Sinners or Saints?

October 1, 2008

I Peter 1:13-25 (The Message)

“So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.” You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living. Your life is a journey you must travel with deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this is no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God. Now that you’ve cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it. Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God’s living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself! That’s why the prophet said,
‘The old life is a grass life, its beauty as short-lived as wildflowers;
Grass dries up, flowers droop, God’s Word goes on and on forever.’
This is the Word that conceived the new life in you.”

If you were to have said to me twenty years ago, “be holy as God is holy,” I might have reacted in one of two ways. “Holiness, shmoliness! I’ll live how ever I like!” Or . . . I might have become quite legalistic in my efforts at seeking such purity in my life. There are many that balk at the injunction because they buy more heavily into the idea that we are sinners, not saints, and therefore we find ourselves in desperate need of God’s forgiveness. Are we sinners or are we saints?

Peter is calling the people to forget the ways that they lived before they were Christians and to focus on purity and obedience. For Peter a holy life is one that calls each person to express love toward others, to see each other as a family. It is not something made up of rules on how to be but it comprehends that holiness starts with God reaching out in love to bring humans into relationship with him and then follows with humans reaching out in love to each other to nurture relationship. There are those who would say that if one can accomplish this they are saints. Maybe that’s true. So, are we sinners or are we saints?

I live a very sheltered life. That life revolves around the church. I do not know many people who are not Christian (though I do know some people who don’t act very Christian.) I have my own church centered vernacular that drives my life and no matter how I try, I find myself wedded to that vernacular. That vernacular and the experience of life in the church usually leave me feeling pretty saintly.
This past week though, I took some vacation days and gathered with a number of people that I knew really only casually. We were all in agreement that we wanted to know each other well and so our week was spent learning about each other. In the context of that learning, I realized how outmoded my language is and how I expect others to utilize church-speak so common to the halls of my environment. As I became aware of the expectations that I put on others I began to feel rather sinful.

I realized this week that innate in the injunction “to be holy as God is holy” is an understanding that our perspectives on life must be very broad, that our language and vernacular must be expansive, that non-judgment must be a crucial ingredient in the mixture of creating holiness in our lives. I realize that I cannot agree with objectors to the injunction because to me that perfection of holiness is attainable and the fact that we choose to seek it is what makes us all saints, but we are on a journey toward it and the trial and error lessons of the journey are what make us sinners. So are we sinners or are we saints?

Today, if you say to me, “be holy as God is holy.” My response would be more along the lines of “I’ll do my best.” My best in seeking holiness comes first in the search for a life journey that is lived in the “deep consciousness of God” and second in the practice of that consciousness through love. Twenty years from now when I look back on the words I’m about to write I may well do so with embarrassment and part of me hopes so. We do grow from our previous perspectives if we allow ourselves the opportunity to do so. Are we sinners or are we saints? It’s a question for you to answer but for me, I am not convinced that I am a sinner or a saint but after this week of being and experiencing love among others outside of the walls of the church, I think . . . that I just am.

The Gift of Time

September 24, 2008

I Peter 1:10-12

“The prophets who told us this was coming asked a lot of questions about this gift of life God was preparing. The Messiah’s Spirit let them in on some of it—that the Messiah would experience suffering, followed by glory. They clamored to know who and when. All they were told was that they were serving you, you who by orders from heaven have now heard for yourselves—through the Holy Spirit—the Message of those prophecies fulfilled. Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!”

When I was a little girl, my parents tell me that they would take me somewhere and the minute we arrived I would say something to the effect of, “This is great! What’s next?” I was and always have been ready to find out the next thing. I am bored easily and therefore always on the move. That mentality is not unlike the recipients of this letter. They have been told that Jesus will be returning. “Alright then, let’s get on with it! When can we expect him?” Many were in agreement that the prophets had predicted it but they never said when.

In our last vignette from this scripture the author discussed salvation and now he pulls on that idea as well as the idea of time (kairos). The people were anxious to know when this One in whom they found their salvation would make himself manifest to them. They were fixated on the idea and wanted to pin it down.

I must tell you that the author of Peter is rather naïve. Peter assumes that he has one singular audience—that there is one Jewish community and that everyone believes the same thing--that Jesus was the Messiah and that Jesus would be the one returning. Peter also assumes that Jesus existed prior to his birth on earth. There would be many that would disagree with such an argument. So, as we hear this passage, it is important to understand that from Peter’s perspective Jesus was indeed the end all be all. With that perspective, it is easy to see how the people were ready to get on with it. Let’s see this one who is our salvation! Let’s see him now!

Those of the ancient world would find more value in these words than I do now given their anxious anticipation of the Messiah’s return. Still, the value that I find here comes in that word of time. How often are we like these people (or like little Blythe for that matter )? How often are we so excited about the happening of something that we want it NOW?!! In our wanting of and excitement for some anticipated happening we often lose the value of the process and we fail to embrace the value of mystery. Mystery may be uncomfortable but there is purpose in it. Sometimes the very key to our security exists in the context of mystery.

This week I know that my awareness of time will be keen as it always is but as I traverse the minutes that it brings I will make a commitment to valuing each one. Will you join me?

Daily Salvation

September 17, 2008
I Peter 1:3-9
“What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.
I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.”
Maybe your family is like mine—big! In a big family like the one of which I am a part you are destined to find varied theological perspectives and we have them. Some years ago, when some of my cousins learned of my own spiritual journey that incorporated struggles, trials and even doubt, they freaked out. How in the world could a minister—“someone chosen by God”—doubt the very One who had chosen them?! In their eyes I had committed the ultimate sin and in those moments they built a theological wall between us by deciding in their fundamentalist ways what is right for me and for everyone for that matter. To them, doubt in their faith was an evil—a temptation that was not to be embraced.
These verses are about salvation. While salvation and the end time perspective were very real to the audience of Peter’s day, even Peter understood the value of speaking to the topic of salvation as a present day and even a present moment reality. To Peter, one’s salvation was constantly being worked out. It was being worked out in the laughter and joyful singing of life but also in those bitter struggles that cause us to wrestle with God, to doubt and to feel as if we have been put on trial. With each experience that we weather we gain a new strength and our faith is taken to a deeper level. We have acquired new spiritual tools to deal with this life.
Peter knows that this community to which he writes faces all sorts of attack from wicked people and that it would be easy for this community to be swayed by the wickedness rather than holding firm in their faith. It would be easy for them to lose hope as Christians wishing that they didn’t need to know suffering.
Peter’s message to them and to us is that suffering happens. It is not necessarily something that we bring on ourselves. It is not created by God for our testing. It just occurs out of the flow of life, out of the varying perspectives, reactions and decisions of fellow humans. It just is. So, for Peter, the answer in the face of difficult times is not like that of my cousins. It is not a ‘how dare you doubt the reality of God’ mentality. Rather, it is an understanding that salvation is this gift from God that lets us face what comes our way, wrestle with it and hopefully choose God in the end and in so choosing find that we are stronger for struggle that has been ours. Somehow we find more peace in our lives and a new sense of freedom.
I don’t know what specific struggles you face but I do know that we live in a world that seems synonymous with upheaval and so I hope that you will take Peter’s words as assurance—that you will work out your salvation, wrestle, struggle and in the end find the living hope that exists for each of us who call God our Savior. May hope be ours today! Amen.

Holy People

September 10, 2008
I Peter 1:1-2
“I, Peter, am an apostle on assignment by Jesus, the Messiah, writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten. God the Father has his eye on each of you, and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours!”
I sat in the Honolulu airport last week and watched that usual airport scene that so many of us have witnessed. The flight attendants began to call for boarding first of the first class passengers who seemed to pride themselves on their ideal seating. These were people who walked a little taller and didn’t seem to engage themselves with others. As they boarded and the rest of us looked on awaiting our turns, the attendants were particular to have them proceed down the “elite” boarding aisle. No general boarders were to go down that aisle. Mind you, there was no physical boundary just the imaginary line that the airline hoped everyone would envision that extended from one sign’s arrow. Next the so-called “elite” boarders were invited on board and finally those of us who were to cram ourselves into the coach seats.
The books of Peter, though probably not written by him, were written to likes of the general boarders. They were sent specifically to the Jewish Christians who had been scattered in the Diaspora. Most likely the author didn’t know these people personally but had heard of their stories as the stories had made their way to Rome. These two books constitute letters that were written under the guidelines of ancient letters with the mission of exhorting people to claim the “living hope” that was theirs. That hope began first in understanding themselves as holy people—people who in spite of their physical scattering were not forgotten, were valued by God and by their fellow Christians. The author wants them to understand that in spite of their physical displacement that they were looked upon with grace and they were beloved.
The perceived attitudes of the first class boarders by the rest of us indicated to us that these people didn’t value us. They were centered on themselves. They couldn’t see the holiness in us nor could they witness God’s grace in us. It was easy for us to make that assessment of them but if we are honest, the very fact that we had perceptions of their attitudes indicated that we also could not see the holiness in them nor could we view God’s grace.
Peter’s opening words were for those scattered in the Diaspora about words of hope and the encouragement that not only had they not been forgotten but the holiness that existed in them was being acknowledge by those who didn’t even know them personally!
What lessons exist for us in that! How often in daily life do we fail to look upon others with grace? What are the ways that we can begin to see each other with different eyes? This is the call of these simple verses—that we see the holiness that exists in being “general boarders!” May we witness holiness and grace in each other this week! Amen.