This was the final in a series based on "Everyday Church: Gospel Communities on Mission" by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis.
At the margins?
It’s ironic that we’re talking about hope at the margins today, sitting in a church in the inner city. But of course we’re not talking about being at the margins geographically. We’re talking about socially, philosophically. We’re talking about our morals, our ethics, our worldview; we’re talking about the basis on which we make our decisions, live our lives. We’re talking about our belief systems, in particular our belief in a God who created and maintains the universe; and who’s intervened in our world to bring us salvation, redemption, freedom; who’s promised us the hope of glory in his presence forever.
All of that puts us far out from the centre of Australian society. You know we have this myth that Australia is a Christian country. Certainly much of our national ethos derives from Christian values: love your neighbour as yourself; do unto others as you’d have them do to you; justice and fairness for all; care for others in need. But the reality is that worshipping Christians have never been in the majority in Australia and our influence appears to get weaker every year.
Just think about the campaigns in the newspapers and the popular media over the past few years: opposition to religious instruction in schools, the campaign to normalise homosexuality and its variants, more recently the campaign to change the definition of marriage. We’re a very small voice in these campaigns aren’t we? We’re so far from the centre that we’re mostly seen as irrelevant.
As we read through 1 Peter we realise, I hope, that the situation of Peter’s audience was not that different to ours. Peter’s writing mainly to Christian Jews who’ve been driven out of Israel by persecution and are now scattered around the Mediterranean, mainly in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. And they’re a tiny minority, looked down on and opposed by the majority pagan world – just like us.
Having said that though, we need to be clear that in Australia we don’t normally expect physical persecution the way Peter’s audience did, or the way Christians in other parts of the world still do. But we will experience opposition in other ways. If you want to be a person of integrity in the work place you may find yourself at odds with your boss who wants to use every means possible to increase profits. You may have difficulty if you insist on speaking the truth when your boss or your workmates want you to keep quiet or even lie to hide the truth. At the least you’ll find your views ignored or even laughed at if you remain faithful to God’s word.
Peter warns us in ch 4: “12Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”
Suffering because we’re associated with Christ. (4:16)
So why shouldn’t we be surprised? He goes on: “13But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed …16if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name.” We follow a Saviour who suffered, who was killed by the leaders of his day, so why would we expect anything different. But he doesn’t say this to discourage us. In fact the opposite: he says to rejoice because it confirms that we’re joined with Christ in his sufferings and can therefore be assured of sharing with him in his glory.
Suffering within God’s care (3:17; 4:19)
But there’s more to it than that. He says that if we suffer it’s not because God has lost control and can’t protect us. No, God has allowed it to happen just as he allowed Christ to suffer. God has us in his care even in the midst of suffering. In Romans 5 God tells us that our suffering produces perseverance. (Rom 5:3) Here he tells us: “19Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God's will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good.”
He says a similar thing in ch3: “Turn from evil and do good” (3:11). The response to suffering is to remember our loving heavenly father and do all we can to respond with love and good works. Why? He says: “13who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord.” The first response to attack for a Christian is not retaliation but kindness, goodness, a blessing (3:9). And if that fails then our next resort is to entrust ourselves to a loving and just God who’ll vindicate us in the end.
God’s provision for us
But God has provided more than that to help us persevere in the face of opposition.
Support of the Family (3:8-9; 5:14)
There’s a danger in our world that the age of family is fading away. Even the nuclear family is disintegrating under the pressure of individualism compounded by the effect of social media on personal relationships. Not that that’s my experience and I hope it isn’t yours.
Peter feels he needs to emphasise this as part of his response to persecution. Repeatedly through this letter he warns his readers to love one another. “Love one another deeply from the heart” he says in 1:22. In our first reading today he says: “8Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” These are family values aren’t they? He finishes his letter by saying: “14Greet one another with a kiss of love.” He isn’t talking about the insincere air kiss you see some celebrities giving these days. Nor is he talking about the sort of passionate kiss you might give your spouse or your boyfriend/girlfriend. No, he’s talking about a genuine sign of affection between family members. And the reality is that if we can show that sort of affection towards one another the world around us will find it much harder to dismiss us. Instead they’ll be thinking “I wish I had what they’ve got”.
The Hope of Glory
Perhaps the greatest aid that Peter presents to us in this letter is his solid assurance that there awaits us a place in God’s presence: Peter calls this a living hope, the hope of glory. In the first chapter we find these words that are generally read as part of a funeral service: “3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” (1:3-4)
In 5:4 he says: “4when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away.”
We know that this is true because we’ve seen it in the experience of Christ: “He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” (3:18)
Notice by the way that this isn’t just pie in the sky when you die. This future hope has present consequences: “4:1Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin), 2so as to live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God.” There’s an echo here of John’s advice in 1 John 3:2-3: “2Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 3And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”
Peter goes on in ch 4 to say: “3You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry. 4They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme.” There’s something of a cycle here. Our turning away from sin in response to the hope of glory is likely to lead to more suffering. Let’s face it, Christians will sometimes be called wet blankets, party poopers, because we refuse to take part in the excesses of worldly life, but in the end God is sovereign and his judgement will be what matters.
Suffering as Normality
Peter seems convinced that suffering is the inevitable, normal experience of Christians; which might lead us to ask the question, “If I’m not suffering for Christ am I doing something wrong?” Am I not sufficiently different from the people around me? Am I being too passive? Am I keeping quiet when I should be speaking up? Should I be more forward in making a defence for what I believe, as Chris Ward talked about last week?
It’s fairly easy, isn’t it, to roll through life ignoring the opportunities that might arise to promote the gospel, to proclaim Christ as Saviour and Lord.
I’m not suggesting we seek suffering in some martyrish sense. But if we’re not suffering as a Christian it might lead us to examine how we’re living as a Christian.
Finally let’s spend some time thinking about how we can sustain a missional approach to being an everyday church. What can we do to be an effective church at the margins? I think there are some key areas for us to think about.
Material Generosity
At the end of the letter Peter warns us of the danger we’re in from Satan. He says: “Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.” Satan is a wily opponent. He changes his tactics with the context he finds us in. He’s not going to attack us physically in civilised Australia. He’s going to use much more subtle means. And it seems to me that one of those means that he’s been using for the last 50 or so years is our material prosperity. Why is there such a debate about negative gearing at the moment? Because people have seen investment in property as a way of gaining security and wealth. This is our new idolatry. Jobson Grothe (An Australian political phrase of the 2016 election) is a product of this new religion of material prosperity. The fact that you can’t take it with you is irrelevant, because people no longer believe in, or at least no longer think about, eternity. And Christians are as susceptible to it as anyone else. But we need to resist. We’re people who live in the light of eternity, of a future that Christ has won for us. We’re told to accumulate wealth, not here on earth, but in heaven where thieves don’t break in and steal.
In 1 Timothy 6 Paul says Christians “18are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.” John Rockefeller was once asked how much was enough? He answered “A little more than you’ve got.” Well when he died his accountant was asked “How much money did he leave?” to which the accountant replied “All of it.”
Wealth, if we have it, is given to us by God to enjoy, but also to be used for his service. We’re to be generous with what wealth we have. I don’t mean generous in the way our government gives aid to other countries. I mean generous in the way the early church sold all they had to give to the poor. The Old Testament standard for giving to God’s work was a base of 10% with more to be given on particular occasions. The New Testament standard is to give generously or even sacrificially.
Imagine what our finances would look like if everyone here gave 10% of their income to St Michael’s; even 5% to St Michaels and the rest to other Christian ministries. Imagine what we could do with it.
Relational Generosity
But it isn’t just our material goods that we need to be generous with. Money is in one sense the easy part of generosity. Just as important is the time and energy we put into our relationships. If we’re to be the sort of loving family that’ll commend the gospel to our neighbours we need to be generous in our relationships with each other. That means showing grace and mercy and forgiveness to one another.
I was talking last week to a committed Christian who’d stopped going to church because of the way she’d been treated by fellow Christians. She was divorced and in a new relationship with a man who was also divorced but they hadn’t got around to getting married yet and she felt condemned by the congregation she was part of.
You can see the problem from the congregation’s point of view can’t you? We have standards that we need to uphold. But was their response the right one?
What does Peter say? Look at 4:8: “8Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.” Yes, you could argue they should have got married straight away. They might even have used the phrase “living in sin”, though I don’t think I would. But love for a brother and sister can cover that sin until such time as they work it out.
Likewise if we’re to live lives of relational generosity then we’ll need to give time to our relationships. I remember parenting experts saying there’s no such thing as quality time, it’s quantity time that matters when it comes to raising children. And the same is true of other relationships. We need to spend time over meals, or coffee, or doing practical things together; we need to spend time in small groups or playgroups or music groups. You might need to think about whether that next promotion will mean too much time is expected of you. I had a friend in my previous church who was offered a partnership in a law firm, but when he and his wife discussed it they decided that being a partner would put added pressure on him to give more time to work which meant less time for family and church, so he turned it down.
Good Leadership
Finally we need good leaders if we’re to be a strong church working for God to the best of our ability. We’re fortunate here to have excellent leaders, both ordained and lay. But we mustn’t take them for granted. We need to encourage them to remain faithful and to continue to give us that good leadership. When Steve leaves here, long in the future I hope, we need to pray for our incumbency committee that they’d find a godly and able replacement who’ll continue to give us good leadership for the future.
For those who are leaders among us, clergy, wardens, Parish Council members, ministry leaders, Peter has a particular word for you. He says: “I exhort the elders among you 2to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it—not for sordid gain but eagerly.” Please don’t complain that being a warden or a Parish council member is onerous. Rather see it as a great privilege given to you by God and do it willingly with great joy.
Well that’s all we have time for today, but I’ve put an insert in the news sheet today with a series of questions that you can either answer for yourself or better still discuss in your small group. If you’re not in a small group, perhaps you could get a group of your friends together over a meal or over coffee to talk about it.
