Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Redeemer Devotions - January,18 2011

Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions 

Linking Babylon to the U.S.  Here where we begin to look at something closer to home.
 
....It is no new thing to suggest that the contemporary United States mirrors ancient Babylon in its totalizing propensity.  Our study here....links Babylon and the United States because Babylon has metaphorical force in the ongoing theological tradition and because the United States is our current context and venue for accommodation, resistance, and alternative.  There are, of course, no easy or obvious or exact moves from "then" to "now," and the parallels are necessarily imaginative, impressionistic, and inexact.

The United States seems to follow more along the tradition of domination started with the Greeks.  The Greek domination was one that did not deport - but rather, they changed the existing culture in the places of there influence.  But from a biblical perspective, it is Babylon who plays the part of the oppressive force that we can use to look at ourselves.  When we look at ourselves, it must not be merely as citizens of the U.S.  We must also see ourselves as part of the people who will not allow the powers of the day to determine who we are and who we are meant to be.  Therefore, the language of accommodation, resistance and alternative are a necessary part of who we are to be here within the empire of the day.  It means keeping aware of what is being said and what actions are taking place as we live within the empire of the day.  What is being asked of us and how are the followers of Jesus to live within the power venues on which we count for so many aspects of our lives.  From the Jewish voices of the prophets of old, we may come upon a way to stand on who God calls us and to live from that place no matter what ways we are being asked to walk.

Connection: Being faithful in the middle of the powers of our world demands that we know how to bow and bend and yet hold onto the vision of God's Reign.  In that way, we can always be ready to stand up for the way of God's shalom even when it is being rejected or ignored. 

O God, hold us within your vision of new life and encourage the way we come to life within it.  Amen.

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