Part 2: A look at Walter Brueggemann’s groundbreaking book, “Reality Grief Hope: Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks.”
The generation of Israelites who lived through and looked back on the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem itself in 587 B.C. drew very close to despair.
Superpower Babylon dictated all terms. There was no respect for “local traditions.” And a portion of the populace even submitted to slavery in Babylon. No wonder so many sat by the waters of Babylon, weeping and longing for better times.
Does our God no longer honor the chosen-ness of Jerusalem, its king, temple, city? Israel feels loss rather than the well-being promised, vulnerable rather than the political sense of guarantee, and abandonment rather than a sense of being exceptional.
The folks are either “left behind” in an impotent, denuded city or deported — slaves stuck in a foreign land. This was the new context for faith: emotional, political and theological free fall with no discernible bottom. Like our anxiety and despair after 9/11, it affected every part of common life. Israel dared to go deep into that despair; I’m not sure the U.S. ever has. The saving element for ancient Israel is that despair was kept in engaged conversation, which finally produced the antidote to despair, a resilient, surprising hope.
With People Near Despair, The Prophets’ Burden: Buoyant Hope
With the people’s sense of self destroyed along with the temple and city, with people sold into slavery, what is the prophet’s task? Improbably, inexplicably, the words of the prophets are full of hope in a buoyant future, because that’s just how this God IS. At zero hour, when all is lost, we hear phrases like “you will mount up like eagles,” that God’s arm is stretched out and not shortened, that a new history is possible amid the city in shambles, not restrained by the force of empire.
God’s good news is coming, WAIT for it! Prophets of testaments old and new proclaim a new city, new covenant, new temple, almost outside the bounds of human imagining. “A newly nursing mother might forget her baby (unthinkable), before I will forget you,” God says.
A new minority of followers arises, not everybody, but people start to imagine something other than empire. My questions for you: Can you name imperial images today? Can you name images that refuse empire?
Hope comes from the prophets in a torrent of promises. Jesus uses similar language to describe what he sees, what he names the “Reign of God.” All the parables, most of his deeds point to the “Reign of God,” what I define as “where God’s way holds sway.” Only seen by some, only lived by some, but all are welcome. Brueggemann sees that “not unlike the society of ancient Jerusalem after the destruction and displacement, contemporary U.S. society is at the brink of despair.”