Friday 9 March 2007

Today Walter Brueggemann presents some thoughts by Sigmund Mowinckel - again on Israel's Praise.

(Mowinckel) proposed that eschatology is a projection of hope into the future out of a cultic enactment that never fully met expectations. Because present realities were short of expectation, Israel's hope was delayed and increasingly displaced by the future. That projection into the future...is not inappropriate to the cultic act itself. That is, the cultic act, which is an act of liturgic imagination in and of itself, opens to the future that was in tension with "business as usual." In that context, the very enactment of the narrative of the cult is itself an assertion of an alternative world that permits a basis for hope . All such liturgical activity , and especially praise, is an act of embracing an alternative future.

This is not only an aspect of Israel's praise. As I was typing, I started to sing "This is the Feast of victory for our God..." That "hymn of praise in our Lutheran liturgy is filled with future images that contrast quite dramatically with what is all around us. In our praise we are being pulled into such a future and that future is, as we often say, breaking in all around us. "Liturgical imagination" gives us something more to which we can look forward. It puts a vision within our lives that is not always a part of the day-to-day life of our society. I remember being at a bar mitzah years ago. One of the inspiring aspects of that liturgy was the use of words and images. I remember that it sounded like we were all being called into a vision for life that was still beyond us but not beyond what God can and does do among us. The future is painted within the praise of God and hope that God will indeed finish the painting for the welfare of all.

Connection: Next Sunday in worship listen to the images presented to us. Better yet, imagine what they are lifting up for us to enter and to take part.

Within the fullness of time, O God, you continue to bring your Reign before us and in time we begin to experience that vision already. Continue to lead us into the unfolding of your promises even as we simply begin with words of praise. Amen.