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!