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Friday, August 25, 2017

Week 3 Sermon on the Mount/Building /Core Message/Timelines, Signs, Greatness

By popular demand, I told the story behind the third "text message" in the pic.  You can read about it in  in a  post called 

Even though I once went shopping with Paul Newman...

(click title to read)

or watch this crazy video  from 3:45-5:43 in which I tell the story to the "Gaithers on Crack" stars,,,and tell how I bowled 301..

What did you learn about text and context?
What might you guess about the back story of the other two texts? 
Remember: I told you they are both "TRUE STORIES"

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How many noticed your class sign tonight?:


Remember what Robert Brewer taught us about patterns?

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Here's the classic book for nurses I gave away tonight.
Two people won it; it's recommended for all.  Order here .

Here's some tallies from your Moodle. We just looked at the Kingdom counts from your TV shows, and briefly looked the "greater sin results" (lying won so far) Will talk more on these next time:


=It is not uncommon to have ZERO references to "Kingdom"in the  TV results!

--We took a quick look at "Which is the greater sin" results.  so far ten to one for LYING!
I LOVE that one person said

 Lying because it can lead to losing your temper,

and someone else said

Losing your temper because it can lead to lying.

Not only did that create a chiasm, but a fuzzy set, and a chicken/egg example..


Also on the common assumption that all sins are equal and one is
not greater, we briefly mentioned that no scripture says that clearly;
in fact Jesus said "There is a greater sin, and that sin is..."

See John 19:11 for the reveal.

Here are some follow-up thoughts if interested:


You may have heard that Jesus said there is one sin so bad it is unpardonable and unforgivable.
It's true.  Can't wait to talk about that next time!




 Guesses:

  1. skubala
  2. summate
  3. service
  4. salvage
  5. surpass
  6. sabbath
Great guesses, but the answer was ...click here.
A big word for both Bible classes.
Be thinking bout what it means.
Maybe even click this to ask what it means in PHILEMON..

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another sign for quiz:
INCLUSIO(N)):  


 inclusio (definition)


 a literary device in which a word, phrase, or idea is included at the beginning and ened of a  text (and sometimes in the middle).  Example: the "with you"s of Matthew 1:23 , 18:20 and 28:20

Len Sweet is on to something, suggesting a Bible-wide inclusio. How wide and big can these things get? Wouldn't this cue us and clue us in to the heart message of the whole Book?

Ever notice Matthew starts with "His name will be called Emmanuel, which means 'God with us.'
And ends...very last sentence...with "I will be with you."?

No accident.
And neither is the midpoint and message of the gospel: "I will be with you" (18:20).
In Jesus, God is with us.
Jesus is the With-Us God.

WHAT's the inclusio in

  • Book of Acts?
  • Philemon?  Hmmm


----------------------------
What''s the core message of Jesus?

Here's what cohorts usually answer:

Here's what you said:

Note: I added the word Kingdom at the top, as no one said it.  And only once in almost ten years of classes,
only one stident ever said it...and he was Jewish.  Here he is.








Watch the first 1:45 of this video to review what I said.  You can stop the video there, and we;ll discuss the rest next week:







--

Timelines: Wow, powerful time hearing your life timelines.  Here they are below, and we'll give the rest of you a chance next week:


Remember  this one from another cohort? "Demise"? Left me speechless:


SERMON ON THE MOUNT:
What do you remember about this?


SERMON ON THE MOUNT, Mathew chapter  5 

VIDEO OF SAME TEACHING I GAVE TONIGHT, Plus interview with Rabbi Adam starting at 27 min mark that we didn't watch.  Also see notes below.


Remember: 

  • Who was the sermon addressed to?
  • Why did he teach on a MOUNTAIN?
  • Why did Jesus sit down to teach?


When we read the "beatitudes," the first section of the Sermon on the Mount: -- do you catch anyinclusio? (Note the first and last beatitudes (only) of chapter 5 end
with a promise of the kingdom of heaven, implying that the other promises in between "being filled," "inherit the earth," "be comforted" all have to do with Kingdom
3)iINCLUSIO(N)):


 inclusio (definition)








































F--and if Jesus is a NEW MOSES of sorts, then we should look at 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT:
Discussion on how Jesus was interpreting/reinterpreting the law of Moses/Torah(Matt 5:17-48).
Some would suggest that he is using the rabbi's technique of "Building a fence around the law (Torah)>
For example, if you are tempted to overeat, one strategy would be to build a literal fence around the refrigerator...or the equivalent: don't keep snacks around.

See:

Some wonder of this is what Jesus is doing here.  See:

One can see how this could turn to legalism...and when do you stop building fences? See:

A Fence Around the Law



Greg Camp and Laura Roberts write:

In each of the five examples, Jesus begins by citing an existing commandment. His following statement may be translated as either "And I say to you... " or as "But I say to you ...” The first option shows Jesus' comments to be in keeping with the commandments, therefore his words will be an expansion or commentary on the law. This is good, standard rabbinic technique. He is offering his authoritative interpretation, or amplification, to God's torah, as rabbis would do after reading the torah aloud in the synagogue. The second translation puts Jesus in tension with the law, or at least with the contemporary 
interpretations that were being offered. Jesus is being established as an authoritative teacher who stands in the same rabbinic tradition of other rabbis, but is being portrayed as qualitatively superior to their legal reasoning.
After citing a law Jesus then proceeds to amplify, or "build a hedge" around the law. This was a common practice of commenting on how to put a law into practice or on how to take steps to avoid breaking the law. The idea was that if you built a safe wall of auxiliary laws around the central law, then you would have ample warning before you ever came close to breaking the central law. A modern example might be that if you were trying to diet you would need to exercise more and eat less. In order to make sure that that happened you might dispose of all fats and sweets in the house so as not to be tempted. Additionally, you might begin to carry other types of snacks or drink with you so as to have a substitute if temptation came around, and so forth. In the first example of not killing, Jesus builds a hedge that involves not being angry and not using certain types of language about others. One of the difficulties is that it becomes very difficult not to break his hedges. This might drive his hearers to believe that he is a hyper-Pharisee. Some interpreters have wanted to argue that Jesus does this in order to drive us to grace—except grace is never mentioned in this context. This is a wrong-headed approach to get out of the clear message that Jesus is proclaiming: you must have a transformed life. By building his hedges, Jesus is really getting to the heart of what the law was about. In the first example, the intent is not just to get people not to kill each other (though that is a good thing to avoid), rather it is there to promote a different attitude about how to live together. Taken together, the 10 Words (Commandments) and the other laws which follow in Exodus-Numbers paint a picture of a people who will look out for one another rather than just avoiding doing injury to one another. This becomes clear in Jesus’ solution at the end of the first example. The solution is not to throw  yourself on grace or to become paralyzed by fear, but to seek right relations with the other person. There seems to be an implicit acknowledgment that problems will arise. The solution is to seek the best for the other person and for the relationship. This is the heart of the law.  The problem with the law is that it can only keep you from sin, but it cannot make you do good.  The rabbi Hillel said “what is hateful to you, do not do to others.”  In 7:12, Jesus provides his own interpretation “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.”  He changes the saying from refraining from sin, to actively doing good.  The thesis statement in 5:20 is “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This then is how to exceed, or go beyond the law.  In each of the five examples, the way to exceed the law is to make the relationship right.
Instead of drawing a new line in the sand that you are not supposed to cross before you are considered guilty, Jesus, confirms that the center is "love your neighbor" and then just draws an arrow (vector) and tells you to go do it. There is never a point at which you are able to finally fulfill the commandment to love. You can never say that you have loved enough. In the gospel of Matthew, the supreme example of this is Jesus' own life and death. His obedience and love knew no boundaries.  --by Greg Camp and Laura Roberts


We didn't read this in class Ted Grimsrud,  in your "God's Healing Strategy"  book suggests:
 "A better way [as opposed to legalistically legislating morality] to approach [the commandments] would be to ask first, 'What does this commandment teach us about God?'...Hence, the point of the commandments is not establishing absolute, impersonal, even coercive rules which must never be violated.  The point rather is that a loving God desires ongoing relationships of care and respect....Paul's interpretation of the Law in Romans 13 makes clear the deepest meaning of the law not as rule-following, but as being open to God's love and finding ways to express that love towards others: 'The commandments..are summed up in this word, Love your neighbor as yourself.'"  (pp. 33-34)

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on the 6 antitheses  (case studies) of the Sermon on The Mount, remember my Paraguay stories about:


 "Ever committed adultery, Bob?"
 (oops...) 

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OK,  below is the backstory of the "LAUGHING BRIDE," which illustrates "building a fence around the Torah":







How do you name the difference in the shift of the 6 antitheses?  What does it feel like Jesus is doing?  He's making the law______:

  • harder?
  • easier?











Where do you see bounded and/or centered sets in the Sermon on Mount?Is it addressed to a bounded or centered set?  Hmm, see the beginning:

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,  and he began to teach them.
And the end:
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because to them he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Would you say it's BOTH?   (FUZZY?)





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What do you remember from my blushing example of 
CHASTITY BELT?
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Remember the story about how our Bibles got verses?
Stephanus riding his horse?  Read about that:

THE ADDITION OF CHAPTERS AND VERSES
In the year 1227, a professor at the Uniof Paris named Stephen Langton added chapters to all the books of the Bible.
 Then in 1551, a printer named Robert Stephanus (sometimes called Robert Estienne) numbered the sentences in all the books of the New Testament.

 According to Stephanus’s son, the verse divisions that his father created do not do service to the sense of the text. Stephanus did not use any consistent method. While riding on horseback from Paris to Lyons, he versified the entire New Testament within Langton’s chapter divisions.

 So verses were born in the pages of holy writ in the year 1551. And since that time God’s people have approached the New Testament with scissors and glue, cutting and pasting isolated, disjointed sentences from different letters, lifting them out of their real-life setting, lashing them together to build floatable doctrines, and then calling it ―the Word of God.

 Seminarians and Bible college students alike are rarely if ever given a panoramic view of the free-flowing story of the early church with the New Testament books arranged in chronological order.  As a result, most Christians are completely out of touch with the social and historical events that lay behind each of the New Testament letters. Instead, they have turned the New Testament into a manual that can be wielded to prove any point. Chopping the Bible up into fragments makes this relatively easy to pull off.

- This is from Frank Viola, click here to read the rest of this important article, if you like.

APPLES AND ORANGES
We watched this, and you'll need it for form 3.2:



Peter Popoff. Followup to your TV assignment:
    

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How did you like these two example videos of leaders?
How did you interpret these two texts?  We watched the first one tonight; the second one last week.
What did I mean by saying Jim Standrige was a GREAT PERSON?
  



ONE GREAT PERSON SURVEYS


 Some of your results:



( My Dack Rambo story?  Why did I say Wayne Stewart was GREAT? Click here  to read all about it:dackrambophoto1.jpg (1116×1416) 


























 we apply some "Three Worlds" theory to Matthew 18 and the topic of "Who is great?"

As we study, apply as many literary world symbols as you can

A video on that chapter featuring Keltic Ken: 



Related outtakes:



Of LITERARY WORLD note:








  • -


Of Historical World note:

    • What did you learn about a millstone ? ( notes at 
    W

    this (click)


    • Review: Why did we say the missing  sheep/ suicidal student was temporarily greater than the rest of us?
    • Watch this for my answer:

    Page 19 of Syllabus,Matthew 18 Outline
    (by Greg Camp/Laura Roberts):

    1 Question #1: Who is Greatest?

    2-17 Responses (each are counter proposals):

    2-10 Response #1: Children
    2-4 Counter Proposal: Accept children
    5-9 Threat: If cause scandal
    10 Show of force: Angels protect

    12-14 Response #2: Sheep
    (Who is temporarily greater?)
    12-14 Counter Proposal: Search for the 1 of 100 who is lost

    15-17 Response #3: Brother who sins (counter proposal)
    15a Hypothetical situation: If sin
    15-17 Answer: Attempt to get brother to be reconciled
    17b If fail: Put him out and start over

    18-20 Statement: What you bind or loose

    21-22 Question #2: How far do we go in forgiveness?

    23-35 Response #1: Parable of the forgiving king/unforgiving servant
    ----------------Read verses 15-17 and then ask yourself:
    "What did it mean in their historical world to treat  people like



    "tax collectors and sinners?"
    Two answers

    1)Don't allow them in your bounded set.

    2)How did Jesus treat  tax collectors and sinners? In a centered set way. Tony Jones writes: 


    but because anyone, including Trucker Frank, can speak freely in this  church, my seminary-trained eyes were opened to find a truth in the Bible that had previously eluded me.”...That truth emerged in a discussion of Matthew 18's "treat the unrepentant brother like a tax collector or sinner.":
    "And how did Jesus treat tax collectors and pagans?" Frank asked aloud, pausing, "as of for a punchline he'd been waiting all his life to deliver,"....., "He welcomed them!""



    Thanks for the stories you told about annoying people at work!
    Why don't we put those people on our "great persons" list?
    Remember the guy who molested my son?
    Why is he not on my list?
    Does Matthew 18 suggest that Jesus said:
    children, lost sheep AND SINNING PEOPLE were great?  


    --
    We watched some of this, but see even more here: 



    Thanks for praying for my wife.
    Here's the wedding  pic I posted for our anniversary.

    Here's her cancer page, and here
    's the  Facebook cancer page

    ----------------------------------------------------

    RIP Mr Squeaky Shoes::
    We'll debrief your hashtags next week:

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    Building a fence

    Law and building a fence; liust is adultery: start about 10 minute mark, and read below.  if Jesus is a  NEW MOSES o f sorts, then we sho...