A Connected People - July 10, 2022
Deborah Laforet
1 Peter 1:1-9, 13-16, 22
A Connected People
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
It’s difficult for us to imagine a world where the name Jesus isn’t known by everyone, world-wide. It’s hard for us to imagine a world where the word, ‘Christian,’ isn’t commonly known. It’s hard for us to imagine a world where people risk their lives when they choose to be baptized, where people are persecuted for rejecting household gods in order to follow Jesus. This world is foreign to us, which is why a letter like the one we heard today can be so difficult for us to comprehend.
The author of this letter was probably writing about 70 years after the death of Jesus. Some people think it was Peter, the disciple of Jesus, who wrote this letter, but it was written many years after Peter died and, at that time, it was common practice to write letters in the name of highly regarded teachers. It’s why there is so much debate around some of Paul’s letters, with many historians debating whether some of them were all actually written by Paul.
This letter would have been written after Rome’s destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD, and it was probably written from Rome. The end of the letter contains greetings from “Babylon,” which was a name used by both Jewish and Christian people for Rome, as Babylon had also destroyed the temple in 586 BCE. Rome was the new “Babylon.”
This letter was a circular letter, meaning it wasn’t sent to just one community. It was meant to go to several, specifically those in what is modern day Turkey. (Show map.)
This letter is being sent to reassure people who are being persecuted for their new found faith. This letter is only one of two places where we find the word, ‘Christian,” the other place being the Acts of the Apostles (1 Peter 4:16 and Acts 11:26 and 26:28). This letter was written to people who had been Gentiles and converted to Christianity, meaning they didn’t start Jewish.
Lastly, this is a letter that can be seen as problematic for today’s readers. In this letter, we read phrases like, “Slaves, be subject to your masters with all respect...For it is a commendable thing if, being aware of God, a person endures pain while suffering unjustly,” and “Wives, in the same way, be subject to your husbands...Do not adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing; rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God’s sight.” At that time, it may have been the author’s way of telling people to keep themselves safe, to accommodate and be a good role model through displays of patience, endurance, and determination, but nowadays, coming from Christians with power and authority, these passages sound oppressive, unjust, and just wrong.
So what can this letter tell us today? Can we find relevance to our context? We’ll dig into this letter today, next week, and a third time in August. Today, I want to talk about the way these followers of Christ, spread out through the Mediterranean, were connected.
Many of you know that we have eight United churches in Oakville. I actually have no idea how many churches are in Oakville. I quick Google search brought up 20. Are these 20 churches connected? Are they eight United churches connected. They are all Christian churches. They all celebrate baptisms and communion. They all share stories from the gospel about Jesus. So, they are connected in what they share in common but are they connected through relationships? Do they share their celebrations and trials? Do they share their stories of struggle? Do they share in ministry, in work with the community?
There was a time when churches were bursting at the seams with people and resources. There were probably more than 20 churches and they were all independent of each other. They didn’t need one another. Times have changed though, and we do now need one another, but we don’t act as if we do. We still want our independence. We still want to relive those glory days when we could each afford staff teams, had rooms full of children and youth, and had lots of volunteers to do the work that needed doing.
The Christian community back in the first century was growing but they were very few. They were also being persecuted for their faith. They needed one another to endure, to grow in their faith, to know they weren’t alone. Now, especially in North America and Western Europe, the Christian community is shrinking. Christians became persecutors of others, sometimes persecutors of other faiths. As we become aware of our past wrongs and work towards reconciliation, and as our numbers go from bursting to struggling to fill pews, we need one another.
It’s not that we didn’t before. We have always been called to one in Christ, but now, just like the communities from the first century, we need our siblings in faith to endure, to grow in our faith, and to know that we are not alone.
Recently, I received an email from the minister at St. John’s United, in downtown Oakville. She is planning her retirement for 2023. She and the chair of the board at St. John’s thought this might be a good time to gather ministers and chairs of boards from the other United churches in Oakville. So Kent and I will be joining this group, and we have no idea what we will talk about, what we will hear, and what may come out of it. Maybe nothing. Since the pandemic though, I’m seeing more communication between churches - not all of them - but I think many churches are realizing that we need to build up these relationships, share our common and unique stories, and share in the work that our community needs so desperately from our churches.
This morning we celebrated two baptisms. Baptisms are one way families celebrate new life and give thanks to God for the blessing of this new life. Baptism is also a way for families to celebrate and give thanks with their faith community. Parents, grandparents, and other family members will know that they do not raise this child alone and that it is our responsibility as well to walk alongside these these little ones as we grow in faith together, and so that they and we know we are not alone, and that God’s promise continues, in life, in death, in joy, in struggle, and in the every day moments of our lives. We feel this through connection, through connecting our lives with the lives of others.
The author of 1 Peter states, “Be holy in everything you do, since it is the Holy One who has called you - as scripture says, ‘You will be holy, for I am holy.’” (1:16) And, “By obedience to truth you have purified yourselves for a genuine love of your brothers and sisters. Therefore love one another constantly from the heart.” (1:22)
We are holy. We are called. We are called to a genuine love for our sisters and brothers, our siblings in faith, for all life, all of God’s creation. From the heart, we love one another, but if we aren’t connected, we aren’t able to share that love. We know from the pandemic how important connection is to help us feel loved. When we disconnect, we feel lonely; we feel untethered; we feel ambivalent; we feel less valued; we feel unloved. I truly believe that one of the reasons for rising mental illness is our disconnection from one another and from creation.
Like those churches from the first century, may we be aware of one another’s trials and tribulations. May we reach out and offer comfort and assurance. Together, may we wrestle with what the worlds needs from us, and may we work together to build God’s kin-dom, to create a world of justice and mercy, and to help mend the brokenness and bring peace. Together, with God, our Creator, Jesus, our teacher, and the Spirit as our inspiration, may we ‘love one another constantly from the heart,’ and through our connectedness, spread that love across the earth. May it be so. Amen.