3^rd Sabbath in Easter

April 4/6, 2008

Victor H. Nixon

A COMMUNITY OF GENUINE MUTUAL LOVE

1 Peter 1:17-23

Series on the Church: Living Stones

The Easter story is about a stone rolled a way from a tomb indicating that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Stones seem to be constituent of Easter people. First Peter describes early Christians as "living stones" that God builds into a "spiritual house." In this series of Eastertide sermons, I’ll be looking at what it means to be a "living stone," that is, the Church of Jesus Christ. We begin with the church as a community of genuine mutual love.

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Shortly after Freddie and I had arrived as the new pastor and spouse in a congregation, she and I were discussing the church—as pastors’ families frequently do. You know, lay people talk about preachers and their families; preachers and their families talk about the church. We have a friend who once said that her family always attended church on Sunday and then had fried preacher for lunch! Well, preachers and their families have grilled church as the main course for Sunday lunch. I had probably asked her, "Well, what do you think about our new church?" She replied that she had observed that this church really seemed to enjoy being the church. "They appear to really enjoy being together," she said.

That same observation also holds true, I believe, for this congregation. It is apparent that you also enjoy being together. In fact, you have such a good time visiting with one another that I sometimes wonder if you’re going to be able to settle down and begin worship. And then, you don’t want to leave after worship is over. Here we are trying to close the doors and some of you are standing around visiting with each other! That’s really wonderful. It indicates that you enjoy being together. How does that happen? Our text for today has a word for us.

First Peter is known as one of the "pastoral epistles," written to provide care and nurture for the early church. As indicated in the very first verse, it was addressed to "exiles of the Dispersion" in Asia Minor as a means of encouragement and instruction in faith. Unlike their Jewish ancestors who were earlier carried off to captivity in Babylon or held captive in Egypt, or those who were "dispersed" as resident aliens in another country, these exiles were early Christians who faced conflict and hardship because of their faith.(1) In other words, this pastoral letter was sent in Peter’s name to encourage those who, like us, are under constant pressure to make cultural accommodations to faith where things are more important than persons and Christian values are secondary to lifestyle and social values. Peter’s pastoral letter is just as relevant now as then because we also need instruction and encouragement.

It has been said that the church is simply a slice of society, in the sense that we bring our world and all that implies into the sanctuary, into our worship, into our lives. We bring our hopes and disappointments, our worries and conflicts, our values and our needs, right through the door and into the pew. To pretend otherwise is to be dishonest and hypocritical—and, of course, we bring those too. But church is more than merely a slice of society. Something more happens when we get together.

Peter reminds us that the something more is the risen Christ. "You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish."(1:18)

I’ve never thought much about what it must be like to be captured and held hostage for the purpose of demanding a ransom. Like you, I read about such terrible things occasionally in the news or watch that scenario portrayed in a movie. It’s very cruel and inhuman. But I do know what it means to be captured and held hostage by my own evil tendencies and desires, my unwarranted anger and impatience, when it feels literally like someone else is momentarily in charge of your life—and I couldn’t buy my way out of such an emotional quagmire with all the money in the world. Some of you know what it means to be held hostage to addiction and to feel powerless to do anything about it and no amount of money could ransom you out of that circumstance. Each of us knows what it means to dislike and even hate ourselves because of something we’ve done or not done, and we are held hostage by guilt and shame.

Peter tells us metaphorically that we don’t have to do anything. We don’t have to buy anything. It’s been done for us. The ransom has been paid in Jesus. You don’t owe anything for what you are or have been. There’s no demand for payment. You are set free from the past.

That’s what we celebrate in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. This is my body given for you. This my blood shed for you. Freely given. Freely received. Grace abounds and sets us free when the church gathers around this table. That’s when the church becomes more than merely a slice of the world; the church becomes a slice of the kingdom of God.

But there’s another piece in this church puzzle that Peter is putting together for us. "Through [Jesus Christ] you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God."(1:21) Through the grace of Christ we come to trust or rely upon God. Christ was raised so that our faith and hope are set on God.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to put my trust in other stuff at times—these days, the Dow Jones average and my net worth, or what other people may think of me, my professional position and my ability to influence others, the size and location of my house, the kind of car I drive, the clothes I wear, the friends I have, my health and well-being, etc. This is what the world teaches me. All those things are nice, but not appropriate to build a life. All can be blown away by the market, or a storm, or some other disaster. Only God is worthy of your trust. Set your faith and hope on God. As the church we are reminded of that important truth and, thus, different from the world.

Grace of Christ. Trust in God. "Love one another deeply from the heart," says Peter to the church.(1:22) "Genuine mutual love" is Peter’s recommendation to us.

When a group of would be clergy were being ordained at the annual conference one year, Bishop Paul Galloway, asked them the requisite, historic questions for all to be ordained. One is: Are you in debt so as to embarrass yourself? They all answered "No." To which the bishop responded, "Some of you folks are mighty hard to embarrass!"

Some of us are also hard to love. In fact, most of us are hard to love and we find loving one another very challenging. Genuine mutual love may be the most difficult of all because it involves both sides of a relationship. If you love me but I don’t love you the relationship is not going to work very well. In church, it should be mutual and it should be real, says Peter.

The Greek word for love in our text is agape. It isn’t love that is based upon what you feel for another or upon what another deserves or has earned. Agape is love as a decision. It is love given without condition or strings attached, even when the other is not deserving, desirable, or loveable—especially when the other is not deserving, desirable, or loveable. It’s the kind of tough, costly, painful love that resists giving you what you want when it is not in your best interests or unethical. It is like God’s love: love that can transform, forgive and redeem and make whole; and love that searches out and invites and cares. Love that offers new life, like being born anew, says Peter.(1:23)

It’s the "pure unbounded love" of God in Christ around which the community of faith—the church—gathers, receives and offers to others through instruction in faith, encouragement in despair, mission to the hopeless and homeless, and welcome to strangers. It’s the love we come to church to hear about and experience in church. And church is the means by which we return God’s love. We gather to receive love from God and one another, as well as to love God back in worship, prayer, ministry and gifts. Church is about growing in genuine mutual love.

Like those early "exiles in Dispersion" we too need instruction and encouragement that come through the grace of God in Christ, trust in God, and genuine mutual love that enable us to grow in faith and witness in times such as these when faith can be difficult. Love one another as Christ has loved you.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

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