Pastor Sid's Journal

People of the Book

Eugene Peterson writes,

"The Christian Scriptures are the primary text for Christian spirituality. Christian spirituality is, in its entirety, rooted in and shaped by the scriptural text. We don't form our personal spiritual lives out of a random assemblage of favorite texts in combination with individual circumstances we are formed by the Holy Spirit in accordance with the text of Holy Scripture. God does not put us in charge of forming our personal spiritualities. We grow in accordance with the revealed Word implanted in us by the Spirit." -"Eat This Book" pg 15

He then goes on in his book to say, "In contrast to the self-serving and glamorous spiritualities, ours (Christians) is a pedestrian way, literally pedestrian: we put one foot in front of the other as we follow Jesus. And in order to know who he is, where he is going, and how to walk in his steps, we reach for a book, the book, and read it." -"Eat This Book" pg 15

On one hand we speak about God and wanting to God to be involved in our lives but are we interested in what he might have to say to us? Do we read our Bibles, do we "listen" to God's words. The regular reading of the Bible isn't about legalism or magic, it's about life.

Peterson also writes about an illustration that Karl Barth made concerning scripture. He writes:

"Barth provided an illustration that became famous. I am using the germ of his anecdote but furnishing it, with a little help from Walker Percy, with my own details. Imagine a group of men and women in a huge warehouse. They were born in this warehouse, grew up in it, and have everything there for their needs and comfort. There are no exits to the building but there are windows. However, the windows are thick with dust, are never cleaned, and so no one bothers to look out. Why would they? The warehouse is everything they know, has everything they need.

But then one day one of the children drags a step-stool under one of the windows, scrapes off the grime and looks out. He sees people walking on the streets; he calls to his friends to come and look. They crowd around the window--they never knew a world existed outside their warehouse. And then they notice a person out in the street looking up and pointing; soon several people are gathered, looking up and talking excitedly. The children look up, but there is nothing to see except the roof of their warehouse. They finally get tired of watching these people out on the street acting crazily, pointing up at nothing and getting excited about it. What's the point of stopping for no reason at all, pointing at nothing at all and talking up a storm about the nothing?

But what those people in the street were looking at was an airplane (or geese in flight or a gigantic pile of cumulus clouds). The people in the street look up and see the heavens and everything in the heavens. The warehouse people have no heavens above them, just a roof.

What would happen if one day one of those kids cut a door out of the warehouse, coaxed his friends out and discovered the immense sky above them and the grand horizons beyond them? That is what happens, writes Barth, when we open the Bible--we enter the totally unfamiliar world of God, a world of creation and salvation stretching endlessly above and beyond us. Life in the warehouse never prepared us for anything like this.

Typically, adults in the warehouse scoff at the tales the children bring back. After all, they are completely in control of the warehouse world in ways they could never be outside. And they want to keep it that way." - pg 6

Food for thought.