Scripture Readings: 1 Peter 1.3-7; 5.6-8; Micah 3.5-12; Psa 43; Matt 23..1-12
Prayer of Invocation
Father, it is only by your gift
that your faithful people offer you acceptable worship: Grant that we may run
without stumbling to obtain your promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Proclamation
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that 2020
has been a disappointing year for all of us. We’ve not only had to deal with a
disruptive pandemic that has altered church, work, home life, school, sports,
and entertainment, and a resurgence of racial tensions across the country and
in our own community, but we also have been in the midst of a polemical and
polarized presidential election that looks to only widen the divide we are
experiencing in our country.
And in the midst of all this, we have our
frustrations and disappointments that have nothing to do with Covid, or the
election, or the racial strife, but have certainly been agitated by them. For
some it is a health issue--either emotional or physical; for others it is
finances; for many it is a relationship, whether family or friend, that leaves
you wounded, worried, frustrated, disappointed. Others are struggling with
direction, meaning, and purpose, wondering what life is for.
Let me go out on another limb: these
disappointments and frustrations are not going away any time soon, and may even
become more acute in the wake of Nov 3 and a second or third wave of Covid. So
what are we going to do? How should we respond? What resources are there to
help us navigate these disappointments, frustrations, and fears?
Our readings from 1 Peter this morning offer us
a story and a charge to keep us grounded in these agitating times. These
readings are the first and last word that Pastor Pete offers to a community that
is struggling with deep disappointment--for life is not turning out the way
they anticipated. Their allegiance to Jesus has not brought immediate peace,
prosperity, and relational flourishing. Instead, it has only seemed to make
things more challenging.
So Peter starts by orienting his readers and us
with a story, a story that starts with the punchline (1.3). And the
punchline points us to God--it encourages us to look up from the midst of
our frustrations and disappointments to see a good and powerful God who is
working all things to His glory. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ!” But why? Why is that a fitting thing to say?
Because He has given us a living hope.
That is an interesting adjective, living. Why add that to the word hope?
Because our hope is not an idea or an ideal, it is the crucified and
resurrected Jesus Christ! He is our hope. Jesus is the firstfruits, the
prototype of what God is doing in this world--making all things new through
frustration, disappointment, and suffering. This living hope is further
described as an incorruptible inheritance that awaits us, a salvation that is
being guarded for us by the power and faithfulness of God! This is our
foundational source of joy! God is preparing for us a world, a way of life,
that is ultimately satisfying, full of peace and wholeness. He is preparing and
guarding it. And he will bring it to being.
But the road to our inheritance, the way to our
salvation is through trials. It is significant that this is the word that
Peter uses to describe what we are all going through. He doesn’t use the word
suffering, or disappointment, or frustration, or hardship. Instead, he uses the
word “trial” or “test”. He does this because he wants us to think about our
disappointments, frustrations, and suffering in a new way--as tests of our
allegiance; as trials that provide us an opportunity to strengthen our
allegiance or faith in Jesus. These trials, Peter argues, provide us the
opportunity to place our trust in God. They liberate us from our many
idols, from those other things that tend to distract us from God. And here is
the shocking point that Peter makes: when we endure these disappointments,
frustrations, and suffering as trials or tests, when Jesus returns He will give
us praise, glory, and honor!
This is the story that Peter tells us and wants
us to tell ourselves. God has given us new birth to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus. This Jesus will return to honor those who have been
faithful to Him. This is our joy in the midst of a variety of trials--tests to
prove our faith to be genuine. This is his first word to us.
His final word is a charge. And the charge once
again points us to God. “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of
God”. Put yourself in the rightful place, under God. So often the
disappointments and frustrations that we experience come because we have
displaced God, because we have placed our agendas, our visions, our plans, our
perceptions, our strategies, our expectations above what God is doing in and
through us. So Peter exhorts us--humble yourselves (literally, place yourself
underneath God).
And God, in His timing, will exalt you to the
place you belong. This might be the hardest part--waiting on God’s timing. And
so the story that Peter tells reminds us that as we wait for God’s timing
we can be confident that our day will come. We only need to look to Jesus, our
living hope, to see that all things will be made new.
But what’s really illuminating about this
passage is the way in which Peter encourages us to humble ourselves. See, the
main verb in this passage is “humble yourselves” but it is supported by the
clause “casting all your anxieties on him”. What Peter is saying
is that the way we humble ourselves is by casting our anxieties or cares on
God. This is one way that we displace ourselves, one way that we lower
ourselves under God’s mighty hand--by refusing to make ourselves the lord
and savior of our cares and anxieties! You see often anxiety or worry come
when we have misplaced confidence in our own ability to control our world and
the situations that come our way. It is often when we place ourselves at the
center, our perceptions and judgments as the true vision of reality that we
find ourselves paralyzed by anxiety and worry. That is to say that worry and
anxiety are often signs that we have displaced God and made ourselves the lord
and savior of our world. (Having said that, not all anxiety is idolatry! There
are other reasons for anxiety, some of which come from trauma and even chemical
reactions in our bodies.)
But if we are going to cast our anxieties or our
cares upon God, then we have to know what it is that we are worrying about,
what it is that concerns us, what it is that produces anxiety in our lives.
Most of us live with a general feeling of anxiety and concern. Most of us would
agree that we quite naturally worry about things. But this text reminds us that
we must be able to name our cares and anxieties if we are going to cast them on
God. This takes work! This takes patient soul-searching. This means we must
take the time to know ourselves, to ponder what concerns us and why. It takes
being patient with the Holy Spirit, who seeks to show us where our misplaced hopes
are. It means looking at the circumstances of our lives and asking, How is this
concern or worry pressing me to trust in God? How is this disappointment or
frustration testing my faith?
So the challenge is moving beyond our general
feeling of anxiety and worry by naming the specific things that we worry about.
This requires us to be watchful, as Peter says. To be sober-minded--to not be
carried away by the fear and the worry.
And in so doing, we humble ourselves under God’s
mighty hand of deliverance.
And why should we do this? Why should we cast
our cares on God? Because he cares for you! And how do we know that He cares
for us? We look at the Table.
Eucharist
At the Table we see God meeting our greatest
needs, cares that we didn’t even know we had! At the Table we see that God’s
solution to our greatest problems would never have been planned or strategized
by us in this way! We come to the Table to humble ourselves, for we are not the
lords and saviors of our world. But the Lord of all has humbled himself for our
sake, so that we can share in fellowship with the life of God.
Reflection and Discussion Questions
- What is the story that Peter tells in 1 Peter 1.3-7 and
how does it orient us to God?
- What difference does it make to think of
disappointments and frustrations as trials or tests?
- How can worry and anxiety reveal misplaced trust?
- What are you worrying about now?
Benediction
After you have suffered a little while, the God
of grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself
restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever
and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 5.10-11
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