Easter
5 Year A 2014
Father Adam Trambley
May 18, 2014 St.John’s Sharon
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.
This morning’s Epistle is the first letter of Peter. Peter addresses the letter to the exiles of
the Dispersion. He is talking to
Christians who are scattered in different places and because they are
Christians, where they are is not really a home to them. Some of the Christians Peter addresses might have been important, might have been
wealthy, or might have had influence, but most were probably poor, or prisoners,
or pretty needy, or even enslaved, and all of them would no longer have fit in. They didn’t like the public parties with
their idol worship, their Gluttonous excess, and their drunken debauchery. They didn’t enjoy watching gladiators die in
the arena. They weren’t buying into the
religious practices around them even when it meant not buying the locally made statues that others thought
brought prosperity. The Christian exiles of the Dispersion would sometimes have
felt alone, and rarely have had it easy.
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.
Peter writes that these exiles, a smattering of scattered
stones stuck standing by themselves, are made for something sacred. Peter calls
them to come to Christ, to hear to his word, to listen to his teachings, to
follow the way, the truth and the life, and to hold as precious the rejected
and crucified Son of God.
Then Christ, the stone rejected by the builders will become
the cornerstone of a living temple, a spiritual house built with the living
stones of those who believe. Those who
seem scattered and separated will link themselves together in their Lord and
become something of great power and purpose.
Their very lives, dedicated to God, are a spiritual sacrifice acceptable
to him through his Son Jesus Christ.
They are not separated; they are not weak; they are not powerless over
the principalities and powers surrounding them in their perverted pagan
provinces. Instead, every act of love,
every expression of grace, every witness to the truth, every just deed, and every
good work is an fragrant offering wafting like incense to the throne room of
the Almighty, spreading sweet perfume throughout the entire temple composed of
the living stones of Christian brothers and sisters and built on the rock of
Christ, and calling forth the power and presence of God’s glory in every corner
of creation.
Or, as Peter expands on their calling,
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.
What Peter says for the first century Christians scattered
through the Roman Empire, he also says to us gathered together in Sharon this
morning. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.
You are a chosen race.
A race usually means a group descended from the same person
or people, even those forebears were from ages past. On the broadest scale, race here can mean
race in our modern sense of white, Asian, or African-American. But this word can also talk about clan or
tribe or even extended family. All of
these identity groups play a role here.
Peter is saying that in Jesus Christ, none of those other groups matter,
because you are now part of a race that is chosen by God. Your membership card has been transferred
from whoever you were to the group of people whose parent is God the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and you are his adopted children. You may have been from
the disadvantaged group, but you have made it to the eternally “in” crowd.
Being part of the chosen race is important. Many of us come from less than ideal
backgrounds. Groups have so many ways
not to chosen. A poor family. An alcoholic family. An abusive family. A family without one, or even any,
parents. A family from the wrong side of
the tracks. A family with no
connections. A family with members in
jail. A family that talked funny. A family overwhelmed by illness. A family that didn’t go to church. A family that’s the wrong color or the wrong
nationality or the wrong class or that’s “not from around here.” Pretty much everybody could point to some
such family failing.
The good news, however, is that when we come to Christ, we
become part of a chosen race, a favored family.
Those of us together today are brought into a new family regardless of
where we’ve come from. Occasionally this
combining causes tension, but more often we derive strength from our
diversity. Importantly, being a chosen
race made up of so many offers opportunities for others to enter in among
us. Any baggage being carried can be set
down as a new life in Christ’s family is accepted. Our evangelism is a pre-approved application
to join us as member of God’s chosen race.
You are a chosen race,
royal priesthood.
Being a royal priesthood does not necessarily mean running
the King of England’s church. A priest,
especially in the Biblical context, is one who connects the people with
God. In the old, old days, the priests
made the sacrifices on the altar that atoned for sins or asked for God’s favor
or brought people together in celebration of God’s goodness. Priests still carry out those basic duties
to absolve from sin, to bless and to bring together the Body of Christ. While ordained priests undertake these
actions in particular ways, the entire church is called to this priesthood, as
well.
All of us know people who are broken and hurting because of
their sins and failings. We are all
called to reach out to those people and share the grace and mercy of God with
them. Every Christian can assure others of God’s forgiveness to those who turn
away from their wrongdoing and seek Him.
Similarly, all of us encounter situations where people are
struggling to succeed in good endeavors, or where positive possibilities seem
stymied. Everyone can pray for God’s
blessing to be on the important efforts around us, sometimes offering those
prayers silently, but often engaging others in prayer with us so that they can
know the power of God they are experiencing.
Then, while not all of us will lead a Eucharistic service,
we can all gather part of the body of Christ together to offer praise and
thanksgiving. Maybe we lead our family
in grace before meals. Maybe we call
together some co-workers after a good week.
Maybe we host the parties that let family and friends celebrate some
aspect of God’s goodness.
We are not just any priesthood, but a royal priesthood. We are not a mayoral or a gubernatorial or
even a presidential priesthood. The
scope of our priesthood extends to the height and breath of our great king, the
creator of heaven and earth. We go out
to proclaim forgiveness and to bless and to build the body of Christ
everywhere, not just in our church or even in our own cities. The possibilities of our ministry are as vast
as the purview of the Almighty, and some part of the royal priesthood of Christians
has to extend to every place.
You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
A nation is a group of people that has its own way of doing things. A nation makes its own laws and has its own regulations. God calls us as the entire people of God to be a holy nation. This concept of Holy Nation gets thrown around a lot, but Peter is not writing his letter to have America pass laws that we think God would like, although good laws are certainly preferable to bad ones. Instead he is talking about Christians setting up their life with a different focus from the lives of those around them.
Being holy does not mean being holier-than-thou. Holiness means being set apart for God. Holiness means that everything we do is about
God or for God or according to God’s plan and purpose. Holiness means that what we want is less
important to us than what God wants.
Everyone else can go about their business, but holy people are set apart
to go about God’s business. A holy
nation is a group of people, probably within one or more other nations of the
world, who structure their common life according to God’s plan and purpose, so
that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. A holy nation continues in the Apostles’
teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers. A holy nation uses its resources rightly for
God, calling forth tithes and offerings, caring for the poor and those in any
need. A holy nation values all people,
and helps them identify and live out their gifts to serve God and his
people. A holy nations lifts up its
children, supporting their families and bringing them up to know and love the
Lord. A holy nation makes its people
accountable to each other so that when they sin, they turn and seek God’s
forgiveness. A holy nation can support
its citizens in living differently from those around them so that they can
focus on God’s will. And a holy nation
shares its way of life with all those willing to come to new life in Christ
Jesus.
You are a holy nation,
God’s own people.
You are God’s own people.
In many ways, this is not much different from saying we are a chosen race,
but saying we are God’s own people looks both backwards and forwards more
explicitly. In the Old Testament, God’s
own people were the children of Israel, whom he led out of Egypt into the
Promised Land. We who have come to
Christ have been grafted into that same people of God. All the promises, as well as the
responsibilities, of God’s own people Israel also apply to us. At the same time, this calling looks forward
to being God’s possession for all time.
Being God’s own implies a promise to remain with God as long as he
is. We are not just incorporated into
Old Israel. We are also to be part of
New Jerusalem, descending from heaven at the end of time for us to be part of
God’s own people forever. What God has
called us into is bigger and longer-lasting than anything else.
You are God’s own
people.
God has called us to come to Christ and be part of something
that is vitally important now, and a will be an incredible blessing for us for
all time. So go out and proclaim the
mighty acts of this God who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light.
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.
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