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Living the Resurrection: The Risen Christ in Everyday Life

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Eugene Peterson --- pastor, scholar and translator of The Message Bible --- believes that after you encounter the resurrection of Jesus, everything changes. When the resurrection becomes the center of your spiritual formation, then you are brought to a place of renewal in your walk with God.

Peterson argues that resurrection isn't something that we give much attention to in our DIY, self-help society that often puts more emphasis on results than the process it takes to arrive there. He invites readers to engage in resurrection wonder and cultivate a sense of awe in their relationship with God. Peterson believes that much of the wonder of our lives is lost because we spend so much time working. Our jobs become a place where we fulfill demands and give into the tyranny of the urgent. As a result, any sense of awe is lost in what we do and subsequently in our lives. Peterson believes we can recapture the wonder by taking the Sabbath seriously.

He writes: "These days, the secular world around us is giving considerable attention to Sabbath-keeping. Corporations have discovered its benefits in health, relationships, and even in productivity in the workplace. Articles and books are showing up touting the wonderful returns that come from rest, from breaking workaholic compulsions, and so forth. All this may be true. But that's not why we keep the Sabbath. We are not primarily interested in a longer life or emotional maturity or a better golf game. We're interested in God and Christ being formed in us. We're interested in spiritual formation-by-resurrection."

In addition to keeping the Sabbath, Peterson invites us to embrace the resurrection through our meals. Reflecting on the Emmaus supper and Jesus's breakfast with the disciples on the beach, we're invited to remember Christ's presence in our lives and at our meals. In the process, we're invited to recapture some of the depth of life that comes when we break bread with others over a prolonged meal and not just grab a quick bite of fast food together. We are encouraged to invite Jesus in the very ordinariness of our lives.

Finally, Peterson challenges us to embrace the resurrection of fellowship in our relationships. We are invited to partake of relationships not just with each other but to understand the holy relationship of the Trinity. He writes: "Going over this final round of resurrection stories, we get a deepened sense that Jesus' resurrection involves us with others. It forms bonds of friendships. It initiates us into a company of men, women, and children who can no longer understand themselves as autonomous selves, independent from one another."

Overall, LIVING THE RESURRECTION is an extremely well-written and thought-provoking book that pushes readers beyond spiritual insights and into the realm of spiritual formation. Peterson pokes, prods and uncovers the heart issues behind the way we live our lives and invites us to come into a deeper life --- one rooted and fueled by Christ alone. This is a wonderful resource for Easter, and its insights and wisdom should be embraced year-round.

I have become a huge fan of Eugene Peterson. He writes with an engaging prose style and his ideas are first rate. However, this book didn't move me in the same way that Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places and Eat This Book did.

Peterson posits that the resurrection should be the central organizing prinicpal of the Christian's life. The beginning place for this formation is in what he calls resurrecton wonder. This is rooted in keeping the Sabbath, marking us as having a different value system from society as a whole. He also places great emphasis on time spent together celebrating the resurrection and emphasizing the extrordinary power of everyday occurances. This is rooted in the celebration of Holy Communion. Finally, he reminds us that it is the company of believers who are on the journey together that help us to navigate the trip. These people are marked and named by baptism.

I highly reccomend this book. Though it did not move me in the same way as the previously mentioned works, it is quite helpful for the journey

Peterson seems to say that, if we call ourselves "Christians," we have no choice but to live as if the resurrection really happened. He rejects religiosity in favor of faith and relationship, but he attaches new meaning to Christian practices like Holy Communion and he links "living the resurrection" with everyday life and ordinary activites.

You may never look at a supper with friends the same after fnishing this book.

Peterson has taken a 35 year calling as a pastor and another 20 years as a professor and summarized it into a single short easy-to-read book about the impact of the Resurrection on the people involved. A dynamite practical book which I purchased for sons and friends. One of the best books I have ever read.

This book is based on Peterson's conference at Regent College several years ago. It is an excellent introduction to Peterson's writtings. The chapter on "Resurection Wonder" is worth the price of the book.

Living the Resurrection: The Risen Christ in Everyday Life by Eugene Peterson

Eugene Peterson invites readers to look at the Resurrection as a life-changing event that impacts daily life. Too often daily life can take its toll and the wonder of the Resurrection fades. In this book, Peterson calls us to revisit the Resurrection and experience the Resurrection through the eyes of the first witnesses and he does so by inviting us to look at `Resurrection Wonder', `Resurrection Meals', and `Resurrection Friends' with fresh eyes.

The shared experience of fear and wonder, added to the sharing of meals and through the Lord's Supper ordinance brings us together as equals and friends in the presence of Jesus. Spiritual formation is not something that should happen as we check off the next item on our list of spiritual disciplines, rather it happens as we live the resurrection together.

While most Christians would say that Easter is one of the two most important days in the Christian calendar, most are not living as if Easter has any connection with their daily lives. After reading this book, I was challenged to allow the truth of this sacred day to be the center of spiritual formation in my life. Too often church leaders look at the `Easter Service-and-all-that-has-to-be-done-to-prepare-for-it' rather than look to Jesus. I would highly recommend this book to those who are church leaders as well as believers seeking to look to Jesus.

I'll put all my cards on the table at the outset by saying that I am a raving fan of Eugene Peterson. I believe that he has a prophetic message that the Church desperately needs to hear in a culture consumed by narcissistic consumerism. He speaks of a different way - a slower way, a more intentional way, a way of slow discipleship in a fast-food world.

In this volume, Peterson does a masterful job of taking three central tenets of Christian spirituality and removing their unfamiliarity, while leaving the undeniable mystery firmly intact. Sabbath, Eucharist, and Baptism - to many of us, they are all-too-common (we have grown up hearing them referenced so often, that we have forgotten their transformative character). Peterson knocks the sanctimonious dust off these practices, relating them to the everyday task of spiritual formation.

Too often, we divide our lives into the false categories of sacred and secular - relegating our work-life to the secular and our church-life to the sacred. Peterson suggests that our workplace is the primary location of spiritual formation, anchored in the God who is first introduced in the Book of Genesis as God at work. Work, however, is only rightly understood through the lens of Sabbath, or holy rest.

Similarly, we tend to think of Eucharist in the form of little Chicklets of unleavened bread and shot glasses of grape juice. Peterson encourages us to recapture the sacredness of every meal, every time that we gather around the table, united by the most basic nature of our humanity (our need for food to survive). He draws us into the Gospel stories of how Jesus often met people around the common table, which was then transformed into the holy ground on which spiritual formation could take place.

Finally, Peterson relates the sacrament of baptism as the essential act that brings us from the autonomy of ego into the community of those transformed by the resurrection. The life of resurrection is essentially a communal life, where all parts unite to form the body of Christ.

This is a powerful little book. At only 125 pages (plus an appendix of passages from The Message), you could read through this book in a couple of hours. It was my experience, though, that doing so would be about the same as taking a can of concentrated orange juice and drinking it straight. This book is best read, then reread, then contemplated, then prayed over - allowing the message to sink into our souls and transform us bit by bit. This is the way of discipleship - the way of the resurrection - the way of Jesus.

One of the best books I have read on being an authentic Christian in the 21st Century. Packed with great insights, Peterson's Spirit-illuminated views provide accurate diagnosis combined with biblical remedies. It is a must read for anyone looking to make sense of how the secular worldviews have crept into the church and wants to recover how to seek God in the ordinariness of life.

Living the Resurrection is just three chapters long as Peterson describes how the resurrection meets us in the three sacraments of Sabbath, communion and baptism. Though this seems a simple enough of a concept, I found myself struggling to follow the ideas and themes throughout. In fact, I didn't even realize the three central ideas of Sabbath, communion and baptism until it was explicitly stated on page 94. While is a short 123 pages, I must confess it began to feel long since it is only broken up into three chapters (I am a sucker for long books with short chapters).

Peterson seems to write in a more flowing, poetic style rather than the straight-forward, logical form that I am accustomed to in most of my reading. While this is certainly not bad, being aware of it will certainly aid in finding enjoyment in the book (of which there is plenty to be found). The insights and the flashes of beauty in this work come not like the crescendo of a solid argument, but like the subtle turn of a word or phrase that may make you think of your everyday Christian life in a new light.

Eugene H. Peterson discusses the importance of Christ's resurrection to spiritual formation in our everyday life in his book, "Living the Resurrection." Christian formation which Peterson calls "formation-by-resurrection" demands vigilance. In three chapters, Peterson covers Resurrection Wonder, Resurrection Meals and Resurrection Friends.

The primary function of the church is the formation of souls, a responsibility Peterson says is being neglected. Christian idolatry has become tolerated as the church has encouraged believers to purchase the newest program advertised to aid in our spiritual growth. The workplace does not tolerate wonder and leads to idolatry by putting us in a position of control. We get back our resurrection wonder by keeping the Sabbath.

Mealtime is a time for reconnection with our loved ones. Food is a universal need and each culture has a tradition of eating together to cultivate relationship, recognize personal dignity and receive pleasure in giving and receiving. Jesus often taught the multitudes in the ordinariness of life--through a meal, attending synagogue, travelling from place to place.

Finally, Peterson points out that spiritual formation takes place in the company of friends, not professionals. Though we are puzzled, confused, questioning, and doubting, we are also singing, believing, praying and obeying. It is all personal rather than impersonal. Jesus is personal. He does not want to hold us at arm's length. He wants to draw us in and love us and care for us. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Peterson's style of leading us through the resurrection stories of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John points out the importance of celebrating the resurrection every day rather than one week of the year. The appendix includes "Resurrection Stories from 'The Message'" which enhances his book. Christ's friends were transformed by the resurrection for the rest of their lives--our lives should be transformed as well and Peterson teaches us how.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress as part of their Book Review Blogger Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."