The focus of these devotions is switching to Walter Wink’s book “The Human Being.”
Sometimes, on a whim, I pick up a book and try to wade into it because it had enough with the table of contents to make me want to set forth on another adventure. This book is doing that for me.
In the struggle to become human, I find myself returning over and over to ancient texts that, for me, still contain the original impulse of Jesus. That impulse was the spirit that drove Jesus through the villages of Galilee and ultimately to death in Jerusalem. It was the inner fire that impelled him to preach the coming of God’s reign, the spirit that caused him to cry out, “I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49). Even though that impulse may lie buried under the detritus of routinized religion, I am convinced that we can recover priceless rubies among the rubble.
It is a struggle to become human. It is, for example, a struggle for young military police in Iraq to be human within systems of power that often finds the need to degrade others in order to gain something. I would say the struggle is universal to humanity. In Wink’s book, he will take a look at the concept or title known in scripture as “the son of Man.” He seems to call it “the human being.” I find that it is curious that we can be so afraid to be human that we run away and try to shelter ourselves within the language of religion that is still afraid to be what Jesus was – completely and to its fullest – Human. There is a treasure within the scriptures that brings us great gifts for life that are often lost within the religious games we play…games that are not likely to show the beauty of God’s notion of creating humanity in God’s image. I’m sharing pieces from this book, beginning today, because already it has me looking at me and you differently.
Connection: What makes up the vision of being fully human to you? What are the gifts and qualities that give us the power to become linked with others in a realm of peacefulness and hope? How can that begin to take shape in you…now?
By the power of your Spirit, O God, grasp us again and lead us along the pathway your beloved Jesus. Yes, we may not want to go and we may fight in order to go another way to a place and life we would like to have…but grasp us Lord, grasp us and move our hearts along a new and creative journey of hope. Amen.
Monday, May 10, 2004
Monday, 10 May, 2004
Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann in “Inscribing the Text” will be the focus of this series of devotions.
Perhaps only the tenured, the independently wealthy, or those at the end of a career can afford to speak-truth-to-power. Perhaps only the fugitive, the raven-fed, the royally paid, or the clairvoyant among us will be brave enough and detached enough to speak at all. Perhaps we are too well-kept; perhaps security drains us of courage.
It is so easy to be drained of courage and get by on just how things are going along today. If I’m secure, why bother with speaking the truth…is the truth may change the ways things are. And yet, our lives are not fed by nor do they blossom from the secure walls of what is. I find that ordinary people who have much to lose are given the power to step forward and speak the truth when other words are being spoken around us – words with little truth to them at all. Truth-speaking-to-power is a non-violent way to unmask the day and bring some light within an often dark and cluttered life.
Connection: It may take more than one of us to speak the truth to power. It may take a team…a team of encouragement…a spirit led team.
Lord, lead us as we move within this day to witness to the truth. But also empower us to be open to hear the truth about ourselves and not insist on our way as the only truth possible within this time. Amen.
Perhaps only the tenured, the independently wealthy, or those at the end of a career can afford to speak-truth-to-power. Perhaps only the fugitive, the raven-fed, the royally paid, or the clairvoyant among us will be brave enough and detached enough to speak at all. Perhaps we are too well-kept; perhaps security drains us of courage.
It is so easy to be drained of courage and get by on just how things are going along today. If I’m secure, why bother with speaking the truth…is the truth may change the ways things are. And yet, our lives are not fed by nor do they blossom from the secure walls of what is. I find that ordinary people who have much to lose are given the power to step forward and speak the truth when other words are being spoken around us – words with little truth to them at all. Truth-speaking-to-power is a non-violent way to unmask the day and bring some light within an often dark and cluttered life.
Connection: It may take more than one of us to speak the truth to power. It may take a team…a team of encouragement…a spirit led team.
Lord, lead us as we move within this day to witness to the truth. But also empower us to be open to hear the truth about ourselves and not insist on our way as the only truth possible within this time. Amen.
Friday, May 7, 2004
Friday, 7 May, 2004
Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann in “Inscribing the Text” will be the focus of this series of devotions.
A second familiar case of speaking-truth-to-power is Nathan addressing David (2 Samuel 12). This is worth the read.
…David arrives in power after a long winning streak. He is king in Hebron for seven year, then promoted to Jerusalem, where he is settled, safe, prosperous…bored. He is so bored that he seeks diversion and spots it in Bathsheba. She, like everyone before her, does not resist him; the rest…is history… Cover-up. Murder.
Enter Nathan, the prophet on the payroll of the king; enter truth!... The prophet Nathan wisely resorts to a figure of speech, a parable. He employs an artistic euphemism to soften the truth, hoping to divert the king’s attention until the connection is made… Now it is up to the truth-teller to close the deal by unmasking the king. It takes only two words: attah ha’ish (You are the man!) Just two words, but what courage to say them!
In a day when evil is put “out there” as in “one of them,” it is easy to begin to feel as though we are better or even, shall we say righteous before God where others….are not. We must remember that “not one is good”…no not one…not even my side of the story. But truth-tellers help to bring us all to a place in which we are able to look in the mirror and take off the mask behind which we have been trying to live. It is not wrong to have a “dark side” to be evil even when we want to be good. It is real. We can ignore it or deny it as much as we would like…but look around…it is there, and it isn’t only in “them.” Truth-telling brings all of us into the light and there we must begin to live again, by grace…the way we have been invited to live all along by our God.
Connection: Imagine how hard it must have been for Nathan to speak up before David. I can’t. But I can imagine what it may be like to be called to truth-tell within this day. That’s not ever easy…and sometimes there is nothing but silence. I think that is real for many of us.
O God, lift up our voices in praise of your Gracious Reign and in that praise let our hearts rise up to embrace the loving truthfulness we see within the faithful stories of the saints before us. Amen.
A second familiar case of speaking-truth-to-power is Nathan addressing David (2 Samuel 12). This is worth the read.
…David arrives in power after a long winning streak. He is king in Hebron for seven year, then promoted to Jerusalem, where he is settled, safe, prosperous…bored. He is so bored that he seeks diversion and spots it in Bathsheba. She, like everyone before her, does not resist him; the rest…is history… Cover-up. Murder.
Enter Nathan, the prophet on the payroll of the king; enter truth!... The prophet Nathan wisely resorts to a figure of speech, a parable. He employs an artistic euphemism to soften the truth, hoping to divert the king’s attention until the connection is made… Now it is up to the truth-teller to close the deal by unmasking the king. It takes only two words: attah ha’ish (You are the man!) Just two words, but what courage to say them!
In a day when evil is put “out there” as in “one of them,” it is easy to begin to feel as though we are better or even, shall we say righteous before God where others….are not. We must remember that “not one is good”…no not one…not even my side of the story. But truth-tellers help to bring us all to a place in which we are able to look in the mirror and take off the mask behind which we have been trying to live. It is not wrong to have a “dark side” to be evil even when we want to be good. It is real. We can ignore it or deny it as much as we would like…but look around…it is there, and it isn’t only in “them.” Truth-telling brings all of us into the light and there we must begin to live again, by grace…the way we have been invited to live all along by our God.
Connection: Imagine how hard it must have been for Nathan to speak up before David. I can’t. But I can imagine what it may be like to be called to truth-tell within this day. That’s not ever easy…and sometimes there is nothing but silence. I think that is real for many of us.
O God, lift up our voices in praise of your Gracious Reign and in that praise let our hearts rise up to embrace the loving truthfulness we see within the faithful stories of the saints before us. Amen.
Wednesday, May 5, 2004
Thursday, 6 May, 2004
Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann in “Inscribing the Text” will be the focus of this series of devotions.
The truth Moses utters is the truth of YHWH: Pharaoh is penultimate and accountable to YHWH, and YHWH, not Pharaoh, must be glorified and obeyed. The familiar “Let my people go” is in fact an imperative – Send my people! – which YHWH issues through Moses. The king of Egypt is hardly accustomed to hearing imperatives spoken to him, but the truth is the he is out of business. YHWH is sovereign and the power of Pharaoh is dissolved. As a consequence and by product, Israel is emancipated. That is the truth, the truth of YHWH; it is, moreover, the disastrous truth of Pharaoh.
With eyes of the day, Moses words were ridiculous. Truth for Pharaoh would have been more like: “Get out of my face and get back to work…I’m Pharaoh.” But in this voice of Moses, comes the voice of the truth of God’s power and life and no power can resist in the face of such truth. Let us not merely pick on Pharaoh and his inability to hear truth being spoken to him. Any time and any one who steps into try and control the world in which we live often steps beyond the word of truth into something we try to call truth but it is never truth when it is nothing more than our veiled attempts to secure power and place for ourselves. Truthfulness in the face of power is a word that opens up the world and opens up possibilities that are as endless as the possibilities within the swirl of the Spirit at creation. It is indeed an imperative.
Connection: Today simply give yourself the opportunity to listen. Listen to the voices of power and how they cannot see beyond their own domain and rule. It is a bitter experience for within those voices we may find ourselves and that is tough to hear. Then remember the voice of God’s, loving truthfulness.
Your Word, O God, demands wholeness and healing within our lives. Your healing reunites the broken apart so that we may live in peace and share in the domain of your truth for life. Grand us the ability to hear your Word in the midst of all the other voices around us. Amen.
The truth Moses utters is the truth of YHWH: Pharaoh is penultimate and accountable to YHWH, and YHWH, not Pharaoh, must be glorified and obeyed. The familiar “Let my people go” is in fact an imperative – Send my people! – which YHWH issues through Moses. The king of Egypt is hardly accustomed to hearing imperatives spoken to him, but the truth is the he is out of business. YHWH is sovereign and the power of Pharaoh is dissolved. As a consequence and by product, Israel is emancipated. That is the truth, the truth of YHWH; it is, moreover, the disastrous truth of Pharaoh.
With eyes of the day, Moses words were ridiculous. Truth for Pharaoh would have been more like: “Get out of my face and get back to work…I’m Pharaoh.” But in this voice of Moses, comes the voice of the truth of God’s power and life and no power can resist in the face of such truth. Let us not merely pick on Pharaoh and his inability to hear truth being spoken to him. Any time and any one who steps into try and control the world in which we live often steps beyond the word of truth into something we try to call truth but it is never truth when it is nothing more than our veiled attempts to secure power and place for ourselves. Truthfulness in the face of power is a word that opens up the world and opens up possibilities that are as endless as the possibilities within the swirl of the Spirit at creation. It is indeed an imperative.
Connection: Today simply give yourself the opportunity to listen. Listen to the voices of power and how they cannot see beyond their own domain and rule. It is a bitter experience for within those voices we may find ourselves and that is tough to hear. Then remember the voice of God’s, loving truthfulness.
Your Word, O God, demands wholeness and healing within our lives. Your healing reunites the broken apart so that we may live in peace and share in the domain of your truth for life. Grand us the ability to hear your Word in the midst of all the other voices around us. Amen.
Tuesday, May 4, 2004
Wednesday, 5 May, 2004
Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann in “Inscribing the Text” will be the focus of this series of devotions.
Moses can think of at least four reasons not to undertake such a risky venture as speaking-truth-to-power: (1) he is inadequate; (2) they will want to know who the God is who sends; (3) they will not believe; (4) he can’t talk right. When this reasoning makes no difference, he resorts to begging: Send someone else! But the one who calls and voices truth will not be put off. Truth must be uttered, and finally, in chapter 5, it is: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.
Truth must be uttered and…in time it will be. Our God does raises up voices that will step forward as ones speaking-truth-to-power. And yes, it could be you just as it was Moses – filled with excuses and a list of reasons someone else would do better. But truth is not an intricate adventure. Rather it is a bold adventure in which our God will not forsake us when we venture forward to speak. I find it necessary to speak of love when I think about truth. This is not a love that is simply between several people or within a family grouping or national assembly of like-minded people; this is love as expansive as God’s love that cannot be eliminated. There is no stone, cold tomb that has a rock big enough to keep this kind of loving truth buried. Just as Mary was called to tell of the news on Easter, even after the two disciples could only witness to the truthfulness of death and the bodies disappearance (which is only a half truth…no truth at all), we may find ourselves inspired to speak beyond our expectations.
Connections: When that love that is beyond our comprehension presses into this day yearning for truth to be spoken to the powers that tend to speak less than truth, be prepared for its hearing and its speaking. Let your preparation be as simple as daily prayer.
Come, Holy Spirit, and ignite within us the love that seeks to be spread to all the corners of our lives and…then…beyond to all. Amen.
Moses can think of at least four reasons not to undertake such a risky venture as speaking-truth-to-power: (1) he is inadequate; (2) they will want to know who the God is who sends; (3) they will not believe; (4) he can’t talk right. When this reasoning makes no difference, he resorts to begging: Send someone else! But the one who calls and voices truth will not be put off. Truth must be uttered, and finally, in chapter 5, it is: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.
Truth must be uttered and…in time it will be. Our God does raises up voices that will step forward as ones speaking-truth-to-power. And yes, it could be you just as it was Moses – filled with excuses and a list of reasons someone else would do better. But truth is not an intricate adventure. Rather it is a bold adventure in which our God will not forsake us when we venture forward to speak. I find it necessary to speak of love when I think about truth. This is not a love that is simply between several people or within a family grouping or national assembly of like-minded people; this is love as expansive as God’s love that cannot be eliminated. There is no stone, cold tomb that has a rock big enough to keep this kind of loving truth buried. Just as Mary was called to tell of the news on Easter, even after the two disciples could only witness to the truthfulness of death and the bodies disappearance (which is only a half truth…no truth at all), we may find ourselves inspired to speak beyond our expectations.
Connections: When that love that is beyond our comprehension presses into this day yearning for truth to be spoken to the powers that tend to speak less than truth, be prepared for its hearing and its speaking. Let your preparation be as simple as daily prayer.
Come, Holy Spirit, and ignite within us the love that seeks to be spread to all the corners of our lives and…then…beyond to all. Amen.
Monday, May 3, 2004
Tuesday, 4 May, 2004
Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann in “Inscribing the Text” will be the focus of this series of devotions.
The primal case of speaking-truth-to-power in the Old Testament is Moses addressing Pharaoh. As a truth-teller, Moses had as long a preparation for his call as any of us. …It was in his status as a fugitive that he was addressed by this voice from the burning bush who summons, authorizes, and dispatches him to Pharaoh.
It is so important to remember that this call to speak comes when he has been rejected and put out into the wilderness by the powers that be and his own fear. There is no place that can keep us from God’s touch and God’s desire to have the Word of freedom and truth ring within any time or place. As a fugitive…Moses experiences the profound presence of God so that he is moved to turn around and begin life in a whole new way – speaking-truth-to-power. It is not the most pleasant task…but it is necessary when it is placed on us to step forward and enter into the conversation of the day with a word of the truth of God’s Reign in the midst of the reign everyone else expects and demands.
Connection: Rise up O Saints of God! Prayerfully consider the expansiveness of God’s Reign within this day. And yes, you…you, may indeed be asked to speak up in truth. It does and it will happen.
Precious Lord, you do not care about the status of anyone when you call us to follow you and speak of the Good News of your blessed Reign. Empower us to trust your blazing word of truth whenever we think that we cannot possibly be an instrument used within the transformation of this day. Amen.
The primal case of speaking-truth-to-power in the Old Testament is Moses addressing Pharaoh. As a truth-teller, Moses had as long a preparation for his call as any of us. …It was in his status as a fugitive that he was addressed by this voice from the burning bush who summons, authorizes, and dispatches him to Pharaoh.
It is so important to remember that this call to speak comes when he has been rejected and put out into the wilderness by the powers that be and his own fear. There is no place that can keep us from God’s touch and God’s desire to have the Word of freedom and truth ring within any time or place. As a fugitive…Moses experiences the profound presence of God so that he is moved to turn around and begin life in a whole new way – speaking-truth-to-power. It is not the most pleasant task…but it is necessary when it is placed on us to step forward and enter into the conversation of the day with a word of the truth of God’s Reign in the midst of the reign everyone else expects and demands.
Connection: Rise up O Saints of God! Prayerfully consider the expansiveness of God’s Reign within this day. And yes, you…you, may indeed be asked to speak up in truth. It does and it will happen.
Precious Lord, you do not care about the status of anyone when you call us to follow you and speak of the Good News of your blessed Reign. Empower us to trust your blazing word of truth whenever we think that we cannot possibly be an instrument used within the transformation of this day. Amen.
Monday, 3 May, 2004
Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann in “Inscribing the Text” will be the focus of this series of devotions.
Brueggemann begins one section of this book by noting stories in scripture…
that might construe preaching as “truth speaking to power.” In these classic texts, the “hero,” the one with whom we side in the narrative, is the preacher, the one who has been authorized by call to utter truth that lies outside the horizon of those addressed. His preaching aims to assure by an alternative and to jar by expose. It compels and impels action in a new direction. It is hard work – and no wonder.
“Power” does not need to hear truth speaking. Too often, power makes up the truth it wants to hear and then makes sure that this self-manufactured truth is taken on as the truth within a whole community. Unfortunately, this kind of truth is not truth at all. It may be based on some “half” truths…but that too is not truth. To be set within the life of a community as one who is called to “truth-speak to power” is never a comfortable place to be. But right away we must note that the preacher here need not be the “pastor” or “official spokesperson.” Rather, truth speaking to power is preaching and anyone from the least to the greatest among us may be called to fill that task…and speak up. We can expect to be called to speak the truth within our world that plays with power…or…we may be in the place where that word of truth is being spoken for us to hear. One thing is sure; the truth is often an alternative voice to the one by which we would choose to run our lives.
Connection: Who in your life is someone who speaks the truth to you and/or those around you? Who is it that has been given that gift and uses it appropriately? This may be a person you will learn to treasure…as painful as it can be sometimes.
Lord of Light you bring the voice of love to us through the voices of many around us. That voice pulls us in and draws us many pictures of the truthfulness and eternal presence of your love. When we resist this voice, continue to send your Spirit to open our hearts and walk within the light of blessed Reign. Amen.
Brueggemann begins one section of this book by noting stories in scripture…
that might construe preaching as “truth speaking to power.” In these classic texts, the “hero,” the one with whom we side in the narrative, is the preacher, the one who has been authorized by call to utter truth that lies outside the horizon of those addressed. His preaching aims to assure by an alternative and to jar by expose. It compels and impels action in a new direction. It is hard work – and no wonder.
“Power” does not need to hear truth speaking. Too often, power makes up the truth it wants to hear and then makes sure that this self-manufactured truth is taken on as the truth within a whole community. Unfortunately, this kind of truth is not truth at all. It may be based on some “half” truths…but that too is not truth. To be set within the life of a community as one who is called to “truth-speak to power” is never a comfortable place to be. But right away we must note that the preacher here need not be the “pastor” or “official spokesperson.” Rather, truth speaking to power is preaching and anyone from the least to the greatest among us may be called to fill that task…and speak up. We can expect to be called to speak the truth within our world that plays with power…or…we may be in the place where that word of truth is being spoken for us to hear. One thing is sure; the truth is often an alternative voice to the one by which we would choose to run our lives.
Connection: Who in your life is someone who speaks the truth to you and/or those around you? Who is it that has been given that gift and uses it appropriately? This may be a person you will learn to treasure…as painful as it can be sometimes.
Lord of Light you bring the voice of love to us through the voices of many around us. That voice pulls us in and draws us many pictures of the truthfulness and eternal presence of your love. When we resist this voice, continue to send your Spirit to open our hearts and walk within the light of blessed Reign. Amen.
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