DRENCHED

Most years I go to Michigan sometime around Thanksgiving, to visit my friends Christian and Tiffany. Christian was a senior when I was a junior at seminary, and Tiffany was a middler that year. We became fast friends, and have been sharing a November holiday for 7 years now. For some reason, I am able to get into a real theological discussion with Christian easier than I do with anyone else, and that is one of the reasons I always look forward to our visit.

Earlier this fall, Christian attended a lecture by Eugene Peterson in Chicago, sponsored by The Christian Century Magazine. He is currently reading a book by Peterson, “The Contemplative Pastor,” and he invited me to read a few chapters while I was there.

Much of our discussion this year seemed to focus on the pros and cons of small churches verses large churches, and how churches (and pastors) can be focused on sharing the good tidings of Jesus Christ. Peterson has something to say about this, it seems to me (I heard him speak at Montreat 3 years ago), but he also has a lot to say about how pastors view and exercise their vocation. In fact, today I read the lecture that Peterson gave in Chicago, in the current edition (“Transparent Lives”, November 29, 2003) of The Christian Century.

The first portion of the article talked about congruence- “doing the Jesus truth in the Jesus way” is the way Peterson summarized it. He envisioned a way of being a pastor in which there is no dissonance between preaching and doing, between word and spirit, between theory and application. And he calls for a contemplative life- arguably, a term ripe for stereotyping, but one that I very much like.

In our discussions, my friend Christian described Peterson’s approach to preparing a sermon- on Sunday morning, the pastor is drenched in the scripture for the day. I thought about that notion as I read Peterson’s article, and I remembered something I had seen and heard when I went to Michigan this year.

On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, Christian and I went to a concert by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Christian is an accomplished musician who currently plays in the Oakland (Michigan) Community Orchestra, while I have only been to two symphony concerts that I can remember- a performance of the Chicago Symphony with guest conductor Arthur Fiedler, in 1970, and a performance by the Ukraine Symphony at Princeton University, in 1996. So I was looking forward to the concert, especially to have a musician with me.

The symphony was guest conducted by Aldo Ceccato, and the second half of the concert featured The New World Symphony, by Antonin Dvorak. During the first half of the concert, I focused my attention on individual musicians, enjoying the way in which they worked at their craft- it seemed different to me, noticing that it was actual physical motion that produced sound, and seeing the intensity of their effort.

Christian told me that Dvorak composed the New World symphony while he was on a boat sailing to America, so during the second half of the concert I attempted to listen to the music and imagine what the composer was saying about America when he composed the symphony. But afterwards, Christian asked me if I had noticed the conductor did not use a score- he had it memorized. I had to admit I didn’t notice that, so we discussed it a bit.

Soloists- and there had been a piano solo in the first half- commonly memorize the pieces they are performing. But it is another caliber of skill for a conductor to memorize a piece, especially a whole symphony- obviously, that means they have to memorize the music of every instrument- oboes, bassoons, trumpets, clarinets, violins, violas, cellos, etc., and so it is very incredible to be there when a conductor does it.

But my friend Christian went on to say that conductors do not memorize just for show. Memorization frees them from worrying about turning pages- and they have more pages, which have to be turned more often, than the musicians. The freedom they gain allows them to focus entirely on the orchestra.

(At the time of this writing, that commentary by my friend reminds me of the comments I got when I used to occasionally preach without notes- always praise, and it had to do with the attention I gave to the congregation, with my eyes. I’ve heard other preachers say the same thing. It was extremely difficult, though, and I worked way to hard to come up with just the right words to risk forgetting them on Sunday morning, so I came up with a compromise.)

On the way home from the symphony, I had a talk with Christian about orchestras, musicians, and conductors. One of the things I asked him was, “What makes a great conductor?”

His answer was A) a thorough (intimate) knowledge of the music, B) knowing each of the instruments in the orchestra and what they could do, and C) being able to get the best out of each musician.

And so when I read Peterson’s essay in The Christian Century, I thought about Christian’s answer: being drenched in scripture certainly sounds a lot like one of the traits being a true conductor. Let me quote a bit from Peterson’s essay:

“Two areas are conspicuously in need of attention these days regarding ways and means, areas in which we’re doing the right thing the wrong way…the two areas are our approaches to congregational life and scripture.” (p. 24)

Regarding congregational life, Peterson says, “The congregation is not about us (meaning pastors, I presume). It is about God.” That sounds a bit like knowing each instrument, and being able to get the best out of it- but Peterson says we do that the wrong way, trying to imagine how we will use each new member to attain our goals for the church. What Peterson points out is that God is the one who draws each member into what God is doing, and the pastor’s role ought to be leading the people to the point where they are willing to place themselves on the altar, and give themselves to God.

Peterson goes on to say, “Scripture is not about us either,” and he devotes more space to working out that proposition. Scripture is about God, not about us, although we are included. He says we to often look for answers, look for rules, look for secrets- “Too many of us read only for information, for know-how, to better ourselves…when we need a break from that, we read for entertainment.” (p. 25)

“So what is the way in regard to scripture? How do we receive this text? Here’s how: by listening and responding and submitting…our reading of this text is a personal listening to a personal God. We listen to God speak our lives into being. We listen to the story that provides a narrative shape and meaning to a life of following Jesus in the conditions of the world. It is prayerful, relational, obedient listening.” (p. 25)

Well, that sounded too me like a great conductor knowing- REALLY knowing, thoroughly and intimately- the music.

George R. Pasley
December 6, 2003