more holiness as human flourishing

For this week's homily we continued in the same passage from 1 Peter that we looked at together from last week (1:13-25). Before I recap some of what we said about that I want to talk a bit about the remarks we considered leading into communion.

This Sunday was the first Sunday of Lent so we took up a typical Lenten passage (Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, Matthew 4:1-11). When Jesus enters the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days the image of Israel wandering in the wilderness for 40 years is clearly in view. The message is clear: Jesus enters into the sufferings of God's people through subjecting himself to the brutality of profound temptation, but Jesus succeeds where Adam and Eve, Israel, and we have failed. He does not give into the temptation to put his own agenda ahead of God's will for him. In this act of solidarity with God's people Jesus prefigures what will later be said of him in the Epistle to the Hebrews: 4:14-16 "Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Jesus' role as the one who died for our sins is usually the first thing that comes to mind when many of us think about his role as our mediator. But we need to remember that his priestly role in our life also characterized by his patience and sympathy towards us. He cares about our pain, our suffering, and the hardness of our struggles with temptation and brokenness. It is important for each of us to remember this as a cornerstone of our theology of spiritual formation: "no matter what don't think that God don't love you because he does", as one person has put it!

Jesus' suffering with us also tells us that God has chosen to incorporate mysteriously the experience of human suffering and brokenness into himself. The scope of what that accomplishes is beyond our ability to comprehend, due to the limits of our human capacity to understand the mind of God; but it does speak mightily of God's love for us and of his concern for this broken world.

During the homily we came back to some thoughts about holiness. I am indebted to Aaron Kuecker, a member of our Grace community who teaches New Testament at Trinity Christian College, for some of what follows (he wrote an excellent paper on 1 Peter recently). In the section of 1 Peter we are reflecting upon, Peter quotes from Leviticus in his exhortation to his people to be holy: "You shall be holy, for I am holy". This tantalizing citation from the Old Testament gives meaning to Peter's overall discussion of holiness, even as its meaning is made more clear by Peter's gospel saturated remarks on holiness. Peter affirms the heart of the OT's teaching on holiness, recognizing that God's presence among and calling of his people meant that they were holy, set apart from the world, unique, and different. Building on that affirmation, Peter says: "do not be conformed to the desires you once formerly had in ignorance"... and reminds his people that "you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors". So far so good, but the questions remain, conformed to what; and ransomed for what purpose? The answer to these questions can be too ethereal to be of practical help if we just say something like this: we are to be Holy like God is Holy, or we are to live to glorify God, etc. Thankfully Peter brings its meaning down to us - into the midst of our community life together. "The emphasis on virtuous living as a foundation..... is normed by the injunction to 'love one another deeply from the heart' instead of following the desires you formerly had..... (Kuecker, 1 Peter and the Subversion of Social Identity, SBL 2009). What Peter is exhorting us towards is both rich with hope and full of mystery: we are to imitate God in his holiness by loving as he does.

So, what does it mean that our virtuous living is "normed by the injunction to love one another deeply from the heart"? It is most likely that Peter has in mind here that we are to live in the stream of God's love towards us through practicing the disciplines of grace we spoke of in the last homily recap. Living in that love gives us the opportunities to imitate Jesus, while we participate in God's self-giving love to us. I take it to mean that the more we learn to love others as God has loved us the more likely it will be that we will: not steal from neighbors, respect those who have authority over us, dispense authority with compassion, keep our promises to our friends and spouses, desire to forgive our enemies, and the list goes on.

Questions for discussion:

1. Does Jesus' sympathy for you come quickly to mind when you are struggling with temptation? How can you help it come more quickly to mind?

2. If we are to love one another deeply from the heart as the alternative to "un-holy" living, what will help us to say no the "un-holy" living and yes to the loving one another deeply from the heart? What role does Christian community have in all of this?

3. Can you think of a time recently when you realized that, through God's gracious provision, you loved someone deeply from the heart? What did getting to that point look like? Was prayer involved? Was repentance involved? Or, are you just that good? (kidding, smile).