More thoughts from Pastor Peterson

In Eugene Peterson's books, "Working the Angles," his whole premise is that there are three "angles" that help create the triangle we call ministry: prayer, scripture, and spiritual direction. I wrote out some of those thoughts and my responses on prayer here. Here are some quotes and thoughts from the first couple pages of his section on scripture.

"It is an immense irony when the very practice of our work results in abandoning our work... But in reading, teaching, and preaching the Scriptures it happens: we cease to listen to the Scriptures and thereby undermine the intent of having Scripture in the first place."

"The Christian's interest in Scripture has always been in hearing God speak, not in analyzing moral memos. The common practice is to nurture a listening disposition - the involving ear rather than the distancing eye - hoping to become passionate hearers of the Word rather than cool readers of the page."

Pastor Peterson's whole premise so far is that we as pastors (and as Christians) have a tendency to let familiarity breed contempt when it comes to reading the Word. We allow it to become a textbook we teach from rather than a love letter from the Lover of our soul that we read to hear His voice from.

As I've been preparing messages these past two weeks, I can easily see how this can happen. As a pastor, you get so caught up in wanting to deliver truth, and to interpret scripture rightly, that you start treating it intellectually, or you start reading to get the next sermon rather than to hear the voice of God. That temptation is certainly there, and Pastor Peterson is right to warn us to guard against it. I look forward to hearing his thoughts on how to do this.