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Monday, August 30, 2010

Chapters Seven and Eight

You can find the reading guide for chapter seven here and the guide for chapter eight here.

Monday, August 30, is the final Monday on which we'll meet.

We will switch to a Wednesday schedule, which I'll post after we finalize it on Monday.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Online Prayer Resources

A comment asked for an 'audio' example of Lectio Divina. I think that is beyond my tech capabilities this week.

I did a search, and ended up with what I know anyway! These two are sites I have recommended over and over and they are still among the best out there.

Sacred Space is a nice guided meditation using your computer. Some of the questions it asks following the reading are typical of Lectio.

Pray As You Go has excellent production values. It has the added advantage of being downloadable to your Ipod or MP3 player.

Both of these are more rooted in Ignatian meditation. (More on that next week!) But, they are not bad examples of ways to meditate on the Scriptures.

I think that the key with Lectio is to remember the four steps: Read; Meditate; Converse with God; Be with God. In a sense, the doing of it teaches you how to do it. You might feel your way 'in the dark' for a bit, but if you trust that God wants to converse with you, the relationship cannot fail to develop.

Book Club Tonight - August 23

Come, even if you have not read it all!

Besides chapters five and six, we'll talk a bit about what we know of Matthew's community.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Chapters Five and Six - Beginning the Sermon on the Mount

According to Matthew, after Jesus' time in the desert, he began to preach repentance, to call disciples, and then to gather crowds.

In chapters five and six, we hear a large collection of Jesus' sayings given us together as the Sermon on the Mount. For two millennia, the message preached here has been the standard against which Christian behavior and attitudes are measured.

Read them through this week and re-discover them.

The guide to chapter five is here.

The guide to chapter six is here.

Thunder

One member of our discussion commented that she usually thought things like a voice from the sky or a vision as recounted in the Gospels as more natural events, with a supernatural interpretation.

Actually, you can find some evidence for that in the text itself. (I misspoke and said I thought this occurred in one of the accounts of Jesus' baptism, but it is later on in John's gospel.)

This scene is just before Jesus is betrayed:
"I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name."

Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it and will glorify it again."

The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."

John 12:26-29

Jesus' Baptism via Zefferelli

We were speaking on Monday of different depictions of Jesus' baptism and Zefferelli's version from Jesus of Nazareth came up.

Thank goodness for Youtube! Here is the link. (It won't let me embed.)

You'll notice that they use Matthew's words, This is my Beloved Son...., but put the words in John the Baptist's mouth.

If you've not seen this film (all six hours of it), you can rent it, or evidently watch it in pieces on Youtube. As you watch, take note that Zefferelli, like most makers of biopics about Jesus, mushes together accounts from the gospels. Also, as in this case, there are often enough interpretations put into the film that you won't find in the text.

The Historical Jesus

Luke Timothy Johnson published a worthwhile article entitled The Jesus Controversy, in the August 2, 2010 issue of America Magazine. He writes about the two trends in Jesus scholarship. One group tries to show that we can ascertain to a large degree the historical details of Jesus' life and ministry. The other group tends to the side that we really can't know much at all about the historical Jesus.

In response to both camps, Johnson writes:
History is a limited way of knowing reality. Dependent on the fragmentary bits of what was observed, recorded, saved and transmitted from the past, recognizing that all human witness is biased and cautious about speculating beyond available evidence, responsible historians know they deal only in probabilities, not certainties. Theirs is a descriptive art rather than a prescriptive science. And in the case of Jesus and the Gospels, the critical problems facing all historical reconstruction are extreme, warning investigators against pushing against the limits. Thus, historians can assert with greater or lesser probability certain facts about Jesus (his death by crucifixion) or certain patterns of his ministry (speaking in parables) or even certain incidents (his baptism by John). But historians cannot on the basis of those probable conclusions offer an alternative narrative or interpretation from those found in the Gospels.
****
But I emphasize that the real point of historical knowledge is not the dismantling of the Gospels but a fuller engagement with the Gospel narrative. One of the perhaps surprising results of the best historical study of first-century Palestine, I point out, is that the incidental information provided by the Gospels concerning Jesus’ political and cultural context and religious environment tends to confirm rather than disprove the information about those matters in the Gospels.

More important, I try to show how encountering Jesus as a literary character in each of the canonical Gospels makes possible a more profound, satisfying and ultimately more “historical” knowledge of the human Jesus than that offered by scholarly reconstructions. Once readers recognize and begin to appreciate the diverse portraits of Jesus found in the Gospels, not as the poor offerings of historical sources but as the rich witness of faith, they begin to sense that the human Jesus is a far richer and elusive reality than either superficial belief or superficial historical scholarship would suggest. Such literary appreciation of the Gospels also leads to the insight that despite their divergent perspectives and themes, they converge impressively precisely on the historical issue that is of the most vital importance concerning the human Jesus, namely his character. What sort of person was Jesus? Each Gospel witnesses to the truth that Jesus as a human being was defined first by his radical obedience to God and second by his utter self-giving to others. This Jesus of the Gospels is the same Jesus found in the letters of Paul and Peter and in the Letter to the Hebrews. It is the historic Christ who shaped the identity of Christian discipleship through the ages and generated prophetic reform in every age of the church.

Most of all, I try to remind my audience that the entire quest for the historical Jesus is a massive deflection of Christian awareness from its proper focus: learning the living Jesus—the resurrected and exalted Lord present to believers through the power of the Holy Spirit—in the common life and common practices of the church.
****
Jesus is best learned not as a result of an individual’s scholarly quest that is published in a book, but as a continuing process of personal transformation within a community of disciples. Jesus is learned through the faithful reading of the Scriptures, true, but he is learned as well through the sacraments (above all the Eucharist), the lives of saints (dead and living) and the strangers with whom the exalted Lord especially associates himself.

Lectio divina - Sacred Reading in Different Shapes and Forms

At the session on Monday, we explored Lectio Divina - "sacred reading." This way of prayer was developed in the monasteries of Europe over 1300 years ago. In a much more slow-paced age, it encouraged meditative reading of the Scriptures (or other spiritual books) in a manner that leads to prayer.

We live in a different time, but the slowness of lectio is probably more important for us. It enables us to dig down deeper into the text and to see what is to be found there. It is very different from our usual habits of skimming in a hyperlinked world.

Speaking of hyperlinks, you can find a full description of lectio here.

In brief, it has four simple steps.
  • Lectio - Reading the text slowly. Discover what words or phrases 'stick out' or make an impact upon you.
  • Meditatio - Meditation. Turning that word or phrase over and over, seeing where it leads you in your train of thought. What connections does it make to your life, your concerns, your joys, hopes, sorrows?
  • Oratio - Prayer. Let your meditation lead you to a conversation with the Lord.
  • Contemplatio - Contemplation. Just rest in the presence of God and enjoy God's being with you.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Chapters Three and Four - Open Thread

I will try to summarize what we talk about tonight and include that in the comments. In the meantime, feel free to add your own comments, questions, observations about these chapters.

Book Club Tonight - August 16

Tonight, we'll begin to look at the text of Matthew, chapters three and four. Even if you just have time to read the chapters (they are short), you should come! If you have a bit more time, look over the reading guide and note your impressions and questions.

We'll also do a little exploration of how to read the Gospel reflectively using an ancient technique, lectio divina.

I hope to see you there!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

When Did They Start Calling Matthew "Matthew"?

The question was asked last night about when they began calling the Gospel of Matthew, "Matthew" since most scholars agree it was not written by the apostle by that name.

We spoke of the "Q" source, a collection of sayings of Jesus. Writing around 130 A.D., Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, tells us that the Apostle Matthew put together the discourses or 'sayings' of Jesus. This book was written in Aramaic, the common language spoken by first century Jews in Palestine, and by Jesus himself. Perhaps this was what modern scholars later called "Q". That is a guess, and it no longer exists by itself, as far as we know. St. Irenaeus (about 180 A.D.) reports the same tradition.

It is possible that this collection by an eyewitness, as well as the Gospel of Mark, were used to fashion both the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. If that is so, then the tradition that one source was collected by Matthew could have been the origin of calling the Gospel by that name.

As I said, we don't have a copy of "Q". However, we didn't have copies of most of the Gnostic gospels either, until a cache of them was found in Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945. (A discovery similar to that of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947.) It could be that this Aramaic text is buried someplace dry just waiting for our discovery of it. But, that is nothing that should keep you up nights.

Chapters Three and Four, But Where are One and Two?

Matthew and Luke each include an infancy narrative in their Gospels. In these chapters, they set the stage and begin to sketch the themes that they will later develop in the Gospel.

We'll read chapters one and two - but at the end. By the time we get there, the deeper meaning of these chapters will be much more obvious to you - and more enriching to explore.

So, we'll reflect for next week on chapters three and four. (Get the downloads to print out, if you would like.)

How should you read the chapter?

  • Read the chapter through, slowly. Don't skim.

  • Note your impressions, your questions, what appeals to you, what perplexes you.

  • Read the explanatory notes on the guide, and the commentary, if you have it available.

  • Spend some time with the questions on the guide.

  • Come with your reflections and questions to the session on Monday, August 16. Or post your comments and questions here. Questions will be answered as best as possible!

The commentary we are using is from the Collegeville series. This volume is by Sr. Barbara Reid, OP of Catholic Theological Union. You can buy the commentary at the rectory for $7.00, or directly from Amazon. See the sidebar to the right on this page for the link.

How Do We Know How The Gospels Were Written?

A tremendous amount of historical, linguistic, literary, archeological and anthropological research has taken place in the last 150 years which has greatly expanded our understanding of the ancient world and the context in which the Gospels were written.

For example, we know more about the literature of the ancient world and have compared other surviving texts to what we find in the Bible. We know more about the languages and how they were used. We know more about the historical context in which they lived.

Using these tools, we can examine the Scriptural texts and see how they were constructed. We shouldn't be afraid to do this. If our discovery is not what we expected, it need not destroy our faith in the witness of the text. In fact, it may enhance it.

On Page Six of the handout is a copy of one page of a study text, called a Gospel parallel. If you examine it, you will see the following:

  • Matthew depends on Mark's text, but doesn't use all of it.

  • He omits Mark's emphasis on "don't tell." This is a very important motif in Mark, but not as important in the way Matthew tells the story.

  • Matthew includes a reference to the Hebrew Scriptures, which neither Mark nor Luke have. Matthew makes such a point of connecting Jesus to the tradition that most scholars agree he was probably writing for a Jewish Christian community.

  • You can see that in the next section, Luke continues to follow Mark, but Matthew has rearranged the order of the narrative. Mark and Luke set this scene very early in Jesus' ministry. Matthew has moved it to after the Sermon on the Mount.

This is just one small example of how scholars analyze the text to find clues as to how the evangelists composed them.

If you would like to explore more about how the church views these scholarly developments and uses them, you can access On the Historical Truth of the Gospels (1964) here and On the Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1994) here.

Intro Session

By clicking on the link, you can find the handout for the introductory session. In that session, we covered What Is a Gospel?, and How were the Gospels Written?.

Please read through the entire handout, but here are some explanatory comments I included in the session for Page Four:

We can unpack this statement from Fr. Harrington by beginning at the end.

...from Jesus.... What did the disciples hear? Did they hear him correctly? Did they hear him completely? We trust that the Holy Spirit has guided the church to the truth. But, we also know, from within the texts themselves, that the disciples often did not understand Jesus at all. For example, in the scene of the Transfiguration, in Mark 9, the disciples raise the question among the themselves - What did 'rising from the dead' mean?

So, we are listening to witnesses, not recordings. Our faith tells us that these witnesses are reliable, but not every witness to every event remembers every detail with absolute accuracy, even when they communicate to us the basic events.

...a complex process...

The disciples took the message and memories of events and brought them to the communities they evangelized. Some events and memories were more applicable than others to the people they dealt with. For example, if it was a Gentile community, Jesus' outreach beyond Israel would have been important. If it was a predominantly female community, Jesus' interactions with women would have been important.

Then, as the first witnesses began to die, the community itself told and retold the stories in the next generation. For example, if the community was undergoing persecution, how they told the story would have been different than if they were relatively free from danger.

As we read the Gospels, we began to see the shape of the communities through the filters of what came down to us from each place. We can tell what was more important to them from what they tell of Jesus and his teachings.

...of tradition...

Tradition means 'handing on'. We are not getting second best. We're getting the Gospels handed on from people who took them to heart, held them dear and made them their own. They hand on to us the most precious thing they had. Consider a gold ring. One would be much like another. But a gold band, even if it is not worth much to an online gold buyer, would be priceless if it were your great-grandmother's wedding ring. What it meant to her and to your family is being passed down along with the object. When we receive the Gospels, we receive something that people were willing to die for - and did.

The Gospels are portraits

Here we have two Presidential portraits. JFK's looks melancholy and sad. In fact, if you didn't know what he looked like, you would have trouble seeing his face. It seems almost unfinished, like an interrupted Presidency. Compare that to him with Marilyn Monroe. That tells us something completely different.

LBJ looks powerful and in control. He got more legislation through Congress than almost anyone except FDR: the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare. Then, there is the day he showed his scar from gall bladder surgery at a press conference. It made him look a bit of a buffoon.

All of these are 'true' pictures, but none of them tell the whole story. Where is JFK's wit and style? Where is Vietnam?

A Gospel portrait is true, but like all true portraits, it can't be absolutely complete.

The El Greco painting is of Veronica. According to the story, she came forth from the crowd, as Jesus carried his cross, and wiped his face. His face then appeared on her head scarf. This is a legend - it doesn't appear in Scripture - but it tells us something important. Her name, Veronica, means "true image". The image of Christ is seen as much in her, reaching out to someone in desperate need, as it is on the cloth. In the same way, the true portrait of Christ alive is seen in the Church.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Getting Going

The Matthew Book Club will meet for four weeks in August, beginning tonight, Monday, August 9 at 7:00 PM.

After the introductory meetings, you will have the opportunity to join a small group and continue reading Matthew.

Or, you can join online and download the chapter-by-chapter reading guides.

Or, you can do a combination of both.

After tonight, the first guides and the opening session will be posted online.