Woodbrooke on the road: 
Tim Ashworth
2020-02-22

_Jesus the Jew_ (1977)
A shift in viewpoint motivated in part by the need to acknowledge the
Holocaust

Importance to early Friends of hearing the living Word of God.
The bible is a _witness_ to the Word, not the Word itself.

[Samuel Fisher]

Ordinary people struglling to make sense of and recount something
inspiring, but complicated.

[start with detox, e.g. wrt "God", "Jesus", "sin"]

*Mark*

Passionate, angry, active, _urgent_

Jesus recognised as a prophet

His mother and his brothers come to take him in charge

Not always clear that it's not a _bad_ spirit moving the prophets...

Surrounded by conflict and misunderstanding

Recording the memories of Peter?
(Matthew and Luke tidying up Mark...)

Strong reactions, strong emotions, sometimes even fear and worry

*Matthew*

Sometimes making editorial decisions (redacting the family coming to
take him in charge), but trying to be faithful to [Mark]

Friction emerging between the the Jewish Christians and the wider
Jewish community, which is beleaguered.

After the year 65 rebellion and the destruction of the Temple

How do we live the Law w/o the Temple?  When we're scattered?

A King like David, a teacher like Moses.

TA: 5:48 Not 'perfect', but all-embracing  [but c.f. Fox]

Not so much _Kingdom_ of God as a place, but the _reign_ of God as a
way of being.

"there in the midst" -- c.f. two or three are gathered _studying the
Torah_ God is there...

23:27-28 is a fierce statement from one side of the struggle mentioned
above [TA: Matthew's words, not Jesus's]

28:17 "Some doubted" -- TA: the experience was in some way not
objective---powerful, but not quite unequivocal.

*Luke and Acts*

[Luke actually, possibly/probably, travelled with Paul at some point,
 his narrative in Acts wrt Paul is thus quite 'true']

A 'good' historian, i.e. tells a story, with a shape.  Causal
connections, signalled with delta-epsilon-iota "it is/was necessary".
Jerusalem->Jerusalem;Jerusalem->Rome

List of Jesus's antecedants begins with Adam, this story is for
everyone (c.f. Matthew where it begins with Abraham, a story for the Jews)

He uses 'old' language for the birth narrative, universal, but rooted
in Jerusalem and reaching back into Jewish history.

But not too explicit about Gentile inclusion in the Gospel.

The Spirit plays a central role, of people (in Acts) being guided.

Luke's Jesus has a particular concern for the marginalised,
both in material and other ways (e.g. tax collectors, centurions) 
The world turned upside-down, things are not as you think they are.

Home of the parables.

Pentecost: Something really extraordinary happened...

TA: The call to "go out to the whole world" is not [much?] Jesus's
project, starts with 'Saul' in Acts 13:2.  The Great Commission is
Matthew (28:16–20) pushing stuff from Acts back into the Gospel
narrative

Working out the relationship, for the early Church, between '[the risen]
Christ' and 'the Holy Spirit' is tricky.

*John*

Not so much a Gentile gospel, but a Jewish Christian one with a
significant well-established graeco-jewish background.

An embattled community, trying to come to terms (temporal and
spiritual) with a surrounding antagonism, trying to define/protect a
boundary.  By John's time (year 90) they were, in places, being
excluded from synagogues.

In John, Jesus speaks of himself, self-describing as special.

John puts words in Jesus's mouth, truly because the Spirit (of Truth)
has spoken them to/through the community.

Incarnation is everywhere in John.  And conflict with Christians who
didn't go that far [like many of us today].

20:26-29 "not seen and yet ... believe" is about John's own community.
C.f. "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone".

Passion here is coming out of powerful (shared?) spiritual experience.

Conflict starts over the Eucharist (John 6:40--60), if we understand
this as a back-projection of a conflict in the early church.
-----
[Question session]
Eyewitness perhaps? "John the Elder"?  Responsibility [very unmodern]
is to elaborate, to draw out the significance, would lie heavily on
John by year 90--100 as others die.

Covenent sacrifice is not the same as atoning sacrifice [David Mealand].

The Jewish context is absolutely critical.  Distinctiveness of its
ability to shape/give structure to experience of the Spirit made the
success of Christianity and Islam possible.

"There was something dangerous about how the Spirit found expression
 in John's church."

Early Friends more about "coming in to the Life [that the Risen Christ made
possible]" than worship or sacrifice...

"A place above Adam and beyond falling" [G. Fox]

TA: Lack of focus on [biblical Christianity] has led to a lack of depth

=========
Webinar 2020-03-09

Challenge is to try to "see Jesus afresh"

Quaker approach scripture has _always_ been distinctive

Pennington: "And the end of words is to bring [people] to the
knowledge of things that go beyond what words can tell"

A witness to something greater.

Need a confidence in the Meeting for Worship as being open to
guidance [sc. from the Living Word]

[HST: How does Jesus's view of himself differ across the Gospels]

TA: Across them all: A great confidence in his own authority, acting
under divine inspiration.

Mark particularly as a prophet speaking prophetic words.

But, in Mark, response to others, don't say anything, don't call me the Messiah.
 Not wanting to create a major movement?
 Mark seems to have him predicting it, but, ?, a bit too neat, added
  later?
 But surely expectation of conflict, and knew that prophets didn't
   fare very well in Jewish history.

 Luke not so much of concealing his nature as Mark, he's not the
 centre of his own teaching, _manifesting_ his nature, but not
 self-identifying.  The journey to Jerusalem is the as-it-were
 literary crux of Luke's story...

 Matthew: Emphasis on [lost it]

 John very different, Jesus is at the centre of his own teaching.
 This is happening in the communities, putting him at the centre.

[David: Where does this leave us in relation to other Christian
 denominations]

Paul in Corinthians describing a MfW -- let the spirit of prophecy be
the source of your discernment [ref?]

"We hold these things in trust for the wider church?"

TA: Serious discernment needed wrt this question of the place of
Christianity in BYM: Do we need to teach our Christian basis, given
that many people come to us now with little or no prior understanding
of it.

[John Phillips: Why were early Friends so receptive to Fox's message,
 [and then the Valiant 60], when the firm structure of [feudal] life
 didn't leave much time for that sort of thing?]

Context of the time -- by the time GF is preaching, we're into the
World Turned Upside Down -- Bible in English, and feudal society not
stable any more, in fact.

But, also, their impact can't be explained purely from the content of
their preaching.  Ref. Margaret Fell in tears in the church in
Ulverston.  _And_, violent negative reactions.
Visceral impact, not explained by the words alone.

We, now, _recognise_ it when ministry comes from true depth.

[TA: I take communion, but don't say the Creed]