Eugene Peterson and The Message

 

 The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, 
and the shops they keep are churches. 
They are preoccupied with shopkeeper's concerns - how to keep the customers happy,
 how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, 
how to package the goods so that the customers will lay out more money.

Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity
 
The New Revised Standard Version is my go-to translation of the bible but I have also regularly used The Message by Eugene Peterson in both worship and bible studies. Peterson was an American pastor and theologian who also undertook the prodigious task of creating a contemporary, readable translation of the bible which became The Message over the course of a decade. He did translate from the original languages but used idioms which may not stand the test of time but were timely, nonetheless.

I use the past tense about Peterson because he died yesterday at the age of 85. I hadn't realized that he lived with dementia in recent years and was recently hospitalized with pneumonia, then moved into hospice care. 

Well before The Message I was an admirer of Eugene Peterson. He wrote thoughtful and direct books about the vocation of pastoral ministry which spoke to me. He was critical of the "shopkeeper" mentality for pastors, as though they were running businesses, and he was not a fan of the entertainment version of worship. Books such as Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction and Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer are classics about scripture and prayer.

Peterson was convinced that pastors were biblically required to "remember the Sabbath and keep it holy," which is the lengthiest of the ten commandments. He would step away from ministry obligations on Mondays and hike with his wife, which certainly appealed to my sensibilities. As he put it:

Sabbath means "quit." "Stop." "Take a break." The word itself has nothing devout or holy in it. It is a word about time, denoting our nonuse thereof, what we usually call "wasting time."

 

He touched many lives including that of Bono, the U2 front man who engaged in a dialogue with him about scripture and specifically the Psalms. 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l40S5e90KY
 https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/bono-the-rolling-stone-interview-3-203774/

He ended up being criticized by some evangelicals in the States when he supported same-gender marriage, a position which he unfortunately stepped back from when he was attacked. 

All in all, Eugene Peterson was a faithful, imaginative, Christian disciple and mentor. He will be missed and I am grateful for his witness.