Deep Calls

Matt 5:3-4 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. blessed : 25.119 maka/rio pertaining to being happy, with the implication of enjoying favorable circumstances (from Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domain. Copyright © 1988 United Bible Societies, New York. Used by permission.) So ~  blessed, to be happy and enjoy favorable circumstances, are the poor in spirit , and those who mourn . So this is Jesus' opening salvo -- hmmmm.  Besides those who quote the Bible, do you know anyone who says "poor in spirit"? Yeah, didn't think so. When I am confronted with phrases like that one as I read, I think, "wow -- must be something they all understood and we are missing" ~ and I go do what I can to look it up, cross reference, do some digging. Here is what I found. "Poor" as in "poor in spirit" means poor . It comes from a word that means to ...

Did I mention that I tutor? I do. So last week I was helping one of my students with her Bible assignment. She is in 6th grade. Her lesson was on the Sermon on the Mount. The title of the lesson was "The Be Attitudes". Yes it was! The main theme of the lesson was that the beatitudes ~ the "blessed are . . ." portion of The Sermon is telling us that we need to have a good attitude and that that is how we will be really happy. OK...6th grade...ok, I get "make it simple for the kids". BUT! I think that all too often when "we make it simple" we don't just make it simple, we strip it of all depth until we are left with a chiffon-thin layer that while meant to be simple, becomes simplistic. ok Barbara. . .breathe. . . you are ranting ~ calm down... Ok! OK, is there any problem with telling 6th graders to have a good attitude? NO! Is there ANY level at which the SotM could be used to talk about having a good attitude. . .sort-of. Yeah I know!...

The "Sermon on the Mount" in the gospel of Matthew begins in chapter 5. I want to turn back to chapter 4. To start, I want to go one step behind the SotM and the gospel and look at the author. (see last blog) I think, as I said in the last blog, that Matthew was called "Levi" because he might have been from the tribe of Levi, the tribe that was chosen to be the priests of God. I wonder if he had grown up preping to be a priest then ... decided money was better. In any case he is VERY familiar with scripture and saturates his gospel with references from the OT. I have a 'general rule' that I use, and I suggest others use when reading the New Testament ~ certainly when reading Matthew: if there is an Old Testament verse given LOOK IT UP and read not merely the verse quoted, but the context of the entire passage.  Matt 4:12-17 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which ...

So ~ here I go. I am embarking on another series: The SermonS on the Mount. Yup! sermonS! cuz, obviously, I think there were more than one, maybe lots and lots, but in the gospels we  get at least 2. One of them is found in the gospel of Matthew and a very different one is found in the gospel of Luke. It is kind of a "well  yeah ~ duh!" statement, but I will say it anyway: They are so different because they were written by two different men with two VERY different perspectives and purposes. Neither of these writers call the sermons "The Sermon on the Mount" -- we did that, we readers and commenters, teachers and sermon-givers. It's a catchy name, and catchy names tend to last and get used and re-used and re-used till they stick and become so solid people, almost, think they are scripture. I mean like there was NEVER a day when Jesus got up and said, "Wow! What should I call this new teaching that I am going to give? ... 'How to be a Disciple' NO! ...

Ok, I said "tomorrow" I meant it when I typed it .   .    . but well     you know, "life" happened. But i didn't exactly do NOTHING! I have been thinking about blogging. Ok, that sounds totally lame   --   but it isn't. Remember when I rambled about the place in my head where I 'hear' what I will write? (if you don't, it's ok, cuz who really pays attention to rambling? I mean, who should? Right?) But ANYWAY ~ in that place I have been mulling what I will write next. I started thinking I would make a new jump   .     .     .     since it has been  sooooooooooooooooo long since I have written anyway   .     .     .    and leap in to the New Testament and write about the SermonS on the Mount. Yup : sermonS ! There is one in Matthew and then another one ~ quite a different on...

It is hard for me to explain ~ exactly ~ what it is like for me to write. There is a place inside me where I "hear" what I am going to put into words. There is a sort-of vibration, a reverberation, to the thoughts. When the resonance is right -- I write. For a while,        for a LONG while ~ nothing. It has been, almost, as if I held a large magnet and walked toward another magnet with like pole facing me. I feel pushed back, repelled ~ like there is a boundary I cannot cross. but Today I felt a gentle beckoning. So, as it were "on tip-toe" I crept into my blog site. Full of trepidation (sounds funny even as I write it, yet, that is what I felt -- like my heart of hearts was warning, "is this still your place? do you belong here anymore?") I came anyway. I decided to re-read something I had written -- something past and unremembered so I could see with unjaundiced eye if I had EVER written easily. The story I chose randomly was the story o...

Genealogies: Those long boring lists of names of people, and the sons born to them, and then the sons born to them, and the sons born to them...and so on and so on. They are sometimes called the "begats" ~ the word used by the King James translation: Adam begat Seth, etc. Do you skip them when you read, like, "what is point of all these names of all these people, let's get back to the story"? I like genealogies. I think there is a lot that can be gleaned. For example here are two genealogies that contain some really intersting nuggets. Genesis 5 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth . Altogether, Adam lived 930 years , and then he died. When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. Altogether, Seth lived 912 years , and then he died. When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. Altogether, Enosh lived 905 years , and then he died. When Kenan had lived...