The Cornerstone

The following is one of the lessons for the fifth week of Lent from the small group study we are doing at our church entitled Christ in the Psalms. You can purchase the entire study for 99 cents on Amazon.com at this link.

Read 1 Peter 2:1-10

            Like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts, 1 Peter also makes use of Psalm 118:22. However, 1 Peter ties this verse into an entire “stone” motif; quoting it along side other verses which speak of stones.[1] Also like the other passages we have already explored, this one in 1 Peter uses these “stone” verses to speak of Christ as a stone rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight. 1 Peter, however, adds a twist.

            It is not only Christ who is a chosen and rejected stone. Christ’s followers are also living stones being built up into a “spiritual house”, “a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.” In other words, 1 Peter envisions Christ’s followers being built into a new temple. Peter declares that the churches of Asia Minor to whom he writes, not the temple in Jerusalem, are actually the temple of God. They are the place where God’s presence dwells and where God’s forgiveness is available. As this new temple, Christ serves as their cornerstone; the one who provides the basis for a sturdy foundation and serves as a guide for the spiritual building that they are.

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[1] Isaiah 28:16 and 8:14

Politics of Exile

It is that time again when the matters of politics are found in nearly every headline and news broadcast. In addition to the national political stage, many of you are also aware that we have had some passionate discussions in our local politics right here in our own town, one particular discussion which I have participated in myself.  All of this has caused me to give renewed thought to a topic to which I often find myself returning: the relationship between faith and politics. 

At the same time I've been doing quite a bit of studying in 1 Peter.  In the opening line of this epistle, Peter addresses the churches of Asia Minor as "elect exiles" or "chosen sojourners."  In other words, Peter is telling these churches that they are a people who have been chosen by God but also a people who live in exile.  That is, even though (and, in some ways, because) they are a people redeemed by God they are also strangers, resident aliens, sojourners, foreigners, immigrants in this world.  In the very first verse of his epistle, Peter defines these Christians as outsiders and throughout the letter he reminds them that life as a follower of Christ will mean living as an outsider. 

I find this to be a striking image as we consider the ways Christians often interact with the politics of our own nation today. It seems to me that our approach to politics is usually to yell louder or out-vote everyone else. We are told it is our obligation as followers of Christ to "take a stand" and "defend our rights." Christians typically still are some kind of majority in many parts of the country so it seems we often assume that as long as we can garner more voices on our side of the issue than the other side then we ought to have the law in our favor.  The truth is that as American Christians we have actually become accustomed to being insiders, a people of power and influence.  The language of being an exile or outsider often seems to be a foreign idea to us. 

I am not suggesting that 1 Peter is an instruction booklet on the proper political actions of 21st century American Christians. After all, Peter was writing to a people who had little or no power to participate in the politics of their day whereas we live in a democratic republic which provides us the civic right and responsibility of participating in our own government, a reality for which I am truly grateful.  But I believe Peter was telling us something about what it means to be the Church in relation to the culture around us. By calling us exiles and aliens, Peter was reminding us of exactly where we stand in this world; not in the centers of power and influence but with the marginalized and alien. 

I am all for Christians fully participating in the political process of our nation.  I think it is great that so many Christians go to great lengths to be informed about important issues in our government and that many even hold office. All I am suggesting here is that even when we are the majority, even when we are the ones holding a powerful office, that does not erase our God-given identity as exiles in this world.  It is especially in those times where we find ourselves "in power" that we need to take extra care to step back and evaluate whether we are exercising the power we have as would Christ, who emptied himself of all power and took on the nature of a servant (Phil 2:5-11). I am convinced that as the people of God the way we go about engaging in politics is actually much more important than winning the debate.  I believe that a truly Christ-like politic will often have less to do with taking a stand and more to do with taking a seat at a table with those we disagree with most.  

Sanctify Christ as Lord in Your Hearts

In 1 Peter 3:13-22, Peter continues to address the suffering that his congregations are facing. In fact, this passage of Scripture is remarkably similar to last week's reading from 1 Peter (2:19-25). In that passage, Peter tells his congregations that Christ is their example to live by. Therefore, because Christ quietly endured unjust suffering, they should as well. In the passage for this week, Peter seeks once again to show that suffering does not equal God-forsakenness. In fact, contrary to what common sense might lead us to believe, these congregations are blessed if they suffer for the sake of righteousness. Therefore, instead of fearing whatever harm might come to them, they are to sanctify Christ as Lord in their hearts.

This idea of sanctifying Christ as Lord in one's heart is somewhat of an odd expression. This is the case because to sanctify means to make holy or to set apart for a specific, usually divine, purpose. Usually, it is God who performs this action, setting apart certain people or objects for his own holy purposes. However, in this verse, Peter calls upon his congregations to do the sanctifying of their Lord. In this way, the command that Peter gives is similar to the second line of the Lord's prayer; "hallowed be your name". The word translated "hallowed" in the Lord's prayer is actually the same root word in Greek that is used in this verse in 1 Peter. When we pray that line of the Lord's prayer, we are praying that God's name be sanctified. Interestingly, the Lord's prayer then ties the santifying of God's name to things like God's kingdom coming and God's will being done on earth, people having enough to eat, forgiveness being lived out, and temptation being avoided. In other words, God's name is hallowed, Christ is sanctified as Lord in our hearts, when all of these things take place, when human beings live as God intended. Peter is encouraging his congregations to bring glory to God by witnessing to the hope that they have in Jesus Christ even as they endure pain and suffering.

The Complexity of Biblical Ethics

I am preaching from 1 Peter 2:19-25 this Sunday. The main idea of this passage of scripture is pretty straightforward. Peter began his letter to these congregations by reminding them of who they are and then in 2:11 he begins the ethical exhortation to his audience based on what he has said up to that point. This is a pretty typical move in the New Testament Epistles and is often referred to as the move from the indicative (you are this) to the imperative (so do this). So having reminded his audience that they are the chosen people of God, Peter goes on to address what that means in their present situation. Peter is addressing a group of congregations that seem to be experiencing some forms of injustice and mistreatment. In addressing this injustice, Peter holds up Christ as an example for his congregations to follow because Christ also endured injustice and suffering and did not retaliate. Therefore, Peter urges his audience to also endure the injustice they face and trust that God is the ultimate judge who will vindicate them in the end.

This idea of holding up Christ as a moral example to live by is one of the most basic ideas in Christianity. One of the very first things you learn if you grow up in Sunday School as a child is that we should be like Jesus. The whole idea was made even more popular for a while by the WWJD bracelet craze. So in some ways this passage is Biblical Ethics 101. However, it also points to the complexity and contextual nature of an ethic that is based on Scripture. This is the case because 1 Peter 2:18 says "Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable."

Now most Christians today, at least the ones that I know, are not in much danger of owning any slaves. In fact, every Christian I have ever met (as far as I know) finds slavery to be a dispicable, un-Christ like practice. Furthermore, if we were to encounter any form of slavery today and recognized it as such we would quickly condemn it and call for its annihilation as an inhumane, unjust, and therefore, un-Christlike practice. Most importantly for the discussion of biblical ethics, the Christians who have called for the end of slavery in the past and the ones who continue to oppose more subtle forms of enslavement today do not do so because they believe the Bible is an old, outdated book, itself enslaved by cultural norms. In fact, Christians call for the end of all slavery because we believe that the Bible demands that we do so. Yet Peter does not advise the slaves that he knows to rebel and bring an end to their slavery and he does not call upon the rest of the congregation to help the slave escape slavery. He does just the opposite. He tells them they must endure their unjust suffering and trust that God is in control. How can Christian call for action that is the opposite of what the Bible commands and still call their stance biblical?

In my opinion, this reality points to the fact that a good biblical ethic must be more than a list of the things that the Bible says to do or not to do. In reality, I think all Christians know this at some level. After all, I don't know too many Christians who refuse to wear clothing made of two different materials or who continue animal sacrifice as commanded in the Old Testament. But it is not just a matter of the Old Covenant and New Convenant either, although the revelation of Christ certainly does change the way we see the Old Testament Law. There are ethical exhortations in the New Testament that most of us do not follow as well; such as the command that women not speak and that they have their head covered and, of course, the issue of slavery already mentioned. Despite the fact that most Christians know this when it comes to issues like the ones just mentioned, often we seem to forget the very same principle when it comes to addressing the controversial and important ethical issues in our own day. Too often we take one verse here or there and use it to support the conclusion to which we have already come apart from our reading of scripture and then we point to that verse as irrevocable evidence that the Bible supports our position and we therefore must be right.

This passage in 1 Peter reminds us that a true biblical ethic must always be more complete and more nuanced than that. Instead of a better list of what to do and what not to do, we need a better vision of who Jesus is and therefore, who we are as the Church. This is, in fact, what Peter does in this passage. His ethical exhortation is not a simple recitation of scripture. It is an exhortation that arises out of who Peter knew Jesus to be and what he believed that meant for his congregations in their present situation. We must realize that being a disciple of Jesus might require very different actions in very different situations. We must encounter the difficult ethical issues of our own day (the unjust distribution of wealth around the world, homosexual civil unions, abortion, and clmate change to name a few) less with a list of absolutes that are more defined by political parties than by scripture and more like Paul and Peter did; creatively applying what they knew to be true in Jesus Christ to a situation which Christ or the Old Testament said little or nothing about. We too must be must honest and vulnerable about the fact that we may not have an unassailable word from God on contemporary ethical issues while also unashamedly witnessing to the kingdom through the ethical stances we do take.

Of course, this apprach to ethics is much more difficult and more complex than simply having a list of absolutes in hand. Such an approach to ethics will require that we actually know the Bible and not just a few verses that support our cause. It will require that we actually know Jesus and have some understanding of what his kingdom proclamation was about. It even points to the importance of things like worship and spiritual disciplines because an ethic like this one requires that we not only know what is ethical and what is not, it requires that we be shaped into ethical people who respond out of the character that has been formed in us rather than from an ethical checklist that is external to us.

The word translated as "example" (upogrammon) in 1 Peter 2:21 is not used anywhere else in the New Testament. However, in secular Greek literature of the time period this word was used to refer to a writing template or pattern that served as an instrument in teaching children to write. Of course, it would have been foolish for any child to think that he or she did not have to learn to write if they just carried this pattern around with them. The whole point of the tool was to help the child learn to form the letters himself. Perhaps our approach to biblical ethics should be the same: it would be foolish for us to carry the Bible around with us thinking that it has already solved our ethical problems; the whole point of the Bible is for the Holy Spirit to work through it in such a way that we are shaped into a people who can be Christ-like ourselves. God does not want to give us the letters already written. He wants to teach us to form the letters ourselves.