no tame pets

In the aftermath of yesterday's services, I received this morning an e-mail from a visitor who had shared with us in our worship. In it he included this quotation from Eugene Peterson, which he felt was very applicable.

"The task of a prophet is not to smooth things over but to make things right. The function of religion is not to make people feel good but to make them good.

"Love? Yes, God loves us. But his love is passionate and seeks faithful, committed love in return.

"God does not want tame pets to fondle and feed; he wants mature, free people who will respond to him in authentic individuality. For that to happen there must be honesty and truth. The self must be toppled from its pedestal. There must be pure hearts and clear intelligence, confession of sin and commitment in faith. ...

"What (the prophet) did fear was worship without astonishment, religion without commitment. He feared getting what he wanted and missing what God wanted. It is still the only thing worthy of our fear."

Peterson always writes well. His every sentence is crafted with the care and skill of an artist. And he knows how to hit the mark with what he says.

God does not want tame pets to fondle and feed. Put that alongside what he later says in regard to the prophet's fear - he feared getting what he wanted and missing what God wanted - and you're touching on things that are right at the heart of our living.

What sort of person is God intent on making me? And how, in the end of the day, will my life be simply summarised? What will be the epitaph writ large across my tomb?

A tame pet? God forbid.

He got what he wanted, but missed what God had desired? God forbid.

Much of today has been spent in preparing for a service of thanksgiving for the life of a lady who died last week. So these are the sort of big issues with which I've been preoccupied today.

The order of service needed printing. Prepared, produced and printed. It all takes time. But the time it takes affords the chance to think about the life we'll be remembering.

And the need to give time to prepare the address, as well, obliges me to give some long reflection to just how this lady lived. I ponder the Scriptures at length. I'm trying to find a match between the Scriptures and this lady's way of life. I'm trying to hear God's word to us and what he means to say.

Addresses like this are more than just a run-through of a person's life. It's worship we engage in, and it's God we mean to meet. It's his word that we're there to hear, and at this time when all of us are bound to reconsider our mortality, his word is what we need to hear.

The lady who died was 96. There's a lot of ground to cover and she wanted something simple. The full-length big biography will have to wait!

I find myself being driven back - almost, I have to say, despite myself - to read in the letter to Titus. It seems God means that I should speak about what Paul says is "the grace of God that brings salvation" and which has now appeared to all.

It's a passage which speaks about the "blessed hope" we have in Jesus, "who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."

I'm remembering again what Peterson said. "The function of religion is not to make people feel good but to make them good."

And I'm thinking about this lady as well, and all the different facets of her life. The life of one who trusted in God. And I'm reading what Paul insists on in the pastors he appoints -

"I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good."

In many ways that's just exactly whay this woman did. Throughout her whole long life.

It's striking as I ponder again and again the whole of this letter to Titus - it's striking to see how repeatedly this is the note that is struck. This living our lives in such a way that we're devoted to doing good.

That's what Jesus was like in the way he lived his life. "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power and .. he went around doing good.."

Life lived his way. In accordance with his truth. In the likeness of his Son. By the power of his Spirit.

He doesn't want tame pets to fondle and to feed. It's mature, free people he wants, people who'll respond to him in authentic individuality.

God preserve me from ever becoming a tame and timid pet!