Inscribing the Text by Walter Brueggemann

First published: Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2004, edited by Anna Carter Florence

Genre(s): Nonfiction

Subgenre(s): Biblical studies; hermeneutics; sermons

Core issue(s): Memory; pastoral role; prayer; preaching; scriptures

Overview

In Inscribing the Text, twenty-six prayers and twenty-five sermons of Walter Brueggemann have been collected and edited by Anna Carter Florence, a teacher of homiletics at Columbia Theological Seminary. The sermons and prayers alternate throughout the book. The first prayer is a prayer of gratitude, a subject that is prominent throughout the collection. Brueggemann’s prayers, which were offered in a variety of settings, are short, pointed, thoughtful, challenging, and humble. They are based on his reading of a text from Scripture, mostly the Psalms. His sermons are also rather short and use the weekly lectionary texts; thus, most of the sermons include references to both the Old Testament and the New Testament (the book includes an index of Scripture references). The first sermon is a programmatic piece that was delivered at the Festival of Homiletics in Chicago, 2002. It describes Brueggemann’s approach to preaching, and the sermons that follow are embodiments of his method. Although these sermons were preached over a period of five years and were delivered in different settings, they address many of the same themes, which focus on society, paradox, and transformation. These common themes include truth, justice, righteousness, God’s faithfulness, God’s intervention, newness, imagination, hope, freedom, and openness.

Brueggemann’s first sermon offers a new paradigm for preaching. He begins by presenting four biblical examples of truth speaking to power: Moses demanding the pharaoh’s release of the Israelites, Nathan exposing David’s adultery and murder, Elijah pronouncing God’s judgment on Ahab and Jezebel, and Daniel interpreting the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. Speaking truth to power is vital, but it is not so easy these days. Most preachers serve as pastors of local congregations and have been given the responsibility of administration as well as preaching. It is impossible to be an administrator and a prophet at the same time. Other factors make it difficult for the contemporary preacher to take on the role of prophet. In each of the biblical stories, the kings clearly represent power and the prophets speak an unambiguous word of truth, but in today’s world, the identification of power and the certainty of truth are much more elusive.

A more helpful model for the contemporary preacher might be that of the ancient Israelite scribe. In the time of Ezra, the preeminent scribe of Israel, the nation had lost hope in the covenant and in the promises of God. Like today’s churchgoers, the people had largely forgotten their “rootage” in Moses and the prophets. The role of the scribe is to “re-text” the community by turning the people back to the foundations of their faith. The important confrontation between truth and power is kept alive by the retelling of the ancient stories of Moses, Nathan, Elijah, and Daniel, and by reminding the people that the hero of these stories is not the prophet but God. The scribe does not take on the role of prophet; rather, the scribe simply revisions and retells the stories of the prophets.

Assuming the role of scribe requires two things of the preacher: a careful and faithful attention to the biblical text as a “word of life,” and attention to the faith community as a people who are not living in the light of the text and who do not know how to appropriate the text. The task of preaching, then, is not confrontation but invitation. It is an invitation to hear the possibilities that lie within the story. It is an invitation to submit to the tranforming power of the biblical story, which finds its ultimate power in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the subsequent sermons, Brueggemann brings his methodology to bear on a number of biblical texts, which he restates with imagination, conviction, surprise, and hope. The stories of Jesus, Elisha, Joseph, Elijah, Peter, and the disciples are laid plainly before the reader in a way that invites newness, healing, courage, and hope. The reader identifies with the lives of the biblical characters and realizes that out of chaos and fear, God can bring peace. The contemporary challenges of poverty, depression, injustice, and the temptation for Christian accommodation of culture are met and defeated by the faithfulness of a God of covenant, power, and love who “calls things by their right name and breaks the deception.”

In his prayers, which are based on his readings of Scripture, Brueggemann confesses our complacency, our sins, our biases and prejudices, our selfishness, and our lack of vision; and he testifies to God’s grace, mercy, generosity, power, and love. Each prayer follows a theme. They are concise in the extreme, and they may turn quickly from one point of view to another: from complaint to gratitude, from fear to hope, from personal tragedy to the tragedies of others, from our lack of faith to that of others. The prayers push toward honesty and openness, and because of their conciseness and metaphorical content, the prayers invite intense participation from the reader. Readers must contemplate Brueggemann’s words and must reflect on their own experiences in the light of those words. Like the Psalms, Brueggemann’s prayers are specific enough to create a sense of reality but open enough to make the prayers applicable to almost everyone.

Christian Themes

Brueggemann offers a way to bring the Bible (particularly the Old Testament) in touch with contemporary Christian life. He suggests that the historical critical methods of interpretation are not sufficient to meet the needs of the community of faith. The Bible is a text that comes to people as the word of God and that speaks imaginatively to the issues and problems of today. The God of the biblical stories confronts people with the truth about themselves and their world. He offers them his power to transform both themselves and the world around them through visualization of a new order of existence.

In his sermons, Brueggemann invites us to reevaluate our values, systems, structures, and relationships in the light of the alternatives that are present in the biblical stories. The cross of Jesus shows us the way of sacrifice for others. It is a way that leads us not to boast of our power, money, talents, and abilities, but rather to seek for steadfast love, justice, righteousness, and peace. The Resurrection of Jesus shows us the possibility of renewal and life. Although evil exists in the world and tragedies happen to all of us, evil is not the end and tragedy is not the end. At the end stands God, who is the source of new beginnings and transformations. God is eternally committed to the cause of his people. Because of the Resurrection, things will not stay as they are; rather, there is hope. Brueggemann says, “God will not stop until the world has been healed and brought to its senses.” This future, which is a gift from God, is certain, but it demands the urgent participation and cooperation of God’s people as agents of his transformation.

Sources for Further Study

Brueggemann, Walter. Cadences of Home: Preaching Among Exiles. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997. The church is in exile, is “de-centered,” and needs a transforming encounter with God that will enable Christians to find “home.”

Brueggemann, Walter, and Patrick D. Miller. Texts That Linger, Words That Explode: Listening to Prophetic Voices. Minneapolis, Minn.: John Knox Press, 2000. A collection of essays that offer fresh insights from the Old Testament prophets and suggestions for preaching from the prophetic books.

Jensen, Richard A. Thinking in Story: Preaching in a Post-Literate Age. Lima, Ohio: CSS, 1993. Electronic media is producing a postliterate world that requires a change in preaching methodology. Preaching should focus less on ideas and more on story.

Winkler, Eugene. Review of Inscribing the Text. The Christian Century 121, no. 11 (June 1, 2004): 37-39. Praises the energy and creativity of the prayers and sermons in the work.