 2022(‘01): 2ndSUNofEASTER. OCTAVE OF EASTER DAY
1. AA5:12-16
- Read 4:32 – 5:16! Idealised presentation of the original ‘basic community’!
Especially the ‘communism’, the exceptional ‘symbiosis’, & the strong ‘Peter’!
- What of the claim that ‘adultChristians’ are an endangered, even a vanishing,
species in Irish society, in terms of debate, social impact, & focussedness!
- In 15 words, what is my local church actually ‘for, & struggling to actualise’?
- How are the ‘hierarchical’ & ‘charismatic’ &’goddess’ elements interacting?
- Why is the training&encouragment of ‘healers’ shirked and poohpoohed ?
2. THE PSALM: 117:2-4, 22-27
- Read 117(118): 1-29! How is ‘YahwehPower’ active in & for a ‘disciple’?
- ‘TheStone’. In what 20 Ways is Jesus ‘CornerStone’ of my local church?
- Which other Divinities Icons Priorities Fears Obsessions vie for my attention?
- Is it possible that JesusHimself is equivalently ‘rejected’ nowadays,
By being relegated to ‘TheThirdDivision’ of ‘Rhetoric&Devotion’?
By being trappt in a medieval mindset?
By being assiduously ‘Adored’ rather than ’Embodied’?
By being maintained as ‘ThePreserveOf’ Authority?
3. APOC1:9-13, 17-19 (What about v11? & vv14-16?)
- The startingly-Jewish mindset of the author/s of APOC!
- yet why is it still such a keytext (at least polemicaly!) for many christians?
- Currently, who is writing the factors hidden in ‘OurSharedChaos’?
- What are The12Agencies-of-Death in our socio-religious milieu?
4. N20:19-31
- Some reflections on this undervalued narrative!
- How do I as an adult, Understand&Experience ‘The Presence-of-Jesus!?
- Is His’Sending&Breathing’ a once-off? Or each time he comes?
- Is his ‘Sending&Breathing’ only for some, or for all disciples?
- ‘SeeingTheLord!’ How am I being trained & encouraged in this?
- Is ‘seeing’ believing? Or is ‘non-seeing’ believing? & What’s belief?
5. The presence&action of the BlessedOne, is it like this?
Yes, Thomas! Also called TheImpusive’ more so, let me add, than Kephas or the others could ever aspire to! Compared with Thomas’ passionate ardour, they were mere waterlogged boats! Only Magdalene perhaps, was as sudden as me! She like a serpent, I like an eagle! so we rarely sought the other’s company .. People say, ‘Impulsive Thomas, so strange! Imagine being absent when TheMaster returned. & Blurting out that bravado about TheSacredWounds! How conceited, how overweening!!’They envy me my free spirit, as they envy Magdalene’s too.Yes I can admit that! They also fear lest I did put my hand into His Side! so awesome&intimate! & maybe thereupon endowed with unimaginable power! Knowledge or healing or even the secret of gold! They never ask the eagle,they have the horror on them of finding the truth! or being refused the truth! They prefer to speculate in mutterings, with impunity as they think! not realising what happened! more than the story, less than the story! only for whispering to those who seek my regard! &Who are these among the anxious brood? except perhaps Magdalene herself. . .
6. RIDDLE My local church! Confident Frightened Passe Confused or Struggling?
Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie