| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | Here is what the liturgy offers us within our faithful story telling - again Walter Brueggemann. The liturgy provides a script for a season of counterbehavior. The first aspect of counterbehavior is the public voicing of pain: "The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them." (Exodus 2:23-25) The world of Pharaoh produced great pain, but it was silenced pain in which brick-producing slaves were to accept their suffering and abuse as appropriate to their condition. The public voicing of pain is the refusal to accept suffering in docility and to resist the status of slave and the abuse that comes with that status. The very first utterance in the liturgy makes available that which Egypt forcibly denied. The world of pain is the world of reality. It is not a world that runs according to the script provided by those who want the vision of the world to follow the lead of the powerful. Nice, clean worship that gives us nothing more than a reflection of the values and desires of any empire may inspire many people. And yet, to what are they being inspired - to be just like the world as it is. I don't think we do ourselves any good when we cannot tell the truth in the face of all who want to keep living in the slavery of Egypt. The liturgy must bring us a light that we exposes what is actually the condition of life around us and a voice that reminds us of those who are not able to lift every voice and sing. Praising God is not an end in itself. We praise the God who hears of our pain and responds and sees our suffering and bends down to touch. So prior to praise - in the midst of praise - and when praise is coming to an end: let us be honest with ourselves and hold our lives before the Lord, God. It is there that liturgical voicing of pain becomes a healing balm and a life-giving reminder of whose we are and who we to become. Connection: Listen to the liturgy - do you hear that honest voice of pain in the midst of our words of praise and thanksgiving? That is a full story. You expect to hear our pains and sorrows, O God. Free up our tongues so that we may share our whole lives with you as we trust that they are in your hands and ready to be shaped and healed and given new life. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | For those who pooh-pooh the worth of liturgy, Brueggemann reminds us of how important liturgy becomes when people need to be shaped by what has taken place in prior days. Israel develops and practices liturgical resistance by a stylized, regularly enacted drama whereby Egyptian power is given liturgical articulation and Israel is invited - through the course of the drama - to move outside Egyptian hegemony to its own distinctive practice of life. The substance of Israel's resistance is through the regular reenactment of the Exodus liturgy of Exodus 1-15, which is presented to us as a historical narrative. Each time, over the generations, that Israel participated in this drama of counterreality, Israel imagined and construed a social world outside the hegemonic control of Pharaoh. Indeed, the very doing of the drama itself permitted emancipated imagination that refused the definitions of reality sponsored by Egypt. "The drama itself permitted emancipated imagination" - what a wild image to keep in mind when we find ourselves living as nothing than the world around us. Good story telling has the power to free up our imagination and when that takes place, our lives also begin to reflect the possibilities of overcoming what is and becoming what is not yet. Often, the great stories of the Bible - like the Exodus - can be seen as too far away. For Israel though, it is a story alive in the room as it is being retold. All of our faithful story telling needs to create such a realization among us. I just happened to think of the gospel lesson for the fourth Sunday of Lent. It is the parable of the father with two sons. It is so familiar that we do not let ourselves enter the story because we know how it ends. Well, without the story washing over us once again and we find ourselves made wet by the word and promises and grace, it can be just a story that has no connection to life. And yet, this is a life story - a story of God's grand love and the possibilities that break into the day even when we are not anticipating it. The story has the power to shape and bring life. Connection: Remembering a story is very much like turning today into a story we may not have been willing to enter alone. Lord of Liberation and Rescue, once again we call on you to step into our lives and carry us into the promised land of your faithfulness. There, we can both rest and come alive again. We give you thanks for you power to change life. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | Today we continue to look at Egypt as empire and the need for Israel to walk in a different light as they hear this story - Walter Brueggemann from "Texts That Linger, Words That Explode." We may identify two disciplines of resistance that mark the life of Israel in its relation to Egypt. The resistance Israel practices vis-a-vis Egypt is rooted in the most elemental conviction that Yahweh wills otherwise. Yahweh wills otherwise to the state building project that monopolizes labor power, Yahweh wills otherwise to surplus wealth, whereby some live indulgently from the produce of others. Yahweh wills otherwise than the Egyptian socio-theological system. Yahweh engages in counteractivity, and therefore Israel, as subject of Yahweh, must resist. For all of us who turn to this God of liberation, there is another world into which we are invited to move and breathe and live out our lives. There will be no oppressive behavior that insists on stepping on others - no matter what good reason we may give ourselves or the world around us. That is not to be us! We Christians read this liberation story, we, like Israel, are called on board a reality that will not look like every other power - like Egypt. Instead, we are to resist such life and we are given a story to help us go this new way no matter where we live or when we walk through time. The story is to guide us and remind us of something more than the will of the state or the empire or the country. We pray that God's will -will be done. That is a revolutionary statement that really should not become a prayer of the state - unless of course the state or the empire is willing to give up all of its ways in order to be a part of the liberation of all things. Connection: Yahweh wills otherwise. Something to remember in the middle of the way things are going through this day. Bring your life among, O God. Encourage us to lift up the stories of your faithfulness so that as we walk through this day we will continue to recall your promises and your ways and your saving compassion. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | What goes around comes around in the world of empires and oppression. There can be no doubt, moreover, that pharaonic notions of exploitation, which fated individual persons to be submerged in and for state purposes, operated in Israel. Thus Pharaoh is reported to be the father-in-law to solomon (1 Kings3:1), and Solomon's policy of forced labor echos Egyptian practices. In Egypt's own imperial practice and in the derivative practice of Solomon, within Israel, the threat against Israel's distinctiveness has a socio-economic, political cast. The social practices enacted in the name of Egyptians gods are deeply antihuman, and in Israel's purview anti-Yahwistic, for the peculiar God of Israel intended a human community that does not exploit. The resistance Israel is to practice against this alien ideology that legitimates alien social practice is as paradigmatic as is the role of Pharaoh. That is, the way in which Israel resists Egypt is the characteristic way in which Israel will subsequently resist every aggressor empire Israel must resist the ways of oppression from which they were liberated. The Egypt story brings that into focus and it is to remain within their focus from generation to generation. So, you could say that passover not only tells of the liberation and redemption of Israel from Egypt, it also tells of the character that is to be among the people Israel. There is to be no brutality as was seen in the time of Solomon. Out of passover comes the need for the people to rise up and say we do not live like the powers of empire. We live within the counter community. Egypt may rule all things in the world but we will not be a part of this Egypt life. I find that it is necessary to apply such wonderful story telling to the actual situation in Israel today. If it is going to use this power story and use it as a way to point to their roots and what is to be there character, they need to look in the mirror (as all of us must do) and see what it is they see. There is no excuse for taking on the oppressive ways of empire when the the Lord God alone is God. Connection: The ways of empire are most likely the easiest ways to go as we find ourselves within a brutal world. And yet, we, along with Israel, must say not and listen again to the saving stories of our lives. That is a daily exercise. Brighten our way, O God, with the rule of justice and peace that comes within your Reign. Too often and too easily we walk away from this power and attempt to become something other than your beloved - abide with us. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | In a world dominated by Egypt, Israel creates its story - from Walter Brueggemann. In the memory of Israel, the ancestral narratives of Genesis are framed in the beginning by an acknowledgement in Gen. 12:12-20 that Egypt has a monopoly of food in the ancient world, and at the end by an account of the actions of Joseph, progenitor of Israel, who aids and abets Pharaoh's monopoly of food in a way that reduces the agricultural populations to debt-slavery (Gen. 47:13-26). Thus Egypt is presented as a source of life for Israel, but also as an aggressive agent, which enslaves those who seek its resources for life. Much of Israelite imagination consists in coming to terms with the catch-22 of food and bondage, or conversely, no-bondage/no-food. When a story is told over and over again, it shaped us. What is most important is that it shapes our imagination. That is, it shapes what we are willing and able to see that is beyond what is simply right in front of us. If we see ourselves and define ourselves as a people caught between a rock and a hard place, our living story may become nothing more than a journey to defend ourselves or try to make room for ourselves because there is an Egypt and its powers that will always be attempting to make us submit and ruin us. As is so often the case in the world around us, those who have had to experience the reality of being oppressed or pushed down or abused often become those who oppress, push down, or abuse others. This happens too much and it a part of too many of our stories. And, yet, the experience of Egypt need not turn one into a reflection of that power over others. Rather, there is the liberation - the rescue - the promise of new life that is not to be a reflection of oppressive powers. That is the light that shines. When it does not shine - with this new light - it has lost its connection to the God who liberates and rescues for life. Connection: There needs to always be an edge of our lives that is facing reformation. That edge must wrestle with identity and must be willing to imagine something other than what is and what was. Lord of the Exodus and the Promise of a Blessed Community, you have remained with us to make us into the people of your Reign. You continue to expand our vision even as we draw it in because we are so often ruled by fear and comfort. Continue to lead us and guide us into your blessed Reign. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | Sorry for the miss yesterday. I am slow at learning a new system for distribution. We are back to Walter Brueggemann in "Texts that Linger, Words That Explode." There can be little doubt that Egypt was a constant pressure upon the community of Israel all through the biblical period. That geohistorical reality, however, is transformed in the Old Testament so that Egypt is not simply one of several such impinging powers. Rather, Egypt takes on paradigmatic significance in the imagination of Israel. Thus Egypt is portrayed as the quintessential oppressive power, and Pharaoh is rendered as a representative rival to the authority of Yahweh. Thus the socioeconomic reality of Egypt takes on mythic proportion. I have to stop and comment here. It occurred to me that this can really shed some light on what is going on in Israel/Palestine today. For the Palestinians, Israel has become an Egypt. In the life of Palestinians, Israel is this oppressive power that humiliates and defeats and rules unjustly and treats the Palestinians as "nothing at all." Having said that, in the imagination of Palestinians, there are now stories that are (and have been) entering into the heart of the people that will be passed on from generation to generation so that the action of the Israeli "empire" will stay fresh in the minds and hearts of the people. For Palestinians, there is not a unity of story telling from a faith perspective for Palestinians are Christians and Muslims (and others). Therefore the story telling does not have a common way to retell this mythic divide and battle. Connection: Sometimes, it is so easy to look back at the days of old and remember the mythic stories. It is much harder to open our eyes now and tell the stories so that the oppressiveness of today can be isolated and observed and become a part of the formation of communities today. Lord of All, when liberation comes, may it come to all. Let the stories of your power be stories that bring life to all people so that no longer will one group of people attempt to use your power and covenant to create new empires that do not reflect your glory - a glory into which you call us all. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | Being an Old Testament scholar, Brueggemann will be dealing with several empires that dominated Israel's life. We will now spend time with Egypt. Life lived under Egyptian hegemony was surely inevitable, given geopolitical reality. Even as Egypt constitutes the most stable reference point for the foreign policy of contemporary Israel, so in the ancient world Egypt occupied the southern end of the Fertile Crescent and was in every season a force in the life of Israel. Egypt, moreover, had as a constant of its foreign policy the effort to claim the area of Palestine for its own sphere of influence, in order to create a buffer zone against the various formidable powers to the north. As people of the book, we don't often hear about Palestine and the land of promise as a buffer zone. It is an in-between place. It is not here or there. It is a passageway turned into whatever is the prevailing power of the day. Not an easy place to find oneself rooted. The promised land is a highway - a rest stop. In no way could it be easy to live in such a place and not have some of the "powers" rub off and have a bit of influence on how you see the world. Either by creating a form of resistance or giving in and becoming completely enculturated. In the U.S. today, Christians do not know what it is to be within the power of more than one empire. I'm not so sure we would be able to make a clear separation between what is the way of Jesus and what is the way of the Jesus as set up and defined by the powers of the day. And yet, like Israel, we are a people who live within the place and time when cultures clash and we must hold onto the character of life that has been handed to us. That character often will become know in many and various ways as we are put into situations in which the culture stretches and attempts to move us. This is a very organic reality. Connection: In the ordinary time of this day, we are a people who must constantly claim a space and attempt to be the beloved community no matter what might be the power of the day and the methods that the powers use to bump us off our path. Through the way of following within your Reign, O God, we are not always able to stand on our ground and avoid the cultural powers that easily push us aside. We continue to call for the coming of your Spirit in and through every aspect of the day. Amen. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
