As Brueggemann does throughout this book, he makes us look at ourselves- our country with an eye that knows about empire.
A final thought on this durable metaphor for our contemporary time. It may be that the United States as empire is a disputed point and not all will be persuaded. But here I suggest a test case: "You will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:20). The proposition invites us to assess the fruits of U.S. empire, to see whether it is indeed an authentic empire. The fruits we might list that are positive include the maintenance of global stability and investment of new wealth in developing cultures. These matters seem to depend directly upon the United States. But the ledger is not in balance if we consider the fruits of U.S. policy and conduct. The United States, in many important ways, is a predator economy that seizes resources, imports a certain culture, does immense damage to the environment, and leaves many societies in poor shape by a pattern of intrusion and departure.
It is very unfortunate that countries are not able to let go. Rather, we make sure we are heard or even felt. You hit me - I hit you. It is a cycle that is endlessly making us less willing to move in a new direction. So the empire takes what it says it needs to continue living at the rate it is living and those lesser people find their resources moving away for the benefit of the empire. With all the good the U.S. does, we are still seen by many as an imperial power that will do what we want to do. We get hit on 9/11 and we go off to settle the score. But the score is not settled. We use our imperial strength and influence to turn from justice to a war with an agenda that is foolish and imperial in the way it is carried out. The 9/11 event was horrible. It was a declaration of war against us by a stream of people without a homeland that would have given us a way to declare war. Instead, we pick and choose our enemies in order to take some of the need for retribution to burned off for a while. The cost is beyond our imagination in regard to U.S. finances. The cost is beyond our imagination in regard to the loss of human life on many fronts. The latest strike into Pakistan - even though we ended the decade long pursuit of the mastermind of the 9/11 massacre - must be the beginning of our return home from being the invaders and occupying force. Otherwise, we are like all the empires of the past that were so self-absorbed, they could not see the worth of others beyond their worth to the empire. Connection: How do we celebrate victory - how do we turn history upside down and make something new out of old ways of needed to be in control of the world as we know it? How do we go on as faithful people knowing that we are a part of an empire that will now face retribution for our actions - and it may be as justified to the other side as our raid on that Pakistani compound? First, we must understand that the country is not the Church - it is not the people of God as our biblical storytelling goes. We are a faithful people who live in empire - but how - really, how? O God who bids us to follow the way of the Christ, help us to see more of that way in the midst of the ways of the world that attempt to use us as a support for that which is not at all the Reign into which you call us. Amen |
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