Carrying On The Conversation

 I’m trying to have a bit of dialogue here with Walter Brueggemann and TC, so forgive me if I’m a bit ham-handed or unclear, or brief to the point of gnomic. You’ll have to read TC’s post first. So do that and then come back.

Done? Good. All I really want to add just now is that the new underlying connection in what is said there is that God is relational. That’s the point of Genesis beginning with creation, and making it clear God is Creator. God is in relationship with the creation, and just as the origin or shaping source (contra the Greek logos). God is in relation with creation, and humans are part of that creation.

So Israel can question God’s faithfulness, and God can assert God is not human (“Were you there when I laid the foundations of the earth?”) but still care enough about humans to respond to Satan’s challenge against Job’s faithfulness (I really could write a treatise on Job, it’s such a rich examination of this issue of this relationship). No, God is not a good pastoral counselor, but then that’s why we have relationships with human beings, too.

This is a whole consideration, which brings in long-dormant issues of hospitality (also critical in Scriptures). But to reduce it to a core: if you recognize the fundamental, that the record of scripture is about relationships, between God and humanity and humans with each other, a great deal of dross and persiflage falls away, and you get to the heart of the matter. Not that the relationships are one-sided or simple, but that what’s important becomes much, much clearer.