Devotional from Pastor Dave June 21, 2023

One of the most impactful books I’ve read recently is by an Iraq war veteran, former Army chaplain, and Episcopal priest David Peters. In his book, Post-Traumatic Jesus: A Healing Gospel for the Wounded, his very first sentence immediately caught my attention: “The post-traumatic Jesus is the only Jesus Christianity has ever known.” I had never really thought of it like that. The Gospels record the story of the resurrection of Jesus from the undeniably traumatic experience of death by crucifixion, but it had never really registered in my mind that the Christ of Christian preaching is a post-traumatic Jesus. 

He observes that the stories of Jesus’ “life and teachings recorded in the four Gospels were written through the post-traumatic lens of his crucifixion.” He then proceeds to reread many of the Gospel stories through a post-traumatic lens. For example, he sees the Christmas story through the lens of the trauma of Roman occupation and Herod’s murderous rage. He sees the Good Samaritan as having tended to the wounds (the Greek word in Luke 10:34 is trauma) of the man beaten and robbed and left for dead by the side of the road. And he also sees the so-called prodigal son through a post-traumatic lens. “The father does not get the same son back. He gets a son who has been though the roller coaster of the world’s suffering…The son has aged, and so has the father. They are both in a new, post-traumatic world.” 

Again, this is one of the most impactful books I’ve read in a long time. I won’t be able to read or to preach some of these scriptures the same way ever again. And this book would be an impactful study for a Sunday school class or small group. It is Peters’ profound conviction, born out of his own personal experience and pastoral ministry, that “the wounded, traumatized Jesus brings healing and hope to traumatized people.”

Next month, we will have the opportunity to serve some of the folks in our community who may have been touched by trauma in their own lives. Our church has entered into a partnership, along with other mountain churches, with Celebrate Recovery of Signal Mountain. This is a ministry for those who are in the process of recognizing and recovering from various addictions or compulsive behaviors and other kinds of hurts, habits, and hang-ups. One of the things I have learned about addictions is that they often trace back to an attempt to deal with some sort of pain or personal trauma. Therefore, I can imagine a post-traumatic Jesus can bring a tremendous amount of healing and hope to persons in recovery.

I hope you will consider assisting with this ministry next month. The Celebrate Recovery meets on Thursday evenings at the Signal Mountain Bible Church on Shackleford Ridge Road. Our responsibilities for the Thursdays in July are to help serve the meal at 6 (which will be prepared by our kitchen coordinator Alicia Ray), provide music for the worship service at 7, and provide childcare for the children from about 6:45-9:00.

Please let me know if you would like to help out with this ministry next month. If you would like to know more about Celebrate Recovery here on Signal Mountain, go to https://www.facebook.com/crsignalmtn.