The poetry of the people that live in opposition to the empires of the world must be bold and move by grace and hope. Again, Walter Brueggemann in "Out of Babylon."
Thus we may ponder what it is like for the children of the local tradition to hear poetry of welcome amid the prosaic control of the empire. This poetry moves boldly in images and metaphors and beyond the imperial world. It takes up old treasured, trusted themes and voices them in contemporary idiom. It dares to suggest that another reality exists beyond the empire's control. It invites new social possibility. It mocks the empire that they had come to trust and fear too much. And it does so because at the center of this poetry, the alleged speaker of new possibility is none other than YHWH, whom the empire could neither silence nor domesticate. Simply by being spoken and hear, the poetry creates a new social freedom. It imagines otherwise; it invites its listeners to walk boldly into the world it creates. It authorizes courage, summons defiance, and lines out resistance, all in the interest of legitimating the compelling force of the local tradition.
I found this piece to be challenging and stirring. Challenging in the sense that we are invited to be a part of this speaking. We are invited to take up the words and images of promise and hope even as they are quite at odds with the banners of the empire that so often feared "too much." This is all very stirring because it shakes me up. At the very center of these poetic and contrary voices is not merely the one we hear speaking. Rather, it is the voice of our God who has been alongside us in and through all things - even the most hopeless of times. The voice of our God is creative and make us move beyond where we are. We are not alone. We are standing within a long line of those who stood up and "mocked" the empires that so easily are able to make us turn their way.
Connection: It is not always easy to step into the path of that which appears to be utterly impossible. And yet, in our tradition the impossible is just another step into what can be and what often must be when God is called the Creator of all things. Our God creates for us possibilities when we are at the end of the road and out of breath and can no longer see or hear or smell or touch anything beyond us.
When the poetry of your Reign falls upon us, O God, continue to be with us as we leap into your presence even when we cannot see you waiting for us to enter into your Reigning power. Amen.
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