Easter 6
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence....
-- 1 Peter 3:15-16
Learning to live in a society that is at best skeptical and at worst hostile to your way of life is difficult. The author of 1 Peter is writing to a church whose members live as resident aliens in a foreign country. They are different from their neighbors and therefore easily the victim of suspicion and fear. Apparently hope was one of their distinguishing characteristics. Can you be too hopeful in a manner that upsets your more fearful neighbors? "Do not fear what they fear," Peter advises, "and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord." Given the amount of attention that 1 Peter devoted to how you should respond to unjust treatment, it would seem that the Christians may have been the object of their neighbor's hostility frequently. How should Christians respond to hostility, slander, and unjust treatment? "Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame."
While Christians are encouraged not to retaliate, they are not asked to play victim. Rather their response is to be modeled after Christ. "For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God." Christ did not play the role of victim but rather sought by his response to benefit others, even those who were mistreating him. The challenge for our church is twofold. First, is there any evidence that our behavior is so strikingly distinct from the surrounding community that anyone would have reason to become upset with us? If surveys are correct, there does not seem to be much difference between Christians and non-Christians in their social behavior. Second, how are we to react when we are treated unjustly? Is our response to such mistreatment any different from other people in society? If the answer to both of these questions is that there is no difference, then the question becomes what does it mean to declare Jesus Christ as Lord?
-- 1 Peter 3:15-16
Learning to live in a society that is at best skeptical and at worst hostile to your way of life is difficult. The author of 1 Peter is writing to a church whose members live as resident aliens in a foreign country. They are different from their neighbors and therefore easily the victim of suspicion and fear. Apparently hope was one of their distinguishing characteristics. Can you be too hopeful in a manner that upsets your more fearful neighbors? "Do not fear what they fear," Peter advises, "and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord." Given the amount of attention that 1 Peter devoted to how you should respond to unjust treatment, it would seem that the Christians may have been the object of their neighbor's hostility frequently. How should Christians respond to hostility, slander, and unjust treatment? "Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame."
While Christians are encouraged not to retaliate, they are not asked to play victim. Rather their response is to be modeled after Christ. "For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God." Christ did not play the role of victim but rather sought by his response to benefit others, even those who were mistreating him. The challenge for our church is twofold. First, is there any evidence that our behavior is so strikingly distinct from the surrounding community that anyone would have reason to become upset with us? If surveys are correct, there does not seem to be much difference between Christians and non-Christians in their social behavior. Second, how are we to react when we are treated unjustly? Is our response to such mistreatment any different from other people in society? If the answer to both of these questions is that there is no difference, then the question becomes what does it mean to declare Jesus Christ as Lord?
