12 December 2005

In these weeks prior to the Nativity of our Lord, we will turn to comments about the message from 2nd Isaiah (chapters 40-55) by Walter Brueggemann in "Hopeful Imagination."

Second Isaiah...is marvelously filled with promises. But those promises are addressed only to people in exile who have seen the city fall (40:2) and have suffered the loss of their entire world of faith... The promises are not available to us or effective for us while we are people who cling to the old city and to the old organizations of reality. To use the poetry of homecoming without the prior literature of exile is an offer of cheap grace. It is important that the "new thing" of 2 Isaiah comes after a long season of exilic discontent.

It is so important to remember that one hears promises of new life after one has gone through life situations that have caused us loss or injury or disappointment. These are experiences that we have all had...but some people are not able to connect with their own losses and therefore they run from perceived victory to perceived victory. The words of second Isaiah will often not make sense. They make for great music - as in Handel's "Messiah" - but not as a word of comfort since no word of comfort is needed. Few people ever go through the cultural, societal, and faith trauma as did those folks who were uprooted from Jerusalem and sent into exile in Babylon. But if you are able to connect to moments and times and places within your own life where part of your life was taken from you or simply lost, these words of a "new thing" may help to bring vision for what will be. I would suggest that even those who are not able to recall or face loss within their own lives, what Brueggemann brings into view through the words of the prophet will give us the opportunity to review the present situations of our live and everything we call reality as it presently is.

Connection: The words of a prophet may be specifically addressed to a people in one place and time. And yet, we who listen in from another place and time may be surprised to see what they have to say to us. We need only listen again - with our hearts and through a lens that will allow us to see ourselves truthfully.

Liberating Lord, it is by your grace that we who are damaged and at loss for how to move into this day, find in the words of your prophets comfort and vision. Be with us again as we enter into the promises that you make to all your people. Amen.