Dealing with Exile
Followers of Jesus here in America are in exile! Though exile is usually thought of in terms of geography, it is primarily a liturgical, cultural, spiritual condition. It is the realization that we are in a hostile and alien environment where constant temptation is to conform to the dominant values of a culture that is incongruent with the faith and practice of the kingdom of God.
The predominant temptation of assimilation into the culture has as its alternative despair, seeing our situation as helpless and hopeless. Most Christians have not yet come to grips with the fact that our place and way of life that were accepted in the age of Christendom have vanished. We have been relegated to the margins where we are greeted with hostility, or at best, indifference.
Rather than yielding to the demoralizing effect of exilic assimilation or despair, there is a third option available to us. Walter Brueggemann phrases it this way: "to respond with fresh, imaginative theological work, recovering the old theological traditions and recasting them in terms appropriate to the new situation of faith in an alien culture." It's in exile that God's gift of newness breaks forth through anointed imagination, where "linkages between past and present never before seen, and that risks utterances never before heard ... shatters the old certitudes, but also renders obsolete most of the old ideologies and all of our old, precious quarrels."
There must, however, be an awakening in the community of God's people to their state of exile. Too many, including the leaders, haven't the faintest idea of their present exilic condition. To continue with the same mindset that has existed throughout Christendom will be disastrous. The status quo will only lead to oblivion. Only those who are fully aware of their exilic situation will do the renewing and reconstructive work that will lead to the dawning of a new day.
This intentional work leading to a new beginning will require, according to Brueggemann, disciplines of readiness, which he lists as:
1. dangerous memories
2. dangerous criticism
3. dangerous promises
4. dangerous songs
5. dangerous bread
6. dangerous departure
So what will it be: assimilation, despair, or a new beginning?
Quotes are from Walter Brueggemann's book, Cadences of Home: Preaching among Exiles.
The predominant temptation of assimilation into the culture has as its alternative despair, seeing our situation as helpless and hopeless. Most Christians have not yet come to grips with the fact that our place and way of life that were accepted in the age of Christendom have vanished. We have been relegated to the margins where we are greeted with hostility, or at best, indifference.
Rather than yielding to the demoralizing effect of exilic assimilation or despair, there is a third option available to us. Walter Brueggemann phrases it this way: "to respond with fresh, imaginative theological work, recovering the old theological traditions and recasting them in terms appropriate to the new situation of faith in an alien culture." It's in exile that God's gift of newness breaks forth through anointed imagination, where "linkages between past and present never before seen, and that risks utterances never before heard ... shatters the old certitudes, but also renders obsolete most of the old ideologies and all of our old, precious quarrels."
There must, however, be an awakening in the community of God's people to their state of exile. Too many, including the leaders, haven't the faintest idea of their present exilic condition. To continue with the same mindset that has existed throughout Christendom will be disastrous. The status quo will only lead to oblivion. Only those who are fully aware of their exilic situation will do the renewing and reconstructive work that will lead to the dawning of a new day.
This intentional work leading to a new beginning will require, according to Brueggemann, disciplines of readiness, which he lists as:
1. dangerous memories
2. dangerous criticism
3. dangerous promises
4. dangerous songs
5. dangerous bread
6. dangerous departure
So what will it be: assimilation, despair, or a new beginning?
Quotes are from Walter Brueggemann's book, Cadences of Home: Preaching among Exiles.
Carm,
How do you interpret Bruggeman's six disciplines of readiness?
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Hey Davey, you know how to ask loaded questions. But they are good questions. I refer to Brueggemann' thoughts on these six disciplines as well as Michael Frost who wrote his book "Exiles" referring to Brueggemann.
Dangerous memories are the recollections of Jesus and his daring agenda for human society.
Dangerous criticism is practicing the assertion that the empire is incongruous with God's governance and that the empire cannot keep its promise of life.
Dangerous promises are caught up in the sovereignty of God who will do what he says. These promises will be practiced, pointing to the kingdom of God.
Dangerous songs are new revolutionary songs of homecoming and possibility, imaginative and subversive. They become the anthem of a people yearning for freedom from the empire and the dawning of a new day.
Dangerous bread is the partaking of God's provision as witnessed in the Lord's Supper. Its a brokenness out of which life bursts forth, enabling his people both physically and spiritually.
Dangerous departure is the daring break of God's people with all things imperial, thinking and envisioning themselves free from all support, stability, and reassurance from the empire. It is a departure from the ethical, political, and economic ways of the empire.
Obviously, there are reams that can be written on each of these, but this gives a brief idea.
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Thank you Carm! Well done. I simmered on those disciplines for a few days and needed your thoughts. As I read them I find myself combining those disciplines into the life of the believer and I come up with the character of Jesus.
We can only partake of those disciplines if we take simaler risks that Jesus himself takes. It's almost like He is daring us to believe and trust Him once again and leave behind the hurt,pain, and frustration of the past.
The "danger" in all of this is our willingness to leave the world and the things of this world. This is dangerous for the American believer. He has much to overcome.
Following Him is dangerous to our self-indulging American way of life but is great adventure if we are willing to break loose from the societal grip of our American culture. In my heart of hearts, I believe that it will take real leadership for this to happen much like the leadership of Moses when leading the Jews out of Egypt.
There just seems to be a lack of foot soldiers that are willing to move on this. I have a tendency to think this way because I truly believe that He wants to co-labor with us to accomplish His will on earth.
Still simmering on this......
Davey Buhl
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Davey, I agree with you in your observations. I believe it's going to be by God's grace that he stirs up his people to cast off the yoke of the American empire to embrace the yoke of Jesus and his kingdom. However, there will be those, like the exiled Jews who were assimilated into the Babylonian culture that chose to remain in Babylon rather than go back to their homeland of Israel.
But I am encouraged. If you want to be encouraged, check out the following series of Wolfgang Simson at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Starfishlive#p/u/11/kcxe8H2MGaQ
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Is it not interesting that when Jesus finally came it was after hundreds of years of foreign captivity in their own land, and after he left, that captivity remained and then actually exploded with Israel being EXILED INTO the nations of the world? We want God to free US from the uncomfortable present results of our sins, but continually miss his (then) present and OUR (now) mission?
Some of the disciples from Emmaus said,..."but we had hoped that he (Jesus) was the one who was going to redeem Israel".... Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. .... I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
And after his resurrection, Jesus told them,... "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
In Jesus' prayer to Father, he confirmed, "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.... As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. .... I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:
(Lk 24:21,45-49; Jn17:14,18-21; Acts 1:8)
Now what part of this picture have we missed?
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Ron, good observation and good question! One big part that we have missed is Jesus' statement, "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." We have lost our sense of being sent. We have settled in to our comfortable place in the church and the culture and we shall not be moved. We have been assimilated just like most of the Jews exiled in Babylon.
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Yes Carm,
We will never have that sense of being sent when our life is owned by someone else. The system that we call church has not heeded that call but rather has taken God's people into captivity with a deceptive form of Christianity. I know the difference, believe me. "I'm not my own, I belong to Jesus" is easy to sing but impossible to live out in the American version of church. Many are making a clean break from all of this and are on a journey back to Him. As more of us relinquish our life back to Him the more we will the see Kingdom of God manifested.
I can't help but think about how much the enemy has aided and abetted in this religious scheme.
Ron, I don't know if we have hit on what is missing but I do know this, we have been side-tracked from our mission as the people of God and we are suffering for it.
Davey B
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Writing from where Jesus said"Blessed are your eyes, for they see", we have learned one painful lesson to learn: it is going to take more than personality to lead; we need power from on high.
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