In "As Kingfishers Catch Fire," Eugene Peterson hopes to help us achieve greater congruence between what is preached on Sunday and how we live our lives on the other six days. The book is a collection of sermons preached over a span of nearly three decades while Peterson was pastor of his congregation in Maryland. The sermons are grouped into seven parts that focus on the biblical books written by Moses, David, Isaiah, Solomon, Peter, Paul, and John. Peterson emphasizes repeatedly that we need to look intentionally beneath the superficial realities of our daily work, routines, and tasks to perceive how God is using the most minute details to transform us into the image of Christ. Although the text and message of each sermon is unique, the underlying theme focuses on how the creative, powerful Word of God opens our eyes to see how God moves in and through our lives. Furthermore, we are not merely audience members watching His grand narrative unfold but active participants in joining God as He transforms, recreates, and renews all things through His Son. Instead of passively receiving God’s Word in the pews, the author invites us to use Scripture as the prism by which we can see life properly in God’s perspective. Even though these are past sermons that include dated references and allusions, the keen observations and applications are just as relevant to Christians today.

I would recommend this book to those who struggle to link the glorious truths of God’s Word to the ordinariness of our daily lives. We often succumb to the temptation to divorce what goes on during Sunday mornings with the activities in the rest of our lives. As such, we fail to realize the power of the Bible and how its truths enliven us to experience the beauty and joy of following Jesus. Peterson urges us to allow our worship, may it be through song, word, and sacrament, to infiltrate every part of our daily thought, word, and deed. As a seasoned pastor and scholar, Peterson masterfully identifies the crucial linkages between Scripture and life enabling us to see how even the arduous tasks we face each day can become opportunities to taste and see the grace and love of God.

In compliance with Federal Trade Commission guidelines, I received a review copy from The Crown Publishing Group in exchange for a book review.

Blog: https://contemplativereflections.wordpress.com/2017/06/09/book-review-as-kingfishers-catch-fire/

This compilation comprises the twenty-nine years (1962-1991) when Eugene Peterson led Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Harford County, MD. While a good part of the experience is lost when sermons are compiled into a book – the pastor’s voice, the worship, the silent prayer, even the architecture of the sanctuary – the most important part is retained: the message that compels and changes hearts.

After nearly three decades pastoring a local congregation, Peterson pretends to make known to us what his sermons at his church in Bel Air were like in this last work of his, preserving the original message to the best of his ability. There is a noteworthy intention from Peterson in maintaining that idea that we live congruent lives, where the inside is as the outside, where we practice that which we preach.

Sixty years ago, young Eugene was prepared and raised to found a church, yet soon fell in a crisis, a personal conflict between what he preached and what his convictions were as a pastor. He quickly realized that he was not a preacher, but a billboard, in a sense, trying to promote its “product.” It was not enough to put together a church; he had to make it function properly and with harmony.

Aware of this, and willing to effect a change, he saw himself before two events – a lecture he attended and a poem he read – almost simultaneously, whose combination came to reform his entire personal ministry.

Structured in seven groups, each of these with seven sermons, they’re part of the collection “Preaching in the company of…” – dedicated to Moses, David, Isaiah, Solomon, Peter, Paul and John of Patmos; each of these with a distinctive approach included in “the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:27)