Dear church family,
In a recent sermon, I mentioned that I’ve been reading through a new biography of Eugene Peterson, the beloved Presbyterian pastor who died in 2018. It is called “A Burning in My Bones,” and I commend it to all of you. It offers a beautiful look into a pastor’s life (and, more so, a Christian’s life), revealing the heart of someone who sought to follow Jesus along the dusty road of discipleship.
One aspect of the book stood out to me, which was Peterson’s commitment to Bible reading. As a preacher, teacher, and author, Peterson was constantly immersed in Scripture. At the same time, he recognized the ways that we get Scripture wrong. We mishandle it and thus fail to experience its riches. We so often treat the Bible like a textbook, or even like the phone book (does anybody use phonebooks anymore?!) that we fail to see it as God’s book, intended less for our information and more for our transformation. Yet that is precisely why God gave it to us.
Peterson himself once wrote:
The challenge… regarding the Christian Scriptures is getting them read, but read on their own terms, as God’s revelation. It seems as if it would be the easiest thing in the world… But as it turns out, in this business of living the Christian life, ranking high among the most neglected aspects is one having to do with the reading of the Christians Scriptures. Not that Christians don’t own and read their Bibles. And not that Christians don’t believe their Bibles are the word of God. What is neglected is reading the Scriptures formatively, reading in order to live.
“Reading in order to live.” I like that. It’s what I hope we, as a congregation, are doing every Sunday, and on the days in between. We read in order to live. When we worship, we come into the presence of God and are sent back out by God. And at the center of that rhythm is the Word – the written Word that bears witness to the living Word, King Jesus. We Christians read, listen, and respond in order to live.
If you’re like me, you could use a refresher on this kind of reading. Things have been so out of whack for the past 15 months that we may have fallen out of practice! So why not make a fresh start? Why not clear away the clutter and recommit yourself to a practice of daily Scripture reading and prayer, with weekly Sunday worship as your anchoring point?
Beginning this Sunday, June 6, I will be preaching through the Old Testament book of Exodus. This is, hands down, one of my favorite books in the Bible – for good reason. Exodus tells the story of Moses, the great hero of God’s people, Israel; and the story of God’s mercy, which carried the people out of slavery, through the wilderness, and into the promised land. Because of this, Exodus remains the foundational story for the Jewish people today. And it’s foundational for us Christians, too, as we turn our eyes to the new Moses, whose name is Jesus.
I want to invite you to read Exodus with me for the next three months. Read Exodus not just for information, but for transformation. Read Exodus the way you would enter the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Explore its rivers and trails, its mountaintops and valleys, its people and promise. Find someone to read it with you. Ask questions. Wrestle with the text. Pray. This summer let’s find ourselves within this story – and the great Story of God – that we might truly live.
See you Sunday,
Blake
