The shape of shalom:pulling God’s future into the now

Drawing heavily from Walter Brueggemann’s The Practice of Prophetic Imagination: Preaching an Emancipating Word, we’ll explore themes that the prophet-poets ascribe to God’s restorative ideas for the world’s future. The prophet-poets propose counter-narratives to compete with the dominant narratives of their (our) age; so our worship themes will name both dominant and counter-narratives.

False peace vs. true shalom: an introduction. The dominant narrative denies real suffering, whistling in the dark (“Peace, peace!” where there is no peace). The counter-narrative imagines peace that follows justice and righteousness, resulting in “quietness and trust forever,” “abiding,” “security,” “resting”… We are here relieved of the pressure of “What should we do?” and invited to divert our imaginations toward “What could the world be like?” (David Byrne, “Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens…”)

Many places at once. Erma Sinclair examines what she calls God’s Divine Multiplicity—God’s ability to occupy more than one space at the same time—by looking to the Hebrew prophets and finding where God is both someone who wants to be worshipped and a God that is committed to walking with God’s people. What questions arise when we place this in the context of Juneteenth and America’s ongoing legacy of enslavement and white supremacist colonialism? And where do we see God walking with God’s people in our country’s past and present?

Power that fragments, exploits, excludes vs. power for the sake of community. God is the Original Seeker of spiritual refugees – going out to find those who have been scattered, ravaged and butted by other sheep. So the church empowered by God’s missional priorities becomes the “rich pasture” and “good grazing” for found sheep. How does that become true in our life together?

Exploitation/extraction vs. earth care. The good creation is responsive not only to God’s ideals, conforming to God’s vision for the cosmos and humanity that inhabits it) but also to humanity’s less-than-good treatment of the creation. How does it change our ethics to count God’s good earth as one of the “beings” in our consideration of what’s just and merciful?

Violence reinforcing exceptionalism vs. the normalization of equity. Violence (whether militaristic, personal, relational, economic, verbal, etc.) is the tool that equips our impulse to take what we want at the expense of others. God’s dream is the cessation of violence – “no one shall make them afraid” – because everyone has what they need, no more, no less.

Chronic anxiety vs. an economy of abundance. Capitalism depends on our anxiety. Our fear of not having enough is fuel for Pharaoh’s economy. The narratives we ingest reinforce our perceived deprivation. How can we replace the story of “if I only had a little bit more…” with a trustworthy story of God’s sufficient gifts?