A Partial Summary Chart of the Gospel of Matthew. Tools for teaching The Methods For a Happy/Holy Life

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1 Lesson 11, pp TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IHOP BIBLE STUDY Topic: Matthew 9: 9-18, Staff Qualifications The gospel of Matthew's message is powerful and relevant to our current human situation. Matthew's purpose is to give us a training manual for teaching the Deeply Satisfied Life. This material is developed for the early church, but is applicable for us today. Matthew's teaching role model is Jesus. The "Deeply Satisfied Life" is the experience ("Gut Trip Analysis") of the term Sanctification which is an Old Christian Code Word understood as "Head Trip Analysis. This is our eleventh lesson in this series, and is associated with, Tools For Teaching The Methods For A Happy/Holy Life"." My reflections on the gospel give us the overall title of, "The Training Manual For Teaching The Sanctified Life." With this metaphor established, let us continue. A Partial Summary Chart of the Gospel of Matthew Tools for teaching The Methods For a Happy/Holy Life The Teacher s Handbook Part I: Ethics happiness Teacher s challenge Indicative Ethics or WWJD Watch your focus Watch your priorities The focus Teach -ing standpoint Chang -ing lives Staff qualifications Task Graduation Address Affirming credentials 5:1-12 5: : :1-24 6:25-7:29 8:1-18 8: :23-9:8 9:9-17 9: :35-10:42 11: Lesson I. Read the assigned reading at one time. Living the synthesized life is embracing our Outer Human experience that is modified and valued by our Inner Spiritual Resources. Living from the inside out is living the synthesized life. II. The Context for this lesson is to put into the Training Manual a list of the qualifications for being staff members (teachers) who utilize the "Tools For Teaching The Methods for a Happy/Holy Life." Note: The kind of staff members Matthew looks for are those who are awake to the fact that they live before ONE REALITY that is like a soup containing particles representing both The Way Life Is (TWLI or the human/natural), and particles representing the Really Real (or spiritual reality). If necessary, turn to my 58

2 book on Old Christian Code Words, and the concepts of TWLI and The Really Real are defined in it. I ve written this statement to draw attention to it. To appreciate this statement is to make sense of the qualifications necessary to be called to be one of Matthew s teachers/staff members. For now, it is enough to know that Jesus is searching for staff that is awake to this one reality. These people are acknowledging both the physical/natural reality and the spiritual experience. The following characteristics can be added. Vss. 9: 9 What are the operating words in this verse that suggest the kind of staff for which we are looking? WS: The qualification for using Matthew s Tool Box is the relationship the staff member takes to Reality (TWLI). First, they say, Yes! Those who follow Jesus are the Yes people. It is a distinguishing mark of Christians that they first say yes, and then they can prioritize their response; i.e., Yes, I ll go to Africa after I finish learning the native language. If we choose to say No, then there is no opportunity to change our mind. Second, Christians are qualified as Tool Box Teachers when we chose not to be victimized by our circumstances or situations in life. Instead, we are victors. For instance: If we are born with one leg, we have a choice either to be victims to our circumstances and be chronic complainers, or we have the choice to be one-legged dancers and be victors over our circumstances. Reality never changes. It is us who can change. This is the basis of the Good News! Our lives are transformed! Reality stays the same. To desire that we grow another leg is a wish dream, and this is unreality. One of my axioms is that there is only one thing God hates, and that is a wish dream. The reason being is that God is in the reality and not in the lie of unreality. God only is found in the middle of what is real, or what can be called The Really Read. In fact, one definition of God can be The Authentic! Now, using this formula, observe the qualifications Matthew lays out for those who teach from the Tool Box. Vss. 9: 10, 11 Why does Jesus choose "sinners" as a qualified staff? WS: Sinners are those who understand The Way Life Is. They are not living in a dream world. Those who believe they are created righteous are living a lie. Yes, we can be made righteous by living our life in the shadow of Jesus Christ. But we are still sinners made righteous. We are not The Righteous. IHOPer Reflections: It seems to me that here Jesus identified people who knew what it meant to be looked down upon. They apparently exhibited a sense of mercy toward other people. He seems to juxtapose them over against the people who considered themselves righteous and were judgmental toward other people. When we can acknowledge our own sinfulness and be merciful toward ourselves, we can extend that mercy toward others. 59

3 What is implied in choosing "Tax Collectors?" WS: In Jesus time, Tax Collectors were doing not only an unseemly activity, but were collaborators with their Roman captors; they were traitors! They were sinners, and they were traitors. How far down the social ladder can you go? The point at which they qualify as Tool Box Teachers is that they experienced their lives transformed. This does not change their REALITY, but it does change THEM! They knew the experience of transformation. IHOPer Reflections: Tax collectors were the really bad guys of that day. Even they are people who need the sense of being loved by God. They are still humans in need of concern and love. Vss. 9: 12 What is implied in the necessity for our staff to be sick? WS: Again, the sick are those who have been there and done that. The qualifications to be Tool Box Teachers are that their lives are transformed! IHOPer Reflections: The "sick" are those who understand their need to be healed. Basically, it seems to me that this is not so much affirming sickness as it is affirming one's recognition of being sick. Recognition of our sickness is the first step toward healing. WS: Amen! What is implied in the quotation "I desire mercy, not sacrifice?" IHOPer Reflections: Sacrifice is an external. Mercy is an internal stance that reaches out to others. Sacrifice doesn't really change things whereas mercy does. For me this recalls the words in Micah, "do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God." WS: Sacrifice is an objective thing while Mercy is an experience thing. What we experience is the miracle of transformation. When we experience forgiveness we know the restoration of At-One-Ment, and the peace it brings to us. In this regard, research the background of the Minor prophet Hosea. Find out the context Hosea used in writing his book in the Old Testament. Then, see if you can extrapolate from this story the characteristics representing "mercy" and not "sacrifices." WS: Hosea is a minor prophet in the Old Testament. He spoke to his nation of Israel just prior to the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to the Syrians around 722 B.C.E. (Before the Common Era.) He used his marriage to Gomer a prostitute as a metaphor for his nation who prostituted themselves in their relationship to God. He named his three children using similar metaphors: a son The defeat of Israel; a daughter God will no longer show mercy; a son For you are not God s people. The point Matthew makes in referring to Hosea in 9:13 I desire mercy, not sacrifice is the miracle of transformation. We all have prostituted ourselves by believing we can change reality. This prevents God from transforming us. We are 60

4 worthy of only being stoned to death because of our prostitution. It is when we awaken to the fact that we are prostitutes, and then we discover God is with us in this reality, and then can move to have our lives transformed! Ah-ha! Now we know MERCY! All of the sacrifices we lay on the altar are useless unless our lives are transformed. Ah, yes. This will preach! The qualification for using the Tool Box of Teachers is to EXPERIENCE MERCY! Then we have something to share because we ve been there, done that, and experienced the transformation. Vss 9: 14, 15 What is implied concerning staff qualifications? It is my suggestion not to be literal in these verses. Instead, see if you can push your thinking to the EXPERIENCE implied in this story. Share your reflections. WS: The issue here is fasting. Matthew s point is that there is nothing wrong with fasting. There is nothing wrong with John s disciples fasting. The issue is when to fast. Is it appropriate to fast when we are attempting to solve relationships? What about fasting when life is in harmony, in synch, or we have it all together? Think of it this way. Fasting is a spiritual activity for awaking our spiritual eyes to see in the ONE REALITY SOUP both our natural reality (TWLI) and our spiritual reality (the Really Real). Fasting is a spiritual exercise to clean our spiritual lens to see more spiritual specks in the soup of reality. Fasting is like sacrifices, it is an objective thing we do. However, when we are in the middle of experiencing the transformed life we are living with our spiritual eyes already open. This is a time to celebrate. This is the time when the bridegroom is with us. IHOPer Reflections: Hosea's key themes were "faithful love" and "knowledge of God". This appears to me to be calling us to the relationship with Christ. Jesus seems to be saying that the relationship is more important than the rituals of one's religious expression. While Jesus was with them, the time spent with him was more important than doing religious stuff. Vss 9: 16, 17 What is implied concerning staff qualifications in 9: 16, 17? Again, push your thinking to the EXPERIENCE implied in this story. Share your reflections. WS: The Staff Members using Matthew s Tool Box are creating something new. The axiom, God does not call the qualified, but qualifies the called, is descriptive. None of us are qualified. However, those of us with our eyes open are called to be teachers and staff members. The teaching we are called to teach is THE ONE REALITY this is the new unshrunk cloth, this is the new wineskin into which we pour the new still-fermenting wine! Those qualified to use Matthew s Tool Box are those whose eyes are open to the truth of the WHOLE REALITY the human/natural part of the soup of reality, and the spiritual part of this soup. 61

5 IHOPer Reflections: It seems to me that Jesus is calling us to think outside the box for that which is creative. It is a call to experience life and extrapolate from that rather than trying to make life fit into various ideological (head trip) boxes. ABOUT THIS SCRIPTURE: Material from SermonStarter---Matthew 9: 9 13, 18 25, Year A. The healing stories in Matthew represent the transparent task. The transparency can be likened to a photographic slide transparency. This task is illustrated in the following construction. 1) On one side of our transparency is The Way Life Is (TWLI). TWLI is characterized by death, sickness, blindness and the inability to communicate; that is, to be mute. 2) When this material is passed through the transparency of the Good News (or The Christ), then we speak of this stage of passing through Jesus, or the Cross. 3) On the other side of the transparency a transformation occurs in which TWLI is not changed, but we see our human frailty in new light, and we are changed! We are no longer victims to TWLI, but now we are victors. Note that our human situation remains the same while everything is transformed. When this happens, we experience Good News. This is one of The Teacher s tools in Matthew s Teacher s Tool box. There is one caveat in this process. These transparent experiences are not experienced as two different realities. This is experienced as one reality that is like a Reality Soup. The human/natural and the spiritual part are of ONE REALITY in which the human and the spiritual are like tiny particles in this soup. As we observe these particles through our prescription glasses (ground on the stone of our gender, race, culture and education) one lens illuminates the human/natural part of the soup, and the other lens illuminates the spiritual part of this One Reality Soup! We do not live in a parallel universe of two different worlds. We live in ONE WORLD a UNI- VERSE of ONE WORLD with two experiences. Consequently, the sermon is about seeing through the sickness of these two women in order to experience the Good News of Jesus Christ that is present here, and allow it to address the sickness in our own lives. The Key to this sermon: In order to make your way through this sermon take time to define in your own mind the following experiences: 1) righteous, 2) sinners, 3) faith and 4) healing. From the point of view of Gut Trip Analysis these words are experienced as a) the awakened, b) those that are asleep, c) surrender, and d) the awakening. ABOUT THIS SCRIPTURE: Material from SermonStarter---Matthew 9: 9 13, 18 25, Year A. The Grabber: What happens when Jesus comes calling? Share a time in your life, or the life of another, when a light goes on. Hint: think of a visit to the Cave of the Winds in Colorado Springs when the guide turns off the light so you experience profound darkness. What does it mean for Jesus to come calling during these times in our lives? 62