Walter Brueggemann: United Theological Seminary, Dayton, OH, Heck Lectures -The OT & Food Fight In the Bible - 5/11/11
1st Lecture:
Monopoly: Accountability for the Food Fight
Egypt & Pharaoh - Because of famine in Gen. 12, Israel goes to Egypt. Become slaves because they were desperate for food.
Joseph Story - Ironic that the nightmare came to Pharaoh who had the most food! Goes to a Jew for an answer to the dream.
Law of Stewardship - People who have the most, have more anxiety.
Joseph becomes Egypt's food czar.
Pharaoh:
Anxiety to accumulation to monopoly to violence.
Deut. 17 - Charter for kingship: Kings should not accumulate!
I Sam. 8 - A warning that a king will take and accumulate.
I Kings 3-11 - Solomon borrowed from Egyptian governance. Seen as the great accumulator. Set up tax districts to support Solomon's luxurious lifestyle!
Israel is playing out the Egyptian model of anxiety, accumulation, monopoly, violence.
Solomon used forced labor of the Israelites. Economy was coercive.
I Kings 6:20 - Construction of Temple. Solomon used gold.
7:49 -
10:23 - Whole earth came to Solomon, like Israel had come to Egypt for food.
Amos 6:4 - Judgment on accumulation and self indulgence. "Therefore" in the prophets means you need to duck! You will go into exile.
Isaiah 3 - Anticipating exile. On that day, the Lord will take away all of the luxury items! There are 5 "insteads" that point to an economic reversal. This is poetry to point out the economy cannot be sustained.
Ezekiel 16:49 - Jerusalem's twin city is Sodom. Sodom's problem is how they are accumulating food. The phrase, "to eat" is used in talking about how Babylon will eat Israel.
Daniel - Begins with empire having a banquet. Invite important people. They see the hand writing on the wall - literally! By end of chapter, the king is dead.
These OT texts should be used by the church to speak out against accumulation. And it's all about food.
New Testament
Mark 2:16 - Jesus is at a party and Jesus is criticized. He was violating food laws that maintain food control. Maintaining a monopoly! The longer you're on the inside, the more you forget those on the outside.
Luke 12 - Person comes to Jesus about who should get the farm. Jesus tells a story about a farmer who kept building bigger barns. This farmer started speaking to himself. A voice spoke a word of judgment against the rich farmer.
End of 1st Lecture
2nd Lecture
Community: Abundant Food Practiced as Astonished Gratitude
To overcome the scarcity food fight for a more just world:
1. Reaffirm that God is the good creator.
2. Doxology helps us to be grateful and share our food with others. Helps us to break the bonds of anxiety. See Psalm 104/148/150
Psalm 104 is a great table prayer to say before we eat.
3. Sabbath. The hardest of the 10 commandments. Turn off the electronics that day. God rested because God knew that the world would continue on its own for one day.
Sabbath is about refreshment of the soul. Hebrew word for self is "nephish" which should not be translated as "soul" which it usually is. When we hear the word, "soul" we usually think of the body/spirit split which is not the Jewish/biblical understanding. Means God got God's self back! Sabbath is for depleted people. A lot of people are fatigued and anxious. People who get their selves refreshed are able to receive God's gifts and are better at making transforming decisions.
Stories of Abundance:
1. Exodus 15, 16 - Israel wants to return to Egypt just after the Red Sea. God sends manna which symbolizes abundance. They try to gather it up like Pharaoh, but it spoiled.
II Kings - Elisha practices God's abundance. No title but he just goes about doing good. Visits a widow who is destitute. God provides the oil. All of this helped her to pay off the mortgage! This isn't just a story about a miracle!
At end of II Kings 4, Elisha sees a hungry group and feeds them with just a little barley bread.
II Kings 6 - War with Syria. Israel wants to kill him. Elisha says no and instead serves them a great feast and this ended the war. Abundant food can stop the war fever!
New Testament
Jesus enacted God's abundance
Mark 6:31-34. Jesus with hungry crowd in wilderness. Jesus performed the OT story of abundance. And there were leftovers.
Mark 8 - Jesus does it again. He took, he thanked, he gave.
Jesus takes them on the boat but they (the disciples) forgot the bread. Jesus chides them for not grasping the theology of abundance.
Mark 6:52 - Disciples didn't understand about the bread because their hearts were hard - a reference to Pharaoh.
The only remedy for us to move from scarcity to abundance is to be overwhelmed by abundance.
Examples:
1. People who are generous, cheerful, and loving.
2. A seminary invited alum back and provided food, child care, etc.
We need to provide more examples of abundance.
Scarcity always excludes. See national budget debate.
Luke - Jesus said, "Don't be anxious, not even Solomon (only 1 of 2 references) had all of this.". Was the bigger barn fool a reference to Solomon?
II Corinthians - Paul is raising money for the church in Jerusalem. He told them that Jesus became poor, so that many can become rich. Paul quotes Exodus 16 - the story of abundance.
The eucharist is a challenge to a scarcity
mentality.
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