The Christ-following community moves forward together under a banner that makes it unlike anything else in our world.  After having gone through this 1^st Letter of Peter, we might imagine different things being written under this banner under which we are called to live.  Things like “Living Hope” or “Living Love” perhaps.  “Mercy” or “Grace.”  We’ve talked about the label “peculiar people” and this image of ourselves as aliens or exiles, living in some way or in some measure as strangers in a strange land.

At the end of his short letter, Peter turns to the leaders in the congregations to whom he is writing.  The term he uses is elder.  I remember early on in my own pastoral call, getting my hair cut one day.  I was bemoaning to Ralph, my barber, the amount of grey that was in the hair that was landing on the plastic apron I was wearing.  Ralph answered me, and I really have appreciated a lot of the wisdom I’ve heard in the barbershop through my years, “How do you think the people are going to listen to you if you don’t have some grey in your hair?”  What a great way to reframe the situation!

Experience counts for something, though it doesn’t always.  As he closes his letter, Peter addresses the elders in the congregation.  Peter is addressing church leadership.  Church leaders are called different things in the NT – elders, bishops, teachers, deacons.  There is no uniform model which is held up as universal.  Hierarchical or non-hierarchical.  Formal or informal.  Peter makes no distinctions between these categories, and none of that is the point here.  The point, rather, is the message to those who are leading.

So, to those who are leading…  I heard a famous preacher once talk about the difficulty of addressing a group of people with vastly different life experiences, faith experiences, opinions, etc.  He said that one thing to do is to address particular people in the congregation, as in, “Now this is something I want to say to the 30-somethings” or “This is something I want to say to those of you who have been following Christ for a long time.”  Rather than causing people to tune out, it will actually cause people to pay more attention as they wonder what you’re going to say to that particular group!  Peter does something similar here, and remember that this letter would have been read in its entirety to congregations.  These words to leaders are not being shared in secret because everyone should know what is expected of everybody.  Hold me to these standards.  Let us hold every leader to these standards in a world where leadership is so often self-serving, self-aggrandizing, domineering, fame-seeking, abusive. We go along under a different banner.  We go along with the one to whom Peter points once again as he begins this final section.  “Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you to the tend the flock of God that is in your charge…” (5:1-2a)

We just had an Ordination Examining Council at which various questions were asked.  There’s a scene at the end of John’s Gospel that we might think of as Peter’s Ordination Examining Council.  The thing about Peter is he was a witness to Christ’s sufferings, though not right to the end.  “I don’t know him,” was Peter’s answer to the statement around the fire. “This man was with him.”  “You also are one of them,” came a little later.  “Man, I am not!”  Then, “Surely this man also was with him, for he is a Galilean.”  “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about!” came Peter’s reply.

Peter knew all about living in the grace of Christ.  He learned something about it the day he swam and ran through the shallows to meet Jesus on a Galilean beach. Seven disciples shared a fish breakfast with Jesus.  Then the question came.  “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”  “Do you love me?”  “Do you love me?”  Peter’s ordination examining council question and the most important one to ask of anyone called to lead the people of God.  “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”  Three denials.  Three questions.  Three answers.  Do you love me?  Feed my lambs.  Tend my sheep.  Feed my sheep.  “He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them close to his chest, and gently lead the mother sheep.”  “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”  To you under-shepherds, remember your chief shepherd as you exercise oversight.  Not like this, but like this.  Once again, Peter warns about something by holding it up against what leadership should look like.  Not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you do it.  Not for sordid gain.  In other words, you’re not in this for the cash.  But eagerly.  Do not lord it over those in your charge.  Don’t be domineering.  Don’t be, it’s my way or nothing.  Don’t be “Because I say so.”  But be examples to the flock.

There’s a lot of talk about servant leadership in our culture, which is good.  We need to be able to articulate and live out what it is and what it’s not.  Servant leadership does not consist simply in a leader engaging in what some may consider menial tasks.  Servant leadership does not consist of a leader doing everything for a group of people either, or promoting dependency.  One writer describes servant leadership like this: “The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons?  Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants… First, Peter’s model of leadership is a shepherd whose care, motivated by free submission to God’s call, becomes an example to the flock – a shepherd whose sheep learn to be shepherds.” Peter is talking about leaders who are not in it for their own glory.  Last week, we talked of the goal that we all share – that God be glorified.  That all honour, fame, renown be given to God.  He is our honour.  He is our glory.  He is the one who will give the crown of glory to his shepherds just as they used to give the laurel crowns to athletes.  This crown of glory never fades away.  We are leading for the sake of a glory that is unfading.  What a truth to hang onto in a world where tangible results of leadership can be unseen and where measures or what we consider success ebb and flow. 

“In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders.”  In the same way.  In the same loving, caring way.  We said that by “elders,” we can take Peter to mean those who lead in general.  In the same way, we can take “those who are younger” to broadly mean everyone else.  In some (but not all) cases, leadership may be characterized by age.  The church is a voluntary organization, and we are called to willingly place ourselves under the authority of leadership, just as we have been told to put ourselves under the authority of those who govern.  Someone has said this is a godly posture that recognizes God’s authority over everything and everyone.  This does not mean blind acceptance of leadership that is tyrannical or, toxic or, abusive, or domineering.  Care and, compassion and the desire to see one another thrive is always mutual.  I know how congregations can treat church leaders, and it’s not always good.  I’ve been saying in recent weeks how thankful I am to be in a gathering at church in which I hear people pray for me.  I don’t take that lightly or for granted, and it’s not every pastor’s experience.  I’ve been saying how thankful I am that I’m not part of a congregation that places unreasonable expectations on its leaders.  I’m thankful for this and want everyone to know.

For all of us, let us clothe ourselves with humility in our dealings with one another.  Let us put on humility like we put on a piece of clothing.  Another great Biblical image and reminiscent of our shepherd who wrapped a towel around his waist before washing his disciples’ feet.  “You’ll never wash my feet,” said Peter at the time, but he was changed.  Our great shepherd who told his followers, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors.  But not so with you; rather, the greatest among you must become like the youngest and the leader like one who serves.  For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table?  But I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22:25-27)

Some of Peter’s last words here.  “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.” (5:6)  Another paradox.  Two things in our faith that we hold together in the wonder of God.  Each of us are called to wear the same clothes (figuratively speaking here.  The shackle of humility.  Young and old.  Women and men.  Rich and poor.  Bowing to one another and lifting one another up so that we are each bowed and lifted.  The good news of grace – of God’s unmerited love and mercy brings us low and lifts us up.  Responding positively to the good news of God’s grace in Jesus is an admission that we need someone outside of ourselves.  Responding positively to the good news of God’s grace in Jesus is an admission that we stand in need of forgiveness and transformation.  God’s grace has been brought near each and every one of us in the birth and, life and death, and rising of Christ.  Once, you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  God’s grace in Jesus is a visible and tangible demonstration that God loves us.  That God cares for me.  That through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we share in the gracious infinite fulness of our triune God.  That we have been born into a family; that we have an inheritance; that every word and deed may have a purpose – the fame/renown/honour/glory not of myself but of my God.

Who cares for me?  This next section has been called “Don’t Worry, Stay Awake, Fight the Lion.”  “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (5:7). Peter is not talking about clinical anxiety here.  Cast all your cares on him.  The same word that Jesus used when he spoke of the cares of the world choking the word like weeds choke a plant.  Part of this surely involved discerning what is up to us and what is beyond our control.  What is up to us, and what is up to God?   I’ve said before the church has much to learn from Alcoholics Anonymous in terms of sharing our lives, sharing non-judgemental space in which to be transformed, praying.  The Serenity Prayer which you may have heard, is “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”  Throw those things that are beyond us on God and be at peace in Him. 

Discipline yourselves. Keep alert.  “Like a roaring lion, your adversary, the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.”  Our adversary.  The accuser.  The liar.  The slanderer.  Let us not take the devil unseriously.  There are two ways we tend to go wrong here when it comes to our adversary.  One way is to ignore or discount him.  The other way is to attribute everything that goes wrong to him.  My car wouldn’t start this morning – but you won’t get me, devil!  It may be that I need to pay more attention to regular care and maintenance.  The story goes that Martin Luther once threw an ink well at the devil, who had been incessantly accusing him.  We are to take the devil seriously.  He wants to ruin us.  Someone has said it’s not just that the devil wants to tempt us to cheat on our taxes.  He wants to ruin us.  His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.  He’s not equal with God, though.  We stay alert, but we’re not called to fear.  Resist him, not in our own strength, but in our faith.  This is something once again we are called to collectively, remembering our brothers and sisters around the city, around the country, around the world.  We resist in our love of God and one another, in our pursuit of holiness together, in reminding one another of our hope together, in our acts of compassion and kindness together, in our unity of spirit and humble minds together.

We’re rushing toward the end of the letter, but there’s time for one more list.  Hold fast together, knowing that suffering is temporary, firm in the truth that “… the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.” (5:11). Restoration.  God putting things back in order.  Support with the sense of making something permanent.  Strengthening.  Establishing in the same way that a house is established on a foundation.  Peter began his letter speaking of grace and peace.  He ends the letter in the same way, along with a reminder that living in the grace and peace of God is something we do together.  “Through Silvanus, whom I consider a faithful brother, I have written this short letter to encourage you and to testify that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.”  Your sister church in Babylon (how they spoke of Rome) greets you, as does Mark.  Grace is what we share, and it is what we are called to share.  Peter knew it in a whole new way from that day on a Galilean beach.  Once, you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  How much did we need mercy?  How much do we need mercy?  This grace is not cheap but calls God’s church us into a new way of being, travelling forward together under a banner that is unlike any other.  A peculiar people indeed.  Greet one another with a kiss of love and peace be to all who are in Christ.  May grace and peace be with us, and may this be true for all who hear these words. Amen