Preaching as Testimony by Anna Carter Florence

Author:Anna Carter Florence [Anna Carter Florence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-06-27T11:39:00+00:00

Testimonial Experience: Speaking as God's Partner

Just to clinch the growing levels of passion, Brueggemann reminds us that when Israel encounters God, it does so as Gods partner. This puts an entirely different (and passionate) angle on our relationship with God, as anyone who has ever been in a marriage or partnership knows. TO encounter God as it partner nixes the possibility of remaining neutral or objective about this meeting. God is not a casual acquaintance. God isn't even a stranger, an enemy, or a close friend. God is the lover you have pledged your life and body to. God is the one you will grow old with. No matter how had it gets, God is not going anywhere, and neither are you.

So there are at least four things we can presume, using Israel's example as our model. First, we expect that God will, in fact, encounter us; this is what partners do. God has a pattern and it habit of breaking into human life, so as God's partner, we are primed to keep our eyes openand to be very vocal in our disappointment if God doesn't show up. Second, no one can expect us to he impartial when we talk about God. Partners have intimate knowledge of one another-the good, the had, and the ugly; they have special insights and odd blindnesses, due to the sensitivity (and desensitivity) of long cohabitation, and they feel intensely about one another, always hungry for the next encounter.

Third, we expect that this partnership compels testimony, because you can't make a covenant with someone and then refuse to talk. It isn't enough to be kind and steady and handy with a box of tools. As God's partner, we have to say where we really are, and what we really feel. We have to really see the other, and allow ourselves to be seen. '[he meeting is a meeting of our deepest places, overwhelmingly intimate; and our speech with one another is the same, because that is how you honor your partner. You tell them the truth about who you are. You show them, in your words and actions. You don't mistake truth for mindless trivia or thoughtless facts, which only hurt more than they help. You testify, in true speech, knowing your life and relationship are on the line. It is even possible-Brueggemann barely suggests as nnuch-that should Israel (or we) cease to speak and Israel's partnership with God he in jeopardy, God-in-relation would cease to he "in-relation" with Israel; perhaps, in some performative sense, God would even cease to he (for Israel, anyway).16

Finally (this is the fourth assumption), we have to expect that our talk will expose us. It makes us vulnerable. There is always the possibility of rejection; not even true speech is immune to it. Testifying to an encounter with God (with all the awkward, passionate, outrageous speech that entails) is terribly risky, putting us at the mercy of the community's judgment. Yet experience itself is not fragile. On the contrary: it is amazingly powerful.

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