| Though we hear so much about the Jews needed to leave Babylon. We must remember that it is a part of leaving the control and rule of empire. It may not be in our day - a physical movement out of a country. Rather one of character. The contestation between empire and the local tradition of Israel exhibits the complexity and ambiguity of faith in relation to hegemonic culture. Though the contest may have been vigorous and the rhetoric intense, the outcome was never in doubt. Exile is not home. Babylon is not and could never be the land of promise. Thus the outcome of the contest - is that YHWH's chosen people in displacement must never sign on to the grip and ideology of the empire. As a consequence, this community with it peculiar vocation and identity always dissents from the empire's claims to ultimacy. Put more sharply, Jews must depart Babylon and return home. You probably heard the biblical notation that as followers of Jesus we are "aliens." William Willimon wrote about being resident aliens. We live within the empires of the world and within their rule, and yet, this is not who we are. We are not now and never can be defined as part of the empire. To do that would mean that we are a part of its system of values that are always at odds with the Reign of our God and the life we are offered in that Reign. So we are never at home. We must live as part of a contrary rule no matter where we might be. There is this necessary tension. We can be citizens of a land and empire, but we must never become a part of that power. That alien nature is apparent when we look at people like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Dorothy Day or - what alien would you put next? Connection: Sometime it is knowing another person whose life is one of resistance and faithfulness that enables us to go along with being an alien and one who is always drawn to follow the promises of God and not the power of the empire. You, O God, already have us moving in a new direction even when we are stuck in what is old and overwhelming. Remind us to look around and find those who faithfully walk within your Reign so that we can walk alongside them. Amen. |
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