Here’s a little Greek lesson from Eugene Peterson’s book Practise Resurrection. It shed some light for me; see what you think.
Peterson talks about three kinds of language that are used in church – kerygmatic, didactic and paracletic. The first is the most obvious and distinctive – kerygmatic- preaching. “Preaching is directed to the will, calling us to decide on and follow the way of Jesus.”
Didactic language is the language of teaching – learning to understand who God is and who we are, diagnosing truth and error, stretching our minds. “Teaching is directed to the mind, to knowing the mind and ways of God…”
Then there is the soft-spoken paracletic language of discernment, conversation, encouragement, insights into “the behaviours and practices, that emerge from hearing the preached good news and learning the truth of the Scriptures as they get prayed and embodied in my life where I am just now.”
Jesus’ disciples heard two of these languages as they followed Jesus – “The Kingdom of God is at hand!” (kerygmatic); “The Kingdom of God is like…” (didactic). But just before his death, Jesus introduces a new word – Paraclete, whom he identifies as the Holy Spirit. (Follow this up in John chapters 14,15 and 16 if you want to.) And here’s the significance of this language:
“Paracletic language is the language of the Holy Spirit, a language of relationship and intimacy, a way of speaking and listening that gets the words of Jesus inside us so that they become us. It is not new information. It is not explanation. It is God’s word on our side, within us, working out the details in the circumstances of our lives.”
“So, what’s your lightbulb moment,” you say?
Well, it seems, if I have understood Peterson correctly, that no matter how brilliantly the gospel is preached, no matter how clearly it is explained and how thoroughly it is debated, if we fail (and that would be me) to live it out in the ordinariness of everyday life, our lives are sub-optimal. I like information, I like explanation, but it’s spiritual transformation that’s on God’s agenda for me…and do I want that?
“Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.”
Romans 12:1 (The Message)
Instructions for living a life 