Wednesday, September 21, 2005

‘Christ Plays’ 181-199

Staff discussion of Eugene Peterson’s Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places:

John began by drawing our attention to Peterson’s “ascetic”/“aesthetic” model on pages 196-7, wondering how directly it can be derived from Mark but saying it’s useful nonetheless—“it’s a tension that will be on my mind this week.”

Bert said the chart on page 193 was a helpful overview of Mark; John added this big-picture view of a biblical book is the reason we need Bible studies and not just sermons on specific passages.

Howie said he appreciated this line on page 199: “Spiritual theology is the discipline and art of training us into a full and mature participation in Jesus’ story while at the same time preventing us from taking over the story.” Howie commented, “I wonder how much of what we write and sing” risks “taking over the story.”

I said I appreciated Peterson’s words on page 183: “We don’t figure Jesus out, we don’t search Jesus out, we don’t get Jesus on our terms.” But I wondered how directly Peterson intended to tie this to his point that Mark doesn’t give us much introduction and background information for Jesus’ life, especially since the other gospels give us detailed (Matthew), memorable (Luke), and eloquent (John) introductions to Jesus.

Earlier: 147-181

Posted by Nathan Bierma on 09/21 at 09:34 AM
Interdisciplinary Application • Preaching • Reading • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

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