Eugene Peterson Memorial Service

This is the video of Eugene Peterson’s memorial service;

This is the poem his son read;

The Message by Leif Peterson:

It’s almost laughable how you fooled them, how for thirty years, every week, you made them think you were saying something new.

They thought you were a magician, in your long black robe, hiding so much up your ample sleeves, always pulling something fresh, and making them think it was just for them.

And that’s just the beginning; there is more.

Casual conversations at church picnics, Unmemorable chats at the local Denny’s over eggs and toast,

Counseling sessions that saved marriages, maybe even lives.

And they didn’t know what a fraud you were.

They didn’t know how simple it all was.

They were blind to your secret, only saw the magic, how you performed, how you made the mysterious, the ominous, the holy, into a cup of coffee.

How you made a cup of coffee into an act of grace, how you could make God into something that worked for them.

It’s so funny that they didn’t know this, so many times I’ve wanted to expose you, tTell them what you’ve been up to, tell them all what you’ve been up to, and now you’re doing it all again.

You’ve got this new group fooled into thinking you’re worth millions.

They’re printing it on t-shirts, coffee mugs, message pads, a new version every week for some new flock.

But I must say this: They’ve widened your audience.

Now you’re fooling them all over the world, Churches, schools, homes, and prisons.

It’s so funny. Only my inheritance keeps me from giving you away.

Because I alone know your secret. I alone know what you’ve been doing, how you’ve fooled them all. taking something so simple, something a child could understand, And making it into a career, a vocation, an empire.

I know.

Because for fifty years you’ve been telling me the secret.

For fifty years you steal into my room at night and whisper it softly to my sleeping head.

It’s the same message over and over, and you don’t vary it one bit:

“God loves you.

He’s on your side.

He’s coming after you.

He’s relentless.”