3rd Sunday of Easter.
April 10, 2005
1 Peter 1:13-21.

^1:13Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed.
¹⁴Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance.
¹⁵Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; ¹⁶for it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."
¹⁷If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.

¹⁸You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. ²⁰He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. ²¹Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. (NRS).

Redeemed to be Holy.

  As I asked last week, did the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead make a difference in your life? Now maybe you’re not sure what kind of difference Jesus’ resurrection should make in your life. That’s a very reasonable question. What should be different about our life knowing that Jesus rose from the dead? Well who would know better the difference that Jesus’ resurrection makes than one who abandoned him and denied knowing him? Today God speaks to us through the Apostle Peter and repeats the Good News. We have been redeemed from the consequences of our sins and given the promise of eternal life. Therefore, we are to put all our hope in Christ, live holy lives and fear God.

  My son Micah plays basketball so I have had the privilege of watching quite a few basketball games this winter and spring. At the beginning of the game, at the beginning of the second half, and at the end of each time-out, they all huddle together, jump up and down and yell, “1-2-3 Rockets!” From the sideline it’s kind of amusing. Yet that little action has a very important function. It prepares them physically and emotionally to start the game. It unites them and excites them. And it works! They have had a very good season.

  Peter is doing something very similar. He is stirring us up, rousing us physically and emotionally for a sort of contest. Actually it’s more like a struggle, something he calls the time of your exile or sojourn. He means of course the time of our life on this earth with this body and in these conditions. It is temporary. It is not our permanent life, home or place. We are pilgrims passing through on our way to another place, the kingdom of God.

  However, just like in a long, hard game that never seems to end, we need encouragement and strength to carry on. It might be fun to huddle together, put our right hands in a pile and shout “1-2-3 Faith Lutheran!” But probably we’d just feel silly and would draw little strength from it. That’s because we’re not playing a game of basketball where that is a useful practice. Instead we are engaged in a struggle for the control of our minds and lives.

  Peter says, Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. And then, You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors. Peter paints a picture “of a society where men are without knowledge of God, without objective moral standards, and without any plan or purpose which they expect to be able to fulfil.” (Selwyn, p. 141). There is our struggle.

  While Peter tells us to fear God, the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, the world is doing it’s best to steal the ball from us by vehemently denying the very existence of God. Or maybe the world fakes us with the notion that if God does exist, it’s only in some ephemeral sense; he will certainly not judge us. And of course there’s everyone’s favourite feel-good move, “God accepts everyone as they are, just do you best.”

  While Peter tells us, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct, the world fouls us with the claim that there are no moral rules. You may do what you want and no one has the right to tell you you’re wrong. If they do we’ll charge them with a hate crime!

  While Peter tells us, set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed, the world does a full court press and smothers us with the assurance that there is no life to come, that we will just cease to exist. So there’s no need to get all worked up about reward for being holy now. Take life by the horns; go for the gusto; you only to round once. In other words, enjoy every pleasure you can now, because there’s nothing on the other side of the grave!

  About now we’re likely all thinking that we won’t fall for any of that stuff. We know the truth. Well, think back again over this past week. Has it been obvious to all that you fear God? Have you treated and judged all those around you fairly, impartially? Have you been holy, that is, like God, in thought word and deed? Would you have been glad to have Jesus Christ himself present with you every moment of this past week? Have you been uplifted this week by a constant sense of peace, hope and joy as you ponder the glory of heaven? Or have you been discouraged and worried? Have you been pushed and tripped and fouled and just plain beat up by the world? Were you wondering if it was worth making the effort to come here today?

  Then let’s huddle for a moment around the Gospel. There’s the power that will make a difference. That’s what Peter gives us to rouse us up for life’s struggle. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.

  You were ransomed! That’s the focal point, the heart of those sentences. It has only been two weeks since Good Friday and Easter. Only two weeks ago we contemplated Jesus’ last words on the cross as he died for us. Then two days later we sang songs of victory as we celebrated his resurrection from the dead. In a few weeks we will celebrate his ascension into heaven where he sits in glory at the right hand of God. Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and glory are the events that make up our 1-2-3 shout. They mean that we have been ransomed or redeemed.

  What does that mean to be ransomed or redeemed? In Peter’s day, POWs were not kept in a prison. They were made slaves. People who went bankrupt were not just refused credit, they too became slaves. They would take you to a slave market and sell you. So if you wanted to get back your freedom, you had to buy yourself back. But it’s kind of hard to earn your own money when you’re someone else’s slave. So it would be really good news that someone else was paying the price to redeem you.

  Today, in this place, slavery is much different. But we know about kidnappings and people being held for ransom. That’s about the same thing as slavery. A person who has been kidnapped by a terrorist is in real danger of being killed unless the terrorist’s demands are met. Those demands are the ransom. The kidnapped person prays that someone will pay his ransom.

  That is what Peter is talking about. You have been ransomed. Adam’s disobedience plunged us all into a slavery to sin. We are stuck in sin—we cannot not sin—and sin’s consequences: poverty and economic oppression; disease and death; sexual perversion of every sort; loss of identity; corrupt government; exploitation of men, women and children. It’s a slavery in which, by nature, we are trapped.

  So the Gospel is that we have been ransomed! Christ has freed us from all that! But our ransom payment was not money. It was Jesus’ blood, his life for ours. It was his resurrection from the dead, victory over death. It was the faith and hope in God that he has put into our hearts.

  In other words, though we yet suffer many of the consequences of sin in this world, we know that at some point in the future, Jesus will return to raise us from the dead to eternal life. We have already been crucified, dead and buried with him through our baptism. Our life has been redeemed. There remains only the redemption of our bodies, that is our own resurrection. That is why Peter says set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. If that hope, that confidence is yours, you will not suffer the defeat of despair in this life.

  Moreover, knowing that we have been ransomed, having set our hope on this future redemption of our body, we are free from the mindset and lifestyle of slavery to sin. Rather than helplessly following the rest of the world’s slaves, we have been ransomed by Christ and given the right and power to be like God. “You shall be holy, for I am holy,” says the Lord God.

  God is different than the world corrupted by sin. He is holy. There is no corruption or ignorance or evil in him. He is perfect in every way; he needs nothing. Now he says to you and me, “Be holy.” He has joined us to himself through Jesus Christ. We will share some of Jesus’ nature and glory. We will be like him. But actually, we already are like him! We are the children of God, the brothers and sisters of Christ. We are holy because he is holy. And if we will only take that to heart and live by it, we will find amazing victory in this life. Most of what we suffer is of our own making, the consequence of our own sin. So if we make it our daily goal to be holy like he is holy, we will avoid the ignorance and futility of the world’s desires. We will think, say and do things that build us up rather than tear us down.

  If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. Fear God, not as an enemy, but as Father. In Jesus’ own words, Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28). Only God can condemn. But more importantly, only God can give eternal life! The ultimate power of the universe, whom no creature can manipulate, has made you his child. So fear God and be holy!

  Brothers and sisters, the difference the resurrection makes is clear: hope, holiness and the fear of God. Without Christ and the ransom that he paid for us, the devil and the world would crush us. But joined to Christ, we have the right and power to be holy and fear God as Father. So put your full trust in Christ and the grace to be revealed and reap the benefits of a holy life and the fear of God now.