6a Easter - I Ptr. 1. 17-24 The Strange Land of Reality
On the Fourth Sunday of Easter, somehow unbeknownst to me the wrong preaching text was used from I Ptr 3, today's scheduled reading. So, this week we'll look at this text from the first chapter, as we already considered I Ptr. 3 a couple of weeks ago.
Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
The First Letter of Peter begins with, to me, one of the most exuberant texts of the entire Bible,
With an excitement that's almost palpable the author begins,
"Blessed 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, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. . . " (I Ptr 1. 3-4, NRSV)
and cue the fade away. . .
At first, it seems that this "living hope" has is without relationship to the reality of today. Hopes by definition have to do with tomorrow. But the thing about "hope" is that it's easily turned into "boredom", a kind of anxiousness that comes of purposelessness for the day before us. In a sense, hope can be as "dead" as tradition turned into traditionalism, Maybe worse, as hope lost may not even bother to go through the motions as a traditionalism can do. The Church in our time is doubtless struggling with having hope, is having issues with the role of traditions, but I suspect that worst of all, we're not very good at taking into account that baptism is a life, a life style. This doesn't mean that church takes over every precious hour not already taken by the things we believe are important, but rather that a life, our life, in the Triune God forms and informs our reality.
Therefore, there is something to this life that is to be transformed by this exuberant proclamation of the resurrection of Christ, an event that can take a lifetime to process.
Our second reading for this Sunday of Easter reminds us,
"You should conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your dwelling in a strange land," in a place of exile, which is this "strange land we call 'reality'. In the promise of Holy Baptism, what used to be the comfortable place of earthquakes and pandemics, random or at least unexpected events of economic and personal health, broken relationships in both big and small pictures of life;; how comfortable we are with those things, right?
In this land, as we live only the life we know - all of those things we're used to, resurrection in Jesus Christ means that there is a transformation of our reality. In Christ, we live in a strange land of reality, the world's a different place for one who has encountered Christ's resurrection. Our search for comfort, pleasure, excitement has been modified, tweaked you might say. Christ's resurrection has to do with new being in a new creation. (Faithful people have been active in trying to describe this "new creation" - one of the most intense descriptions of it in the Revelation to John, when old creation gets so out of sorts the time comes for God to drop New Jerusalem from on high, which serves as the final verses of the New Testament of the Bible) In our self-focused existence, we live and rightly so in a "do this", "do that", "don't do this,' "don't do that" to try to preserve our lives from threats both self-directed and threats from outside ourselves.
The pandemic of 2020, in the face of COVID 19's virulence, has put to focus on doing the unusual things of limited contact with one another - at table and in public square and in the need for masking our gorgeous countenances with which we "face" the world. to protect other's and be protected from other's possibly infected bodily fluids in which the disease inhabits. The national government of the United States first downplayed, then engaged in a campaign of public confusion, and now beginning a campaign of pretending COVID doesn't exist or can disappear at the wave of a magic wand.
Having met Jesus Christ in His resurrection and the power of His Holy Spirit working in us to claim the promise of the new, the pandemic is a good illustration of how strange the "land of reality" truly is. Some ignore the threats (as long as they aren't happening to me), some reject the urgency, some engage in self-salvation, as if an individual can be separated from other human beings and live. All of those things that human beings do, in violation of God's Law, are operative in the drama of the world wide COVID epidemic.
And as amazing to me, is the interruption of religious practice, with the remarkable effect that lives are being saved from COVID's onslaught. The purpose is to save others while also making things safer for ourselves. But it can't be denied that Christian faith is at a distinct disadvantage. The Church proclaims a God incarnate, flesh, a part of creation in Jesus of Nazareth. We are not a rules based religion; doing stuff doesn't make us an approved person before God. We are not primarily an individualistic faith, we rely as the Body of Christ on physical nearness, not physical distance. We use things of the earth, book, bread, oil, wine, water and one another to live as God as called us in this strange land of reality. Christian faith, in taking caution to attempt to slow down a new virus from which humans are effectively not immune, is also sacrificing the essentials of its' expression to do so. The congregation physically near to one another, the speaking and singing, the eating and drinking - all interfered with by temporary laws or "common" or at least, informed consent.
We live in a strange land of reality as people changed by Christ's death and resurrection. In the middle of a world where trust is on the wane, we boldly trust God's promises. Baptism has given us new birth! Not merely new beliefs, dogmas, doctrines, but the mind that trusts them.
"Christ was chosen before the creation of the world, but was only revealed at the end of time. This was done for you(!), (you) who through Christ are faithful to the God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. So now your faith and hope should rest in God." (vv. 20-22, CEB)
The self that receives and grasps these promises of God revealed in Christ's death and resurrection, lives in a world among a people who work hard to find a place to be part of something more than the isolated self - a government, a company, a marriage and/or family, a siblinghood, a gang, to fulfill a greater purpose, whether that be riches and fame, common talents or interests such as reading, dancing, or hunting, or other activities around the acquisition of power and influence. One way faith in Christ will lead us to live in the strange land of reality is acknowledging that every seach in which we humans engage will one day die, be it that life for which we search or we who do the searching. Believing in Christ's rising from the dead in this strange land in which we are exiled, the Holy Spirit has gathered us as a people before God living in the One who suffered our faulty human frailty and falsehood at the cross, trampling down death by his death, and was then raised by His Father. The seed of resurrection is the seed of eternity or "God time." That seed is within us through the Holy Spirit calls us to live in such a world in a very new way:
"As you set yourselves apart by your obedience to the truth as you (live in exile here in this strange land,) have genuine affection for your fellow believers, love each other deeply and earnestly.
Do this because you have been given new birth - not the type of seed that decays but from the seed that doesn't, (which is) God's life-giving and enduring word. (vv. 22-23)
Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
The First Letter of Peter begins with, to me, one of the most exuberant texts of the entire Bible,
With an excitement that's almost palpable the author begins,
"Blessed 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, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. . . " (I Ptr 1. 3-4, NRSV)
and cue the fade away. . .
At first, it seems that this "living hope" has is without relationship to the reality of today. Hopes by definition have to do with tomorrow. But the thing about "hope" is that it's easily turned into "boredom", a kind of anxiousness that comes of purposelessness for the day before us. In a sense, hope can be as "dead" as tradition turned into traditionalism, Maybe worse, as hope lost may not even bother to go through the motions as a traditionalism can do. The Church in our time is doubtless struggling with having hope, is having issues with the role of traditions, but I suspect that worst of all, we're not very good at taking into account that baptism is a life, a life style. This doesn't mean that church takes over every precious hour not already taken by the things we believe are important, but rather that a life, our life, in the Triune God forms and informs our reality.
Therefore, there is something to this life that is to be transformed by this exuberant proclamation of the resurrection of Christ, an event that can take a lifetime to process.
Our second reading for this Sunday of Easter reminds us,
"You should conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your dwelling in a strange land," in a place of exile, which is this "strange land we call 'reality'. In the promise of Holy Baptism, what used to be the comfortable place of earthquakes and pandemics, random or at least unexpected events of economic and personal health, broken relationships in both big and small pictures of life;; how comfortable we are with those things, right?
In this land, as we live only the life we know - all of those things we're used to, resurrection in Jesus Christ means that there is a transformation of our reality. In Christ, we live in a strange land of reality, the world's a different place for one who has encountered Christ's resurrection. Our search for comfort, pleasure, excitement has been modified, tweaked you might say. Christ's resurrection has to do with new being in a new creation. (Faithful people have been active in trying to describe this "new creation" - one of the most intense descriptions of it in the Revelation to John, when old creation gets so out of sorts the time comes for God to drop New Jerusalem from on high, which serves as the final verses of the New Testament of the Bible) In our self-focused existence, we live and rightly so in a "do this", "do that", "don't do this,' "don't do that" to try to preserve our lives from threats both self-directed and threats from outside ourselves.
The pandemic of 2020, in the face of COVID 19's virulence, has put to focus on doing the unusual things of limited contact with one another - at table and in public square and in the need for masking our gorgeous countenances with which we "face" the world. to protect other's and be protected from other's possibly infected bodily fluids in which the disease inhabits. The national government of the United States first downplayed, then engaged in a campaign of public confusion, and now beginning a campaign of pretending COVID doesn't exist or can disappear at the wave of a magic wand.
Having met Jesus Christ in His resurrection and the power of His Holy Spirit working in us to claim the promise of the new, the pandemic is a good illustration of how strange the "land of reality" truly is. Some ignore the threats (as long as they aren't happening to me), some reject the urgency, some engage in self-salvation, as if an individual can be separated from other human beings and live. All of those things that human beings do, in violation of God's Law, are operative in the drama of the world wide COVID epidemic.
And as amazing to me, is the interruption of religious practice, with the remarkable effect that lives are being saved from COVID's onslaught. The purpose is to save others while also making things safer for ourselves. But it can't be denied that Christian faith is at a distinct disadvantage. The Church proclaims a God incarnate, flesh, a part of creation in Jesus of Nazareth. We are not a rules based religion; doing stuff doesn't make us an approved person before God. We are not primarily an individualistic faith, we rely as the Body of Christ on physical nearness, not physical distance. We use things of the earth, book, bread, oil, wine, water and one another to live as God as called us in this strange land of reality. Christian faith, in taking caution to attempt to slow down a new virus from which humans are effectively not immune, is also sacrificing the essentials of its' expression to do so. The congregation physically near to one another, the speaking and singing, the eating and drinking - all interfered with by temporary laws or "common" or at least, informed consent.
We live in a strange land of reality as people changed by Christ's death and resurrection. In the middle of a world where trust is on the wane, we boldly trust God's promises. Baptism has given us new birth! Not merely new beliefs, dogmas, doctrines, but the mind that trusts them.
"Christ was chosen before the creation of the world, but was only revealed at the end of time. This was done for you(!), (you) who through Christ are faithful to the God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. So now your faith and hope should rest in God." (vv. 20-22, CEB)
The self that receives and grasps these promises of God revealed in Christ's death and resurrection, lives in a world among a people who work hard to find a place to be part of something more than the isolated self - a government, a company, a marriage and/or family, a siblinghood, a gang, to fulfill a greater purpose, whether that be riches and fame, common talents or interests such as reading, dancing, or hunting, or other activities around the acquisition of power and influence. One way faith in Christ will lead us to live in the strange land of reality is acknowledging that every seach in which we humans engage will one day die, be it that life for which we search or we who do the searching. Believing in Christ's rising from the dead in this strange land in which we are exiled, the Holy Spirit has gathered us as a people before God living in the One who suffered our faulty human frailty and falsehood at the cross, trampling down death by his death, and was then raised by His Father. The seed of resurrection is the seed of eternity or "God time." That seed is within us through the Holy Spirit calls us to live in such a world in a very new way:
"As you set yourselves apart by your obedience to the truth as you (live in exile here in this strange land,) have genuine affection for your fellow believers, love each other deeply and earnestly.
Do this because you have been given new birth - not the type of seed that decays but from the seed that doesn't, (which is) God's life-giving and enduring word. (vv. 22-23)
Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
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