Sermon 19th November 2012

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, continues our study of the book of 1 Peter.  The reading today is from 1 Peter 5: verses 1-11. 

So, have you heard the one where a man went into a chemist’s? He asked the pharmacist if she could give him something for hiccoughs. The pharmacist promptly reached across the counter, and slapped the man’s face: hard.

“What did you do that for?” he asked her.

“Well, you don’t have hiccoughs any more, do you?”

The man replied, “But my wife out in the car still does!”

The sermon-connection may be a bit tenuous, perhaps; but today there is, or should be, one of those ‘Aaah!’ moments, when we realise that we have, in fact, been missing a crucial piece of information. Given some of the verbal reaction that there has been to other readings from this letter, I was a bit surprised not to hear that expressed out loud. Peter’s words in verse 8 really do make sense of so much of what we have covered here in these past 3 months. It’s not that it has been hidden; it’s not anything new, or that we didn’t know already; what it does, though, is to pull all the different strands of Peter’s thinking and teaching together. Whether we look back, or forward, or around us, there is now a complete picture that fits together into a coherent, life-shaping, eternal whole.

Clearly we’ll need to return to that fact before we’re done. But first we need to look back, to see how Peter has brought us to this concluding place. If you have missed any of those steps, all the sermons in this series are available on our website. They are well worth reading, or re-reading: the ground that we have covered in them is good, practical stuff. It has been about getting to know who Jesus is; that includes learning what he has done; what that means; and how it then impacts the daily life of people who have been created to become like Christ. That is what all people have been, of course – created to become like Christ – as God’s ‘chosen people (GNB) / elect’ (NIV). Peter was sure, and taught here, that the Good News of Jesus was meant for all people: it opened the way to God for everyone.

Now of course Peter was a realist too: he knew that not everyone would respond positively to the message about Jesus. In fact, reality showed how some people would be vehemently – and violently – opposed to it. So it has certainly not been what anyone could describe as a comfortable journey to get here. As I said at the outset, Peter wasn’t pulling any punches about that fact, not from the start. In the very first verse of his letter he also said that he was writing to those who ‘live as refugees (GNB) / [are] exiles’ (NIV), scattered throughout ...” this list of places that would be in modern-day Turkey. We then quickly learned that these readers had fled there to try and escape the persecution that was specifically aimed at Christians under Emperor Nero.

Something else that was crystal clear from the start of the letter was just how different a person Peter had become. The warts-and-all portrayal of him in the Gospels remains a matter of permanent historical record. But in his letter we meet a Peter who was no longer that brash, outspoken, know-it-all who had denied even knowing Jesus to save himself. Being forgiven for that was humbling, and life-changing, enough in itself. To be entrusted with the task of leading the implementation of Jesus’ on-going mission, as Peter was, fundamentally transformed him. The man who wrote this letter comes through as mature, wise, and truly Godly-humble. Note how as he ends his letter Peter ‘just’ calls himself fellow-elder: there is no hint of any pushy, rank-pulling now!

Another stand-out feature of this letter was, and is, the place and importance that Peter gave to Jesus’ suffering. Again, that’s reflected here at the end. It’s fascinating, and wholly consistent, that Peter called himself “a witness of Christ’s sufferings”. Of all the experiences that he had with Jesus, alive and risen from death, why pick that one out? It was, as regulars should know well by now, because it was the suffering of Jesus that was absolutely central, to absolutely everything for Peter. That fact proved what was possible; it also then made all things possible. Yes, on the cross Jesus, the eternal, all-powerful, Son of God had set the example himself: of selfless, submissive, self-sacrifice. And that one act changed all things for all people for all time.

It is that example, and how it is to be lived out in everyday life, that lay at the heart of Peter’s teaching of these frightened, exiled people. But before he got to the detail of that Peter first got very excited about the person, and mission of Jesus. He waxed lyrical about the firm, the real, and the living hope that we can have, now and eternally, because of Jesus. We can hold onto that, and him, in any and all circumstances, Peter wrote; and we can get on with living a new, a changed, and a holy life as a living expression of that hope. We really can do that, in the face of anything and everything, Peter insisted. We can live as God’s people, set apart for Him, no matter what – yes, all because Jesus paid the costly sacrifice of his own blood.

We have heard time and again how the essential setting of this letter was a context of suffering and persecution for being Christians. It was ever-present reality for Peter’s readers, one that was pressing, and life-threatening. and yet at the same time, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection they were also, as Peter put it “The chosen race, the King’s priests, the holy nation, God’s own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his own marvellous light (GNB) / A chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (NIV) It is who and what they were; and so it is who and what we also are!

So Peter first set out both sides of their reality: the good, and the bad. It was at that point that the rubber really hit the road. Even in a context of suffering and persecution for their faith, Peter demanded that they lived it out, in practical ways, in every aspect of their lives. He began with their duties as citizens, and then as workers, before tackling the third key social relationship – in the home. Peter never suggested that any of those areas started from a place of perfection, or anything like it. The point for his readers was, though, that Jesus had set that perfect example of selfless, submissive, self-sacrifice. That was to be their – as it is also to be our – own example and motivation. As citizens; at work; and at home, even in such repressive times, they were, as we are, to live like Jesus.

We did spend some time on what for many people today is the thorny matter of submission. I’m sure that you have noted that it is present again today, as Peter ends. However little we may like it, the demand for Godly submission is one of the central ideas on which Peter’s letter is founded. What we can’t, and mustn’t, get away from is the fact that Peter based that too on the person, and the example of Jesus. If we truly have been created to become more like Jesus, then this is a discipline that we do need to grapple with for ourselves. It’s no good wishing, or pretending, that it wasn’t there, because it so clearly is; and the glorious truth is that it is only the selfless, submissive self-sacrifice of Jesus that makes us who and what we are.

Peter then focused in on suffering in particular. First, it was suffering for doing good. Then, a bit later on, it was suffering specifically for being a Christian. That’s where we reached last week, very appropriately for Remembrance Sunday. What sits in-between those 2 sections are Peter’s reflections on living for God. Once again, that is what this whole letter is all about: 1 Peter was written to help teach and show people how to become like Jesus. What makes it special was the situation that it was written into. Peter wrote for people facing some of the toughest circumstances imaginable. He was utterly committed to equipping God’s people, so that they could stay standing firm in faith and hope and trust, living for God, as His holy people, even in the very hardest of times.

And so now we come – albeit only briefly – to these closing words. Of course there is at least one whole sermon in here, and quite possibly several. As we have picked up along the way, there is more in here, for example: about Christ’s suffering; the hope onto which we can, and do, hold; the need for submission; Peter’s own example of faith and faithfulness. We could then learn about the nature of leadership in the church, from the perspectives of both the leaders, and the led. And there is also one of the best New Testament collections of one-liners. Each of those would pay dividends for being unpacked in detail.

However, I want to end by going back to where I started today, with that ‘Aaah’ moment that is prompted by verse 8. To some extent, at least, what we have been dealing with so far are the symptoms, not the cause. But now the veil is lifted, as it were, for us to see the real enemy for who he is. He is always prowling around; he’s ready, willing, and is also fully able to devour the unwary, in one gulp. The range of his tactics has already been revealed throughout Peter’s letter. He will try and swallow us whole with persecution. He will also try to tempt us to live in any number of the destructive ways that lead us away from God which Peter has described. He doesn’t ever give up, and he often makes life very unpleasant for us, to put it mildly.

But we do need to recognise the existence, and the power of the devil. Yes, there is a careful line to tread between the usual 2 extremes. We can make the mistake of either ignoring him; or of paying him far too much attention. Or we can learn to see him behind not only the temptations that we face but also persecution and so much other suffering. Prompted by Tom Wright’s commentary on this passage, I’d say that it’s only in doing all of that that we can reach the position that Peter has been advising all along in his letter. We have to know the enemy to know how to stand firm against his attacks.

Standing firm is the key, in all ways, and at all times. Faith is to be both gentle, and firm; live within the law (as long as it doesn’t force you to deny Jesus); behave with patience and humility in all circumstance; hold just your part of the line against the enemy. God’s sure promise here is that He will establish you, strengthen you, and set you on firm foundations. He has the power to do that, Peter reminds us; and He will do it: be it today, tomorrow, or eternally. So we are to trust in Him, in any, and all circumstances. We are also to live for Him, in any, and all circumstances. Step by step, decision by decision, action by action we are to become more like His Son, Jesus. That takes hard work; we are opposed at every turn; but not defeated. In Peter own words, as they’re put in The Message version: “What a God we have! Because Jesus was raised from the dead we have been given a brand-new life, and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven; and the future starts now!” And so let’s live that future then – in Jesus, and for Jesus: starting right now, for his glory. Amen!

Sermon 11th November 2012

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Simon Brindley, continues our study of the book of 1 Peter.

(1 Peter 4: 12-19)

Just to start, let’s remind ourselves of what this First letter of Peter, that we have been looking at for a few weeks, is all about. It is written to early Christians, scattered in communities in the Middle East, who have embraced completely the message about the work and life and death of Jesus Christ and therefore the message of freedom and salvation that their new faith brings, who will probably as a result be standing out a mile from those around them, but who have begun to experience suffering and persecution of various kinds in their families, work and communities because of exactly that.

So it addresses suffering for being a Christian and we’ll come back to that soon as the main theme of this morning’s passage, but I think Peter’s letter also has a lot to say generally about how we deal with suffering in all its forms and so about one of the biggest challenges we all have to face from time to time. We want to go further down this path of following Jesus Christ – whether we are just looking at the signposts, just starting down that path, have taken a number of steps or are really clocking up the miles - but how are we to deal with the suffering we see in the world around us and experience ourselves and among those whom we love? Is this really where a loving God is leading us?

How do we deal, for example, with the suffering and sacrifices we see in wars, ever present in our world but brought closer to home for all of us in this country in the last decade or so because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Brought possibly very close to home, brought in fact into our own personal experience of suffering, if we know anyone who has been injured or killed in those wars? I have spoken briefly to 3 soldiers in recent weeks and this Remembrance Sunday morning offer just a few brief thoughts. First, whatever we might think personally about the incredibly difficult politics, outcomes and risks of the wars that our country has engaged in recently, it does seem to me that the British army is genuinely motivated by a desire to do what they were sent to do, to get their mission done and to attempt to make life better and safer for the people of those countries and, perhaps, also for us in the West. And they are prepared to make sacrifices if necessary to get that mission done. Faced with the choice of doing what they were sent to do and risking injury and death or backing off, they remain absolutely committed to their role. Whether we agree with the bigger picture or not, this morning we can perhaps applaud, thank and remember them before God for having the courage to try. And all these thoughts apply, of course, to those we still remember this morning from all the wars of the twentieth century.

Secondly, one thing that seems very clear at the frontline of war is just how strong the commitments can become to your fellow soldiers. You literally have the lives of the other men in your patrol in your hands. One wrong decision about moving across the ground and someone may die. And at any moment you may find yourself having to risk your own life for the others. A grenade comes over a wall. If you shout to everyone to get down you may all be killed or injured. Pick it up and throw it into the irrigation ditch ten yards away and you may die but others may live. With luck it will not explode till it hits the water and you may all live. How many of us are ever actually asked to, as the Bible puts it, risk “laying down our own lives for our friends?” So we give thanks and remember before God this morning the brave men and women prepared to put themselves into those situations.

And finally there is no doubt that the immediate suffering in the middle of a war is an opportunity for all human compassion to emerge. I was speaking this week to the priest who for 4 months recently was the army chaplain at the hospital at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. He is a former member of this parish so you may know him. He described how, as the helicopters brought in the dead and wounded, he was routinely one of those to lift the bodies off the stretchers. And he described the immense privilege of ministering to those men and women, the wounded, the dying and the dead and how much the soldiers said they appreciated his ministry, men and women who might be just days or perhaps even just moments from death. He said he would go there again tomorrow.

And I heard a few months ago about a young army medic who, although wounded herself in an IED explosion, carried on treating the badly wounded leader of her patrol until the helicopters arrived. She kept him alive at least until she could hand him over, despite her own injuries.

There is a lot more we could think about on all of this – not least the importance of remembering the casualties on all sides of war and, possibly above all, of civilians - but perhaps for this morning we can just thank God for those prepared to risk their lives for others and for those whose job it is to deal at the front line with the suffering and death of war and to remember in particular those who have had to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Back to Peter’s letter now and a question that has troubled Christians ever since the earliest days of our faith. If now I am set free and saved from sin and death by the God who loves me, and by his son Jesus Christ who died specifically to set me free, how then do I deal with suffering when it comes along and I find myself slap bang in the middle of it?

Here I think Peter is focusing for his readers on suffering that they were experiencing precisely because they were Christians. In some countries today that threat is still very, very real. If we happened to be meeting this morning in some parts of the world, in parts of Iraq or Egypt or Nigeria for example, we may actually fear being attacked or killed today as we leave this building or even as we sit in our seats. There are places where the threats are very immediate. That is not so for us. We live in a broadly tolerant society. More real for us this morning therefore might be the feeling that if we stand out as Christians we risk the sort of ridicule and low level “persecution” engendered by the campaign of virulent secularism and atheism that has dominated the last ten years or so, although my own view is that the impact of that is weakened, possibly even passing, because it lacks real credibility.

But, I would suggest, that much more real for us this morning is likely to be the question of why, despite the fact that we have put our trust in our loving heavenly Father, we find ourselves having to face so much illness and suffering possibly ourselves or among those whom we love? Why do we have to go through such painful tests, whether specifically because we are Christians - as was the case with Peter’s readers - or, if you like, despite the fact that are Christians, which may well be the case for us?

And here is how Peter encourages his readers to look at it.

First, he says, why on earth are you shocked and surprised by your “painful testing” (as the Good News puts it) or your “fiery ordeal” (as appears in some translations), as though something unusual were happening to you?

Don’t fall into the trap, he seems to be saying, of thinking that your faith will necessarily free you from suffering here and now. That is not what you sign up to. It is just too superficial. It does not reflect the world in which we live and it is not consistent with our mortality. That is not to say, I think, that we must absolutely expect to suffer nor, for reasons we must come on to, that God does not care, quite the opposite, it is just that suffering is part of this mortal life. Christians cannot expect to be free of it and may actually, as was the case with Peter’s readers, have to expect to have to deal with it. Although the Christian faith contains a very profound promise of freedom from suffering, it does seem clear that this is not necessarily an immediate freedom.

Peter then very boldly turns everything round the other way and says that in fact we should be glad that we are, in some way, sharing in Christ’s sufferings. The reason, he says, is so that we may be full of joy when Christ’s glory is revealed. This is not saying that we should actively seek out suffering so that we can be more Christ-like. No one is saying that suffering is good in itself, but rather, I suggest, that suffering does allow us to identify, in a very real way, with our God. Our God is not remote, calling and directing from the riverbank while we try on our own to stay afloat in the torrent. He is the God who suffered before us, who was rejected, tortured and killed. In some way suffering might just allow us to identify with that, to begin to understand what might have been going on in His suffering, as well as to draw comfort that he has been there before us. And when we meet Him face to face there will be a joyful mutual understanding, on the far side of it all, as to what this suffering was about and because we will know then, for sure, having experienced suffering and come through the far side, that its power was limited.

And if you actually do have to suffer just because you are a Christian, Peter says, then you are experiencing persecution as he did and for similar reasons. Instead of defeating you, this will be the cause of blessing as the glorious Spirit of God rests on you. The sense I get here is that if you do have to suffer just because you are a Christian you are likely to experience his power to help you and to experience something of his victory. But this is serious stuff. Pray God that you will be given the strength if ever put in that situation. Pray God perhaps that you will be spared the challenge.

But, next, what is certain and can readily be applied to all of us is to make sure you do not suffer because of what you do wrong. The examples given are for being a murderer or a thief or indeed any sort of criminal or a meddler in other peoples’ affairs, a mischief-maker! If any of these results in suffering you only have yourself to blame and should be rightly full of shame and face up to what you have done. But if you suffer expressly because you are a Christian, there is no shame because you bear Christ’s name. You are on his side, part of the same good cause if you like, and you can rejoice in that.

Peter then seems to remind his readers of the sobering thought that everything must be looked at in the bigger picture of what Jesus has done. If the burden of sin is such that from God’s perspective, even the best, most loving and holiest person still needs to be rescued from its power, or, as Peter puts it, it is difficult even for good people, the righteous, to be saved, and if we who call ourselves Christians need to be prepared to be the first to answer in front of God, then perhaps our suffering, however much we must struggle to come to terms with it, is not necessarily our primary concern. These are difficult thoughts because they remind us of the Christian ideas of judgment.

Pause….

But then Peter finishes this passage on a positive note. Look, he says, you may well find yourselves having to suffer. You may find that that is part of the life that God leads you to and through. Don’t be surprised. Do not let that lead you to despair. You can still trust in God as your loving Creator who always keeps his promises and will bring you through.

Perhaps here is the summary of the Christian approach to suffering.  I have had a picture in my mind all week that I will finish by sharing with you in case you find it helpful. Imagine a path that you are on, probably a path in the hills or mountains. It is a rough road and not easy to travel and it is the road of your life. And ahead is an old wooden bridge, a very long wooden bridge across a wide drop down, not too far, to a beautiful lake of blue mountain water. And the bridge leads to despair. It is the bridge of suffering. But as you put your first foot on it and look down you realise that this bridge is not good. The supporting beams are coming away from the hillsides on both sides, the main pillars when you pass them look to be riddled with woodworm, the planks on which you walk are weak with damp and decay. Sometimes it will support your weight for a few paces but then your foot starts to go through and you have to hurry on again. Then you stop and try another pace and your foot breaks through. You are barely half way across the bridge but cannot go back.

The idea is that for Christians, suffering is in fact riddled with hope. If we suffer, God our loving Creator has been there before. If we suffer, God our loving Creator is with us because he stands at our side and strengthens us. If we suffer, God our loving Creator will be there when we fall. Suffering can lead to despair but are we not among those who in fact come crashing through its ultimately rotten bridge, riddled with hope, and fall into his arms below?

If we are and we can see that, Peter finishes, then even if you are suffering show in your life just how you trust God completely. You may, in fact, still in your suffering have opportunities for good actions, for showing care to others, for bringing God’s light and love into the world. “So then, those who suffer because it is God’s will for them should, by their good actions, trust themselves completely to their Creator, who always keeps his promise”!

If you have been through or are experiencing suffering now, do not beat yourself up over this. No one is saying that suffering is not very difficult to deal with and it can absorb all of your strength at times but rather take this as a reassurance, that perhaps there is no situation from which, in time, good cannot come.

Amen.

Sermon 4th Novemer 2012

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, continues our study series on Becoming like Christ, looking at the book of 1 Peter.

“The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer”. That was the verse from this passage that a preacher focused on one Sunday in small-town America. As you can tell from the language, this was before the days of Children’s Church; so 10-year-old Johnny had weighty matters on his mind as he walked home with his Grandpa.

On the outskirts of that town, there was a big pecan tree, just inside the graveyard fence. On that Sunday, two boys had sneaked in there to collect the fallen nuts. As Johnny walked past, the boys were sat by the tree, out of sight from the road, dividing the nuts: “One for you, one for me; one for you, one for me”.

Also unseen by Johnny, several nuts had rolled toward fence. He didn’t need to see anything, though; he just knew what he’d heard. He ran off to his Grandpa, who’d fallen behind. “Come quick,” he said; ‘The end is here: I’ve just heard Satan and the Lord in the graveyard, dividing up people’s souls.”

His worried Grandpa hurried with Johnny to the graveyard. As they stood by the fence they heard: “One for you, one for me; one for you, one for me”. Johnny’s Grandpa said, ‘Well, let’s see if we can see the Lord, then.’ Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence; but of course they couldn’t see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they waited to catch a glimpse of the Lord. Soon enough they heard, “One for you, one for me: that’s all of them. Now let’s get those nuts by the fence and then we’ll be finished.” The story has it that Johnny’s Grandpa made it back home at least 10 minutes before the boy did.

What follows isn’t going to focus on the fact that the end of all thing is near. It also won’t be majoring on how God’s judgment is certain. Yes, the end is near – whatever ‘near’ means, given that these words were written almost 2 000 years ago. And yes, God’s judgment is surely coming, for the living and the dead. The fact is that Christians do live in the context of eternity. But our focus, as Peter’s so clearly is throughout this part of his letter, must be on living a life that’s transformed now, in the present. And that has to happen in the real world: it is to be done through relationships with real people; and it’s set in the context of real circumstances – all of which lot are less than perfect, as we well know.

Peter knew of life’s imperfections too: he knew them from all sorts of personal experience – both what he had done himself, and also what had been done to him. His readers knew the same at least as well. Remember the main reason that Peter wrote this letter to them was because of what was being done to them. These Christian in modern-day Turkey were facing a life-threatening persecution, on top of what they had already been through. They knew that life wasn’t perfect, like they knew that they weren’t perfect. No wonder, then that Peter began his next section by telling them to ‘arm themselves’!

What’s so instructive is what Peter said they were to arm themselves with: the same attitude (NIV), or way of thinking (GNB), as Jesus had. Once again, Peter says that is to be based on the fact of Jesus’ own suffering. I trust that those who have heard, or read, even only a few of these sermons that we have had on this letter have picked up this theme already. For Peter, Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross was absolutely central, to absolutely everything. Not only did it bring us to God; Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross has also accomplished our forgiveness by Him; and our healing too; and then, as we have been hearing over and over again, Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross is what sets the example by which we are to live, every part of our life, in any and all circumstances.

So, here we go once again, then: our own starting place is to be Christ’s suffering. That has changed everything, and makes all things possible. Some of those who had had that kind of experience themselves might now live very differently, Peter said. In verse 1 he quite specifically meant those who had already suffered for their faith, and had stood firm. To come through that experience, and get to the other side of it, would indeed sharpen the mind as to what really matters in life. But for all believers, whether they have been through that kind of suffering or not, Christ’s suffering is now also to be our launch-pad. What it’s to mean this time is that we are to live the rest of our earthly life for God, rather than for what our fallen human nature might perhaps naturally choose.

However long you have already spent living that way, Peter said, that’s enough. It’s time to stop, even if you did used to be well into it; and, yes, even if you are still associating with those who do continue to live that way. Peter referred to them here as heathens, or pagans, because that is what most of his readers’ fellow-citizens actually were. In those days life was generally far more overtly religious than it is here today. But lots of the same unGodly behaviour that’s very much still with us today was then part of particular religions, in a way that’s no longer the case. We could say that there’s still plenty of idolatry about. People still find lots to put before God: not much of it looks so religious today. But in a time when most people did follow some religion or other, those offering the first-century equivalent of sex and drugs and rock and roll were often very popular!

Of course people tend not to like it when you make a moral choice to stop doing what they still do. They feel judged in some way, and can then let you know about it – as you may have experienced yourself. Peter’s readers had faced that, it seems; but in this too they were to stand firm. And once again the example of Jesus was to be how they did so. He had suffered the cross to make the crucial, eternal difference. Everyone will face God’s judgment in the end, whether we’re alive or dead when Jesus returns to bring that about. And it’s only at that point that the truth can, and will, be seen for what it is.

On the face of it, in both GNB and NIV, verse 6 is the most puzzling one here. “That’s why the Good News was preached also to the dead, to those who had been judged in their physical existence as everyone is judged; it was preached to them so that in their spiritual existence they may live as God lives. (GNB) / For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit” (NIV). There’s a full range of views as to what it actually means, of course. The consensus is best summed up in how The Message version puts it: “Listen to the Message. It was preached to those believers who are now dead, and yet even though they died (just as all people must), they will still get in on the life that God has given in Jesus”. It seems that some people who were living it up were telling the believers that their faith must be making no difference, if they died just like everyone else did. Peter reassured his readers here that the decision that people made when alive to believe in Jesus did make all the difference eternally; and also that eternity was the bigger context they lived in.

You see, the end of all things was near: then, as it is now! Advent Sunday is the day we specially focus on this idea. As no doubt I’ll remind us then, 2 000 years isn’t so long in the context of eternity. What matters most, though, is how we live for Jesus between now and his return. So that’s the theme to which Peter then turned, in final part of today’s passage. And yes, you’ve got it; that too is to be based on the suffering of Jesus. Again, that is what makes this new, radically different life even vaguely possible. Love does cover over multitude of sins, as it says in the Proverb that Peter was quoting here. But it doesn’t pass over them. There is a significant difference between those two things. Crucially, through the suffering of Jesus, God’s love shows how to deal with sin, through forgiveness and restoration – not by pretending that it’s not there.

As with many things in the Christian life, the theory of that is rather easier than the doing of it. Peter gave more than a hint of that by telling his readers not to grumble when they opened their homes to each other. It must be said that this wasn’t 1st-Century believers being precious about their own space. To offer hospitality to a fellow believer could have been both expensive and dangerous for people then. If you took in a family who had lost their livelihood and home, how long would they stay for? And if you were wanting to have any chance of keeping your faith secret, that was at risk too. You might well be risking your own livelihood, home, and even your life. That lot was cause to grumble about, you’d think!

But offering hospitality was one expression of a believer’s love for God and His people. And that, like forgiveness, is now possible because of the self-sacrificing example of Jesus. The question that I’ve been known to ask about such things is: “Easy?” And of course the answer to it is: “No, far from it!” But that’s no excuse not to try – and at least sometimes to succeed, even if it does prove to be at great personal cost. But this is about a life that’s being lived for the God who gave His all for us. And that has to impact every area of life, as Peter reminds us here. Whatever gift God has given you – and don’t ever doubt that He has given you one – you are to use it for the good of others. In closing this part of his letter, Peter picked out just a couple of example. Like all New Testament lists, this isn’t meant to be an exhaustive one. It’s only illustrative – though speaking and serving do cover a fair amount of ground between them!

The key principle – in offering hospitality, in speaking, and in serving, and in every other way besides – comes in the final words of our passage. It is “So that in all things praise may be given to God through Jesus Christ. To him be glory and power forever and ever” indeed. And that is what it’s all about – as our learning throughout this series has constantly reminded us. It’s not about you; it’s all about, and for, him. It’s about us becoming more like Jesus, who has set the example of self-sacrifice, suffering, and service – and who wants us now to live for him, and in him, until his return, and beyond. We are to do that by living a life that is being transformed now, in the present. And that does have to happen in the real world: it is to be done in and through relationships with real people; and it is set in the context of our real circumstances – all of which are bound to be less than perfect. But we are to do it “So that in all things praise may be given to God through Jesus Christ. To him be glory and power for ever and ever, then. Amen.”