Eugene Peterson at his best

Eugene H, Peterson

Eugene H. Peterson, who died in 2018, may be best remembered today for transforming the Bible into The Message, a popular paraphrase that puts Scripture into language Americans can better understand. Yet he was mainly, for many years, the pastor at Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Md., and a very fine preacher.

In 2023 some of his sermons were collected in the book Lights a Lovely Mile: Collected Sermons of the Church Year. The book makes good reading.

Many preachers, and perhaps most preachers, base their sermon on gospel texts, but if this collection is any indication, Peterson favored passages from elsewhere in the New Testament, especially Paul's writings. And the word passages is misleading, for usually these sermons are based on just a single verse. And it is amazing how much he could find in that single verse.

He said this in one of his sermons, "Paul. Why do I like him so much? An opinionated man, verging on cockiness, quick tempered, and capable of soaring anger. He wrote on subjects that are of surpassing importance to me: God, my eternal salvation, the meaning of my life, how to think of Christ. These are things I very much want to get clear and straight."

As the subtitle suggests, the sermons cover the church year — Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, etc.

Like any good preacher, Peterson sometimes said surprising things. He began one sermon, called :"The Most Dangerous," by saying, "Do you know that the most dangerous thing you can do is go to church?" He went on to say, "The temptations that take place inside church are much more severe and have much bigger consequences than those outside." What sins did Jesus most condemn? Well, sins like spiritual pride and hypocrisy, sins more likely to be found in a church than at any bar on a Saturday night.

Want a good sermon without having to step into a "dangerous" church? Give Eugene Peterson a try.