Wednesday after Invocavit + 1 Peter 1:1-25

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

St. Peter writes to “the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1:1) to encourage them to live their lives as what they truly are. What are they? They are pilgrims, but perhaps the word ‘refugees’ strikes a more familiar tone in our ears. These refugees haven’t cross a border. They’re not living in a nation not their own. They are Christians, scattered across the provinces in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. They are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,” (1:2) meaning that God has chosen them from eternity for salvation. They are sanctified in the Spirit, that is, they have been given faith to believe the gospel. They have been set apart “for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,” (1:2) which means they obey, or hear, the gospel. By faith they are sprinkled with the blood of Jesus and cleansed from all their sins. They are God’s elect, His sanctified, and His obedient ones and that’s what makes the refugees in this sinful world. Abraham is their prototype, for “by faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:9-10). They are in the world but not of the world.

This is the status of all the baptized who trust Christ for their salvation. You are pilgrims in this world. You are refugees. You live in this world but you are not of this world. You have different customs and different beliefs. Like your father Abraham, you live in this world as if in a foreign country. As Abraham dwelled in tents, temporary and moveable structures, you know that this life is transitory and that there is something better after it. As Abraham waited for the city with foundations whose builder and maker is God, so too you await something far greater than this sinful, broken earthly city. You await an inheritance. Peter says that God the Father “has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1:4). God has begotten you again. This is baptism, of which Christ says, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). This is faith in the Gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected which makes you alive so that you are reborn as sons of God. And sons of God look forward to receiving their inheritance. Peter calls your inheritance “incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1:4). It is not something here in this life which moth and rust can destroy and thieves can break in a steal. It is reserved in heaven for you, where neither moth, rust, nor thief can deprive you of it. Like father Abraham, you live in this world as a stranger, pilgrim, and sojourner, looking forward to your inheritance, everlasting life in eternal happiness in the presence of our Trine God.

Living as a refugee in this sinful world isn’t easy. There are trials and hardships, sufferings and persecutions, especially from the world which hates Christ and ridicules our promised inheritance. But your trials, which come upon you because you live in the world but are not of the world, shouldn’t dismay you. Peter tells you, “Rejoice greatly, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials” (1:6). St. James tells us to reject in our trials because they strengthen our faith. But St. Peter tells us that our trials do what fire does to gold. As fire tests gold to prove that it’s really gold, so trials prove our faith and show us, and others, that our faith is genuine. Hardships also remind us that we are refugees who look for our inheritance elsewhere.

Because you believe the Gospel of the resurrection of Christ, because you believe that as He lives eternally, incorruptible and undefiled, and because you have this living hope of a better country, Peter exhorts you to live accordingly. Not only do you suffer patiently, but you are to “gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully on the grace that is brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:13). In the ancient near east, long robes were the standard garment. When you were confronted with a strenuous tasks, like running or labor, you would pull up your garment and tuck it into your belt so that it wouldn’t be in your way. Peter tells you that in this life you are to gird the loins of your mind and be sober. The life of a refugee in the sinful world is strenuous. The devil never sleeps and is always looking for ways to entice you into sin. The wicked world is constantly alluring you to renounce your heavenly citizenship and become a citizen of the world. It wants you to rest your hope on the things of this life. It wants you to think that the pleasures and comforts and rewards of this life are the highest good rather than the Triune God. To see these temptations and fight them is labor, so Peter tells you to gird the loins of your mind, both preparing your soul for temptation and fighting it when it comes.

You are to do this “as obedient children, not comforting yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance” (1:14). You are now sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26). You have been begotten to a living hope. You have been “born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which abides forever” (1:23). You are children of God, heirs of all the blessings of your heavenly country. And as an earthly father expects his children to be obedient to him, so God the heavenly Father desires that His baptized children render Him true obedience as well. We are to cast aside our sins and former lusts. Those are how children of the world behave. They are children of the devil and so obey him with their lusts and vices. But you are children of the one who has said, “Be holy, for I am holy” (1:16). The holiness He wants is life living according to the Ten Commandments, abstaining from sin and loving our neighbor. In this you should “conduct yourselves through the time of your stay here in fear” (1:17). He doesn’t mean we are to doubt God’s grace. God wants you to be certain of His promises.  It’s not fear that we might not be in God’s grace. It is the holy fear which is afraid of insulting God with our sins. It is the fear which acknowledges that we could fall from grace if we neglect His means of grace. This fear isn’t the opposite of faith. It’s the opposite of false security.

All of this: living as refugees in the sinful world, enduring trials with patience, girding the loins of your mind, and living as obedient children, all of this comes from faith in the Gospel. For you know “that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1:18-19). You were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Jesus, the blood of God Himself in human flesh. Your inheritance is “incorruptible and unfading, reserved for you in heaven” (1:4). Therefore flee from the sins that corrupt and defile your souls, the sins which the world revels and rejoices, and daily receive the incorruptible seed of the Word, the Gospel, and treasure that, for it tells you each day of the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you, so that by His holy, innocent, precious blood your sins are forgiven and you are children of God, not of this world.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.