O.k., we’re back.  The Adult Forum is reading the book of Revelation beginning March 31, 2008.

To start, just read the book all the way through (preferably at one sitting).  Just keep track of impressions — what do you think of it?  Also, pay attention to how you have heard the book used, in church and elsewhere.

Beginning April 6, we will start reading several chapters at a time (probably beginning with the letters to the seven churches).

We will use Bruce Metzger’s Breaking the Code as a resource.

After Jesus feeds the crowd in John 6, and crosses the sea, he launches into a long discourse, often called the Bread of Life discourse.  On Sunday, we noticed something I’ve never noticed before now.  Of course, the language Jesus uses is very graphic:  whoever does not gnaw on the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood does not have eternal life.  Commentators have remarked on the cannabalistic imagery.  What I’ve not noticed before is that drinking (or eating) blood is expressly forbidden in Leviticus 17 among other places.  Blood was always to be poured at the base of the altar, or at the door of the tent of meeting.  In Chapter 2, Jesus, after cleansing the Temple, tells his interlocutors to destroy the Temple, and he will rebuild it in three days.  The narrator tells us he is talking about the Temple of his body.  Jesus replaces the Temple.

Here, Jesus suggests that the believer, the one who eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the son of man, has replaced the altar of the Temple.  We, the community of believers, become the altar where atonement is made.  Jesus, in John’s Gospel, invites us  expressly to break (at least figuratively) one of the most deeply held taboos of the Israelite religion, the one that claims blood  is sacred to God.  We are the altar on which  atonement is made for the world.  In our Eucharist, we atone the world with God.

We started by reading John’s Gospel cover-to-cover.  People noticed how different it is from the other three Gospels.  Jesus is much more “divine” and “in control” of affairs in John’s Gospel.  The language is often hard to follow, and there is much more dialogue than action.

Reading the prologue, we discovered that John knew and used the Greek Old Testament, and made heavy use of Jewish scriptures and  preaching methods.  The prologue seems to be a sermon based on Genesis 1 and Proverbs 8.  The Word is Wisdom who lives with and creates alongside God.  Wisdom, or the Word, has come into the world three times, at creation, to “his/her” own, and in the flesh.  The Jews were developing a myth of Wisdom in which she came into the world three times, at creation, at the Temple, and in Torah.  In John, Jesus will replace “Moses and the prophets.”  The Gospel reflects a controversy between John’s community and some Jews who value Torah.

In the rest of chapter one, we noticed escalating titles for Jesus:  Lamb of God, Rabbi, the one of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, Messiah, King of Israel, Son of Man.  Nathaniel is an antitype to Jacob/Israel, an Israelite in whom is no guile.  He/we will see the angels of God ascending and descending on the  Son of Man.  The Son of Man has now replaced the Temple as the vestibule of God’s throne room.

The first words out of Jesus’ mouth in John’s Gospel are “What do you seek?”  This is the question the Gospel will answer.  The first ending at the end of chapter one answers the question.  “These things are written that you may have life in his name.”  Life is what we are to seek.

Jesus also replaces Dionysus in the changing of water to wine.  This happens  at a wedding, so Johannine Christians are not encratites.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, and there follows a conversation full of non-sequiturs.  The dispute seems to be over baptism as this conversation is followed immediately by reference to Jesus baptizing.  The episode of he woman at the well follows the episode of Jesus baptizing.  The woman is the antitype of Nicodemus:  a woman, a samaritan, an outcast, and she meets Jesus by day.  To her, Jesus promises that the one who believes in him will have life like a spring welling up in him/her.  The life we are to seek is ebullient.  Now the title given to Jesus is “Savior of the world.”

September 23, 2007

The Adult Forum is back in session.  As we agreed at the end of last year, we will start by reading the Gospel of John.  For Sunday, read the whole thing, cover to cover.  Bring in your impressions of the Gospel.  What is the author using for source material?  How does it differ from the other three Gospels?  What picture does it present of Jesus?

Check back to this site for summaries of discussions.

The adult forum is on hiatus until September 2007. When we reconvene, we will read through the Gospel of John.

Today, we got as far as the end of Chapter 18, just about to the point where Jesus enters Jerusalem. The last several chapters have seemed a bit jumbled, as if Luke were just throwing together bits of tradition he felt needed to be included. We were glad to discover that several commentators have said the same thing.

Next Sunday, we will pick up at the beginning of Chapter 19.

We read through the end of Chapter 16 on March 11.

We noticed that both the parable of the fig tree and the prodigal son are open ended. In Mark, Jesus curses the fig tree on his way in to Jerusalem, where he “cleanses” the Temple. On the way back out of Jerusalem, the disciples notice the fig tree has withered. Jesus tells them that if they have faith the size of a mustard seed, they could say to “this mountain” be uprooted and cast into the see and it would be so. Which mountain? We decided Mt. Zion, of course. The fig tree, the parable of the tenants in the vineyard, and the destruction of the Temple are all reminiscent of Isaiah 5, the song of the vineyard. Mark uses the fig tree as a type for Jerusalem, Temple worship, and Judaism in general. It is all withered.

Luke moves the fig tree away from the passion week, and turns it into this parable. He places it immediately following the sayings about repentance (do you suppose those 18 on whom the tower of Siloam fell - there is a tower in the vineyard in Isaiah 5 - were worse sinners?). Then the gardener tells the owner, let me dig in manure and leave it another year. Who knows? it might bear fruit (cf. John the Baptist, worthy of repentance, the axe at the root of the tree). Luke shows a surprisingly tolerant attitude toward Judaism — maybe it will yet bear fruit.

The story of the prodigal son is unresolved as well. Will the older brother enter the party or not? We don’t know. For Luke, there is yet hope that Jews and Christians can dine together.

We read from Luke 11:5 through 12:49.

Highlights: The sign of Jonah, in Luke’s Gospel is about the conversion of the Ninevites. One of Luke’s themes is the inclusion of Gentiles.

In 11:37ff, again we find Jesus teaching at a meal. We noticed that baptism before a meal was standard practice (the word in greek for washing is a cognate of baptism). Ritual purity without moral repentance doesn’t help. This was a theme second temple literature.

The sayings about courage under persecution are moved from Mark’s context in Jesus’ last week, to the journey to Jerusalem, thereby softening the idea that Christians would suffer just as Jesus did. For Luke, discipleship is a matter of daily living, rather than eschatological suffering.

Next week, 3/11/07, we will pick up at 12:49.

Today (February 25, 2007), we talked about the Primates communique, rather than about Luke’s Gospel. We’ll pick up at Luke 11:5 on Sunday, March 4, 2007.

We read as far as Luke 11:4 this past Sunday (Feb 18).

The Mission of the 72 (10:1-12) seems to be the core of Luke’s message, at least as far as the wandering prophets are concerned. “Eat what is set before you, heal their sick, and proclaim that the kingdom of God has come among them,” is the message of these wandering prophets. We compared the wandering prophets to Cynic philosophers, who wandered singly (rather than in pairs), beg their food (carry a wallet, so they could beg food for the next day), carried a staff (to ward off dogs and blows). The cynics talked about who was the true king (the person in complete control of the passions and outside the social structures). The wandering christian prophets talked about the true kingdom, a meal with all sorts of random people.

The Lord’s prayer as presented by Luke sums up this same message: Father (blessed by your name), let your kingdom come. Give us bread just for today (not begging for tomorrow), forgive our sins as we forgive those indebted to us (let us all come to the table together), and don’t let us be tested.

Luke moves the controversy of the greatest commandment out of Jesus final week (Mark has this discussion take place in a series of controversies in the Temple precincts in Jesus’ last week, making it thereby a controversy over whose observance of the law is correct). Luke’s placement of the story makes it about discipleship, rather than a controversy. By appending the story of the Good Samaritan, Luke makes the greatest commandment about who is neighbor, rather than about whose interpretation of the law counts most.

We didn’t say much about Mary and Martha.

Next Sunday (Feb. 25), we’ll pick up at 11:5.