Tuesday 26 August 2008

Today the quote from Stanley Hauerwas is repeated with the material that follows.

Israel is Israel, therefore, just to the extent that she "remembers" the "way of the Lord," for by that remembering she in fact imitates God. Such a remembering was no simple mental recollection, rather, the image remembered formed the soul and determined future direction. "To remember the works of Yahweh and to seek him, i.e., to let one's acts be determined by his will, is in reality the same. Consequently, to 'remember' the 'Way' from the Reed Sea onwards is to act now on the basis of the relationship between God and Israel there revealed, and in so doing to appropriate it, and know it to be most real."
Thus the call of the prophets to Israel was always a summons to return to the vocation of an imitator Dei: God "asks of people that they shall reflect his own character, so far as it can be reflected within the limitations of human life.... When the prophets denounced harshness and oppression and called for compassion for the unfortunate, they were calling people to reflect the character which was uniquely expressed in God's deliverance of God's people." For Israel, therefore, to love God meant to learn to love as God loved and loves.

We must remember that this "imitation" takes place because we are brought into the Reign of God by the action of our God. It is an imitation in response to the God who invites us to live as though the Reign is here. We see what that life is as we look at Jesus. His life, lived with and on behalf of the least and outcast was a life rejected by the powers of the world and yet, it was the life that was raised up by our God as the way God's Reign is to be. This affirmation of Jesus life give us a view of life that is within the vision of our own lives. The foundation is laid. The ground is already beneath our feet. We are invited to live as though God's action of raising Jesus is the power that moves us to live within the vision that was already present among Israel.

Connection: It is not easy to remember that we are a part of this Reign of God that awaits our coming to life within it...as though this is who we are and will be.

Take us by your hand, O God, and lead us into the character of your Reign so that the world may experience through us the bold and gracious presence of what you have called all of us to be as you are present with us. Amen.