Radical Discipleship - Balance
AAs we think about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, particularly a radical disciple, one of the questions we need to ask is who are we meant to be? You see, it’s important to ask that question if you want to know how you should act. Sometimes the way we act determines what sort of person we are. But more often who we are as a person determines how we act, the way we speak, the way we relate to other people.
So who are you as a Christian? In the passage we just read, Peter gives us a series of metaphors to help us think through that question.
Newborn Infants
Jesus told Nicodemus he needed to be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God. That’s the expression we still use isn’t it? We speak of people being born again when they become Christians. And that’s a useful metaphor when you think about how we begin the Christian life. We don’t become Christians with the full understanding of what it all means. We don’t start off with a deep theological understanding of all the complex questions that our faith raises. No we learn slowly and gradually, just like a new born child.
So how are we to grow as Christians? Peter’s answer is that we should long for the pure spiritual milk, that is, first of all, the milk of the word of God.
And he says we should long for it, crave it, the way an infant screams if its mother is too slow in feeding it, if indeed you’ve tasted how good God is.
Stones
Then he turns to the image of us as living stones, stones that are being built into a majestic cathedral for the worship of God. But it isn’t just that the building is beautiful, it’s also that it’s strong because it’s held together by Jesus Christ who’s the cornerstone. One of its strengths is that whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. I expect you’ve heard or read about the furore going around about the way Shane Warne suggested the Australian Cricketers would be drinking hard for the next week after winning the World Cup. Steve Smith was clearly embarrassed by it and rightly so. That bit of foolish talk caused them to be shamed when they should have been being praised. But there’s nothing that will cause us shame if we’re faithfully following Jesus.
The strength of this building is dependent on the way we bind together. Remember, we’re living stones. That is the bond that holds the building together isn’t some external glue, it’s actually inherent in who we are, God’s people bound together by God’s Spirit. That’s why God is so hard on those who would break the church apart. But even if someone does try to break the church apart it’s still God’s Church and he’ll keep it strong.
Jesus’ comment was that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Why? Because it’s his church. And it continues to grow.
And notice how we get to be part of this church. He says “4Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and 5like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.” There are two actions there aren’t there? First come to him. That may seem obvious, but there are plenty of people who stand around the edges never quite deciding to come to Jesus. If you’re one of those then you need to decide, and come to him. And then there’s the other phrase – let yourselves be built into a spiritual house. Again, it’s possible to come to Jesus to make him your Lord and saviour but never really to let yourself be built into the house that’s his church; never opening yourself up to others; perhaps never being willing to trust others enough to let down your defences.
Yet we belong to each other the ways the bricks in a building belong to each other and depend on each other to stick together. If we’re not there hanging on to each other we’ll end up like one of those wooden towers in a Janga game where half the bricks have been removed until eventually the whole structure falls down.
It seems to me we have two options. We can be like those people in Jesus day who stumbled over him because they didn’t like what he was saying or we can let ourselves be built into his church, holding on to him as our foundation, our cornerstone, who’ll keep us steady. This is why the third line of our mission statement is to Build Community to reflect God’s Love. We want to be a church where God’s love cements us together into a structure that can’t be shaken.
Priests
Well if we’re like newborn babes and living stones, we’re also to consider ourselves priests. He says we’re both a holy priesthood and a royal priesthood. We Anglicans have a slight problem with this idea don’t we. We’ve made the mistake of using the word priest for those who are set aside to lead churches. You see what’s happened is that many years ago someone took the Greek word for elder, Presbyter, and shortened it into our word Priest. So when we come to a passage like this we can be a bit confused.
But let’s think about what the priest did in the Old Testament. First of all it was the priest who took the people’s sacrifices and offered them to God. The most significant example of this was on the Day of Atonement when the High Priest, and only the High Priest, would go into the Holy of Holies and offer a sacrifice for his own sins, then he’d come out and lay hands on a young goat and send it off into the desert, symbolically carrying the sins of the nation.
Well, as we saw a few weeks ago, that role is now redundant. Jesus has sacrificed himself for our sins, once and for all. We all have access to God. As Hebrews 10 says: “19we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh).” (Hebrews 10:19-20)
So what’s left for us as priests to do? Well, we’re all able to offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God. We’re able to worship him together. But there was one other role that the priest had and that was to speak God’s words to the people. And do you see what Peter says here: “[You’re] a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” We’re God’s priests to a world that doesn’t know him. Our calling is to proclaim his mighty acts.
God’s People
That of course is tied up with us being not just a royal priesthood but a holy nation, God’s own people. Peter is actually using a term that was used of the people of Israel during the exodus. There God refers to them as his precious possession, as a nation set apart from all the other nations on earth. And now we take on that mantle. So why has he chosen us? Is there favouritism going on here? Are we so much better than the other 80% of the population? Or is there some other reason to choose out a special people? Well as you read your Old Testament you discover that the reason God has chosen a people for himself is because he has a special mission for them. They’re to be his witnesses. They’re to present to the rest of the world what a wonderful thing it is to be one of God’s people. In the Old Testament they were told they were to be a light to bring light to the nations. Zechariah tells of a time when people of other nations will hold on to the clothes of God’s people as they follow them to God’s promised land, hanging on to make sure they don’t miss out.
And that’s still our task. We’re to proclaim the mighty acts of him who called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.
Think back to the first of these metaphors. We’re to long for spiritual milk because we’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good. What do you want to do when you’ve been to a great restaurant or a great coffee shop or a great holiday location? You want to tell people about it don’t you? Well why, if we’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good, aren’t we longing to declare his mighty acts to others? How can we keep his blessings to ourselves?
Foreigners
So, we’re newborn infants, living stones, holy priests and God’s own people. And Peter has two more images to present.
He says “11Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.” He describes them like this, not just because they were literally exiles from Israel, scattered across the Roman Empire, but because it describes how they are spiritually.
Thinking back to the first metaphor, we’re like new born infants because we’ve been born again. And we’ve been born again, not into this world but into the spiritual reality of God’s world. Our citizenship has been changed. This world is no longer our home. It’s as though we’ve been naturalised into God’s kingdom. We may still live in this world but we’re now citizens of the world to come; and as citizens of the world to come the rules of behaviour have changed.
If you think about it, what Warney said after the cricket wasn’t that unusual. He wasn’t suggesting anything that the majority of Australians might not have done in their place. Getting plastered on a Friday night is almost expected in some circles isn’t it? I imagine there’d be a high proportion of our population who’d have no problem with people celebrating by drinking all night. Even drugs of various sorts seem to be taken for granted by some groups. I remember a friend of my son who was helping him move house one day seeing the sticker on the back of a budget truck that said drugs aren’t recreational. Well, his response was “Of course they are!”
We live in a world where God’s standards are more and more being ignored. But Peter urges us as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. If we’re citizens of another country we don’t need to behave like those from this country. Instead, and this comes back to our proclamation of God’s goodness, he says “12Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.”
You know, don’t you, that one of the major ways people avoid the demands of the gospel is by pointing to the terrible things that Christians have done in the past. And even if we haven’t done anything terrible, we have people like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Fry and their disciples making fun of Christians for believing this strange stuff about miracles and resurrection and angels. But Peter says the way to silence those critics is by exemplary behaviour. How can they malign you if your behaviour stands out as good and honourable.
It’s interesting, if you talk to the people here who’ve been teaching CRE you’ll find that the schools we’re in don’t have any problem with us being there. In fact I get the impression that they’re mostly keen for us to keep coming. Why? Because they see us as trustworthy, as honourable, as good role models for the students.
Servants
Finally he suggests that we should see ourselves as honourable servants. Even as foreigners we should behave as though we’re good citizens, obeying those in authority, doing the right thing, being models to others of godly living so we silence their ignorant and foolish talk.
It sounds back to front but he says as servants of God we’re to live as free people. How does that work? How can we be servants yet be free? This is the amazing thing about the gospel isn’t it? When we become Christians we give our lives over entirely to God’s service. We pledge ourselves to Jesus Christ as the Lord of our lives. And what does he do in return? He sets us free from everything that binds us, everything that separates us from God. Do you have that sense of liberation from things that hold you down? That should be result of being a follower of Jesus. If we’re in Christ Jesus we’re free. Of course some people take this idea of being set free but go too far with it. They think that their freedom has no bounds, a bit like the popular approach of the 60s: “If it feels good do it.” But Peter says don’t use your freedom as a pretext for evil. Jesus has set us free, but we’re set free to serve God. We’ve been rescued from the realm of Satan to live freely under God’s rule. So evil is out of bounds. Instead we’re to live honourable lives, honouring those in our community who deserve honour, and loving those who are part of the family of believers.
Balance
So how do we deal with this very wide ranging set of metaphors? If you think about the 6 metaphors he’s used you’ll see that they all contribute to a balanced and healthy Christian life, hence our sermon title.
You’ll also see that there are three pairs of images that each provide a balance:
- New born infants – called to growth
- Living Stones – called to fellowship
- Holy Priests – called to worship
- God’s own People – called to witness
- Foreigners – called to holiness
- Servants of God – called to citizenship
We’re at the same time individuals with our own interests, needs and gifts, and part of a larger corporate entity, which requires us surrendering our individuality to strengthen the building, or to grow the body.
As priests we’re called to worship God, but at the same time we’re to be his witnesses in the world, demonstrating by our life as his people that the gospel is true, that God’s way works best.
And of course we’re called to hold in tension the fact that we’re pilgrims on a journey yet are fully citizens in God’s kingdom already. It’s important that we hold the balance in each pairing, not favouring one over another. If we fail to do that we’re probably going to get it wrong.
It won’t always be easy to maintain that balance but we can work together to encourage one another to grow in our faith in Jesus both individually and corporately, to worship God as his priests while witnessing to the world as his people, and to live as aliens and exiles yet always holding fast to our citizenship in God’s kingdom.