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The Death of a Prophet

by Vicar Lisa Rygiel

Walter Brueggemann passed away on June 5, 2025. Most of you are probably saying “Walter Who?” But those of us who have been to seminary or just have a passion for the Old Testament are probably saying “Oh Wow!”

Brueggemann was an American Christian scholar and theologian who is widely considered an influential Old Testament scholar. His work often focused on the Hebrew prophetic tradition and the sociopolitical imagination of the Church. He argued that the Church must provide a counter-narrative to the dominant forces of consumerism, militarism, and nationalism.

I was just cleaning up my email and an article entitled Prophets Never Really Leave Us caught my eye. When I saw the article, I was surprised that he had already been gone a week before I knew but I guess there are bigger things that hit the front page than the death of a 92-year-old theologian. The article, written by Jason G. Edwards, a pastor at Second Baptist Church in Liberty, Missouri, was a fitting tribute, which I have presented below.

"Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann died yesterday at age 92, and I can already feel the silence he leaves behind. Not the peaceful kind of silence, but the kind that follows a thunderclap — or the pop and sizzle of a transformer blowing out in the dark. The kind that rings in your ears.

He may not have been a household name — depending, of course, on the household. But he was a seismic force beneath the surface of American Protestant Christianity — especially for preachers, prophets, and weary truth-tellers who found in his words a kind of permission. Permission to speak harder truths. Permission to leave space for lament. Permission to read the Bible like it was still breathing.

Brueggemann didn’t give us easy answers. He gave us tension. He gave us poetry. He gave us language when our own ran dry.

In his hands, the Bible was never a museum piece or a proof-texting tool, it was a living, aching, burning thing—capable of unsettling us, reorienting us, and sometimes saving us. He reminded us that the Psalms know how to wail. That prophets don’t predict so much as provoke. That Pharaoh still builds store cities and God still hears the cries from the brickyards.

What Eugene Peterson did for the pastoral imagination, Brueggemann did for the prophetic one. He made scripture strange again — dislodging it from our political idols and sentimental reductions. He called us back to a God who disrupts as much as delivers. A God who gives us the gift — and burden — of hope."

June 22, Pride Sunday -- 10 a.m. Sunday Worship with Communion

Flowers: Flowers are given by the congregation of Zion’s Lutheran in celebration of PRIDE month

Announcements

  • PRIDE Sunday Worship & Fellowship Celebration: Please join us for a special worship service of love and inclusion. Then, stay afterward for our Ice Cream Social as the Holy Spirit calls us together as the people of God. And…if you are able, we still need a few items to go with our ice cream. Please consider bringing fresh fruit, savory items (for those who don’t like sweets), cookies, or additional toppings.
  • Santa Fe Trail Celebration Team: We are grateful to everyone for their support of the Zion’s outreach booth at Santa Fe Trail Days celebration.
  • Flower Chart: Remember to use the new flower chart to sign up for Sunday flowers. The chart is posted on the door to the robing room in the back of the Sanctuary. A gift of $35 is suggested for flower donations and remember to take the flowers with you after worship (but please remember to return the vases and place them in the kitchen of the Fellowship Hall).
  • Worship Assistance Updates: The updated worship assistance list should be posted and shared via email later this week. If you have questions or need to make changes, please let Vicar Lisa or Jo Moss know.
  • Save the Dates:
    • 5-Loaves meal deliveries will be Saturday, June 28, if you can help with meal preparation and/or delivery, please let Jo Moss, Terri Watson, or Norine Hazen know.
    • Zion’s annual garage sale is Saturday, Aug. 2. See Julie Wersal for details.
    • Vicar Lisa’s installation and ordination will be at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 10.

E-formation – Pride Sunday, June 22

This coming Sunday we hear about a naked madman who would break out of his restraints and run around in a cemetery. Come to worship, to hear what happens when this man encounters Christ. Come to worship, and yourself encounter Christ.

Luke 8:26-39

Situated in an alien worldview, in which for example demons cause insanity, talk with Jesus, and reside in an underground level of the earth, the graphic pig story may strike us as somewhat comic. Yet the narrative calls us to join the madman in acclaiming Christ as Son of God and, now that we are healed, in telling others what Jesus has done for us. The white robe of our baptism is like the clothing in which we sit at the feet of Jesus.

Isaiah 65:1-9

The poem in Isaiah 65 put in God’s mouth is chosen to complement the Luke 8 story because of its details—sitting among the tombs, eating swine—typify those who are unfaithful to the covenant. When are we guilty of similar uncleanliness? Yet God calls us for a blessing.

Galatians 3:23-29

Luke’s writings assume that life continued under the distinctions of Jew and Greek, but several decades prior, Paul had called the Christian community to live beyond these categories. The rejection of the ethnic categories of Jew and Greek occupied Christian consciousness in the first century. Facing the distinctions of “slave and free” came in the nineteenth century, and issues relating to “male and female” continue into the twenty-first century. Much religious practice assists persons to live in their culture; yet Paul challenges his readers to be shockingly counter-cultural.

Zion's Lutheran Church

A Reconciling in Christ Community
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719-846-7785