11.08.07
prophetic imagination and covenant renewal
[Isaiah] “this poet of the exile, who knew about the pathos of Hosea and the promise of Jeremiah, flings his dangerous words. He conjures life alternatively as a genuine homecoming. He asserts that a condition of alienation and displacement is not our final destiny; there will be a homecoming of transformation. And the company and followers of this poet (which means us) keep the dream alive. Surely he had to speak of things he did not understand. But he clearly believes
• that the world is not closed, fixed or settled;
• that institutions can be changed and transformed;
• that communities of people can be practitioners of other ways of living.
“The entire poetry of Isaiah of the exile has a tilt toward freedom and liberation and justice. Those are the ingredients of a covenanted homecoming. His lyrical envisioning of a new possibility is given in the presence of and in argument against the Babylonian gods, Babylonian kings and Babylonian definitions of reality (see chapters 46 and 47). This subversive poetry has an unavoidable political realism to it. It knows that the yearned-for liberation will not happen until there is a dismantling of imperial definitions of reality. That is where the missional activity of Israel is called to be — defiantly and buoyantly against every imperial definition of reality. And so he speaks with nerve and authority, believing that his speech is not idle or futile, but that it plays a part in the dismantling.
“We live in a time of domesticated hopes, weary voices and co-opted imaginations. Now is not a good time to join issue with the enslaving structures of the day (cf. Amos 5:13). And those who have worked at such a calling lately have good reason to stop in futility. But the poet knows better. The poet knows that, even in a world like ours, songs must be sung, dreams must be kept, visions must be practiced. And none of it yields to the despairing cynicism which the Babylonians want so much to encourage.
“How do we stay at it? How do we not yield these radical convictions? I submit that it is in this: these subversive alternatives of God/church/world must be kept close to the eucharistic table where we eat and drink in covenant. The cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood (Luke 22:20); This cup is the new covenant in my blood (I Cor. 11:25). Whenever we eat this bread and drink this wine, we engage in a subversive minority report. Precisely because of being broken and poured out, this bread and wine will never be fully accommodated to the interests of the old age. The world wants the bread unbroken and the wine still filling the cup. The world yearns for unrisking gods and transformed humanity. But in our eating and drinking at this table we know better. We will not have these subversive alternatives rendered void.”
Brueggemann, Covenant as a Subversive Paradigm
“The task of prophetic imagination is to bring to public expression those very hopes and yearnings that have been denied so long and suppressed so deeply that we no longer know they are there..”
“Isaiah gives his people a remarkable gift. He gives them back their faith by rearticulating the old story. He gives them the linguistic capacity to confront despair rather than be surrounded by it. And he creates new standing ground outside the dominant consciousness upon which new humanness is possible.”
“The dominant consciousness must be radically criticized and the dominant community must be finally dismantled. The purpose of an alternative community with an alternative consciousness is for the sake of that criticism and dismantling.” Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination
Related: Imagination and God’s Future
Peggy said,
November 8, 2007 at 8:21 pm
“The task of prophetic imagination is to bring to public expression those very hopes and yearnings that have been denied so long and suppressed so deeply that we no longer know they are there..â€
…oh my, Len…yes, this is the challenge with reviving covenant and hesed.
Quotable, Requoted …Toward a Worldly Christianity : Subversive Influence said,
November 14, 2007 at 8:53 am
[...] — Walter Brueggemann. I love the way this ties into some themes I’ve had recently, and it makes much sense of part of my own path. This giving voice to the hopes and longings of the people is a powerful metaphor, and it fits the role of a prophet charged with speaking words that are not his own, that are larger than himself. It’s the battling of consciousnesses that gets the prophet in trouble, mediating a crossfire. Guaranteed, he’s going to get hit. Spirituality I define as becoming conscious of and intentional about our relationship to God. I say conscious of because I firmly maintain that we are all already in a relationship with God and we have been so since our very beginning, whether we know that or not, believe that or not. Spirituality is about becoming conscious of that relationship. I say intentional because I see spirituality as being about paying attention to that relationship, being intentional about deepening that relationship and letting that relationship grow. Just as human relationships grow and deepen through spending time in them and paying attention to them, so also our relationship with God grows in this same way. [...]
NextReformation » Missional Order: Two Lenses said,
February 19, 2008 at 9:36 am
[...] In most of my writing post-Seabeck I viewed the creation of a missional order through the lens of covenant renewal (see this post as well as others). But there is another lens, equally valid and equally valuable, and it fits nicely with the direction of my dissertation: the lens of culture formation. I understand the church as an alternative (kingdom) culture, and I see one of the central tasks of leadership as cultivating alternative practices. Culture is a cultivating force, and we are formed by the soil we grow in, primarily through what we practice – our habits become “habits of the heart.” Inagrace Dietterich writes that the work of leaders, “will equip and support the congregation on its journey, however tentative and exploratory that may be. But what determines these skills and strategies for leadership is the larger image of the pilgrim people of God as a covenant community. The leaders primary skills are directed toward intentionally forming such orders within the community. [...]
missional order - two lenses : Missional Journey - Thoughts Along the Way said,
February 19, 2008 at 9:55 am
[...] In most of my reflection post-Seabeck I viewed the creation of a missional order through the lens of covenant renewal (see this post as well as others). But there is another lens, equally valid and equally valuable, and it fits nicely with the direction of my dissertation: the lens of culture formation. I understand the church as an alternative (kingdom) culture, and I see one of the central tasks of leadership as cultivating alternative practices. Culture is a cultivating force, and we are formed by the soil we grow in, primarily through what we practice – our habits become “habits of the heart.” Inagrace Dietterich writes that the work of leaders, “will equip and support the congregation on its journey, however tentative and exploratory that may be. But what determines the skills and strategies for leadership is the larger image of the pilgrim people of God as a covenant community. The leaders primary skills are directed toward intentionally forming such orders within the community. [...]
NextReformation » habits of the heart said,
December 10, 2008 at 8:53 am
[...] In most of my writing post-Seabeck I viewed the creation of a missional order through the lens of covenant renewal (see this post as well as others). But there is another lens, equally valid and equally valuable: the lens of culture formation. I understand the church as an alternative (kingdom) culture, and I see one of the central tasks of leadership as cultivating alternative practices. Culture is a cultivating force, and we are formed by the soil we grow in, primarily through what we practice – our habits become “habits of the heart.†Alan Roxburgh writes that the work of leaders, “will equip and support the congregation on its journey, however tentative and exploratory that may be. But what determines these skills and strategies for leadership is the larger image of the pilgrim people of God as a covenant community. The leaders primary skills are directed toward intentionally forming such orders within the community. [...]
NextReformation » spiritual community, missional orders said,
July 22, 2009 at 8:52 am
[...] In most of my writing post-Seabeck I viewed the creation of a missional order through the lens of covenant renewal (see this post as well as others). But there is another lens, equally valuable, that illuminates the issue from another angle: the lens of culture formation. I understand the church as an alternative (kingdom) culture, and I see one of the central tasks of leadership as cultivating alternative practices. Culture is a cultivating force, and we are formed by the soil we grow in, primarily through what we practice – our habits become “habits of the heart.†Alan Roxburgh writes that the work of leaders, “will equip and support the congregation on its journey, however tentative and exploratory that may be. But what determines these skills and strategies for leadership is the larger image of the pilgrim people of God as a covenant community. The leaders primary skills are directed toward intentionally forming such orders within the community. [...]
NextReformation MT // Just another Missional Tribe weblog said,
July 23, 2009 at 6:48 am
[...] In most of my writing post-Seabeck I viewed the creation of a missional order through the lens of covenant renewal (see this post as well as others). But there is another lens, equally valuable, that illuminates the issue from another angle: the lens of culture formation. I understand the church as an alternative (kingdom) culture, and I see one of the central tasks of leadership as cultivating alternative practices. Culture is a cultivating force, and we are formed by the soil we grow in, primarily through what we practice – our habits become “habits of the heart.†Alan Roxburgh writes that the work of leaders, “will equip and support the congregation on its journey, however tentative and exploratory that may be. But what determines these skills and strategies for leadership is the larger image of the pilgrim people of God as a covenant community. The leaders primary skills are directed toward intentionally forming such orders within the community. [...]