3rd Sunday in Ordinary Cycle A 2023 (’02)

Sunday 22nd JAN 2023 (’02): 3rd SUN IN ORDINARY TIME. CYCLE A

1. IS 8:23-9:3

  • Read 8:1-9:7! Prophetic weaving of personal&communal&national destinies
  • How do we hear now, ‘Yahweh’s Pronouncements’ about various Tribes&Peoples?
  • Do isolated extracts like this tend to make me uncritical of the widespread ‘darkness’ &’shadow’&’humbleness, sociological& psychological, that oppress our society?
  • Darkness&Shadow!’ : How will I describe this aspect of our contemporary experience?
  • How is it affected by our fulsome celebration, religious&secular, of ‘Christmas’?
  • On balance, am I more, or less, ‘oppressed&enslaved’, than before ‘VaticanTwo’?

2. THE PSALM. 26:1,4,13-14 (what of the crucial omitted verses?)

  • Read 26(27):1-14! Will Yahweh protect me in fear&anger&dereliction&illness?
  • What 10Personal&CommunalResources are empowering me to deal with ‘fear’?
  • In 60words, my best expression of my unfolding adult ‘worldview’?
  • What ‘viruses’ may be hidden there, that ‘dispose’ me to fear&selfrejection &defeatism
  • TheHouse-of-Yahweh!’ TheTemple? Arguably TheWilderness? Or TheFreeSpirit?
  • But what if ‘TheReality-of-Yahweh is only gradually nowadays-being-unfolded?

3. 1Cor1:10-13,17

  • Read 1:4-2:6. ‘The Goodnews’ What is it? Who is it for? Are there varieties of it?
  • What are The10Principal’Differences’, acknowledged or hidden, in my local church
  • What is being done to enable adultChristians to value&explore&benefit from them?
  • What are ‘TheSevenActivePowerFactions’? &How do these affect ‘TheBody’?
  • How do I distinguish Philosophy&Theology? Faith&Reason? Authority&Conscience?
  • How did Paul reckon the Corinthians would move from ‘disagreement’ to ‘unity’?
  • What if ‘TheChurches-in-NorthernIreland’ is ‘TheCorinthianCommunity’ writ-large?

4. MT 4:12-23

  • Why did He ‘call’ fishermen, rather than shepherds or carpenters? &Why does He appear, in the narratives, not to have ‘called’ women, on a par with men?
  • What is the role of the cited ‘prophecies’, which are especially prevalent in MT?
  • In ‘composing a gospel’, what ‘resources’ would an early community draw on
  • The image of ‘casting a net to catch people’.

In my world, what are the attractive, &the off-putting, aspects of it?

In what ways are ‘people’ &’fish’ comparable

For a ‘fish’, how would being in the ‘boat’ excel being in the ‘water’

5. The presence&action of the BlessedOne, is it like this?

SONG OF THE FIRST DISCIPLES
He appeared in Zabulon&Naphthah, to us who waited!
He walked along the shore & looked in our eyes!
He opened our eyes to the wonder close at hand!
He touched our lives with words that kindled our soul!
He shouted, Abandon boat&bed&hearth!
He netted Simon&Andrew, James&John!
He promised a life&death fishing on land!
He taught us the breath that quickens, the touch that heals!
He called us from our darkness into His light!

6. RIDDLE

Which ‘GoodNews’? Light-in-Darkness? Protection-from-Fear?

Unity-in-Difference? Gatheredness-in-Lostness

Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie