The Bible starts out with a liturgy of abundance. Genesis I is a song of praise for God's generosity. It tells how well the world is ordered. It keeps saying, "It is good, it is good, it is good, it is very good." It declares that God blesses -- that is, endows with vitality -- the plants and the animals and the fish and the birds and humankind. And it pictures the creator as saying, "Be fruitful and multiply." In an orgy of fruitfulness, everything in its kind is to multiply the overflowing goodness that pours from God's creator spirit. And as you know, the creation ends in Sabbath. God is so overrun with fruitfulness that God says, "I've got to take a break from all this. I've got to get out of the office."
Walter Brueggemann
"The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity"
on Religion Online
(I heard Brueggemann speak when he came to Knox Church in Dunedin, a number of years ago. I expected him to be as theological in his preaching as he was in his writing; in fact, he preached a simple but profound message which reached all those who attended.)
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