Discussion notes for Week 7

 ➡️Reading for next week:  Week 9:  August 9:  Thy Kingdom Come

What does it look like when the Kingdom of God comes again?

Reading: Revelation 11:15-19

⬇️Attached:  discussion notes from Week 8, The Lord’s Prayer

What an interesting discussion this was, particularly in light of how familiar this prayer is to all of us, “automatic pilot” as someone said.

A co-facilitator opened the discussion with praying the Lord’s Prayer in Rite II version, and played the prayer in Aramaic that had been sent as an email attachment.  A participant prayed it in German for us.  The co-facilitator recollected what it was like in the late 1960s when the Book of Common Prayer was being revisited and updated from its 1928 edition and the strong feelings parishioners had about the project, particularly around changing anything with the wording of the Lord’s Prayer.

And yet, it was a 1928 edition in English, had undoubtedly been many things (and in many languages) before that.  So perhaps it was the memory of learning it as a child; the memory of parents and grandparents praying it and teaching it that way which was where the strong feelings of loss came in.  There are now multiple bible translations of the bible and therefore the Lord’s Prayer, but even in our Rite II, that prayer is offered in both its traditional and updated mode options.

Co-facilitator explored the structure of the Sermon on the Mount, as well as how the author known as Matthew might have assembled the gospel.  The Sermon would have been many different teachings done at different times and eventually written down by different people with different memories and purposes.  The author known as Matthew wouldn’t have been a transcriber, literally translating word for word, but would have gathered up the sources, grouped them, structured a particular viewpoint to a particular audience.

Co-facilitator gave a small example of how this works with the notes from the discussion.  These are recorded on her phone and then, rather than transcribed, the words are arranged in a structure that might resemble the meeting, but would group things said by topic whether or not they were spoken together; would have to leave off remarks the microphone didn’t pick up, might delete what she thought was off-topic, etc.  Author known as Matthew was writing in literary Greek traditions to literate Greek-speaking Jews.

Structure of Sermon on the Mount is in five parts:

1. Beginning (chapter 5:1-16, includes Beatitudes)
2. Teachings on the Law (chapter 5:17-48, “You have heard…”)
3. Practices (chapter 6:1-18, alms, fasting…)
4. Worldly concerts (chapter 6:19-7:12, money, judging others…)
5. Ending (chapter 7:13-27, “listen to me…”)

where the Lord’s Prayer is chapter 6:9-13, the middle of the middle of the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.  Additionally, each of the three middle sections contains three sections, although there is scholarly dispute about the dividing lines by verses of where these begin and end.Whereas our own western literary traditions and story telling put the most important part at the end, a kind of gradual rise to a concluding point, the ancient texts - particularly Jewish and Greek traditions - put the most important part in the middle.

A well-known arrangement of the Sermon on the Mount structure by Dr. Jonathan Pennington, New Testament professor, was presented.  This is a mountain chiasm (chiasm being the crossing of two tracts in the form of an “X”) which leads up to the Lord’s Prayer at the peak where the x’s cross.  A modified version of his mountain chiasm looks like this hand drawn illustration. 

We liked this way of looking at the Sermon and the Lord’s Prayer because we had spent time last week discussing how Jesus went up the mountain and brought disciples with him, and taught to the people who stayed below as well.  This made the Sermon itself become the mountain.

Co-facilitator had come up with a slightly different arrangement when she plotted the chapters out and it look like a checkerboard.  She suggested that the “center of the center of the center” looked more like the heart of the Sermon.  Maybe it is representing the heart of Jesus?  The Kingdom of Heaven as the heart of Jesus’ message?

 This got us discussing language but also meaning, got us away from literally looking at each line to see what it says to what it might mean, and what it might mean for the Kingdom.  It was an excellent discussion and everybody participated.  You had to be there.  Really.  The co-facilitator forgot to turn on the voice memo app to record the discussion and is working from memory (always shaky) and her own presentation notes.  This is kind of funny when you realize she had just used her taking notes process as an example of how the author known as Matthew might have worked.

Could anybody close this up and wrap up the  Kingdom within the Lord’s Prayer?  One of us read aloud from a reflection by Father Richard Rohr, which seemed to do a great wrap up:  Remember this: There are always two worlds. The world as it operates is power; the world as it should be is love. The secret of kingdom life is how we can live in both—simultaneously. The world as it is will always be built on power, ego, and success. Yet we also must keep our eyes intently on the world as it should be—what Jesus calls the reign of God. 

We closed out with the Lord’s Prayer, old one, and know that we will never pray it on autopilot again.