Embracing the Transformation

Unsurprisingly, this little volume from Walter Brueggemann, Embracing the Transformation, calls us to do precisely that – to embrace the transformation that God brings. Brueggemann is a great believer of Scripture and of preaching and this book contributes to his reflections on what preaching can achieve. As he says; “I understand preaching to be the chance to summon and nurture an alternative community with an alternative identity, vision, and vocation, preoccupied with praise and obedience toward the God we Christians know fully in Jesus of Nazareth.” He also says: “The challenge of preaching is that this well-known tale of God must be told as if it had never been heard before. The new land must be shown as if it had never been seen before.” I wonder how readily and how frequently preachers manage to inject the kind of excitement that ought to provoke into their preaching. The point is that God not only makes a difference, but God makes all the difference. “Chaos is transformed into creation. In its largest scope, the Bible invites us to think about God’s transformation of the whole cosmos.” How much of God’s transforming grace do we manage to glimpse?