Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Week 4: Matthew 18/Building Communitas

It can be tough for us to upgrade/shift/convert our thinking to a Kingdom worldview, or even moving from one testament to the other:



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QUICK word association:
what come to mind when I say the following words?


  1. apocalyptic
  2. city
  3. 666
  4. committee
  5. heaven
  6. mark of the beast
  7. greatness
  8. binding and loosing
  9. prophecy
  10. end times
  11. economic
  12. Philemon  
We'll come back to that list later.
---------------

Tonight, we'll start with 
  -Matthew 18, then
  -the  Bueggeman book you just finished reading,
      then pick up tonight's biblical theme, and then conclude  with
-Three Worlds symbols and
 - an intro to Philemon




Finishing up last week, Matthew 18, which we didn't have time for:

Tell a few stories about your "One Great Person" worksheets and videos.
Two of my greats are Wayne from Delano and Dack from "Dallas" !  Take home lesson: don't betray a friend for (literally) a million dollars!
(story here)
 
Last week's topic is "Greatness, Leadership, Power."
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The symbol for last week suggests that a biblical model/worldview often looks like the CEO/top-down model turned downside up..

Jesus came to serve.
             The last shall be first.
                         That's who is great in the Kingdom  economy:
                                    The one who serves
                                               The one who has splagchizomai..

Jesus said in it yet another chiasm:
But those who exalt            themselves will be               humbled, 
and those who humble     themselves will be                exalted
(Matt 23:12)
 
Tonight we meet a couple of great contemporary servant-leaders:

like this little sphepherdette/llamaherder I filmed in Peru.  She was leading a huge flock...just one tiny girl, with a sheepdog...and amazingly, leading effectively from _________________!" (See  from 1:30 to the end,   and freeze frame 2:05-2:09 if you didn't spot her).   If you didn't fill in the blank, see  Isaiah 30:21.  What a great leader!)

(rest of that story here)
  

and like this guy with "splangizomai" glasses:




Then of course, we'll look at = Jesus' approach to greatness, leadership,  and power .
Then 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: 

Of LITERARY WORLD note:






  • -This is the 4th of 5 teaching blocks in a parallelism.  Importance?
  • In a chiasm,  this block is  related to the second.  How so?
  • -Do you catch any chiasm?  (see below)
  • -the 2 or 3 language hyprelinks to Deuteronomy 17:, 6, 15
  • -There is a hyprelinked account in Matthew 16, there only Peter receives power to bind and loose, here all the disciples do
  • -The parable hyperlinks to Luke 15, but with a different context/TTP
  • Structurally, the last section of chapter 17 is connected
  • Two inclusios place thios section in the middle of a unit about taxes/rights  and children.  Implications---

If you have your computer tonight, Scriblink some diagrams with me:

Of Historical World note:









    • What did you learn about a millstone from tonight's video clip?:





    • Rob Bell's discussion of the Bible and binding and loosing
    must be
    read, wrestled and reckoned with..
    It's the "YOKE" chapter of "Velvet Elvis"..
    Thanks to Zondervan, a free online read, pages 40-69
    here.









    ---







    Page 22 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
    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!""

    More on Trucker Frank here; he can interrupt my sermons anytime..

    NOTE: don't forget how bug CHIASMS can get.. see Genesis 6:

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

    Click links on "literary world" discussion of the passage:


    -------------------
    We might see the whole unit as a chiasm with inclusio.  See below (copied from here):
    Jesus foretells His death: Matthew 17:22-23
    A. Jesus speaks of giving freely/sacrificing self: Matthew 17:24-27
    B. Little children are the essence of the kingdom: Matthew 18:1-7
    C. Sacrifice the body for the sake of the kingdom: Matthew 18:8-9
    D. Do not despise what God values: Matthew 18:10-14
    E. Entreating a brother about sin or offense: Matthew 18:15-17
    >>F.Agreement between Heaven and Earth:   Matthew 18:18-20
    E. Entreating a brother about sin or offense: Matthew 18:21-35
    D. Do not despise what God values: Matthew 19:1-9
    C. Sacrifice the body for the sake of the kingdom: Matthew 19:10-12
    B. Little children are the essence of the kingdom: Matthew 19:13-15
    A. Jesus speaks of giving freely/sacrificing self: Matthew 19:16-20:16
    Jesus foretells His death: Matthew 20:17-19
    --




    ---



    --
    The Brueggeman book  focuses on Isaiah and contemporary urban problems (Much of the book is a free online read here, and here is an audio of a related sermon Bruegemann preached at Mars Hill Church (pastored by Rob Bell)

    • Is the city good, evil, or neutral?
    • Think of TV shows, songs, movies, locations with the word "city"?  Themes?
    • What is a "principality"? (in geography.politics? in the Bible?)  A "polis"?  "Empire"? Is the city a bounded or centered set?  See this short video:
      • :

    story behind the pic
    • What was the first city in the Bible?
    • Where do believers wind up, in the Book of Revelation?
    • Does the city cast its shadow (influence) on us, or vice versa?

    Interesting links:



    >>Did you catch the inclusio  Brueggeman highlighted in the book of Isaiah (pp 33-34 and77- 78)? Implications?

    >>"The city is organized to abandon...so that people do not count..the city becomes an empty form, filled with nonpersons, long since forsaken" (p, 7).  Is this your experience?  Check this hilarious/tragic example of how any city/system becomes uncaring:

    Sex and Drugs in Church: Peterson on Why the System Can't Care





    --

    NEXT:  To intro tonight's biblical theme,we'll  we'll do is watch this video, with no introduction, and no context:


    --
    Questions:
    How did that video subvert your expectations re: what the Book of Revelation is about?
    Why did the speaker wait until halfway through the serrmon to even reveal what his Scripture was?
    What do you learn here about subversion of empire?
    In light of our discussion on Bruggeman book earlier tonight, what do you learn about cities?

    TONIGHT'S BIBLICAL THEME: BUILDING COMMUNITAS THROUGH 
    • APOCALYPTIC,
    • PROPHECY,
    • SUBVERSION OF EMPIRE 
    • ELEVATED RIGHTEOUSNESS 
    • SINGULAR PLURALS
    •  
    COMMUNITAS?:
    Definition here
    Short application to church here.
    Video below


    Apocalyptic:
    Prophecy:
    Prophecy:

    Wayne Grudem’s definition:
    prophecy is the reception and subsequent transmission of spontaneous, divinely originating revelation...often, WHAT IS GOD SAYING SPONTANEOUSLY IN THE MOMENT..

    It is helpful to think of prophecy as:

    a).not just
    fore-telling (predicting the future)

    but

    forth-telling  (telling forth truth)


    b)often having multiple applications and fulfillments, to different "contemporary worlds" and across time.
    We'll  used this diagram to illustrate:


    -Who wasI mmanuel?
    -Who does "out of Egypt, I have called my son" refer to ?




    Subversion of empire:



         How are all these videos examples of subversion?


    666:

    --
    The Greek spelling, "Nerōn Kaisar", transliterates into Aramaic as "נרון קסר", nrwn qsr. The Aramaic spelling is attested in a scroll from Murabba'at dated to "the second year of emperor Nero." [34] Adding the corresponding values yields 666, as shown:
    Resh (ר) Samech (ס) Qof (ק) Noon (נ) Vav (ו) Resh (ר) Noon (נ) Sum
    200 60 100 50 6 200 50 666Link
    --

    ELEVATED RIGHTEOUSNESS
    It's an "elevated righteousness" that seems to be called for.  Your text (p, 269) uses the phrase "higher righteousness," but I prefer the "elevated phrase" because
    a)The U2 connection (:
    b)"elevation" is a classic Jewish form of prayer"



    ...For the chasid, prayer is not something one recites, it is rather an exercise that one performs, or an
    experience that one enters into.... There is no room for inhibition...singing and dancing are essential means by which ...he expresses his emotional cleaving to God….but
    that desire for God has to be so overwhelming that any extraneous thoughts are excluded…If distractions are erotic in nature…and (one) faces up to the predominance of the sexual urge at both conscious and subconscious levels, and
    its capacity to intrude even during prayer...then he has learned to take measures…Chasidism dealt with this by introducing the doctrine of the "elevation of strange
    thoughts." This...technique not of sublimation, but of thought conversion, whereby the beauty or desirability of the woman is latched upon and used not as a sexual but rather as a mental and spiritual stimulus.... taught to "elevate" these thoughts by substituting the beauty of God for the
    physical beauty that is currently bewitching us. (The pray-er) has learned to immediately contrast the pale reflection of beauty that humans are endowed with, on the one hand, and the supreme Divine source of authentic and enduring beauty,
    on the other…-    "Blessed are You: A Comprehensive Guide to Jewish Prayer," by Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen, copyright 1993. , link

    More on U2 and Elevation here
    ----
    But it can get tricky living the elevated life, building fences around Law...If not prayerful/careful, one can become legalistic...Ever noticed the CHIASM Jesus uses to comment on the litmus test for law-keeping, the SABBATH?  "The Sabbath was made for humans,
                                       not humans for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27)...

    I'll never forget taking the elevator from our towering Jerusalem hotel room down to the lobby for breakfast one Saturday.

    Not only could I not push the lobby button,

    but the elevator stopped automatically on every floor.
    I wondered if I would make it down for lunch.

    When I ordered, I realized that the waitress was not writing down any orders;
    even the most complicated ones.

    Writing was "work" on the sabbath,
    as was pushing elevator buttons.
    Thus, the "sabbath elevator"
    -------------------------------------------
    Let's return (in an iclusio) to these word associations from the top of class.  How do you associate/define these words differently now?

    1. apocalyptic
    2. city
    3. 666
    4. committee
    5. heaven
    6. mark of the beast
    7. greatness
    8. binding and loosing
    9. prophecy
    10. end times
    11. economic
    12. Philemon  















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    • HOMEWORK HELP
    1)Philemon paper:
    a)Remember: No more homework outside of class (until the paper is due) as the two Philemon worksheets we'll do in class next time.  This gives you time to read and reread Philemon.
    b)Huge help: See the new tab at top:


    c)See the new tab at top:



    --



    2)Quiz next week (all answers on Week 1 post):

    >>Extra credit quiz also next week, all answers on last week's post (The extra credit quiz is open notes):


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