Today, Brueggeman turns to another use of Babylon as an image of life that moves through generations and empires.
....at the historical end of the Old Testament is the Book of Daniel, which most scholars judge to be situated in the Maccabean crisis of 167-164 BCE. In the narratives of Daniel 2-4, Nebuchadnezzar is taken, on a critical reading, as a stand-in for the feared and despised Antiochus Epiphanus. In these narratives two matters recur. On the one hand, Nebuchadnezzar is ferocious, violent, and unrestrained. On the other hand, the wise Jew Daniel is capable of outflanking the Babylonian kind and the entire Babylonian apparatus of intelligence. That is, the wisdom of the empire turns out to be in adequate if not foolish - and the faithful wisdom of this representative Jew prevails.
If you want a good read, go to the Apocrypha and read the books of Maccabees. They are all about the horrible times of Antiochus and the brutalities of his reign. And yet, by using images from hundreds of years earlier (Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar) the people are given a word of hopefulness in the midst of the worst of times. The stories of our faith do shape us in the present. It is as though the themes carry on and we find ourselves in the middle of the same scenario as those of old. Unfortunately, too often we do not let those stories inform us and the life we enter each day. As the stories tell us, we are to remain in the loving embrace of our God and live from there. That transforms the day even when the world or empire or country in which we live tries to shape us into someone other than one of the beloved children of God - who live as though we are alive in God's image.
Connection: Listen to the stories of Holy Week and the Resurrection of our Lord. They are alive with life. They are meant to engage us. They pull us back in time for the purpose of bringing a character of life into the present. This is a good week to listen to old stories and find the life that is being made available to us all.
Again, through stories you call us into new life today, O God. Walk with today as we become a part of the stories that will be told down the line when others need to hear about how faithful people live within your Reign. Amen.
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