14 December 2005

Exile is a valuable term even now according to Walter Brueggemann in "Hopeful Imagination."

The metaphor of Babylonian exile was used by Martin Luther who argued that the gospel had been exiled in his time by the Babylonian captivity of the Roman Catholic Church. Thus he intended exile to be a very harsh metaphor to suggest that the shaping influence of the Roman Catholic Church of his time was alien and hostile to the gospel. We do not need to pursue Luther's particular handling of the metaphor to see it potential for our own interpretive situation.

We will be shaped by what is around us. We need only look at our own families. As much as we might love or hate or be indifferent to the people who are a part of our families, we become them in many ways. If the Jews in Babylon found only the Babylonian culture and religion pressing them every day, it soon becomes the expected way of living. We fall into patterns quite easily if we do not know how to resist them. So it was for Luther and his criticism of the Roman church. The practices and the institution set up to enforce those practices were oppressive and the oppression was coming from the people who were called to be liberators - messengers of Good News. When our lives are being lived out separate from the the liberating, forgiving and complete redeeming power of the gospel, we will live according to that separation. We will reflect that which is not a part of us anymore.

Connection: Stay connected to this Word of grace that is the core of who we are. There will be many other words that will quickly fall into our vocabulary and begin to rule us...we must be a people of resistance.

Brilliant Light of Love, we long to have you lead us this day through all the many turns in the road that would often send us away from your invitation to come home to you. Be for us that light of new life that pulls us into your living presence as we prepare again to hear the story of the nativity of our Lord. Amen.