Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Eugene Peterson

This is the introduction to the book of "James" written by Eugene Peterson for "The Message". I know he is not any more inspired than you or I are. But I sure appreciate his wisdom and the spirit in which he writes.


"When Christian believers gather in churches,
everything that can go wrong sooner of later does.
Outsiders, on observing this, conclude that there is
nothing in the religion business except, perhaps
business – and dishonest business at that. Insiders
see it differently. Just as a hospital collects the
sick under one roof and labels them as such, the
church collects sinners. Many of the people outside
the hospital are every bit as sick as the ones inside,
but their illnesses are either undiagnosed or
disguised. It’s similar with sinners outside the
church. So Christian churches are not, as a rule, model
communities of good behavior. They are, rather,
places where human misbehavior is brought out in the
open, faced, and dealt with."



What do you think of his conclusions?

9 Comments:

At 2:56 PM, Blogger Donna G said...

I think if we took off our "church faces" long enough, we would see that he is exactly right! We know the right things to say and the way we are supposed to think, but we are sin-sick and we can't get better because we won't admit we are sick! (my run-on sentence for the day!)

 
At 11:53 AM, Blogger believingthomas said...

David,
Thanks for sharing this. I am deep into a study of James and I would add that James says that if Christians were really like Christ they would be out helping those outside the hospital. If they did this in the correct sense of love for these people then they would not think of the church as a dishonest business.

 
At 10:45 PM, Blogger Steve said...

I don't think we do a very good job of confronting our misbehavior. It is much easier to point at the misbehavior of those outside the church or those in the next church down the street or across town or in a neighboring state.

Peterson is more right that I would like to admit.

 
At 9:52 PM, Blogger Jeff said...

This is excellent, David. Thanks for sharing.

 
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