Voices in Conversation

More notes from the Jeremiah sessions with Anders Bergquist;

“the swirling of several interpreting voices in conversation” (Brueggemann);

“the Book is the Jupiter of the Biblical planetary system” (Bergquist)

Here we have poetic justice and the law of cause and effect; the recovery of the concept of natural law. The Jews considered themselves to be a people exceptionalised by God – so how could this happen? And who is still saying something similar to this today? Here we can also find the law of unintended consequences, there in the sixth century BCE, waiting to help us in post-2003 Iraq and Afghanistan. Here we have the answer to today’s spin-doctors who spray optimism over our fears and misgivings, telling us not to worry, all will be well, and to the box-tickers, who show us the system to follow if we wish to be saved. It is Jeremiah who points out that it ain’t necessarily so, that there could be a more complex, a darker narrative in store for us, without necessarily denying a loving God behind the story.