I promise I won't do this very often- however, today's NT lecture caught me totally off guard. It happened at around 9:30 am this morning and I am still thinking about it!
Today we began looking at how to read parables. What was the purpose of parables? How do we dissect them to really understand the impact they would have had on their audience, and why Jesus chose those particular stories at those particular times?
We first talked about how most people think of parables as allegories. "So when Jesus was talking about this, he REALLY meant this...." No, he didn't. He meant exactly what he said. Parables, according to Duncan Corby (our lecturer) are not allegories, they are literal. And they are purposefully literal. Think about the times you've tried to "analyze what Jesus really meant" and gotten really confused- and you have centuries of Christian tradition and knowledge on your side. The people listening to Jesus didn't understand the things that we understand. There's no way they would have understood things like the kingdom of heaven, redemption, and forgiveness of sins- they lived in a society where the way to God was to keep his law and remain pure. Especially the Pharisees, who prided themselves on being good jews- and throwing the "not clean" Jews out of the country (or killing them) so they could be ready to enter God's kingdom. So Jesus speaks to them in terms they understand. Therefore, you have farmers, slave owners, people at weddings, etc. Literally.
The second thing is, Jesus wasn't using the parables as an illustration for a lesson he hoped they would learn and take to heart. He was telling the stories to provoke a reaction from his audience, and maybe cause change. It wasn't the Sunday School Bible hour with Jesus; Or the Let's Be Good People hour; it was the Hey...Let's Look at Where You Have Misinterpreted Who God Is..and Why You Are Wrong hour. He meant business.
So Jesus sets up the story like any good joke. In a good joke, you get a pattern going...for example,
"Sam gets up to heaven and starts walking around. He sees his friend Bill with an UGLY woman on his arm. He says, God, what is this? God says, Well, that's Bill, my faithful servant. Sam says, If he was so faithful, what's with the ugly woman? God says, Well, he sinned once, and that's his punishment...
Then Sam sees his friend George, with an UGLY woman on his arm. Sam says, Hey God...what's up with the ugly woman? God says, Well, that's my child and mighty man of God George...but he sinned once, so that's his punishment.
Then Sam sees his friend Bob. Bob is walking around with a BEAUTIFUL woman on his arm. And Sam says, Ok God...I KNOW Bob sinned at least once! And God says, Well, that's my faithful servant Jennifer, and she sinned once..." (courtesy of DC..I have no jokes on my own. :) )
So we've got a pattern and we think we know what's coming next when BAM! The storyline changes. For some reason that is either really funny or it really unsettles us.
So Jesus uses familiar terms and familiar places to set the scene and to set up patterns- then at the end of the parable, when the Pharisees think they know what's up, Jesus shakes things all around and basically calls out insecurities in the Pharisees (or makes them really mad. )
First of all, pretty much all of Jesus' parable telling was directed at the Pharisees, usually in response to a question or thought from one of them. ( Woman who anoints Jesus with oil; parable of the lost sheep, parable of new wine, etc) So we know he is talking to a very devout, religious group of men who are unsure of who Jesus is. Some of them think He could be a prophet so they're giving him a chance, while others are all for the crackpot option. It isn't until Jesus starts saying things like "I am the son of God", "Hey you..Yeah, I forgive your sins" and other blasphemous things that these guys start getting nervous.
So the parable we really discussed today was the Good Samaritan. So Jesus and the Pharisees are chatting it up, and one of them says, "Hey Jesus...how do I get into the Kingdom of God?" And Jesus is like, "Well, you're a Pharisee...what does the law say?" And the Pharisee says, "Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor." Jesus says, "Bingo! You're right." The Pharisee tries to justify himself here. I think because he, being a teacher of the law, didn't feel it necessary to show love to those who were sinning and making Israel unclean. At that time, people ate and socialized with their social equal- so for a Pharisee to give attention or aid to someone who was a sinner was like lowering themselves to the sinner's level. So he wants Jesus to say it's ok. So he asks, "Hey Jesus, who counts as my neighbor?" And Jesus launches into the parable of the Good Samaritan. If you've never read it, it's in Luke 10:25-37. Now from here on out, I'm copying and pasting my notes from the morning:
The Good Samaritan
• Luke 10:25- 37 Identify the Audience
o Audience= teacher of the law (Pharisee)
• Jews and Samaritans do not get along (political and religious animosity)
• Pharisees hate priests (Levites)
• Pharisees are into good deeds
--Jesus sets the story up so the Pharisees understand. They would have automatically agreed that a man walking by himself down a road could easily be mugged and beaten- kind of like how we today think, in the back of our minds, that women who walk in dark parking lots at night have a good chance of being hurt.
--First we see a priest walk by the man who needs help. The pharisees do not like priests, because priests often exploited the temple to earn money. So when the priest doesn't stop, the Pharisees are probably like, "Yeah...priests suck...no way any priest would ever stop to help!"
--Same thing with the Levite, who was basically a priest.
--When Jesus talks about the 3rd man, they probably expected it to be a Pharisee- but no, it's a Samaritan, they very people Pharisees hate most of all. Samaritans claimed THEY were the true people of God. How could anything good come from a Samaritan?
o Maybe it’s not about doing good to your neighbor….maybe it’s about who you hate in your heart of hearts, and what you’re going to do about it.
o God’s concerned with the state of our heart- if we hate someone, how are we going to relate with them?
--For example, if I said the story was set in modern day Australia and it was a Christian stranded on the road, and the only person who would help was a man who ran an abortion clinic, how would you feel about that?
Or if we were in America, and it was a Christian stranded, and I said the only person who helped was a fundamentalist Muslim? Or an illegal immigrant from Mexico? (Stereotypes aside)
If it was you stranded, and the very person you hated most in the world offered to help you, would you take the help?
o We need to expose the hatred so we can discover that we need Jesus.
We need to realize that Jesus/ God loves everyone..EVERYONE. And we are not better because we act like a Christian and keep the law- it's what's in our hearts; our love toward our God and our neighbor, that counts.
Hillsong Church does a month or two of what's called "Sunday Night Live" every so often, and we are right in the middle of them. Basically, it's just a church service with the message presented in a creative way. That could mean music, dance, artwork, drama, video, testimony among other things. Tonight's was something that particularly stuck with me. I can't remember all of it- but the message was clear: God will never leave, or forsake us- no matter what we experience here on Earth, God is with us and we can expect beautiful things in the life to come.
There were 3 really great video testimonies of people who experienced some rough times and were now on the other side of those experiences, looking back and seeing God's hand in all of it. There was artwork, and speaking, and someone (who has a beautiful voice oh my goodness!) sang Kari Jobe's "You Are For Me" which made me cry. I posted the song on facebook but it's also on youtube if anyone doesn't know it.
The scripture that has really stayed with me throughout the night is this:
Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what's coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we're tired of it! We've been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less.
That's why we live with such good cheer. You won't see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don't get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It's what we trust in but don't yet see that keeps us going. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:2-8
So, I am not going to droop my head or drag my feet when I feel discouraged or alone. For example, when I feel fear because of my lack of finances, I will remember that God has good things to come for me. Someday, I won't have to worry anymore. And in the meantime, my faithfulness in him will come with an Earthly reward all in good time. I should be encouraged by the glory I will see someday, and I will never settle for less.
"Funds are low again, hallelujah! That means God trusts us and is willing to leave His reputation in our hands."~ CT Studd, Missionary to India.
Speaking of finances...:)
In other news, I was rostered for choir tonight. I get up to the stage and who is standing in front of me leading worship? Uh...Brooke Fraser. BROOKE FRASER...I had a little freak out moment. I mean Joel Houston was there too, but I was all about Brooke. If you know me, you know I have all her CDs memorized. You probably do too, if you've ever ridden in my car. But no worries, I didn't do anything embarrassing...just watched her like a crazed hawk while I was up on stage. I tried so hard to be in worship, I seriously did...I had to pray very hard for the Spirit to come upon me so I wasn't distracted, God forgive me.
Ok. I am going to bed. That was a very scattered blog post. Goodnight all!
There were 3 really great video testimonies of people who experienced some rough times and were now on the other side of those experiences, looking back and seeing God's hand in all of it. There was artwork, and speaking, and someone (who has a beautiful voice oh my goodness!) sang Kari Jobe's "You Are For Me" which made me cry. I posted the song on facebook but it's also on youtube if anyone doesn't know it.
The scripture that has really stayed with me throughout the night is this:
Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what's coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we're tired of it! We've been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less.
That's why we live with such good cheer. You won't see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don't get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It's what we trust in but don't yet see that keeps us going. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:2-8
So, I am not going to droop my head or drag my feet when I feel discouraged or alone. For example, when I feel fear because of my lack of finances, I will remember that God has good things to come for me. Someday, I won't have to worry anymore. And in the meantime, my faithfulness in him will come with an Earthly reward all in good time. I should be encouraged by the glory I will see someday, and I will never settle for less.
"Funds are low again, hallelujah! That means God trusts us and is willing to leave His reputation in our hands."~ CT Studd, Missionary to India.
Speaking of finances...:)
In other news, I was rostered for choir tonight. I get up to the stage and who is standing in front of me leading worship? Uh...Brooke Fraser. BROOKE FRASER...I had a little freak out moment. I mean Joel Houston was there too, but I was all about Brooke. If you know me, you know I have all her CDs memorized. You probably do too, if you've ever ridden in my car. But no worries, I didn't do anything embarrassing...just watched her like a crazed hawk while I was up on stage. I tried so hard to be in worship, I seriously did...I had to pray very hard for the Spirit to come upon me so I wasn't distracted, God forgive me.
Ok. I am going to bed. That was a very scattered blog post. Goodnight all!
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Do you ever start talking with a point in mind, then keep rambling on, even though you know people are uncomfortable and bored, just because you can't seem to make it back around to your point? That happened to me today.
I was in my music excellence tutorial and we were talking about churches using contemporary music to speak to today's seeker, and why it might be more effective than traditional music. Our trainer asked us to give benefits and drawbacks of using fully notated music vs. chord charts. Somehow it turned into everyone around me talking about the freedom of chord charts vs. fully notated music, then it got into how it's easier to connect with a congregation if there's no music stand in front of you. So while we're talking about connecting more with the congregation, my mind's still on the subject of notation.
I personally cannot learn a song without seeing the vocal line physically written out. Ok, I can learn it, but it takes way less time for me to just look at it, play it on the piano once, listen to the recording and then boom I'm good to go. Then once I memorize it, I can still see the spacing and line in my head, so I know what notes to sing.
Anyway, I just piped up and said something along the lines of that in the middle of a completely different conversation, and the trainer was very gracious. He just re-directed the whole group because I think we'd all gone in a slightly different direction by that point...but I felt so bad. I mean, I just wanted to make a simple statement that some people, including me, really do need the notation and that it's not a bad thing to learn from that. Instead, I went on this rambling stroll about classical training and seeing notes and blah blah blah. Oh man. Luckily for me, people here don't judge. LOL. I think my biggest concern is looking like I don't think I need to learn. So not true! I am so ready to learn! I just learned a lot of other stuff before I came here and I'm trying to connect it all together.....
Something else I learned today was that as believers, when we pray, if we use God's word in our prayer,it's like we're letting God know that we know what He has promised us and that we truly believe He'll come through. So we pray, telling God the things we know of Him from His word, and then we only ask once because we know He has heard it and is working on it. Then the next time we pray, we can just thank Him for orchestrating things and for His perfect timing- we don't have to ask again and again. Just have faith that He's in in control of it and it will happen. That's something I've never heard before and it's definitely not something I was doing before. But I think I just found a new prayer style. Plus it will encourage me to get more into the Word.
Ummmm...that's all I can think of for now. We finally tried Vegemite and we took video so that may be up sometime if we can ever get our wireless to work properly. :)
Love to all!
I was in my music excellence tutorial and we were talking about churches using contemporary music to speak to today's seeker, and why it might be more effective than traditional music. Our trainer asked us to give benefits and drawbacks of using fully notated music vs. chord charts. Somehow it turned into everyone around me talking about the freedom of chord charts vs. fully notated music, then it got into how it's easier to connect with a congregation if there's no music stand in front of you. So while we're talking about connecting more with the congregation, my mind's still on the subject of notation.
I personally cannot learn a song without seeing the vocal line physically written out. Ok, I can learn it, but it takes way less time for me to just look at it, play it on the piano once, listen to the recording and then boom I'm good to go. Then once I memorize it, I can still see the spacing and line in my head, so I know what notes to sing.
Anyway, I just piped up and said something along the lines of that in the middle of a completely different conversation, and the trainer was very gracious. He just re-directed the whole group because I think we'd all gone in a slightly different direction by that point...but I felt so bad. I mean, I just wanted to make a simple statement that some people, including me, really do need the notation and that it's not a bad thing to learn from that. Instead, I went on this rambling stroll about classical training and seeing notes and blah blah blah. Oh man. Luckily for me, people here don't judge. LOL. I think my biggest concern is looking like I don't think I need to learn. So not true! I am so ready to learn! I just learned a lot of other stuff before I came here and I'm trying to connect it all together.....
Something else I learned today was that as believers, when we pray, if we use God's word in our prayer,it's like we're letting God know that we know what He has promised us and that we truly believe He'll come through. So we pray, telling God the things we know of Him from His word, and then we only ask once because we know He has heard it and is working on it. Then the next time we pray, we can just thank Him for orchestrating things and for His perfect timing- we don't have to ask again and again. Just have faith that He's in in control of it and it will happen. That's something I've never heard before and it's definitely not something I was doing before. But I think I just found a new prayer style. Plus it will encourage me to get more into the Word.
Ummmm...that's all I can think of for now. We finally tried Vegemite and we took video so that may be up sometime if we can ever get our wireless to work properly. :)
Love to all!
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As someone who's been in a church environment all my life, I can't tell you the exact moment when I really truly became a Christian. It was probably in the summer of 2008, to be honest. I think I knew God, and had been an extremely spiritual person until that point, but that summer completely broke me and it took forever to put the pieces back together.
Over the next year my life became a different picture. As Jesus worked on my heart and re-arranged me, He began to show me all the times I was wrong about Him. All the times I unfairly judged people. The times I told lies to get attention. The times I made people feel like they were not doing anything right; like they were not "good enough". And also the times that I twisted and manipulated people who needed God so that they would need me more. As if they ever could!
Of course, Jesus being who He is, He never left me feeling completely broken- He always walked me through it. Sure, there are some lingering feelings of guilt over things I really can't mend with people at this point, but I'm working through them.
He prepared my heart to come to Hillsong by wiping it clean of any notions or expectations of this place. And so I don't notice any sort of nervous thrill when someone famous walks by or says hello to me ( or helps me find the "loo"...LOL!) I'm just going with the flow and being part of this church.
But through being here and sitting through all these classes about teamwork and worship ministry, watching the way people treat each other with humility and respect and GENTLE words in times of correction, prayerfully considering every interaction, Jesus is breaking me more and more. Each day I have to learn new humility. The urge to be blunt with people, honest about their abilities, gifts, and talents is so overwhelming- and it's coming from a place of self-gratification. "If I can make them understand how bad they are at something, then they will understand how good I am at it!" This is probably the first time in my life I have been aware of how damaging I can be simply because I don't believe in myself.
I don't know how much more I can explain- I can simply say that our last lecture together last week was about "comparing". How we should never ever compare ourselves with others or base our perception of God's plans for us on what we see Him doing with our peers. And then there was a time of prophecy and prayer, and it was overwhelming for me to see. I have never felt so completely unjudged by people- and so "judged" by God all at once!
He's breaking my heart, you see. I keep praying to love people more, and He is first breaking my habit of automatically finding something to tuck away- something that person may not be perfect at- and use as a weapon later.
All I can say is God help me- right now I am feeling so sad for all of those people I have hurt in the name of Jesus. May all of you still come to know how very Good and Loving He is despite my treatment of you. The God I know now is not the God I represented even 2 years ago.
Over the next year my life became a different picture. As Jesus worked on my heart and re-arranged me, He began to show me all the times I was wrong about Him. All the times I unfairly judged people. The times I told lies to get attention. The times I made people feel like they were not doing anything right; like they were not "good enough". And also the times that I twisted and manipulated people who needed God so that they would need me more. As if they ever could!
Of course, Jesus being who He is, He never left me feeling completely broken- He always walked me through it. Sure, there are some lingering feelings of guilt over things I really can't mend with people at this point, but I'm working through them.
He prepared my heart to come to Hillsong by wiping it clean of any notions or expectations of this place. And so I don't notice any sort of nervous thrill when someone famous walks by or says hello to me ( or helps me find the "loo"...LOL!) I'm just going with the flow and being part of this church.
But through being here and sitting through all these classes about teamwork and worship ministry, watching the way people treat each other with humility and respect and GENTLE words in times of correction, prayerfully considering every interaction, Jesus is breaking me more and more. Each day I have to learn new humility. The urge to be blunt with people, honest about their abilities, gifts, and talents is so overwhelming- and it's coming from a place of self-gratification. "If I can make them understand how bad they are at something, then they will understand how good I am at it!" This is probably the first time in my life I have been aware of how damaging I can be simply because I don't believe in myself.
I don't know how much more I can explain- I can simply say that our last lecture together last week was about "comparing". How we should never ever compare ourselves with others or base our perception of God's plans for us on what we see Him doing with our peers. And then there was a time of prophecy and prayer, and it was overwhelming for me to see. I have never felt so completely unjudged by people- and so "judged" by God all at once!
He's breaking my heart, you see. I keep praying to love people more, and He is first breaking my habit of automatically finding something to tuck away- something that person may not be perfect at- and use as a weapon later.
All I can say is God help me- right now I am feeling so sad for all of those people I have hurt in the name of Jesus. May all of you still come to know how very Good and Loving He is despite my treatment of you. The God I know now is not the God I represented even 2 years ago.
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