Gift and Task: A Year of Daily Readings and Reflections

WALTER BRUEGGEMANN

GIFT

and TASK

A Year of Daily Readings

and Reflections

for Tia

© 2017 Walter Brueggemann

First edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press

Louisville, Kentucky

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.

Book design by Drew Stevens

Cover design by Marc Whitaker, MTWdesign.net

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Brueggemann, Walter, author.

Title: Gift and task : a year of daily readings and reflections / Walter Brueggemann.

Description: Louisville, KY : Westminster John Knox Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2017005496 (print) | LCCN 2017028531 (ebook) | ISBN 9781611648157 (ebk.) | ISBN 9780664263218 (hbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Church year meditations. | Devotional calendars.

Classification: LCC BV4812 (ebook) | LCC BV4812 .B78 2017 (print) | DDC 242/.3--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017005496

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

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CONTENTS

Preface

Advent

Christmas

Epiphany

Lent

Easter

Pentecost

Appendix A: Notes for Liturgical Years

2017–18 through 2021–22

Appendix B: Assigned Readings

from Ecclesiasticus

Excerpt from Truth Speaks to Power,

by Walter Brueggemann

PREFACE

The title I have given this book, Gift and Task, is a translation of the more felicitous German, Gabe und Aufgabe . 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. Human persons, along with all other creatures, are recipients of those abundant gifts of God that are to be taken in awed gratitude, for which our best word from Greek is Eucharist. This gift-giving God whom we meet in Scripture is also the one who assigns a worthy task, who from the first act of creation and the first utterance at Sinai has issued commandments, who has summoned to discipleship, and who empowers to glad, trustful obedience.

What follows in this book is a daily reflection on the Scriptures prescribed in the Daily Office for Year 2 in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, the Daily Readings in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Book of Common Worship, and perhaps other traditions as well. Of course the exact dates of the church year change because Easter is a movable feast and Advent changes with the calendar, so in this book I have ordered the readings according to the church year that begins in Advent of 2017. I have judged that the specificity of that one particular year was worth the requirement of agility among readers for use in subsequent years, and I am counting on purists to pardon the inevitable variations from prescribed readings that result. Suggestions for adapting this resource for use in subsequent years can be found in appendix A.

In many of these study reflections, it will be most beneficial to read the biblical text before reading the study material. It is preferable, when possible, to read the text out loud, as biblical texts are meant for hearing. I have exercised freedom in selecting which text or texts from among the designated readings I would comment on each day. Readers of my work will not be surprised that my tilt and inclination are toward Old Testament texts. With only a few exceptions, I have not commented on the psalm for each day, as I have had ample opportunity elsewhere to exposit the Psalms. I have taken the liberty of selecting texts from Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), because it is quite fresh material for me and because Ben Sira is an uncompromisingly practical theologian and moral teacher. Mindful that these texts are not included in many Protestant Bibles, I have provided the text to those passages from Sirach in appendix B.

What I have written is intentionally distinguished in two ways. First, I have written reflections that are intended for serious church members who are willing to consider in critical ways the cost and joy of discipleship. This means that I have resisted any temptation toward a more generic devotional, because most materials offered in that genre are, in my judgment, quite romantic. Second, while I have not imposed much critical scholarship on the texts, I intend that my exposition should be critically responsible and not excessively accommodating to popular itches.

While I follow the daily readings designated by certain church bodies, I, of course, hope that my commentary will reach a larger reading community that is genuinely ecumenical, as no tradition has a monopoly on serious attention to Scripture. Thus I hope my exposition makes room across the theological, ecclesial spectrum for progressives and evangelicals, for we commonly share as recipients of the wondrous gifts of God, and we are commonly addressed by the summons of the God of the gospel. It is my conviction—and hope—that serious Scripture reading is and can be a source of missional renewal in the church.

I am glad again as always to voice my thanks to David Dobson, Julie Tonini, Jessica Miller Kelley, and their colleagues at Westminster John Knox Press for the faithful and attentive way in which they have transposed my words into a book.

I am pleased to dedicate this book to the well-beloved Tia Brueggemann. She has been engaged with this writing project all the way from its inception (her idea) to final authorial editing (her work), with sustaining energy in between. I am grateful to a host of persons who have made it possible for me to undertake this reading. That includes many pastors, teachers, and nourishing traditions; as indicated in my commentary for the last day of the church year, it most especially includes the tradition of German evangelical pietism that is my true home.

Walter Brueggemann

Columbia Theological Seminary

July 2016

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 3:1–11; 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 who need no gifts (whom we may not love too much) and gifts to the needy that are less than serious engagement. It is likely, however, that the temptation to skepticism about a real coming of newness is more poignant among us. The result may be just going through the motions of tired celebration.

The Gospel reading uses the term believe three times, describing an act of trust that leads to repentance. Christmas is properly not about phony piety or about skepticism; it is about change of heart and change of life that are rooted in trust in the promises of God that are as sure as they are slow.

Thursday after Advent 1

Psalm 18:1–20; Amos 4:6–13; 2 Peter 3:11–18; Matthew 21:33–46

Grant, good Lord, that we may receive you in your hidden majestic power that runs beyond our imagining. Forgive us that we domesticate you in order to accommodate the worlds we prefer. Give to us your new world of well-being. In his name. Amen.

These readings invite us to be at the pivot point in the life of the world, poised between what is old and passing and what is new and emerging. The hard words of prophetic speech concern the undoing and dismantling of a world that is failed. Thus Amos can chronicle the undoing by environmental crises that leave us as desolate as Sodom and Gomorrah. In his parable Jesus imagines that status as God’s people with blessings of chosenness will be taken away, forfeited in disobedience.

This same moment, however, is one of radical newness. The newness consists in new heaven and new earth, a cosmic emergence of well-being that the creator has always intended. That new world of well-being will not be according to common expectation. The stone rejected, judged inadequate by conventional norms, will be Jesus, the Messiah, who fits none of our expectations.

To stand in that vortex of divine resolve requires some intentional preparation. The epistle urges specific disciplines of holiness and godliness, being without spot or blemish, being at peace, growing in grace and knowledge. This means to be focused in a way very different from our careless society that does not think anything will be undone and does not anticipate any deep newness. It is the peculiar invitation of the gospel that we may be witnesses and recipients of a turn of the ages. Only the disciplined can perceive and receive. Homework is required.

Friday after Advent 1

Psalm 16; Amos 5:1–17; Jude 1–16; Matthew 22:1–14

Lord of justice, give us courage to face the costs that belong to faith; give us readiness to be properly dressed for your great festival. In his name. Amen.

The parable of Jesus is rightly familiar to us: A feast is offered by the king to specifically qualified guests. When they decline the invitation, others are invited at random from the streets, those who are less clearly qualified for such an invitation. The parable (also told, somewhat differently, in Luke 14:15–24) suggests inclusiveness in the company of God, even for those who are not qualified. Matthew, more stringently, adds a surprising conclusion to the story. When the king comes to look at the more recently invited guests, he is appalled that some are not appropriately dressed for the occasion; they are roughly eliminated from the party. Even those unqualified who are belatedly invited are held to certain standards in order to join the feast.

This twist in the parable voiced by Matthew prepares us for heavy words of judgment in all these readings. Amos grieves over failed Israel; but then he issues a series of imperatives commending altered conduct: Seek me, seek the LORD, seek good, hate evil, love good, establish justice. The sequence of commands culminates with the specificity of establish justice, that is, economic equity and compassion, a practice skewed in the Israel of his time. The words of judgment are even more severe in the Epistle of Jude concerning those who distorted faith and skewed the community in its practice.

All these readings together attest that entry into the community of God is no free lunch or cheap ride. Advent is a time for coming to terms with the uncompromising requirements of gospel faith that are too often treated as though they do not matter for the coming celebration.

Saturday after Advent 1

Psalm 20; Amos 5:18–27; Jude 17–25; Matthew 22:15–22

God of all mercy, give us the capacity to situate ourselves in your goodness, that we may resist every temptation to trade your goodness for other ways of security and well-being. In his name. Amen.

The detractors from and distorters of faith are everywhere in these readings:

—In the Amos text, they are those too comfortable in Zion, with their eagerness for the coming day of reckoning when they think they will be affirmed.

—In the Gospel reading, they are the Pharisees and Herodians who have no interest in serious interpretation of the tradition but only want to trick and trap Jesus.

—In the epistle, they are scoffers who are propelled by interests and passions alien to faith. They are indicted on three counts: (1) They set up divisions, causing splits in the community. (2) They are worldly, reasoning in pragmatic ways without allowing for the gracious slippage of grace that makes forgiveness and reconciliation possible. (3) They are devoid of the spirit, unwilling and unable to be led beyond their own settled opinion.

The epistle is eager that the beloved, those seriously embedded in the gospel, should distinguish themselves from these troublemakers and practice disciplines that will sustain their distinctiveness. Four disciplines are commended:

—Build yourselves up in a holy faith. This includes attentiveness to apostolic teaching.

—Pray in the Holy Spirit, a habit of yielding and a readiness to be led.

—Keep yourselves in the love of God, not seduced by quarrel or calculation.

—Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, a bid for uncommon patience.

These disciplines will sustain with enough authority to convince and save others.

ADVENT 2

Second Sunday of Advent

Psalm 148; Amos 6:1–14; 2 Thessalonians 1:5–12; Luke 1:57–68

God of faithfulness, before whom we stand exposed in our complacency and complicity, we thank you for this season in which we may make amendment of life. Give us resolve that we may not waste the season. In his name. Amen.

We do well to ponder this newly arrived character, John, who creates a pause in the narrative before the birth of Jesus. The work of interpretation is to be sure that John is not elided into Jesus so that the sharp and stern word of John is not overwhelmed by the graciousness embodied in Jesus. John’s work is very different; it is to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:17). That preparatory work requires hard truth-telling that exhibits the ways in which the world, as presently practiced, is completely out of sync with the purposes of God.

We are led to ponder how it is that the world is out of sync in concrete ways with God’s will for justice, righteousness, mercy, and compassion that are continually thwarted by policy and by practice. That thwarting of God’s intent is evident in the systemic practice of greed, the readiness for violence against the vulnerable, and the complacent acceptance of economic injustice. This out-of-sync quality is voiced by Amos with his double utterance of woe that anticipates trouble to come. The sharp rhetoric of the epistle, moreover, shares the urgency of facing up to the deep failure of present practice. Unlike the trivia of commercial Christmas, serious Advent is a time to consider how being out of sync with God has become conventional and normal among us. It is also a time to consider the (inevitable?) outcomes of such a way of life. Christmas comes abruptly in the wake of Advent; we cannot slide from one to the other.

Monday after Advent 2

Psalm 25; Amos 7:1–9; Revelation 1:1–8; Matthew 22:23–33

God beyond our explanations, give us imaginative freedom, that we may rest before the splendor of your power for life that relativizes both our accomplishments and our anxieties. In his name. Amen.

The Sadducees are exemplars of the arithmetic of this age. They think they can figure it all out, explain everything, and so control and manage their life in the world. Jesus counters their domesticated reasoning by witnessing to the alternative reality, known in Scripture, of the power of God that is not controlled or domesticated by our calculation. The defining reality is the God attested by our Genesis ancestors who is the God of the living. Thus God has the singular capacity and resolve to bring life out of death, to call into existence things that do not exist.

The soaring rhetoric of our reading in Revelation situates the power of God, fleshed in Jesus, outside the scope of our capacity. It does so by appeal to the old tradition of coming with the clouds, that is, outside our explanatory systems. The ultimate claim is that this Holy One, embodied in Jesus, is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning before our explanations, the completion after our management. The rhetoric shows how impotent and irrelevant is the closed reality of people like the Sadducees who think they can manage the mystery and gift of life.

It is a sobering admission of Advent to recognize that we are not the alpha. We are not the beginning point, not self-made, not self-sufficient; before us and behind us is the power for life that is pure gift to be received in trusting gratitude. It is an equally sobering admission of Advent to recognize that we are not the omega. We are not the point of it all. We are not the best imaginable outcome, the completion of creation. It is no wonder that the crowd was astonished by Jesus’ testimony to the resurrection!

Tuesday after Advent 2

Psalm 26; Amos 7:10–17; Revelation 1:9–16; Matthew 22:34–46

God of liberating disruptions, grant us wisdom to identify the certitudes by which we live, and the courage to notice your governance even beyond our treasured certitudes. In his name. Amen.

It is comforting to have an explanatory system that accounts for everything; and we all have them. Such a system may be a theological orthodoxy that delivers unfailing assurance. Or such a system may be a moral code that confidently reduces everything to simple right and wrong with appropriate rewards and punishments. Or such a system may be an economic orthodoxy, like free-market capitalism, that can reduce everything to production and consumption. Any such system comforts us and keeps us safe.

In the purview of Advent thinking, however, any such system—theological, moral, or economic—is an illusion. It is sure to be interrupted and exposed as inadequate and placed in jeopardy. In Christian life, Advent is the big interruption of all of our explanatory illusions.

—In the Amos reading, the liturgic certitude of Bethel is interrupted by the prophet who speaks of justice. The priest banishes the prophet, but his words do not go away.

—In the book of Revelation, the interruption takes the form of a loud voice. In what follows after our text, the voice will confront the several churches with gospel truth.

—In the Gospel reading, one of the Pharisees put a trick question to Jesus, trying to contain him in their brand of Torah interpretation. He, however, outflanks them with his enigma statement that eludes their decipherment.

In Advent it is useful to identify the explanatory systems on which we rely and then to consider how they are being disrupted in disconcerting ways. We would mostly like to stop such interruption; but, of course, we cannot.

Wednesday after Advent 2

Psalm 38; Amos 8:1–14; Revelation 1:17–2:7; Matthew 23:1–12

God of summoning words, in your presence we are yet again aware of your calling that we be different in the world. Grant us enough resolve to resist being narcotized by our society of indifference. In his name. Amen.

Going through the motions in a mindless way is a durable temptation. In a society of too many consumer goods, too many TV options, too much wearisome news, and the endless pursuit of commodities, it is easy to give up on intentionality and simply go through the motions of what is expected . . . at home, at work, in church. In the oracle of Amos, the merchants, busy at exploitation, wait impatiently through the motions of Sabbath keeping. In the Gospel reading, the opponents of Jesus are indicted for going through the motions of religious performance. And in the address to the church at Ephesus in Revelation, the cooling of first love perhaps causes church life to be less than zealously engaged.

In each case the readings warn against such indifferent living. Amos raises hard questions about economic exploitation. Jesus calls his followers away from empty performance to serious, attentive obedience that takes the form of servanthood. And Ephesus is called to repent, and do the works you did at first.