Happy New Year

It's a long voyage indeed. Today I get to wish everyone a happy new year. Yep, November 30. The body of Christ has long observed the Sunday closest to St. Andrew's Day as the start of the year.  Andrew, the first apostle to be called by Jesus, the one who found and brought his brother Simon, has his day today. And today, being Sunday, we start the new year. It's a time of new beginnings. It's a time to look again to the Lord, asking him to come with his forgiveness and grace.

How do we start the year? Is it a big party? Actually, that's another counter-cultural factor of the Church. We begin the year with a period of repentance. The season of Advent is a time for preparation to welcome the Christ who is to come. We look to his second coming but we also look to the celebration of his first coming, in a manger, in humble circumstances. And as we look to the coming of Christ we humble ourselves. We sing songs which are subdued. It's a time of fasting. It's a time for repentance. It's a time to look forward to Christ, the redeemer of the world, whose coming we will recognize on December 25.

Happy new year! It's time to start out the day slowly and carefully, knowing that everything will be cooking for real pretty soon.

By the way, people often ask about the tradition of Advent candles and wreaths. For what it's worth, that's a pretty new custom, dating back into the 1800s. There are four candles around the perimeter. One is often rose colored, while the others are usually blue or purple. There may or may not be a white candle in the middle. On the first Sunday of Advent light the one which is toward the front. Work around clockwise, one candle at a time. On Christmas, light the white candle if there is one. Different commentators have assigned different significances to the individual candles or different themes to the different weeks. It's up for grabs. A fun thing but by no means with a long history or any definitive traditions.

The Advent candles or an Advent calendar do give us a good structure for taking on something new or rededicating ourselves to something old, maybe a brief family Bible reading, singing a song, or having an extra time of prayer for some situation in the world.

Peterson, 1987. Chapter 4, "Turning Eyes into Ears"

Chapter 4, “Turning Eyes into Ears” (Loc. 836)

Peterson begins this chapter by observing that the Scripture is given to use not so we can analyze it but so we can hear from God. “But it is just this quality of zestful passion to listen to Scripture that diminishes, even to the point of disappearance, in the course of pastoral work” (Loc. 840). Listening and reading are very different activities. Listening is entering into dialog of some sort. God calls us to listen.

Peterson suggests (Loc. 868) that printing has had the side effect of decreasing our zeal for God’s Word. It is not common and easy to find, which may make it hard to “hear.”

Likewise (Loc. 898), the interactive personal task of learning has often been replaced by the more passive reception of schooling. If we have become passive in pursuit of truth we will not receive that truth.

Finally, Peterson thinks (Loc. 937) that we have gone astray by becoming consumers and customers rather than creators. The pastor is called to hear God’s Word, to seek it out, and to shepherd God’s flock. This is counter to much of modern culture. It is something we will do well to recover.

Peterson, 1987. Chapter 3, "Prayer Time"

Chapter 3, “Prayer Time” (Loc. 620)

Peterson expresses surprise at the number of things people would ask a pastor to do, especially considering that religious concerns seem less important to many people than they were in prior generations. Yet Peterson observes, “among the considerable demands on my time not one demanded that I practice a life of prayer” (Loc. 630). Yet Peterson insists this life of prayer, practicing how to respond to God’s Word, is heart and center of ministry.

Peterson ties this concept (Loc. 662) to the need for a sabbath, a day of rest. While we tend to think of night as the end, the biblical concept of a day starts with night, a time of expectancy. We look forward to God’s overarching plan and move in and out of his activities in our pattern of work and rest. The Sabbath then is the large time of rest, ordained by God.

The sabbath then is “Uncluttered time and space to distance ourselves from the frenzy of our own activities so we can see what God has been and is doing” (Loc. 727). Keeping this time and space is God’s command, allowing us to see him. Yet Peterson says we have a great desire to simply work harder. This is finally depending on ourselves rather than on God.

Peterson, 1987. Chapter 2, "Praying by the Book"

Chapter 2, “Praying by the Book” (Loc. 421)

Prayer plunges us into vivid communication with the living God. It also sets us apart from and sometimes into opposition with our community. So why are our prayers weak? Prayer “has been uprooted from the soil of the word of God” (Loc. 433). We realize that “prayer is never the first word; it is always the second word. God has the first word. Prayer is answering speech; it is not primarily ‘address’ but ‘response’ (Loc. 446). Therefore, when we begin an event with prayer, we need to confess its character as an answer to God’s Word.

Where do we learn to pray, to answer God? We go to the Psalms. Through all history they have been the prayer book for God’s people. Peterson discusses the division of Psalms into five books with divisions before Psalm 42, 73, 90, and 107. In location 534 Peterson suggests the books have a relationship to the Pentateuch, each section answering the themes of one book. However, when we look for the specific themes we are disappointed. God’s communication with us is complex, as are the many types of answers we find in the Psalms.

Peterson develops an idea that the Torah walks us from birth to maturity and that during each stage we respond through the prayers of the Psalter. When we are thus equipped we are ready with prayers empowered by God.

Peterson, 1987. Chapter 1, "Greek Stories and Hebrew Prayers"

Peterson, Eugene. Working the Angles: the Shape of Pastoral Integrity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987. Kindle Edition.

In his lengthy introduction Peterson lays out the idea that a geometric shape is determined by its angles. The three angles he sees as most important in shaping the pastoral life are prayer, Scripture, and spiritual direction. Those are the pastor’s indispensable elements.

Chapter 1, "Greek Stories and Hebrew Prayers” (Loc. 200).

Sometimes in the midst of chaos a pastor seems to be non-essential. Peterson compares it to “putting plastic flowers in people’s drab lives” (Loc. 209). On the contrary, pastors are called to minister in Word and Sacrament, something which may seem irrelevant at times and does not fit into our framework of sense. Yet throughout history communities have always set aside pastors to minister in word and sacrament.

What is essential in all this? If we hold to a life of prayer it will keep “Pastoral work true to itself centered in word and sacrament” (Loc. 254).

Peterson uses the ancient Greeks as an illustration of reality. The gods were selfish and capricious yet the Greeks sought knowledge and wisdom. The work of the pastor is in large part preparing people to live and die in a fallen world. Peterson affirms (Loc. 318) that in the 19th century prayer was “pushed out of the action” as enlightenment values overcame the Church. When biblical history was recast as a sort of mythic narrative, free from the power of God, the vivid life of prayer declined as well. The solution is to return the Psalms and the life of prayer to the center of Christian community life.

Chapter 5, “The Pastoral Work of Community-Building: Esther”

Chapter 5, “The Pastoral Work of Community-Building: Esther” (Loc. 1837-2296)

“All pastoral work takes place in the setting of the church, the community of faith. The pastor is never a private chaplain to individuals; the pastor is never an impersonal speaker to crowds; the pastor is set in community and given the task of building that community” (loc. 1841). Peterson says this is viewed as good until our community notices we are building a community of faith, not what they might desire. There are so many secular substitutes for a community of faith that it is easy to be misunderstood (Loc. 1853). Yet the community is central to a biblical idea of God’s people. “There are no Robinson Crusoe traditions in the biblical narratives” (Loc. 1875).

Peterson draws our attention to “Esther because it presents the issue of the nature and function of God’s people in stark and simple terms; survival versus annihilation” (Loc. 1914(. The people around Esther were largely hostile. At best they were indifferent. How do God’s people live in community? In Esther they do, celebrating the victory of their people over the enemy. Our concern is that we have this joyful celebration in its right context. “Joy, separated from its roots in God and pursued apart from the community of faith, becomes mere sensation” (Loc. 1940).

There is little known about the Jews in their captivity in Babylon. We know that the people in Susa tended toward syncretism (Loc. 1988). This was not Judaism at its best. Our congregations are not perfect Christianity. All remain due to God’s grace (Loc. 2000). The size of the congregation is not its security but the Lord is (Loc. 2052).

Peterson diagnoses the problem. We prefer the active leadership of King Saul to the quiet faith of Mordecai. “The importance of Mordecai for the pastor derives from his style of leadership, a style that exemplifies the way of the servant” (Loc. 2179). Though he is the leader who protects all the Jews from destruction and who has been faithful to the pagan king, he does not seek honor or prestige.

Chapter 4, “The Pastoral Work of Nay-Saying: Ecclesiastes”

Chapter 4, “The Pastoral Work of Nay-Saying: Ecclesiastes” (Loc. 1428-1836)

The work of the pastor, as a visible individual, is often highly symbolic in people’s eyes, of the work of God. People want something from God and they expect the pastor to deliver it. There is, however, a drawback. “We work on a street teeming with competition. Every kind of religious leadership is offered to persons who want ‘god’” (Loc. 1450). Peterson suggests that people’s desires lie essentially in two directions, that they want miracles as they want answers (Loc. 1458). Amid the various demands, Ecclesiastes warns us what we must avoid (Loc. 1468). The dating and authorship are unclear. It is, however, clear that the preacher is in a time when religion and its wisdom are seen as delivering a life which is very fulfilling. We can discern that religious life was not entirely victorious. The author brings out the theme of enjoyment repeatedly (Loc. 1522) as if it is lacking in practice. The solution the preacher gives is the “yes” of the Gospel, not any other positive message (loc. 1536). as a result, when there is a message which tries to use God to gain our wants, the pastor’s response is “no” (Loc. 1565).

Peterson observes the pastoral function of the wisdom literature (Loc. 1592ff), noting that it is intended to focus worshipers in their everyday world. Contrary to this, the people found unsatisfying platitudes (Loc. 1640). Counter to this, God has revealed himself in Scripture which can be examined and held up to investigation (Loc. 1644). That knowledge and wisdom, though, needs to be kept in its context. It may not be divorced from God or it becomes mumbo-jumbo. “The only way to keep knowledge from becoming separated from relationship with God is to return to the confessional base of worship” (loc. 1662). Here we confess the God who works miracles at the same time that we learn to live in him whether he works those miracles or not. The true worship of God may well not be showy but will always be in consonance with God’s covenant (Loc. 1752). This is what creates vitality in worship.