Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Monday, March 28, 2005
29 March 2005
We continue from "The Prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann.
A third aspect of what Brueggemann says is a part of Jesus' radical criticism.
Jesus was willing to eat with the outcasts (Mark 2:15-17), which threatened the fundamental morality of society. The outcasts were the product of a legal arrangement that determined what was acceptable and unacceptable, clean and unclean, right and wrong. Crossing over the barrier of right and wrong implied that in the dispensing of mercy the wrong were as entitled as were the right, and therefore all meaningful distinctions were obliterated.
This is not just a description of what was in the day of Jesus. It is what we have all around us today. Jesus went against the rule, both religious and - you could then say - legal, when he sat down with those with whom you were not to have such close and intimate contact. He did it. It was not right. It was not considered the proper religious thing to do. You could lose friends over this. You could lose your right to associate with some people. You could be push off a cliff and stoned. JUST FOR EATING WITH PEOPLE! But outcasts are outcasts and we need to keep that in mind, right!?! I don't know about you, but I keep wanting say, "I follow Jesus." I want to keep saying we have had too long of a history of trying to "keep clean," "keep ourselves to ourselves" and then even to use our children in the argument by saying what will happen to them if we associate with such people...what will we tell them!?! We tell them "we follow Jesus!" Nothing can be so powerful than to lead our children into the way of Jesus. It will not be easy. It is tough enough for adults to walk in the way of the Good News. It is tougher to be a parent and watch as your own children begin that walk...even when we will not. Don't talk about morality in our day unless you have spent some time eating and being friends and companions with those people the world would like to forget but our God always keeps close to God's bosom.
Connection: I'm not sure. Maybe this is too far for us to go. Maybe we will not follow Jesus today. Maybe there will be other ways that will be more popular with those around us. I'm not sure. What do you say?
Carry us, O God, into your promised land in which you preside over all the tables at the feast that is set within the realm of your glory. Though we would usually try to stay behind and settle for what we can make of the day for ourselves, you continue to hold up the banner of your love and stretch it out for all to see. We give you thanks for you bountiful grace. Amen.
A third aspect of what Brueggemann says is a part of Jesus' radical criticism.
Jesus was willing to eat with the outcasts (Mark 2:15-17), which threatened the fundamental morality of society. The outcasts were the product of a legal arrangement that determined what was acceptable and unacceptable, clean and unclean, right and wrong. Crossing over the barrier of right and wrong implied that in the dispensing of mercy the wrong were as entitled as were the right, and therefore all meaningful distinctions were obliterated.
This is not just a description of what was in the day of Jesus. It is what we have all around us today. Jesus went against the rule, both religious and - you could then say - legal, when he sat down with those with whom you were not to have such close and intimate contact. He did it. It was not right. It was not considered the proper religious thing to do. You could lose friends over this. You could lose your right to associate with some people. You could be push off a cliff and stoned. JUST FOR EATING WITH PEOPLE! But outcasts are outcasts and we need to keep that in mind, right!?! I don't know about you, but I keep wanting say, "I follow Jesus." I want to keep saying we have had too long of a history of trying to "keep clean," "keep ourselves to ourselves" and then even to use our children in the argument by saying what will happen to them if we associate with such people...what will we tell them!?! We tell them "we follow Jesus!" Nothing can be so powerful than to lead our children into the way of Jesus. It will not be easy. It is tough enough for adults to walk in the way of the Good News. It is tougher to be a parent and watch as your own children begin that walk...even when we will not. Don't talk about morality in our day unless you have spent some time eating and being friends and companions with those people the world would like to forget but our God always keeps close to God's bosom.
Connection: I'm not sure. Maybe this is too far for us to go. Maybe we will not follow Jesus today. Maybe there will be other ways that will be more popular with those around us. I'm not sure. What do you say?
Carry us, O God, into your promised land in which you preside over all the tables at the feast that is set within the realm of your glory. Though we would usually try to stay behind and settle for what we can make of the day for ourselves, you continue to hold up the banner of your love and stretch it out for all to see. We give you thanks for you bountiful grace. Amen.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
28 March 2005
We continue to hear from Walter Brueggemann.
A second aspect of what Brueggemann says is a part of Jesus' radical criticism.
Jesus' ability to heal and his readiness to do it on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6) evoked a conspiracy to kill him. The violation is concerned not with the healing but with the Sabbath. Already in (Mark) 2:23-28 he has raised the issue and obviously Jesus' understanding of the Sabbath is that it had become a way of enslavement. Predictably,the objection comes from those who managed the Sabbath and benefited from it.
It is not easy to draw into question what has been held up as a cornerstone of a people. But as Brueggemann says, when those primary aspects of a society become a way to keep people under the thumb of those who manage the systems then...something must happen to interrupt this flow. It is not easy to do and it may mean the interruption comes with a cost - even threats of death. We need cornerstones. They help us to begin to build new things. But sometimes, we are more in love with those cornerstone elements of our society -secular or religious - that their original purpose is distorted or even abandoned. We must be able to maintain that critical tension that is not afraid to speak up or act or call for new ways to build the future.
Connection: It is not easy to see how we benefit from pieces of the structure of our society or our religious community. Sometimes it would be good to stop and consider those who do not benefit from such things and ask why...and what needs to change.
O Breath of the Empty Tomb, what looks abandoned is not. By the power of the Holy Spirit you bring a new life through that which is old and that which is being created out of nothing at all. Take us by the hand and show us the way beyond what is. Amen.
A second aspect of what Brueggemann says is a part of Jesus' radical criticism.
Jesus' ability to heal and his readiness to do it on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6) evoked a conspiracy to kill him. The violation is concerned not with the healing but with the Sabbath. Already in (Mark) 2:23-28 he has raised the issue and obviously Jesus' understanding of the Sabbath is that it had become a way of enslavement. Predictably,the objection comes from those who managed the Sabbath and benefited from it.
It is not easy to draw into question what has been held up as a cornerstone of a people. But as Brueggemann says, when those primary aspects of a society become a way to keep people under the thumb of those who manage the systems then...something must happen to interrupt this flow. It is not easy to do and it may mean the interruption comes with a cost - even threats of death. We need cornerstones. They help us to begin to build new things. But sometimes, we are more in love with those cornerstone elements of our society -secular or religious - that their original purpose is distorted or even abandoned. We must be able to maintain that critical tension that is not afraid to speak up or act or call for new ways to build the future.
Connection: It is not easy to see how we benefit from pieces of the structure of our society or our religious community. Sometimes it would be good to stop and consider those who do not benefit from such things and ask why...and what needs to change.
O Breath of the Empty Tomb, what looks abandoned is not. By the power of the Holy Spirit you bring a new life through that which is old and that which is being created out of nothing at all. Take us by the hand and show us the way beyond what is. Amen.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
25 March 2005
With Good Friday at hand we continue with "The Prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann.
(Jesus') readiness to forgive sin (Mark 2:1-11), which evokes amazement, also appeared to be blasphemy, that is to say, a threat to the present religious sanctions. At one level the danger is that Jesus stood in the role of God and therefore claimed too much, but we should not miss the radical criticism of society contained in the act. Hannah Arendt had discerned that this was Jesus' most endangering actions because if society does not have an apparatus for forgiveness then its members are fated to live forever with the consequences of any violation. Thus the refusal to forgive sin amounts to enormous social control.
It is as though we cannot go forward into what is potentially fresh and new unless we are able to forgive. As Jesus encountered, the willingness to grasp forgiveness and extend it to others begins to take power away from those who claim to be the only conduit for forgiveness. The next thing you will know...everyone will be just forgiving everyone else. Have you ever heard of forgiveness being chaos. I haven't. And yet, the powers fear such a notion of forgiveness because it may lead us into utter chaos because it will not be controlled. I don't think anything has been able to control the power of the wind that blew out of the tomb on Easter. Yes, there may be chaos at times...but isn't there always. Forgiveness is a power that takes us beyond chaos into new life.
Connection: The journey into forgiveness never ends...nor does the journey into new life. It is also important to remember that both of these are the same...forgiveness is the journey and the journey is forgiveness. The real question today has to do with how we will embody this forgiveness in our lives and then personally enter the journey into new life.
Forgiving Lord, teach us your ways and remind us of the glorious life that is ours as we follow you into those adventures of forgiveness that make us turn around and come at life within a new perspective. Amen.
(Jesus') readiness to forgive sin (Mark 2:1-11), which evokes amazement, also appeared to be blasphemy, that is to say, a threat to the present religious sanctions. At one level the danger is that Jesus stood in the role of God and therefore claimed too much, but we should not miss the radical criticism of society contained in the act. Hannah Arendt had discerned that this was Jesus' most endangering actions because if society does not have an apparatus for forgiveness then its members are fated to live forever with the consequences of any violation. Thus the refusal to forgive sin amounts to enormous social control.
It is as though we cannot go forward into what is potentially fresh and new unless we are able to forgive. As Jesus encountered, the willingness to grasp forgiveness and extend it to others begins to take power away from those who claim to be the only conduit for forgiveness. The next thing you will know...everyone will be just forgiving everyone else. Have you ever heard of forgiveness being chaos. I haven't. And yet, the powers fear such a notion of forgiveness because it may lead us into utter chaos because it will not be controlled. I don't think anything has been able to control the power of the wind that blew out of the tomb on Easter. Yes, there may be chaos at times...but isn't there always. Forgiveness is a power that takes us beyond chaos into new life.
Connection: The journey into forgiveness never ends...nor does the journey into new life. It is also important to remember that both of these are the same...forgiveness is the journey and the journey is forgiveness. The real question today has to do with how we will embody this forgiveness in our lives and then personally enter the journey into new life.
Forgiving Lord, teach us your ways and remind us of the glorious life that is ours as we follow you into those adventures of forgiveness that make us turn around and come at life within a new perspective. Amen.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
24 March 2005
A look at the story of Jesus through "The Prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann.
...the Lukan account of the disclosure to the shepherds, the representative marginal ones, announces a newness that will displace the old regime. Appropriately the recipients of unexpected newness are filled with wonder and awe (Luke 2:17-20). The intrusion embodied in the birth of Jesus causes a radical inversion:
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,
he has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent empty away. (Luke 1:51-53)
The birth of Jesus brings a harsh end to a Herodian reality that seemed ordained forever, and it created a new historical situation for marginal people that none in their despair could have anticipated.
We live in a world that does little for the marginalized. Is it that we do not care? Is it that we only like the poetic images of liberation and care for those on the margin? When our faith is merely an individualized one in which we care primarily for our own well-being, it is easy to see that we would - when pushed - side with the powers-that-be...since we are so often a part of them. Jesus and the images of the prophets attempt to bring another view into existence so that we will take the risk of moving toward its vision and making our lives walk within its sketches of how promises come to life. Those who are on the margin find food within these visions. Those of us who are more closely in line with the ways things are can find these visions a bit threatening because we are all be invited to open up our lives and find "the other" as one of us and not distant anymore.
Connection: As is said many times, we need to learn how to listen to those who are marginalized and we need to hear how the systems that run the world do not listen to any voice but their own. And then, we must add our voices to the call for liberation and loving kindness that may disrupt the usual flow of the day.
Your promises, O God, are for all your people. We often do not listen to how you side with those we tend to push to the side and to the back of the room. Help us, again, to listen to your vision for life that is so clearly spoken by the prophets and brought to life in Jesus. Amen.
...the Lukan account of the disclosure to the shepherds, the representative marginal ones, announces a newness that will displace the old regime. Appropriately the recipients of unexpected newness are filled with wonder and awe (Luke 2:17-20). The intrusion embodied in the birth of Jesus causes a radical inversion:
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,
he has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent empty away. (Luke 1:51-53)
The birth of Jesus brings a harsh end to a Herodian reality that seemed ordained forever, and it created a new historical situation for marginal people that none in their despair could have anticipated.
We live in a world that does little for the marginalized. Is it that we do not care? Is it that we only like the poetic images of liberation and care for those on the margin? When our faith is merely an individualized one in which we care primarily for our own well-being, it is easy to see that we would - when pushed - side with the powers-that-be...since we are so often a part of them. Jesus and the images of the prophets attempt to bring another view into existence so that we will take the risk of moving toward its vision and making our lives walk within its sketches of how promises come to life. Those who are on the margin find food within these visions. Those of us who are more closely in line with the ways things are can find these visions a bit threatening because we are all be invited to open up our lives and find "the other" as one of us and not distant anymore.
Connection: As is said many times, we need to learn how to listen to those who are marginalized and we need to hear how the systems that run the world do not listen to any voice but their own. And then, we must add our voices to the call for liberation and loving kindness that may disrupt the usual flow of the day.
Your promises, O God, are for all your people. We often do not listen to how you side with those we tend to push to the side and to the back of the room. Help us, again, to listen to your vision for life that is so clearly spoken by the prophets and brought to life in Jesus. Amen.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
23 March 2005
We will continue with "The Prophetic Imagination" as we move into the life of Jesus.
As in ancient Israel, it is characteristic of kings to deny the end of the old order and in their blindness to take any steps to perpetuate what has in fact already ended. Thus Herod engages in self-deception and denial using his best talents, but they are not enough because the king cannot stop the end. In contrast to this is the pathos of Rachel, seen in Jeremiah. The raging of the king comes to an end in grief and lamentation. It is the work of the prophetic tradition to grieve the end, the very end which the king cannot face, cannot stop, and surely cannot grieve.
O how we hate to see the end of what is known to us and that which we love...as we would have it. Imperialism is wonderful when we think we own the world and can run it as we like. But like any power that tries to be above all powers, we all fall down. That can be corporately, nationally, or even individually. We all fall down. What is so awkward is that we rarely will admit to falling and if we are told that we are falling or have fallen, we deny it or run away in silence so as to not face the notion that we are losing what we love to have and keep. In Matthew's gospel, Herod is King but as all kings know, there will come a time when new kings will rule. Then again, there comes a time when, though I am king, I am nothing more than a pawn in a grand game in time. Kings and Rulers and Powers of the Day rarely grieve - especially not in public. Rather they go to war to make others wail. It is as though it is a lotion that brings a sense of relief...but it does not and it cannot.
Connection: We all have our own little domains over which we like to rule and stay in command. What we would do well to add to our lives would be an ability to let go and grieve when things begin to fall down and then find others who will help us with that and stand with us during our pain.
You awaken us, O God, to a sense of wonder in which we are not content to let life stay as it is or work unto the death to keep things as is. You, O God, keep making things new and within that aura of newness, we are free to wonder at how brilliant and gracious is your Reign above all others who say they reign over us. Amen.
As in ancient Israel, it is characteristic of kings to deny the end of the old order and in their blindness to take any steps to perpetuate what has in fact already ended. Thus Herod engages in self-deception and denial using his best talents, but they are not enough because the king cannot stop the end. In contrast to this is the pathos of Rachel, seen in Jeremiah. The raging of the king comes to an end in grief and lamentation. It is the work of the prophetic tradition to grieve the end, the very end which the king cannot face, cannot stop, and surely cannot grieve.
O how we hate to see the end of what is known to us and that which we love...as we would have it. Imperialism is wonderful when we think we own the world and can run it as we like. But like any power that tries to be above all powers, we all fall down. That can be corporately, nationally, or even individually. We all fall down. What is so awkward is that we rarely will admit to falling and if we are told that we are falling or have fallen, we deny it or run away in silence so as to not face the notion that we are losing what we love to have and keep. In Matthew's gospel, Herod is King but as all kings know, there will come a time when new kings will rule. Then again, there comes a time when, though I am king, I am nothing more than a pawn in a grand game in time. Kings and Rulers and Powers of the Day rarely grieve - especially not in public. Rather they go to war to make others wail. It is as though it is a lotion that brings a sense of relief...but it does not and it cannot.
Connection: We all have our own little domains over which we like to rule and stay in command. What we would do well to add to our lives would be an ability to let go and grieve when things begin to fall down and then find others who will help us with that and stand with us during our pain.
You awaken us, O God, to a sense of wonder in which we are not content to let life stay as it is or work unto the death to keep things as is. You, O God, keep making things new and within that aura of newness, we are free to wonder at how brilliant and gracious is your Reign above all others who say they reign over us. Amen.
Monday, March 21, 2005
22 March 2005
Brueggemann spends some time looking at Jesus in "The Prophetic Imagination."
The birth of Jesus itself represents a decisive criticism of the dominant consciousness. The Lukan account of his solidarity with the poor and the Matthean presentation of his abrasive conflict with the powers that be (seen in the birth narratives) both point to the emergence of an alternative consciousness. No attempt, of course, needs to be made to harmonize the two versions as they move in different directions for different reasons and make different affirmations. Nevertheless, in completed form they are perfectly complementary in dismantling by criticism and in energizing by amazement.
Again, I am caught by Brueggemann's words. Can you or have you or are you able to imagine being in a situation that is energizing by amazement!?! First, as he notes, there is this dismantling by criticism that happen so very often in our world - and needs to happen. But that is not enough. That will not open our eyes and our lives to what is beyond criticism. We are being pulled into the experience of amazement...utter amazement. This kind of event does not settle for what we can already see and what we already know. We are surprised. We are shaken. We are perplexed and yet we find some amazing sense to the vision of Jesus within the gospels. Maybe that is the amazing grace about which we sing and for which we long each of our days until we are surprised by its availability.
Connection: What is it about the story of God's grace in Christ, Jesus, that energizes you? Then again, what is it about that Jesus life you see come to life today among those around you that energizes you? Where can we find such a source of energy and amazement for our lives?
You, O God, are always "for us" and yet we run from you as if we are afraid of your presence. Help us to find in that strange sense of amazement at your glory the graciousness of your promises that will not leave us behind but rather will lift us up to be with you. Amen.
The birth of Jesus itself represents a decisive criticism of the dominant consciousness. The Lukan account of his solidarity with the poor and the Matthean presentation of his abrasive conflict with the powers that be (seen in the birth narratives) both point to the emergence of an alternative consciousness. No attempt, of course, needs to be made to harmonize the two versions as they move in different directions for different reasons and make different affirmations. Nevertheless, in completed form they are perfectly complementary in dismantling by criticism and in energizing by amazement.
Again, I am caught by Brueggemann's words. Can you or have you or are you able to imagine being in a situation that is energizing by amazement!?! First, as he notes, there is this dismantling by criticism that happen so very often in our world - and needs to happen. But that is not enough. That will not open our eyes and our lives to what is beyond criticism. We are being pulled into the experience of amazement...utter amazement. This kind of event does not settle for what we can already see and what we already know. We are surprised. We are shaken. We are perplexed and yet we find some amazing sense to the vision of Jesus within the gospels. Maybe that is the amazing grace about which we sing and for which we long each of our days until we are surprised by its availability.
Connection: What is it about the story of God's grace in Christ, Jesus, that energizes you? Then again, what is it about that Jesus life you see come to life today among those around you that energizes you? Where can we find such a source of energy and amazement for our lives?
You, O God, are always "for us" and yet we run from you as if we are afraid of your presence. Help us to find in that strange sense of amazement at your glory the graciousness of your promises that will not leave us behind but rather will lift us up to be with you. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)