1 Peter 3:13-22

Peace, Mercy and Grace are yours from the Triune God.

Setting the Bar High

Setting the bar HIGH. Have you been in situations where someone does something and you think there is no way I could do it that well. They do it so much better. How your neighbor keeps their yard. How your co-worker has the highest sales EVERY quarter. How someone parents. You think to yourself I just can’t even come close. They set the bar high. You know like Pr. Casey. Funny, witty and gives great sermons. He sets the bar high and here I am entering my 2nd year of seminary trying to fill his shoes for a day. I am sure you know what this is like, you’ve had this experience at some point too. Home,workplace, school, sports…in life we often see how others do things and find someone setting a bar high that we consciously or unconsciously feel we have to try and measure up to or maybe we go the other direction and we just give up and don’t even try.

Well friends, another bar is being set high for us. Setting the bar high is what stands out to me in this text. Peter is writing to the new and growing Christian community in what was called Asia Minor, now Turkey. First he is telling this new Christian community, be ready to share and explain where your hope comes from. Be ready to talk about your faith. Be ready to talk about Jesus Christ. He then warned them as followers of Christ, living out their faith and proclaiming a steadfast and eternal hope in Jesus they would face persecution, face hate, and maybe even death. People will be mean. He then goes on to tell them that in the face of this suffering and abuse they are to respond as Christ did, looking at verse 14 with gentleness and reverence or respect. Peter is telling them to imitate Christ in the face of nastiness. This same call rests with us today as disciples. Um…I don’t know about you all, but that seems to be the epitome of setting the bar high. How in the face of nastiness am I supposed to be gentle and respectful like Christ??

Human Pattern

Let’s talk for a minute about the human pattern, when we are faced with nastiness directly or indirectly, unkind words or actions from people that we know or strangers what is our tendency?

We get defensive

We blame

We retaliate

We throw sharp words back

The human pattern is often of returning evil with evil. Unkind with unkind. Nasty with nasty. We want to give back to the other person what they give to us. Give them a taste of their own “medicine” if you will…

Sometimes we are the mean person. Sometimes we are the one that is difficult to encounter. Because there is no moral high ground here. The flesh is the great equalizer and we are all capable of being hurtful to others.

I also want to be clear, what I am talking about today are not situations where someone is being abused physically, mentally or emotionally. Those circumstance deserve a different conversation and a different sermon. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about the general ugliness we come up against in the world.

Followers of Christ not Immune – Respond not React

An ugliness no one is immune from. There is no magical shield or bubble around anyone. We are of this world which means unfortunately at times we will be the hurtful one and other times the target of unkindness. When we are subjected to such behavior, as followers of Christ, we are called to engage differently. Being the subject of mean behavior can be hurtful and demoralizing there is no doubt about it.

And yet, we are called to respond, not react out of our human patterns. In the face of challenging and difficult encounters, as follower of Christ we are called to respond with gentleness and reverence/respect. I am not sure about you, but that seems like a really high bar. Nothing about it is easy. When unkindness is being slung at me or those I care about, gentleness is not necessarily my go to. But this is what Peter is writing about to these new followers and it applies to us today. Our identify in Christ calls to a different way of responding in these circumstances. This does not mean we lay done like a rug and let people say and do whatever nasty thing they wish. It also doesn’t mean we are to avoid the tough conversations or difficult people. But we are called to engage with the gentleness and respect of Christ. This is, in large part, is contrary to how we see people interacting in the world today.

We as disciples find ourselves in yet another juxtaposition – a both/and. The Gospel leads us to actively and assertively move toward and working for those on the margins, unfair and unjust treatment of people and people groups, corruption, fear, shame, the broken and to places where power is misused. The Gospel compels us to take a sacred path toward the least among us which undoubtedly will lead us to some hard conversations. And on this path, we are called to “be” representatives/ambassadors for the love of Christ. We are to speak truth with love into hard circumstances.

When it comes to family trees, you come across a Family Crest or Coat of Arms. A visual symbol made up of the family name, several other pieces that have specific meaning to represent a family and it’s descendants. Perhaps you have one hanging on your wall at home. Siblings, as decedents of Jesus Christ our Family Crest is not what we hang on the wall, but it is represented in the way we live in the world. We as decedents of Jesus Christ, are a unified family in Jesus, and because of that are called to the hard stuff and difficult people and when we respond and engage with compassion and love we make our family Crest, or Coat of Arms visible.

A couple stories to illustrate what I am preaching today

Paraphrasing what was written in the incident… One day, Mother Teresa was asking a baker for some bread to feed the hungry children in her orphanage. The baker was furious with her request, not only did he turn her down, he spat at her. She did not react, but In response to his outrageous actions, Mother Teresa calmly (gently) reached deep into her pocket, took out her handkerchief, wiped the spat off and said "That was for me, now what about some bread for my poor children." The baker was touched by Mother Teresa's response, he gave bread that day and giving bread to the orphanage became part of his regular pattern thereafter.

Last month, on June 17 was the 7th anniversary of the Emmanuel Nine

Relatives of the nine people shot down in a clearly racist act during a Bible study session inside their historic black church in Charleston, SC confronted the 21-year-old suspect during his initial hearing. The families had time to talk during the hearing, and when they did, they described their pain and anger, but also spoke of love.

Anthony Thompson, a survivor of Myra Thompson a person killed in the shooting, took his time on the record in court to look the suspect in the eye and say "I forgive you, my family forgives you, we would like you to take this opportunity to repent. ... Do that and you'll be better off than you are right now."

Nadia Bolz-Weber, an ELCA Pastor in in the Rockie Mountain Synod, had a blog post this last Friday titled “Beauty Where it is Intended There Be None.” The post captures a visit she made to Sterling Men’s Correctional Facility in Colorado. She went to the facility to see the first performance of an original theater piece being performed live inside the prison. This is a maximum security prison where men spend time for committing the worst kind of violent crime. With the support of Dr. Ashley Hamilton from Denver University Prison Arts program, inmates developed a narrative theatre piece that brought to the stage the stories of real life trauma and devastation from many different perspectives: inmates, parents, staff, survivors, and victims. The inmates prepared for the performance by interviewing people to understand their story so they could accurately bring the story to the audience through their acting. One of the people the inmates interviewed was a minister who had accompanied a man named Cory, an inmate who was convicted of several murders. The minister was asked, why he was willing to walk/accompany a person like Cory “to see the humanity in someone like Corey, a murder” he responded “because if God is love, then God is in the love between us. And if there is not room in the heart of God for Cory, then there is not room in the heart of God for me.”

Maybe you are like me and are thinking, how did these people respond this way. How did these people in these extreme circumstances respond with gentleness and reverence when I get whipped up over trivial things like a crabby clerk at the grocery store. Our everyday run in with unkind, selfish and nasty behavior is often far less extreme than these stories and it is still hard to respond with the Amazing Grace and Gentleness of Jesus and not react with the same nastiness that is being thrown around in our world. In these stories I shared, what sets these people apart and strengthens them to respond? Verse 15 might give us insight “but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord.” Sanctify, to set apart, to hold sacred, to put in first place. In the Gospels this is what Jesus means when he declares “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.” So see when we sanctify, hold God in Jesus Christ as first place, in our lives we unleash resources within ourselves to help us respond in love, to see the love of God between and to see the humanity in the other even in the hardest of circumstances. We then respond from a place of who we are, whose we are and who we represent in the world. These people were firmly grounded in the deep hope of Jesus and as a result had the strength, courage, and the ability to respond with gentleness, love, humility and compassion in these terrible situations and friends this kind of posture has transformative power.

Again these are extreme situations that we don’t often find ourselves in. However, we can all think of times when we encounter difficult people and situations. We see such division on our world today over political and social matters. We see people drawing clear lines in the sand, you are with me or you are against me. And if you are against me you are going to be “taken down”. Harsh words are exchanged, character smearing ensues, cancel culture takes over, and more.

Road rage, inside stores when people are rushing to get the sale items before it runs out, workplaces, families, churches and schools (shouting matches over what books to have in the library or what can be displayed on the school walls), and I am not here to say these are not worthy topics to dive into, but these interactions often far from gentle and respectful. We have stopped seeing the humanity in each other. As disciples of Christ we are to show up differently. Still taking action for that which is important, speaking to truth and justice, but our scripture reading today reminds us we are called to do it with gentleness and respect.

CPE – St. Camillus

This summer, I am doing my CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education), a requirement of seminary, at St. Camillus in Wauwatosa (a life plan/retirement community). Saint Camillus’s theology is posted throughout the facility and is says, “The poor and the sick are the heart of God. By serving them, we serve Jesus the Christ.” You see, when we encounter people who are unkind, rude, mean, and bring harm to others, I believe we are encountering people whose souls, whose spirits are sick. Fear, shame, feeling unloved, like they don’t belong or have meaning. Lacking hope and joy. The world is a tough place and often, mean behavior is a reaction to a person’s inner conflicts rather than a rational response to the people around them. If we reflect on times when we sent ugliness into the world, because again, we are NOT above being the nasty one in the equation, but if we reflect on those times we are not so nice, we will probably find that we did that from a place of fear, brokenness, feeling of unworthiness, failure, overwhelm, and shame. The hurt often hurt. The bully often has a wounded or sick spirit. These are all signs that they/we need Jesus. We need to be reminded we are a beloved child of God, that we have worth, we belong and have meaning. Friends, I believe by serving these people who are broken or sick in spirit with gentleness in our response to them, we are sharing the unconditional love of Jesus with them and it has the power to be transformative in their lives.

The Good News

I know this is not easy. I often fall short of being in how interact in the world. The good news is, we have a hope in us that is centered on the cross of Jesus and don’t have to do it alone. The good news friends, Christ suffered a human death for sins once and for all, experiencing death in the flesh (on the cross), so to be made alive in spirit in order that He can remain with us always. The bar is high, but the good news is we are not left alone to do this. In our baptism we are born into new life with Christ with a new orientation for life and equipped with the Holy Spirit. We friends are called to respond differently in the world. In our families, with friends, neighbors, strangers, those with different beliefs and different values, and even on social media too. The stories I shared, again extreme circumstances, and if there are people who can live out their faith in love, like in the stories I shared, then we can do it with the rude person at the grocery store, the person in traffic who really deserves some universal sign language (and I don’t mean the ILY), our family member or fellow church member who we find challenging, the hard conversations we have to have as we take action against injustices and systems of oppression. We are both called and equipped in Christ to respond with gentleness and love.

In our Gospel reading today we read the collection of Beatitudes, instructions directly from Jesus on Christian discipleship and how we are to interact in the world…collectively they call us to simplicity, hopefulness, and compassion. These three principles allow us to be in the world, while not being totally shaped by it. How we engage the world offers an alternative to what the world seems to be pursuing. In doing so we bring about the goodness of God that abides in each of us and when this is manifest in our behavior, actions and words we bring Christ, the great transformer, to a hurting world, and that leads to opportunities for transform in the heart of the other person. When we bring out the best in ourselves, it has the power to bring out the best in others.

We are called to proclaim our hope with humility, gentleness, compassion, and respect in whatever we face. You see we don’t have to fear the nastiness out there because we are Easter people. The source of our hope runs deep. Our hope is based on the fact that the worst thing that could happen has already taken place: Jesus suffered and died for us and then overcame death. The bar is high, but we have God on our side, a God that has already brought victory over the world’s worst event. That is where our hope comes from and for that we give thanks to God. Amen