LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

April 3, 2005              2 Easter First Peter 1:1-16 (reading 1:3-9)

The First Epistle of Peter tells us how to live our new life in the crucified and risen Christ. The apostle Peter was killed in the emperor Nero’s persecution about 35 years after the resurrection of Jesus. Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna, writing about 70 years later quotes from this letter.

The letter is addressed to “the exiles of the Dispersion” in four Roman provinces in northwest Asia Minor, present Turkey. About 15 years earlier St. Paul had come preaching through the southern part of the area and lived for a time in Ephesus in the province of Asia. Paul’s pattern was to come to a new town and go to synagogue for prayer and bible study. Synagogue congregations included both those born of Jewish parents, or a Jewish parent, and also “god-fearers,” men and especially women, who were attracted by the high ethical standards of the Commandments and the Hebrew prophets. There were a lot of “godfearers.” Some records of contributors to the synagogue building funds include as many Greek names as Jewish names. Synagogue custom was to invite visitors to bring greetings. Paul took advantage of the invitation to preach Jesus death and resurrection. Eventually this caused division, and those who believed in Jesus, both Jews and godfearers,  formed a new synagogue, an ecclesia, a church.

Church splits are painful. Leaving familiar friends and familiar places is difficult. This week I heard from my friend John Gibson of Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Raleigh, that he and the church had been accepted the spiritual care of a bishop in Uganda.  I have some history with that church. I was happy to hear that they have agreed with the Episcopal diocese to continue to worship in their present building.  They will not be exiles from the familiar as were those to whom St. Peter writes.

Jews knew about dispersion and exile. Abraham’s descendants moved from the margin of modern Israel and Palestine down to Egypt where they were enslaved. They came out of Egypt and spent 40 years of desert wandering before they came to the Promised Land. After 300 years or so, in 722, the 10 “lost tribes” were dispersed in the Assyrian empire and lost to history. In 586, 136 later, the leadership of the rest of the people were taken into exile in Babylon, “by the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept.” But they maintained their faith through reading scripture, study, and prayer. Two generations later some returned to Jerusalem while others remained in Babylon until our own time. Jews settled all over the eastern Mediterranean, in exile from Jerusalem.  The new Christians saw themselves also as exiles from the new and heavenly Jerusalem waiting for Jesus to come again in the last day to take them home.

The new Christians knew themselves to be “called out,” chosen by God for a new life. Part of the spiritual task of our time is to recover that sense of being “chosen and destined by God.” It is so easy to be imprisoned by our routines and to lose our sense that life is special, and we are each “chosen and destined by God.” – no more “chosen and destined” than any other child of God, but no less “chosen and destined” than any other child of God. God has chosen each of us for his purpose. As the title of a popular book has it, we live a “purpose-driven” life. We are “chosen and destined - and sanctified (made holy) by the Spirit of God so  we may “be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood.”

“Sprinkled with his blood” sounds yucky to us. In an age of AIDS we wear rubber gloves and other protective gear to avoid contact with blood. But Peter was writing to people who knew the story in  Exodus 24 (which I am now going to tell you):  When Moses came down from Mount Sinai  with the Law of God, he “told the people all the words of the LORD . . . and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.” Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve pillars, for the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵He sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed oxen as offerings of well-being to the LORD. ⁶Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he dashed against the altar. ⁷Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” ⁸Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people, and said, “See the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”  So for those who know this story “sprinkled with blood” means a commitment of obedience to the will of God.  We are saved by Jesus who shed his blood on the cross for our salvation.  Peter prays for us “grace and peace in abundance.”

He goes on, “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” This is new. Jewish blessings all begin, “Baruch atta Adonai elohenu, melech ha olam – Blessed art thou O Lord our God, ruler of the universe.” But for Peter God is blessed in a new way – blessed as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  God’s rule over his creation is not denied, but it is exercised through Jesus Christ. Jesus is central – all things find their meaning in him.

We have been chosen by God for “new birth into a living hope.” We usually think of new birth in the terms of John 3, “you must be born again.” And we think new birth is something that comes when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. And it is, but as the Purpose Driven life begins, “it is not about you.” New life is not something we control any more than we controlled our physical birth. New life is God’s gift to us and to all who believe, “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  God did it and the resurrection is the sign and assurance of new life. Our new birth was secure from the moment of the resurrection, that early Sunday morning some 2000 years ago.

We have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for” us. We all have physical inheritances, like the genes that control eye and hair and skin color, height, and tendencies to weight, and disease, and so forth. We have social inheritances; some of us have financial inheritances, things that have value to us because of who had them and used them before us. But the physical perishes; it can be defiled and fade. We can’t put our trust in things. That makes them idols, objects of false worship. Our inheritance is in Christ Jesus. 

And we “are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” In the last two weeks we’ve had the death watches for Terri Schiavo and for Pope John Paul. Friday night I attended a service at St. Lawrence church downtown to remember Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. He was shot down during the celebration of the eucharist 25 years ago las Maundy Thursday. We prayed for the pope; we remembered all who have given their lives to God’s service. We live in the resurrection assurance that we  “are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Peter goes on to tell us to rejoice, to rejoice as we “suffer various trials,” to see the trials as a testing of “the genuineness of faith” faith that is more precious than gold.”  In today’s gospel St. Thomas worships Jesus as “my Lord and my God,” the first confession of the divinity of Jesus.  It says something about us that we speak of him as “doubting Thomas.” He is believing Thomas, whose genuine faith is more precious than gold.

The gospel continues as the epistle teaches, “although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Jesus saves us; Jesus loves us, not for anything we bring, but because he does.

The prophets of Israel  prepared the people for the coming of Jesus. He has come to bring us and all who will believe new life in him. “Therefore “You shall be holy,” for he is holy. We are new people, in a new life, set free from the power of sin to proclaim with Thomas, “My Lord and my God.”  Amen.

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