Who Are We? A Holy Nation - 1st Peter 2:9-10
We began by considering that we are a chosen
race. We learned that this has nothing
to do with the color of our skin, the color of our hair, the color of our eyes,
the language we speak, or any other aspect of our ethnicity. It has to do with being chosen by God, called
into a relationship with Christ. It has
to do with being loved by God, being valued by God, and having a God-given
purpose in life—the purpose of leading all the world to that day when every
knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Last week we considered that we are a
royal priesthood. We remember that
through Christ we all have access to God the Father…and that we, like the
priests of the Old Testament, and like the High Priest of High Priests, Jesus
Christ Himself, are called to stand in the gap between God and those who are
far from God. We are called to be mediators
of forgiveness, possibly even to those who do not realize they need
forgiveness. We are to be mediators of
God’s blessings, pronouncing God’s providential care and love, and making it
real in meeting the needs of those who are in the world. And finally, as has always been connected
with the role of priests, there is sacrifice—though we are not called to
sacrifice livestock and produce, Christ put an end to that in the giving of His
own life, but like Christ, in our role as priests in the line of the King of
Kings, our sacrifice is like that of Jesus, that of our own lives.
So what does it mean now, to be a holy
nation? It means living as those who have
been called into relationship as we have been chosen by God to mediate God’s
forgiveness and blessings to the world through sacrifice. It also means that we do this by living in
this world, within our own national boundaries, but not of this world, not even
of our nation, as living as a holy nation calls our allegiance beyond our flag
and places our allegiance to God Himself.
To “be holy” means to “be set apart.”
We are accepted by God in the midst of our sin, chosen by God even when
we are like the world and of the world…yet through God’s grace, we are called
to change, we are called to be made holy, as John Wesley would have said, to
grow in sanctification or be made perfect in love. Some would suggest that we aren’t called to
change, that God never intended for us to be perfect but if there is any
uncertainty in that, Peter countered it earlier in his letter as he connected
our lives as a Christian nation to God’s selection and instructions of Israel
in the Old Testament using words harkening us back to Leviticus. Peter wrote, “Instead, as he who called you
is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, “You shall
be holy, for I am holy.”[i] We are called to strive to be made Holy by
the working of God’s Spirit in our lives…and it is by God’s design, I truly
believe—for it was not mine, that we come to this part of our series as we
begin Lent and incorporate our iced-out Ash Wednesday service into our service
on this first Sunday of Lent.
It may have been the toughest forty-six
day stretch in my entire life. I was
either twenty or twenty-one years old. I
was a student at Methodist University (Methodist College back then) and a
member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. I
lived on campus in one of the residential halls. I think it was the night of the fraternity
bon fire that it hit me the hardest. It
was the middle of ritual week where we were bringing new brothers into the
fraternity. It was either after the bon
fire, or maybe we were discussing it for the next night, but there I was being
confronted and having to decide between faithfulness and fitting-in (and
enjoying myself). We were going to have
a pizza party. What is the problem, you
may wonder. Well, the trouble for me was
that I had given up pizza and
soda for Lent. I’m not sure what I was
thinking at the time, but yes, I was a college student and chose to give up the
two things that I almost literally lived off of while in school. I didn’t think that Easter was ever going to
arrive, and forget about your Easter dinner with ham, veggies, macaroni and
cheese, and assorted desserts…the only pie I wanted was a pizza pie with
pepperoni and extra cheese served with Mountain Dew or Dr. Pepper on the side.
Many folks observe the tradition of giving
up something they enjoy during the season of Lent—some will give up desserts or
sweets in general, others very specific items like pizza, soda, chocolate, ice
cream, or peanut butter; some will give up activities such as spending time
using social media like Facebook or Twitter or maybe playing video games or
playing golf or maybe going out to eat; still others joke around about giving
up something they don’t like—I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard
kids say they want to give up going to school or doing homework, or adults say
they want to give up going to work or doing housework, or give up foods they
don’t like like brussel sprouts or liver (though I would quickly point out that
you use Lent as an excuse to not do things you don’t like doing).
Where did the idea of giving something
up for Lent originate? It began as a
period of fasting and preparation for those preparing to be baptized on Easter
Day as they surrendered their lives to Christ, later on it would become a season
in which all Christians would enter a time of self-reflection and do penance
for their sins. The tradition of giving
something that we enjoy for Lent grew out of the tradition of fasting and was
to be a small sacrifice that would cause us to reflect on the great sacrifice
that Jesus made on our behalf. The
purpose of this season was that this sacrifice would in some way draw us closer
in our relationship with God, and if we had strayed, we would be drawn back
into a right relationship with our Savior.
Sometimes, though, the fasting leading
us to a closer relationship with God loses out.
I have heard folks say, “I need to lose some weight, so I am giving up
sweets for Lent.” I may have even said
that myself in the past. Unfortunately,
though, that takes what was supposed to be an action of self-denial and
self-sacrifice and turns it into a self-improvement diet plan, so it still
remains “about me” rather than about Christ.
In other instances, where we go through the ritual of giving something
up, but all we focus on is “I can’t wait for Easter to get here so I can have
(whatever we have given up).” (Some
folks don’t wait until Easter, they celebrate weekly the fact that every Sunday
is considered a “Little Easter” and not actually part of Lent and they are
“legally” allowed to indulge in what they have sacrificed—and I’ve been there
and done that as well.) Each of these,
though, I think miss the point of “giving something up” because they keep us
focused on ourselves rather than on what they are supposed to turn our
attention toward, and that is the cross of Christ.
The purpose of any sacrifice should be
to focus less on ourselves and more on the worship of God and allowing God to
make us more Christ-like…a transformation that is more than a forty day fast
from something we enjoy that leaves us unchanged and come Easter back to the
same old us. That is one reason that Dr.
James Moore’s book, Giving Up Something
Bad For Lent, caught my eye as I was looking over resources for this
season. It is not about giving up homework
or eating liver—things we don’t like, but about giving up those things about
ourselves that are not reflective of Christ—things that we “enjoy” or consider
“too painful” to try to change about ourselves—things like apathy, regret, addiction,
fears, bitterness, judgment, and envy.
These are all things that Christ came to free us from, but that often we
hold on to. This year, I would like us
to take up the challenge of examining our lives and find something in our lives
that we need God’s grace to change about us, some part of us that is not
Christ-like in the way it should be. Are
we living stuck in the past—living each day in sorrow or depressed, focused on
mistakes we have made or missed opportunities rather than living in the hope
that God has promised us a future of blessing and prosperity? Are we bound by our addictions—to drugs, to
alcohol, to tobacco, to overeating, to overspending, to gossiping—rather than
enjoying the freedom that Christ has won for us over anything that would try to
control us? Are we afraid to do
anything, living as if any action or risk will automatically result in the
worst-case scenario playing out—rather than trusting that in everything God
will work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose? Does bitterness haunt us, causing the acidity
of unforgiveness fill our lives with the bile of hatred, anger, or a desire for
vengeance rather than being able to love our enemies and pray for those who
persecute us? Do we sit in judgment of
others, readily condemning them for their sins, rather than having our hearts
break for them because we have forgotten the log that was (or is) in our own
eyes because we are so focused on the speck in theirs—rather than offering to
come alongside them and together, in community, supporting one another in an
effort to live holy lives? Do we look at
what others have, their possessions, their reputations, their status, their
abilities and wish that we had it ourselves, always thinking we need
more—rather than being content and thankful for the blessings that God has
placed in our lives? There may be
others—other dark spots that mar our lives—those things that we either revel in
or simply make excuses for—maybe even saying, “God just made me this way.” God did not create us to have dark spots, but
to live in perfect relationship with Him—He desires our growth and our
transformation—not a temporary absence of some pleasure in our lives. Through our weekly Lenten reflections we will
examine the need for us each to give up these places of darkness that we so
readily hold on to…and the need to give them up and be changed—to be made holy.
Will giving up something bad…not just
for Lent…but for good be easy? No. It is not something we can do on our own, but
only with the grace of God, the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives,
transforming us and changing us as we live into the freedom that Christ won for
us on the cross. There is nothing wrong
with giving up something you enjoy for the sake of Lenten Sacrifice in an
effort focus in on the sacrifice of Christ—in fact it is commendable when done
for the sake of growing closer to God.
So if you have decided to give up chocolate, watching television, social
media, or something else you enjoy, by all means, offer that sacrifice up to
God as part of this seasons transformational time. However, I challenge each of us to consider
what we need transformed out of our lives this Lent, a permanent change we need
to experience to become more like Christ—to take that that darkness, write it
on the index card in your bulletin, fold the card, and as you come forward to
receive your ashes, nail it to that sin to the cross, leave it there, and begin
allowing Christ to free you from it and this Lent be transformed into something
new come Easter—members of God’s holy nation!
In the Name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit…Amen.
[i] 1st Peter 1:15-16
connecting to Leviticus 11:44
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