From Walter Brueggemann
Hope, on the one hand, is an absurdity too embarrassing to speak about, for it flies in the face of all those claims we have been told are facts. Hope is the refusal to accept the reading of reality which is the majority opinion; and one does that only at great political and existential risk. On the other hand, hope is subversive, for it limits the grandiose pretension of the present, daring to announce that the present to which we have all made commitments is now called into question.
Hope sounds frightening. Why hope when we can stay safe within what is? And yet, what is...is not what it can be. We must be willing to look beyond the security of what we have even if it means there is the chance - sometimes a good chance - that we will be shut down. The "majority opinion" is powerful and it is able to sway people from the vision of a new day in order to keep the status quo in place. What is so hopeful to me is that no matter what appears to be ruling the day, there are always people willing to hope for something more....always.
Connection: Find someone who helps you be hopeful despite the conditions all around you. They are there.
Lord, we count on you to lead us and yet we are often afraid to follow. Remind us of your presence and be the encouragement for this day. Amen.
Monday, February 28, 2005
Sunday, February 27, 2005
28 February 2005
We begin again with "The Prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann.
In offering symbols the prophet has two tasks. One is to mine the memory of this people and educate them to use the tools of hope. The other is to recognize how singularly words, speech, language, and phrase shape consciousness and define reality. The prophet is the one who, by use of these tools of hope, contradicts the presumed world of the kings, showing both that that presumed world does not square with the facts and that we have been taught a lie and have believed it because the people with the hardware and the printing press told us it was that way.
We are always in need of the voice of prophets. For we can be sure there will be those who have the power to control how the world is shaped and then insist that we must fit into their world. As strong as those voices of power may be, the prophet needs to remain strong and persistent so that we continue to hear the voice of our God over the voice of the gods of the day. Just turn on the television and watch how those in power attempt to tell the stories of this day in their way even when it may not be the truth. The prophets bring us hope when those voices appear to prevail among us.
Connection: Be critical of what you hear and see. It is so important to have some understanding of who might be the power behind the voices that try to write the history of the day.
Lord, send us a word of truth from those you have called to bring the vision of your peaceable Reign to all your beloved people. When the winds of the day try to sweep us away, send the breeze of your Spirit to lift us up to your way of new life. Amen.
In offering symbols the prophet has two tasks. One is to mine the memory of this people and educate them to use the tools of hope. The other is to recognize how singularly words, speech, language, and phrase shape consciousness and define reality. The prophet is the one who, by use of these tools of hope, contradicts the presumed world of the kings, showing both that that presumed world does not square with the facts and that we have been taught a lie and have believed it because the people with the hardware and the printing press told us it was that way.
We are always in need of the voice of prophets. For we can be sure there will be those who have the power to control how the world is shaped and then insist that we must fit into their world. As strong as those voices of power may be, the prophet needs to remain strong and persistent so that we continue to hear the voice of our God over the voice of the gods of the day. Just turn on the television and watch how those in power attempt to tell the stories of this day in their way even when it may not be the truth. The prophets bring us hope when those voices appear to prevail among us.
Connection: Be critical of what you hear and see. It is so important to have some understanding of who might be the power behind the voices that try to write the history of the day.
Lord, send us a word of truth from those you have called to bring the vision of your peaceable Reign to all your beloved people. When the winds of the day try to sweep us away, send the breeze of your Spirit to lift us up to your way of new life. Amen.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
25 February 2005
Following a faulty send...here is more from Walter Brueggemann.
The prophet is to provide the wherewithal whereby hope becomes possible again to a community of kings who now despair of their royalty. After a time kings become illiterate in the language of hope. Hope requires a very careful symbolization. It must not be expressed too fully in the present tense because hope one can touch and handle is not likely to retain its promissory call to a new future. Hope expressed only in the present tense will no doubt be co-opted by the managers of this age.
Unfortunately, this age is usually run by managers who only know how to run the world "by the book" and find it most difficult to look out beyond what is. I find this is quite the case within the church. We are people of vision and hopefulness and yet most often, we dare not leap beyond the way things have been done. It is as though we can see what is in hand and we therefore forget to pick up our heads to look at the horizon and to envision what else may be about to take place.
Connection: Do you have time in your day to experience that which is not written in your "to do" list or lesson plan or schedule of meetings and the like? Remember, imagination cannot be managed.
Keep us looking out into your future, Lord, and though we may be caught up in what is all around us, tickle us with your promises of what is to come. Amen.
The prophet is to provide the wherewithal whereby hope becomes possible again to a community of kings who now despair of their royalty. After a time kings become illiterate in the language of hope. Hope requires a very careful symbolization. It must not be expressed too fully in the present tense because hope one can touch and handle is not likely to retain its promissory call to a new future. Hope expressed only in the present tense will no doubt be co-opted by the managers of this age.
Unfortunately, this age is usually run by managers who only know how to run the world "by the book" and find it most difficult to look out beyond what is. I find this is quite the case within the church. We are people of vision and hopefulness and yet most often, we dare not leap beyond the way things have been done. It is as though we can see what is in hand and we therefore forget to pick up our heads to look at the horizon and to envision what else may be about to take place.
Connection: Do you have time in your day to experience that which is not written in your "to do" list or lesson plan or schedule of meetings and the like? Remember, imagination cannot be managed.
Keep us looking out into your future, Lord, and though we may be caught up in what is all around us, tickle us with your promises of what is to come. Amen.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
24 February 2005
From "The Prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann.
We have no public arenas in which serious hopefulness can be brought to articulation. What is most needed is what is most unacceptable - an articulation that redefines that situation and that makes way for new gifts about to be given. Without a public arena for the articulation of gifts that fall outside our conventional rationality we are fated to despair. We know full well there are not among these present pieces the makings of genuine newness. And short of genuine newness life becomes dissatisfied coping, a grudging trust, and a managing that dares never ask too much.
I find this piece points right to the center of the need for prophetic imagination. We are not looking merely to be what we are or what we have been. That has always meant war, poverty, insecurity, hatred, and many other demons of life as it is. We must lift up our eyes and our lives and contemplate what Brueggemann says might be the "most unacceptable." It may be unacceptable now but it may be the way into a whole new expression of God's gracious and love alive in the world. Too often we settle for how we know life. Yes, it may be good for now. Yes, we may not be troubled. But, look around...look around at the whole picture. God promises so much more for life within the community of God's people. But we need to go to the place God calls us...into God's promises...not into more of our own making. In the life of the Church and in the life of the powers of our world, we are at a point in which the Spirit of God is blowing around and, like in the days of the great prophets, calling us to imagine the Reign of God - in its fullness - even now.
Connection: Dream. Hope. Imagine. Live!
Take us into your arms, O God, and whisper into our lives the simple gift you offer us so that we will be encouraged to take the step and live within your gift of life. Amen.
We have no public arenas in which serious hopefulness can be brought to articulation. What is most needed is what is most unacceptable - an articulation that redefines that situation and that makes way for new gifts about to be given. Without a public arena for the articulation of gifts that fall outside our conventional rationality we are fated to despair. We know full well there are not among these present pieces the makings of genuine newness. And short of genuine newness life becomes dissatisfied coping, a grudging trust, and a managing that dares never ask too much.
I find this piece points right to the center of the need for prophetic imagination. We are not looking merely to be what we are or what we have been. That has always meant war, poverty, insecurity, hatred, and many other demons of life as it is. We must lift up our eyes and our lives and contemplate what Brueggemann says might be the "most unacceptable." It may be unacceptable now but it may be the way into a whole new expression of God's gracious and love alive in the world. Too often we settle for how we know life. Yes, it may be good for now. Yes, we may not be troubled. But, look around...look around at the whole picture. God promises so much more for life within the community of God's people. But we need to go to the place God calls us...into God's promises...not into more of our own making. In the life of the Church and in the life of the powers of our world, we are at a point in which the Spirit of God is blowing around and, like in the days of the great prophets, calling us to imagine the Reign of God - in its fullness - even now.
Connection: Dream. Hope. Imagine. Live!
Take us into your arms, O God, and whisper into our lives the simple gift you offer us so that we will be encouraged to take the step and live within your gift of life. Amen.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
23 February 2005
Continuing to hear from Walter Brueggemann
It is equally important to perceive that those who have entry to power and prosperity are also victims of hopelessness, or, as we are wont to say in our time, have a sense of powerlessness. The royal consciouness means to overcome history and therefore by design the future loses its vitality and authority. The present ordering, and by derivation the present regime, claims to be the full and final ordering. That claim means there can be no future that either calls the present into questions or promises a way out of it. Thus the fulsome claim of the present arrangement is premisedon hopelessness. The present is unending projection, uncompromising in its claim of loyalty, and unaccommodating in having its own way.
Gosh, is Brueggemann writing about today?!? I find it more and more disturbing to see how a whole segment of the religious community blesses and seems to ordain the actions of our own government. We dare not say royalty...but we can think the rich, the powers, or those who see themselves as the leaders of a master society. The voice of the prophets who call the powers of the day to the way of peace and mercy and justice are continually covered over by the sweet smelling verbiage of a religious movement that is so hopeless (cannot see that God can and will continue to make life even when life doesn't go our way) that is can only back what is present and what has been for they do not see the possibility of God's saving power. It appears that the only vision of a future that is being held up among the powers that be is one that is based on a pitiful end time scenario that claims to be biblical but is arrogantly self-serving. Out of a sense of growing powerlessness, powers tend to try to exercise their own power over others. We need a new voice that resounds with the eternal voice of our God.
Connection: Listen. Simply listen to what is being said all around us. Listen to how the voices of powers that are trying to lead us (this is from any political party) are not able to speak the new language of God's promise for life. Listen.
O God of all Hopefulness, you are still the One who pulls us into tomorrow. Keep our eyes fixed on your loving kindness, your mercy, your graciousness, and your power to bring new life even as the powers of death play with life. Amen.
It is equally important to perceive that those who have entry to power and prosperity are also victims of hopelessness, or, as we are wont to say in our time, have a sense of powerlessness. The royal consciouness means to overcome history and therefore by design the future loses its vitality and authority. The present ordering, and by derivation the present regime, claims to be the full and final ordering. That claim means there can be no future that either calls the present into questions or promises a way out of it. Thus the fulsome claim of the present arrangement is premisedon hopelessness. The present is unending projection, uncompromising in its claim of loyalty, and unaccommodating in having its own way.
Gosh, is Brueggemann writing about today?!? I find it more and more disturbing to see how a whole segment of the religious community blesses and seems to ordain the actions of our own government. We dare not say royalty...but we can think the rich, the powers, or those who see themselves as the leaders of a master society. The voice of the prophets who call the powers of the day to the way of peace and mercy and justice are continually covered over by the sweet smelling verbiage of a religious movement that is so hopeless (cannot see that God can and will continue to make life even when life doesn't go our way) that is can only back what is present and what has been for they do not see the possibility of God's saving power. It appears that the only vision of a future that is being held up among the powers that be is one that is based on a pitiful end time scenario that claims to be biblical but is arrogantly self-serving. Out of a sense of growing powerlessness, powers tend to try to exercise their own power over others. We need a new voice that resounds with the eternal voice of our God.
Connection: Listen. Simply listen to what is being said all around us. Listen to how the voices of powers that are trying to lead us (this is from any political party) are not able to speak the new language of God's promise for life. Listen.
O God of all Hopefulness, you are still the One who pulls us into tomorrow. Keep our eyes fixed on your loving kindness, your mercy, your graciousness, and your power to bring new life even as the powers of death play with life. Amen.
Monday, February 21, 2005
22 February 2005
More words on Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann.
I propose this hypothesis: The royal (dominant) consciousness leads people to despair about the power to new life. Then Brueggemann writes:
As a beginning point it may be affirmed that the royal consciousness militates against hope. For those who are denied entry into prosperity there is a kind of hopelessness because there is little or no prospect for change. In Israel there was no doubt that since the Solomonic achievement the royal prosperity was increasingly closed to large numbers of citizens. That indeed is a key point in the polemics of Amos. And so in that time as in our own, the royal arrangement surely and properly evokes despair among those who are shut out.
First, it is important to note that good old Solomon was a master at the oppression of his own people in order to achieve his goals of security and empire building. Whenever those with the least are sacrificed or used for the benefit and security of the few who sit in the positions of power and prestige, there will be death, poverty, and a hierarchy of worth in a society. As much as people will be told that the welfare of the elite and the rich is necessary before the welfare of the poor and needy can happen, we have the whole collection of biblical stories that tell us that is just not so. Amos and other prophets were quite direct at saying that. Jesus took the argument against it right to the cross. If there is to be real hope among us we cannot pin that on the operations of those who claim to hold the "royal" power of the day. I think it is interesting to note that even today in our country there is talk of a dynasty. To my recollection, that has never been good news to those who long for a word of hope. It is usually just a bunch of words that always fall short except for those who buy the right to write the history books.
Connection: Stop, Look, Listen. That is what I was taught to do before I crossed the street. Looking both ways with a critical eye keeps all of us a bit safer because it protects not only me but those with me and even...the drivers.
Most Loving and Merciful God, how we long for the Spirit of your blessed Reign to inspire our lives so that we will gather together and witness to the brightness of how your love can rule and how it can establish a new vision for how we walk into the future you have promised. Amen.
I propose this hypothesis: The royal (dominant) consciousness leads people to despair about the power to new life. Then Brueggemann writes:
As a beginning point it may be affirmed that the royal consciousness militates against hope. For those who are denied entry into prosperity there is a kind of hopelessness because there is little or no prospect for change. In Israel there was no doubt that since the Solomonic achievement the royal prosperity was increasingly closed to large numbers of citizens. That indeed is a key point in the polemics of Amos. And so in that time as in our own, the royal arrangement surely and properly evokes despair among those who are shut out.
First, it is important to note that good old Solomon was a master at the oppression of his own people in order to achieve his goals of security and empire building. Whenever those with the least are sacrificed or used for the benefit and security of the few who sit in the positions of power and prestige, there will be death, poverty, and a hierarchy of worth in a society. As much as people will be told that the welfare of the elite and the rich is necessary before the welfare of the poor and needy can happen, we have the whole collection of biblical stories that tell us that is just not so. Amos and other prophets were quite direct at saying that. Jesus took the argument against it right to the cross. If there is to be real hope among us we cannot pin that on the operations of those who claim to hold the "royal" power of the day. I think it is interesting to note that even today in our country there is talk of a dynasty. To my recollection, that has never been good news to those who long for a word of hope. It is usually just a bunch of words that always fall short except for those who buy the right to write the history books.
Connection: Stop, Look, Listen. That is what I was taught to do before I crossed the street. Looking both ways with a critical eye keeps all of us a bit safer because it protects not only me but those with me and even...the drivers.
Most Loving and Merciful God, how we long for the Spirit of your blessed Reign to inspire our lives so that we will gather together and witness to the brightness of how your love can rule and how it can establish a new vision for how we walk into the future you have promised. Amen.
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