Gospel of Matthew: Building on Rock

Matthew 7:24-29

The practicalities of how Galilee is physically situated shed interesting light on this parable. Martin's comments make me think about how this also ties in with Jesus' previous words cautioning against taking "the broad and easy way."

Illustration by "Miss Stevenson", Bell Rock Lighthouse

24 ... The Greek word for wise could also be translated as "prudent" (see 24:45); this man's prudence lay in his choice of a site to build his house (real estate has always been a matter of location, location, location). Galilee is dotted with limestone hills covered by an uneven layer of soil. Houses commonly had stone walls; an outcropping of rock provided a stable base for such walls. This wise builder picked a site where he could build his house on rock.

25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. The rocky hills of Galilee do not readily absorb rain; a heavy rainfall can become a flood of water crashing down hillsides and filling ravines. A stone house built on rock can withstand floods and windstorms.

Jesus says that those who listen to his teachings and act on them, "will be like" (verse 24) a wise builder whose house withstands a storm; the phrase "will be like" points to something that will happen in the future. Prophets used storms as an image for God's judgment (Isaiah 28:2; 29:6); 30:30; Exek 13:10-16). Jesus is again speaking of the last judgment (see verses 13-14, 19, 21-23), now by means of a comparison or parable. Those who take Jesus' words to heart and act on them will withstand God's judgment, just as a house built on rock withstands a storm.

26 And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. Rain flushed soil and sand down from hills to the floors of valleys and ravines, providing some temptingly level places to build a house. A foolish builder might choose such a site, laying the lowest course of house walls directly on sand.

27 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. Storm runoff surged against the house, washing way the sand beneath its walls and undermining them, and the house collapsed and was completely ruined. Just as a house built on sand will collapse in a flood so those who do not live according to Jesus' teachings will face utter ruin at the last judgment.

Quote is from Bringing the Gospel of Matthew to Life by George Martin. This series first ran in 2008. I'm refreshing it as I go.

Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel (1578), Hans Hoffmann

Men of the ages and the unconscious mind

Only very ingenious persons will think that the wise men of the ages did not know of the existence of the unconscious mind because they did not call it by that name or formulate its activities in twentieth-century terms.

Harold C. Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, vol. 1

A Movie You Might Have Missed #4 - Serenity

It's been 10 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

4. Serenity

Is it a western? Yes. Is it sci-fi? Yes. 500 years in the future, society is a mixture of "core" planets with all the luxuries and those on "the rim" where life is more like living in a old time Western. The Alliance, the totalitarian government, controls everything in the core and would like to exert the same control over all the planets.

Simon and River Tam are on the run from The Alliance. They take refuge on a spaceship whose crew will do anything, legal or illegal, to keep fed and in the air. As a survivor from the losing side in the recent civil war, the ship's captain, Mal Reynolds, doesn't mind going against the authorities but has to rethink his decision when the Alliance sends an assassin to track River down. What follows is a fantastic, fast moving adventure crackling with wit. It is also one that examines what different men choose to put their faith in, how strong that belief is, and what it means to live an unexamined life. (My complete review is here.)

Catherine of Siena

Catherine of Siena by Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale,
from her "Golden Book of Famous Women", published in 1919.
Via J.R.'s Art Place

A Poem About Fire Ought to Burn

It is the crowning virtue of a work of art, as it is of a man, that it should be an example of its own doctrine, an incarnation of its own main symbol. A poem about fire ought to burn. A poem about a brook ought to flow. A poem about childhood ought not just to tell about children but ought to be like a child itself, as are the best of Blake's Songs of Innocence.

Harold C. Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare

Listen Up - The Episodic Table of Elements

The Episodic Table of Elements is a science-history podcast exploring the culture and chemistry behind every element on the periodic table. Explore wild tales of scientific adventure that stretch back to the beginning of time itself. We’re traveling the periodic table in order of increasing atomic number: Episode 1 is hydrogen, episode 2 is helium, and so on.

The episodes for this podcast range from 12 to 25 minutes each and that was almost a deal-breaker for me. 25 minutes about a scientific element? Booooring!

But not so. As it turns out these are wonderfully told stories that begin with an element and then follow it to surprising places. For example, the hydrogen episode looks at the development of balloonists, zeppelins, and ends up with the Hubble Telescope's first clear image of The Pillars of Creation. It ends with links to where you can do an experiment to get the element for yourself.

This is science in the way we all wish we could learn it, with engaging delivery and interesting stories.

The website is here. The iTunes link is here.

View of the Thames and The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters

Jacques Matthias Schenker - View of the Thames [1885]
Via Gandalf's Gallery, some rights reserved

Did anyone else flash on Our Mutual Friend?

The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters, already mentioned as a tavern of a dropsical appearance, had long settled down into a state of hale infirmity. In its whole constitution it had not a straight floor, and hardly a straight line; but it had outlasted, and clearly would yet outlast, many a better-trimmed building, many a sprucer public-house. Externally, it was a narrow lopsided wooden jumble of corpulent windows heaped one upon another as you might heap as many toppling oranges, with a crazy wooden verandah impending over the water; indeed the whole house, inclusive of the complaining flag-staff on the roof, impended over the water, but seemed to have got into the condition of a faint-hearted diver who has paused so long on the brink that he will never go in at all.

This description applies to the river-frontage of the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters. The back of the establishment, though the chief entrance was there, so contracted that it merely represented in its connexion with the front, the handle of a flat iron set upright on its broadest end. This handle stood at the bottom of a wilderness of court and alley: which wilderness pressed so hard and close upon the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters as to leave the hostelry not an inch of ground beyond its door. For this reason, in combination with the fact that the house was all but afloat at high water, when the Porters had a family wash the linen subjected to that operation might usually be seen drying on lines stretched across the reception-rooms and bed-chambers.

Chapter 6

Gospel of Matthew: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets."

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place."

Matthew, 5:17-18

Maybe I've always loved this explanation from Jesus because I like to think of the people saying, "Now we can live a new way. No more of the 10 commandments!" Every time I see something that reminds me people acted just the way we do today, it makes me smile.

I've also got a real love of the Old Testament and I hate it when people say that the Old Testament God was mean while New Testament Jesus is nice and loving. I hear this a surprising amount, many times from a particular priest during homilies which finally led to a conversation afterwards.

Because Old Testament or New — God is the same. Three persons but one God and one essence. Also, that means that people haven't been reading their Old Testament very well. Yes, there are a lot of examples of the way ancient people settled things which doesn't match our ideas of justice or mercy very well. But all through out, God is saying the same thing over and over.

That is part of why Jesus follows the Beatitudes, which are so revolutionary sounding, with the reminder above. He's connecting the weight and meaning of his lawgiving ("I say to you...") with what came before.

Below are a few examples of Old Testament mercy that might sound familiar. There are many more examples, but these will give you a sample.

Moses and the Ten Commandments
±1600 - ±1624, Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, Netherlands

• Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your own people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. — Leviticus 19:18
• But the poor will inherit the earth, will delight in great prosperity. — Psalm 37:11
• If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat, if thirsty, give something to drink; For live coals you will heap on their heads, and the LORD will vindicate you. — Proverbs 25: 21-22
• It is good for a person, when young, to bear the yoke, To sit alone and in silence, when its weight lies heavy, To put one’s mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope—To offer one’s cheek to be struck, to be filled with disgrace. — Lamentations 3:27-31

Bible verses are from The New American Bible, Revised Edition. This series first ran in 2008. I'm refreshing it as I go.

Unexpected Meeting in January

Unexpected Meeting in January, Remo Savisaar

Writers and the states of their souls

All good writers express the state of their souls, even (as occurs in some cases of very good writers) if it is a state of damnation.

G.K. Chesterton, Appreciations and Criticisms 

of the Works of Charles Dickens

A Movie You Might Have Missed #3: The Castle

It's been 10 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

3. The Castle
(Australia)

An understated comedy about a man whose home truly is his castle. Any normal person would jump at the chance to sell his property when the local airport wants to buy, as it sits at the end of an airport runway and directly under gigantic power lines. However, this man fights in court for the right to keep his home.

The father's unconditional love and approval for every person in his family is reciprocated by each of them. Watching the local news the father turns to his daughter, the only family member with a "college degree" (from hairdresser school), and tells her that they have "ripping bodies" but their hair really could use fixing up to be like hers. Needless to say, the daughter's hair is horrendous but her pleased and loving reaction underscores the family's complete happiness. If they think about the outside world at all it is to be sorry that the world doesn't have a share in their contentment and "riches". If more families were like this one then the world would be a better place. This movie is rated "R" for language.

Green Gown

Childe Hassam, Green Gown

Separating Eggs

This recipe is certainly silly. It says to separate two eggs, but it doesn't say how far to separate them.

Gracie Allen

A Perfect Popcorn Movie — War

Top agent Major Kabir is the head of a team hunting terrorists. Khalid is the eager, new recruit who must overcome the stigma of a father who was a traitor. When Kabir suddenly goes rogue, Khalid is the student who knows him best so it becomes his job to track Kabir down and try to stop him.

This movie pairs Bollywood veteran star Hrithik Roshan with up-and-coming Tiger Shroff. The result is a wonderfully entertaining Borne/Mission Impossible/Bond style action thriller accented with Bollywood masala. There's a good dose of patriotism for Mother India, an actual mother who is as loyal a patriot as you're ever going to find, and plenty of dancing.

If you want an action thriller with a lot of over the top lines, big in Bollywood acting, and two top male stars in exotic locations doing impossible stunts ... then this is your movie. We really enjoyed it, including my 85 year old mother who laughed through a lot of it (as we did too - over the top, remember?) and said she never needed to watch another action movie. "This one captured the essence of all of them," she said.

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

Hannah and Rose discuss this in episode 41 of An American's Guide to Bollywood podcast.

Cliff Near Fecamp

Claude Monet, Cliff Near Fecamp
via Arts Everyday Living

It is not true to say that Mr. Reeder had ever engaged a secretary.

it is not true to say that Mr. Reeder had ever engaged a secretary. It was Miss Gillette who engaged him. By one of those odd coincidences which are unacceptable to the lovers of fiction but which occur in everyday life, she arrived at Mr. Reeder's office on the day and at the hour he was expecting a temporary typist. For some reason the agency lady did not arrive or, if she did, was interviewed by Miss Gillette who, fulfilling the practise of the young queen bee, destroyed her rival in the nicest possible sense.

Edgar Wallace, Red Aces

Figaro Dream

Jean Béraud, Figaro Dream
via Gandalf's Gallery, some rights reserved

Rice Noodles and Chopsticks

Duane Keiser, Package of Rice Noodles and Chopsticks

Gospel of Matthew: No Room for "Righteous" Anger

Matthew 5:20-21

I have come across many Christians who feel that righteous anger is justified by Jesus' anger at the moneylenders in the temple ... and that their own anger is equally righteous. I, myself, certainly have struggled with the impulse to nurture my own anger because it is justifiable. "Hey, I'm right! That makes it ok!"

However, this bit of the gospel from Matthew, as examined by George Martin, surely should give us all pause before we give ourselves permission to be angry. Or even to sling around a mild insult.

Jesus Speaks Near the Treasury, James Tissot

22 But I say to you: the I is emphatic; Jesus is proclaiming something on his own authority. Not only murderers but also whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. At issue is consciously harbored anger, not an unbidden and passing emotion. Deliberate anger can lead to murder; by prohibiting anger Jesus eliminates a source of murder. But what about when we think we have cause to be angry? Jesus does not seem to leave room for "righteous anger," which is often really "self-righteous anger," anger we wish to justify. Jesus' condemnation of anger is sweeping and covers whoever is angry. Matthew's first readers would have understood the word brother to mean a member of the church. For Christians to be angry with each other impairs the mission of the church to be the light of the world, which requires behaving in a way that leads others to glorify God (5:14, 16).

Jesus takes up verbal expressions of anger: and whoever says to his brother, "Raqa" will be answerable to the Sanhedrin. The Aramic word raqa is roughly equivalent to "blockhead" -- an insult, but not the worst thing someone can be called. Those who hurl this insult will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, which was the highest Jewish executive and judicial council. Similarly, whoever says, "You fool," will be liable to fiery Gehenna. The expression you fool is equivalent to raqa, not a worse insult, yet those who call another a fool will end up in fiery Gehenna. Some Jewish writings used Gehenna (the Hinnom Valley on the south and west sides of Jerusalem) as a symbol of punishment in the age to come. Jesus' words might be paraphrased in modern terms as, "A disciple who insults another disciple will be hauled before the Supreme Court in this life and go to hell in the next." Jesus seems to be exaggerating to make the point that abusive speech is a far more serious matter than one might think. (See 7:3-5 for another example of Jesus using exaggeration to make a point.)

Quote is from Bringing the Gospel of Matthew to Life by George Martin. This series first ran in 2008. I'm refreshing it as I go.