A person to know; a message to remember

The Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann is not a household name. It may seem odd that with everything going on locally, nationally and globally, I chose to use my commentary space to tell you about him. I hope I demonstrate why he’s important to know.

First, a personal word. I was saddened to learn of Dr. Brueggeman’s death on June 5 at the age of 92. I heard him speak many times. He was at once funny and poignant, playful and powerful. He was a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and especially of the Prophets. To me, he looked like a modern-day prophet, with piercing, intelligent eyes and a razor-sharp sense of humor. He could and did laugh at himself. He taught with a passion for the Hebrew Bible that reignited my own. His groundbreaking book, "The Prophetic Imagination," published in 1978, is still an important text assigned in seminaries.

Walter Brueggemann (Photo: Sojourners)

It was exciting to be in his presence because he allowed the text of the Bible to speak from the pages. He peeled back the layers and pulled no punches. He would say, “If the text makes you uncomfortable, deal with it!” He both loved and criticized the modern church for cozying up to established institutional norms. He was a curious learner and a voracious reader. He wrote as much as he read, penning over 100 works. His goal was always to comfort the unsettled and to unsettle the comfortable. He urged his listeners and readers to live in the in-between and to always look to the margins to see what God was doing in the world, both in the text and today.

Dr. Brueggemann said the biblical prophets were moved by the Spirit to create poetry that spoke to the realities of their time. I say, today, we need to call upon and listen to those who speak bravely with prophetic voices as they see dangerous and destructive trends. We should look to the margins of our society to learn what God is doing in the world. Prophets are called to speak out. Is it easy? No! Is it popular? No! Is it vital? Yes!

In a 2011 interview with Krista Tippett on her show “On Being,” Dr. Brueggemann was asked to quote a text or two he thought were pivotal. One he chose was from Isaiah 43, “Do not remember the former things nor consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing. Now it springs forth.”

He described how difficult it is to live in a time when the old order of things is crumbling. It is chaotic. That was true in the Bible and it is certainly true today. We prefer order over chaos and comfort and stability over change. The hopeful thought from this passage is that God is bringing about something new. The problem is we don’t know what that looks like. Will it be at all familiar? What changes might we be required to make? The Holy One asks us to trust in the movement of the spirit and remain hopeful in the midst of uncertainty. That is so difficult!

There are troubling trends in Christianity today that hold tightly to former things. That plays well in certain audiences. No women in pulpits. Women stay home and have children. Human sexuality is not a rainbow continuum. It is a strictly defined duality. Men are elevated into the “manosphere” of being above correction, especially if they are white and evangelical.

There isn’t room for scholars like Dr. Brueggemann who urge us to let the poetry of the text speak. They are happy to tell you what the Bible says and require you to sign their statement of faith to march in their parade.

Certainty is a tantalizing drug. Given the choice between comfort and chaos, we will choose comfort every time. Dr. Brueggemann says in our culture, we believe that enough power and knowledge will tame the terror of the darkness. In my experience, and probably in yours, the darkness breaks in anyway, even when we don’t admit it.

What if our love of comfort causes us to miss the movement of the Spirit? What if we miss the new things the Holy One is doing because we look down at our feet instead of up and around us to the wondrous and messy diversity of it all?

New life comes out of darkness not conformity. May we risk being people of poetry, stepping out in trust together.

Give me a person of faith like Dr. Brueggemann any time.