The conclusion of the matter

As part of my sabbatical, I've been reading a series of three books by Eugene Peterson (author of The Message). The books are aimed at those in pastoral ministry and are intended to help pastors reflect  on the nature of their calling. Essentially, they constitute a plea/warning against distraction, against being drawn away from our calling, either by external pressures or internal needs (for approval, success etc). The first book was written in 1980, and since then the amount of 'noise' that we have to live with has increased phenomenally - there are many things demanding our attention and expectations of what can be done have increased too, fuelled by the growth in communications technology.

Obviously, the books are rather specialised, aimed at people like myself. That said, they have something to offer to anyone involved in pastoral work (ie the task of helping people live out their faith from day to day, in the midst of life). They have some challenging things to say about how we treat people, whether we take time to really listen to their story, rather than assuming that we know it already. I've become increasingly aware over recent years just how little I know about most people I come into contact with. This should make me slow to judge and wary of assumption.

In one of the books, Peterson considers the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes and suggests that it highlights an important aspect of pastoral work, what he calls 'nay-saying' - saying 'yes' to God and his kingdom means saying 'no' to many other things. Ecclesiastes is often seen as pretty gloomy - cynical even - but it's not negative just for the sake of it. It was written (Peterson suggests) in reaction to superficiality and false religion. The book concludes with these words: 'Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.' (12:13-14) As so often in Scripture, we are called to keep God in his proper place in our lives, and to live as citizens of his kingdom.

This may be my last post for a while. We're away this weekend then I fly out to Cape Town next Tuesday evening. If I can access the internet I'll aim post something. If not, I'll be back in a couple of weeks!