Walter Brueggemann in "The Prophetic Imagination" now enters into the life of Jesus.
The Dominant Consciousness must be radically criticized and the dominant community must be finally dismantled. The purpose of an alternative community with an alternative consciousness is for the sake of that criticism and dismantling. ...If we are to understand prophetic criticism we must see that its characteristic idiom is anguish and not anger. The point of the idiom is to permit the community to engage its own anguish, which it prefers not to deny.
We must learn to feel the brokenness of the community - the way life is unbalanced - the way power is used to oppress and silence - the way those who have are never satisfied even if it means taking from those who have nothing. That image is one that must be felt. We must deal with the anguish rather than, as Brueggemann suggests, the anger. Anger will throw us into rebellion, warfare, terrorism, and unilateral actions against others. Anguish makes us face ourselves and the way our lives have become a part of this Dominant Consciousness that does little to bring new life to anyone. That is a very sad and disturbing realization. this alternative community deals with what is and literally lets itself weep at what is taking place rather than try to prop it up as though all things are just fine. The prophet knows how to weep and helps us see what all the weeping is about so that we can be a part of something quite different.
Connection: Have no fear even though we may see the powers doing what they please and not caring for the well being of all people. We have an opportunity today to refuse to go along with that view of life. Instead, we can let ourselves feel impact of what is happening and begin to find others with whom we can share our anguish and listen to a new vision.
Lord of Life, how often we find ourselves waiting for the world to be healed - for justice to prevail - for mercy to recreate what is. When your peace and healing and mercy is not alive among us, make us bold so that we will call for your Reign to come again among us. Amen.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Thursday, March 17, 2005
18 March 2005
Another word from Walter Brueggemann.
The newness from God is the only serious source of energy. ...The prophet must not underestimate his or her urgent calling, for there are no other sources of newness. I am aware that this runs dangerously close to passivity, as trust often does, and that it stands at the brink of cheap grace, as grace must always do. But that risk must be run because exiles must always learn that our hope is never generated among us but always given to us. And whenever it is given we are amazed.
Sometimes we can be so afraid of what might go wrong that we lose the courage to imagine what might go right. That is, what might be an amazing witness to the grace of God right in the middle of our lives. "We can't go there" needs to hear from "We are taking the leap" or "We have been there and it is unlike anything we ever knew." Trusting what love God has for all God's people will take us beyond ourselves and into the world of others. Once there - once we have taken the risk to trust God's power to create relationships out of nothing - we may never be the same and we may never stop changing and being made new and be filled with an energy for life that nurtures life all around us.
Connection: We know what "oldness" is. We know what yesterday could bring into our lives. Now, what about now?!? There is always the opportunity to be amazed by what God is about to do with us now and forever.
O Breath of Life and Creator of What is and What is to be, we count on you to hold us and to lead us. When we hold back and do not want to be led, shine your light of grace upon us that we may see beyond this day into the possibilities of your Blessed Reign. Amen.
The newness from God is the only serious source of energy. ...The prophet must not underestimate his or her urgent calling, for there are no other sources of newness. I am aware that this runs dangerously close to passivity, as trust often does, and that it stands at the brink of cheap grace, as grace must always do. But that risk must be run because exiles must always learn that our hope is never generated among us but always given to us. And whenever it is given we are amazed.
Sometimes we can be so afraid of what might go wrong that we lose the courage to imagine what might go right. That is, what might be an amazing witness to the grace of God right in the middle of our lives. "We can't go there" needs to hear from "We are taking the leap" or "We have been there and it is unlike anything we ever knew." Trusting what love God has for all God's people will take us beyond ourselves and into the world of others. Once there - once we have taken the risk to trust God's power to create relationships out of nothing - we may never be the same and we may never stop changing and being made new and be filled with an energy for life that nurtures life all around us.
Connection: We know what "oldness" is. We know what yesterday could bring into our lives. Now, what about now?!? There is always the opportunity to be amazed by what God is about to do with us now and forever.
O Breath of Life and Creator of What is and What is to be, we count on you to hold us and to lead us. When we hold back and do not want to be led, shine your light of grace upon us that we may see beyond this day into the possibilities of your Blessed Reign. Amen.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
17 March 2005
We return to "The Prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann.
...prophets are not magicians. Their art and calling is only with words that evoke alternatives, and reshaped hardware will not overcome despair in any case.
... Remember not the former things, nor consider things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
(Isaiah 43:18-19)
What is new within the Reign of God is new. Therefore we are never merely left with what is, even if that is all we want to have. The most difficult piece of this prophetic word is that it is not a concrete reality -- just yet. It pulls us in by drawing on our imagination that is shaped by the vision of God's Reign as the prophet lays out its beauty through words and images we have yet to experience. I cannot see the new thing...and yet, it is being proclaimed and there are glimpses of it that are not available to us in the shape of things as their are. Geez...how do we leap into such a life?
Connection: Dream on and anticipate what is not even if it means taking steps across boundaries and through borders that have been set up to divide us. God continues to invite us into a new day. Unfortunately, it can be so easy to stay put. We really need some new eyes, even if they are the eyes of others who help us see beyond what is already familiar to us.
Come and take us along the way, O God, so that we may embrace what you promise and take the risk to leave behind what is known. This may not be an easy journey and yet, your promises are so bold they pull us into them. Help us to let go of today and fly off into your blessed Reign. Amen
...prophets are not magicians. Their art and calling is only with words that evoke alternatives, and reshaped hardware will not overcome despair in any case.
... Remember not the former things, nor consider things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
(Isaiah 43:18-19)
What is new within the Reign of God is new. Therefore we are never merely left with what is, even if that is all we want to have. The most difficult piece of this prophetic word is that it is not a concrete reality -- just yet. It pulls us in by drawing on our imagination that is shaped by the vision of God's Reign as the prophet lays out its beauty through words and images we have yet to experience. I cannot see the new thing...and yet, it is being proclaimed and there are glimpses of it that are not available to us in the shape of things as their are. Geez...how do we leap into such a life?
Connection: Dream on and anticipate what is not even if it means taking steps across boundaries and through borders that have been set up to divide us. God continues to invite us into a new day. Unfortunately, it can be so easy to stay put. We really need some new eyes, even if they are the eyes of others who help us see beyond what is already familiar to us.
Come and take us along the way, O God, so that we may embrace what you promise and take the risk to leave behind what is known. This may not be an easy journey and yet, your promises are so bold they pull us into them. Help us to let go of today and fly off into your blessed Reign. Amen
17 March 2005
We return to "The Prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann.
...prophets are not magicians. Their art and calling is only with words that evoke alternatives, and reshaped hardware will not overcome despair in any case.
... Remember not the former things, nor consider things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
(Isaiah 43:18-19)
What is new within the Reign of God is new. Therefore we are never merely left with what is, even if that is all we want to have. The most difficult piece of this prophetic word is that it is not a concrete reality -- just yet. It pulls us in by drawing on our imagination that is shaped by the vision of God's Reign as the prophet lays out its beauty through words and images we have yet to experience. I cannot see the new thing...and yet, it is being proclaimed and there are glimpses of it that are not available to us in the shape of things as their are. Geez...how do we leap into such a life.
Connection: Dream on and anticipate what is not even if it means taking steps across boundaries and through borders that have been set up to divide us. God continues to invite us into a new day. Unfortunately, it can be so easy to stay put. We really need some new eyes, even if they are the eyes of others who help us see beyond what is already familiar to us.
Come and take us along the way, O God, so that we may embrace what you promise and take the risk to leave behind what is known. This may not be an easy journey and yet, your promises are so bold they pull us into them. Help us to let go of today and fly off into your blessed Reign. Amen
...prophets are not magicians. Their art and calling is only with words that evoke alternatives, and reshaped hardware will not overcome despair in any case.
... Remember not the former things, nor consider things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
(Isaiah 43:18-19)
What is new within the Reign of God is new. Therefore we are never merely left with what is, even if that is all we want to have. The most difficult piece of this prophetic word is that it is not a concrete reality -- just yet. It pulls us in by drawing on our imagination that is shaped by the vision of God's Reign as the prophet lays out its beauty through words and images we have yet to experience. I cannot see the new thing...and yet, it is being proclaimed and there are glimpses of it that are not available to us in the shape of things as their are. Geez...how do we leap into such a life.
Connection: Dream on and anticipate what is not even if it means taking steps across boundaries and through borders that have been set up to divide us. God continues to invite us into a new day. Unfortunately, it can be so easy to stay put. We really need some new eyes, even if they are the eyes of others who help us see beyond what is already familiar to us.
Come and take us along the way, O God, so that we may embrace what you promise and take the risk to leave behind what is known. This may not be an easy journey and yet, your promises are so bold they pull us into them. Help us to let go of today and fly off into your blessed Reign. Amen
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Tuesday, 15 March, 2005
Text: Galatians 3:15-18
Brothers and sisters, I give an example from daily life: once a person's will has been ratified, no one adds to it or annuls it. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, "And to offspings," as of many; but it says "And to your offspring." that is, to one person, who is Christ. My point is this; the law, which came four hundred thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise, For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise.
I have always found this to be an interesting argument. Paul seems to make a major jump to put into the text about Abraham the notion of the Seed being Christ. But then, he makes no jump at all when he uses the legal example. The promise to Abraham was a one sided covenant. God will do this(period). God will make the people. God will bless. God will grant an inheritance to the seed of Abraham(period). That was followed in time by the "law" - another type of covenant that calls an agreement between two parties, in this case a "lord" and "lessers." The most important argument Paul is making is that since the Abrahamic covenant was first, it stands. The way we see the law is that it is given for the welfare of the "chosen" people. It is not the vehicle for salvation or making ones life right before God so as to be welcome before God. Paul is urging his friends to stay grounded in the promise he see coming through Abraham and now available to all people - even the traditiona outsiders - Gentiles.
Connection: God's promise - is everlasting. Nothing will come up in this day to say that it will no longer be the steadfast rule among us. We are surely called into a "holy" life today...but it is always in grateful response to the original promise of "God for us."
O God of promise and promise keeping, in Christ you sent your promise for life out into the whole world. We are recipients of that promise through Christ and we now live in the assurance of your gift of life. Let you Holy Spirit inspire us to see the people around as just such recipients of your grace. May our lives reflect the promise as we dance in this day in your name. Amen.
Monday, March 14, 2005
14 March 2005
Walter Brueggeman continues with the notion that Inversions begin in a change of language and he offers this second example:
The third image is that of nourishment. If you eat the bread of Babylon for very long you will be destroyed. There were some who liked the bread of Babylon and they became Babylonians, but Israelites who are exiles will not accommodate that imperial bread. so the poet in his statement about alternative bread dismantles the Babylonian bakery:
Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters:
and he who has no money, come, ....buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy? (Isaiah 55:1-2)
Exiles are not a part of the "way things are" in any land. They live contrary to what is expected by the status quo. That means that they even question sharing in that which is so essential to life within a place like Babylon. Instead, they are told of the filling qualities of the promises of God that will be enough to sustain them in any place or time. That doesn't mean things are going to be fine and dandy. Rather it means that there will be all that is needed and there will be the possibility of a life that does not have to pay duty or homage to the powers that be. Instead, we will be free from all strings and we will feast on the grace of God alone.
Connection: It is always good to take a look at what we are counting on to get us through this day. It is also good to consider what nourishment is really needed to give us life as it is promised by our God.
Lord of the Banquet, we know that there are many ways to satisfy our hunger, and yet we know that some of the food offered to us is worthless for new life. Be for us the bread that can nourish and sustain and even, transform us. Amen
The third image is that of nourishment. If you eat the bread of Babylon for very long you will be destroyed. There were some who liked the bread of Babylon and they became Babylonians, but Israelites who are exiles will not accommodate that imperial bread. so the poet in his statement about alternative bread dismantles the Babylonian bakery:
Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters:
and he who has no money, come, ....buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy? (Isaiah 55:1-2)
Exiles are not a part of the "way things are" in any land. They live contrary to what is expected by the status quo. That means that they even question sharing in that which is so essential to life within a place like Babylon. Instead, they are told of the filling qualities of the promises of God that will be enough to sustain them in any place or time. That doesn't mean things are going to be fine and dandy. Rather it means that there will be all that is needed and there will be the possibility of a life that does not have to pay duty or homage to the powers that be. Instead, we will be free from all strings and we will feast on the grace of God alone.
Connection: It is always good to take a look at what we are counting on to get us through this day. It is also good to consider what nourishment is really needed to give us life as it is promised by our God.
Lord of the Banquet, we know that there are many ways to satisfy our hunger, and yet we know that some of the food offered to us is worthless for new life. Be for us the bread that can nourish and sustain and even, transform us. Amen
Friday, March 11, 2005
11 March 2005
Walter Brueggeman continues with the notion that Inversions begin in a change of language and he offers this second example:
The second image is birth to the barren one. Barrenness is a proper theme among us for it is more than television, which is a wasteland. Our society is filled with eunuchs of both sexes whose manhood and womanhood are taken by the corporation. There is no hope, no future, and therefore no children. There is not enough energy to bear or to beget, and who wants to birth new children for Babylon? Our history always begins with the barren, with Sarah, with Rebekah, with Rachel, and with Elizabeth. Among those as good as dead, the wondrous gift is given.
God even brings forth promises in the most unpromising of realities. Again, that is how we can be awakened to live today. All the grand living of the contemporary powers will not be able to stop God's Word from coming alive again and bringing into shape a people who do not live from the same roots as those who claim to have won the day. With nothing at all in hand and with the certainty of nothing to come, God takes hold of us and begins to shake loose life and unbind us so that we do not give up our lives to the culture or the voices that attempt to rule us and control us.
Connection: Keep watch and listen, for there is more to come than what we are being shown by the powers of the day. This "more" is all about life.
We give you thanks, O God, as we expect new life to spring up from among your faithful people so as to reveal a witness to the life you have promised us from the beginning of time. Amen.
The second image is birth to the barren one. Barrenness is a proper theme among us for it is more than television, which is a wasteland. Our society is filled with eunuchs of both sexes whose manhood and womanhood are taken by the corporation. There is no hope, no future, and therefore no children. There is not enough energy to bear or to beget, and who wants to birth new children for Babylon? Our history always begins with the barren, with Sarah, with Rebekah, with Rachel, and with Elizabeth. Among those as good as dead, the wondrous gift is given.
God even brings forth promises in the most unpromising of realities. Again, that is how we can be awakened to live today. All the grand living of the contemporary powers will not be able to stop God's Word from coming alive again and bringing into shape a people who do not live from the same roots as those who claim to have won the day. With nothing at all in hand and with the certainty of nothing to come, God takes hold of us and begins to shake loose life and unbind us so that we do not give up our lives to the culture or the voices that attempt to rule us and control us.
Connection: Keep watch and listen, for there is more to come than what we are being shown by the powers of the day. This "more" is all about life.
We give you thanks, O God, as we expect new life to spring up from among your faithful people so as to reveal a witness to the life you have promised us from the beginning of time. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)