Announcements

Wednesday Bible Study

Churches able to begin meeting again on May 20th

For May, we will only be meeting for Sunday Worship (no bible study, choir, etc.)

Asking our elderly and vulnerable to remain home for this time

Will continue to publish sermons online.

Will continue practicing safe standards during this time. Full list of precautions upcoming

Must Wear Masks

Prayer

Call to worship (Psalm 31:1-5; 15-16)

Affirmation of Faith (Apostle’s Creed)

Tithes and offerings

Scripture reading (1 Peter 3:8-4:11)

Sermon

Benediction

Who Will Harm You?

“Disaster pursues sinners, but goodness is repaid to the righteous.” Peter seems to have had something like Proverbs 13:21 in mind as he penned this part of his letter. If Christians would only act honorably, if they obeyed the laws within reason, if Christian wives honored their husbands, if Christians didn’t try to overturn the fabric of society, if only they would live peaceably with love towards one another, then the Pagan world would see that they are good, and would treat them as good.

Peter’s whole argument leads us to two conclusions:

First, that Christians should treat everyone with honor and respect, and seek to live peaceably and with love towards both our brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as the unbelieving world. Peter goes to great lengths to emphasize the importance of living a holy life. From the emperor, down even to slaves, and now, Peter says, to everyone, we are to show honor and respect.

Secondly, if Christians lead this kind of life, then we will not suffer harm and persecution. He says, “Now who will harm you if you seek to do what is good?” The implied answer is, of course, “No one!” Like proverbs, Peter seems to be saying that those who do good will get good in return.

But like Ecclesiastes and Job, Peter does not leave such optimistic an assertion without qualification. Yes, if we seek to do good then no one should do us harm, and yet, as Peter admits, this is not always the case. “Who will harm you if you seek to do good?” As it turns out, quite a number of people will. While doing good will no doubt minimize the harm we come to, there are nevertheless people in the world who will seek to do us harm nonetheless.

The next question for Peter, then, is “What should we do about it?”

The Passion of Gentiles

When I was young, I was often taught that “If someone hits you, you hit them back,” and, “you should never start a fight, but you always finish one.” This kind of thinking is widely supported in our culture. There’s a good reason that superhero movies and war films are so popular in America. There’s a good reason that patriotic holidays are usually centered around a war fought in the past. Americans love a good fight. Our culture gets a great thrill out of seeing justice served in the form of a punch on the jaw.

Even the most committed of pacifists will have to admit that, when we are wronged, there is something deep within us that longs to lash out. An eye for an eye feels good, and that is perhaps why it is so popular. An “eye for an eye” is biblical after all, isn’t it?

Yet Peter would remind us of the words of Jesus: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.” In other words, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Followers of Jesus have moved on from this law. This is the way we used to act, before we became Christians.

This drive for revenge, to punish those who have hurt us, is innate in all humans. Some scientists (though the theory has been thoroughly questioned) suggest that these passionate reactions of violence come from the “reptillian brain” within all of us: the part of the brain left over from the earlier stages of human evolution. Whether we agree with such a theory or not, Peter seems to suggest that there is a certain reptile responsible for the human urge to lash out in revenge: that old Serpent, Satan.

This is why, after all, giving in to the passions which provide instant gratification is precisely what the idol-worshipping Gentiles do. Peter lists a long series of vices we should expect to see in those who don’t follow Christ: lack of self-control, lust, drunkenness, excessive feasts and drinking parties. All the things that provide instant gratification, the kind of passions and desires that get stirred up in the heat of the moment.

Perhaps, then, when we are persecuted we could respond like the Gentiles. Perhaps, against the wisdom of Jesus and Peter, we could follow an “eye for an eye” philosophy. Survival of the fittest is, after all, the law of the land, and ‘don’t tread on me’ was the rallying cry of the American Revolution.

The Suffering Servant

This is the easiest, most obvious response, but Peter urges us as followers of Jesus not to stop following him when the going gets tough. To follow Jesus means not just to follow him in the cities and synagogues, but to follow him on the way to Calvary as well. If we suffer, though we’ve done no wrong, then we should remember that “Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.” Jesus did not only teach “Do not resist an evil person… if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other as well,” he demonstrated those words for us as he was condemned in a sham trial, stripped and beaten, made to carry the instrument of his own torture and death miles up hill, and finally was crucified before a jeering crowd. Peter asks us to come face to face with the fact that for Jesus, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” was the way to victory.

As Jesus was arrested in the Garden, Peter lashed out against those wrongfully condemning Jesus to death. He lunged at the servant of the high priest with a sword, but Jesus chastised Peter: “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” It was not that Jesus could not be the warrior messiah that Peter and his Jewish contemporaries were hoping for. It was that he would not, because that kind of response simply was not the way forward to the world God has envisioned.

The way of Jesus is not to respond to violence with more violence, to respond to hate with hate, to respond to force with more force, to fight evil with evil. No, as Peter says, the way of Jesus is to , “not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing.”

Those who take the sword will perish by the sword, but “if you suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed.” The paradox of the gospel is that Jesus was victorious not because he had an army of angels bigger than all the other worldly rulers, but because through his suffering he defeated the powers of sin and death. The cross of Christ’s suffering became the throne from which he would have all authority, power and dominion.

Peter tells us that it was through Christ’s suffering that he was able to preach victory over the evil spirits imprisoned by God. Jesus has power and dominion over all things, both earthly and spiritual powers, even these evil spirits. Through our baptism, we are joined to Christ in this victory. This, on the one hand, gives us hope that though we may suffer present trials, if we persevere we will share in a victory like Jesus. On the other hand, it calls us to a life of submission, servitude, and yes, suffering. It was only through the waters of the storm that Noah and his family were saved, and it is only through the waters of suffering and death that we, like Jesus, are saved. Only those who mourn are comforted, and only those who embrace death receive new life.

Judging a Tree By its Fruit.

Which brings us back to that first question, “Who will harm you?” On the one hand, there are people in the world who would punish us even for doing only what is right. But on the other hand, even if we suffer in the present, God will not let us come to the ultimate harm. He will not let us perish eternally, he will not let injustice go unanswered forever. Peter calls us to place our hope on the certainty of God’s future judgement. In so many words, Peter echos Paul’s letter to the Romans, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” There will be a time when those who persecute and wrong us get their just desserts, but we are not to be the ones who do that. Vengeance belongs to the Lord, but we are to be a people of blessing.

While “judgement” is often seen as a scary word, it is really only the revealing of what was there all along. As Jesus says, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit.” Peter, understanding this, tells us that “whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin.” If we endure suffering with the love and compassion of Jesus, then what better proof is there that Jesus lives within us? If we bear fruit like Jesus, then we must be a tree like Jesus. This is what the judgement is all about then: Peter urges us to repay evil with blessing, because those who bless will be blessed, but those who curse will be cursed. Those who do good will receive good, but those who do evil will receive evil. If, then, we respond to evil with more evil, we become evil ourselves and condemn ourselves. But if we are people of blessing, then God will surely bless us.

Peter was writing to a church in a different time and place than us. They had their own struggles and hurdles to get over, but in some ways we are not so different from them. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and Satan has been at his game a very long time, so naturally we see him using some of the same old tactics over and over again. Satan is a master at making us do evil while thinking it good. He is a master at pointing out our freedom, and encouraging us to use that freedom to enslave ourselves. This is what he did in the garden, and it is what he is doing even now.

As Americans, we value our freedom and our “rights” above all else. The freedom to do what we please, when we please, how we please. Unfortunately, rooted deep in our culture is a response of violence when those rights are violated.