| Here's how some of the storytelling filled in the gaps and created a vision. Again from "Out of Babylon" by Walter Brueggemann.
YHWH is the one who willed the deportation; Babylon is the agent who enacted that deportation. this assignment of the roles to YHWH and to Babylon was accomplished through a daring interpretive maneuver that imposed a certain logic upon events, a logic rooted in the covenantal nomism of the tradition of Deuteronomy wherein Torah obedience or disobedience will variously yield blessings and curses. The disaster of the sixth century, goes the paradigm, was a justly merited curse worked against those who had violated covenantal obedience. this logic both imposed meaning on chaotic events and established the voice of the deported elite as normative for the larger community.
Even though the remnant of folks told a story of the disobedience of the people it then becomes the way that the people will move into the future. Now, based on how they had disobeyed, a new obedience can be brought forth. I suppose this can have two sides to it. One would contain the "if" as in - 'if we remain faithful, this kind of devastation will not happen again.' The other "if" comes down from the negative side, as in - 'if we are disobedient, our God will once again deliver us into the hands of such oppressive chaos. From either position of the storytelling, a path is made so as to enable a people to be shaped and to endure whatever has come upon them. All around Columbus there are appearing those signs that say that the 'rapture' is coming on May 21, 2011. From the storytellers in that group we also hear many 'if' and 'then' comments that are meant to shape the actions of people who call themselves Christians. I was also thinking that nations do this too. We draw up 'if' and 'then' scenarios that are meant to build the vision of a people around a way of seeing the past, present, and even the future. That storytelling really does have a power to it - and that is not always good.
Connection: How often are you led by an 'if' and 'then' story? Can faithful people move on without that element of threat? Can we live and be pulled forward by the simple acknowledgement of our beloved status before God - no matter what is happening to us?
O God, lead us and guide us in and through all the days of our lives. Remind us of what it is to be faithfully yours. Amen. |
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