Eugene Peterson begins his exploration of Paul's letter to the Ephesians (in
Practice Resurrection
) with an investigation of the "hinge" upon which the whole letter pivots,
Eph. 4:1. He writes:
Everything in Paul's letter [to the Ephesians] is designed to keep God's calling (chapter 1-3) and our walking (chapters 4-6) in equilibrium. We cannot measure ourselves by examining ourselves in terms of ourselves, by evaluating ourselves against a non-relational abstraction such as "human potential." Nor can we abstract God into an impersonal "truth" apart from our hearing and responding apart from our hearing and responding to the words he uses to call us into life, into holiness, into relationship. We can understand neither God nor ourselves in any living, adequate, and mature way that is an impersonal, non-relational way. When God's calling and our walking fit, we are growing up in Christ.
God calls; we walk.
[from page 32 of
Practice Resurrection]
3 comments:
my comment was getting to long.
decided to make it into a post.
the post that started as a comment.
i posted as an addidion to my black and white photo that i posted last night.
http://poemsprayers.blogspot.com/2010/07/graveyard-at-evening-zionsvile-indiana.html
your posts often leave me with a message.
:-)
everytime you talk about churches and church services, i think about it. i am also not attending regular churchs or any of their things.
the time away is helping me to see the churches, services, people, and my relationship with God, from other perspectives.
this quote reflects a lot of what i am feeling and thinking. that a lot of my own satisfaction was lost because of my own lack of relationship God. my own lack of listening for God and speaking to
God and realizing who i am in God and who God is in this Life i live. an ongoing thing that i am distracted from with certain dead desires small and large. one must be creative and attentive to live the life of faith.
i am wondering now, if perhaps we are to be in an all the time frame of mind church. for each of us to be the church that God wants us to be. to be the relationship and pursue the relating in Love with God in with others in all of our living. to see our life and our self as the church and the pro making of the church.
to be pro-active in the making and creating the relationship/s.
i guess i have a lot of thoughts coming on this, don't i?
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