Excerpts from "eHowHope" Want to know how to cut an onion without crying? Wondering how to arrange marching band music, plant hanging tomato baskets, bathe a guinea pig or grill iguana? Thinking about laying brick or taking out a transmission? Maybe you want to conduct a Sader Passover meal this week or are pondering how you might get a clue, get a date, be happy, be successful at home and work or be a better partner?
Notice, however, that the writer of 1 Peter called people to be ready to defend the “hope that is in you” (3:15). The thought here isn’t about being right and winning the cultural argument — it’s about being faithful in the midst of a hostile culture. Those students of the Truth Project should remember this. It’s important to articulate your faith, but more important to authentically live it out. If we look at our passage in that context, it reads kind of like an eHow list — “How to Have Hope in the Midst of Hostility.” Borrowing the eHow approach, this scriptural DIY project breaks down like this: Step One: Begin with an attitude of love. The writer begins in verse 8 by reminding the churches that they must reflect a “unity of spirit” by focusing on the primary virtues of the Christian life: “sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” The sense here is that they were to practice these virtues within their own communities of faith until they became habits. Perhaps one of the reasons that much of the world views Christians as bitter, critical, judgmental people has to do with the fact that we act this way in our own churches. It’s especially hard to love your enemies if you can’t even learn to love your friends! Christians spend a lot of time taking stands on issues and debating with each other when they should be spending more time on their knees together in prayer, taking on the character of Christ. It’s not that we shouldn’t be vocal, just that our words need to always be filtered through the screen of God’s unconditional love. Develop the habits of love and grace and we begin to see others, even those who persecute us, as people who were created and loved by God, too. Step Two: Repay evil with blessing. We can’t control the attitudes and actions of others toward us, but we can control how we respond. A violent and vitriolic world expects reciprocity and revenge — that satisfaction can only be achieved when you’ve managed to get even with someone who has wronged you. The writer of 1 Peter echoes Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:10-12) here in verses 9-14 by flipping that assumption on its ear. If you want to experience true happiness or blessedness, you need to be willing to repay evil with blessing. That’s what the people of God, the followers of Christ are “called” to do. The Psalm 34:12-16 citation in verses 10-12 points out the kinds of blessings believers receive when they choose blessing over cursing: the promise of “life” and “good days” and the “eyes” and “ears” of God opened to their prayers. Repaying evil with good, turning the other cheek so to speak, isn’t a popular notion even among many Christians who struggle with the possibility of becoming a doormat for those who would take advantage of their nonviolent and non-aggressive response and oppress them even more. We’re called to bless those who persecute us, to endure unjust suffering if need be, but we’re not called to be silent about it. We’re to use those times of injustice to “make [our] defense” by speaking powerfully and passionately for God’s justice and truth. Jesus, of course, is our prime example. His words from the cross and even his silence in the face of his accusers were not passive, but revealed a deep strength that was apparent even to his enemies. Our words of love and our attitude of peace in the midst of slander and persecution can speak volumes. When we choose to speak the truth in “gentleness and reverence” we reveal the “hope” that is within us to those who “abuse [us] for [our] good conduct in Christ.” Hearing those words of hope, those abusers may indeed be convicted and “put to shame” by their conduct (vv. 15-16). Step Three: Face your fears. “Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?” asks the writer. In a perfect world that would make sense. We’d like to believe that things are fair and that people get rewarded for doing good and punished for doing evil. Reality, however, is a different animal. People doing good are often the most tantalizing targets in a world where systemic evil works hard to keep the status quo of injustice intact. The truth is that we do often “suffer for doing what is right” but even then, says the writer, we are “blessed” (v. 14). “Do not fear what they fear” is a quote from Isaiah 8:12 (NIV), where the prophet was to hold fast to his faith and not be swayed by public opinion. People often fear change, fear a loss of power and fear that which they do not understand. Rather than address those fears, they lash out at those whom they believe are a threat. Despite the ominous thought of having to endure unjust suffering at the hands of others, Christians are not to act out of fear. Rather, we’re to have a healthy fear of God who ultimately holds everyone in his hands. Suffering will come, but “it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil” (v. 17). Step Four: Follow the example of Jesus. If you want to understand the proper way to live out hope in the midst of suffering, says the writer of 1 Peter, the best example is Jesus. Jesus was crucified unjustly, suffering under the worst human violence and insult one could imagine, yet his death and resurrection were the ultimate triumph of hope over injustice, sin and death. It was through that suffering that Christ was able to “bring [us] to God” (v. 18). Jesus’ triumph over death enabled him to proclaim hope to the “spirits in prison” — those who had died in Noah’s flood and those like them who died apart from a saving knowledge of God (vv. 19-20). Jesus continues to proclaim that message of grace and liberation to us in the present through baptism, which the writer sees as “an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (v. 21). When we’re baptized, we take on the results of Christ’s suffering for us — cleansing from sin and new life in God’s grace, all the things for which we hope. In Christ, God had taken on the worst the world can dish out and came out the other side victorious. As Jesus’ people, we can respond to the lingering evil of the world not by retaliating, complaining or retreating, but by proclaiming the hope, the realized hope, that is within us. We just need to eHow, or sHow, the rest of the world with that message! |