Here to be light

     

Eugene Peterson. I’m going to miss him. For many years I’ve regarded him as a friend—a not-so-distant spiritual advisor. I’ve read most of his 30-plus books, including a collection of his poetry, and have my own copies.

      His Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language is always within reach in our home, and I read his Leap Over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians (HarperCollins, 1996) once or twice each year.

      No other biblical writer has done more to awaken me to the enduring truths behind the character of David, whose stories, thanks to Peterson’s mother, formed the ground-plan for his “learning about and understanding what it meant to grow up human and Christian.”

      In Leap Over a Wall he says that as we tell and listen to the David story we are being trained in the nature of story itself as the primary literary form for receiving God’s revelation.

      Story is the gospel way, says Peterson. It isn't imposed on our lives. It invites us into its life. And, “as we enter and imaginatively participate, we find ourselves in a more spacious, freer, and more coherent world.”

      Given his story-based upbringing, no wonder this small-town pastor and college professor felt free to recast the Bible in everyday English. He took his chances with some breezy slang, colloquialisms, and eccentric paraphrases, yet the book has sold 20-million copies worldwide, says publisher NavPress—and is still strongly in demand.

      Two examples must suffice. One that I find adventurous, but not uncomfortable:

Our Father in heaven,

Reveal who you are.

Set the world right;

Do what’s best— 

as above, so below

(Matthew 6).

      The other, I find vivid and inspiring:

You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. … Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven

(Matthew 5).

      Peterson says that the David story continues to prove useful because it doesn't show us how we should live, but how we do live. And how in that living, if we keep our eyes open, stay honest, and avoid pretense, we encounter God alive, God in covenant with us. We realize just how God-shaped, God-influenced, and God-graced our lives in fact are. It’s up to us to consider daily how God is expressing His love and grace so that we can live appreciatively and in obedience.

      As I express my own appreciation for all that Peterson has contributed to my life, I imagine I can hear his voice softly speaking aloud his own version of the 23rd Psalm:

God, my shepherd!

I don't need a thing.

Your beauty and love chase after me

every day of my life.

I’m back home in the house of God

for the rest of my life.