Perspectives on 1 Peter: A Lively Hope for Pastors and Churches
Explore profound insights from theologians and scholars on the significance of the book of 1 Peter in the New Testament. Delve into themes of chosen generation, royal priesthood, and peculiar people as highlighted in different perspectives, emphasizing the church's role in a changing world moving from Christendom to a post-Christian era.
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A Lively Hope: 1 Peter for Pastors Joel D. Lehenbauer Commission on Theology and Church Relations The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod 1
Luther on 1 Peter: 1 Peter is one of the noblest books in the New Testament: it is the genuine and pure Gospel. 1 Peter is a paragon of excellence that contains genuinely evangelical words. He who understands this epistle undoubtedly has enough and needs no more. The apostle has forgotten [here] nothing that a Christian must know. 2
Martin Franzmann: Anyone looking for a key book that will unlock for him the meaning of the whole New Testament would do well to give his days and nights to this letter. (The Word of the Lord Grows, 225) 3
1 Peter 2:9 (KJV): But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 4
A Lively Hope: 1 Peter for Pastors Called to Serve God s Chosen, Peculiar People in a Strange New (?) World 2016 Minnesota State Pastoral Conference Joel D. Lehenbauer Commission on Theology and Church Relations The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod 5
September 17, 2011 issue of Time magazine (went to press on September 11): America s Best Theologian --?? 6
Jesus as Culture Warrior? A cross-shaped strategy for being the church (God s peculiar people) in a strange new (?) world 7
Post-Christendom (2004, Stuart Murray): The contemporary church in America is shifting-- From the center to the margins From the majority to the minority From settlers to sojourners From privilege to plurality (or pluralism) From control to witness From maintenance to mission From institution to movement 8
The present and future cultural tsunami : Pew Forum Survey on US Religious Landscape (2008) American Religious Identification Survey (2009) 30% of adults have left childhood faith (41% if Protestant church-swappers included) Nones double to 15% (age 18-29: +25%) (very few Nones are Seekers ) Barely half of Americans identify as Protestant Christians Protestantism increasingly divided and fragmented RCC: greatest net loss (down 7% to 24%) Those who self-identify as Christians down 11% 9
National Study of Youth and Religion (2009) Only 20% of age 18-23 attend religious services weekly Down 22% from same survey 5 years ago Morality is how I feel De facto doubts about identifiable, objective, shared reality Karma: What goes around comes around Emerging Adulthood period growing longer Religious youth more socially concerned, involved Families, religious institutions failing I ll go back to church when I have children (!!) 10
2014 Pew Research Survey on LCMS Seldom read Bible or pray: 53% Weekly church attendance: 47% Belief in moral absolutes: 44% Primary source of moral guidance: Religion, 41%; Common Sense, 45%; Reason/Science: 14%. Bible should be taken literally: 40% Abortion should be legal: 46% Homosexuality should be accepted: 56% (SSM: 45%) Humans evolved by design or nature: 50% Hell exists: 75% (Heaven: 88%) 11
Last Rites? The End of Christian America (April 13, 2009 Newsweek) The Death of Protestant America (Aug/Sept 2008 Joseph Bottum, First Things) The Coming Evangelical Collapse (March 10, 2009 Christian Science Monitor) 12
Any Good News? 2012 Ohio State University study: Explosive growth taking place in one specific religious group in America: new community sprouting every 3.5 weeks; population doubling every 21 years. Any guesses? ( What Does This Mean? ) 13
Explosive Growth amongthe Amish! Amish population has risen 20% since 2008 They re doubling their membership every 20 years They will quadruple their population (to 1 million-plus in over 1000 settlements) by 2050 They do not proselytize growth comes from procreation, nurture, catechesis, community stability and stolidity By comparison: Islam rising by 65%; Mormons by 45% (for some of the same reasons!) 14
Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon: Abingdon Press, 1989 (preface, 11-12) Key New Testament focus: 1 Peter (with a little help from 1 John) 15
According to John, Christian truth is a matter of either-or: He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son does not have life (5:12; cf 1:5-10, etc.). Johannine either-ors: Light or darkness; God or the devil; heaven or hell; truth or lies; love or hate; faith or unbelief; Christ or antichrist(s); etc. 16
But, according to John, Christian truth is also a matter of both-and: I write this to you do that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin (1 John 2:1) Johannine both-ands: Christians as both sinners andsaints; Christ as both God and man; God s Word as both Law and Gospel; the need for both faithandlove; the world as both God s creation and the realm of the devil, etc. 17
The genius of Lutheran theology is its avoidance of TDD: Tension Deficit Disorder (Peter Kurowski, The Seduction of Extremes) So how does this apply to the complex topic of church and culture? 18
Culture- Transcendent Culture- Critical Culture- Friendly Culture- Transforming 19
Church and Culture in America: Crucial Insights from 1 Peter 20
Luther: He who understands this epistle undoubtedly has enough and needs no more the apostle has forgotten [here] nothing that a Christian must know. Franzmann: Anyone looking for a key book that will unlock for him the meaning of the whole New Testament would do well to give his days and nights to this letter. (The Word of the Lord Grows, 225) 21
First words in First Peter: Petros apostolos Yesou Christou, eklektois, parepidemois to the chosen ones, strangers in the world ( pilgrims, resident aliens ) 22
1 Peter 1:17: Since you call on a Father who judges each man s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear 23
1 Peter 1:18: It was not with perishable things like silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world 24
1 Peter 2:4: As you come to him, the living Stone rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him you also, like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 25
1 Peter 2:6: See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. (What would Peter know about shame? About being called a rock or stone ?) 26
1 Peter 2:9: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 27
1 Peter 2:11: Dear friends I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they may accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 28
1 Peter 4:12: Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ 29
1 Peter 5:9, 13: Resist him [the prowling, devouring lion/devil], standing firm in your faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings Peace to all of you who are in Christ. 30
Israel: Old, True, New: The Same Old Story Exodus 19:3-6: My treasured possession a kingdom of priests..a holy nation. Exodus 20: Be holy, because I am holy (1 Peter 1:16) Exodus 24: The blood of the covenant Deut. 7:7-8: The Lord did not choose you because Deut. 10:14-19: Aliens and strangers, then and now 31
John Elliott: The terms for resident aliens in 1 Peter designated a class of people considered inferior to the full citizens and accorded only limited legal and social rights (marriage, inheritance, business, civic and political involvement). Gotlob Schrenk (TDNT): 1 Peter takes seriously the strangeness of the Christian community and provides a theological reason for remaining aliens 32
Peter offers 1st-century insights and theological resources for a 21st-century Reality check: Christians are no longer in control as the primary movers, shakers, and shapers of America s social, political and cultural identity, ideals and values. (Question: Is this a good thing or a bad thing?) 33
Peter offers 1st-century insights and theological resources for a 21st-century Attitude adjustment: We can moan, groan and complain, we can reminisce about and long for the good old days when America was seen by many as Christian nation or, we can seek to reclaim our true identity and calling as God s chosen ones, strangers in the world 34
Peter offers 1st-century insights and theological resources for a 21st-century Strategic realignment: Peter offers a challenging and hopeful strategy for the church s survival and for sharing the Gospel of Christ in an increasingly alien, non-Christian culture. 35
Lesslie Newbigin: The conception of the church which we tend to reproduce as the fruit of our missionary work is . . . so much that of a fundamentally settled body existing for the sake of its own members rather than that of a body of strangers and pilgrims that our missionary advance tends to follow the lines of cultural and political expansion, and to falter when that advance stops. (The Household of God, 1954) 36
We must learn to be strange enough to have a prophetic voice, but connected enough to prophesy to those who need to hear. We need to be those who know both how to warn and welcome, to weep and to dream. We are, if we ever were, a moral majority no more. We are, on our best days, a prophetic minority. That doesn t mean we should disengage, and it doesn t mean we are victims. It means that we know who we are, and where our power is. (Russell Moore, Onward: Engaging the Cultural without Losing the Gospel, B&H: Nashville, 2015) 37
Stanley Hauerwas: The first task of the church is [not to change the world but] tobe the church. Three kinds of churches: activist, conversionist, and confessing. (RA 44-47; cf. Yoder vs. Niebuhr) 38
The titles tell the story Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony Where Resident Aliens Live A Community of Character The Peaceable Kingdom In Good Company: The Church as Polis 39
Any Christian engagement with the outside culture is shaped by the internal life of the church. (Russell Moore, Onward, 2015) 40
CIF1P1: Its All About Hope In an alien culture where HOPE is viewed primarily in terms of social and political change and progress, Christians are called to cultivate and manifest a cross-and-resurrection centered hope that transcends all social and political realities, changes or trends (whether positive or negative ). 41
Notice Peters emphasis on the Christians present and future hope (1:3, 13, 21; 3:15): Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade (1:3) Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1:13) 42
Through [Christ] you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hopeare in God. (1:21) But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect (3:15) 43
Sophocles (ca. 400 BC): The best thing to have happen to a man is never to have been born; the next best thing is to be born and immediately die. Horace (65-8 BC): Our parents age, worse than that of our grandfathers, has produced us: inferior to them and destined to bring forth an even more vicious progeny. (Franzmann: damning four generations in three short lines. ) 44
The hope that is in Jesus Christ is different from all utopias of universal progress It is not an uncertain speculation about the future but a certainty based upon what God has already revealed. One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without knowing for certain that God's victory over all powers of destruction, including death, is the end towards which the time process [history] moves as its own end. Emil Brunner, The Scandal of Christianity (London: SCM Press, 1951). 45
Romans 5: Hope does not disappoint us Hebrews 11:1: Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:9: By faith Abraham made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country 46
Hebrews 11:13-16: All these (saints of old) were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own they were longing for a better country a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. 47
Christians must learn again what Christians have always known how to live without immediate hopes in the world. (T.R. Milford, from Christian Missions and the Judgment of God, London: SCM Press, 1953 [57]) 48
CIF1P2: Heaven is My Home: A Fixated and Full-Bodied Hope In an alien culture whose theme song is I want it ALL and I want it NOW, pilgrim-Christians are called to recognize the fleeting and transitory nature of all earthly things (1:18, 23-25) and to fix their hearts and minds on the glory to be revealed in them and to them when Jesus comes again. 49
Notice Peters emphasis on the paroikous ( homeless ones ) awaiting the parousia (homecoming/home- going) of Christ with and for his saints: 1:5-9, 13, 20-21; 2:12; 3:21-22; 4:5-7, 13, 17- 19; 5:10-11; 2 Peter 3:3-13. 50
