Tangence

In the last post from Christ Plays in 10,000 Places I highlighted a myth that Peterson brings into clear focus. We too often think that the entire Christian life is about the Christian. We are involved to be sure. We are invited to be a part of it, anticipated even. However, the Christian life is about God, it is about Christ and we get in on it via what Peterson calls “prepositional-participation”.

Here is another great myth of American Christianity and one that I must confess I have completely bought into, propagated and now am in repentance over. It is the idea that Christian spirituality can or should be a quick fix. Eugene Peterson says:

This is slow work and cannot be hurried. It is also urgent work and can’t be procrastinated. Life is deteriorating around us at a rapid pace. Life at the center–Gospel life, kingdom life,–is being compromised, distorted, and degraded at an alarming rate. At the North American intersection, slow and urgent are not compatible, they cancel one another out. But in the Christian way, patience and urgency are yoked. Urgent as this is, there is no hurry. There cannot be any hurry. Impatience is antithetical to a congruent life.

Just outside my office window I spied a female pyrrhuloxia. Been a long time.

Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology is one of several efforts by Eugene Peterson, all successful in my opinion, to provoke pastors and all interested Christians to think seriously about our spirituality. I have been reading Peterson since college. The older I get and the longer I work in the pastoral world the more I come to appreciate him, believe what he has to say, and anxiously await his next offering.

We too easily forget that there are forces that influence and shape us in ways that are contrary to Christ. In fact, sometimes these forces come over us concealed as “Christian” or “spiritual”, and we fail to make discern between how God is working and how we would prefer him to.

Christian spirituality is not a life-project for becoming a better person, it is not about developing a so-called “deeper life.” We are in on it, to be sure. But we are not the subject. Nor are we the action. We get included by means of a few propositions: God with us (Matt. 1:23), Christ in me (Gal. 2:20), God for us (Rom. 8:31). With .. in … for …: powerful, connecting, relation-forming words, but none of them making us either subject or predicate. We are the tag-end of a prepositional phrase.

So, what do you think of this? There is more to come from Peterson’s book Christ Plays…

BTW, you can see a great interview of him on an older post here. HT to Rustin for this one:

Peterson Interviewed at Point Loma

Teason is a big fan of Bill Frisell, so am I. Here he is playing the tune “Keep Your Eyes Open”.

I have been feeling puny for about a week and have been out of my blogging rhythm. So, here is a little music to pacify my four regular blog readers. Thanks for keeping up…

By the way, I realize I have been a big REM fan for more than two decades. Yikes…