One of these weeks, I will put up a video entry of this weekly entry instead of writing it out.
But not this week.
I usually list these items weekly from the items most relevant to my sermon prep to the least relevant. Just to shake things up a bit, I'll start with the least relevant this week. Relatively. Maybe I just won’t think too hard about it . . .
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Okay, I've got to say this first. The message was based on Matthew 6, and Luke 11 and 12.
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Dutch Blitz – We’ve been playing a lot of Dutch Blitz around our house. It’s a card game. Imagine speed combined with solitaire, but with other people. It’s pretty much a kid’s game, but people get pretty jazzed up. I finally learned how to play a couple of weeks ago.
Katie can’t sleep after she plays. Ben just won’t play at all because it makes him so anxious.
The Wikipedia article (as of today) has a picture of “homeschooled youths” enjoying a game of Dutch Blitz, which I think is hilarious. Apparently it’s very popular among young Christians and, uh, the Amish. Heh. It should actually be called Deutch Blitz, because it’s German. Silly Pennsylvanians just don’t know how to pronounce it correctly.
Rob Bell, Gandhi, John Piper (Tweet - Farewell Rob Bell. 12:09 PM Feb 26th), and the Gospel Coalition – I don’t have a lot to say about this. Yet. I just though I’d give a nod to the fact that some corners of the internet have exploded over a book of Rob Bell’s that doesn’t even exist yet. I figured that since John Piper, Rob Bell, and Gandhi have all been mentioned in some way or another as being influences of mine in the last month, I should mention that I know that they’re fighting right now. How sad. You can click their names if you care to start knowing more.
Actually, Gandhi's not fighting. Because he's nonviolent. And dead.
Jay Bakker - (put link to picture here) – I spent some time in Chapters this week, and while I was in the religion section, I picked up a book by my old buddy (one-time acquaintance who probably doesn’t remember me) Jay. It’s his newest. I thumbed through it. Anyway, I love the guy (I mean personally, I’ll give him a hug in heaven one day), and his “author picture” reminded me that yes, he has had an influence. Beard. Black Wayfarers. Lip ring on bottom lip on the left. Sleeve tattoos. Greek Fisherman’s hat. I actually found it kind of eery.
Anyway, Kate and I visited his church in Atlanta together back in the day. Before that, I spent a lot of time with him in Lethbridge as he toured around. The seeds planted during these visits with him, and our time reading his and his parent’s (Jim and Tammy Faye) books have certainly made some impact on our philosophies of ministry and style of church.
Dexter (Series Premiere - Dexter) – I watched Dexter for the first time this week. In-tense. I may never watch it again, and I don’t necessarily recommend it. It has definitely been in my head, though. Dexter is a serial killer, and the show’s protagonist. The remarkable thing about the show is how well it actually makes you identify with this monster of a man. It had me thinking a lot about the nature of sin and judgment, and the masks we wear to hide our own secret monsters. This is where the show had an influence, if any. Matthew 6 deals with the congruency of our outer and inner world. In the Sermon n the Mount, Jesus is very clear that God is not impressed with our outward actions, if they do not match a truly pure heart. Dexter is fully aware that his life is a fake. He’s learned how to put on the act of a normal person. He knows he isn’t normal. All of his niceties only serve to allow him to continue his lifestyle of killing people, and no one knows. To what lengths he goes to hide his secret. To what lengths we go to hide ours when we have them.
My favourite line from the show was when Dexter is watching people smash their shrimp at a restaurant and he says, “normal people are so hostile”.
Smallville (Scion) – Cute episode. (spoilers) The guy we expected to become the new Lex Luthor is now Superboy in one stroke of a writer’s pen. They didn’t call him Superboy, of course, but they did call him Connor Kent, Superboy’s name in the DC comics, and they gave him his powers. And they magically turned his hair from red to black. And erased his memory.
Anyway, the episode did get me thinking some more about our inner and outer world again. Connor Kent/Superboy has half the DNA of Lex Luthor, and through a little run-in with some red kryptonite, we get to see a hidden dark side.
Darkseid? Not until the end of the episode . . .
And I’m glad John Glover’s back. And I’m glad Michael Rosenbaum will be back in the last (two hour) episode. And I’m glad that there are only four more episodes. Because this show isn’t very good.
I’m giving up Smallville for Lent. This is mostly because there won’t be any new episodes until Easter.
Community - No episode last week. This is probably for the best. After their last episode (political something-or-other), these guys really need to sit in time out for a while and think about what they’ve done.
I’m listening to a lot of protest music right now. I really Like Lex Mckie’s song “For my Class”. And Scott Bartlett’s “Joshua’s Song” has been in my head all week.
“It seems like you’ve become someone I’m obsessed to be like, someone I’m compelled to find . . .” – Joshua’s Song
Troy Collett - Every week I'm interviewing a pastor I know about how they prepare and deliver sermons. I want to become a better preacher and pastor. I plan to review sermons and/or notes by the pastors before interviewing them. Troy is a friend who pastors a house church a few blocks south of us. He likes the Lord of the Rings. During our conversation, he mentioned a quote by Gandalf that ended up in my message.
"So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." - from the Fellowship of the Ring
Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw – I didn’t actually read this this week. But I bought it with some cash that an anarchist gave me to buy books with. Then I spent a lot of time in bookstores looking for the books mentioned in this book’s bibliography. They are not easy to find.
If anyone can find “Matthew and Empire”, let me know.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV) 3rd Edition –This is an academic annotated Bible. That’s academic-speak for Study Bible. That also means that this is the only Study Bible I have that spends much time in textual or higher criticism. I don’t often do a lot of that, but it’s good to get a little bit of perspective from that angle, even if I often disagree.
E-Sword - I often forget to mention this. It's a free software download of scores of Bible translations and dozens of commentaries for free. I use this mostly for checking word usage in scripture, to help me understand the intention of the Greek text better. I recommend it.
NIV Study Bible - This is a great resource. If you don't have any good Bible commentary or study notes, I'd start here. It helps me with almost every sermon I preach.
The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer - This has definitely become my secondary study resource for our study through Matthew. Bonhoeffer was a German Nazi resister, a conservative theologian, and was killed by the Nazis for his cooperation in a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. The middle half of this book is a challenging commentary on the Sermon on the Mount. I'll be parking there in this book until the end of next week. Read last week’s “influences” entry for more.
The NIV Application Commentary - Matthew by Michael J. Wilkins - This continues to be my main resource for my study through Matthew. Read last week’s “influences” entry for more.
Matthew 1-4 - I've slowed down my study to four chapters a week. This zine of study notes is becoming a priority to me. I'd like to ask y'all for some contributions as well. We could make a collaboration on something to remember together
Matthew 5-7 - I read through and considered the Sermon on the Mount again this week, continuing the study for this three weeks of sermons.
Matthew 6, Luke 11,12 - These were my main texts for the message this week, and I was buried in them.
The community of Qumram was probably part of the moviment of Essenes, please, look at the link below:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essenes
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/essenes.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search.html/?default_prefix=author_id&sort_order=downloads&query=1050
Now from The War of the Jews, Book 2, chapter 8 after verse 2
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2850/2850-h/book2.htm#noteref-8
2. For there are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The followers of the first of which are the Pharisees; of the second, the Sadducees; and the third sect, which pretends to a severer discipline, are called Essens. These last are Jews by birth, and seem to have a greater affection for one another than the other sects have. These Essens reject pleasures as an evil, but esteem continence, and the conquest over our passions, to be virtue. They neglect wedlock, but choose out other persons children, while they are pliable, and fit for learning, and esteem them to be of their kindred, and form them according to their own manners. They do not absolutely deny the fitness of marriage, and the succession of mankind thereby continued; but they guard against the lascivious behavior of women, and are persuaded that none of them preserve their fidelity to one man.
3. These men are despisers of riches, and so very communicative as raises our admiration. Nor is there any one to be found among them who hath more than another; for it is a law among them, that those who come to them must let what they have be common to the whole order,—insomuch that among them all there is no appearance of poverty, or excess of riches, but every one's possessions are intermingled with every other's possessions; and so there is, as it were, one patrimony among all the brethren. They think that oil is a defilement; and if any one of them be anointed without his own approbation, it is wiped off his body; for they think to be sweaty is a good thing, as they do also to be clothed in white garments. They also have stewards appointed to take care of their common affairs, who every one of them have no separate business for any, but what is for the uses of them all.
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Talking about influences the community of Qumram was probably part of the moviment of Essenes, you will find so many similarities into Jesus` parables and their filosofy of life. Please, look at the links below and read further specialy from the last link:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essenes
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/essenes.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search.html/?default_prefix=author_id&sort_order=downloads&query=1050
Now from The War of the Jews, Book 2, chapter 8 after verse 2
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2850/2850-h/book2.htm#noteref-8
2. For there are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The followers of the first of which are the Pharisees; of the second, the Sadducees; and the third sect, which pretends to a severer discipline, are called Essens. These last are Jews by birth, and seem to have a greater affection for one another than the other sects have. These Essens reject pleasures as an evil, but esteem continence, and the conquest over our passions, to be virtue. They neglect wedlock, but choose out other persons children, while they are pliable, and fit for learning, and esteem them to be of their kindred, and form them according to their own manners. They do not absolutely deny the fitness of marriage, and the succession of mankind thereby continued; but they guard against the lascivious behavior of women, and are persuaded that none of them preserve their fidelity to one man.
3. These men are despisers of riches, and so very communicative as raises our admiration. Nor is there any one to be found among them who hath more than another; for it is a law among them, that those who come to them must let what they have be common to the whole order,—insomuch that among them all there is no appearance of poverty, or excess of riches, but every one's possessions are intermingled with every other's possessions; and so there is, as it were, one patrimony among all the brethren. They think that oil is a defilement; and if any one of them be anointed without his own approbation, it is wiped off his body; for they think to be sweaty is a good thing, as they do also to be clothed in white garments. They also have stewards appointed to take care of their common affairs, who every one of them have no separate business for any, but what is for the uses of them all.
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Cool beans
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