“To the chosen exiles of the Dispersion, destined by God...live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear...as aliens and strangers abstain from sinful desires. 1 Peter 1:1, 17, 2:11
Why has God acted in unprecedented ways to save his people? From the Exodus out of Egypt to the triumphant victory in the resurrection of Christ, God has acted on behalf of his people to redeem them and save them from the oppressive powers of this world. Why has God done this? Is God a mere super hero? The Incredibles taught us that it is hard to be a super hero and be a part of the community. Super heroes are supposed to sweep in and fix our problem, then get out until we need them again. God hasn’t just delivered his people as a super hero might sweep in and rescue the damsel in distress and then fly away never to be seen until he is needed again. No, God is creating a people, a community of his very own. He’s forming a community of faith that will follow him, obey him, declare his wonders and praises, a people who will point the world to God, to show the world what God is like, a people who will live out their reason for existing. He’s creating a community of people who he can point to and say, “now that’s what humanity should look like.”
God is creating the church to be his contrast community. Jesus didn’t come as a super hero… "He is God-man, able to walk on water, turn water into wine, make blind people see with mud he makes from his own spit, able to rescue us from our sins and transport us safely to the other side." Jesus is not some mere super-hero, he is our savior, he is the author of our faith, he is the reason we go to church and join together as a community. God, through Christ, is now creating a community of people who will announce what God has done and is doing by drawing all people to himself. Peter writes to such a community. Peter calls his community “aliens and strangers” in this world. Meaning, our lives should point to something different. The world is watching, and wondering what God is up to. This people that claim to be his people, what makes them so different? Is there a noticeable difference in how we treat each other, how we treat the weak, how we treat the earth, how we treat those outside our community?
God has always been creating a people for himself, setting them apart from the world given to them on a daily basis. These “resident aliens,” as Hauerwas and Willimon call us, are to live as exemplary aliens in a land that does not welcome them. Yet, they are to live in such a way that they are different, but not in conflict with the dominant culture. They are to return good for evil, blessing for slander, hope when there is no hope. This is the community Peter is writing to, a community that is finding itself more and more on the margins. There isn’t organized persecution at this point, but the marginalization has begun.
For the past 1600 years our world could be drawn like this: Christianity at the center. From the time of Constantine, Christianity has been at the center of our existence. However, this privilege Christianity has had in Western culture is dying. Christianity is being pushed to the margins. It doesn’t die easy, however. Even today we struggle with how much we should be involved with politics. Countless para-church organizations are lobbying the government to legislate the Christian ethic on all of us. Some of it i
s good and holy and right. Some of it is a Christian power-grab. My question, though, is this: Where is Christianity meant to exist? Is Christianity to exist in the center of society? Is it where we should be moving? If we are in the center, is it where we should dig in our heals and stay? I believe Christianity functions best on the margins.This is where Peter finds his communities of faith, sitting on the margins. It is here that Christianity stands or falls. When Christianity is in power, it exists out of privilege. But, when it is marginalized, it exists out of its radical claims of Jesus Christ, and his call for the church to live as aliens and strangers in the land. It is when Christians embrace their marginal status, live faithful lives as disciples of Jesus, that the world sees them and “glorifies God in heaven.”
2 comments:
I believe we are to restore anything at all, it is to be the function of the 1st century. It is the way the Christians functions that turned the world upside down. In my opinion we are to be 21st century Christians living out the 1st century function. Changing lives by showing: love, grace, mercy, kindness, and all the gifts mentioned in the first century of the Church understand that we are "resident aliens". Being in the world but not of it. Great post!
Where is Christianity meant to exist? Good question and I will have to think on this for awhile. In scripture I read about individual sins as well as "the sins of the nations". All things come under the sovereignty of God; both individuals and governments. However, I believe each has it's own roll. The church has it's roll and the government has it's own roll. Both exist to honor God (whether each actually does that is another thing). The church is the community of God, made up of individuals and, I believe, should operate in the margins. That does not mean the church should be marginalized. The government should honor God by fulfilling it's roll and the church should honor God by fulfilling it's own roll.
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