Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

If it be your will, that I speak no more,

that my voice be still, as it was before.

I will speak no more, I shall abide until,

I am spoken for, if it be your will.

-Leonard Cohen, If It Be Your Will.

Fair warning: I am going to agree with Eugene Peterson. I'm sorry if this offends you, but I have been far too blessed and encouraged by what has poured out of the soul of that gentle old man to abandon him now.  Even though the carnival barkers who shout about moral decay and "caving in" to the culture are now ready to declare him apostate, I'm still with him, or rather I feel even more than ever that he is with me. We are both ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and we both have pretty righteous beards.

Once upon a time, I attended a conference where Eugene was the keynote speaker. It was, along with a preaching seminar I took with Fred Craddock, one of my few brushes with honest to goodness Church celebrity.  For those of you unfamiliar with Eugene Peterson, he is a Presbyterian pastor turned writer of spiritual theology and the source of the Bible translation/paraphrase called The Message.  This week Jonathan Merritt published a short interview he did with Eugene in which he asked him about his retirement from writing and public life.  In the course of this interview he asked about the "hot-button" issue of homosexuality/marriage equality.  As a writer and pastor Peterson never exactly tackled the issue directly, although if you know him through his writing, and you have ever gotten a sense of who he is, I think you would be rather un-surprised to find out that he, coming to the end of his career never felt it to be all that much of an issue.  He shared a few little stories about gay people he had served as a pastor and how those relationships had shaped his view of the issue.  When asked whether or not, if he were still serving as a pastor, he would perform a same sex marriage ceremony, he simply said, "Yes."

That restrained, but honest answer is indicative of Eugene Peterson.  He knows it is a hot potato, he knows it is going to earn him some enemies, and it has.  Conservative folk from the Presbyterian Layman to the Babylon Bee have jumped on Peterson's "admission of guilt," but honestly there's not a lot they can do or say to tarnish the legacy of a man who has lived so faithfully and spoken so powerfully about ministry.

One of Peterson's earliest works was called A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, it is a series of reflections on the Psalms of Ascent.  I would say that his entire life has formed itself rather nicely to fit into that title. If you want to get a flavor for what Eugene is like and how he handles things that are a pretty big deal with humility watch this. I especially love the part where Jan tells Bono to be careful and not run on the stones. Eugene is decidedly not a follower of fashion, nor is he much of a self-promoter, the fact that he has been such a successful writer is a testament to the quality of what he has written.

I didn't really intend this to be a defense of Eugene Peterson; he has no need of defending, nor is he probably at all concerned with people accusing him of not taking Scripture seriously, or playing fast and loose with the truth. Call it more of a statement of trust. I know from reading his books, including his memoir where he talks about how he came to undertake the massive work of interpreting the whole Bible in modern language, that he takes Scripture more seriously than any of his critics.  In fact, he has written a whole book called Eat This Book in which he encourages us to take the digestion of Scripture, as a central Christian discipline (and no, he does not literally tell you to eat bibles).

What I am considering here is the nature of Christian discipleship, into which Eugene has been one of my wisest guides. I am earlier in the path, but I feel a great sense of gratitude to men like Craddock and Peterson who have marked the way.  Standing on the shoulders of giants is how we make progress in religion as well as in science.  It is the value of tradition that we do not have to start from zero with regard to the walk of faith.  Khalil Gibran used the image of a bow and arrow to describe the launching of one generation from another.  The ideal natural course is for the older generation to help the younger generation launch further up and further in.  I feel like I am a much better pastor and disciple of Jesus for having read and learned from Eugene Peterson.  I know that his "controversial" answer of "yes" did not come frivolously or without serious prayer and discernment.  I know this because he has proven to be a trustworthy and faithful companion on the journey. Eugene would be the first to deflect any sort of hero worship or implication that he is some sort of guru.

At the end of his memoir, The Pastor, Peterson shares a letter he wrote to a young pastor who had written him for advice or encouragement.  His words in that letter should be for all of us in this vocation:

As I reflect with you on my fifty years in this pastoral vocation, it strikes me right now as curious that I have almost no sense of achievement. Doesn't that seem odd? What I remember is all the little detours into "proud" and "astray" that I experienced, the near misses, the staggering recoveries or semirecoveries of who I was and what I was about. People who look at me now have no idea how precarious it felt at the time, how many faithless stretches there were.

Just in case you want to think that Peterson is out to make himself look good or to win accolades, note that his work is filled with just the sort of humility before God's grace that you see there.  His decisions, his positions, his opinions are some of the most well thought out and examined, because he has not neglected to notice that he might be wrong, and often admits that he was, and that where he is and what he has become is not of his own doing.
I am a bit sad that Eugene is not going to speak for us and with us any longer, but he is in his 80's now and he deserves to rest.  I am glad that he took the time to mark one last signpost on the way out.

Update: Peterson has retracted his "yes" answer to the question of whether or not he would perform a same sex wedding ceremony if he were a pastor. In the explanation of the retraction he stated that he was framing the question in his mind as what he would do as a pastor, a role he had officially retired from a quarter century ago.  He also stated that consideration for the congregation he served would have to factor into his decision.  Which is an important piece of my own position as well, in the question of whether or not to officiate at a same-sex wedding, the level of acceptance within the congregation would be a factor.  I am not a free agent when it comes to my role as Pastor.  I felt that Peterson's first "yes" was motivated by a pastoral reflex, he was picturing, because of how Merritt phrased the question, two committed and faithful members of his congregation who happened to be LGBTQ. My read of his answer was that he was assuming that the church he served welcomed and accepted these people as brothers or sisters in Christ, without regard for their sexual orientation.  I think I understand that leap, because it's a leap I very much want to make, I want my congregation to be a radically welcoming fellowship where some of the old dividing lines have gone away.
That being said, I am conscious of the fact that, were I asked to perform a same sex wedding, I may not receive the unanimous consent of my congregation.  I don't know for sure because it has not been put to the test.  I am not particularly keen on performing random weddings for people that have no connection to the church, although I have done it.  I am hoping that, should a test of this principle come along, the relationship and the caring of the congregation would bring us together so that it is not my conscience against that of church members. I am trying to do the long slow work of having conversations when they arise, praying my way through the baby steps of building a community that opens itself to love.
I affirm my love and respect for Eugene, and I hope that this retraction was not simply a matter of bowing to public outcry. I do not retract any of the nice things I said, and I believe that this whole matter is still a signpost, but perhaps one that bears a caution about how emotional and complicated the issues surrounding marriage can be.  Even in a denomination like the PC(USA) where inclusivity is now a complete legal possibility, it remains an elusive goal. It reminds me of another quote from Peterson's Memoir The Pastor:

Men and women who are pastors in America today find that they have entered into a way of life that is in ruins.

Our job then is to seek what another one of my wise guides Walker Percy used as the title of perhaps his best novel: Love in the Ruins.  Love must be the guiding principle, for it is the only thing that can bring life out of death and rebuild the ruins of the great city.