In the middle of grief and separation there is what Brueggemann calls 'presence in absence' - here's what he sees.
in the meantime, with Israel in exile, far from home and from Jerusalem and temple, we may imagine that along with a theology of repentance (which was essentially a demanding imperative in Deuteronomic texts), there was a priestly theology of presence that was affirmative and indicative. The priestly disciplines and liturgies, testimonies that received normative form in exile, were strategies designed to help order an acutely disordered community and to assure Israel a mode of YHWH's presence in a venue of acute absence. While the tabernacle may be in anticipation of the temple, it is also a movable temple, a mode of presence not only imagined prior to the temple of Solomon, but available after the temple of Solomon. It is a mark of the inventiveness and courage of Israel in exile that it refused to settle for flat, angry, one-dimensional absence, and continued to address itself to the direction of YHWH in YHWH's hiddenness. Thus in exile Israel is a people celebrating and practicing presence in absence.
Each day is one in which we would all do well to realize God's "presence in the venue of acute absence." When that can take place, we have a much better chance at embracing the day and all that it holds. For now - with God present even as the day is flushed down the toilet, we are handed a vision that goes beyond what is. There was a moment in the last Harry Potter movie when Harry and his mates had to flush themselves down the toilet in order to get into the 'ministry' complex. It appears frightening - and yet you must be able to trust that the beyond what is visible is a reality into which you have been call to enter. Flush! Worship became for Israel a way to celebrate that presence - that reality that was no so visible in exile. I often need that kind of vision. Many times in worship, though the words we hear and sing are filled with powerful images it is also the simple gathering that reminds me of the presence of God who is able to fills us with all hopefulness. And yet, this gathering cannot be forced and turned into an obligation and then left to be merely that. It is really an opportunity to move into the places of absence with the promise that God is involved and present with us.
Connection: I have only heard of stories of exile. It must be rough. I know what it is have a sense of being in exile on an emotional level but not a real everyday, every moment separation that seems like the only think left in life.
O God, who watches how we turn away and follow other powers, it is still you who comes and remains with us so that as we stumble along you are there to lift us up and make a community that serves as a constant reminder of how you are faithful. We give you thanks. Amen.
Today we continue with another look at the practice of grief in Israel - according to Walter Brueggemann.
In this utterance of protest and grief that acknowledges present trouble, Israel refuses to accept present trouble as final destiny. Even in this circumstance, Israel assumes YHWH's sovereignty, YHWH's capacity to override exile. Israel makes appeal to YHWH's fidelity, which now, in exile, moves to pathos. Israel believes that the sovereign God can be evoked and moved by petition. Thus, while Israel's judgment is a function of YHWH's sovereignty, Israel's grief and protest are a complement to YHWH's faithfulness and pathos. The grief and protest permit YHWH to move beyond sovereign anger and rage to rehabilitation and restoration. It is evident, moreover, in the ongoing life of the exile of Israel, that grief as candor and protest as hopeful insistence are effective. YHWH is indeed moved toward Israel in new, caring ways.
No matter what might be the conditions on the ground - Israel does not see this as the end. This is not where things will cease to be. Rather, Israel does what all of us are to do - we are to expect that our God will be the God who Reigns as the one and only God of love. We remain faithful - we turn around - we do that with the understanding that our God is the waiting one who lets us go off the handle and quite near destroy ourselves - but, God remains tied to us, forever. I love the reminder here about God's "capacity to override exile." That is, God can override the worst of worse situations - even that which is being experienced as the ruthlessness of defeat and shame and death. This is the God of resurrection power - that's how we put it. Even death on the cross, decomposition in the grave, hopelessness and fear sucking he breath out of the people - and yet, God overrides this power and brings life.
Connection: There is room for resurrection in our lives. We can count on that.
O God, who watches how we turn away and follow other powers, how wonderful it is that you remain faithful and expect that we will turn to you alone. It is your love that we know so well that is the power within our turning. Amen.
Before a Thanksgiving break, some words on the practice of Grief among the faithful.
....Israel is not to grow silent about its deserved plight. Israel in exile is a community that grieves and protests. Indeed, in exile the ancient social practice of lament and complaint becomes a crucial theological activity for Israel. The practice of grief is an exercise in truth-telling. It is, as evidenced in Psalm 137 and Lamentations, an exercise in massive sadness that acknowledges, with no denial or deception, where and how Israel is. But this voiced grief is not resignation, for in the end faithful Israel is incapable of resignation. Resignation would be to give up finally on YHWH and on YHWH's commitment to Israel. This Israel will not do, even if YHWH gives hints of such abandonment. This grief of Israel in exile spills over into protest against YHWH. For all of its acknowledgment of its exilic utterances Israel moves stridently past its own failure to focus on YHWH, to protest YHWH's abandoning propensity and to invoke YHWH's new attentiveness to Israel.
Faithful people do not just get up and walk out. We may bitch and gripe and dance around fed up with how things are going - but we do not walk out. There is so much that can be done before one resigns oneself to one last reactions - exiting. Israel grieves and that is like a person in a deep, deep relationship. Things are bad and maybe even over - but resignation is a huge step away and grieving maintains some connection. In that connection is also the hope of a new day. The new day cannot be like the days that preceded it. Rather they must be days that come about through repentance - a turning back into the relationship with God (who, by the way, has never given up on the relationship). It is here that we also see the necessity to protest - to state one's case and to speak up. Resignation is a time of silence in which there is no more communication. So, faithful people are also people who protest the way things are and long for new conditions - a new day - a return home.
Connection: Signs of a good relationship - communication even when it feels as though that is the last thing needed.
O God, who watches how we turn away and follow other powers, you continue to embrace us even as we come so close to giving up completely. It is that embrace that becomes the power that keeps us returning to you. Amen.
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From the place of exile, come the life of repentance.
This theology of repentance is an extraordinary development in Israel's self-discernment. One might have concluded, after Jeremiah and Ezekiel, that Israel had reached a point of no return with YHWH. But now Israel is permitted a chance: "From there (from exile) you will seek the Lord you God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul. In your distress, when all these things [suffering displacement] have happened to your in time to come, you will return to the Lord your God and heed him" (Deuteronomy 4:29-30). Thus repentance is an act of hope. A return to YHWH, and to land and to well-being, is possible. Any such return, however, will be on the terms of the sovereign God who waits to be merciful (Deut.4:31). The repentance entails the very issues that were the causes of Israel's condemnation: remembrance, holiness, and justice.
Even when it all seems over - it is not over. There is this way of coming home. It is the simple act of turning around and returning to the one who is waiting always waiting and always loving. Repentance is 'an act of hope.' I usually do not hear this put quite like that. I find that a beautiful way of speaking of repentance. We can go home. We can return. We can be a remembering, holy, just people - because our God is always ready to shape us into just such a people. What a gracious story to carry around with us so that our lives are actually influenced by such hopefulness.
Connection: This makes is seem as though we are always standing at the edge of hope and ready to enter into its life no matter what has happened.
O God, who watches how we turn away and follow other powers, you remain the one who waits for us and promises to abide on our side even as we run from you. Inspire us to trust in your never-ending love. Amen.
Today the week begins with Exile and being a recalcitrant people - from "An Unsettling God" - by Walter Brueggemann
In the end, the exile is a theological datum concerning Israel's life with YHWH. While one may quibble about how extensive the deportation was and what percentage of Israelites were removed from the land, such issues do not matter with exile as a theological datum. In its relation to YHWH, Israel is nullified, and the displacement seemed destined to last in perpetuity. In sovereign righteousness, YHWH acts in self-regard and is capable of sloughing off this partner who refuses partnership. Thus it belongs to the fundamental marking of Israel that as a people summoned in love by YHWH and addressed by YHWH's command, Israel is a community scattered by none other than YHWH, the God of sovereign fidelity and faithful sovereignty, to the null point. Israel can imagine YHWH's complete negation of Israel. Israel has no guarantee of life in the world beyond the inclination of YHWH, and that inclination has now been exhausted. Israel must, in perpetuity, ponder its scatteredness, out beyond the well-being intended by YHWH.
What do you do with a partner who refuses partnership? In my faithful imagination, even as we read of Israel's travails at the hand of Babylonians and their exile, there is this God whose love is ceaseless and yet must - let them go the way they have chosen. The chosen people have chosen to abide within the world of other gods. That, unfortunately, is where they are taken - if not physically, their hearts and souls. But then I turn to myself as a follower of Jesus and the many ways I refuse partnership - or the many ways the church refuses partnership. Oh, we claim the name and demand some kind of goodies to go with that - but our partnerships tend to be with the powers of the day and the shape of the world as it is. Not an easy thing to say to oneself.
Connection: Faithfulness calls for deliberate action and thoughtful responses to the world around us. Too often, I know that I can be a scattered person who does not remain alongside the call to follow. It can be too damn easy to step in other ways.
O God, who watches how we turn away and follow other powers, abide with us even as we find it so easy to turn from your love. Amen.
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The indictment against Israel is thorough as they live their life outside of the gracious covenant with God - a recalcitrant people.
YHWH's majestic governance over this recalcitrant partner, which had at the outset been marked by generosity, now comes as judgment. The judgment is in fact the complete nullification of Israel, so that Israel ceases to be. The historical mode of nullification is exile. Israel is "scattered", a new term in Israel's Yahwistic vocabulary, of which YHWH is characteristically the active subject. Israel is scattered to the winds, away from its promised place, and away from its resources for identity. Exile is indeed the defeat, loss, and forfeiture of life with YHWH. The exile is to be understood as an actual geopolitical event in the life of this community. There were indeed displaced persons and refugee communities. It is possible to give a geopolitical explanation for the exile: the displacement of the Jews from their homeland was an effect of Babylonian expansionism under Nebuchadnezzar.
If we are not what we say we are, what are we - something else. This point about Israel being a 'recalcitrant' partner is the story of all of us who claim to be the sons and daughters of our God and yet we live as though we are not at all under the wing of our God. One of the feared words when I was growing up as a Roman Catholic was the term excommunication. It was used as something that was done to you by the larger church. In reality, it is something that a person does to ones self. The church does not push people out, people walk out the door and turn their back to the promise of life that is to be the church and the church then simply names what they have done - left the communion. I would then argue that there are many times when the church leaves behind what it is to be and individuals must point out that the church has left the way of Jesus. When individuals do that, they are called prophets and often booted out. For Israel, Exile meant they were cut off and, in essence, would have to deal with the world that they chose to live within rather than the life of God's Reigning power. If you trust weapons - live within the world of weapons and lords and power transfers and famine and --- exile.
Connection: We must always be willing to go back to that call that has been given to us - that invitation to be God's beloved. It is there that we face how far we have walked away and what it would mean to turn around and return to the God who waits for us
O God, who watches how we turn away and follow other powers, keep us close to you and have your Spirit of life become our breath. Amen.
Today I'm leaping a bit in Brueggemann's book. It is a section that deals with "Israel Recalcitrant and Scattered.
Another facet of Israel's life with YHWH is that Israel did not respond to YHWH's goodness adequately or to YHWH's command faithfully; Israel thereby jeopardized its existence in the world. Israel came into existence by the sovereign freedom of YHWH, and by that same sovereign freedom Israel would perish. Thus the third dimension (or 'season') of Israel's life with YHWH is as a recalcitrant partner who stands under judgment and threat for its very life.
Just as we are to be the embodiment of Jesus in the world - a gift handed to us - Israel was to be the reflection of this life-giving God who acts for them in all times. And yet, as the storytelling goes, Israel would not follow this God whose presence was known among them. They, in many and various ways, fled from their God into the waiting arms of the ways and powers of the world. In other words, they 'stand under judgment and threat for its very life." This doesn't mean that God will zap them. Rather, it means that they - in essence - zap themselves. They leave the way of God's Reign. They function within their everyday lives as people who do not partake in the beautiful presence of God. Now, I may sound critical of Israel, but we must do that with a mirror in our hands because the followers of Jesus do quite the same. We have this treasure in earthen vessels and we so often refuse to use our lives for the sake of the whole world - that all may know the face of God.
Connection: There is so much life to live and so many opportunities to have the beauty and power of God's Reign shine among us - we need only let it be the gift that it is and let is shine.
O God, who watches how we turn away and follow other powers, it is your love that will transform us. And yet, we need to hold this love close that it may become us.. Amen.
The 'invitation to see and be holy in "An Unsettling God" by Walter Brueggemann is expressed in quite a literal seeing of the glory of God.
The testimony about this singular encounter at Sinai makes clear that it is a one-time encounter, to which only the leadership is invited. It is nonetheless clear that this encounter obligates Israel not only to do justice for the neighbor, but also to be in the presence of God, to see, God, to submit to the unutterable overwhelmingness that is the very character of God. It belongs to the life and character of Israel to be with and to be before this One to whom Israel is responding partner. Israelite traditions, which are rooted in the Sinai encounter, attest to the ways in which this awesome moment of presence is made continually available in Israel's cultic practice. It is clear in the development of this tradition of obligation that Israel has a keen aesthetic sensibility, suggesting that YHWH to whom Israel responds is not only righteous but also beautiful. The encounter is conducted in an environment of beauty, which makes the communion possible and which is reflective of YHWH's own character.
Sometimes we can be in the presence of something beautiful and it can seem like a holy place. It makes sense, to a degree, that when the people of God want to within the presence of God - it would be a beautiful place. I suppose one could argue that the gathered community of God's people reaches into the very depths of the beauty of God exhibited to the world. Rather than the expense of precious stones and fine fabrics and impressive structures, God is beautiful as God's people reflect that beauty when they gather. The most simple structure can house the powerful and inspired people of God - and yet, when the faithful gather, there is something about the beauty of the space matching the beauty of God's people - and the God who builds the community. So what happens when that which is considered beautiful - stones and gems and gold - is lost and taken away? To what elements of God's beauty are the people drawn?
Connection: I wonder what it would take for the people of God to be caught up into the beauty of the character of God's people - as it is the beautiful character of our God. Seeing each person as a gem within the beautiful image of God.
O God, who abides with us, make your word the foundation of our life that is caught up in the beauty of your image and your arriving Reign. Amen.
This week we will move from the obligation to do justice to the 'invitation to see and be holy - "An Unsettling God" by Walter Brueggemann
A second tradition of obligation that articulates the requirement made of Israel as YHWH's partner is not so well known or so much valued in Western Protestantism. This is the tradition of seeing, which focuses on the cultic presence of YHWH, and wherein Israel is invited to gaze on a vision of YHWH's presence, holiness, and beauty....
The assertion of Exodus 24:9-11 (the Sinai encounter) does not tell us what the leadership saw. There is no doubt that this testimony means to say that one of the characteristic markings of Israel is to be in YHWH's presence, to see God, to commune with YHWH directly, face to face (Psalm 63:2). This encounter at the mountain, moreover, is not instrumental, not for the sake of something else. It is a moment of wondrous abiding in the Presence.
In many ways, this is powerful and beautiful way to see one's life - in the presence of God. To see that as our place is the beginning of a transformation of life in which - I would hope - the presence of God is made known through those who see God's presence. When we commune with God directly - face to face - I would think that our lives could not stay static and consumed by a self-centered life. Rather, the God who liberates and frees and rescues and saves is seen as the God who is alongside us. When we walk as though we see God's presence abound, we also see life within God's Reign and how it is so contrary to much of the life we are urged to call our own. Abiding in God's Presence is not merely a meditative situation - it is life that is shaped by such presence.
Connection: It is no small thing to be able to see God and thus see oneself in the presence of God. Such vision has the potential to change everything in our lives.
O God, who abides with us, be the encouragement we need to step into the way of your reigning power that the world may experience your love and grace and justice as we live in your presence. Amen.
We end the week with a wonderful piece about the essential nature of justice in the covenant community - "An Unsettling God" by Walter Brueggemann
This specific and radical command to do justice is to characterize the whole life of Israel. Such a command, understood as a poignant reflection of YHWH's own way in the world (as evidenced in the exodus), clearly is intrusive in and critical of a life of self-protection, self-sufficiency, and self-indulgence. This mandate marks Israel as a community that practices an intense openness to the neighbor; it balances that openness, moreover, by a keen sense of self-criticism about sociopolitical-economic advantage. That is, the function of these commandments is not to protect acquired advantage, but to call that advantage into question when it does not benefit the community.
We become the people of God to the world by being a people reflective of the God whose love of the world and call to justice brings a new power of life to the community. We are no longer a people who react to the world around us. We take up the day as though we are God's way of shaping the world so that the peace and justice of God's Reign is visible - touchable - as close as a neighbor. I find this segment of this covenant call to justice to be right on point - convicting almost. Convicting in the sense that what is so often see as an advantage to religious people is only advantage as it is used for the welfare of others. We engage the world and leave a mark now. No matter what the powers of the day may be doing and no matter what chaos might reign around us - we seek the welfare of all and break the cycles of death, hatred, and all the other signs of our turned-in-on-selves.
Connection: Lately, I wonder about what needs to be done among us. What can I, as an individual, do to change the welfare of other - right near by.
O God, who takes us up into the ways of justice, mark our lives with your loving kindness and mercy that we will forever turn out to benefit the communities in which we move from day-to-day. Amen.
Here's another piece of 'the obligation to listen and to do justice' that is a part of being the people Israel with their God.
In the hearing tradition of Israel, there are many and differentiated commands: some are conservative in order to maintain social equilibrium , and some are downright reactionary to protect status quo advantage. Without denying any of this, it is evident that Israel's most characteristic and theologically intentional practice is to attend to the needs of those too weak to protect themselves.
it is clear that in these most radical injunctions, understood as Israel's covenantal obligations, the wealth and social resources of Israel are understood not in privatistic or acquisitive ways, but as common resources that are to be managed and deployed for the enhancement of the community by the enhancement of its weakest and the most disadvantaged members.
Common resources - sounds like Acts and the stories of the first communities of the followers of Jesus. Not much changes. We are to embody this life that is at the very core of the heart of the one we call the Most High God. This God does not forget the forgotten and the left out. In fact, this God knows none as left out or forgotten. Our God remembers - each one and all of us. Our God remembers the promise of life that is to be extended to each of us so that this life will quite literally become us - our life in community.
Connection: Though we are each individuals with our own gifts, they are gifts handed to us by the God who would have us use them all for the welfare of others. We are not a people who have a self-centered prosperity story that is afraid to stand as one with all who are counted by our God - all.
O God, who takes us up into the ways of justice, teach us to remember all who are claimed by you. Amen.
We continue with our look at 'the obligation to listen and to do justice' that is a part of being the people Israel with their God.
Israel is to "listen' to the command of YAHWEH and to respond in obedience. While the commands in the tradition concerning listening are many and varied, we may say in sum that Israel's obligation is to do justice. Israel is a community put in the world, so the testimony suggests, for the sake of justice.The justice commanded by YHWH, moreover, is not the retributive justice of "deeds-consequences" wherein rewards and punishments are meted out to persons and the community according to conduct. Rather, Israel understands itself as a community of persons bound in membership to one another, so that each person-as-members is to be treated well enough to be sustained as a full member of the community. In its articulation of justice as its principal obligation, Israel is acutely alert sociopolitical differentiations and is aware that the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, live differently and need to be attended to in different ways. It is not belated ideology to recognize that Israel's convenantal-prophetic sense of YHWH's justice does indeed have "a preferential option for the poor" and the marginalized. This preferential option that is mandated to Israel is rooted in YHWH's own practice and inclination, so that in the practice of justice Israel is indeed to imitate YHWH.
Bruggemann goes on to rec.ount the stories that call for a 'love of strangers' and a 'love for widows and orphans' - all of which means caring for them. Caring comes to be providing clothing, housing, food, and anything else that will help them have a place of honor and a place in which they can become an actual part of the community. Even though the poor could not offer much back, they were to be seen as ones 'at home' within Israel. Those who were in a position of power and influence and wealth were to be the ones who made sure that their power was used for the welfare of these 'least among us.' When we lose those who are at the edge - those who are marginalized within any society - we lose our spirit of life that is shaped by the God who claims us all. When all are seen as claimed or chosen, is there any margin that can be left alone to die or suffer or be uncounted? No. Never. Otherwise we divorce ourselves from the character that our God has called us to be.
Connection: It is not easy to remember those on the margins. Our lives can be so consumed by what is around us that we lose our vision and we forget that which is so central to who we are meant to be.
O God, who takes us up into the ways of justice, help us to keep in mind those who need us in order to simply make it through the day. For when we remember them, your glory shines among us. Amen.
We continue with our look at 'the obligation to listen and to do justice' that is a part of being the people Israel with their God.
Israel is to "listen' to the command of YAHWEH and to respond in obedience. While the commands in the tradition concerning listening are many and varied, we may say in sum that Israel's obligation is to do justice. Israel is a community put in the world, so the testimony suggests, for the sake of justice. The justice commanded by YHWH, moreover, is not the retributive justice of "deeds-consequences" wherein rewards and punishments are meted out to persons and the community according to conduct. Rather, Israel understands itself as a community of persons bound in membership to one another, so that each person-as-members is to be treated well enough to be sustained as a full member of the community. In its articulation of justice as its principal obligation, Israel is acutely alert sociopolitical differentiations and is aware that the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, live differently and need to be attended to in different ways.
I wanted to stop at this point in this ongoing quote because a community that takes on the shape of the God who is shaping them to be a living presence of that love must deal with how different each member will be. How to we honor those differences? For the welfare of all, each one must be taken seriously. I think that means that some will and must be allowed to exercise a greater degree of power. That is not power to be over and against others, but power used for the well-being of the community. Those with lesser power as individuals must be held accountable for what they can and must be within the community - but it never needs to be nor should it be a power that is beyond them. This all takes time. This takes finding out who each person is - what gifts are present - what weaknesses seem to prevail. I immediately think of the lamb lying down with the lion. Wow. What a community image for the people of God. Extremely different embodiments of power - ones that could become destructive and yet are used to show the wonderful imagination of God's Reign.
Connection: Lion honoring lamb - Lamb honoring lion: the welfare of all.
O God, who takes us up into the ways of justice, remind us to find the essential power of the other and help that one grow as s/he has been called within the community of saints. Guide us to share this life we have been handed together. Amen.
Today we begin to look at 'the obligation to listen and to do justice' that is a part of being the people Israel with their God.
Israel is to "listen' to the command of YAHWEH and to respond in obedience. While the commands in the tradition concerning listening are many and varied, we may say in sum that Israel's obligation is to do justice. Israel is a community put in the world, so the testimony suggests, for the sake of justice.
We again are given a community that is to take on the character of the one they say they follow. When a community pursues justice, it will be a community that is contrary to the ways of life that run the rest of the world. Therefore, they will stick out and be noticed and people will eventually ask why they do what they do. That means the community becomes a witness to something other than the way the powers of the world operate and are seen. To do justice - to honor the worth of the other and to make sure that the power of being within each person is held up and protected and encouraged is to be about a life that is radically refreshing. It is also to be about a life that may be utterly rejected. And yet, because this is the image of God that is to be the image of the people, Israel, (and I would argue the church today) we are hearing of a community that may turn heads and appear quite amazing. So - the obligation is be nothing more than whose we are - beloved children of God who have been given a way of life in and through all times.
Connection: Obliged to be God's beloved - could be a bumper sticker
O God, who takes us up into the ways of justice, we long to be encouraged and strengthened so that we will step into your way and let your light shine among us. Amen.
