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Tuesday, February 23, 2016

2/23 and 2/25 Class (includes video of impersonator Wesley Coles and Thurs. quiz instructions)

Presentation:
  • Nelson-Burke

  • -----------------------------------------------------------

  • Today's timelines:



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Opening song!: from church in an Irish pub.
Unforgettable, wasn't it?

                   Review: Pádraig Ó Tuama's “Hymns To Swear By” |





Take a look at some of your comments about this song on the right side of the pic above.
This brought up issues of grief and lament; dark side,  We will get to that below


--

 Interpreting the "text" of Dave Matthews' song "Bartender"!
 Ist version:




2nd version:
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More on the song, along with different versions, here and here.



---
    This week, the topic is "Worshipping and Singing in Community: Psalms  Lament and Suffering"
    Here is a slightly different version of this week's presentation, filmed for an online class. It's a  multipart  video (7 parts, but only a half-hour total! Watch it in order) by Dave Wainscott (and a few friends) on Psalms and Lament.  Watch carefully if you need to review and take notes, as you will be responding in Forum 1.

    Part 1 is below  Listen to the song which is part 1.  Open the lyrics here, and read  along as it plays.  In a way, treat it like other songs  (and Scriptures) we have used in this class: as a text which calls for context and  your Three Worlds skills of interpretation.  Do your best to discern  the main characters , genre, backstory, storyline etc.  (It's easier than Philemon!).  But also be prepared to process how it made you feel.
    part 1:


    part 2:
     
    part 3:
     
    part 4:
     
    part 5:
     
    part 6

    part 7: Finish with this song, which Dave prepared you for in part 6:
     




    Here are some notes on the above:
    -


    PSALMS
    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:




    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)

    ---------

    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:

     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 astonishingly HONEST the prayer/worship book of the  Jews (and Christians) is!


    We'll spend some time on the "three worlds" of Psalm 22, which Jesus quotes  honestly  on the cross:
    Here (click title below) 's a sermon 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?"   Or "God, where were YOU when I needed you!!"
      (see 
    Sixpence and God both sneak a smoke  




    and 
    "Is there such a thing as Christian music?")
      in a church song?


    Yet how familiar is the very next psalm: 23.


    Life is both Psalm 22 and 23...sometimes on the same day, in the same prayer.
    If we think both/and...we think Hebrew.









    Here's a link with several of the stories and illustrations I talked about tonight Iike the speaker who said "I almost didn't come tonight",,

     

    Click the title: 

    "The Lord Be With You...Even When He’s Not!"

    --


    Jesus died naked..but not in Christian art and movies

    I am not here to offend anyone unnecessarily.
    But I believe Corrie Ten Boom was right and right on:

    Jesus died naked.

    Even the (very conservative)Dallas Theological commentaries assume this, so this is not just some "liberal" agenda:


    "That Jesus died naked was part of the shame which He bore for our sins. " -link


    Which means this picture
    (found on a blog with no credit)
    is likely wrong(Jesus looks too white).

    ...and largely right (What Jesus is wearing).

    I answered a question about this a few years ago, I would write it a bit differently know, but here it is:

    First of all, it is probable that (again, contrary to nearly all artwork and movies), Jesus hung on the cross absolutely naked. This was a typical way of crucifixion, to increase the shame factor. Romans might occasionally add a loincloth type of garment as a token concession and nod to Jewish sensitivity; but not very often, it would seem. Of course, once we get past the emotive and cultural shock of imagining Jesus naked, we realize that if He indeed die naked, the symbolism is profound and prophetic: In Scripture, Jesus is called the "Second Adam". As such, it would make sense that He died "naked and unashamed." We are also told that "cursed is he who dies on a tree." The nakedness was a sign and enfolding of shame and token of curse. And the wonderful story of Corrie ten Boom and family, told in the book and movie "The Hiding Place," relates. One of the turning points of her ability to endure the Ravensbruck concentration camp, particularly the shame of walking naked past the male guards, was her conviction that Jesus too was shamed and stripped naked before guards. "Finally, it dawned on me," she preached once," that this (shaming through nakedness) happened to Jesus too..., and Jesus is my example, and now it is happening to me, then I am simply doing what Jesus did." She concluded, "I know that Jesus gave me that thought and it gave me peace. It gave me comfort and I could bear the shame and cruel treatment." 
    continued

    More:


    --





    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.


    N.T. Wright on Psalms: "some people are so wicked that we simply must wish judgment upon them"

    ----------------------------------
    Thanks for praying for Sonya.


    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.

    --


    and Wesley Cole rocked it today!:


    Quiz Thurs: Road Trip!  No meeting in our classroom, unless your group wants to meet there to get started or debrief.  Go in one car if possible.

    THURS: Go to North Fresno Campus together, or meet there to start.  Turn right on Friant as you leave campus.  This road turns into Blackstone.  Stay on Blackstone all the way to  Dakota or Shields  At that point, find look straight ahead at the horizon (right in front of you at the end of Blackstone.  What do you notice that is interesting.  Keep going all the way downtown until you find the interesting thing you saw.  Then you can head back to campus.  By the end of class (11:05),  have a group representative post in the comments section below (sign in as anonymous if you need to, but be sure to include your group number):
    1)What was interesting/intriguing about the thing you saw on the horizon?
    2)What changed as you got closer to the object?  What might possibly be the reason for this change?
    What might be the leadership lesson, or Bible study lesson?

    That is your quiz.
    Help: It may help to head back to campus via Ventura, which leads to Kings Canyon (and then to Chestnut . Having someone look out the rear view window at a few different spots on the way home may help you get the lesson.
    Disclaimer: not an official field trip (:  So drive safe...or opt out if concerned or not able to go.  The alternative quiz would be:
    a)2 paragraph summary of the 7-part video on psalms (see above)
    b)a paragraph on your practicum.
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