In the middle of grief and separation there is what Brueggemann calls 'presence in absence' - here's what he sees.
in the meantime, with Israel in exile, far from home and from Jerusalem and temple, we may imagine that along with a theology of repentance (which was essentially a demanding imperative in Deuteronomic texts), there was a priestly theology of presence that was affirmative and indicative. The priestly disciplines and liturgies, testimonies that received normative form in exile, were strategies designed to help order an acutely disordered community and to assure Israel a mode of YHWH's presence in a venue of acute absence. While the tabernacle may be in anticipation of the temple, it is also a movable temple, a mode of presence not only imagined prior to the temple of Solomon, but available after the temple of Solomon. It is a mark of the inventiveness and courage of Israel in exile that it refused to settle for flat, angry, one-dimensional absence, and continued to address itself to the direction of YHWH in YHWH's hiddenness. Thus in exile Israel is a people celebrating and practicing presence in absence.
Each day is one in which we would all do well to realize God's "presence in the venue of acute absence." When that can take place, we have a much better chance at embracing the day and all that it holds. For now - with God present even as the day is flushed down the toilet, we are handed a vision that goes beyond what is. There was a moment in the last Harry Potter movie when Harry and his mates had to flush themselves down the toilet in order to get into the 'ministry' complex. It appears frightening - and yet you must be able to trust that the beyond what is visible is a reality into which you have been call to enter. Flush! Worship became for Israel a way to celebrate that presence - that reality that was no so visible in exile. I often need that kind of vision. Many times in worship, though the words we hear and sing are filled with powerful images it is also the simple gathering that reminds me of the presence of God who is able to fills us with all hopefulness. And yet, this gathering cannot be forced and turned into an obligation and then left to be merely that. It is really an opportunity to move into the places of absence with the promise that God is involved and present with us.
Connection: I have only heard of stories of exile. It must be rough. I know what it is have a sense of being in exile on an emotional level but not a real everyday, every moment separation that seems like the only think left in life.
O God, who watches how we turn away and follow other powers, it is still you who comes and remains with us so that as we stumble along you are there to lift us up and make a community that serves as a constant reminder of how you are faithful. We give you thanks. Amen.
Today we continue with another look at the practice of grief in Israel - according to Walter Brueggemann.
In this utterance of protest and grief that acknowledges present trouble, Israel refuses to accept present trouble as final destiny. Even in this circumstance, Israel assumes YHWH's sovereignty, YHWH's capacity to override exile. Israel makes appeal to YHWH's fidelity, which now, in exile, moves to pathos. Israel believes that the sovereign God can be evoked and moved by petition. Thus, while Israel's judgment is a function of YHWH's sovereignty, Israel's grief and protest are a complement to YHWH's faithfulness and pathos. The grief and protest permit YHWH to move beyond sovereign anger and rage to rehabilitation and restoration. It is evident, moreover, in the ongoing life of the exile of Israel, that grief as candor and protest as hopeful insistence are effective. YHWH is indeed moved toward Israel in new, caring ways.
No matter what might be the conditions on the ground - Israel does not see this as the end. This is not where things will cease to be. Rather, Israel does what all of us are to do - we are to expect that our God will be the God who Reigns as the one and only God of love. We remain faithful - we turn around - we do that with the understanding that our God is the waiting one who lets us go off the handle and quite near destroy ourselves - but, God remains tied to us, forever. I love the reminder here about God's "capacity to override exile." That is, God can override the worst of worse situations - even that which is being experienced as the ruthlessness of defeat and shame and death. This is the God of resurrection power - that's how we put it. Even death on the cross, decomposition in the grave, hopelessness and fear sucking he breath out of the people - and yet, God overrides this power and brings life.
Connection: There is room for resurrection in our lives. We can count on that.
O God, who watches how we turn away and follow other powers, how wonderful it is that you remain faithful and expect that we will turn to you alone. It is your love that we know so well that is the power within our turning. Amen.
Before a Thanksgiving break, some words on the practice of Grief among the faithful.
....Israel is not to grow silent about its deserved plight. Israel in exile is a community that grieves and protests. Indeed, in exile the ancient social practice of lament and complaint becomes a crucial theological activity for Israel. The practice of grief is an exercise in truth-telling. It is, as evidenced in Psalm 137 and Lamentations, an exercise in massive sadness that acknowledges, with no denial or deception, where and how Israel is. But this voiced grief is not resignation, for in the end faithful Israel is incapable of resignation. Resignation would be to give up finally on YHWH and on YHWH's commitment to Israel. This Israel will not do, even if YHWH gives hints of such abandonment. This grief of Israel in exile spills over into protest against YHWH. For all of its acknowledgment of its exilic utterances Israel moves stridently past its own failure to focus on YHWH, to protest YHWH's abandoning propensity and to invoke YHWH's new attentiveness to Israel.
Faithful people do not just get up and walk out. We may bitch and gripe and dance around fed up with how things are going - but we do not walk out. There is so much that can be done before one resigns oneself to one last reactions - exiting. Israel grieves and that is like a person in a deep, deep relationship. Things are bad and maybe even over - but resignation is a huge step away and grieving maintains some connection. In that connection is also the hope of a new day. The new day cannot be like the days that preceded it. Rather they must be days that come about through repentance - a turning back into the relationship with God (who, by the way, has never given up on the relationship). It is here that we also see the necessity to protest - to state one's case and to speak up. Resignation is a time of silence in which there is no more communication. So, faithful people are also people who protest the way things are and long for new conditions - a new day - a return home.
Connection: Signs of a good relationship - communication even when it feels as though that is the last thing needed.
O God, who watches how we turn away and follow other powers, you continue to embrace us even as we come so close to giving up completely. It is that embrace that becomes the power that keeps us returning to you. Amen.
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From the place of exile, come the life of repentance.
This theology of repentance is an extraordinary development in Israel's self-discernment. One might have concluded, after Jeremiah and Ezekiel, that Israel had reached a point of no return with YHWH. But now Israel is permitted a chance: "From there (from exile) you will seek the Lord you God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul. In your distress, when all these things [suffering displacement] have happened to your in time to come, you will return to the Lord your God and heed him" (Deuteronomy 4:29-30). Thus repentance is an act of hope. A return to YHWH, and to land and to well-being, is possible. Any such return, however, will be on the terms of the sovereign God who waits to be merciful (Deut.4:31). The repentance entails the very issues that were the causes of Israel's condemnation: remembrance, holiness, and justice.
Even when it all seems over - it is not over. There is this way of coming home. It is the simple act of turning around and returning to the one who is waiting always waiting and always loving. Repentance is 'an act of hope.' I usually do not hear this put quite like that. I find that a beautiful way of speaking of repentance. We can go home. We can return. We can be a remembering, holy, just people - because our God is always ready to shape us into just such a people. What a gracious story to carry around with us so that our lives are actually influenced by such hopefulness.
Connection: This makes is seem as though we are always standing at the edge of hope and ready to enter into its life no matter what has happened.
O God, who watches how we turn away and follow other powers, you remain the one who waits for us and promises to abide on our side even as we run from you. Inspire us to trust in your never-ending love. Amen.
Today the week begins with Exile and being a recalcitrant people - from "An Unsettling God" - by Walter Brueggemann
In the end, the exile is a theological datum concerning Israel's life with YHWH. While one may quibble about how extensive the deportation was and what percentage of Israelites were removed from the land, such issues do not matter with exile as a theological datum. In its relation to YHWH, Israel is nullified, and the displacement seemed destined to last in perpetuity. In sovereign righteousness, YHWH acts in self-regard and is capable of sloughing off this partner who refuses partnership. Thus it belongs to the fundamental marking of Israel that as a people summoned in love by YHWH and addressed by YHWH's command, Israel is a community scattered by none other than YHWH, the God of sovereign fidelity and faithful sovereignty, to the null point. Israel can imagine YHWH's complete negation of Israel. Israel has no guarantee of life in the world beyond the inclination of YHWH, and that inclination has now been exhausted. Israel must, in perpetuity, ponder its scatteredness, out beyond the well-being intended by YHWH.
What do you do with a partner who refuses partnership? In my faithful imagination, even as we read of Israel's travails at the hand of Babylonians and their exile, there is this God whose love is ceaseless and yet must - let them go the way they have chosen. The chosen people have chosen to abide within the world of other gods. That, unfortunately, is where they are taken - if not physically, their hearts and souls. But then I turn to myself as a follower of Jesus and the many ways I refuse partnership - or the many ways the church refuses partnership. Oh, we claim the name and demand some kind of goodies to go with that - but our partnerships tend to be with the powers of the day and the shape of the world as it is. Not an easy thing to say to oneself.
Connection: Faithfulness calls for deliberate action and thoughtful responses to the world around us. Too often, I know that I can be a scattered person who does not remain alongside the call to follow. It can be too damn easy to step in other ways.
O God, who watches how we turn away and follow other powers, abide with us even as we find it so easy to turn from your love. Amen.
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