Devotions: text me a caption to this picture sometime during class:--
quizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz:
- MOSES ___ A. Instruction, Law, First Five Books of Old Testament.
- TORAH ___ B. Didn’t believe in angels, demons, resurrection.
- PHARISEES___ Emphasized written law, not oral tradition.
- SADDUCEES__ Upper class, temple priests.
- ZEALOTS___ C. Leader of God’s people through Exodus/ Red Sea
- ESSENES___ D. Defined by boundaries, who is in or out
- CHIASM___ E. Lived in community in Qumran, belived in End Times,
- INCLUSIO___ Probably wrote Dead Sea Scrolls.
- BOUNDED SET___ F.Though it has a boundary, it is defined by direction of
- CENTERED SET___ persons relative to the center (towards/ away) G.A word or theme is repeated at beginning and end of a text
- (and often in the middle).
- H. Believed in armed rebellion against Rome; freedom fighters.
- I. Greek word for letter 'X.' A literary device that follows an 'X'
- or ABBA pattern or reversal; mirror image.
- J. Believed in both Written and Oral Law. Lay people, scholars,
- middle class, believed in angels, demons, resurrection.
>>The Psalms were the basic ""literary world" worship and prayer book
for the "historical world" Jews....and the early Christian church..
..so why don't we follow it in our " contemporary world?" Maybe it's too honest.... and "spiritual."
There are several ways to categorize, organize and group the psalms.
You may have noticed they are broken into 5 "books." The 5 is probably intentional...for the same reason we found 5 teachings in Mathew: it's the number of Torah/Pentateuch/Moses.
Here is one way (thus the diagram):
- praise/thanksgiving
- petition
- lament
- imprecatory
These four categories sound pretty distinct, and they are...but sometimes they overlap and Venn in surprising ways. One psalm might visit most of these types, even switching midsentence.
How do they overlap, relate for you. I put them in a traditional order, but could they work in the opposite order (say, if you were having a bad day?). Where would you place them in the diagram?
How do they overlap, relate for you. I put them in a traditional order, but could they work in the opposite order (say, if you were having a bad day?). Where would you place them in the diagram?
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You may still be having trouble forgiving Walter Brueggemann for writing that book you had to read for last class (:..
You may still be having trouble forgiving Walter Brueggemann for writing that book you had to read for last class (:..
But the same guy suggests another helpful way to categorize the Psalms:
q 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
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
(Click here for more)
When we talk about the psalms of lament, psalms of imprecation, and psalms of disorientation being just as integral a part of biblical "worship" as the more "obvious," upbeat and "worshipful" psalms,
these comments from Bono of U2 comes to mind. He makes a good point:
Why are believers often so afraid of/threatened by the "honest and full truth," when the Scripture,
and the biblical "historical world," is not?
How about this:
COFFEE, NOT JESUS-dw
"Pastor, can I you come over right away?" came the voice over the phone. " I have a terrible confession to make!" I took the trip across town, the whole way I was thinking "What in the world is she going to confess? She’s a sweet older saint! What did she do, accidentally swat a mosquito, and now she needs to confess being a murderer?" When I arrived, she sat me down and spilled it out; right to the point: "I am an occasional atheist! Is that okay? "
I did not laugh, for I was priest-pastor in a holy moment, but took and shook her hand, signifying that I, too, belonged to that club. And she was freed; even though she was fearful of making that necessary and jolting confession. This is merely confession of our occasional atheism, shocking honesty, and common humanity.
Speaking of humanity, and radical honesty, and "occasional atheism"….that’s obviously a Johnny Cash thing.
Two stories about Johnny follow, the first below by the reverently irreverent journalist Chuck Klosterman:
Here is the easiest way to explain the genius of Johnny Cash: Singing from the perspective of a convicted murderer in the song ‘Folsom Prison Blues,’ Cash is struck by pangs of regret when he sits in his cell and hears a distant train whistle. This is because people on that train are ‘probably drinkin’ coffee.’ And this is also why Cash seems completely credible as a felon: He doesn’t want freedom or friendship with Jesus or a new lawyer. He wants coffee. Within the mind of a killer, complex feelings are eerily simple. This is why killers can shoot men in Reno just to watch them die and the rest of us usually can’t.
("Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs", page 186)
Usually!
The next Cash story is already a contemporary classic:
Cash once got a visit from U2 members Bono and Adam Clayton who were driving across the U.S. taking in the local colors. The three of them sat around a table before their meal, and Cash floored the two Irishmen with an incredible prayer of thanksgiving to God. Then, without skipping a beat, he raised his head and quipped, ‘Sure miss the drugs, though.’ (Dave Urbanski, "The Man Comes Around", p, xxi)
All of us have at times wanted coffee, not Jesus. We have all missed our drugs, whatever they were. We have all considered taking a taxi out of Gethsemane ; lead-footing out of our marriage; but we know that we know that "these fast cars will do me no good." But we don’t know that until we say it. So we say it; and we stay. Even when part of us doesn’t.
Bonus video below, also U2 related. This is audio recording of Bono introducing Pastor Jack Heaslip (U2's chaplain/pastor) to offer a prayer/blessing on the opening night of a U2 tour, is insightful on several levels.
I love how in the introduction Bono offers all the band's staff, roadies, etc. opportunity to participate in the blessing, without apology, but without coercion or exclusion. He's
bounded and centered set.
I also enjoy Bono's casual, almost apologetic, self-effacing (!) remark at the end about feeding the hungry "apparently" on the band that night.
(By the way, Tim Neufeld teaches a whole FPU class on the Christian implications of U2;
you should also be aware of The Rev. Beth Maynard's blog)
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On that topic of BOTH bounded and centered set, I came across a post by Len Hjalmarson
(FPU seminary grad) which introduces us to such a grid. This concept might be a really helpful model for your Philemon paper: How do you see one set or the other, or both, or both at the same time in Philemon?
Read Len's post here, featuring Stuart Murray's diagram at right.------------------------
Here's a sermon I once did on Psalm 22, which is another amazing psalm to use in a worship setting...How often have you heard "My God, My God, Why have You forsaken me?" in a church song?.
But that sentence is not just what Jesus said on the cross, he was quoting from the prayer book of the psalms.
One excerpt:
“I’ve got nothing left to give,” the professor said.
Several years ago some other pastors and I had responsibility for a pastors retreat. We decided to bring in a deep, profound, distinguished man of God; a professor renowned in the field of spiritual formation.
We were busy pastors, some of us bordering on burnout; we badly needed retreat…and training in the meat spiritual formation .
So there was indeed a huge hunger and holy hush in the room, when after weeks of waiting, the respected PhD, whom we were thrilled had said “yes” to flying out the 3,000 miles from his seminary to enlighten our relatively small but serious group, opened his mouth that first night.
Bibles and notebooks in hand , we leaned forward to receive what the master would say; what gleanings the guru had studied and prayed hard to impart.
His opening line broke the silence, the mood, and all the “rules” of grad-school-level spiritual formation 701:
“I have nothing to give.”
“Excuse me?,” I am sure we all collectively thought.
He continued, oblivious to our headscratching; indeed not even acknowledging the question marks hanging over us.
“I almost didn’t come. I almost cancelled, but I figured this retreat was booked, and I had better keep my commitment.
You see, the other day, I woke up to my wife saying ‘I’m leaving you.’
And she did.
I was so distraught that all I could do was immediately, and in a daze, drive the thousand miles to my best friend’s house.
When his wife answered the door, she could only manage: ‘How did you know?’
‘Know what?, I asked.
‘He just killed himself!’
I could only jump shellshocked into my car, drive all those miles back home..
..To find my house had been struck by lightning and burned to the ground.”
The question marks over our heads were gone.
He matter-of-factly concluded:
“So all I could do is keep my commitment and make this retreat where you want me to teach you spiritual formation. I’m sorry if I’ve made the wrong choice in coming; if I’m wasting your valuable time and money. I am here to teach spiritual formation, and maybe I can do that…
The only problem is I’m not sure I have anything left to give.”
That was the most profound lesson and lecture in spiritual formation that I have ever received.
As you can tell, I remember every word of that opening lecture.
whole sermon:
"The Lord Be With You...Even When He’s Not!"
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| Text me a caption in class...within next half hour |
Remember Rob Bell, from his sermon last week on the Literary Historical Worlds of Revelation?
Tonight will watch his "Everything is Spiritual" message for our "road trip."
If you think my whiteboard drawings are nuts, just wait till you see his!!
The whole message is not on line, but these excerpts are:
part 1:
part 2:
part 3:
part 4:
part 5:
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Phinally... some help on PHILEMON .
Here is some help on how to draw a diagram in WORD.
Here's a video on how to do it in Microsoft PAINT.
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HOW TO STUDY A TEXT
VIA THE THREE WORLDS:
What I present below is a helpful process for studying any biblical text from a "Three Worlds Perspective."
You will find it useful as you prepare your Philemon paper, but it is likely too much to use all of it.
What this is below, is how to go deep in studying a given passage, by devoting a half-hour to an hour per world..asking
"What do you observe in the passage related to the "three worlds"?
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First of all, become familiar with the "Three Worlds" Concept which comes from your Hauer/Young Tetbook, see especially chapters two and three, and see class notes.
Here below is how one student summarized the worlds (she has more detail here)
Literary World--The literary world of the Bible is simply the text itself, apart from anything outside the text. We mean the world (or, better, worlds) created by the text; the words on the page, by the stories, songs, letters and the myriad other types of literature that make up the Bible. All good literature (and the Bible is, among other things, good literature) creates in readers' minds magnificent, mysterious, and often moving worlds that take on a reality of their own, whether or not they represent anything real outside the pages (Hauer and Young ch 2).
Historical World--The historical world of the Bible is the world "behind the text" or "outside the text". It is the context in which the Bible came to be written, translated, and interpreted over time, until the present. In studying the historical world of the Bible, we look for evidence outside the text that helps us answer questions such as, who wrote this text, when was it written, to whom was it written, and why was it written. We also probe the text itself for evidence that links it to historical times, places, situations, and persons (Hauer and Young 2)..
Contemporary World--The contemporary world is the "world in front of the text" or the "world of the reader." In one sense, there are as many contemporary worlds of the Bible as there are readers, for each of us brings our own particular concerns and questions to the text. They inevitably shape our reading experience. We are all interested in answering the questions of whether the Bible in general, or particular texts, have any relevance to our personal lives (Hauer and Young ch3).
-Brolin
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here is ONE way you might approach your study:
You might envision studying a passage as a four step process, or a three step process (Observe, Interpret, Apply) with an important interlude (Correlate).
The following outline is from Oletta Wald:
- OBSERVATION What does the text say?
- INTERPRETATION What did it say and mean to its original readers? What does it mean by what it says?
- Don't forget CORRELATION: How does this fit with the flow/narrative/story of the rest of Bible
- APPLICATION How does this apply today? What does it say and mean to us? How should my life be different tomorrow if I believe this message is relevant?
These three steps parallel fairly well with the "three worlds':
OBSERVATION =LITERARY WORLD
INTERPRETATION=HISTORICAL WORLD
APPLICATION=CONTEMPORARY WORLD..
and in the "one way" article below,
CORRELATION=INTERLUDE
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Here, then, below, might be one way to study three worlds. You might follow this process for your next "Three Worlds" assignment, limiting yourself to an hour for each world.
25 STEPS:
1)Pray for wisdom and insight...it's not considered cheating! (:
2) If a text has not already been assigned, decide on the exact parameters of your text; yourpericope.
3)Make a working decision on genre, and who the text seems to be addressed to. Note if it is addressed to an individual or a group.
4)Re-copy on sheet of paper (or word document) the text (use NRSV, NIV or TNIV translation..Find them all in the drop-down box at Bible Gatway here) without paragraph breaks. Ponder it for several minutes, read it aloud several times, listen to it on audio (BibleGateway.com) and (maybe) even begin memorizing it.. Jot any preliminary thoughts or questions about what it seems to say and mean. Comment on any mood, atmosphere, emotion and tone that you imagine.
5)Rewrite/rearrange the text (or re-organize or reformat it) in a way that makes sense of the flow of thought and grammar. Even if you aren't familiar with grammatical terminology, split apart clauses and pay attention to tense and form. Try some sentence diagramming (examples here, here,here, here)
(See Oletta Wald, "The Joy of Discovery in Bible Study" for ideas), and David Thompson, "Bible Study That Works).
Maybe use this chart >> as a checklist.
See pp 40-49 of Hauer/Young for lots of help.
Try a computer wordle (here) or word cloud (here) of the passage. Outline the passage. Jot down any new insights about what the text seems to say or mean.
6)Chart or diagram the text in any way that makes sense to you. Make particular use of arrows/circles/underlining to connect themes, logic, words literary devices.
7)Do you see any examples of bounded sets? Centered sets? Fuzzy sets?
8)Comment on the context (the sections just before and after your chosen text. Are there any thematic or literary connections? Repeated themes or words?
Especially if your text is a gospel or from Samuel/Kings/Chronicles, locate any other book where the same story is told (often these are listed under paragraph headings in Bibles; see a Gospel Parallels chart here; you can also check BibleGateway.com). and compare/contrast the accounts. Make tentatative conclusions about your author's viewpoint and TTP (targeted theological purpose), based on what he/she does NOT include.
9)Briefly consider the book the unit is drawn from. Do you know of any themes or issues it is known to address? Read the introduction to the book
here, and check for it in the index of Hauer/Young
10)What would be your working title to your text?
HISTORICAL WORLD
11)Make observations about which book, which Testament the text is from, and anything you know about its author, historical setting, and its place in the broader biblical narrative (See index in Hauer/Young, for example).
12)Are persons/events/places from other biblical books (or testaments) mentioned? If so, you might check these names places in your class notes, Oxford Bible notes, New Bible Dictionary. Erdmans Handbook to the Bible, Erdmans Bible Dictionary, Worldwide Study Bible) or on Ray VanDer Laan's website (type the name or term in the search bar). Is there intertextualty, hyperlinking? Check resources such as BibleGateway.com (tutorial here), concordances, cross-references.
13)Read the section about your text from at least two commentaries (and be sure to quote then in your final project) The Bible Background Commentary is recommended. Don't get overwhelmed with detail, or understanding everything written, but do make note of anything that confirms or differs from your findings, and especially any iusight that is intriguing or new.
14)Read the section about your text from "The Bible Background Commentary' (Old Testament
or New Testament)What "historical worlds" insights are found there?
15)Read any article or datafile below from VanDer Laan about your passage:
INTERLUDE:
16)If the text is from a gospel, incorporate any insights from 300 class about the historical world of Jesus day. If the text is not a gospel, how would it relate to Jesus and the gospels, particularly the Sermon on the Mount?
Watch this short video, and ask how your text relates to the "center" of the Bible. Where does the story fit? Do other passages seem to fulfill, supercede, bring further revelation to it?
17)Read the text in two more translations (one being a standard translation such as NRSV, TNIV, ESV, JB, NASV and one being a looser translation or paraphrase (The Message, The Voice, Good News Bible). .Find them all in the drop-down box at Bible Gatway here) Jot down any differences and insights.
18)Summarize your thoughts, findings, feelings and questions
19)Would you modify your working title at this point? Add a subtitle which hints at a sub-theme.
CONTEMPORARY WORLD:
20). What do you know abut the "contemporary" world of the people in the text., or the people addressed in the text. Comment on how your world/our world is different than ours, and note any problems this causes in application. Review
21)Remembering your":personal and social inventory," your results on RRWI/EPIC and the Dan Nainan "What race IS that guy?" video: in what ways does your faith perspective, culture, class, age or gender help or hinder you in understanding/relating to/ appreciating and personalizing the text.
22)On the left hand column of a sheet of paper, summarize your findings, suggestions and hunches about what then text "means" to the original readers/ hearers. Then on the right hand column, make corresponding implications for what the text might mean to us today. How is our situation/nation/church/world the same or different?
23)Especially if your text is teaching or parable, how might it be retold in our day, with contemporary references (culture, technology, news etc). If the text is parable (or acted parable, like the Fig tree cursing or temple tantrum) how might Jesus (or whoever told the parable) tell the same story to make the same point today? (ex. who are the "Samaritans" of our day?) How might Jesus (or whoever told the parable) tell a different story to make the same point today?
24)Incorporate any insights from areas of skill and knowledge you have (maybe from different classes you have this semester),especially from disciplines that may seem unrelated (science, math, music, computers. mechanics). Think creatively.
25)What is your working summary of the text;s message and meaning,and applications.
What does it have to with a contemporary church's life? My life?
Craft a short devotional thought, or a brief outline of a teaching (sermon or drama) you might offer if asked to bring a devotional or message on this text in a church setting.
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"outgoing devotion": Text me a caption to this final photo at some random time before next class:
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