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The Rev. Frank Logue
Now You Are God’s People “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (I Peter 2:9). This comes from our epistle reading from First Peter. The author wants to tap into our identity as Christians and become what we already are—God’s Own People. The letter we call First Peter is not on the bestseller list of books of the Bible, so you might not know a lot about it. In short, the little letter is one of the books of the New Testament we call the Catholic Epistles. Catholic, meaning universal, as it was not sent to one church for a specific situation the way most of Paul’s were; and epistle meaning letter. So by Catholic Epistle, we mean it was a general letter from a church leader to a group of churches addressing concerns faced by all churches. The situation faced by all churches at that time was different than the problems we faced in some significant ways. First Peter is written to the persecuted church. It was to Christians facing persecution by the Roman Empire that First Peter came as a word of encouragement. They were called “Strangers in the World.” A couple of weeks ago, we read a passage earlier in this letter saying that they possessed “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” They were also told “In this greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you have had to suffer grief in all kind of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (I Peter 1:4,6). The Christians who first heard this letter read in their churches had beliefs that could make them stand out in a crowd in the Roman Empire. The typical Roman may or may not believe that the Emperor was a god, but they would offer sacrifices to him in a temple. The also may or may not believe in the myths of the Roman gods, but they would take part in worship in other temples as well. Christians were viewed as atheists for not taking part in this worship. They didn’t support the Roman gods and were viewed suspiciously. Later, there would be much more severe persecution of Christians. They would be sought out and dragged to court and then death. But in the earlier days of Christianity when First Peter was written, probably around the year 60, things were not as bad. We have copies of correspondence that points out how Roman government officials viewed Christians under Roman rule. Pliny, the Governor of Pontus, had just finished dealing with a group of Christians when he wrote to the Emperor Trajan to find out if he had followed proper procedure. Pliny wrote: In the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished…. Soon accusations spread, as usually happens, because of the proceedings going on, and several incidents occurred. An anonymous document was published containing the names of many persons. Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ—none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do. So he was convinced that anyone who could be made to worship other gods and to curse Christ, were no Christian. Those who wouldn’t relent when threatened with punishment were determined to be true Christians and were promptly put to death. The others were let go. Pliny wanted to know if he had done rightly. Trajan wrote back: You observed proper procedure, my dear Pliny, in sifting the cases of those who had been denounced to you as Christians. For it is not possible to lay down any general rule to serve as a kind of fixed standard. They are not to be sought out; if they are denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation, that whoever denies that he is a Christian and really proves it—that is, by worshiping our gods—even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall obtain pardon through repentance. First Peter is written to these Christians. The ones who may at any time face such a life or death decision—confirm that you are a Christian and die or curse Christ and live. To those facing persecution, they are told to remain holy as God is holy. They were encouraged to live lives as strangers. Do not adapt to Roman ways of life, but live as Christ had taught his followers to live. Then, immediately preceding our reading for today, Christians are admonished to have genuine mutual love, loving one another deeply from the heart. Having told the churches to whom he was writing that they are to have mutual love, loving one another deeply from the heart, he says we should therefore drop all those things which get in the way of that love and so we get the list that starts our reading in which they are told to rid themselves of malice, guile, insincerity, envy and slander. These are his words not to the whole world, but to groups of Christians. Be real with each other he says. You Christians should, of all people, be able to love each other deeply from the heart. You Christians should, of all people, be genuine with one another without any envy or slander. The goal is to support one another with mutual love while letting God build you into the living stones that have Christ as the headstone, capstone, the keystone in a new spiritual temple. The images pile one upon another here as the Christians are the stones and the temple. But all of this builds toward the conclusion of our reading from the epistle when they are told, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. The implications for this persecuted church are that they are to recover their baptismal identity. In the midst of tribulation, they are to recall that they have already been called out of the darkness of pagan idol worship into the marvelous light of God as revealed in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. They are to live as God’s people who had received mercy. Standing here in a church that faces no such persecution, in a community that considers itself Christian, and is predominantly so, how can we hear these words? Yes, there are people today who still face life or death decisions about their faith—like the girl at Columbine High School and those in the persecuted church today in China, The Sudan and elsewhere—but this is not a choice that we will likely face. How can we live into the marvelous light we have been called when we don’t face the stark choice of whether to curse Christ and live or praise him and die? We face tests daily. Small tests of our faith. How we react to the little problems of our life shows what we believe. Do we turn toward God more or toward the way everyone else acts and reacts more. The self test is whether we have any baptismal identity at all. Do we live differently because we believe. As noted Episcopal teacher Verna Dozier said, “Don’t tell me what you
believe, In all the little decisions of your life…do I do this or that? Where do I live and work? How do I raise my children? What do I do with my days? How do I spend my money? What do I say to the person who is rude to me in line at the grocery store, or the co-worker who is usually kind but just snapped and yelled at me? How do I treat the friend who just found out she faces a battle with cancer? In all these decisions, where is your identity as a Christian? Do you live as if you are God’s own person? How does it help you make decisions? You will likely never face the life or death decision about whether you believe in Jesus. Instead you face this more subtle test each day: “Don’t tell me what you believe, tell me what difference it made that you believe.” Amen.
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