Eugene Peterson

I've been listening to an interview with Eugene Peterson from 2007 where he's talking about books and literature and reading and things. He made a really interesting observation about the purpose of church (in the sense of the gathered community I would say).

He said that we gather this group of people together on a Sunday to:

incrementally build a true, whole picture of God.

And that the role of the pastor was to:

keep the perceptions clean about God.

Clean as in clear and pure.

These two together are quite a challenge when you start to think about them. Perhaps one can almost hear an echo of Paul's word that he taught the whole counsel of God not just a part of it. 

I wonder whether some of problems we have with God arise because we don't see the whole we only see the part. There's that great scene in Bruce Almighty when he decides that the easiest way to deal with all the prayers is simply to say yes to them all. I believe it's one of the deleted scenes where God shows Bruce that by doing so he robs people of the experiences that shape them. There's a boy, as I recall, who asks to be able to climb the rope in the gym, and he does because Bruce says yes to his prayer. But his "success" creates a mean-spirited person rather than the thoughtful and reflective poet that he could have been.

So here's to the gathered church as it seeks by faith to reveal the whole and true picture of the God we know and more importantly who knows us.