Bib 446 for BSN NNF24 Fall 145: Week 3Texts and Signs/Kingdom/Dance Party on da BeachApples and Oranges/Theme 3: Greatness and Kenosis

-- Apples and Oranges:

"EPIC Culture: Are You Immigrant or Native?:

See my article pp.. 38-39 here (or as a PDF pp. 36-37 here)

the "modern" and "Gutenberg" world (RRWI=Rational, Representative. Word-Based, Individual)
-the "postmodern' and "Google" world (EPIC=Experiential, Participatory, Image-Driven)

Leonard Sweet not only created the EPIC acronym, but wrote the nook, "The Gospel According to Starbucks," in which he suggests that the church can learn a lot about our current EPIC (Experiential, Participatory, Image-Driven, Connectivity) culture.

In what ways do you see Starbucks as living out an EPIC ethic?

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Now note Van DerLaan's slideshow on Greek vs. Hebrew culture here and here.
Audio here

Finally, remember our conversations about bounded sets and centered sets.
Could these three grids collate?

RRWI/Gutenberg                                    EPIC/Google
Greek                                                    Hebrew
Bounded Set                                           Centered Set

Sweet suggests that we are living in the century (21)that is most like Jesus' century (1st) than any before.

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>>How does the Kingdom "come" from the "future"?:

Many Jews of Jesus' day (and actually, the Greeks) thought of the Kingdom of God as largely a future identity/reality/location.
So when Jesus, in Matthew 4:17 announces that he, as King, is ALREADY bringing in the Kingdom,

this not only subverted expectations, but sounded crazy....and like he was claiming to bring the future into the present.

The Jews talked often about "this age" (earth/now) and "the age to come." (heaven/future).
"Age to come" was used in a way that it was virtually synonymous with "The Kingdom."

Scripture suggests that:

The "age to come" (the Kingdom)
has in large part already come (from the future/heaven)

into "this age"
(in the present/on the earth

by means of the earthy ministry of Jesus: King of the Kingdom.

Thus, Hebrews 6:4-8 offers that disciples ("tamidim") of Jesus have
"already (in this age) tasted the powers of the age to come."

In Jesus, in large part, the age to come has come.
The Future has visited the present,

"The presence of the Kingdom of God was seen as God’s dynamic reign invading the present age without (completely) transforming it into the age to come ” (George Eldon Ladd, p.149, The Presence of the Future.)

Here are some articles that may help:

>>How does the Kingdom "come" from the " past"?:

In light of (and in spite of ) everything we just said there also WAS a sense in which the Jews believed that --in a limited but vital way--- the Kingdom had begun on earth.. at a specific Old Testament time and place... and worked "forwards" from there.
Thus today's video field trip..

Today's video on The Exodus and the "Dance Party on the Beach" is not online in any form (though you can buy it as episode 5 on this DVD). The points to remember are how this was the seminal/foundational/formative microcosmic event of (perhaps all) Scripture, in that:

1)It presents a pattern and prototype of any deliverance from bondage/slavery; and every "way out" (Ex-Odus)
from an old way/world to a new way/world. We had some good discussion about "in-between times" in our lives that we recognized (maybe only in retrospect) as pivotal and formative. Crossing the sea is often meant to call to mind crossing a barrier (remember the Jordan River video from Week One) into a while new world, creation or order; from allegiance to forbidden gods to The One God. Jesus is seen in Matthew as the New Moses in that just as Moses led God's people out of bondage to an oppressive ruler/"king" (Pharoah) and an empire that infected them (Egypt), so Jesus leads God;s people out of spiritual bondage to an oppressive ruler/"king" (Herod) and an empire that infected them (Rome). This is a classic intertexting/hyperlinking/parallelism.

2)It is really the first time God's people are formed/forged into a community; they have "been through stuff together" and are inevitably bonded and changed through a corporate experience. Thus:

3)Also, remember (for the test) the Jewish tradition that the Kingdom of God functionally, and for all practical purposes began (or landed in a foundational way on earth) when God's people there on the beach danced and sang, "The Lord is reigning" ( Exodus 15:18 )...remembering that "reigning" could be translated "King" or "Reigner". Thus, God's Kingship "began" when God's people publicly recognized it after seeing God in action in dramatic way as King. Vander Laan: "The Kingdom begins when God acts"
...Exodus 15:18:

"The Lord is reigning from this point onward."
"The Lord is King from this point onward."

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The key place for Israel; the seminal event, the central memory in the Jewish mind in Jesus' day, was

The dance party on the beach.

The very place the Kingdom began.

As a 'beach-head," if you will.

I'm glad no one has built a taco stand there..

Here it is..

The Jews believed that --in a limited but vital way--- the Kingdom had begun on earth.. at a specific Old Testament time and place... and worked "forwards" from there. Even though this "seminal event": (Van DerLaan's phrase) happened 1000+ years before Jesus, and no one alive in Jesus' day was there when it happened, it was as if they were. Common memory.

see also pp, 82-87 of H and Y textbook..

to The Exodus and the "Dance Party on the Beach." This video, which we will draw from all semester is not online in any form (though you can buy it as episode 5 on this DVD). The points to remember are how this was the seminal/foundational/formative microcosmic event of (perhaps all) Scripture, in that:

1)It presents a pattern and prototype of any deliverance from bondage/slavery; and every "way out" (Ex-Odus)
from an old way/world to a new way/world. We had some good discussion about "in-between times" in our lives that we recognized (maybe only in retrospect) as pivotal and formative. Crossing the sea is often meant to call to mind crossing a barrier (remember the Jordan River video from Week One) into a while new world, creation or order; from allegiance to forbidden gods to The One God. Jesus is seen in Matthew as the New Moses in that just as Moses led God's people out of bondage to an oppressive ruler/"king" (Pharoah, who is a hyperlink to Herod, see chapter 4 of H & Y textbook) and an empire that infected them (Egypt), so Jesus leads God's people out of spiritual bondage to an oppressive ruler/"king" (Herod) and an empire that infected them (Rome). This is a classic intertexting/hyperlinking/parallelism.

2)It is really the first time God's people are formed/forged into a community; they have "been through stuff together" and are inevitably bonded and changed through a corporate experience. They have experienced "communitas" and "liminality" (both terms will be on exams) together.. Thus:

3)Also, remember (for the test) the Jewish tradition that the Kingdom of God functionally, and for all practical purposes, began (or landed in a foundational way on earth) when God's people there on the beach danced and sang, "The Lord is reigning" ( Exodus 15:18 )...remembering that "reigning" could be translated "King" or "Reigner". Thus, God's Kingship "began" when God's people publicly recognized it after seeing God in action in dramatic way as King. Vander Laan: "The Kingdom begins when God acts"

...Exodus 15:18:

"The Lord is reigning from this point onward."
"The Lord is King from this point onward."

REMEMEMBER This "literary tecnique" above (of two phrases being so related as to be almost synonymous/interchangeable is called, in computer language,

DROP-DOWN BOX

a "DROP DOWN BOX. We will picture it by this symbol:

In the same way as when you encounter a drop-down menu on a website, and you know you can choose different options, when we talk about "drop-down boxes" in the "text message" of the Bible, will mean a place where you can choose between two options/terms.