Easter 7
1
Pt. 4:7-11
5/17/15
We all know people who operate on
their own time. You can tell them to be
at your house at 7:00 p.m., but you know that really means that they will be
there around 7:30 p.m. You can assume
that they will be late to everything because that’s just the way they do
things. They seem to be incapable of being somewhere on time – (and whatever
names are going through your head right now, just be careful not to say them
out loud).
If you are punctual, this can drive
you crazy. I am certainly included in that
category. I was raised by parents who
made sure we were on time, and they taught me that this is how you do
things. I learned that it is
disrespectful of other people to make them wait, and so we need to do
everything we can be punctual – to be on time.
I guess this is part of the reason
that I am a person who wants to know what time it is. I like to know where I am in the day: How
long is it until lunch? How long is it until I have to pick up the kids from
school? How long is it until I have to
stop working on the model railroad and go to bed?
I want to know what time it is. My parents gave me a nice watch as gift when
I graduated from high school, and so ever since my college years I have always
worn a wrist watch. After all these years, it is second nature to glance down
at it. There are few little things in life
that irk me more than when the battery in my watch dies. When I can’t look briefly at my watch and
know what time it is, it throws my whole world a little out of whack.
In the epistle lesson for today,
Peter provides instruction for Christians about how they are to live. And he says that the reason we need to live
this way is because of what time it is.
Peter’s reasoning was true when he wrote this epistle. It is still true today and the events of our
world are providing a reminder of this fact.
It is kind of hard to miss the
perspective from which Peter speaks in our text this morning. After all, it begins with the words, “The end
of all things is at hand.” Peter writes
in expectation of the return of Jesus Christ.
Two verses earlier he talked about how people “will give account to him
who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”
Two verses after our text he says that Christians will rejoice and be
glad when Christ’s glory is revealed.
This perspective provides the
framework for everything that Peters says.
And in fact he explicitly draws a conclusion from it when he says in our
text,” “therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of
your prayers.” Because it is the time
when the end of all things is at hand, Peter says, “be serious, keep your
head.”
The apostle says this because as he
describes this time in which we live – this time in which the end of things is
at hand – he wants us to know that it is a time when we will probably
suffer. He says this because in a fallen
world, that is just sometimes what happens.
Sometimes things happen that are unfair and just plain wrong. Sometimes God allows these things to come our
way.
And more specifically in this
section Peter talks about the fact that being a Christian may bring suffering –
it may bring hardship. Peter notes that
Christians will live in ways that are different from the world. Just before our text he writes, “For the time
that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in
sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless
idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in
the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you.” Reject the ways of the world, and the world
will let you know it is not happy about this.
Immediately after our text Peter
goes on to say, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes
upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But
rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and
be glad when his glory is revealed.”
Peter, like the apostle Paul, says that we share in Christ’s sufferings
– we suffer because we are Christians.
But he goes on to say, “
If you are insulted
for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God
rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an
evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be
ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.”
This reflection on life in the time
when the end of all things is at hand is a good one for today. Today in Confirmation we acknowledge that
these young people have received a level of knowledge about the faith that we
expect of our adult congregation members.
The reality is that the world we
live in now is one that I could not have possibly imagined when I was confirmed
in the early 1980’s. Much of this
revolves around issues of the Sixth Commandment. “Friends with benefits,” living together
outside of marriage, the acceptance of homosexuality, the legal recognition of
same sex “marriage” - all of these now
define the world in which we live. And
in particular, when it comes to homosexuality our culture has now made it clear
that no one will be allowed to speak out against it. There are no protections – no freedom of
religion – that can shield you.
And then there are just basic issues
concerning the authority of God’s Word.
Basics issues about right and wrong – whether such things exist. You have learned that Scripture is the
inspired and authoritative Word of God.
You have learned about doctrine that is true and doctrine that is false.
The world says that the Bible is just a book written by guys who lived forever
ago. We now know better than they did
and so we have to pick and choose the parts that are true. It says that there is no such thing as true
or false doctrine – there is just whatever is true for you and what is true for
me.
This is the temptation the
confirmands and every one of us faces. It
is not something that is going away.
Instead, there will be more and more occasions when we will be called to
join ourselves to the suffering of Christ. And honestly, we want to find every
way we can to avoid that suffering. We
want a Christianity that comforts us, not one that brings challenges. We want a hot tub, not a cross.
Why would we ever choose to suffer
with Christ? Peter says it is because
Christ has already suffered for us.
He writes, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for
the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh
but made alive in the spirit.” Jesus
suffered and died on the cross in order to take away our sin that separated us
from God. As the risen Lord he has given
us the gift of Holy Baptism through which he applies that forgiveness to us and
gives us the assurance of salvation and eternal life. As Peter says at the end of chapter three, “Baptism,
which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the
body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with
angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”
Jesus Christ has shown this saving
love toward us. And as we celebrated on
Thursday, he has ascended and been exalted at the right hand of God. He has told us to be ready because he will
return at a time and an hour we do not expect.
We need to be ready because by his life, death and resurrection he has
begun the last days. As Peter says in
our text, “The end of all things is at hand.”
What does this mean for us right
now? How do we live as people who know
what Jesus Christ had done and what it means?
Peter doesn’t want us to miss this, for he says, “Above all, keep
loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” The love we have received in Jesus Christ
prompts us to love one another. In
Christ we have the source of love that can never be exhausted. And it is love that covers a multitude of
sins. It conceals the neighbor’s wrongs
and weaknesses as it protects and defends the neighbor. It soothes over instead of riling up because
it does not dwell on sin.
And finally Peter says that those
who know the end of all things is at hand because of Christ will use the gifts
God has given to them in order to serve one another. He writes, “As each has received a gift, use
it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever
speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by
the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified
through Jesus Christ.” The gifts that
God has given allow us to become instruments that he uses in order to serve and
help those around us.
In our text this morning, Peter
emphasizes what time it is – it is the time when the end of all things is at
hand. He writes because Christ loved us
and suffered for us in order take away our sins. He writes because God has caused us to be
born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead. Jesus has begun the resurrection
of the Last Day. He has ascended into
heaven amidst the promise that he will return.
This is the time in which we live
and so Peter tells us to be self controlled and sober minded for the sake of
our prayers – he tells us to keep our head and turn to God in prayer. He tells us to love one another earnestly
since love covers a multitude of sins. And he tells us that as we have received
gifts from God we are to use them to serve one another as good stewards of
God’s varied grace.
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