How to Hope
1 Peter 3:13-22
This epistle was addressed to the saints (the church) scattered across what we know as Asia Minor. It contains some of the most difficult passages in the newer testament to understand. It is upon this passage that the Apostles Creed developed the statement that Jesus descended to hell before ascending to heaven. Some denominations would omit that phrase from later versions of the Creed over the idea of Jesus in hell. The Christology that some have developed as a result of their understanding of this epistle can become quite convoluted and strange. Some have used these verses as “proof” that non-baptized persons are excluded from God’s grace and presence. I would say that holding that assertion in the larger context of scripture and the Christian understanding of grace makes for convoluted theology. In this line of thought, baptism becomes magical and so the mode and ritual associated with it become almost an incantation.
Who will harm you if you are doing good? What a strange question? Can you imagine us asking that question to the family of the girl sitting in her dining room doing homework over on Chicago Avenue when a stray bullet from a gang banger comes through the wall killing her? Can you imagine asking the state trooper who is struck by a passing truck as he assists a stranded motorist with a flat tire?
On the surface this question seems naïve at best. I think what the writer is getting at is that bad things can happen at any time and wouldn’t you rather choose to be living your life in a way that produces good things? The conclusion is that even if something bad happens to us, our lives still have meaning.
If we read these verses in their whole, we get a larger understanding of what the author was trying to get at. The people addressed in this epistle are scattered, frightened, suffering and feeling lost. They desperately want to know how to hold on to their hope. We know something about that, don’t we? Sometimes holding on to hope can be tenuous.
The key is not to allow fear to be our decision-maker. Fear is a decision. Fear is a choice. Granted, it can become a knee-jerk reaction that seems to have a mind of its own but ultimately we choose how we respond to the challenges life presents us. Most of us are here because we want to choose faith but we’re not always good at it and we’re not always clear why.
Os Guiness writes about this in the book, Unspeakable: Facing Up to the Challenge of Evil:
“Our challenge today is not to resort to faith as a crutch because reason has stumbled, but rather to acknowledge that reason, in its long arduous search, has come up short and that where it has stopped it has pointed beyond itself to answers that only faith can fulfill. In the face of the horror of the unspeakable, only such faith can provide the best truths to come to terms with evil, the highest courage to resist evil, the deepest love to care for those caught in its toils, and the profoundest hope of the prospect of a world beyond evil, beyond hatred, beyond oppression, and even beyond tears.
As ever, the choice is ours and so also will be the consequences.”
Fear is a choice. Faith is a choice. There are things that happen in life that sometimes nudge us one way or the other, but ultimately we choose. Even not making a choice plays out as choosing fear.
The epistle of First Peter could be read as a “how to” primer for learning how to live with hope. The church this letter was sent to was not in a good place spiritually, politically or geographically. There was real distress going on in people’s lives. First Peter encouraged them to re-frame their sense of difficulty not simply as a bad thing – something to be avoided or feared – but as an opportunity to demonstrate hope. Notice, there was nothing in this passage that instructed people to win some kind of cultural argument. Rather we are encouraged to be faithful in the midst of a sometimes hostile culture – no matter from where the hostility may come. Instead, First Peter tells us, let the Presence of God in our lives be the determining factor in our decisions.
What things can we do that help us more readily choose faith rather than fear and therefore live as people who know hope?
Let love be your motivation.
The community to which First Peter was addressed wanted to define how they were different because of their faith. The clear answer we see is to let love be our motivation. When we are motivated by wanting the best for another (definition of love) then we begin to see them through the lens of love. Their actions may be distressing or frightening but love doesn’t let that deter our resolve. It isn’t always easy. I’m the first to admit. When emotions run high – when anger or shame or blame is used as a weapon – that lens of love can seem pretty fragile. But think about it. Does any other lens make better sense? Do you want to see the world around you through the lens of anger? Do you always want to filter information through shame? Fear? Pain? Sure, any of those can be the default setting on our defense mechanism, but is that how we want it to be? Let love be your motivation.
Repay evil by blessing.
We have talked a great deal around here over the last year about this being our call as a church to recognize we are blessed and then in turn bless our world. As Jesus told us, “do you only bless those who bless you, or love those who love you, then you’re not doing anything different than others. I say to love your enemies, do good to those who abuse you, bless those who intend evil.” This was one of those times when Jesus is often seen by the church as being too much of a liberal! Resist the temptation to allow someone else to determine how you choose to live. They may hate. We will bless. They may belittle. We will bless. They may push your buttons, set your triggers a spinning and know just how to get your goat. We will bless. It’s not about being polyanna. It’s about setting yourself free from someone else’s agenda. AND it’s about not allowing someone else to steal your hope.
Choose faith.
The community that our scripture was written to had good reason to feel isolated and afraid. Their world was changing fast and it was not always a safe place. Our epistle reading quotes Isaiah 8:2 when it says, “Do not fear what they fear.” What do people in general fear most? We fear change. We fear loss. We fear what we don’t understand. And what happens when we fear these things? Violence, hate, resistance, digging in our heels, stubbornness. Living in faith means that we recognize that we can’t always control circumstances or people around us, but we trust a Presence that is greater than ourselves and greater than that which is in the world.
So we choose to let love be our motivator. We choose to bless in the face of evil. We choose faith because we are a people who know hope.
Sources:
www.homileticsonline.com eHowHope, April 2008.
Os Guiness, Unspeakable: Facing Up to the Challenge of Evil. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2005, 238.