Sermon 21st October 2012

Today, Ben Hughes continues our study series, Becoming Like Christ.  The reading is from 1 Peter 3-22.

So good (to do good).

Do gooders, Devil dodgers, Chrispies, the shining light social clubbers, God botherers, Bible Bashers, knee polishers, Bible hugger, happy clappers, Mackerel snappers…

These are some of the more pleasant nick names for Christians that you may have heard

Christians at that time  preferred to be known as ‘follows of the way’ not ‘Christians’ To be called Christian was license to be abused , rejected  and the by the 6^th decade…most probable torture and death.

We as Christians today might not suffer those same extremes as our brethren ancestors but the spirit of persecution is felt by many believers world wide today. (we of course continue to pray for them)!

Perhaps in our own circles, we do feel some kind of persecution albeit subtle, the snide comment the social snub!

So why do people mock Christians, what is their issue? And is  it something to worry about? Is there something that we can learn form this…to help our faith and belief grow?

The first thing to understand is that there is nothing to fear in being persecuted in Christ. Because by sticking to him you are on the side of the victorious.

But in the everyday: Mocking is unpleasant in the mild and unbearable in the extreme. People have lost their jobs and home for their faith. Prejudice towards Christians - and we hear the stories increasingly on the news - seems acceptable and popular in our own country and popular national press today!

Being bullied for any faith is unacceptable but it will sadly happen. But St Peter tells us in this letter not to worry but to confound our persecutors by the example of Jesus himself who teaches us to ‘turn the other check’ ‘go the extra mile’, ‘pray for our enemies and for those that persecute us’.

 This ‘way of Christ forgiveness and love’ – St Peter says…will always win and in time will turn and convict the most hardened sinner. The lion will lie down with the lamb! As Isaiah prophesied.

A person I know quiet well, who is I believe good person … said to me last week that ‘I can put up with any other religion but not Christianity....it is the do gooding I hate…the more good they do the more I hate them’.

And I understand something of what he means… a resentment towards someone is preferred over you and is ‘getting it right’. As in the parable of the prodigal son,  with the older brother jealous of his fathers’ forgiveness and acceptance of his wayward younger brother…

So  I am thinking about this and about ‘goodness’ and doing ‘good’…and why it annoys and frustrates people. St Peter suggests that there is a spiritual disobedience at work in the inner spirit of us all which  is  ‘revolt and rebellion to God’.

And when those we see those sanctified and forgiven in Christ , the resentment and envy fired by that rebellion  leads to rage, hatred and fury! And it is ridiculous,  because the love of Christ is free to anyone whos asks…no conditions attached. Any- ones for the taking

For Christians therefore  - as long as there is rebellion in the hearts of people then  there will be persecution and suffering. Furthermore, there is a world of evil and the devil of course,  whose shared hatred towards Christ and his followers is the absolute focus of their rage…but as old vicar friend of mine used to preach…the Devil still roars like a lion but his teeth have been drawn by the cross!

But we are believers, those named and called through the waters of baptism… we are saved from these things. They have no permanent hold on us. Alleluyah!

But our reading today is not about just being good and  suffering for good…our reading begins with knowing where good comes from. We must never deceive ourselves that we are made good through our own deeds.

Any goodness as St Peter says in our passage… is not because of us or anything we do. The real goodness in us proceeds form God the Father through his son Jesus articulated by the Holy spirit it is despite and for us.

He is what is good, and in him and through him we are able to become good!

‘Only by grace can we enter, only by his Grace can we be, not by our human endeavour but by the blood of the lamb’

Goodness is not what we do because the Bible says even our best deeds are but filthy rags to God…our goodness is God himself  released in us  through faith in  Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. That is the process of redemption and as in any process - will involve certain moulding, bending hammering and shaping. Possible suffering in other words.

Partly our problem in understanding what the word good actually means is also in our everyday use of the word.

Good can sound trite if carelessly used. She is good at Maths, it is good that it has stopped raining. But as a word in our context as Christians believers, good means the ‘pleasure of God’. The same pleasure God described perfect creation before the fall which is is the same pleasure he has in us  without the imperfection of sin.

Goodness is God’s joy of things being universally right and beautiful.  That is how we need to begin to understand goodness, the pleasure of God, and certainly not as a word to describe piety and snobbery. Goody two shoes as my friend sees us!

So how are good? well it begins with our total submission to Christ.  As St Peter says in Verse : I believe in you as my Lord and saviour, come into my life and make me whole, set me free from the sin that holds me, come and bind my wounds!

It is St Peter says to know that you are bad is to know your need for God!

St Peter gets it right in verse 21. He says - that like the eight people in the ark who were saved through water…like our baptism not a cleansing of dirt but ‘an appeal from our very inner beings for a clear conscious in front of God’  -  we claim a pledge from God to us - V22.  

and it is eight people form the multitude saved form the flood, Christians will always be a persecuted minority… eight of many thousands saved!

So how  does the young searching believer get to this point of faith of baptism? St Peter says one word - Submission to Christ

From both Cameron and Gill we have learnt about this word submission…submission to authority, submission to one another and so on.

Submission is the theme of this letter we are studying. Submission runs through this letter like a vein. It is the cement holding St Peter’s brick wall together.

Perhaps a helpful positive understanding of submission…the stem word in Latin - mittere, to send and  then missive – meaning the brief or order for that task…sub – mission therefore might be understood as  ‘that what underpins the missive,  the endeavour’!

If mission is the chalk face then sub mission the mountain behind it, or if you’re a musician, submission is your backline and bass, or a petrol head, submission the pit crew behind the champion.

In this way - understanding that to submit is not necessarily a painful and un- requited activity that as Cameron says ‘stiffens our neck’. If we understand submission as being part of an endeavour, and if that endeavour is to serve Christ then submission is service to Christ which always gives pleasure to God which is ‘good’!

So how do we submit our selves to the service of Christ?

Does it really mean ‘look busy Jesus is coming’ - of course not!

It is an attitude of the heart and an upside down attitude of the heart.

Christianity is topsy- turvey…it is everything upside down.

St Peter says   do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse verse 9….instead St Peter says…respond with a blessing. Its Jesus’s teaching in Matthew, vlessed are those that seek peace for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God.

St Peter illustrates this standing on your heads  teaching as ; keep you tongue form evil and your lips form speaking deceit v11. Do the opposite of what people expect? Try hard to control yourself do the opposite of what your might instincts say. Praise God and trust in him …he is loyal to the end and as it says in Revelation 21…all will be made well. There will be a new heaven and earth and the tears will be washed away!

That is the suffering for being good, hanging in there in faith, …trusting and allowing  Christ into the world of our sufferings and those of others through prayer (we do this  well in this Church) and steadfast faith …doing good to others when your torn apart inside –is the hardest calling. That is the suffering that Christ did for us when in descended into hell and carried on his shoulders the sins of the world. That is suffering for good! The perfect example

The fact is that we will all suffer in this life if you are not suffering already… suffering is inevitable for everybody and we would be foolish to think otherwise. The bible does not say that we will not suffer…but it does teach us a better way to cope with our suffering and challenges us to believe in faith that in the end we will be victorious. It also instructs us to put the needs of others before ourself. So the suffering of others comes before your own.

St Paul describes this life as like a tent, temporary and vulnerable. He says our next life in heaven will be like as a mansion…

Jesus says to his disciples in my Fathers house are many rooms and ‘see. I have gone to prepare a place for you’. In the Old testament Job -  despite losing everything stands by God in Faith and holds out and is fully restored…In God,  the dark days are short in comparison with the joy that lies ahead.

St Peter says that Christians measure their  faith by the future it holds.

For all his fine words - the fact is that St Peter betrayed Jesus during his trial and did so three times. This Peter never forgot…if any one knew about fear of failure  and running away it was St Peter. But as Jesus predicted - Peter became the head of the first Church preaching and teaching, he would have seen the stoning of Stephen and at the end of his ministry he experienced first hand Nero’s persecution of Christians in AD 64. According to legend St Peter was crucified upside down in that time. But despite all  this Peter was quickly restored by Jesus’s love. Three times Peter ‘feed muy lambs’ Jesus  loved Peter, trusted Peter with the commission of the early Church despite  Peter failing him in the hour that mattered did not matter any more.

It is the same for us…when the suffering and persecution comes (which we pray it doesn’t) some of us will not cope…Jesus knows that… and  like Peter’s testimony -  Christ understands our vulnerable weakness and will always forgive us if we show remorse. He will then use our weaknesses for his Strength. He will stand by us, because if when we suffer for good he suffers with us. When we are called to stand trial in front of Kings and Courts the Holy Spirit will give us the words to say.  Its a promise! He says trust me…because the world cannot take away what I have placed in you!

St Peter says in the end of this passage: Be at one with each other. Be loving humble. If suffering comes let it be undeserved, let it be for doing good. We are in it together. Do not suffer in silence!

So take heart, be strong because if God is for us, who can be against us…run the race to accept the prize offered to us…eternal life -  When God called  his  creation good He meant it…and we are part of that creation. He is committed to see it restored to perfection and we shown that we want a part in that. We give him pleasure. Alleluia God is Good. Amen