It has been over a month since the last devotion - the longest break I've taken in ten years. Well, today we move back to Walter Brueggemann in a chapter called "The Divine as Poetic."
The displacement of leading members of Jerusalem society to Babylon might have ended in despair. There was ample reason to conclude that YHWH's promises were exhausted and hope was spent: "So I say,'Gone is my glory, and all that I had hoped for from the Lord'" (Lamentations 3:18).
That however, is not what happened. In the very midst of such a seemingly hopeless situation, new hope was voiced. New promises were uttered. New poems were offered that alleged to be YHWH's very own commitment to the future of Jerusalem and its erstwhile inhabitants. Thus the divine resolve to bring the deportees home came to be a vigorous assertion and shaping conviction within the exilic community. No reason was given for such a hope, except that it was taken to be grounded in YHWH's own resolve.
I love the beginning of the last sentence in this quote: "No reason was given for such a hope." Then there is that vital assertion. It was "taken to be grounded in YHWH's own resolve." Talk about dreaming. Talk about going ahead even when the evidence all around you is telling you that you are nuts or simply not in touch. And yet, this is the way of God's people. This has always been the way. It brings me back to one of my standard quotes from Douglas John Hall that helped pull me through one of the roughest tie of my life: God Reigns all contrary evidence notwithstanding! When I am in the middle of despairing moments and cannot see how anything but the present reality can be a possibility, God's Reign must be spoken to me. I must count on you to draw poetic pictures of the not-yet but that that is coming. It is with that help - the promises of our God - that each of us can face the baloney of what is and make sure we will be a part of the treasure that awaits us all - new life - surprising life - resurrection life.
Connection: These devotions are just words - moments I take to read a bit and then write a bit. I guess that is all they could appear to be. Then again, the exercise of listening to faithful writers offer a vision into which I can walk has been and will continue to be a life-saver - or maybe - the encouragement to give my life away.
When the poetry of your Reign falls upon us, O God, we begin again. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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