Who Are We? God's Own People - 1st Peter 2:1-9
We are nearing
the end of our reflection on “Who Are We,” as we use 1st Peter
2:9-10 to remind us of who we are: “But
you are a chosen race, 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. Once
you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received
mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Next week, as we will conclude the series, we will replace the “Who”
with a “Why,” however today we come to the last of Peter’s statements of who we
are. We began by discovering that we are
a chosen race, not due to skin color, the language we speak, or any other
aspect of ethnicity, but simply because we have been chosen by God, meaning that
God loves us, sees value in us, and has a purpose for us. We learned that we are a royal priesthood in
the line of the High Priest of High Priests, Christ Himself, that we might mediate
God’s forgiveness and blessings, often through sacrifice, to those who find
themselves distanced from God. Last week
we were reminded that we are a holy nation—that we are called to be holy as God
is holy, that we are to rid our lives of those things that are not Christ-like,
that we might grow in perfection, learning to love God and neighbor more
perfectly, because God has set us aside to be different from the world. Today we learn that we are “God’s Own
People.”
How often have we
felt like Dory and Marlin? No, I’m not
asking if you have ever felt like a fish, though maybe you have. I’m talking about how often have we felt like
we had a flock of seagulls fighting over us, pecking at us, each one trying to
claim us as belonging to them?
Seagull #1 – our jobs/careers. Some of us have employers that think we
belong to them. Others of us may have
careers seem to own us. These employers
or careers try to claim us suggesting that they are the number one thing in our
lives. They expect everything else to be
laid aside for the sake of our paycheck or to further our career.
Seagull #2 – our family. Maybe it is a parent or grandparent. Maybe it is a child or grandchild. Maybe it is a brother or sister, aunt or
uncle, in-law, or some 2nd, three-times removed, cousin. Regardless of which relative it is, our
family wants to, actually expects us to, place family as the number one thing
in our lives—that everything else should fall by the wayside if they come
calling.
Seagull #3 – membership
organizations. Maybe it is the PTA. Maybe it is the Civitans. Maybe it is baseball team or racquetball
club, or some other sports affiliated group.
That group that we voluntarily became part of, with good intentions of
participating and seeing the good that they do, may now decide they want all of
our time and want to claim us as their own.
Seagull #4 – illness/disease/injury. Illness and disease, whether it is cancer,
diabetes, schizophrenia, bi-polar, chronic pain, broken hips, amputated arms,
or whatever other physical or mental impairment we may develop tries to claim
us as their own. They want our entire
lives to revolve around battling them, trying to overcome them. They want to limit what we can or can’t do
based on those battles. They try to convince
us that we cannot live a full life because of them.
Seagull #5 – debt. Who do we owe money to? Bills stack up. Creditors and collection agencies filling our
mailbox and our voicemail. Maybe it was
because we have chosen to spend more that we make. Maybe it was due to a medical or some other
emergency. Regardless, whether it be
dinnertime or Christmas morning they call remind us our money is their money. We begin to feel like they own us because we
owe them.
Seagull #6 – addictions. Cocaine.
Marijuana. Tobacco. Alcohol.
Prescription drugs. Overeating.
Shopping. Social media. Work. Each one
of us will try to own us if we but give into the pressure that we cannot be
happy without them—that we need them—that nothing else matters…
Seagull #7 – death. It looms there before us. We are reminded when we see the
cemeteries. We are reminded when someone
we love or just know dies. We hear its
claim on our lives when the doctor offers a terminal prognosis. We feel its tap on our shoulders with the
aches and pains our bodies endure. We
see a tragic accident or a natural disaster and we know it is there trying to
grab us.
Indefinitely more
seagulls cry out for our lives, “mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.” You know what they are. You have heard them trying to claim you.
However, Peter
reminds us that none of those seagulls can claim us. He reminds us that while God hasn’t opened up
a beak with a pouch for us to jump into or scooped water into that beak to keep
us alive, that God has claimed us as his own.
We are God’s own people, or as another translation read, a people of
God’s own possession. Rather than a
pouched beak, God offers us the cross to voluntarily come to, and rather than
the waters of the sea to sustain us, He claims us as His own through the waters
of our Baptism.
God has claimed
us and we are His. That means that we
need not fear death or addictions or debt or illness and injury, for they do
not own us, and cannot and will not have the final word in our lives—they
cannot destroy us for God has claimed us and gives us life, eternal life with
Him. That means that we do not and
should not give our allegiance to membership organizations, jobs or careers, or
even our own families—they are not bad, it is not wrong to be part of them, but
they cannot control us, our ultimate allegiance should be to God and God alone,
for as children of God, we belong to Him and Him alone—for when our jobs and
careers, our clubs and organizations, and even our own families fail and
disappoint us, there is only One who will always be there—who has promised to
never leave and desert us—and that is the God who has claimed us as His own—who
will rescue us from all the seagulls, sustain us as they chase us, and give us
true, complete, and eternal life with Him.
Who are we? In the Name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, we are God’s Own People!
Amen.
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