Gift and Task: A Year of Daily Readings and Reflections - Hardcover

Brueggemann, Walter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0664263216 ISBN 13: 9780664263218

Verlag: WESTMINSTER PR, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

<p>The God whom we meet in Scripture is one who gives generous gifts in the wonder of creation, in the miracle of emancipation and reconciliation, and in the surprise of transformation. We are invited to receive those abundant gifts on a daily basis, with a posture of anticipation, awe, and gratitude. In response, we accept the worthy task of daily discipleship.</p><p><i>Gift and Task</i> is an original collection of 365 devotions by best-selling author Walter Brueggemann, providing the opportunity to consider in critical ways the cost and joy of discipleship. Perfect for daily use, this book begins with the First Sunday of Advent and provides insightful reflection and thought-provoking commentary on the Scriptures for each day of the year. Brueggemann guides disciples with wisdom and encouragement for our never-ending walk along God's challenging, grace-filled path throughout the Christian year.</p>

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Walter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, he is the author of dozens of books, including Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now, Interrupting Silence: God's Command to Speak Out, and Truth and Hope: Essays for a Perilous Age.

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Gift and Task

A Year of Daily Readings and Reflections

By Walter Brueggemann

Westminster John Knox Press

Copyright © 2017 Walter Brueggemann
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-664-26321-8

Contents

Preface, v, 
Advent, 1, 
Christmas, 25, 
Epiphany, 39, 
Lent, 81, 
Easter, 129, 
Pentecost, 181, 
Appendix A: Notes for Liturgical Years 2017–18 through 2021–22, 379, 
Appendix B: Assigned Readings from Ecclesiasticus, 382, 

CHAPTER 1

ADVENT

ADVENT 1

First Sunday of Advent

Psalm 146; Amos 1:1–5, 13–2:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11; Luke 21:5–19

God of all our beginnings, we thank you for this new beginning in Advent. Give us the freedom and courage to enter into your newness that exposes the inadequacy of where we have been and what we have done in time past. Be the God of all truth in our midst. Through Christ. Amen.

* * *

We rightly expect that Christmas will go "out like a lamb." What comes from Christmas is indeed the Lamb that is slaughtered on Friday who is worthy of praise on Sunday, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29; Rev. 5:12). Before that, however, Advent is "in like a lion," a roaring truthfulness that disrupts our every illusion.

The text from Amos begins, "The Lord roars from Zion." The image is of a lion (from the temple in Jerusalem) who is seeking prey, thus a threat to the status quo. What follows in the poetry of Amos is an exposé of the sociopolitical failures of Israel's neighbors and of Israel. The offenses of Damascus (Syria) and Moab and Ammon (Jordan) bespeak violation of human rights and savage military assault. The affront of Israel is economic: "trampling the head of the poor."

Such texts assure that our preparation for Christmas is not a safe, private, or even familial enterprise but is preoccupied with great public issues of war and peace and issues of economic justice that concern the worth and bodily well-being of human persons. Our Advent preparation may invite us to consider the ways in which we ourselves are complicit in the deep inhumanity of our current world. All these texts attest a coming upheaval because the roaring lion can wait no longer. The lion opens space for the Lamb, who will arrive soon.

Monday after Advent 1

Psalm 1; Amos 2:6–16; 2 Peter 1:1–11; Matthew 21:1–11

Your coming, O God, evokes in us joy as we ponder your new rule of mercy and justice. Your coming at the same time confronts us with a deep shattering of the way we have arranged our common life. Grant that we may not default on joy or flinch from the shattering that your coming portends. In Christ. Amen.

* * *

The Gospel reading voices a vigorous welcome for the new king. The crowd is eager for his arrival. The juxtaposition of the Amos text and the Epistle reading, however, suggests that not everyone gathered to cheer his arrival. The epistle expresses an ethic that is congruent with his new rule: virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, and "brotherly affection with love." The conduct of those who sign on with the coming Messiah concerns discipline that serves the common good, brotherly affection, that is, social solidarity.

That ethic, to be performed by Jesus and embraced by his faithful community, contradicts what the prophetic tradition found in ancient Israel. Amos indicts the economy for uncaring exploitation of the poor, for self-indulgent sexuality, and for cynical abuse of holy things for self-service. As a contrast to such demonstrative self-indulgence, Amos cites the Nazirites, a company of the young under strict discipline.

The prophetic text and the Epistle reading together articulate a powerful either-or that might preoccupy us in Advent. On the one hand, we live in a predatory economy that operates without restraint or compassion. On the other hand, the epistle anticipates that Jesus' company of followers will refuse such a way in the world that can result only in failure and jeopardy. The way in which we may "confirm our call and election" is by alternative ethic that refuses the ordinary practices of our consumer economy that endlessly negates the poor.

Tuesday after Advent 1

Psalm 5; Amos 3:1-–1; 2 Peter 1:12–21; Matthew 21:12–22

God of the prophets, who interrupts and makes new beginnings, we thank you for prophetic words that continue to sound among us. Give us attentive minds and hearts, that we may heed when addressed and obey when summoned, in the name of the Living Word. Amen.

* * *

Jesus is in the temple, the citadel of entitlement and certitude. He himself is here located in the prophetic tradition. He deftly combines two prophetic utterances, a hope-filled word from Isaiah, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (56:7), and a word of judgment from Jeremiah (7:11), "Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers." He does more, however, than quote the prophets. He effectively performs their words that judge the temple as a venue of exploitation and that anticipate a revised temple of embracive faith. His performance of prophetic reality is compelling enough that he evokes a confrontation with the "chief priests and scribes," managers of the citadel. They sense, quite rightly, that something dangerous and subversive is stirring around Jesus, specified by the messianic affirmation on the lips of the "children in the temple."

Prophetic speech breaks open our settled opinions, our treasured ideologies, and our uncritical social practice. Thus Amos condemned the "violence and robbery" of a systemic kind. And the Epistle reading presents prophetic words as "a lamp shining in a dark place."

Our world is "a dark place" of fear, anxiety, greed, and violence. The prophetic light exposes such destructive practices and requires us to consider both the ideological rootage of our practices and their concrete outcomes from which we often benefit. Advent is a time for being addressed from "elsewhere" and being unsettled. It is a time to ponder exposés that we do not welcome. Sometimes we are like priests and scribes resisting the raw word of God's intrusion that shatters our citadels.

Wednesday after Advent 1

Psalm 119:1–14; Amos 3:12–4:5; 2 Peter 3:1–10; Matthew 21:23–32

Lord of eons and immediacy, we wait with some impatience for Christmas celebration while our commercial world is already at its fake celebration. Grant us patience to be geared to your time that is both slow and sure. In his name. Amen.

* * *

These readings seek to find a proper place for trust amid two temptations. On the one hand, there is the seduction of phony piety. Jesus warns against an eager ostensive obedience without follow-through. The prophet Amos ups the rhetoric to mock the busy routines of piety that his contemporaries love to enact. He sees, moreover, that such exhibitionist piety is readily linked to economic exploitation. The Epistle reading, on the other hand, identifies an alternative temptation, namely, skepticism. The writer points to "scoffers" who mock faith by pointing out that the promises of God are never kept and that things go on and on as they were without interruption or change.

Both of these temptations have to be faced with Christmas coming. Among us, phony piety may take the form of excessive generosity, of giving gifts without any real passion, both gifts to those...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: WESTMINSTER PR
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0664263216
• ISBN 13: 9780664263218
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 408
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
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