Evan Beck

“Pastor, we think we might be on to something. That empty tomb—could that be an echo of the empty mercy seat of the ark? That the two angels in ‘dazzling clothes’ who gave witness at the empty tomb of Jesus might be an allusion to the two cherubim marking the emptiness that is fullness at the ark?”
― Eugene H. Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir

“Most of what Jesus said and did took place in a secular workplace in a farmer’s field, in a fishing boat, at a wedding feast, in a cemetery, at a public well asking a woman he didn’t know for a drink of water, on a country hillside that he turned into a huge picnic, in a court room, having supper in homes with acquaintances or friends. In our Gospels, Jesus occasionally shows up in synagogue or temple, but for the most part he spends his time in the workplace. Twenty-seven times in John’s Gospel Jesus is identified as a worker: “My Father is still working, and I also am working” (Jn. 5:17). Work doesn’t take us away from God; it continues the work of God. God comes into view on the first page of our scriptures as a worker. Once we identify God in his workplace working, it isn’t long before we find ourselves in our workplaces working in the name of God.”
― Eugene H. Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir

“Treating souls for whom Christ died as numbers or projects or resources seemed to me something like a sin against the Holy Spirit.”
― Eugene H. Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir

“Only where graves are is there resurrection.”
― Eugene H. Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir