| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | And then today - more about remembering - again, Walter Brueggemann. The matter is recognized in Isaiah to be dialectical. On the one hand, there is an urgency to remembering, to cherish the rootage that is deepest: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many. (Isaiah 51:1-2) On the other hand, there is an urgency to forgetting in order to notice the newness: Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:18-19) Empires specialize in one-dimensional scripts. But the dissenting tradition is more supple than that. Such suppleness makes doin' time doable; empire becomes a context for generativity. We are not like the empire because we have a way of bending and bowing that does not destroy us. That is one of the fears of empire. If we bend and bow to others, they will destroy us. When we are in the role of empire, we must never bow or bend - we must be ready, at all times, to fight to keep what we have and who we think we are. And so, how do we maintain that suppleness - that ability to listen anew and see new ways of life and resist the temptation to fight and dishonor and secure ourselves at all costs? In some way we must keep inn mind these 'opposite' opinions that we hear in the above passages from Isaiah. We need to remember that there are always different ways to see what is at hand. From there, we have a way to move out from the control of empire. Connection: We can become a part of something new even when the system is closed down and acting only from one perspective. It takes time and deliberate action and patience. Not easy - but necessary. O God who bids us to follow the way of the Christ, inspire us again to re-view and re-hear all things that we might step back and keep ourselves open to the healing presence of your Reigning will. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | More about remembering - again, Walter Brueggemann. ...remembering also is not without its hazards. Indeed, the very psalm that exhibits the most resolved remembering is also the psalm that most craves vengeance: O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock! (Psalm 137:8-9) These militant rememberers summon God also to remember, assuming that divine remembrance will lead to divine retaliation that takes the form of divine violence. Having done ample time in Babylon, Miroslav Volf ponders the cost and danger of remembering too much too long. He offers a compelling riff on the fact that forgiveness is linked to forgetting, just as vengeance is linked to remembering too long. In the first instance, makers of empire forget and practitioners of local tradition remember, for how else to maintain local tradition? In the elongated process, however, the matter is reversed. Empires remember everything; witness the oceans of records left by totalitarian regimes in which eery affront and every enemy on the enemy's list is preserved to perpetuity. Given such institutional, bureaucratic remembering, the local tradition of faith refuses the imperial practice: keep no police records in its heart. While Volf does not use our particular images, surely he would say that forgetting is the condition of refusing empire. Witness the experience of South Africa. The imperial practice of keeping records was discarded so that a new life would begin. The horror of the past would be faced and acknowledged - but then - there would be movement forward without the baggage of the past that can eat at our hearts and cause people to rise up to be the perpetrators of violence that was once done at the hand of the empire. They were able - to a point - to remember just enough and then to let go for the sake of something greater than vengeance. I find that incredible. As Volf notes though 'forgetting is the condition of refusing empire.' Even with how hard it is to forget and to forgive, there is no way out of the cycle of violence than just that. Holding on to that which breaks our hearts and our lives will merely break down our spirit of peace and joy and love that is a part of God' beloved people. So, we give up what is to be a gift of new life for life that hangs on to a hell of a life. Unfortunate, but real for all of us. Together, the local tradition - the church let's say, must be encouragement to refuse empire. Connection: I often understand this 'after the fact.' That is, after I have acted in the same manner as the empire - after I have pursued vengeance. It is then, that I hear a word from someone else who reminds me of the way I am to live. At that point, all is not lost. There is a moment there when I can turn around and let go of my vengeful ways and begin to list to the way of peace and reconciliation. O God who bids us to follow the way of the Christ, hold us close - again. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Staying with the song from last week can really become disjointed so I will continue on with more about "doin' time" - in Babylon. What might we do while "doing time"? We might spend time in prayer for the city: "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare." (Jeremiah 29:7). We might confront and instruct the empire about the truth of governance: "May my counsel be acceptable to you: atone for your sins with righteousness, and your iniquities with mercy to the oppressed, so that your prosperity ay be prolonged" (Daniel 4:27). We might spend time remembering our true place: If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not embrace you, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. (Psalm 137:5-6) The reason for the urgency of remembering is because the empire specializes in forgetting. The empire intends to erase all local tradition and all local belonging and all local gospel. The most passionate of those doin' time in Babylon will refuse the amnesia that comes with wealth, power, and control. In the middle of empire, we do what we need to do to stay tuned into the life that is set before God's people - no matter where we might be. That always has taken on different forms that have served God's people well through the days of empire. And yet, it is a variety of ways to remember that God's people are able to see the empire and its ways of pulling our lives into the very routine of imperial rule. Our task is one in which we keep turning to the story of those who have gone before us - those who endured and those who stumbled. It is within that storytelling that we find that we are not cut off and isolated. Rather, we have a history that is more rich than than of the greatest empires - a history that lasts through them all. We need faithful responses to empire to be varied. That is quite important because when I attempt to remember the stories of new life, the way I do that may not work. It is then that I need you who has been walking a different path - to be a shining light of truth when I am all but spent. Connection: When we remember our identity (as the beloved of God) in the middle of the empire's rules and patterns, we are given a lens through which we can keep a watchful eye on all the powers that attempt to make us something else. Baptized in Christ, Jesus, is to be brought into a vision for life that does not and will not settle on the popular rendition of empire ways. O God who bids us to follow the way of the Christ, keep by our side for we do not last long when the world tugs at our lives expecting us to fit in. By the power of your Spirit, take our hearts in hand and hold us close for we so easily and so quickly can slide away from you. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Walter Brueggemann notes that the lyrics to a song "Time in Babylon" (Harris,Hall, Cunnliff) evoked his study about the image of Babylon and its use through time - even our time. Here's a look at verse 1 and 2. Doin' time concerns an SUV, a speaker phone and chrome. The passion is for big cars and a federal highway system and cheap gasoline, all markets of an insatiable power wrapped in speed and show, ever eager to get there first. Contrast Babylon's appetite for power and speed with covenantal community that remains "in place" with neighbors a practice embraced by the counterculture of monastic commitments to "place." The mansion is on a hill. The high ground bespeaks control and evokes the rhyming "pill." The capacity for technical medicine is available to serve every need, every ache, every deficiency, every risked pregnancy, so that we may be "ready when the time is right." Place between "hill" and "pill" is an ironic use of "Plesantville"; the term not only rhymes, but evokes an ersatz Ozzie-and-Harriet telling of a simple time, a time marked by neither mansion or pill. But now, on both sides of Pleasantville is the capacity to fend off the exigencies of reality whether challenges from down below or risks from our own bodies, now either way completely safe. First of all, I'm impressed that Brueggemann is listening to this stuff! I was caught up by the many images (and more to come). A complete wide-open look at time in Babylon - time within the structure of the day which is not the way of the ones who have this God whose love never ceases. The Babylon we look at is us. It is the whole complex of life within 21st century America ( and other nations). The community is diminished but the individual gets whatever s/he wants and things s/he needs to carry on. So how do we live in such a culture? How do we shaped something that will be a living presence that brings something else to life. In Babylon of old, we are told, a faithful community went about looking at ways to view life from another perspective. We don't have any snapshot of that life. We do have the words of those prophets who (like the verses above) sang songs of other ways to live when the ways of empire are the rules of the day. Connection: I am so 'empire' it rattles me. I would like to think differently. And yet, I also know that I count on the poetic critics of what is to help me keep my eyes and ears open to the strange ways of empire and how they are able to changed just about everything - and everyone. Again, songs of resistance open up our minds to that which is contrary to what has become expected in Babylon. O God who bids us to follow the way of the Christ, we need the power of your Spirit to guide us and hold us and send us off with one another to open up the day to your reigning life of love that will reshaped all things. Come, O God of Peace. Come. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Walter Brueggemann notes that the lyrics to a song "Time in Babylon" evoked his study about the image of Babylon and its use through time - even our time. The song is very long so after today, I will share a verse or two each day into next "Time in Babylon" invites and requires a careful reread of U.S. culture and history that refuses the common ideology and sloganeering of "democratic capitalism." This critique, since the collapse of the national economy, is made much easier and more obvious, because it is clear that the "democratic" qualifier to "capitalism" has completely disappeared. The widespread passion for "deregulation" has led to the unleashing of rapacious economic practices with a greedy appetite that has been eager to "devour the poor." What had passed for capitalist virtue is now readily exposed as a destructive selfishness that contradicts in wholesale ways any change for the common good. We hold as our foundation the vision of God's Reign that stretches farther than our imagination - to the past and to the future. For us - the followers of Jesus - there is a rule of love that shapes all other life and business that is carried on throughout the day. Our days are lived in the midst of empire (I know we don't say that) - in the midst of a structure of power that can and does rule our steps through life and the steps of those around us. We are a part of this huge system. And yet, we follow Jesus. When the vision of God's Reign - as we see it displayed in Jesus - is our fabric of our life, it will - it will - it will, be contrary to 'things as they are' - no matter how we love 'things as they are.' Let me now say you are hearing this from a capitalist - yes, me. But as Brueggemann notes, "What had passed for capitalist virtue is now readily exposed as destructive selfishness that contradicts in wholesale ways any change for the common good." We live in selfish days. That is not merely a phase. This is about the shape of the culture and the view of the world that demands that each person be 'turned-in-on-self' so that we can save ourselves even if it means others must be cut off. How do we live in such a culture and not take on its dress and life? How do we resist. Connection: Resistance demands a community. We need others to help us focus and help us be sustained through times when we are tempted to point fingers and want the 'other' destroyed or controlled or simply forgotten. We need the community of the Body of Christ to bring to life the promises within God's Reign even as they do not hold to the accepted patterns of the day. O God who bids us to follow the way of the Christ, continue to walk with us as Jesus did on the road to Emmaus. Help us hear again - with new hear and eyes - the old, old story of your unending love. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Let's keep going with this image of empire -as it becomes contemporary. Again, from Out of Babylon by Walter Brueggemann. The metaphor of Babylon can shed much light on the lethal underside of U.S. history and culture as well. Most recently Allen Callahan has gathered together remarkable resources concerning African Americans who have used the imagery to reflect on the racism and the institution of slavery that have shaped and distorted much of U.S. history. Part of the power of the Babylon metaphor lies in its ability to empower resistance in new covenantal communities like the black church. The image bring forth the notion of resistance. The resistance rises in the face of the power of the empire. It may not look like much - but it is there shaping the lives of those who are being put down and run over by empires like Babylon. In time, the resistance raises up new life among those being pressed down. In time, all of us who may be collaborators within the empire may gain new insights from which we begin to turn away from the powers as there are and begin to live in another direction. Whenever a people go ahead and live in a direction quite contrary to the powers that be, they will eventually be heard and seen. They will become a source of inspiration to others - the resistance will grow. We have much evidence from those who stood up and lived new lives facing the truth of the world rather than the lies that can so easily be sold as life. Connection: All of us can use the vision and life of those who resist in order to be free to live outside the control of the powers of the day - powers that do not really care for the well-being of all. O God who bids us to follow the way of the Christ, raise up in us you loving power that is able to turn over the tables of the days and begin to walk in a new light. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | I'd like to follow up with the material from last Friday (an ancient change in regard to the meaning of Eucharist) with a following up thought by Brueggemann - again from "Out of Babylon." This remarkable development transposed the Eucharist into a tool for political control, and of course the immense leverage - political and economic - that came with it. The capacity to utilize religious claims for the sake of political expansionism is a hallmark of empire. While Luther does not unpack the formula in that way, his use of the phrase 'Babylonian captivity' rings true on that score. In empire - Babylon or any of its successors - everything is taken up in advancement for those who sit at the center of power. In his conclusion to his treatise, Luther comments upon the threats of the church against him and ends by quoting a hymn that refers to the 'impious Herod.' Clearly Luther well understood the enormous power of the metaphor of empire, and makes use of it both for this theological argument about the sacraments and about his own vocation as a theological interpreter who stands against the awesome empire of his day. Finally, Luther stands before Emperor Charles, who stood with the church authorities who has sponsored his 'captivity.' Even as this discussion focuses around the use/misuse of the Eucharist for the sake of empire, we must also remember that much of the language of the Church is used to bless and support the work of the empire and not that of the witness of the Reign of God. I remember reading - years ago- that one of the ways to define blasphemy is when symbols of the Church are use in ways they were not intended. It seems like using the Eucharist as a political tool to support an empire would fit that definition. We must be willing to make sure that our language - our images - our 'churchly' functions and actions and words, do not become instruments used by the powers of the day to somehow 'bless' what the empire does or wants to do. Some of you may know that I'm involved with a small group of clergy who took on the task of watching how 'religious' people take their position in the church or the language of the church and use it to support candidates. What is always so frightening about this is that the empire is always willing to let us use our language and blessing and power to help the powers that be - become more powerful. This often means that faithful images cannot be distinguished from the prevailing powers - we become a part of the empire - Babylon, and lose ourselves into the way of the cultural powers. Connection: Sometimes it simply takes a good ear to hear how we give up our powerful imagery within the Church so that it can be used to support that which is no the way of Jesus. This doesn't mean offering a blessing. It also means the very informal and everyday ways we 'go along' with words of the faith being used as words of the state or empire or regime. O God who bids us to follow the way of the Christ, continue to let your Wisdom come upon your people that we will stand up within our world as a few people who will not give up our images of being the followers of Jesus to those who would use them to conquer and rule over others. Amen. |
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