The End of Death-as-the-End for Eugene Peterson (1932–2018)

October 23, 2018

We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. —Romans 6:6-11, The Message “I’ve always liked Billy Sunday’s formula for the ideal Christian life,” Eugene Peterson wrote in the opening lines of his book Living the Resurrection. […]

Live As Fully As Possible

September 24, 2018

Exile is traumatic and terrifying. Our sense of who we are is very much determined by the place we’re in and the people we’re with. When those things change violently and abruptly, we wonder who we are. The accustomed ways we have of finding our worth and sensing our significance vanish. When the first wave […]

Unavoidable, Undeniable, Incarnational

July 20, 2018

Certainly one verse in The Message that has proven especially resonant comes at the outset of the Gospel of John: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14). John’s declaration here is resonant because it is so unflinchingly incarnational. What is the main storyline of the Bible? Incarnation—Jesus. The biggest […]

Feed on the Scriptures

July 20, 2018

In order to read the Scriptures adequately and accurately, it’s necessary at the same time to live them. Not to live them as a prerequisite to reading them, and not live them as a consequence of reading them, but to live them as we read them. Reading the Scriptures isn’t an activity discrete from living […]