1 Peter 2 : John 10 : 1 10 Sermon

Transcription

1 1 Peter 2 : John 10 : 1 10 Sermon So what is it that Christians actually believe? What is it that you try to do with your life which is different from anyone else? These are good questions to ask, and perhaps if you are known as a Christian these are the sorts of questions curious people may put to you over coffee, or a glass of wine, or a pint of beer. Actually, in reality, the questions are not usually as interesting as that. It is more likely to be "so do you believe in evolution" or "what do you think about homosexuality", questions which tell us more about the obsessions of the society we live in than anything else. But the fundamental questions never really go away: what do we believe, and what do we do, and what makes the church distinctive from any other human organisation? It is no surprise to find that in a document like the letter of 1 st Peter these matters are already being addressed. If the people the letter was written for were going to be a church; a community of people who could re-present Christ to the world, it would help if they at least understood the answer to such questions. The answers contained in the letter address the specific issues faced by its original recipients. Remember that many of them would have been slaves, they would face a hard life, and adopting what would have been seen as a foreign religion would hardly have increased their popular. Given the many knocks and blows which they must have received, including we must assume physical knocks and blows; the natural response, we might say the human response, would be to feel sorry for yourself, or to get angry. It would be to grow bitter and resentful. It would be to feel that some kind of vengeance is justified and to start to plan, at least in your mind, how you might take some form of revenge if ever you got the chance. That may be natural, but the question is what do Christians believe? What should they do that is different? Our lives may be very different from theirs in many ways but I suspect that beyond the obvious, surface things, the same challenges face us. I may be completely wrong in this, and if I am you can correct me, but my suspicion is that we still sometimes feel sorry for ourselves, or get angry. That we still have occasional flashes of bitterness and resentment. That we still find ourselves planning ways of

2 getting our own back on someone we believe has done us wrong. I think that is still seen to be natural and common. It seems from out scripture today that this is one area where christian belief and christian practice is supposed to be different and distinctive. It seems from the letter of 1 st Peter that this is where Jesus was distinctive and different. When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten A certain man who used to be in our congregation confessed that he once went home from church cursing me. Someone in his office had really upset him on that Friday afternoon and he had spent a sleepless Friday night and most of Saturday planning what he was going to do on Monday morning. And he was really pleased with what he had come up with. But then he came here and he heard the sermon and with the greatest reluctance he realised that he really shouldn't and really couldn't. There we see something of how universal this Christian message is, and how universally relevant this way of living is. From a community of slaves in 1 st century Asia Minor to a leading financial institution in Geneva, it still connects with us. Because whoever we are, and wherever we are, and whatever we do, life will not go as plan, people will do wrong, people will do wrong to us. We have no choice over these things. The choice we have is how we will respond to these things. Here is how the christian response was explained to the developing churches of Asia Minor it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God's approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. (1 Peter 2 : 19-23) OK, that written for a particular situation, but it is also more than that. And it may sound like a piece of practical advice an encouragement to be nice

3 instead of being nasty, but it is also more than that. This message is very close to the heart of Christianity, and as such it is as relevant, and as urgent, and as potentially world changing as ever it was. So when we are asked, or when we ask ourselves, what is it that Christians actually believe? What is it that you try to do in the church which is different from what you will find anywhere else? Here is a central and a vital and an unfailingly appropriate answer. First of all, we believe in Jesus, in the stories that we are given in the gospels. We believe that in him we find the ultimate example of suffering which was not deserved, and the ultimate example of a peaceful, nonaggressive, non vengeful, non-violent response. And we rejoice in that, because we believe that he represented God among us, and that we have done as much to upset God as anyone else. Secondly, we follow in his steps, follow the example he gave us. Of course we can hear that and imagine all sorts of things; that he was nice to people so we should be nice to people, that he healed the sick so we should also try to make people better I'm not saying that we shouldn't want to kind. I'm not saying that we shouldn't want to make people better. But none of those things are at the heart of Christianity. So when Peter writes that we should follow in the steps of Jesus, follow the example he gave us, he goes on to make it clear what he means: when he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; This is a message which crops up repeatedly and often throughout the New Testament, so much so that once you start to notice it you wonder how you could ever have missed it. The message about not letting suffering turn us bitter and nasty, but letting it turn us to God. The message about giving up our right to vengeance, and leaving that to the one who will judge more fairly than we ever can. About refusing to hit back even when that is what is expected of us, and reaching out instead of hitting out. What about these verses from Romans Don't be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. (verse 2) Ask God to bless everyone who mistreats you. Ask him to bless them and not to curse them.(verse 14)

4 Don't mistreat someone who has mistreated you. do your best to live at peace with everyone. don't try to get even. Let God take revenge. (for) the Lord says, "I am the one to take revenge and pay them back." (verse 17) "If your enemies are hungry, give them something to eat. And if they are thirsty, give them something to drink. (verse 20) Don't let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good. (verse 21) Do you think there is a message in there somewhere? It is a call for peace and patience and love a call for freedom from vengeance even in those times and places when punishment and retribution seem so much more natural. The clear message here and throughout the New Testament is that we should love our enemies, and that this love involves treating them better than they treat us, treating them better than they deserve. We step down from the position of judge and leave that to one who really can judge. For that is what we are told Christ did: "he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly" It is at the heart of the Christian life - we do not return evil for evil. We know that is what it means to follow in the steps of Jesus because he himself made that clear. For example, Jesus says (in Luke 6:27-37), "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt Do to others as you would have them do to you. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. forgive and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you " Did I ask what there might be about Christianity which makes us different from the rest of the society we live in? It is all there, running right through our New Testament. Right there at the heart of what Christianity is about. And I is about so much more than being nice. It is about revealing to the world who God is, God who " does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities" (Psalm 103:10).

5 When Christians live this way, we show something of what God is like, and doing that is the very reason for the existence of the church. And it is about demonstrating that we understand how much and how fully we have been forgiven, for once we get that, we need never again be driven by the craving for revenge or the sense of power and self justification which goes with it. This is what Christians believe and this is what Christians do. This is the faith which sets us free from all of the things which so easily take a hold of us, free to have life and to have it abundantly. Only this kind of faith has the power to move us out of the vicious cycle of vengeful behaviour which can feel so natural but which does so much damage. It is vicious cycle of behaviour which we see in playground arguments and fights. It is what we experience in office politics and gossip, It is the same behaviour we see played out viciously and violently in armed conflict and civil war. I can be nasty to you, because you were nasty to me. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, precisely what Jesus said it was not to be like among his followers. (Matthew 5:38) Sadly much religion remains stuck that kind of judgmentalism obsessed by issues of reward and punishment. Much religion mirrors the way of the world rather than transforming it. But this gospel of grace, whenever we dare to believe it and to live it can change us, and through us, change the world. Amen, so be it among us.