A Good Book Finished

Yesterday, on the train to and from Edinburgh, I finished this excellent book by Eugene Peterson, 'The Word Made Flesh'.

I've posted on this book earlier - here - and don't want to over extend my comments here.

In the second major section of the book, Peterson writes about Jesus and his prayers. There is not so much on the language of Jesus in the section on his prayers, however, Peterson's insightful comments on prayer and Jesus as a teacher, example in prayer are so good you hardly notice.

Let me share one comment from this second part of the book, in the chapter on the Lord's Prayer on 'Thy will be done':
The mature, sane, enduring counsel of our best pastors and theologians is this: keep Jesus' prayer, 'Your will be done,' in the storied and praying context of the Holy Scriptures. Quit speculating about the 'will of God' and simply do it - as Mary did, as Jesus did. 'Will of God' is never a matter of conjecture. It directs a spotlight on believing obedience. (page 180)

Yes, obedience beats speculation any time. Just do it!

The Invisible Man

Peterson's chapter on Lk 16:19-31, commonly known as the Rich Man and Lazarus, entitled by Peterson 'The Invisible Man' is really good.

Before he is seen at Abraham's side, Lazarus is invisible to the Rich Man. This parable, however, is not a story about what happens after death, it is very much a story about what happens before death.

It is in this life that the Rich Man seals his eternal fate. Once you notice the connection between Lk 16 and Jn 11 is becomes more clear. Lazarus did rise from the grave, but they did not believe him, they plotted to kill him all over again! Jn 12:10-11.

This story of the Invisible Man only functions are part of a larger story, a meta-story, in the context of which we can find ourselves included in this particular story. Story requires our involvement, a better word than response, we need to join in the story.
In this story, the invisible question - did the five brothers ever repent? Did they hear this account and change their ways? Are we among the five brothers?

Who Grumbles?

The first main part of this Peterson book is to walk with Jesus through Luke's travel narrative - Luke 9:51-19:44. This section of Luke is mostly unique to Luke and is framed by references to leaving Galilee (9:51) and arriving in Jerusalem (19:11, 28, 41).

In these chapters Jesus travels through Samaria, non-Jewish territory. Peterson takes this as his starting point to look at the stories Jesus told and how they will help us live in the non-Kingdom of God territories we find ourselves in day by day.

On Luke 15, Peterson draws our attention to v. 2, that the Scribes and Pharisees were grumbling. Peterson notes that this word is only used by Luke and that it appears in the Greek OT at Exodus 16:2-3:
Exodus 16:2-3  In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat round pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

Putting these two groups of grumblers together, Peterson writes,
The people of Israel murmered not because they were bad and evil but because they were good and scared. The Pharisees and Bible scholars [scribes] murmur not because they were bad and evil but because they were good and scared. The murmurers in both cases are reverent and devout worshipppers of God, delivered from pagan superstitions and following God's leader. Both sets of murmurers can be given the adjective eusebeia, godly, righteous. But now something is taking place that turns everything topsy-turvy. Their self-image, righteous, by which they define themselves, is suddenly erased. They are disorientated, lost. They don't like the feeling and so they murmur, diegongudzon. Understandably so. (page 93)

Self-righteousness is a sin unique to to godly. Only within the church do we find self-righteous people who look down on others. When this self-righteousness is challenged, in any way, grumbling results.
The people with Moses, the Pharisees and Bible scholars, are followers, they are on the journey towars God's promise. But they fall into this defensive grumbling.

The first three stories in Lk 15 take that which is lost, in the place where grumbling might begin, and show how grace finds what was lost. The fourth story - of the elder brother - is openended, he is grumbling but we are not told if he will leave his grumbling and come into the Father's welcome and party. This draws the hearer and reader in, how will we respond?

Continuity In Daily Living

This is another must buy, must read book by Eugene Peterson.

From p. 4
God does not compartmentalize our lives into religious and secular. Why do we? I want to insist on a continuity of language between the words we use in Bible studies and the words we use when we're out fishing for rainbow trout. I want to cultivate a sense of continuity between the prayers we offer to God and the conversations we have with the people we speak to and who speak to us. I want to nurture an awareness of the sanctity of words, the holy gift of language, regardless of whether it is directed vertically or horizontally. Just as Jesus did.

Yes, we should not have a special speech for God-talk and a different, 'ordinary' form of speaking for non-God-talk. Who are we dishonouring if we use words and language like this? So no more omnipotent, or hypostatic, or whatever the phrase we love to use that is our in language.
Yes, we should not only be careful about our words and mean what we say when we talk to or about God. Integrity of language is vital in all our use of language. We honour those we speak with when we speak with integrity.

Peterson is writing about words and language, but once you catch the idea it doesn't stop. There is no religious secular divide. God loves us and cares for all our lives. God is interested in how we drive, what we do in our bedrooms, what we eat, how we talk, what we look at ... there is no part of our life that is beyond the love and care of our God.

This is the kind of Christian living that will impact the world with the good news of Jesus in ways that we presently don't recognise as evangelism, but which are profoundly a sharing of the good news of Jesus, who is God with us.

Recommended Books

Over at Euangelion Joel Willitts has an interesting post, with a lot of comments, on the theme of 'A book every university student should read'. Well worth a look here.

So I was thinking, for ministers/pastors and preachers, what two books would you recommend?
I've picked my two:

1. Peter White The Effective Pastor
This is a great book by an experienced pastor and church leader. In four sections, covering a range of ministry tasks, this would be a valuable book for a calls of student, or a ministers reading group to work through and learn from.

2. Eugene Peterson Five Smooth Stone For Pastoral Work
I'm sure that Peterson has written a poor book, or a chapter that is less good, it's just that I haven't found it yet! This was my first Peterson book and is a classic.
Peterson works though key issues of pastoral work using the five Megalith texts: Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Ruth, Esther, Lamentations, using the themes of each of these books to guide his refelctions on an area of essential pastoral work. If you ever need a book to persuade you that you still have a lot to learn about pastoral work, this is it.

I've not offered any kind of review of these books as it's a while since I've read them. When I read them again I'll over more comments.

What books would you recommend to young minsiters, students or for a ministers reading group?

The Bible and Revelation

I've started re-reading Eugene H Peterson's Eat This Book. I always enjoy Peterson's writing it is so rich and sumptuous.

In this second volume in his spiritual theology series Peterson writes about bible reading.

The challenge - never negligible - regarding the Christian Scriptures is getting them read, but read on their own terms, as God's revelation. (page xi)

... in order to read the Scriptures adequately and accurately, it is necessary at the same time to live them. Not to live them as a prerequisite to reading them, and not to live them in consequence of reading them, but to live them as we read them, the living and reading reciprocal, body language and spoken words, the back-and-forthness assimilating the reading to the living, the living to the reading. Reading the Scriptures is not an activity discrete from living the gospel but one integral to it. It means letting Another have a say in everything we are saying and doing. It is as easy as that. And as hard. (page xii)

Revelation is a term that has dropped out of current discussions on Scripture. The text of Scripture is not a work of the imagination, even the creative imagination, of some human seeker after God. The text of Scripture is revelation, there is an objective reality to which the text of Scripture bears witness beyond itself. That reality is God. This aspect of the nature of Scripture constrains us in our reading and interpreting these words, because these words and no other words are this revelation which has been made known, displayed before us.

I really like Peterson's insistence upon our reading Scripture being intimately connected to our living Scripture - the two go together in ways that cannot be torn apart. Where there is no obedience or submission to Scripture there has not been an adequate or accurate reading of Scripture. Reading is more than recognising that the black marks make the words, this is true of every text. Reading a text which is a revelation of God by God must engage our lives, must change our lives if we have even begun to read this word.

The Jesus Way and the world's way

On the final pages of The Jesus Way I found this quote from Peterson. He is writing about the uniqueness of following Jesus,

"It is like nothing else. There is nothing and no one comparable. Following Jesus gets us little or nothing of what we commonly think we need or want or hope for. Following Jesus accomplishes nothing on the world's agenda. Following Jesus takes us right out of this world's assumptions and goals to a place where a lever can be inserted that turns the world upside down and inside out. Following Jesus has everything to do with this world, but almost nothing in common with this world."

This connects with so many things I've been thinking about.

The life of the citizen of God's Kingdom, a follower of Jesus, is counter every culture of this world. However, Peterson's final sentence here won't allow us to escape from the world into some other-worldly kind of existence. Following Jesus is done in this world and engages with life as it is lived in this world (or as Qohelet would have it 'life under the sun'). But the values, the patterns, the means of this world are rejected by the follower of Jesus in favour of the values, patterns and means of Jesus. Living Kingdom lives now will turn the world upside down, for the blessing of all, Gen 12:3. Peterson's final sentences in this must read book,

"But in every generation a few do follow Jesus. They deny themselves, they take up their cross, and they follow him. They lose their lives and save them - and long with their own, the lives of many, many others."

A Poem for Today

I've been reading The Jesus Way by Eugene H Peterson and finding it a most wonderful book, there will be more posts on the themes from this book soon.

Today I came across a poem Peterson quotes of George Herbert, a seventeeth century priest. The poem is called 'Aaron' and is a study of priesthood. Peterson uses the poem to illustrate the anonymity of a genuine priest, an 'anonymity which suggests their authenticity.' (page 226)

I hope you find this poem helpful and challenging.

Aaron - by George Herbert

Holines on the Head
Light and perfections on the Brest,
Harmonious bells below, raising the Dead,
To lead them unto life and rest,
Thus are true Aaron’s drest.

Profanenes in my Head,
Defects and darkenes in my brest,
A Noise of Passions ringing mee for Dead
Unto a place, wherer there is no rest,
Poore Priest thus am I drest.

Onely another Head
I have, another hart and brest,
Another Musique, making live not dead,
Without whom I could have no rest,
In him I am well drest.

Christ is my only Head
My alone onely hart and Brest,
My onely Musick, striking mee even Dead,
That to the old man I may Rest,
And be in him new Drest.

So Holy in my Head,
Perfect and light in my deare Brest,
My Doctrine tun’d by Christ, (who is not Dead
But lives in mee, while I do Rest)
Come people; Aaron’s Drest.

Italics and spelling as in Peterson.

24

While just about everyone else is watching season 7 via Sky, we don't have Sky, or cable, or channel 5! We've had to resort to rewatching season 5 on dvd.

Krish Kandiah has a really interesting post on 24, this link will take you there - Krish on 24.

We've watched all six seasons, and the film Redemption on dvd. I really like the concept of the show, the events happen in real time in and around LA, this generates its own tension and energy as the clock ticks round.

My favourite is still season 1, not wanting to spoil the plot if anyone hasn't seen it, but the tension is kept very high right up to the final minutes and through each episode Jack really struggles between getting the job done and doing the right thing.

From season 2 on Jack becomes much more focused on getting the job done, and in my opinion, some of the things he does to get the job done would have been better not done - even if that meant the operation failed.

There is a real issue about ways and means. This is the major theme of Eugene Petersons, The Jesus Way, another really excellent book from Peterson. Jesus is concerned about the way, what we do and how we do it matters just as much, if not more, than getting the job done. Indeed, sometimes the way we do things is the job that is to be done.

I'm sure when the dvd of season 7 of 24 comes around I'll watch it and get caught up in the action. But the ways and means adopted by Jack Bauer can't be the ways and means adopted in Christian discipleship.