Sunday 28 February 2021 (’00): 2ndSUNofLENT : B
1. GEN22:1-2,9-13,15-18
- Read 22:1-19! Exploring ‘faith&progeny&sacrifice&God’! their interrelatedness!
- Out of ‘conflicting priorities’, which ‘priority’ is presented as supreme?
- Why did ‘God’ want to put Abraham ‘to the test’? (Read JOBl.1-22!)
- Why should ‘willingness to sacrifice his own son’ lead to a ‘shower of blessings’?
- In myChurch, how important are ‘The3Blessings’ promised to Abraham?
- What in my experience equals the patterns-of-choice represented in this story?
- Apart from ‘brevity’, why were bits cut from this important story (TheAqedah)?
2. THE PSALM: 115:10, 15-19 (A most grievous mutilation)
- Read 115(116):1-19! The varying moods&presentiments of a Lover-of-Yahweh!
- What 3Motivations do I have, for ‘t rust-in-Yahweh’?
- What is myCommunity providing for the many who are ‘sorely-afflicted’?
- Why was ‘your slave-girl’s son’ (NEB) omitted from v16?
- Isaac’s escape from death, how important in ‘understanding’ Jesus’ death?
3. ROMS:31-34 .
- Read 8:1-39! Explorative compendium of Paul’s ‘dilemma of opposites’!
- Why is Paul so sure that ‘God is on our side’?
- Where did he learn all this? &especially the link between Jesus, &Isaac’sBinding?
- How am I affected by this kind of ‘surely-not’ argumentation?
- But, factual&statemental ‘talk-about-God’, is it any more sufficient nowadays?
4. MK.9:2-10!
- Wherein my world do I above-all encounter ‘Yahweh’? How do I know, &cope?
- Which OT characters are ‘transfigured&dazzling&white’? (Read 2COR3!)
- Why do Brides, &Others-in-context, manifest these 3TranscendentalQualities?
- How have TheMedia exploited the hint of ‘divinity’ associated with these ‘qualities’?
- If Jesus truly absorbed&embodied ‘TheInitiativeOfYahweh’, What’s the use of worshipping&expounding Him in a detached&mimimalist way?
What’s the dangerous implication for disciples, in a christophobic milieu?
&Aren’t we ourselves safe, as long as we keep TheBible on a drip in the nursing home!
5. The presence&act1on of the BlessedOne, is it like this?
‘Sir! I would be thankful to hear you talk about the mountain!’ ‘Friend, I am most gratified myself to meet you like this! For there is the mountain, wherever we are together, &at-one!’ ‘Do not be affronted, sir, if I recall that it is not our encounter, but the mountain, that I would hear your discourse of!’ ‘Friend, for me the mountain is nothing else than the meeting! Whatever the meeting, wherever it takes place, the mountain gathers there! &nowhere else!’ ‘But sir, you see MountOphel&Sion, blessings upon them! &MountCarmel, &Thabor! &We’ve all heard of Horeb; &especially Sinai, Mount of TheCovenant!’ ‘Friend, if the covenant is not there between&within us, all our boasting of Sinai, &the many other HolyMountains, is truly a vanity-of-vanities! &blinds us to our need to see, not what is far-above or far-away, but very close at-hand! that is the mountain in every respect! Take the first steps there in favour of TheCovenant, &Sinai will truly disappear…!’ ‘Sir, by your words, in truth, the mountain is now ourselves !!’
6. RIDDLE Who was most ‘transformed’ by the ‘mountain’?
Peter or Moses or Jesus?
Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie