It was quite a privilege to listen to one of the premier old testament scholars of our time last night at my alma mater...Mount Vernon Nazarene University. It's always great when a noted speaker, author, and intellectual giant is as personable as can be too!
I finished reading "The Prophetic Imagination" (4 of spades) just in time to hear Brueggemann yesterday. He did a fantastic job of speaking along the theme of imagination, serving up nuggets from his writings, yet bringing into the present with his illustrations, wit, and spunk. Thoroughly enjoyable presentation.
Some highlights from my notes...
--We need to return to our artistic heritage as students of the word and bearers of God's message
--Imagine, Notice, & Dare to live out an alternative
--We need an ongoing conversation between the powerful and the poetic
--Demonstrate an alternative through generosity, hospitality, and forgiveness
--Do we have a dream for an alternative reality, existence, and experience?
--We lose the power of revelation when we reduce God's poetry to systems, formulas,a nd other urbane language
--American Individulism is the Great Heresy
--What will we risk for the sake of an alternative?
--Reflect on the likes of Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Nelson Mandella, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, etc
--The church is always re-formed as it returns to the Text
--The Sacramental is a counterpoint to technology (put down the cell phone and talk face to face)
There was just so much to absorb and reflect upon that it's difficult to process in the moment. But I approached Dr. Brueggemann afterwards and posed a question regarding the emerging church. As ambiguous and troublesome as the terminology is I still wanted to ask how we engage people in the process of imagining an alternative when we are so unwittingly blinded by the culture we live in (secular as well as religious)? His response pointed back to the sacraments and the disciplines as entry points for us to be re-formed into the community of God which experiences the exodus continuously.
Another great thought was in response to a rambling member of the audience who brought up the place of the Law since Jesus implied that it was still important...to be fullfilled? The ten commandments were actually a counter to the laws (whether written or unwritten) in Pharoah's world order. But in every culture we need to recontextualize the ten commandments. What does it look like today to covet? And to live in such a way as to not covet...is very countercultural in our day of consumerism.
To follow Christ is much more counter-cultural than many of us want to admit!!
A great benefit of the trip was seeing many good friends. I got to hang with my buddy Justin here. He endured the event for sake of our friendship...what a guy!
I also got to see several old friends like: JB, Stetler, Greg, Jason, Fez, Dr. Varughese, Joe, and Brandon. Then some newer acquaintances like David & Travis. It was well worth the carbon footprint of my Ford Focus!
