We have said from the beginning of our series in 1 Peter that this letter was written to members of a minority religious group.  We have said that we can think of this letter as one of encouragement for them and for us.  It was a group that faced slander – people talking badly about them.  It was a group that faced verbal abuse, physical abuse, quite possibly the threat of death.  This has been the case for followers of Christ for over 2,000.  It is the case today in many parts of the world.  We have talked about Peter describing his listeners as aliens and exiles.  Strangers in a strange land.  We have said that this is the case for every follower of Christ.  Whatever the level of hostility we face, it is important that we be ready to face it or face what might come.

In a book called A Way in the World, V.S. Naipaul describes a group of peasants from India who had been forcibly removed from their native land and relocated in Trinidad.  This is how his narrator describes their situation: 

“These people were without money, job, without anything like a family, without the English language; without any kind of representation… They were people who had been …lifted up from the peasantry of India and set down thousands of miles away – weeks and weeks of sailing – in Trinidad.  In the colonial setting of Trinidad, where rights were limited, you could have done anything with these people; and they were tormented by the people of the town.  We all lived easily with this kind of cruelty.  We saw it, but we seldom thought about it.”

That tension in which we live between chosen/precious and stranger/exile should be lived in with a heart for those who are displaced.  The people of whom Naipaul writes had no option to become part of the British colonial government or the indigenous people of the island.  The followers of Christ facing hostility, to whom Peter was writing, had a choice – just as we do today as followers of Christ.  One of the choices was to simply walk away.  Along with his message of how to respond (and now not to respond) in the face of hostility, Peter’s message is one of caution in the face of discouragement that we may face.  Hold steady.  Hold fast in the face of whatever it is we are facing.  Let’s ask for God’s help as we hear God’s word for us this morning. 

“Living Beautifully” is the section of Peter’s letter that we’re in.  What does a beautiful life look like? Does the good life depend on our circumstances?  Peter begins this section with words about living the good life together.  Holding steady together.  Holding fast together. Have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

Another one of Peter’s lists!  Once again, these things begin and end in Jesus.  Let us hear those words echo, you have been given a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Once, you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.  Once, you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  So…have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.  The first and fifth have to do with our minds.  The second and fourth have to do with our emotions.  In the middle is love.

Have unity of spirit.  The body of Christ should reflect the diversity of humanity.  Our richness in variety should be embraced and celebrated in the body of Christ.  We are bound together by the Spirit of Christ.  He is our strength.  He is our rock.  He is our cornerstone.  He is our unity.  To have a unity of spirit does not mean that we agree on everything.  It does mean that we’re sensitive to one another’s opinions and concerns.  It does mean that we maintain loving relationships and loving dialogue.  It goes with humility – the opposite of the desire to have our way, the desire to be first, thinking that we know best in any and every situation.  Have sympathy.  Feeling the same thing.  Feeling the same way about God.  Feeling the same way about one another.  Having tender hearts. 

And in the middle, love for one another.  Can we ever hear this enough?  Does this ever get old?  We are living in the love of God.  We are the people of God.  We are called to enact the love of God together, and our life together is to be the shared act of God’s love.  Together.  The word for love here is filadelphos.  Familial love reflected in acts of affection just as families show affection for one another – anything from a warm embrace to an act of kindness to words that warm the heart.

This is who we are.

“Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing.  It is for this that you were called – that you might inherit a blessing.” (3:9). Remember whose children we are.  Someone has said the opposite of love is the cycle of mean-spirited justice.  Payback.  Insult. Counter-insult.  Punch.  Counterpunch.  Retaliation and retaliation for prior retaliation.  None of these things end up anywhere good.  Any examples that spring to my mind always have to do with driving and how easily people can be drawn into these kinds of cycles on the road.  Online is another good example, I suppose.  Flaming.  Trolling.  Insult.  Counter-insult.  This kind of downward spiral.  Karen Jobe is a professor at Wheaton College in Illinois.  She tells this story in her commentary on 1 Peter: “When I asked students in class one day to come with specific, practical examples of how someone might bless an adversary, the story was shared of a Christian soldier, living in a barracks with his unit.  Each evening, when he would read his Bible and pray before retiring, he was reviled and insulted by the soldier across the aisle.  One night a pair of muddy combat boots came flying at the Christian.  The next morning the hostile soldier found his boots at the foot of his bed, cleaned and polished and ready for inspection.  Several soldiers in this company eventually became Christians as a result of the inner strength of the one who could return blessing for insult.”

We break the cycle of evil or abuse with blessing.  It is for this that we were called.  Peter strengthens his list here with a quote from Psalm 34, which answers the question, “What is the good life?”  What is a good life that goes beyond any circumstance?  What brings beauty to life?  What are good days?  “Those who desire life and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit; let them turn away from evil and do good; let them seek peace and pursue it.” (3:10-11) Are our words building up or tearing down?  Are we speaking blessings or curses?  Peter speaks once again of a turning away from or putting aside or abstaining from evil – sin which destroys relationships.  Turn toward doing good.  This is the outward-facing aspect of holiness.  I saw a lot of good being done on Thanksgiving Monday when a meal was delivered to 45 young people at Horizons For Youth.  Seek peace and pursue it.  Paul tells us, “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” (Rom. 12:18). There are two things to note here.  Firstly, attaining peace might be an impossibility.  Secondly, there is always at least one other party involved.  As far as it depends on us, we are called to do our part.

“Be conspicuously good,” as someone has put it.  Be conspicuous about our goodness and who will harm us?  “Now, who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?”  Peter may simply be hopeful here.  In the face of such goodness, the vast majority of people will not actively seek to harm you.  He may be being ironic here, knowing that harm is coming to those to whom he writes.  It might be a combination of both.  We spoke about suffering unjustly last week.  We spoke about doing right and suffering for it and having God’s approval.  Harm may very well come in whatever form it takes.  “But even if you suffer for doing right, you are blessed.” (3:14) 

The thing to watch out for here is that we’re not earning hostility.  I had a professor in seminary who once told the class, “Don’t let the offence of the cross be the fact that you’re offensive.”  Let us not earn hostility by our own self-righteousness, our own judgementalism, our own hypocrisy.  The scandal of the cross should not be our own scandalous behaviour.  Some years ago, I remember watching a politician at a town hall.  One of the attendees went on a long litany of problems she had had at her workplace, with her employer, with her co-workers, with her union.  Finally, the politician said to her (quite wisely, I thought), “Have you ever considered that the problem might be you?”  Instead, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart and a humble mind.  If you suffer for doing right, you are blessed, for Christ also suffered for sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. So what do we have to fear?  What on earth do we have to fear?  We’re not called to be foolish or foolhardy or reckless.  “Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated…” (3:14b). We need to be choosing our fears wisely.  Live reverently was what we heard two weeks ago.  Live in reverent fear of God with awe and wonder, trusting all the time in God’s mercy.  Throwing ourselves on God’s mercy and goodness and justice.  Someone has described our situation in Christ like this when it comes to fear: “He is the one in whom our desires find their end and fulfillment. In him, we already share, as much as we allow, in the gracious infinite fullness of the triune God. What more do we need? What is there to fear?”

Do not fear what they fear.  What is it that they fear?  I suppose it may depend on what one’s hope is based on.  What one’s confident expectation of good is based on?  What is it that they fear?  Loss of status.  Loss of image or social status.  Loss of authority or being part of a privileged group.  Loss of control politically or economically.  Loss of life.  Mortality.  The void.  Staring into the abyss.  In which case, where is hope at all?  “Do not fear what they fear,” writes Peter, and do not be intimidated, “but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord.”  Once again, Peter tells us not to do something, but he doesn’t leave us there.  He tells us what to do instead.  But in your hearts, sanctify Christ as Lord.  Now to sanctify something or someone means to prepare it to enter a holy place or make someone holy.  We can’t make God holy, so what is going on here exactly?  How do we sanctify God or lift or lift God up in our hearts – in the centre of our being?  We sanctify God in our hearts when we commit ourselves completely to him, prepared to bear anything for His sake as we have life in Him.  Committing ourselves completely to God in such a way this our commitment becomes evident in each and every aspect of our lives.  This heart commitment is not simply something that we keep in the deepest recesses of ourselves, but it is to made manifest in our good conduct, in our desires, in our decision-making.  In everything.

Now this kind of conduct in our lives is bound to bring up questions from those around us.  In what do you hope?  How is it that you’re able to face what you’re facing with such peace?  On what is your life founded?  A faith?  A philosophy? On what does your hope for the future rest?  Money? Technology? Positive vibes? Your belief in the ongoing progress of humanity?  I really do believe that people, in general, are open to having conversations about the most meaningful questions in life.  At this point, we get to one of the more famous verses in this 1^st Letter of Peter.  “Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you…” (3:15)       

Be ready always.  Let our reading and dwelling on the word of God seep into us; let our reading and dwelling on the word of God capture our hearts.  Let us listen to our friends who are outside the faith, and let us listen to our culture.  What are the concerns that they have?  What are the questions or objections that they have?  How might we best respond to them?  What in our faith resonates with the wider culture?  What is our hope?

What is our hope not?  It’s not followers of Christ becoming angels. It’s not followers of Christ living a disembodied existence strumming harps on clouds.  What is our hope not?  It’s not a wish.  Our hope is the confident the expectation of the goodness of God – now and always.  Our hope is God with us now in the person of God’s Spirit, and God with us forever in a new heaven and new earth at the renewal of all things, the time of visitation, the time of judgement – because evil will not stand forever (and how much does the world need to hear this right now?).  Our hope is the vision of the prophet – the wolf living with the lamb, the leopard living with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together, and a little child leading them. (Is 11:6)  Our hope involves swords being beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks.  Tanks turned into tractors.  Assault rifles turned into rakes.  Instruments of war become instruments of nurture of the land and produce.  Our hope involves God himself with us, wiping every tear from every eye; death no more; mourning and crying and pain no more.  On what is our hope based?  Emmanuel.  God with us.  Christ among us.  Christ crucified.  Christ living.  Christ ascended.  Christ returning. 

One little word on which our hope is founded.  Christ.  We tell of our hope in Christ with gentleness and reverence and a clear conscience.  We are not called to sell hope or win people over with clever arguments or irrefutable proofs.  What is on offer in the church is simply Christ.  We tell the story of Christ, and we are called to live the story of Christ with gentleness and reverence and a conscience that is clear.  Do not let anyone’s rejection of our hope be because we participate in the ways of the world like manipulation, fear, coercion, lying, abuse, revenge, violence. We are called to live lives that are conspicuously good.  Not based on any goodness of our own but because we are God’s people.  Because we have received mercy.  Because of our dear Christ who also suffered for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous in order to bring us to God.  He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.  Our living hope.  Our life.  Our good.  Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift. Amen