Day 18

Peterson, as we know, has a wonderful gift for language and continuing to read through 'Eat this book' means coming across some wonderful quotes. As stated before, the author is anxious that as Christians we don't just read the Scriptures but live them. We need to listen to the Word and not just read it, remembering that it emerged in the beginning as spoken word before it was written.
Bible verses are not fortune cookies to be broken open at random. The Bible is not an astrological chart to be impersonally manipulated for amusement or profit. The Scriptures read and prayed are our primary and normative access to God as he reveals himself to us. Prayer is engagement with God. The Psalms are our primary text for prayer and Jesus is our primary teacher. We are called to live the Word - living what we read. We need to remember the context out of which the Word came and also remember that the Bible is full of metaphor. A metaphor does not explain or define - it draws us from being outsiders to being insiders, involved with all reality spoken into being by God's word. We need to enter into the world of the text.
Maybe during Lent next year we need to have a go at a 'Contextual Bible Study Group' where we explore a text in the setting not only of the context of the actual text but also in the context of our own lives in order to discover how we can live that word.


And on a completely different subject - what a result for Rangers last night in the Champions League. A much better result than their Glasgow rivals had :-)))

Day 16

Another meeting with a colleague and then into the next of Peterson's books on Spiritual Theology - 'Eat this book'. As the title suggests this has to do with reading the Bible, the title being taken from Revelation 10:9-10.
Peterson considers that we need to let the Word get into our bloodstream and live it. We need to approach the Word as a dog would approach a bone - wrestle with it, chew it, enjoy it. The Bible is not as book to be placed on a 'devotional pedestal' which we can read with 'devout indifference'. He quotes Barth who describes the Bible as 'pulling us into participation with God'. We are called to submit our lives to the text that is 'endlessly bringing together heaven and earth'. He acknowledges the huge challenge involved with this.

But that is enough for today. Time now to go and watch Scotland - Romania in the Rugby World Cup( and if that is going badly I can always switch over to a Champions League game). Annette is delighted at the thought of all this sport on television!

Day 15

Back to the books after a very enjoyable induction weekend at Stourbridge. Here is a picture of the new manse family.
Today I have spent reading the 3rd part of Peterson's book. In this part he turns to the importance of community and suggests that there can be no maturity in the spiritual life apart from immersion in and embrace of community. Holy living is not a 'self project' and in this section he highlights the dangers of selfish living. He uses Deuteronomy and Luke/Acts as grounding texts. He suggests that for the Old Testament people of God getting saved was easy( in the Exodus), but becoming a community was difficult!
He goes on to remind us of the importance of the Christian community into which we are baptised and of the love we are commanded to express.( Peterson turns to the first letter of John as the best place to seek orientation in this).
In the epilogue he writes - 'but what tops the agenda for me is the Christian life as lived, lived with this sense of congruence between who Christ is and who I am; lived in this busy, heavily trafficked North America intersection with the Kingdom of God'

Day 11

After some more meetings with colleagues to get a clearer picture of how other churches operate in terms of 'church membership', it was back into the second major section of Peterson's book, Christ plays in ten thousand places'.
In this section he writes strongly about 'salvation history', suggesting that the death of Jesus provides our entry into the reality and responsibilities of history. Jesus embraced the world and it could be said that his story is not a 'success story' but a 'salvation story'. Peterson uses the story of the Exodus and the Gospel of Mark to ground this 'salvation story'. He frequently reminds the reader that we cannot bring about this salvation story but we can embrace it and with God's help live it. He considers that one of the threats we face is that of moralism - constructing a life which has no need of a saving God.
Towards the end of this section he writes about the importance of the Eucharist and sees this as central to our lives. ( with the 4 basic elements of taking, blessing, breaking, giving shaping our worship and our lives).
This weekend Annette and will be at the induction of our son-in-law, Andy, to Hanbury Hill Baptist Church in Stourbridge. This is his first church after training at Bristol Baptist College. I am sure it will bring back some thoughts of an induction that took place at the beginning of September 1978! As you will see from the photo on the induction leaflet, in those days I had hair that was black and slightly longer. Note also the trendy tie!

Day 9

I enjoyed our visit to Amsterdam. The ferry crossings were smooth, the food was good and the cabin was small! We spent Saturday in the city and mingled with the many Dutch football fans there to watch their national team play at the Amsterdam arena. We travelled around the city on the canal boats admiring the fine canal houses along the way. We visited Anne Frank’s house and saw where she and her family hid away from the Nazis before they were betrayed. We did a bit of shopping and a fair bit of walking too and managed to stay out of the way of all the cyclists. We chose our coffee stops very carefully and certainly gave the ‘Mellow Yellow’ café a miss!

On the way home on Sunday we worshipped at Beverley Minster.

Monday was taken up mostly with a meeting of the liaison group with West Park URC.

Today it has been back to the sabbatical programme and a meeting with one of my colleagues to discuss how his church operates in terms of membership and organisation. Then it was lunch with 2 Baptist colleagues and a lively discussion on the front page article of last week's Baptist Times which had the headline - "Apologise for slave trade on Racial Justice Sunday".

Its back to the books now.

Day 5

Time to put book the books away for the weekend.

One of the enjoyable aspects of a 3 month sabbatical is that weekends are quite different. There is the opportunity to get away and visit family and friends or go somewhere new. There is also the opportunity to go to church and simply enjoy being part of the congregation.

Annette and I decided that on this first weekend of the sabbatical we would get away. This evening we are off on a weekend mini cruise from Hull to Amsterdam. We have never been there before, but don’t worry, I have been reminded on more than one occasion to avoid the ‘coffee shops’.

Day 3

One of the enjoyable aspects of reading Peterson is that he has such a wonderful gift for language. This makes many of his comments and views memorable. But it also means that it is so easy to get swept up in the beauty of what he writes that the reader simply gets carried along enjoying the literature.
In this book he is anxious to express his view that to be 'spiritual' is to live as a Christian in everyday life. This means living our Christian lives where we are in the world.
He writes about the link he sees between the opening chapters of Genesis and the Gospel of John. He quotes Barth - " Jesus is the key to the secret of creation" . While Peterson himself obviously enjoys the wonder of creation he suggests that if we want to really look at creation we need to look at the person( not just the person of Christ but at the people around us). I would think that most of us would say that we catch a glimpse of the wonder of God in creation rather than in the people who are part of that creation. But yet it was within a life lived on earth that God revealed himself most completely.
He sees in Genesis chapter one the description of the creation of time, while in chapter 2 it is the description of the creation of place. Through the gift of time we participate in the present and daily work of God. The gift of place gives us the setting where we live the message. He sees the account of Adam and Eve as reminding us of the challenge to live in the land of the free.( land of freedom and necessity).

In this chapter he returns to one of his constant themes - sabbath keeping. In this we find a God-given rhythm to our lives. He feels that without sabbath keeping it is all our 'unsabbathed' work which then defines the entire context of our lives. Peterson emphasizes the importance of worship with the people of God as a vital part of the rhythm of our lives. For him worship on Sunday is like weekly housekeeping - it clears the ground and helps us get ready to live as Christians in the rest of the week.
For him it is " the workshop for the practice of eternity"