1/23:Quiz 1, Culture, Genealogy, Christ-Mass, Quiz 2 Questions (shhh)

Here's a text message:

"I get my sushi at 7-11"

That will make sense in a minute.

After the quiz...


I think you'll lile this video dare you not to laugh:



Questions:

•  How was he able to get away with telling jokes on different cultures?
• Have you experienced racial prejuidice/racism?
• How is Jesus the definitive bicultural person?
• -For those who are African-American or Asian-American, how does it feel that "Jesus was Asian" and spent time on both continents?
• Does this video make you think "bounded" or "centered?

This  video connects to several themes for today and the next several weeks.

Before we go on, answer these questions.  We'll return to them later

• 1)In England, they drive on the _________________ side of the road.
• 2)What continent is Israel on?
• 3). Man, you can sure tell ________ is at work nowadays in the secular world.  All you have to do is look around!
• 4)What's wrong with the term "reverse racism"?

What is ethnocentrism?
How do you define "culture?"


As we begin a couple weeks in which we pause to retrieve the "Old" Testament backstory (uh, 'front-story') to the "New" Testament Gospel of Matthew, we introduce the topic of
CULTURE 

We often take "culture" for granted, as it is simply the way we (one or more person) thinks and feels.
(Note: we didn't say "race"...and we are defining "culture" broadly.  So, all marriages are cross-cultural, even if both persons are of the same race, as everyone thinks/feels differently, and has different "cultural" preferences.
It's "all around us...even when we go to church," just as Morpheus said to Neo about 'the matrix':

Because of this, we are often blinded to our culture and how we "see through it."  Do fish even know they are in water?
It's easy to assume our cultural identity or preference is the "best" or "right" way (as in a bounded set that everyone should be in)....or the way everyone else sees/interprets  things.



"We don't see things as they are,
 we see things as we are."
 -Anaïs Nin



"Gaithers on Crack: a conversation on cultural preferences":




So, re: culture, and the central question of our class,
Who is Jesus is Matthew?:


He is:


a) someone who is cultural:
he was a member of a culture ( Remember your social inventory, when you reflected on your cultural, and biculturalism.  Was Jesus bicultural in any way?
How did you respond to the suggestion that Jesus was Asian?  What other 'cultures' was he part of?).
Consider: "All divine revelation is culturally mediated." (Leonard Sweet, "Aqua Church 2.0," p.. 67...context).

b)someone who often was, and whose message often  was,  counter-cultural. ('the first shall be last," etc....  see The Upside Down Kingdom  textbook)

c)someone whose ministry and message were  cross-cultural (not just to Jews, etc).



CULTURE: a way of thinking, feeling, valuing and acting by one or more persons.

Wow!  All communication is texting, and all communication is cross-cultural.
All marriages are cross-cultural

This all connects us to the amazing genealogy of Jesus in chapter 1


Today we begin walking through the gospel of Matthew, so we begin by asking "What is a "gospel"?

1)"good news"..literally what the word means.
2)biography/history..(but) with a targeted theological purpose.
3)Subversion of empire...The emperors could issue pronouncements/edicts called "gospels." That the story of Jesus is presented as a "gospel" satirizes/subverts that idea (This is the REAL good news)







We began looking at the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1
(for quiz 2, be familiar with page 270  of theH and Y book (section on genealogy) and the following:


Since "genealogy" is literally "genesis" ("beginning"), there is an inclusio from the first sentence of Matthew to the very last sentence ("till the end of the age"). Point:  Who is Jesus in Mathew?
He is the Beginng and End.

We also noticed that strikingly, against Jewish tradition, women were mentioned in the geneology.
Not only that, but most were controversial and GENTILES (outside the bounded set of Judaism.

We noted yet another inclusio from beginning of the gospel (Gentiles highlighted in the geneology in chapter 1 and end of gospel ( "Go and make disciples of all nations [literally "Gentiles"] 28:18-20).

By the way, how many controversial Gentile women show up here?

5...hmm. Must be no accident

Who is Jesus in Mathew?


The One who is not ashamed to include  four triple outcasts:  gentile/women/people with a shady reputation in his family tree.  The fifth woman was Mary, who fit all three categories except "Gentile".


Note this:

• It is also organized into three tesseradecads (sets of fourteen).  Hmm,  3? 14? No accident.  (Note: Luke's version: Luke contains three blocks of 21 names and one block of 14 names)
• David is prominent here.  And his name in Hebrew adds up to 14.. Hmmm   consonants DVD = 14  ( See article on Isopsephy..
  graffiti in Pompeii dating frotm around 79 AD  reads Φιλω ης αριθμος ϕμε, "I love her whose number is 545."  666 is clearly the name/number of Nero Caeser, the Roman Emperor

Numbers simply "stood out"...almost as in synesthesia 

link

Try this mouseover test.


Check out my friend from FPU days.  Lee and Larry are identical twins:
one legally black and one legally16 shades/degrees between black and white.

:Larry is on the right in this photo

Lee is on the right in this photo

I am glad they are in my family tree..both of them.

 white.  They told us about some legal definitions where there were  white.

Imagine you are a  member of the Ku Klux Klan.  You get to a board meeting and you see these names nominated for board members:
Which names would stand out?

1. John Smith
2. Pete Redneck
3. Snoop Dog
4. Joe White
5. Barack Obama
6. Jay Z
7. Tom Wilson
8. Bobby Jo MacCereety
9. Bill Cosby
10. Sham McGrath
11. Pierre LePew
12. Kobe Bryant

You might as well print the list like this:

1. John Smith
2. Pete Redneck
3. Snoop Dog
4. Joe White
5. Barack Obama
6. Jay Z
7. Tom Wilson
8. Bobby Jo MacCereety
9. Bill Cosby
10. Sham McGrath
11. Pierre LePew
12. Kobe Bryant

if you had a group of very very conservative Mennonites.  Which names might they suggest that by definition can't appear on a list of Mennonites.

• Friesen
• Weibe
• Rodriguez
• Vang
• Fast
• Janzen
• Wojocowski
• Unruh
• Minassian
• Suzuki
• Neufeld

Is being Jewish/Mennonite/Christian a matter of unchosen ethnicity or chosen faith?

------------------------------------
Matthew 1: Birth

Hope you have fun on our manger scene test.

How many of you could win  big money on this bet on what the text message of the Bible really says:

• It nowhere says there were three.
• It no where says they were wise
• It nowhere says they were men.

And we know for a fact the weren't at the manger.

But the real shocker:

We know for a fact they were not Jews.  Uh, oh, RED FLAGs.

Hhhhmmm. racism and centered set themes again...and we are only in chapter 1!

Read the text(:

Ray Carrol writes:

Let me use a local “live nativity” near my house as an example. They’ve prided themselves with their biblical accuracy. I did a drive by the other night. They’ve even rebuilt Bethlehem. How did they do?

Star over the manger – nope. The star appeared almost two years later over Jerusalem. Wise men – nope. Weren’t at Jesus’ birth – two years later. The bible actually never says there were three. Angels – nope. The angels appeared, on the ground to the shepherds, not at Jesus’ feeding trough.Innkeeper? Nope. Where is an innkeeper mentioned? Yeah, no room at the inn. But the inn mentioned was more like a house crammed with people during the census. It was probably more comfortable for them with the animals.

Why do we feel the need to romanticize the scene? It was a girl around 15 years old giving birth in a tough environment. The only people who showed up were nasty, stinky shepherds with their smelly sheep. But they were praising God. A humble birth for an amazing Savior among low people.  =Ray Carroll

David Fitch  writes:

'Here’s a provocative manger scene.. It’s by an artist at our church named Brian Christensen. Don’t know if you can make it out but but all of the characters of the manger scene – Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, Wise Men – are over to the right watching the television. On the left is the baby Jesus all by himself.When we put this display up in front of our church property (it’s displayed in front of a friend’s house in this picture) we got some irate letters and phone calls"
-David Fitch

As we noted, Herod becomes a complex character  as he is:

• RACIALLY ARAB
• RELIGIOUSLY JEWISH
• CULTURALLY GREEK





link

• POLITICALLY ROMAN 

..this is Kenneth Bailey's helpful fourfold phrase about Herod, read it in context in a helpful section right here.
Be familiar with the info about Herod on page 218 of Hauer/Young. 

Of course. always remember the visual fro"Shadow of Herod" video.

Who is this?  Someone posted," That's the guy who waited on me at 7-11"

How about this:

Click here

Homework Help

Don't forget to be up to date on  reading for Wed. (see schedule)

Quiz 2, next Monday:

• 1)List as many answers as possible to the key question of the course that we have covered so far.
• 2)Define : 
• a) text: any ____ in any ____ designed to communicate _____
•  b) sign,  any ____ in any ____ designed to communicate ___   about _______  .
•  c)culture:   a way of thinking, feeling, valuing and acting by _______________..  
•  d)gospel genre: biography/_____ with a targeted ________ purpose (TTP)
• 3)List two things that stand out about Jesus' genealogy
• 4)In England, they drive on the ________ side of the road
• 5)The Bible never says there were __, it never says they were_____, it never says they were ___.  But the real shocker? We know for a fact they were not at the ___________ and they were not________.
• 6) From the "Dance Party on the beach" video (1/25), when did the Kingdom begin, according to Jewish tradition?
• 7)From the videos on 1/27. What is the "unexpected" historical world image of the 10 Commandments?
• 8) Tell one story from a campus field trip.  Why do we take these trips?