The Wisdom of Each Other

An abridged combination of two letters to Gunnar in Eugene Peterson’s little book, The Wisdom of Each Other: A Conversation Between Spiritual Friends has been under my skin since I first read the book in 1998…it has journeyed with me and from time-to-time has ‘haunted’ me as I’ve grappled with what church means for me, and what it is that God is “invisibly” doing as I belong and struggle to belong and be myself.

Dear Gunnar,

Well, that didn’t last long, did it? I mean your romance with church… you say that you have almost nothing in common with these people. But isn’t that just the point? You have nothing in common with them; but God does. This just happens to be the way that God goes about making a kingdom, pulling all sorts and conditions of people together and then patiently, mercifully, and graciously making something of them. What he obviously does not do is pre-select people who have an aptitude for getting along well and enjoying the same things. Of course you don’t have much in common with them. The church is God’s thing not yours…

You told me earlier that your motive for returning to the Christian way was that you had tried being your own god all these years, “gave it your best shot” you said, and made a thorough mess of it. And wasn’t one of your primary strategies in the enterprise deliberately associating only with people with whom you had something in common? You said it was a matter of integrity. And look what happened – you left your first wife because you no longer had anything in common with her; your second wife left you because she had nothing in common with you. And how many jobs have you abandoned because you had “grown out of them”?

…And now you’re back at it, second-guessing God’s way of being God…the church is not a natural community composed of people with common interests; it is a supernatural community. And the super in that word does not mean that it exceeds your expectations; it is other than your expectations, and much of the other is invisible to you as yet…trust me, there’s a lot more going on than you will ever have in common with anyone there. Go back to the company of those seventy or eighty people on Sunday, listen believingly to the Scriptures read and preached, offer your prayers, receive Jesus in the sacrament, and bless your neighbours…It’s the Holy Spirit’s style to fashion holy lives among the inept…

So, your friends are trying to turn you into a religious consumer, are they, inviting you to their wonderful churches where so much exciting stuff is going on? I would resist it. You’re better off sticking with what you started out with at your Christian re-entry – the “smallest and nearest church.” It’s still my standard counsel in churchgoing.” Of course, I admit exceptions, but not for the reasons your friends are setting out…

(Pp. 26-27, & p. 55 Abridged)

I’d love to ask Eugene what he sees as “exceptions” to belonging to the “smallest and nearest church.” Is my situation an exception or am I just missing what God is doing...?

Comments

[+ Alan]

Good, good, good! Thanks for putting that up here mate. Hard words but like I said, good.

[Marty]

The very heart of my struggle.