eHowHope - I Peter
You can log on to the Internet to learn how to do just
about anything — except
how to have hope.
Want
to know how to cut an onion without crying? Wondering how to arrange marching
band music, audition for Survivor, bathe a guinea pig or write a sermon? Used to be that you’d have to do some serious
asking around or head to the library to gather up all that information. Then,
of course, came the Internet. Now we have sites dedicated to organizing all
that information and locating it in one place in cyberspace. One such site that’s breaking new ground in
this area is eHow.com. It’s what the
name implies — a site where you can learn, “How to do just about anything.”
It’s a one-stop shop for all Do It Yourself'ers. Punch
in your how-to question in eHow’s search engine and
you’ll come up with step-by-step articles written by readers and
self-proclaimed experts on topics from relationships to business and everything
in between. The eHow.com database has more than 70,000 articles and is visited
by more than eight million people every month.
Look
through eHow.com closely, however, and you’ll see that there are some holes.
Type in “How to have hope,” for example, and you get some ideas on how to have
inner peace or how to carry on when a loved one dies. Type in a tougher
question, like “How to suffer faithfully” and the only thing that pops up is an
article about how to treat a pinched nerve.
Suffering faithfully and maintaining hope in the midst of persecution
are the kinds of “how-tos” that you still need to
find in the pages of Holy Scripture.
First
Peter was written as a how-to letter of encouragement to the churches
“scattered” throughout Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) — these churches were
comprised of believers who had become alienated from the Roman culture and were
increasingly being slandered and persecuted because of their faith in Jesus
Christ as the long awaited Messiah of the Jewish nation. The writer saw the Christians in these
communities as “exiles” who had left behind the beliefs and practices of their
pagan neighbors and families and who now were strangers and “aliens” in their
own hometowns (1 Peter 1:1-2; 2:11). The
members of the Christian communities soon became targets for insults, discrimination
and even violence. Anyone caught professing the Christian faith could be
brought before the Roman authorities and asked to deny the lordship of Jesus
and profess instead that Caesar is Lord!
The very earliest statement of faith was pretty simple - Jesus Christ is
Lord! Those who refused to proclaim
Caesar as Lord were punished and sometimes executed. Sometimes punishment was being made to watch
the execution of your spouse and children.
It is to these suffering Christians that the words we have in this
letter from Peter are addressed. In the
midst of the most troubling times, these believers are pointed to the Savior
who also suffered, but now is eternally at the right hand of God where the
power to make all things right dwells.
Though they now suffer, final victory awaits all those who "keep
the faith."
The writer of 1 Peter, however,
didn’t see their situation as necessarily a bad thing. The suffering of these
fledgling Christians would offer a unique opportunity to share the “hope” that
was within them. It may not be as
dangerous to live the Christian life in 21st-century
The fact is that most of us have
not really endured any physical persecution because of our Christian
faith. Nevertheless, it does take place
in several parts of our world and was simply a part of living as a Christian in
the
Step One: Begin with an attitude
of love. The writer begins in verse 8 by
reminding the churches that they must reflect a “unity of spirit” by focusing
on the primary virtues of the Christian life: “sympathy, love for one another,
a tender heart, and a humble mind.” The sense here is that they were to
practice these virtues within their own communities of faith until they became
habits. Perhaps one of the reasons that
much of the world views Christians as angry, judgmental people has to do with
the way we act in our own churches. It’s
especially hard to love your enemies if you can’t even learn to love your
friends! Unfortunately Christians spend a lot of time
taking stands on issues and arguing with each other when they should be
spending more time on their knees together in prayer, taking on the character of
Christ.
Step Two: Repay evil with
blessing. We can’t control the attitudes
and actions of others toward us, but we can control how we respond. Too often
the human response is to get even with someone who has wronged you. The writer
of 1 Peter echoes Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew
Step Three: Face your fears. “Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is
good?” asks the writer. We’d like to believe that things are fair and that
people get rewarded for doing good and punished for doing evil. Reality, however,
is different. The truth is that we do often “suffer for doing what is right” but even
then, says the writer, we are “blessed” (v. 14). People often fear change, fear
a loss of power and fear that which they do not understand. Rather than address
those fears, they lash out at those whom they believe are a threat. Despite the
ominous thought of having to endure unjust suffering at the hands of others,
Christians are not to act out of fear. Rather, we’re to have a healthy respect/fear/awe
of God who ultimately holds everyone in his hands. Suffering will come, but “it
is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to
suffer for doing evil” (v. 17).
Step Four:
Follow the example of Jesus. If you want to understand the proper way to live out
hope in the midst of suffering, says the writer of 1 Peter, the best example is
Jesus. Jesus was crucified unjustly, suffering under the worst human violence
and insult one could imagine, yet his death and resurrection were the ultimate
triumph of hope over injustice, sin and death. It was through that suffering
that Christ was able to “bring [us] to God” (v. 18). Jesus’ triumph over death
enabled him to proclaim hope to the “spirits in prison” — those who had died
apart from a saving knowledge of God (vv. 19-20). We acknowledge that in our Apostle's Creed.
Jesus continues to proclaim that
message of grace and liberation to us in the present through baptism. When we’re
baptized, we take on the results of Christ’s suffering for us — cleansing from
sin and new life in God’s grace, all the things for which we hope. In Christ,
God had taken on the worst the world can dish out and came out the other side
victorious. As Jesus’ people, we can respond to the lingering evil of the world
not by retaliating, complaining or retreating, but by proclaiming the hope, the
realized hope, that is within us.
No
matter what may be going on In the world around us -
the final outcome Is certain Jesus Christ
has gone Into heaven and Is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities
and powers made subject to him. To
the early Christians the message was "no matter who Is In power on this
earth, and no matter how much they may do to hurt and even kill us - Jesus
Christ Is even now at the right hand of God and every power and every authority
shall one day answer to him. The message
has not changed. Times have
changed. Worldly powers have come and gone
but one thing has not changed.
Jesus
Christ Is Lord! And because Jesus Is
Lord, the outcome of all things Is certain. And because Jesus Christ Is Lord, the destiny
of all God's children Is assured. And because Jesus Christ Is Lord, even physical
death cannot separate us from the love of God.
The Lordship of Christ is the solid ground of the Christian faith.
When we
give our lives into the care of Christ, we have linked our souls with the One
who stands before and beyond all time.
We entrust our past, our present and our future into the hands of the
One who holds every tomorrow and all eternity in his hands. Revelation 1:8 says,
I am the alpha and the omega. I am the Lord God who is, who was and who is
to come. Thanks be
to God! Amen.