Imaginative Remembering

I attended a poetry reading last Sunday evening...I even participated. A bunch of lyrical, thought provoking English profs - and then me - a theology / youth ministry punk way out of his league. I really enjoyed listening to the poems and short stories read by the good people from the Dordt College English dept. I have strong feelings about the connection between the world of poetry and literature, and the world of theology. For too long it seems we "conservative" theology folk have been influenced by a combination of modernism and fundamentalism. We have turned the Bible into a deposit of doctrinal truth...a book of historical and scientific facts...facts that came be pulled out of their context and thrown at people like grenades - "The Bible says.....the Bible says....the Bible says...". And then we wonder why the Bible loses it's meaning for our young people? If it's a book of facts to be conquered...many of them believe they have conquered! They know all there is to know...their arsenal of weaponry is full. So when I ask students to read along with me in class...many do...some don't. Some take that time to glance at their planners, or whisper something to their neighbor, or just totally space out. But their not alone...look around during a church service sometime when the Bible is being read.
Could this have something to do with a loss of imagination? We have worked really hard to drain the biblical story of mystery, magic, and along with it- meaning. The North American Christian community is no longer a story telling community. We have left that to the "heathen". So called "secular" authors, filmmakers, musicians, artists...tell wonderful stories - but far too often we lob our bible grenades back at them, afraid of letting ourselves be human lest we venture away from the "truth".
We need our poets, our authors, our story tellers. We need more theology students to engage the creativity of poetry and literature...and we need more of our English majors to delve into theology. The Christian community has to remember that we are a people with a story, and we all need to learn how to creatively enter into and share that story. We need to be awakened to the mystery and power of the Biblical narrative, and reclaim the Bible for what it is...the memory of Israel and the memory of the Apostles as they proclaim what God has done for us, and the hope of what he is about to do.
The phrase "Imaginative Remembering" comes from Old Testament scholar Walter Bruggemann. I love that phrase and use it every chance I get. Sometime is causes students concern...after all to "imagine" something is to make something up. But I reassure them the phrase does not mean the Bible is fiction...but that the Bible is memory rooted in the historical actions of the God who has entered into covenant with his people, and with his creation, revealed to us through narrative . A story about a God who has, as Exodus 3:7 proclaims, "seen the misery" of his people - and more importantly - has come to do something about it. This is a wonderful story, a powerful story...and it's about time the Christian community once again allow the story to speak.