week 6 bak

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 f all the parables Jesus told, the one we call "The Prodigal Son" is possibly the most famous. In the story, a younger son demands his inheritance from his father and leaves the family behind, taking his riches to a far country. The implication is not only that he left his family behind, but that he also discarded his Jewish heritage for a Gentile lifestyle. What would it have been like for the prodigal son, arriving in a world where the God of his fathers was no longer the only one to serve? Join the prodigal in the far country and discover for yourself exactly what it means to leave the father's house.  
Video we watched here
SweeT:

"EPIC Culture: Are You Immigrant or Native?:

See my article  pp.. 38-39 here  (or as a PDF pp. 36-37 here)

• the "modern"  and "Gutenberg" world   (RRWI=Rational, Representative. Word-Based, Individual)
• -the "postmodern' and "Google"  world (EPIC=Experiential, Participatory, Image-Driven)

 Leonard Sweet not only created the EPIC acronym, but wrote the nook, "The Gospel According to Starbucks," in which he suggests that the church can learn a lot about our current EPIC (Experiential, Participatory, Image-Driven, Connectivity) culture.

In what ways do you see Starbucks as living out an EPIC ethic?

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Now note Van DerLaan's slideshow on Greek vs. Hebrew culture  here and   here.  
Audio here

 Finally, remember our conversations about bounded sets and centered sets.
Could these three grids collate?

RRWI/Gutenberg                                    EPIC/Google
Greek                                                    Hebrew
Bounded Set                                           Centered Set

Sweet suggests that we are living in the century  (21)that is most like  Jesus' century (1st) than any before.---Here;s what you said/thought/felt:

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SOREQ

Temple Warning Inscription:

 

The Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was surrounded by a fence (balustrade) with a sign (soreq)  that was about 5 ft. [1.5 m.] high.  On this fence were mounted inscriptions in Latin and Greek forbidding Gentiles from entering the temple area proper.

One complete inscription was found in Jerusalem and is now on display on the second floor of the “Archaeological Museum” in Istanbul.

The Greek text has been translated:  “Foreigners must not enter inside the balustrade or into the forecourt around the sanctuary.  Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.”  Compare the accusation against Paul found in Acts 21:28 and Paul’s comments in Ephesians 2:14—“the dividing wall.”

Translation from Elwell, Walter A., and Yarbrough, Robert W., eds.  Readings from the First–Century World: Primary Sources for New Testament Study.  Encountering Biblical Studies, general editor and New Testament editor Walter A. Elwell.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1998, p. 83. Click Here

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week 5 bak

The challenge of Onesimus / Scot McKnight from B.L. Fisher Library on Vimeo.

Remember the video last week by Scot McKnight on "The Challenge to Phiilemon"?

Here ..at this click is his companion video on "The Challenge of Onesimus."

Watch and respond to questions

1)Notice that,,like last time, he opens with a story that he promises to return to at the end  This is INCLUSIO again..  Before you hear the end, guess why he tells this story.  Guess how it will end.

2)What does he say is the best and hardest thing about the gospel?

3)Again, he mentions a word several times in the first few minutes that ,might be his thesis for our Philemon paper.

What is the word?  Did you catch it last time?  Agree/disagree that this may be the key word?

4)Paul probably loves ______...  He created enough of it.

5)Apply Keith Brock's definition of slavery to something in our contemporary world.  What is it also true of in our day?

6)The family life of a slave depended on ____

7)What is the most "dramatic...unbelievable....glorious" part of the letter and why?

8)Why does he think Paul used "perhaps"?  Compare this to your answer to this  yours (see your Literary World worksheet from week 3

9)At the end of the video, how does he end the story  he started at the beginning?  Respond to this story.

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If Paul was in prison, and Onesimus came to him, where do you think he was?

Rome is 1,200 miles away , and would be a grueling journey on foot and by sea ( 1,200 miles on land, plus daring sea voyages which would  themselves take 5-6 days)

Ephesus is about 100 miles away, a common walk in ancient world (3-4 days) .

 

Your timelines:

those of you I had before, some of your 314 timelines:

other classes:

 

remember "demise"?:

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• • Especially helpful is the suggestion by Donald Kraybill ("The Upside Down Kingdom") and Ray Van Der Laan (video)  that throughout  his earthly life, Jesus was revisited by remixes of the original three temptations ("testations" ) of the devil in chapter 4.
    
    
    Kraybill provocatively proffers the following taxonomy of the temptations; suggesting that any later temptation Jesus faced (or we face) is at heart in one of these three spheres:
    
    
    
    
    
    

    1=  Bread into stones: Economic 

    
    

    2=Jump from temple and test God:Religious 

    
    

     3=Own all kingdoms: Political; 

    
    

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What do you remember about this?

PSALMS

and DJ's song?

PSALMS are the Jewish prayer-book   that the early Christians used.  What's wonderful, refreshing, honest...and sometimes disturbing  (to us in the West) is that they cover the whole breadth of life and emotion.  They are all technically songs and prayers..  But note how some weave in and out from a person speaking to God, God speaking to a person, a person speaking to himself.  Somehow, Hebraically, holistically, it all counts as prayer.

...And as "song"  Note in your Bible that several psalms have inscriptions which give the name of the tune they are to be prayed/sung to.  Some seem hilarious, counterintuitive, and contradictory, but again not to a Hebrew mindset and worldview, with room for honesty, fuzzy sets and paradox:

• Psalms  (click) with the line "Destroy my enemies", "break their teeth!!" ... To be sung to the tune of "Do Not Destroy"  !!  (Psalm 58:6)
• Psalm 22, a depressing ditty about someone in the throes of rejection despair and death.  To be sung to the tune of "Doe in the Morning"   ??

• Psalm 137:9  "Blessed is the one who 

• seize yours infants and violently dashes 

• them against the rocks"

Remember the Bono quote:

Click here for the audio (or watch here on Youtube) of this delightful statement by Bono:

"God is interested in truth, and only in truth. And that's why God is more interested in Rock & Roll music than Gospel... Many gospel musicians can't write about what's going on in their life, because it's not allowed .  they can't write about their doubt....If you can't write about what's really going on in the world and your life, because it's all happy-clappy... Is God interested in that? I mean, 'Please, don't patronize Me! I want to go the Nine-Inch-Nails gig, they're talking the truth!
-Bono

From a 2003 discussion with New York Times, more audio here

"The Jewish disciples all worshipped Jesus, and some of those worshippers doubted."  (matthew 28:17)

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There are several ways to categorize the psalms.

The first is the way the Bible itself does: Psalms is broken down into 5 "books"  Hmm, 5...does that sound familiar?  Name another book with 5 sections and suggest an answer for "Whats up with the number 5?"

Note the 5 sections are not comprised of different kinds/genres of psalms..but the styles and kinds are "randomnly"

represented throught the book..

kind of like life..

  Here is one way to categorize the styles and genres:

• lament
• imprecatory
• praise
• thanksgiving
• petition

 Walter Brueggemann  suggests another helpful way to categorize the Psalms. 

 Orientation:

o      Creation - in which we consider the world and our place in it

o      Torah - in which we consider the importance of God's revealed will

o      Wisdom - in which we consider the importance of living well

o      Narrative - in which we consider our past and its influence on our present

o      Psalms of Trust - in which we express our trust in God's care and goodness

q        Disorientation:

o      Lament - in which we/I express anger, frustration, confusion about God's (seeming?) absence

§       Communal

§       Individual

o      Penitential - in which we/I express regret and sorrow over wrongs we have done

§       Communal

§       Individual

q        Reorientation/New Oreientation

o      Thanksgiving - in which we thank God for what God has done for us/me

§       Communal

§       Individual

o      Hymns of Praise - in which we praise God for who God is

o      Zion Psalms- in which we praise God for our home

o      Royal Psalms - in which we consider the role of political leadership

o      Covenant Renewal - in which we renew our relationship with God

                                          -Bruggeman, source Click here.

 note how astonishinglyWhat do you remember about complaints choirs?
Once, church, we did complaints/laments colored markers on posterboard.
Photos here, click twice to read and weep...and laugh!:

But most of us do it less officially, and more often,...in prayer, even if unarticulated/wordless.

Complaints/laments/questions have to surface somewhere.  So we might as well be honest andelevate them. pray them post them, sing them....prophetically write them on subway walls or church halls.

The

Complaints Choir

 movement, let along the psalms of lament,

suggests that an outlet must be found, and can be not only threrapeutic/healing, but evangelistic/missional.


SO It hit me last night, as Rabbi Adam was talking about the Jewish homesickness for the temple,
that no non-Jewish person can know what that feels like.
As he was speaking to our class, I quickly found and projected  this photo  of some of us in front  of the Temple Mount, and it nearly brought him to tears.


.

The rabbi has not yet been to Israel.
(but Israel has been to the rabbi).

He misses a place he's never been.

With one exception, I  can only miss places I have been.

He misses a place he's never been.

With one exception, I  can only miss places I have been.

I have been all over the middle of  the Connecticut Turnpike.

Along with Spidey P. and gang, I was a toll collector for a couple of summers.
Not the most exciting job on the planet, but the memories collected are priceless,
and the ground there was  therefore hallowed.
Here we are:

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Pastor D.J. Criner

Sometimes in a Bible class, I will leave the room for five minutes,

and challenge the students to practice presenting anything they've learned.

It's totally up to them: they can tea- teach it, one person can present etc.

Sometimes I am even brave/dumb enough to say they can choose someone to impersonate (roast/toast( me and my style.

I should have known that with  the delightful and daring Pastor D.J. Criner (of Saint Rest Baptist Church) in class, that  the class would choose him for that impersonation option (:

It was caught on video ...

I guess I say ":awesome" a lot.

Be sure to catch his whiteboard artwork of me. as well:

Post by Dave Wainscott.