| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Brueggemann speaks of three literary voices that spoke to Israel when they were threatened by the Assyrian power. Today we continue with Isaiah. In the Isaiah tradition, faith is engagement with all of the distinctive practices of covenant, most particularly the practice of justice and righteousness. The alternative of unfaith is to abandon the defining marks of Yahwism, and to embrace the world of anxiety, collusion, and self-indulgence authorized and defined by Assyria. Indeed, the prophet is reductionist in insisting that these are the only two options. As a community defined by a covenant with God, this is the radical edge that makes the community stand out in the world. It is not a matter of mere ethnicity or blood lines. Rather, it is the shape of the life of the community. When justice and righteousness is visible as the character of the community, there is faithfulness - there we will see the sons and daughters of God making a mark on the world so that the world will stop and turn and look at what is new. To become nothing more than another one of the powers - no matter what the situation and no matter what will make a good excuse for being like the powers - is to live in unfaith. Though this are only two character traits of life within the Reign of God, they are quite essential because they involve the communal life of the whole - and they are very visible to all. Unfortunately for religious people we are more known by our ritual actions than the character of our lives. Connection: Though our liturgy is a vital aspect of our life and witness in the world, it is that which comes out of worship and ritual that grabs the attention of the world. When we leave our rituals and engage the world with the character announced in worship, we will make an impact on all. Guide us, O God, into the way of your Reign. You promise life and your promises never can be diminished. They become a guiding light and a strong foundation upon which we can live in new ways in a world that never seems to change. Inspire us to live boldly within your Reign of promise. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Brueggemann speaks of three literary voices that spoke to Israel when they were threatened by the Assyrian power. The first is Isaiah. Isaiah offers in most magisterial form an alternative vision of reality. He does not so much address the ethical detail of Judah's life, but rather focuses on the larger issue of compteing political-theological loyalties. Isaiah endlessly reiterates that Judah must trust in Yahweh, who governs history and who will guarantee Judah in the face of imperial threat. We know very little about the tactical ways of prophetic utterance in Israel. What is unmistakable, however, is that the prophet endlessly invites Israel to an alternative imaginative scenario of reality, wherein Assyria is denied domination and Yahweh is shown to be an adequated guarantee of life. Thus in the well-known word play of 7:9, in a bid for loyalty to the world construed around Yahweh, the prophet asserts: "If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all." I am one that counts on the words of the Prophets to help me with my faithful imagination. The words are able to give me a bit more backbone when I know that my knees wobble and I can easily turn around and run away. Having said that, I also know that I do not get any information about "tactical ways of prophetic utterance." At times I long to hear how one is to be loyal to God in the middle of situations that demand action today. As I write this realize the the prophetic word is not an exact battle plan that has everything in place so that we really have no choice about how we are to act. Rather, the prophet seems to lift our eyes so that we will picture faithful to God in our day. That means we must be people who attempt to listen to the story of God's saving power and acts - and what people look like when they follow this God. When we hear words like "stand firm in faith," what does it mean? I'm sure we would hear many different answers to that question. Maybe somewhere in the mix of responses there comes a vision of faithfulness in the situation at hand. Could it be that these prophetic voices are meant to stir up our hearts and expand our vision that we will be a faithful people in the middle of whatever forces attempt to move us and shake us? Connection: More and more it seems as though it is our task to listen - more and more. Lord God of New Life, you are the power that comes upon us to make us faithful within that day we face. Encourage us to turn around and look to you whenever we are being pulled by the powers that threaten us. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | Today we will begin to take a look at how Walter Brueggemann sees Israel as an intentional, distinctive community in the world dominated by Assyria - though much like the resistance to Egypt, a variety of voices will be heard. In response to the formidable and intimidating power of Assyria, Israelite and Judean kings were wont to give in and accept Assyrian definitions of reality. It is clear, nonetheless, that there was maintained in Judah an insistent alternative to Assyrian hegemony, and alternative endlessly reiterating the claim that Judah's future could be based only upon loyalty to Yahweh, the emancipating, commanding God, and consequently in resistance to Assyrian hegemony. Brueggemann will use three 'voices' from this period of history and we will look at those over the next few days. For now, it is enough to be reminded that we must have something onto which we can hold when the powers of the world attempt to overrun us. Just like an invading army that seems greater than anything we can imagine, we must be a people who have a story that keeps us open to what is available to us for life - even when we are being overrun with other ways to live. It is not easy to look at the condition of life around us and trust a future that is "based only upon loyalty to Yahweh." In some ways, you can bet that there are many disagreements about what that loyalty means. Just as there are many voices that try to tell us what it means to follow Jesus - and some of them act like nothing more than cheerleaders of the powers of the world - we must continue to listen to the voices of the prophets who were quite good at pointing the way of faithfulness. Prophetic voices are not usually well received by establishments of any kind - particularly religious ones. Connection: We must listen again and again. We must turn to those voices of the great prophets and listen again. We must know where to hear the voices of today's prophets and listen and discern what life we are to enter in order to not fall prey to the powers and empires of the day. Lord of all History, you continue to make us your people even when we are wandering through the many powers that attempt to capture our attention and our lives. Continue to inspire us with your Spirit of life. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Here is a summary word about Israel's encounter with Pharaoh. Good for these days of Passover. Israel knows that Egypt is endlessly resolved, vigilant, and canny for its way of life. In the narrative of counterreality, however, it becomes clear - over and over in reenactment - that the Egyptian project is doomed. In the end, Pharaoh is desperate and must say to Moses, "Bless me!" (Exodus 12:32). In the end the repressive achievements of Pharaoh are empty. This little community that begins in pain and ends in dancing, that stops its life for sabbath, that cancels debts for the sake of neighborliness, in the end this community has in its midst the force for life, and is the wave of the future. It is so because in the end, Yahweh denies Pharaoh any authority, even over Egypt (compare Exodus 19:5: "The whole earth is mine."). The story bring forth a truth that the world does not always let itself see - this God of ours is Lord of all. Yes, the line of empires runs one after the other and seem to never end, but it is this strange community that is contrary to the power of the day that lives on through all the powers. Israel, like the Church, is a living witness to another way to be human in a form that is truly blessed. The blessedness of the community is always for the good of all - even the empire. That is why we can dance...that is why can sing. In fact, I would go so far as to say our lives must be filled with dancing and singing and all the signs of a great banquet taking place even under the oppressive rule of empire. The word and the life we bring to the day will be a challenging one that will not give up the celebration of God's Reign for the reign of any other power. God Rules - that is enough to transform the day and be a part of the transformative power that will never be silent. Connection: Even in Holy Week, it is time to dance and sing. That is what Jesus did throughout the last days of his adventure in Jerusalem. Lord of the Dance, ignite our hearts that we will be bold followers of your way even as we must walk the paths through the powers of life that attempt to bend us and break us. Grant us you peace that we might find rest and courage. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Brueggemann writes that there are 'two commands (that) epitomize the best of Israel's counterpractice." These are from the commands at Sinai - today is #2. Second, the first specific law in the Sinai utterances after the decalogue, given in Exodus 21:1-11, concerns "the year of release," whereby Israel is enjoined to engage in a countereconomics that willingly cancels the debt of neighbors and permits the indebted to rejoin the economy as a full and viable partner. It is this neighborly act of debt cancellation that is the taproot of all Jewish and Christian notions of forgiveness. Forgiveness is cancellation of debts in every zone of existence; this countercommunity takes as its foremost social characteristic the refusal to exploit the poor, the refusal to get even, the refusal to hold grudges, the refusal to exact vengeance. All of these practices, to be sure, are at the core of the pharaonic enterprise, but Yahweh authorizes and summons otherwise. Everything gets released. It is a new beginning. That seems to be what this covenant community is all about - new beginnings - life again - refreshment - liberation - endless possibilities for life. And yet, "the year of release" has always been something about which we talk but simply write it off as something that was not really meant to become a part of "real" life - for who would live like that!?! Here is where I go back to Jesus. He has "release" written all over his actions and words. Unfortunately, release is not what the established order wants - do we!?! The Prophets were masterful at pointing out how far the people had gone astray from the way of life that was handed to them by the God of Exodus. But to allow for a "year of release" - let alone a few moments of release - is a strange journey that is not only difficult to grasp, it is also unheard of in our everyday experiences in the world of empire and pharaoh. Connection: At the end of the day it would be interesting to take note of there was a time in the day when we really were able to cancel debt - offer release to others and even ourselves. Lord God, you bid us to come and walk and live in the land of forgiveness. It is there that we will come to see the bountifulness of your Reign and realize what joy you bring to life as we are your people. Remind us to forgive - and then again. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Brueggemann writes that there are 'two commands (that) epitomize the best of Israel's counterpractice." These are from the commands at Sinai - today is #1. First, there stands at the center of Torah commands the practice of Sabbath, the steady practice of work stoppage that makes visible the claim that life consists in being and not in doing or having. I have no doubt that the recovery of this discipline is decisive for the reenactment of this community of emancipation and resistance. I often try to tell our confirmation students how important this command is when we think of how God is trying to make a new community that is not the same as the ordinary ways of the world. It is not easy to trust that God will provide if we stop. And yet, this also means that in the days when we are not at rest, we work. The Sabbath is not made to build a community of sloth. It is to build a community of people who will trust that God shapes us by what God calls us. We are the children of God. That is our status and our life and our future. Even when we have nothing or can do nothing, this status never changes. Within God's Reign - which is the community of God's people throughout all time and in each and every day - we are a named people - a marked people. Yes, the mark is different as we move from the Jews to the Christians - but the claim is still the same - forever and ever as God has made it so. When we talk about Sabbath, I do think we must always watch for the legal aspects of Sabbath that, quite honestly, can make a mockery of the day of rest. That can take us into a many-sided conversation that would be best done when we are together. Connection: Do you give yourself time to rest - to remember that God is Lord of All - Creator of all that is?!? Do you make rest a legalism in your life - or a gift that you treasure? |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Walter Brueggemann presses on with this community obligation and what it is that is formed as we enter into relationship with our God as a covenant people. Along with liturgical reiteration, this community accepted rigorous disciplines for the sake of alternative community. These disciplines we regularly call commandments or even laws. The emancipating, resisting community, in the imagination of its self-presentation, moved along to Sinai. Mount Sinai, in this tradition, is the mountain of address. There Israel heard the very voice of Yahweh (Exodus 20:1-17), and then they heard the meditation of Yahweh in the voice of Moses (vv. 18-22). In this holy voice and in its Mosaic echo, it heard a voice of summons and of assurance, a voice of demand and of promise, a voice guaranteeing a peculiar identity. And there they listened. Thus emerges the verb shema as the defining claim of Israel's life. In listening, Israel knows itself not to be self-made, self-invented, or self-imagined. In that listening, moreover, Israel knows it must cease to listen to the voice of Pharaoh that defines reality in terms of brick quotas. In listening, Israel comes to the startling, dangerous conviction that its life consists not in bricks for the empire, but in acts of neighborliness whereby Israel replicates Exodus for its neighbors. This piece will find its way back into my telling of our story of being followers of Jesus. We too are a community that is meant to listen. We hear whose we are and who we are before we have done anything at all and in the face of all that we have done. It is a voice of our God we hear through the Christ of God, Jesus. We do not - cannot - invent this story line we call the way of Jesus. It would be foolish to do that. To serve others, to love enemies, to wash feet, to heal without limit, to rescue without condition, and to forgive as though it is our only task in life is nothing but the life of a fool. That be us! Those who want to invent their own lives and make their own lives or want turn the way of our God into a piece of themselves will continue to build nothing but the empire that is Pharaoh - the world as it always has been. I so look forward to Easter Sunday and the renewal of our baptismal covenant and to hear the promises and to see the water fly and to witness the steady burning of the paschal candle and to watch babies getting wet at the font. I like to listen to it all. The laughter that comes with water wildly whipped around the room is the beginning of remembering how the voice of our God speaks to each of us - forever and ever. Connection: This is, like all of our days, a time to listen to our God calling us by name and embracing us with stories of liberation and salvation. Everyday is the day we become the children of the most high God. Take us up and place us at your feet, O God, that we may listen to your Word of Life that will always pull us into the life that it sows among us. When other voices want to claim our attention, be - as you have promised - the voice of unending love. Amen. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
