Today we continue in Brueggemann's chapter "The Scandal and Liberty of Particularity." Following from yesterday we look at the second footnote about these totalizing superpowers. ...in addition to the standard lineup of imperial powers, we may mention a prophetic concern about Tyre, especially in Isaiah 23:1-18 and Ezekiel 26-28. What interests us is that Tyre's significance is not military and political, but economic. Indeed, Isaiah suggests that Tyre is the epicenter of a world economy that features opulence, self-indulgence, and general social disregard, so that Tyre can be imagined as saying: "I am god; I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas." (Ezekiel 28:2) It is quite amazing how much power is contained in the ability to be an economic powerhouse. It makes me think of the military-industrial complex. It can, as Dwight Eisenhower warned, become a power that we will not be able to control. Now we look around and see how this "industry" is able to map out what the government will do next. In another way, simply look at Wall St. It is an economic power that is able to rule not only our country but also weigh in to the economic powers of the world. The market - something one would think has not power - becomes the one of the most powerful elements of the society. This is to the point that the people able to do something about their power and their use of it are quite impotent - or frightened. But let's not point fingers at others unless we point them right back at ourselves. We are the ones who buy (literally buy) into the prevailing whim of economic powers - what we say we "need" - what we want to have - where we must go - how much we want stored up for later. As long as the economic powers of the day are allowed to go along making the rules of the day among us, we follow for we become a very part of this machine of the day. Connection: So as we long to be free - we are a part of that which oppresses. Again we must consider living within a discipline that helps us see how we are able to be a part of God's Reign in the midst of this reality. How do we live contrary to the powers around us? Lord of Life, you are the power that brings all life into its own. By the power of your Spirit, guide us into your ways of new life in the middle of all that is old and oppressive. We long to be filled with your hopeful Reign. Amen. |
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