Where Do We Begin?

One of the things which is appealing about Celtic spirituality is that it emerged out of a period when the institutional church had little influence.  There is a sense in which it came out of an ecclesiastical vacuum.  The emergence of British Christianity took place around the 4th century.  It is likely that Christianity came to Britain by Roman soldiers who were sent into the region in the early 3rd century.  In 410 AD Rome was sacked by invaders and its soldiers in the fringe areas were called back to protect the homeland.  With the withdrawal of Rome, there came into existence a period of almost 200 years in which spirituality grew in Britain without any influence from Rome.  This distinctive stream of spirituality flourished until the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD.    

It has always been true that our beliefs have been shaped by the church.  Not even today would any of us say that our spiritual life grew outside of the influence and teachings of the church.  This is not to say that such an influence is a bad thing, but to say that sometimes the institutional church teaches us things which are experienced as contrary to what we know to be true in our hearts.  Certainly, the medieval practice of buying indulgences is one of the more obvious.  Over the years I have heard believers declare that baptism is a must for salvation and even go further to declare the necessity of being  baptized in a particular church.  Others have affirmed that being filled with the Spirit requires speaking in tongues.  There are rules imposed about who can receive the Sacrament and who can offer it.  

To say that our spirituality is not shaped to some degree by doctrines and disciplines of our church would be misleading.  One of the interesting things about Celtic spirituality is the way it affirmed that we are created and marked by the essence of God instead of being marked by sin and iniquity.  Whether we are ready to embrace a theology birthed before the 4th century church began to teach the doctrine of original sin is up to us, but it must be remembered that where we start has something to do with where we end up.

The Eternal Light

There is within the stream of Celtic spirituality the belief that the eternal light mentioned in the first words of Genesis is the light that gives light to the sun, the moon, the stars, and the light in the eyes of living creatures.  This eternal light is invisible and was shining before the beginning.  It is a light that emanates from the very essence of God and without this eternal and invisible light there is no light.  It is the light that is invisible; yet, it can be seen and is in everything.  It is the light that shines in the darkness and relentlessly penetrates it.  No darkness can overcome it and, in fact, it is the light which always overcomes any darkness.  (Genesis 1:1-3,  John 1:1-5)

Nothing that was created in the beginning and nothing that is even now coming into being has been created apart from this eternal and invisible light (John 1:3).  From the realm of the invisible, it brings all things into visibility.  As those who have been created by the Creator, we, too, bear the mark and imprint of His hand.  The eternal light which shines and speaks of the essence of the Creator has touched us at the moment of our conception and continues to shine in us enabling us to bear the essence of the Creator within our souls.  The book of Genesis speaks of all of creation, including men and women, as a part of the creation which the Creator declared to be not just good, but very good.  (Genesis 1:31)

The idea that humanity was fundamentally tainted instead of fundamentally good came into existence in the fourth century.  Augustine was the one who developed the doctrine of original sin which, of course, is based on three sections of Scripture (Genesis 3, Psalm 51:5, and Romans 5:1-12) and is still taught in churches both Roman Catholic and Protestant.  This fundamental difference between Roman Catholicism and the emerging Celtic Church led to the Synod at Whitby in 664 which pushed the Celtic tradition into near obscurity. The Celtic tradition did not deny the presence of sin, but neither did it deny that men and women were born with the essence of the eternal light within them. 

Letting Go

Not too long ago I read a book by Esther de Waal entitled, "The White Stone."  It was not a book about rock collecting, but one about letting go of relationships, things, and accumulated stuff.  After fourteen years of having cows graze in the pasture and birth calves, I decided to let them go.  I sold them to a neighbor who is a cattle farmer.  While I enjoyed having them on the farm, I also knew it was time.  Processing the moment has set me to doing something I do too often: thinking.   

As much as we hate to let go of the people whom we love and the things we value, life is from the very beginning about letting go.  We let go of the security of the womb to be born.  We let go of being adolescents to become adults.  We let go of being single and free to do whatever for the sake of love in marriage.  To reflect for a moment is to see an endless list trailing along behind us.  Normally it is not something we think about; but, as we move into the older years, the process of letting go becomes more accelerated and visible.  Old age gives us the perspective of seeing that what has been invisible to our conscious mind is now suddenly very visible.   

It is not just in our older years that we engage letting go.  We actually have been doing it all our lives.  Letting go is something which those who love God and trust in Him understand to some degree in their spiritual lives.  Jesus was always clear that following Him was costly.  There were things about life which had to be let go.  Letting go is something we do from beginning to end.  For all of us, there is ahead of us that day of letting go of everything including breath itself.  What is true in that final moment has been true all along the journey.  When we let go, we are enabled to go forward.  In that final act of letting go, we will be moving forward toward our Home with the Creator who set us forth on the journey.  Such is our faith.  Such is our hope.  Such is the promise of the One who first called us to let go and come after Him.

Worship Him

We are a people who carry a vast memory within us.  There are times when a few words spoken from the past will rekindle a memory of something which until that moment seemed to be forgotten.  It is also true that there are some memories which need no rekindling.  Instead, they dwell in us as if they are a part of us.  When the organist started playing "The Lord's Prayer" as a prelude to worship this morning, I was immediately aware of these words of Jesus and overwhelmed with the emotion that came from the blending of the powerful words and the beautiful music.  

It was a moment of closed eyes as the blessing of the moment washed over me.  If the purpose of a musical prelude is to prepare us for worship, I was more than ready.  Of course, there are other pieces of our worship liturgy which bring our senses and our spirit alive to the presence of God.  It can happen with any passage of Scripture, or a poem, or even a song from the hymnbook.  For some what happens in worship is just a  religious ritual experienced without any feeling while the same ritual can stir the heart of another to the point of deep emotions.   When we worship, our hearts are more likely to be stirred if we have intentionally taken some time to prepare our spirit for worship.  This may happen through anticipatory prayers, or a daily devotional time, or creating some space for sacred music to open our hearts to praise.  

However, there is another side as well.  We can walk into worship with our minds on a thousand worries, having done nothing to ready our spirit, and find ourselves caught up in a transcendent moment of being in the presence of God that can only be understood as a miracle of grace in our lives.  When the Holy Spirit begins to work among us in worship,  prepared or not, He will do the work He is present to do and we can only bow our heads in deep gratitude and lift our hearts in wondrous praise.

Life is Fragile

Long years ago while at the Talbotton Church, the church celebrated its sesquicentennial  (150 years).  It was quite a celebration for this small town church in west Georgia.  A historical marker was put in place, a special Sunday service was held, and Bishop Cannon came to preach.  It is a preaching moment I have never forgotten.  Before preaching his sermon, he told us that the Lord had given him the message and he was saving it for some big event like Annual Conference.  He went on to say he felt that the Lord was telling him to preach it at Talbotton instead of at another time.  Finally, he preached the sermon and to this day, I carry it like a word for living that must not be forgotten.  The Bishop's sermon on that day simply hammered home the theme, "Life is fragile."    

A thousand time or more I have seen the Bishop's sermon illustrated in my life and in the lives of people who journey with me.  Too many times we count on the  things of tomorrow as if they come with a guarantee.  The Apostle James spoke a word which said, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow  we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business , and making money.'  Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, 'If the lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.' "  (James 4:13-15)   

This is not to say that planning is a waste of time.  Planning helps us accomplish things which are important to us and they have a way of keeping us moving in a useful and productive direction.  As we make our plans it is good to remember the words of the poet, Robert Burns, "The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry."  It is also good to remember that life is fragile and prone to all kinds of interruptions which may be nothing more than God making a course correction.

A Word Manifested

I Corinthians 13 has often been called the "Love Chapter."  There is certainly a good reason.  The language is like a beautiful, eloquent poem.  It describes something which is grossly misinterpreted and misunderstood by so many in our culture.  Love is made as people have sex.  Never mind that such equates to a primitive physical act, it is dragged on stage and clothed in language which does not fit.  In other circles love is something offered to every one.  Certainly, the words of Jesus call us to love everyone, but the way it is used in so many situations dilutes it to something not too different than being made to feel good.   

The Apostle Paul's words about love are beautifully written and take us into a realm of personal experience that illuminates the essence of what it means to love.  Someone said recently that "love is just a word until it is manifested."  Is that not what God has done for us through Jesus?  Into Bethlehem He came.  Into the hearts of Mary and Joseph He came.  Onto the rough roads and into the difficult places of life He came.  To a cross He came to die.  Along the way He spoke the word of love.  Along the way He fleshed out what that word meant. When the disciples did not understand, His patient spirit gave them room to grow.  When others appeared as teachers, He did not seek to deny them their voice.  When people walked away from Him, He did not chase and browbeat them into understanding.  When He walked those final steps filled with blood and pain, He did not stop reaching out to care for those like His mother and the dying thief.    

Jesus did talk the language of love, but more important for us, he manifested love in our presence.  He showed love not by talking about it, but by being it.  We cannot see Him as did those disciples who walked the road with Him, but we see Him revealed in the Word which tells us all we need to know about this Savior of love who was sent by God.  We see Him as the Holy Spirit reveals Him in our inner being. His love for us was and is so great that He did not count His own life too great a thing to let go in order to give love to us.  "By this we know love, that He gave His life for us."  (I John 3:16)   Love is just a word until it is manifested.  Such speaks of the One known to us as the Word became flesh.  (John 1:14)

Hearing in the Silence

There are those rare moments when our mind seems to go to empty.  Instead of being buffeted by the voices of all the ongoing pressures of living, we suddenly find ourselves with a kind of inner quietness that is disturbing to us in its own way.  If we allow those moments to unfold within us, it is likely that we might hear some voice speaking to us in a way that is so surprising that our spirit leads us to entertain the possibility that it is the voice of God.  It is not a moment of being empty headed, but a moment for paying attention and listening to the thoughts that are rising from within us.   

Perhaps, Elijah is our model for living in such moments.  The 18th chapter of I Kings tells us of his epic battle with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah  (I Kings 18:19) on Mt. Carmel.  When that great spiritual battle had been won by Elijah, he heard of the murderous intent of Jezebel and fled in fear to a cave on Mt. Horeb.  While huddled there in fear, he head the sound a wind so great it broke rocks.  After the wind came the sounds of the earth snapping in a mighty earthquake and finally the threatening roar of a fire.  It was not in these overpowering sounds that pressed upon his spirit that he sensed and heard the voice of the Lord.  The moment of hearing is described as a moment when the sheer sound of silence prevailed.  (I Kings 19:13)  Suddenly everything was gone, silenced.  Gone in the silence were the sounds of the battle with Baal and the frightening sounds that caused him to hide even deeper in his cave, 

Such moments do come to us.  For some reason we find we are standing as if the pressures have been silenced and the anxiety and fear has been pushed away.  In those moments when we are suddenly taken back by the silence of a spirit that has been stilled, it is a good thing to move into the vastness of that silence and listen for some word from God.  Again and again it has been proven to us that such is a place we are likely to hear a new word for living.

The Journey Forward

We are not the person we were.  Life changes us.  The Holy Spirit changes us.  We are even occasionally found deciding to make changes on our own, though it must be acknowledged that our self imposed changes may be a reflection of the way we have been shaped in the past.  Trying to hold on to the person we were stymies our growth and movement into the future.  It may even be a rejection of the way the Spirit is moving in our lives in the present moment.  In this journey from where we were to where we are one thing is certain, change is inevitable.    

The very nature of our physical presence is always sending us a message about the inevitability of change.  We are conceived in a joining of two cells and are born into this world as eight pounds or so of screaming energy.  Very slowly we change from a child to an adult who can jump fences to one who is amazed at the accumulation of wrinkled skin and gray hair.  Our journey from having plenty of energy to having none tells us something we do not want to hear.   What is happening in our physical life is also happening in our emotional and spiritual life.  

As the physical changes are manifesting themselves, it is also true that our view of the world is changing.  It may be a world with more gray instead of the black and white which once filled our view of things.  We may even see that our understanding of how God is present with us and is leading us has gone in a direction we never anticipated when we started our spiritual journey.  Abraham's journey with God was not to a certain place, but more to a land described as "know not where."  If we are honest, this is our journey as well.  We are not who we were.  Neither are we who we are going to be for the Spirit is constantly shaping and leading us. 

Still His

Today's journey took me through Vidalia.  It was my privilege to pastor the Vidalia Church for ten years as the last century was coming to a close.  While I was there, the church bought two pieces of adjoining property.  One had an old house which in its last days served as office space and the other was an old gas station that had been abandoned for some time.  We (the church) bought it even though we did not know what to do with it.  We saw it as land adjacent to the church which was not likely to be available again, but we also figured the Lord had a plan for it even though we were unable to see it.  Today it provides a thrift store ministry and a strong child care ministry.   

I went in the church for what I thought would be a trip down memory lane.  I was surprised.  A staff member was in the building and he led a tour that included stories of how God was at work.  It was exciting to hear the way God has used some of the seeds for the future which He put in our hands years ago.  As the stories were shared I could not help but remember some of the prayers that had been offered to God years ago and how the stories spoke of God hearing and responding.    

In these days it seems easy to find fault with the church.  It is not hard to find someone who is willing to talk about its failures and shortcomings.  Today as I walked through that sacred space again, I could not help but be reminded by the Spirit that God is still at work in and through His church.  It may be flawed.  It may not be perfect, but signs and wonders do still abound because the Spirit has not yet given up on His church.  As it is with each of us, so it is with the church.  God is not through with it yet.

Unpredictable Leading

The leading of the Spirit is often hard for us to discern.  We are creatures of the status quo and moving out from under its umbrella of comfort and security can often be a difficult task.  When we like where we are and the way life is treating us, it is hard to think that God might want it all to end for something which will be filled with the discomfort and the uncertainty of the new.  I remember one appointment where I probably stayed a year too long.  There were some stirrings of the Spirit within me telling me it was time to leave, but things were going well in the place I was serving and so I stayed.  I should have realized back then that sometimes God leads us away from the places where life is comfortable to a new place that we might grow in our trust in Him.    

A character in the book of Acts who does not always get his time on the Biblical stage is Philip.  His story is told in chapter 8 of this writing about the Spirit moving the church into its future.  The part of the story which gets the most attention is his evangelistic ministry with the Ethiopian eunuch.  An equally amazing story precedes that part of the story.  Verse 5 of Acts 8 says, "Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them"  Philip faithfully preached Christ, the people listened, the Spirit was at work and a great revival broke out in that place.  It was such a revival that the Church in Jerusalem sent Peter and John to check it out.    

When the two Apostles returned to Jerusalem with their report of a great work of the Holy Spirit, an unpredictable thing happened.  An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, "Get up and go.."  (Acts 8:26)  Not only was Philip told to leave the place of a great revival, but he was told go down a lonely wilderness road.  At this juncture in the story, the Word says, "So he (Philip) got up and went."  (Acts 8:27)  From the excitement of a mighty revival to a deserted wilderness road is where the Spirit led Philip.  The leading of the Spirit is not always what we think it should be and often times it is full of surprises and the unpredictable. 

Tend the Flock

In the years which stretched out between walking across the stage and being handed a diploma from seminary and walking onto a farm in retirement i must have gone to a thousand, or so seminars to help me with the issue of self identification.  A lot of experts had a lot of different suggestions at the tip of their tongues to help those of us ordained to understand our role in the church.  One of the clearest ones was a man who never showed up in seminary, lived in another century, and was actually appointed by Jesus to be the Rock of the Church.  In his letter to the church of Asia Minor, he wrote a few words to those who sought to give leadership to the newly shaped spiritual community.  "Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ...I exhort the elders  among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge...nor for sordid gain, but eagerly."  (I Peter 5:1-2)  

It is easy to get distracted.  It is too easy for the one who is to tend the flock entrusted to him or her to start looking at someone else's flock.  The old adage about the grass being greener on the other side of the fence is a terrible unrelenting demon for the clergy person.  The preacher starts listening to this green demon which professes that better and larger is deserved and before next Sunday's sermon is cooked, the preacher has forgotten about tending the appointed flock as plans are made to get somewhere else.  

Our role is clear.  The work of the spiritual leader of the church is to tend to the flock which has been entrusted to our care.  We are to be the first knee bent in behalf of the needs of the spiritual community, we are to be the one who helps all the  rest find the basin of water and the towels, and we are the one who is to study the Word of God with one eye on the text and the other on the needs of the flock.  We are to be the one who leads the people of God, or the flock of God as Peter calls it, to the place where water can be found to nourish the soul.  As Christ called Himself the Good Shepherd who is willing to lay down his life for the sheep so are we to serve the one given to us, not the one we want.

Where It Begins

It is obvious that the believers who read Peter's letter to the church of Asia Minor were under the heavy hand of persecution.  Verse 6 of the very first chapter says, "In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith...is tested by fire..."  As the letter unfolds the threat is declared even more emphatically.  These early Christians were not  threatened with the loss of their jobs, but the loss of their lives.  It is a hard thing for us to imagine.  If we think it is an impossible scenario then we need to look no further back than Dietrich Bonhoeffer's mid 20th century Germany.    

Fortunately, we do not face the kind of life and death persecution that the German Church, or the first century community of believers in Asia Minor faced, but this is not to say Christians are not persecuted because of their desire to follow Jesus.  Contemporary persecution is often first felt as the non believing culture dismisses those with faith because of their faith.  A dismissive spirit may not seem like much, but not to be taken seriously makes for a painful place to live.  Anyone who has tried to share a meaningful part of their journey with God only to have the one listening shrug their shoulders and change the subject knows how painful it is to be dismissed and to not be taken seriously as a person of value.    

This first form of persecution creates a division between those who choose not to believe and those who believe. It leads to a spirit where those of faith are belittled because they seek to live faithfully for the Christ.  To refer to the Word of God as an authority and guide for living is something which the non believing culture sees as as an obvious sign that the believer has lost touch with reality.   Some believers in our day have lost jobs, or family members, or friends, or value in certain circles and it all begins as the values of the Christian faith become the reason for not being taken seriously. The next step is to be declared to be out of touch and irrelevant.  Fortunately, the persecution we face is not a life and death persecution, but such is not the case in every part of our world.  It is currently happening.  It happened in the world of the Apostle Peter.  It happened in World War II Germany.  It can happen anywhere.  Anytime.

The Primal Relationship

The book of Genesis begins with "In the beginning..."  As the book of beginnings, it is truly the book of firsts.  Within those early verses is the record of the first light, the first sunset, the first moon light, the first fish, the first cow, and the first human being.  It is also the place where the first relationship is recorded.   The first, or primal, relationship is the one between the Creator and the creature, between God and the human.  Herein, is the essence of all relationships.  Everything begins here in the world of relationships.  We may have turned it into a broken relationship, but there is no way to circumvent the reality that it is the first and most basic of relationships in this world in which we live.  It is essential if we are to live well.

The second relationship is also significant.  The second relationship which came into being in this era of beginnings was the relationship between man and woman.  It was a relationship that God the Creator immediately blessed.  "...male and female He created them.  God blessed them, and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply..."  (Genesis 1:27-28)  Later in the less formal narrative of chapter 2, this second significant relationship is underscored with the language pointing toward our traditional understanding of marriage.   In Peter's first letter to the Christians of Asia Minor, he addressed the marriage relationship as a relationship where one of the goals of that human relationship is to cultivate the most primal relationship husbands and wives have with God.  Wives are to live in such a way that unbelieving husbands will believe and husbands are to live in such a way that their wives will not have anything to hinder them in their life with God.  (I Peter 3:1-7)  

The next section which unfolds may not be a specific word just for marriages, but it is certainly one which captures how we are to live with one another in every relationship including this second significant relationship ordained since the beginning:  "Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind."  (I Peter 3:8)  May it be so for each of one of us as we live with God and one another.

The Real Jesus

I Peter 2:23-25 has a word to say about Jesus.  "When He was abused, He did not return abuse; when He suffered, He did not threaten; but He entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly.  He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed.  For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls."   There are so many words and images in this passage that are offensive to our modern day religious culture that has sanitized Jesus into a gentle loving character whose heart is always empty of judgment.  This passage speaks of divine judgment, a sacrificial death on the cross, our being sinful, our needing someone to free us from something that does not really exist, and the assumption that we are in need of a caretaker and protector.  It does not set well with our present culture.  

The ancients lived with hand crafted wooden images and stone carvings of gods who existed only in the minds of the carpenter or the stone mason.   We are too sophisticated for such foolishness.  The gods we worship are mostly the invisible ones such as instant gratification, political expediency, and self sufficiency.  We do not need a sacrificial Lamb to save us, we can save ourselves.   If there is something which needs fixing, we can fix it.  If there is some mystery which defies understanding, we can figure it out.  If there is social dysfunction, we can create a program to solve it.    

It is easy to see how Jesus gets pushed into a dark closet where things from the past are stored and finally thrown away.  For so many around us and for so many churches, Jesus has lost His power.  Actually, He has not lost it, but our culture has simply declared Him to be powerless to really effect change in the hearts of people and our world.  The Christ of culture may be a sanitized One, but the Christ of the cross still has power to transform even the most confused and lost among us.  The message of the cross is messy, mysterious, and full of grace which is why there is such need for the real Jesus to be turned loose once again in our midst.

A Multi-tiered Word.

We live in a multi-tiered world.  Some people live with a silver spoon in their mouths and some live with nothing at all in their mouths.  Some live midst order and some midst chaos.  Some of us live in a world where people walk and run and dance and others live in a world of wheelchairs and walkers and no legs at all.  Once in awhile, we catch a glimpse of the way some folks who are very different from us live; but, most of the time we live surrounded by people and circumstances which reflect our own status in life.  The distance between these tiers of existence often breeds an insensitivity toward the situation of others and a type of complacency that causes the drying up of our compassion.   

It is hard to understand how some can live in multi million dollar mansions filled with unused rooms and  how some find themselves setting up a tent and living alone under a busy expressway.  Regardless of where and how we live, it is important to never forget that everyone has some rocks in their shoes, some failures which cannot be shaken, and some struggles with the broken places in their lives.  What is not so obvious to us is that we are all, each and every one of us, connected to one another.  We may not be connected by ethnic background, nor economic status, nor political preference, but we are connected by the commonness which comes to all of us as we are conceived with the imprint of the holy upon us.   

We sometimes say that there is good in the worst of us.  It is true even though there are times when it is impossible to see.  The reason that there is some good in all of us has nothing to do with what we make of ourselves but because the same Creator breathed His holy breath upon us and in us.  Genesis tells us that everything and everyone created was created and declared to be very good and when Jesus walked along those Galilean roads, He met no one who was an untouchable and beyond the reach of His love.  To live faithfully as one of His is to offer the same regardless of the tier in which we, or they, live.

An Unpopular Word

The last part of the second chapter of I Peter raises problems and issues for us in many ways.  It is a passage which lifts up the value of a spiritual discipline we might call submission.  Submission is not a popular word in our culture.  It is certainly not thought of as something virtuous.  Our society applauds the aggressive spirit that strives for the seat at the head of the table.  Our culture extols the one in charge, not the servant.  Submission is seen more as a weakness than does a lifestyle that points to the value of being strong and willing to do whatever it takes to get to the top.    

Jesus would certainly be thought of as weakling by the self made seekers of power today.  He lived His life in submission to the will of the Father.  What is often missed is the fact that His strength came from a lifestyle of submitting Himself to the will of the Father.  He did nothing apart from the divine directive which rested heavily upon His life.  At the core of His value system was love.   It was the kind of love described in I Corinthians 13:  patient, kind, empty of boastful self assertion,  always considerate of others, never irritable or resentful,  rooted in truth, and able to persevere in any set of circumstances.  His love was the kind of love that would sacrifice Himself, His own reputation, and His own life for others.  

He expressed this kind of loving lifestyle as He willingly gave His life to those who at the end of the day thought they had taken it from Him.  In John 10:17-18 we hear Jesus saying, "...I lay down my life in order to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord."  If we have a desire to understand the discipline of submission as Peter is presenting it, then there is no better model for us than the Christ who was submissive to the will of the Father and Who willingly submitted Himself to the power brokers of the world so that He might die at their hands for the sake of all of us.    

What Is Not Known

Around here it is not an uncommon thing to have some music playing during mealtime.  It is played soft enough to be heard, but not loud enough to hinder conversation.  This morning Cristy Lane was singing from an album entitled, "Footprints."  Lane enjoyed a season of popularity in the country and religious arena back in the last '60's and early '70's.  It so happened that breakfast and the album wound down at the same time.  The last song came to its end and the voice of the singer was heard thanking the listener for listening and then she offered her favorite prayer.  It was a most unusual ending for a musical recording.  As she started praying "The Lord's Prayer" a quiet stillness settled over the breakfast table as my wife and I bowed our heads and prayed along with her.    

As best I could discover Cristy Lane still lives at age 84.  I cannot help but wonder if she imagines that people are still being drawn into a spirit of prayer while listening to music she recorded back in 1981.  The moment around the table set me to thinking about the lasting power of our praying.  When does its effective power end?  Does it ever end?  I have a friend who speaks of prayers we think of as being unanswered as being stored in heaven until God is ready to use them to accomplish His purposes.  It is certainly true that many of the faithful prayers offered to God find their answer long after the saint has entered into eternity.    

The truth is we have no idea how long our prayers remain full of power for the work of God.  We pray them asking that His will be done and sometimes we may find ourselves waiting beyond our own lifetime to know that such has happened.  The prayer I heard and prayed this morning at breakfast began 43 years ago and still had the power to draw me into a moment of worship and prayer.   "Never stop praying"  is a good paraphrase of I Thessalonians 5:17.  We never know who and when our prayer may touch another. 

The Minority Group

As we read Peter's first letter to the church in Asia Minor, we see him taking another page out of his Old Testament book.  Of course,  we know he had a scroll and not a book so maybe it is more accurate to say he borrowed another reference from the sacred writings.  I Peter 2:11 contains the reference, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that war against the soul.  It is a verse that revisits the very first verse of the letter where Peter addressed his letter to "the exiles of the Dispersion..."  Like the ancient Hebrews who lived as exiles and aliens in Egypt and Babylon, so were these early believers identifiable as the different ones.    

Earlier words about being a chosen race and a holy people solidify this image.  Even though they lived in a Gentile community, they were still different.  What made them different was their faith in Christ and their hope and longing for a home which was eternal with God.  They were those who because of their new birth had been given "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you..."  (I Peter 1:4).  They were a different, set apart people, and though they lived in a culture antagonist to the Christ, they were to walk and live against the grain of that culture in faithfulness to the One who had died for them and called them to faithfulness.    

If anyone doubts the relevance of the Word for today's believers and today's church, they only need consider these words of the Apostle of the Church.   Though we sometimes forget, the Christian community has always been a minority in our culture.  It has been such since Peter's day and it remains the same in our own.  The culture around us to some degree or another has always been antagonistic to Christ and His ways.  One of the real struggles of the church today is to heed the message of Christ instead of living according to the dictates of a culture that calls for the church to blend with the society around it. 

The Mission

When the Apostle Peter wrote his letter to the church in the northern regions of Asia Minor, he did so as a Jew writing to congregations of Gentile believers.  This is interesting in that Galatians 2:7-8 speaks of Paul being entrusted with ministry to the Gentiles and Peter being entrusted with ministry to the Jews. Yet, here in this letter we read of Peter's pastoral care for churches he likely had never seen.  One of the things we see unfolding in this letter is Peter's expanding view of the Jewish communities in the Gentile regions.  

In language which brings to mind the prophet Isaiah, Peter speaks of the role of the Gentile church. In Isaiah 49:6, we hear the Word of God being spoken through the prophet, "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel.  I will give you as a light to the nations, that My salvation may reach to the ends of the earth."  This Word is declaring that the set apart people of God are not set apart to be the elite of the world, but the servants of the world.  In such a spirit Peter speaks of the mantle being passed, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."  (I Peter 2:9)   

Peter addressed the church and called it "God's own people," and with the same stroke of the pen reminded them that their mission was not about self preservation, or being spiritually content with their elite nature, but to serve the world.  It is surely a word the church of our day needs to sit with until it finally soaks into its core values.  The church Christ called into existence is one intended to lose itself, not save itself.  It is to be a city set on a hill, but also a community called to wash feet and to serve the world in a self sacrificing manner.

The Cross and Guitar

I bought a cross yesterday.  The purchase was totally out of character for me.  It was a hand carved wooden three inch Celtic cross on a rawhide string.  It was made to be worn around the neck.  I have never worn anything which resembled a necklace and although it was not really a necklace, it was as close as anything I have put around my neck to hang down on my chest.  I did not plan to buy it.  I saw it and there was something about the moment which all but compelled me to pay the $10 and wear it home.  Yesterday and today I wore it.  Comfortably.  It felt like it belonged.   

I remember buying a cheap used guitar from an antique and junk store in much the same way about a year ago.  I had browsed the store for a bit and sat down on a bench, looked up, and there it was inviting me to take it home.  It was as if it had a sign on it which said, "This is for you."  Once again I paid the clerk and left with a purchase I did not know I needed, or wanted until I saw it in the store.  Not being a compulsive shopper, it gives me reason to pause.  How do these unexpected things happen?    

Being the person who thinks too much about things not clearly seen, it has made me to remember and reflect on the way revelations of the Holy are constantly unfolding in the path He leads us.  Maybe part of the reason we have such trouble seeing is because we are looking so hard.  Maybe we miss what is unfolding because we are trying to make something happen in our time instead of the time that God has laid out for us.  As I reflect on the cross and the guitar, I find myself wondering if God's blessings are not more likely to come to us as we wait for them to unfold in our lives.     

My Friend John

My forty three years of preaching took me to ten different churches.  There are a lot of folks whose pathway I crossed in all those years.  If I had to list the names of all the people in all those churches, I would fail miserably.  I remember a lot of folks, but not all.  Some are remembered more than others and some are remembered in association with some particularity.   As I read the Scripture from I Peter 2 and then from Ephesians 2 about Jesus being the cornerstone, I remembered John from St. John Church in Columbus.  John will never be forgotten because of the way he prayed for me, but also because of his love for the song, "Jesus is the Cornerstone."    

John was a member of the choir, had a rich deep voice, and whenever he had an opportunity to sing a solo, Cornerstone was his song.  Every time I have heard that song over the years, it is not some well known vocalist I hear singing it, but John.   He sang it with such passion. "Jesus is the Cornerstone.  Came for sinners to atone.  Though rejected by His own,  He became the Cornerstone. Jesus is the Cornerstone."    

The Apostle Peter went to the writing of the prophet Isaiah at this point in his letter.  The Old Testament prophet wrote about "a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame."  The Apostle Paul wrote about Jesus and the community of believers  saying, "...built...with Jesus Christ Himself as the cornerstone.  In Him the whole structure is joined together..."  (Ephesians 2:20-21).   John loved the song.  He loved the Cornerstone.  He loved the church. May the telling of his story and faith continue to be like seeds being planted for the Kingdom of the Christ.

The Wrong Assumption

When I plowed into the second chapter of that first letter of the Apostle Peter, I first thought I had found a great preaching text.  It was a text which would make one of those classic three point sermons.  Three words from the first four verses of that chapter grabbed me.  "Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all your guile, insincerity, envy and all slander...(2:1)...long for the pure, spiritual milk...(2:2)...Come to Him, a living stone...(2:4).  The last point even took me to a great concluding story, a great means of offering an invitation to come to Christ.     

Faster than I could  process the thought, the conversion of Charles Spurgeon came to mind.  Spurgeon was a great 19th century English preacher who is known as "the Prince of Preachers."  Though Presbyterian, so many of his sermons sound like a page out of John Wesley's preaching manual.  On January 6, 1850 a very young and spiritually hungry Spurgeon got waylaid on his way to his church by a snowstorm and ended up in a small Primitive Methodist Church filled with no more than 20 or so folks.  

The preacher was absent because of the storm and an uneducated man preached from Isaiah 45:22, a text which said, "Look unto me, and be saved."  When the tailor had run to the end of his tether in about ten minutes, (as Spurgeon put it),  he looked at Spurgeon, called him out as a miserable man, and cried out, "Come to Him, and be saved."  Spurgeon did and the rest is history. The text from I Peter and the story of Charles Spurgeon's conversion speaks to the need of the church for more invitational preaching.  One of the biggest errors of the church today is found in its assumption that everyone present on Sunday morning has made a decision to be connected in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Ransomed One

Who we have become in Christ comes with a cost.  Maybe, price is a better word.  The Apostle Peter brings this issue to the forefront as he writes his first letter to the church.  In I Peter 1:18-19 we hear the Word of God saying, "You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from you ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish."  We do not live in Christ because we woke up one morning, or went down to an altar at the end of some worship service, and cried tears of sorrow.  It is not something we do which enables us to live in Christ, but something God has done for us through Christ.    

The Apostle Paul speaks of it as a transformation which begins with divine grace.  We know all too well that Word which says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God..." (Ephesians 2:8)  Peter, the Apostle, speaks of this initial act of God with the word "ransomed."  We are enabled to live in Christ only because of the plan of God which called for the precious blood of Christ to be shed for each one of us as a way of restoring us from our lost condition.  As we allowed sin to enter into our lives, we lost our awareness that we were created to live with the image of the holy reflected in us.    

It is surely true that our faith response is an important part of this equation of deliverance, but our faith is not the primal enabling factor in the divine equation of grace and faith.  Grace always has come first.  Our sin makes us one who has sold our soul to the power of evil and the transaction which enables us to be set free and restored is through the ransoming act of God through Jesus Christ.  Semantics is not the important issue here.  Whether we speak of grace, or being ransomed, or being adopted, it is all possible because of God's unending love for us and the sacrificial act of the Son on the cross which shows us that love as well as the difference it makes in our living. 

Holiness Unto the Lord

When I went to Asbury College back in 1968, I went kicking and screaming.  Looking back I call it my Jonah in the belly of the big fish experience.  Jonah was called to go east; he went west.  I felt called to go north to Asbury; I went south to Georgia Southern.  I had one great academic quarter at Southern, but knew it was not where I belonged so I sent my application to the place I did not want to go.  Some may find it strange that a college would be chosen on the basis of the leading the Lord, but so it was for me in  those days.  I felt led to Asbury by God, but did not want to go.   

The most significant building at Asbury is Hughes Auditorium and at the front emblazoned high above the organ pipes are the words, "Holiness Unto the Lord."  Those words spoke of my problem.  I did not want those holiness people to get hold of me.  There was a strange dichotomy present as I feared the holiness doctrines and planned to be a preacher ordained in the tradition of John Wesley.  But, alas, reality and perception are often two different things.  What I really feared was turning loose the controls of my life so that I could be taught what it meant to live under the authority of the Holy Spirit.    

Living in submission to the Holy Spirit and living under His authority is where seekers of holiness are taken.  According to the Scripture holiness is about being devoted and set apart for the purposes of God.  (Leviticus 20:26...Romans 12:1) It is a huge step for so many of us who live under the illusion that we control our lives and fear giving it up.  One of the key words to understand as we think about holiness is abandonment.  Are we willing to abandon what we want for what God wants?  Those holiness folks surely had an influence on me back in my Asbury College days, but it was really the Holy Spirit who wanted to take hold of me.

The Imprint of the Holy

While it is true that many of today's contemporary worship services are held in sterile gyms, or activity centers which have a few Christian symbols sitting or suspended somewhere in the room, the sanctuary setting for worship is normally overflowing with symbols of the sacred.  It is a room with all kinds of holy stuff:  the Table for the Sacrament, crosses and candles, pulpit and lectern, altars and stain glass windows, hymn books and Bibles, and robes and cassocks.  All of these things as well as the building itself have been consecrated and set aside and apart for the service of God.  During the years of preaching, it always seemed that the sanctuary was an illustration of what it meant to be holy.  To be holy was to be set apart for the work of God.    

When I arrived at the farm, I was put down in the midst of a dilemma.  The dilemma was creation.  The setting of the sanctuary which had defined holy for so long was replaced by the setting of creation.  The creation lacked the holy symbols seen in the sanctuary, but as I soon learned, it was filled with manifestations of the Creator God.  As the sanctuary was holy, so was the Creation, the dirt, the trees, the sky, the sun, and the weeds growing in the hay field.  It was not one thing in the Creation which was holy, but the whole Creation.  There was no place to wander and no place to ponder which was empty of the holy.  

The ancient Psalmist wrote, "Praise the Lord!...Praise Him sun and moon, praise Him all you shining stars!...Mountains and hills, fruit trees and all cedars!  Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds!  (Psalm 148:1, 3-4, 9-10)  The same Psalmist ask the question, "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?" (Psalm 139:7)   To get out of the sanctuary for a walk in the creation is to know that everything which bears the imprint of the Creator is holy.  It is all set apart to serve Him and to bring glory to His name.  So it is with each one of us.  We are holy. We bear the imprint of the Holy.

Holy Living

Holiness is such a frightening word for most church folks.  Preachers tend to avoid it except in the most casual of references.  Not even in my own denomination where holiness was in the beginning a hallmark word and teaching is it heard much.  It seems that even those of us ordained in the spirit of John Wesley have mostly forgotten about it.  The Apostle Peter made it clear in his letter to the church that those who trusted in Christ were called to live holy lives.  Halfway through the first chapter we hear him sounding that word which is so strange to today's church, "...as He who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy."  (I Peter 1:16)    

Holiness is our birthright.  Holiness is our heritage.  Long centuries ago it became orthodox to declare that the birthright and heritage of humankind was sin.  Born in sin was our birthright and living in sin was our destiny.   When we pause for a fresh look at the first chapter of Genesis, we are caused to see a different reality.  When the final words of creation have been spoken, the Word which is declared to be the voice of God declares, "God saw everything He had made, and indeed, it was very good."  (Genesis 1:31)  The Word does not simply say, "It was good."  It says, "It was very good."  It is hard to imagine these words being spoken by a God who knew at the outset that a part of His creation was tainted by the power of evil.   

We have missed something very important by buying into the word that we were born to sin when, in fact, we were born to be holy as our Creator is holy.  Certainly, something has gone wrong.  We have forgotten our roots are in a Garden.  We have lost touch with who we were created to be.  We have submitted ourselves to a power subject to the power of God instead of submitting ourselves to the God who has all the power in the universe.  Never think holiness is impossible.  We were created for holy living, not sinful living.

44 Words

My high school English teacher often marked our run-on sentences with her red pen.  She was trying to teach us that good writing does not require unending sentences, but simple ones.  Anyone who reads much of what I write knows that I sometimes stray from her directive to write simple sentences.  The Apostle Peter must have slept though class the day the warning went out about run-on sentences.  Sometimes the Biblical writers seem to have a hard time knowing where to put a period.  One of the rewarding moments in reading the Word is unlayering some of those unwieldy sentences.    

Verses 8 and 9 of the first chapter of I Peter is composed of one sentence of 44 words.  While he may not have broken my personal record, he certainly has a powerful word to offer the believers in the church.  "Although you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him, and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls." Wow!  It is like he started praising God for a blessing he was seeing in the church and became so caught up in it, he could not find a way to stop!   Peter was writing to Christians who were being persecuted.  Their faith was noteworthy.

They were not in danger of losing their right to worship, but their lives.  Peter was doing several things with this long sentence.  He was encouraging them to hang in there as faithful disciples of Jesus.  He was applauding them for the spirit in which they were standing in their faith.  And, he was reminding them that the important outcome of their faith was not a life empty of difficulty and danger, but one which was securing the salvation of their souls.  A modern rendering of Matthew10:28 reads, “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul.“ What an assurance: "in Christ we are safe...nothing can keep us from going Home to Him."

An Adopted Child

I have learned over the years not to speak with certainty about the circumstances and choices of others.  What I might do if I wore their shoes and walked their way is not something I can know for sure without actually doing it.  So, I know that I cannot know exactly how it is that some children end up separated from their birth parents and adopted by others.  From the outside it would seem they were born into one family and through adoption born again into still another.  What I have also observed is that once adopted, it is as if they have been born again into the life of the adopted parents, including the inheritance they might leave upon their death.    

Peter's first letter lifts up this kind of relationship as he wrote, "...(God) has given us a new birth...into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith  for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."  (I Peter 1:3, 4-5)  The Apostle Paul also used this relationship to help the Roman Christians to understand what God had done for them.  "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God...you have received a spirit of adoption.  When we cry 'Abba! Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ..." (Romans 8:14-17)   

You and I know the circumstances of our life before we encountered Christ, heard the call to follow, and responded to God's act of grace with faith.  It marked a new beginning which is often described as a new birth since it was like being born into something so new we felt like a new person.  The plan of God has within it a gift of grace that enables us to know we have been brought into a new family, adopted into a new family, the family of God, and as a member of that family spiritual blessings come to us like a rich inheritance.

The Blessing of the Father

Some words are meant to be read and then read again, but aloud.  Some words require not just the eyes, but the ears as well.  Some words read like music, or high praise, or something akin to angelic sounds.  Such a word comes early in the Apostle Peter's letter to the church.  "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 the dead..."  (I Peter1:3)  Right away Peter points those who read his words to the One who is responsible for all the glorious and mysterious truths he is about to proclaim.  He takes away any reason for wondering who is responsible.  

The giver of the wonderful life giving spiritual gifts is God.    What is given is a new birth, but it is not a new birth pointing toward an event in the past, but one which points toward the new which is constantly unfolding because resurrection power has been unleashed in the world.  Because of the defeated cross and the empty tomb, we are born into hope.  There are blessings for us which are too full for words and too rich with spiritual power for us to get our minds around them.   

The Apostle Paul would write another stanza to this hymn of praise Peter is shouting forth as he wrote to the Ephesian Christians, "Remember...you were at that time without Christ...having no hope and without God in the world...But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ...So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and members of the household of God..." (Ephesians 2:11-19)  In a similar vein Peter speaks of the way we have been born into something new, "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people...(I Peter 2:19)  Such is the life into which we have been born through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  "Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ."

A Prayer for the 4th

"Lord, we live so far from the Garden, we have forgotten the smell of its freshness and we no longer remember its peace.  Our leaders are too eager to wave the sword and too slow to offer the olive branch.  Everything around us seems so full of conflict and chaos.  The world You created and called good is afflicted with wars and injustice and suffering.  We have forgotten how to live in Your presence and we have forgotten how to live with one another.  Lord, have mercy.  Lord, forgive us.  Help us, Lord, to see a different path and give us the courage to walk it.

Lord, we ask for You to raise up leaders who are different than so many of the ones who stand in those places today.  Raise up leaders who want to serve instead of being served.  Raise up leaders who know they cannot do what needs to be done alone and then make them unafraid to ask for help from You.  Raise up leaders who know they are a cog in the wheel and not the wheel.  Raise up leaders who will work for peace, and justice, and equality for all.

Lord. we are thankful on this day to be a part of the creation You have put in place and we are thankful for the country in which we live.  We confess our nation does not have an unblemished past, nor does it have a perfect present,  but it is where You have put us.  It is our home and we pray for its protection, its future, and that it would live according to the potential it has to be an advocate for what is good for all who live on this earth, even our enemies.  Forgive us, Lord, for those things we have done to disappoint.  Have mercy upon us for not doing better.  Guide us, Lord, that we might be the people You envisioned when You called us into being.  In the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit we pray.  Amen."

The Great Fisherman

When we read the Apostle Peter's letter to the church, it is hard to remember that he was an uneducated fisherman.  While his letter certainly shows evidence of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it is also a writing which bears the mark of the experiences that are a part of his life.  Perhaps, this is true of all writers.  What is written has a way of being filtered and shaped by past experiences and this is as true of the Apostle Peter as it is of any writer.  As we read Peter's epistle we cannot help but remember those things which shaped him.    

The first and most important thing which shaped Peter was his commitment to follow Jesus.  Andrew brought Peter, his brother, to Jesus and once Peter encountered Jesus, he was never the same.  From that moment he belonged to Jesus, lock, stock, and barrel.  Whenever we read Peter's letter, we know we are reading someone who was sold out to Jesus.  Later as we see him standing in the fiery wake of Pentecost, we see a man who had lost his wavering spirit.  He stood and preached to those gathered there with an unparalleled boldness.  Of course, one of the life changing moments of Peter was his visit to Cornelius in Caesarea where the Holy Spirit showed him that God showed no partiality.  There he learned that Jesus Christ was, indeed, Lord of all.  (Acts 10:1-36)     

Peter was a man of unwavering faith.  He was a man who stood boldly for Jesus.  He was a man who was open to the shaping influence of the Holy Spirit.  This was the man who wrote the letter to the church.  This, too, tells us something very important about this one who introduced himself as an apostle of Christ.  When Jesus called that fisherman to be a follower, He surely saw not just the man Peter was as he stood there with the smell of fish about him, but also the man who had the potential within him to be the great fisherman of the church.

The Good Word

There is more to this man who introduced himself as "an apostle of Jesus Christ," (I Peter 1:1) than we might see at first glance.  The term apostle causes us to envision a super saint, but super saints are just folks like you and me who have allowed the Holy Spirit to sand smooth more of the rough edges.  Peter did not just show up one day to be called the Rock of the Church, or to assume the mantle and authority of an apostle.  It took more than a small measure of work to get him ready for what Jesus was calling him to do.   

When Jesus invited Peter to follow Him, He must have known Peter was going to be a handful.    Peter had a habit of falling asleep when he should have been awake. (Luke 9:32, 22:45)   He was the one whose intentions raced ahead of what he would actually do.  "Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you." (Matthew 26:35)  However, we know the rest of the story.  On the night of Judas' betrayal of Jesus, Peter, too, denied the One to whom he declared such loyalty and love.  Peter was well acquainted with the double mindedness of the heart.  He knew about failure, remorse, deep regret, repentance, and the grace and mercy of Jesus.     

Peter did not write his letter to the church as one who was detached from the world, but as one who knew all too well the power the world could have over people like him.  What he also knew was the power of forgiveness for he was touched by it one morning as he and Jesus walked along the shore after breakfast.  It is no wonder that this Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ would write to those souls entrusted to him, "You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring Word of God."  (I Peter 1:23)  As were they, so are we. 

An Amazing Choice

It is amazing that Jesus would have chosen Simon Peter to be the foundational rock of the Church.  It was not that Jesus was appointing Peter to be the chief disciple when He ascended into Heaven, but that He appointed Him to be the Rock of the Church which would be blown into existence by the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, spread into all the known world of his day, and gather up such steam, or maybe holy wind, that it would be launched into the centuries still to come.   It was an incredible task.  It was something which we would say required incredible and exceptional leadership and Jesus chose a fisherman.   

Reading the letter Peter wrote to the church makes us aware that Jesus must have seen something in Peter that we would have missed for there he is in the very first verse of the epistle bearing his name declaring himself to be "an apostle of Jesus Christ."  (I Peter 1:1)  It was surely not a title Peter wore on some pin stuck to his chest, nor did his clothing speak of anything but the common man he thought of himself as being.  Somehow Peter caught hold of the reality that he was indeed a chosen one, a leader of a new people who belonged to God.  He was a disciple.  He was an apostle. 

To remember the life Peter shared with Jesus certainly gives insight into why Jesus would have chosen this fisherman to be the Rock of the Church which would come into existence as a part of the divine plan fulfilled by His journey to the cross and His departure from the empty tomb.  When Jesus looked at Peter, He did not see him as Peter saw himself, or as others saw him.  He looked at Peter's heart and saw one who could be useful for the work of the Kingdom of God.  He did not see a fisherman, but a servant and a man willing to forsake everything to follow the call which was upon his life.  It was amazing that Jesus would choose Peter.  It is even more amazing that He chooses you and me. 

A Church Triumphant

My Bible reading discipline has taken me to I Peter.  I remember other reads along the way.  I remember it is a letter to a church facing persecution.  One of my favorite verses is found in the second chapter.  "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.  Once you were no people, but now you are God's people..." (I Peter 1:9)   It is such a  powerful Word!  Anyone who thinks they are of no value should read this Word daily.   

What I know is that there is much more than just this single Word which blesses me in so many ways.  It is a Word that speaks of who I am in the eyes of God.  Secondly, it speaks of His purpose in blessing me as He has.  It is a Word which speak of belonging and being a  part of something which transcends any matter I might pursue.  As I consider some of the obvious truths being proclaimed in these few words, I find myself eager to read and discover more of the truths which the Spirit has put inside this small letter from the Apostle Peter.  

It is not a long letter.  Neither is it a letter which requires a theological dictionary as might be the case for some of us when we read Paul's letter to the Romans.  There are a number of reasons for reading this letter in these days, but one of the things which we will surely hear as we read it is that God is going to prevail against any group or anything which is perceived to be an antagonist to His church.  It is good to remember that there is nothing we, or someone like us, can do to destroy God's Church.  It is here.  It is here to stay!  It is here to be triumphant and it will!