Sunday, April 16, 2023 Easter 2
Scripture Readings: Acts 2: 14a, 22-32
Psalm 16
1 Peter 1: 3-9
John 20: 19-31
“Proved Genuine”
I know I said we were focusing on Peter’s epistle, but I love this verse read from the Psalm this morning, particularly as expressed by The Message version. “You set me up with a house and yard. And then you made me your heir!” (Psalm 16:6) And if we thought David was talking about his father Jesse, even that might be significant, for his father may have been fairly prosperous, but he’s talking about God! The creator, sustainer, and master of the entire universe. As he said just before this, “My choice is you, God, first and only. And now I find I’m your choice!” (5) He put his whole trust and hope in God and was provided with his house and yard, his daily needs, and then, he realizes that there is so much more. God has chosen him and made him heir to everything. As Adam and Eve initially were, heirs of all God’s creation. I think of it as having the richest person in the world as a kind benefactor who provides me with a “house and yard,” shelter and a means to provide for myself. And then discovering that they have adopted me and made me their heir. The house and yard would diminish in my sight, and I would look to my benefactor as David said, “first and only.”
That little epiphany of mine, and I think David’s, leads us to Peter's exclamation, “What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now!” (1 Peter 1:3-4) Which would mean, right now, the first Sunday after Easter. But it only starts now.
Peter goes on, “God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming …” there’s a ‘not everything quite yet’ in this; “The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.” (5) So Peter is adding this codicil, this reality wakeup call, that it's not a magic wand. It’s not Cinderella Fairy Godmother time; this is real. He speaks to his readers and us, encouragingly, “I know how great this makes you feel,” I guess so as not to lose the momentum, and then continues, “even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime.” (6) Now that sounds more like day-to-day real life! And I would suggest that “every kind of aggravation” is a deliberate understatement but one he corrects in his next sentences in the form of a couplet, which we’re getting to now.
“Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it - proved pure;
genuine faith put through this suffering comes out - proved genuine.” (7)
A simple couplet that refers to suffering. You’ll notice that this isn’t a process of refining. It’s not slag or raw ore being put in the fire, it's pure gold, refined pure gold. Peter isn’t referring to saving the lost or even sanctifying the saved; this gold is already pure. It’s being put into the fire to prove it’s pure. To show to the whole world that, without a doubt, this is 100% pure fine gold.
And so, Peter continues to make his point that he’s not talking about us going through trials to purify our souls, to make us more holy, sanctified, better Christians. So often we justify the difficulties that assail us in life or, worse, attempt to assuage the suffering of others with platitudes drawn from the apostle Paul’s various allusions to building character or persevering in a race. But used like this, to answer all our sufferings, these are being taken out of context.
The hard lesson is the one our Lord taught his disciples when, as written in John 9 they asked of the blind man, “who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?” and Jesus replied, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. … Look instead for what God can do.” There’s no cause and effect, no one to blame, no magic potion or bullet we can invoke to make our suffering disappear. We’re asking the wrong question.
Peter makes it plain when he relates in his couplet genuine faith to pure gold and suffering to fire. What goes into the suffering is genuine faith, not to make it more genuine or strong or pure, but to prove it is truly genuine. And what is this genuine faith? Well, Peter tells us in the form of another couplet:
“You never saw him, yet you love him.
You still don’t see him, yet you trust him” (8)
Is this not us? Is this not our genuine faith that even though we, like Peter’s audience, have never seen Jesus yet, we love Him? And even though we still don’t see Him, we trust Him. “With laughter and singing.” (8) That’s a tough one in the midst of suffering, and I know we’ve all been there, and in fact, most of us are there now. Peter says we can, however; because our faith is genuine, we kept on believing. And we have the hope of receiving that total salvation we are looking forward to, that day that is coming when we’ll have it all, life healed and whole. But in the meantime, … we “have to put up with every kind of aggravation.” (6) Why?
If our faith is genuine, we are pure gold; why do we need to suffer? If Jesus’ death and resurrection have paid the price of sin and we are freed from death, why the suffering? If I’m not suffering some kind of purgatory or the just desserts of my evil life so that I’ll turn and seek the Lord Jesus, why the hardships? If it's not some disciplinary punishment to make me better, then what is it? Why, when I ask for things that are making me suffer to get better or not to happen at all, does it seem I’m speaking to a deaf ear? And sometimes, despairingly, I resign myself that this is just my lot, and somewhere along the way, maybe, I’ll find my answer, why?
“What a God we have!” (3) exclaims Peter, and I have to agree. He’s given me a house and a yard here and now. All my needs are met by His provision and sufficiency, spiritual, emotional and physical, till the day I die. But he has also made me his heir so that I have the immutable hope, won for me on the Cross and in resurrection by His Son Jesus, that I have “been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven.” (3-4) And as I said when we began, the house and the yard I have now pale in significance to the hope set before me.
As to the purpose, the reason for the suffering, Peter is also outspoken. To prove it is pure, genuine. “Prove it to whom?” you ask. God already knows if your faith is genuine, he looks on the heart. But just as God already knew the faithful heart of Abraham yet tried him by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac, knowing he would and preventing him at the last moment as a witness to Abraham himself, and Isaac his son and to all who would hear or read of this for thousands of years, so He tries us before the whole world, and most notably, our neighbours.
Do you remember what Peter said after his couplet about genuine faith proved by suffering? “When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.” (7) The evidence of Jesus victory on the cross, that truly and undeniably this hope of new life is real, is your genuine faith. Not your gold, not your house and yard or your comfort or freedom from the trials and difficulties of this world. It is your genuine faith, demonstrated to the world, and your family and friends and neighbours, as it remains genuine in the sufferings you endure in this world. More than any preaching or teaching could ever accomplish, God displays His victory over sin and death by the evidence of your genuine faith in the midst of suffering.
If God simply removed us from the sufferings of this world then, like Satan accusing Job, the world could simply say “of course you are ‘devoted to God … no one ever had it so good!’ if you weren’t so lucky and had to suffer, you’d sing a different tune.”[1] But if we stand side by side with our neighbours and community, suffering the same needs, crisis, disasters, ‘ice storms’, discrimination, injustice, disease and bereavement, yes, and just sometimes bad luck, and we continue in the face of these sufferings genuine in our faith, true to the hope of that new life and future in heaven then God will put us on display saying as he did about Job “Have you noticed my friend __insert your name here__. There’s no one quite like [them].” There’s no one quite like [them]. (Job 1:8)
There will be days when even this won’t be a very good answer to the question why. But then, that’s the test, isn’t it? Is your faith genuine, will it be proved?
I like the example of faith we have in the Gospel reading this morning. I always sympathize with poor Thomas who personally I think doubted less than the rest. He declares boldly when told by the others that Jesus is alive and has visited them “Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe it.” (John 20:25) And unfortunately, most paintings depicting the scene when Jesus reveals himself to Thomas, the most famous being that of the 17th century artist Caravaggio, show him incredulously poking his finger in the holes in Jesus resurrected body. But the text in John’s Gospel says Jesus focused his attention on Thomas and invited him to not “be unbelieving. Believe.” (27) and Thomas responds immediately, “My Master! My God!” (28) May our faith be as genuine as Thomas’ so that we may endure the suffering in this world that, looking to that hope as heirs of the eternal kingdom, we may be the evidence of Jesus victory and God will put us on display. And all this with laughter and singing.
“What a God we have!” (1 Peter 1:3)
Amen
