( 1 Peter 3:8-17 ) - [ Deutsch ]
Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
Let us pray.
Your word moves our hearts
Your word heals our bodies ans souls
Your word fills our hearts with joy
Your word gives consolation and blessedness.
Dear God bless your word today. Your word is a lamp for our feet and a light on our way.
Amen.
Dear Congregation,
The text I have read out to you contains a lot. It is full of warnings and directives for a Christian life. It is too much to process in one go. I was unsure about what the central theme of the text is. Each verse has its own theme.
Be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.
But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
On these four verses one can write four different sermons. In fact a sermon writing aid suggests that you choose only one or two of these verses and write a sermon on it. There are too many thoughts in the passage. That is quite a good suggestion. And still, if you think about it there is one theme running through the whole passage. What did the author of Peter's letter want to tell us?
We can imagine the scene of those days: It is some time after the founding of the first congregations. The first persecutions have come to an end. There are no persecutions any more but a lot of enmity and mistrust. The different groups of Christians are small. They are living in a world of pagans in the huge Roman Empire where the Emperor is revered as a God. Many people - Christians too – are treated like slaves. The Christians who try to live life with completely different principles are always under pressure. They do not fit into the world wherein they live and always attract attention. They do not agree with what is happening around them day after day. How must they act in this world? Must they adjust themselves so that they do not attract so much attention? Must they declare a dispute against this evil world? But they are so small and weak. Must they withdraw into their own houses and celebrate their traditional feasts at home and wait for the end of the world. Must they wait for the resurrection of Jesus Christ who will make an end to the evil world outside? How must they behave themselves so that some of the the others will sit up and take notice of this new religion?
When I think about the life of those early Christians then I realize that we have a lot in common with them. Yes, we are not persecuted today. Freedom of religion is protected by the state. Everybody knows about the Christian religion that is now over 2000 years old. And still we live in a world today that differs from the way Christians want to live. Corruption, consumerism, pleasure seeking, criminality, freedom from obligation, relationships, exploitation of the weak, …. there is a long list. We live in a world of multiple religions and multiple cultures. It is not clear what we have in common and what holds us together. Christians of today face exactly the same questions that the early Christians had to face.
Must we adjust ourselves and try not to attract attention? Then we are supporting consumerism and the good life. Believe in God and all will be well. All good news. Is honesty realy so important? And reliability? Other people live a life where they take whatever they can. Why cannot we do the same? Is marriage necessary? Or can two people just live together and call themselves life partners? What constitutes a real Christian way of life?
The second possibility is to declare a dispute with the world. Christians stand up against the decline of values. Christians defend Christian values: against secularism, against worldwide sexual morality, against Islam. In the USA there are “culture wars” : some fight on the barricades against this an others against that. The dispute rages in the social media. But sometimes it rages physically as well.
The third possibility is to withdraw. That has always been a popular possibility. What can a solitary Christian do in this situation? What can we do against criminality? What against injustice? What against evil in whatever form it is? Maybe we can save one soul for the kingdom of God? We can pray for the world. But our responsibility does not go further than that. In the 1980's there were hot debates about the political responsibilities of Christians.
One suggestion was to pray for the government; that is the assignment for Christians. Not more, nor less. Prayer is an important assignment, I agree. But is does look like withdrawal. We withdraw into our safe havens and leave the rest to God. God will solve the problem out there. He will not need the Christians as tools.
Adjust and adapt - Dispute - Withdrawal. These three alternatives are still the only ones we have to face. To find a golden middle course is not easy. The author of the Peter letter does not have a recipe for this question. But he encourages Christians to avoid these three extremes. He encourages Christians to go into the world, to live their lives of faith in God without giving in to the negative values. Christians should stand up against evil. When evil comes across you, you must bear it and not give in to it. Christians should be seen as acting against the values of the world.
Be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it.
What do this mean in the Johannesgemeinde? What do the three words, withdrawal, dispute and adjustment, mean? Which one is the greatest temptation? You know the answer and not I. I would like to give a few examples that I had experienced. Then you can find your own. I would like to start with 'dispute'. A few months ago I received on one of my whats app groups a prayer suggestion for every day. It suggested that every morning a Christian should arm himself internally for the fight against Satan and the evil world. The message was based on a text in the letter to the Ephesians on the armor of God. That is an important text and has it's place. But I ask myself: if Christians start every day by arming themselves against the hostile world, will not every day and every encounter become a fight? Would everybody, especially those who disagree with me, not become an enemy? Do I – figuratively speaking - when I am always armed still have the possibility to encounter another human being who does not think like I do as a human being? Rather than a picture of armor I prefer a picture of backbone. There is something in us that keeps us upright and makes it possible for us to go into the world. Armor, like an exoskeleton of an animal, protects the animal, but when it breaks, the animal is without any protection. A backbone does not protect us against all injuries when we go into a situation. But a backbone picks us up and the injury can heal. Christians need not go into situations with armor on them as long as they know what keeps them together. Our text speaks of it:
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect
Faith and hope form such a backbone that can keep us internally upright and makes it possible to go into situations with love and gentleness even if there is conflict. We will need the armor of God from time to time. But we need not always think of fighting. Always look for peace even when we sometimes come across evil.
Withdrawal also has its worth at the right time and the right situation. We all need that: somewhere where the world is safe; a home where we can close the door and keep the evil world outside. 'Be like-minded' says our text. That is easier when you are surrounded by like-minded people. But can you be a blessing to the world when you never open the door? Christians who are always in withdrawal are like salt that has stayed in the saltpot or the lamp that is under the meal-tub. We sang this morning:'Look at the light' when the children walked out of the church. It is a lovely symbol. No one can be a blessing when they do not risk going out into the world. Yes you can lose but you can also win a lot.
Adjust and adapt. We can and must make changes in our church; we must adapt to new realities. Every generation will have debates about it. There we and those who come after us will need a backbone then. When I know what keeps me upright then I also know how flexible I can be.
My parents were a good example. They loved their German language but they were always open to others. They nurtured a love for the language in us without insisting on us staying German. Of their 10 grandchildren 7 speak good German. There are others who armored their children against other languages. Then the children rebelled against it and now speak no German at all. It was a complete adjustment to the outside against their parents.
There are no easy answers. The church has sometimes made mistakes by adjusting too much. I am convinced that if you give your children and all members of the congregation a good base in faith and a strong backbone then you need not fear to send them out into the world. I think the armor of the text in the letter to the Ephesians is more of a backbone than a coat of armor.
For me the theme in this text is one of blessing: ....repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
Can we go into the world and carry the blessing with us even if we do not know what we are up against? All alone maybe not. But we are not alone. It is God who holds us upright. He who brings the blessing also brings peace.
Amen.