Well, for the first time in almost 10 years, I took a break without it being vacation. I think I needed to refuel and re-view. Today will begin a series with a new book by Walter Brueggemann -Out of Babylon. It is going to be a good companion to go along with the Sunday bible study at Redeemer - The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Themes of empire will swirl in the air. The first section is called: "The Facts on the Ground"
"If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy."
(Psalm 137:5-6)
These verses from the Psalter voice a passionate Jewish commitment that could not be silenced or nullified by the imperial power of Babylon. These verses succinctly encode the power relationship between the hegemony of Babylon and the defiant, pathos-filled resistance of Jews who continued to hold to their "local tradition" in spite of the power and requirements of the empire.
There must be a voice that brings life in the middle of powers that try to control all things. For the Jews, there were words of hope written and spoken that attempted to remind the people of a truth that was beyond the conditions that prevailed around them. How does one hope within the domain of hopelessness? We listen and we wait and we tell of the power that rules all things. Faithful imagination springs forth to make the people shake the foundations of the lives of God's people. It is to be a shaking that turns heads and hearts and helps the faithful to stand and be recognized so that others may also stand and resist the powers that will always try to overcome us with the simply methods of accommodation. Continue on is the cry that must be heard and most of all it must be spoken so that the gathering of God's people will one in which there is support and encouragement.
Connection: It may not take much to turn our heads and our hearts to see a whole new world. There is no magic - no exact formula. There is always a word though. A word that is the power to raise up even dry bones.
O God, surely you will lead us and deliver us - surely. Amen.
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