| Brueggemann now writes of YHWH as Active Agent.. But of course, "God" as rendered in the Bible - and most particularly in the Christian Old Testament - does not conform to either the temptation of vagueness or the temptation of settledness. In contrast to both of these interpretive alternatives "God" as rendered in the Old Testament is a fully articulated personal agent, with all the particularities of personhood and with a full repertoire of traits and actions that belong to a fully formed and actualized person. Such a particular person cannot settle for vagueness because the particularity has a history and an identity that remain constant over time. Such a particular person cannot accept a fixity as reflected in some forms of classical tradition, because this particular person possesses all of the dimensions of freedom and possibility that rightly belong to a personal agent. To be sure, such a rendering of God suffers all of the problematic of the scandal of particularity, as this God is embedded in the interpretive memory of ancient Israel. This God of ours has a personality. At least that's what I'm catching here. It is not a static character who knows nothing about the changes of life and the demands of the day and the way freedom can change the tide of where things are going. Our God mixes it up with us - and the community of Israel. In the mix, God takes on a character and we begin to see in this God a face - a history that 'comes to mind' as we reflect back on who our God is. God is active in life - not separate from and not willing or able to be separate from. This is a God who become intimately involved in what it is to be a part of a community. Connection: Could this be why we speak of the face of God being on the face of God's people. If we want to see how God looks, we look around at life - especially the life of Jesus. O God, who was and is and is to be, we continue to long for your living presence among us. It is in the midst of you life among us that we come to a better understanding of the gift of life we all hold in your name. Amen. |
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