Barking Up the Wrong Tree?

What would be the chance in the same week of reading two references to tree bark? First, I found within the pages of the Fall 2009 issue of Ruminate: faith in literature and art a note to the editors from David James Duncan (he is judging their short story prize). He quotes Eugene Peterson’s phrase, “the bark of the tree of religion,” and goes on to question in his own words if a “de-barked, religionless, broken invocation of stripped faith” couldn’t unveil a “living Center.”

Duncan makes a good point suggesting the content of our prayers need not be “agreed-upon.” Is it really necessary to approach our God (my word) using established creeds? I think most would answer no, at least not always, for a prayer called out instinctively can equally be heard. But implied in his letter is that the living Center is there simply because we have “called to It by Name.”

My second encounter with “bark” for the week came from Ben Witherington in his book, The Living Word of God. He writes that it is the fruit (not the bark) that draws us to the tree. Once there, it seems to me, it is our own fruit that signifies “who” or “what” our living Center is.