| Brueggemann notes that the poet - the voice - will not stop. Sooner or later the empire might have caused the poetry of the local tradition to evaporate - but it did not happen that way. Rather, all the coercive force of empire is said to become the seedbed and venue for new poetry that was heard among Jews as a voice, and therefore as the presence, of God, the God who has refused to abandon the displaced. It may be that the new poetry of welcome, - is to be understood as raw human hope that in resilience just would not give in;
- is to be understood as evidence of the ideological force of those who dominated sixth-century Jewish imagination, who imposed the notion of "return and restoration" on a community that would otherwise have settled for a new home in empire;
- is finally to be taken as the gift of YHWH's own resolve for the future that stands against the facts on the ground.
It may be that vision for new life must be "imposed" in order to keep it in the mind of the people and to avoid everything falling back into the accommodating ways of empire. However the voice is raised, there must be a voice. Since we all have a bit of the the empire we would like to see remain in place, this voice of restoration will not be a voice we like to hear all the time. So often, it is good to read the voice of the poets and prophets in the Scriptures and yet we may not want to be open to the same message in the voices that speak directly to our present context. Therefore, we must press the point again. We must also be willing to hear a critique of our own ways and the voice of those attempting to pull us a world of life that is not at all in the shape of the world that is all around us. Connection: There are always new poets ready to offer us a view of what is not yet and that which must come among us. I find that the young have an ear for good disrupting poetry. Look at Egypt - look at our musicians of substance - look at those who are able to crack open conversations and take us someplace we have not been willing or able to go. All at once, the impossible is available to us. When the poetry of your Reign falls upon us, O God, help us to sing and dance and move to the beat of life that is not often the best known verse among us. It is there that we may encounter you more fully. Amen. |
No comments:
Post a Comment