Gordon McPhee

                                                Mark 1: 9-15

WHY DO YOU LIVE LIKE THAT!

Introduction:

Oh boy! It’s the first Sunday in Lent and I’m sure you’re just as excited as I am to start giving up some extraneous activities, denying yourself those delicious little pleasures that we tell ourselves to make the day go better. And then, of course, there’s no meat Fridays, and fasting on Ash Wednesday, and Good Friday to look forward to. And if your timing is right, you can just finish up the Valentine’s Day chocolate in time to give it up for Lent, and then have a grand chocolate fest at Easter.

Well, Ok, maybe not such a longed-for season in the church calendar. It’s almost as if somebody wanted us to look as much forward to the 40 days before Easter as Jesus did to the days before his crucifixion. And it prompts us to ask the question, as the theme title for our service today says, “Why do you live like that!?”

In our Epistle reading from 1 Peter 3 this morning Peter exhorts us, “Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are.” Well, I think, to be honest with ourselves, particularly as we embark on this 40-day Lent journey before Easter, we need to ask if we are living in a way that would prompt anyone to ask why we are living the way we are?   Is there something about how you live, Monday to Saturday, excluding that you go to church on Sunday, that might make someone notice something different about you. Now besides what Peter has to say, we’re also going to read about Noah in Genesis, David in the Psalms and Jesus in The Gospel of Mark, all about how to stand out, in the nicest way.

Sermon:

The First Letter of Peter is not a long theological missal full of doctrinal statements and clever arguments as we often find in Paul’s letters. Nor is it a list of ethical dos and don’ts. Peter writes to encourage his hearers in the faith because they are suffering persecution. Not the kind of thing we see in movies so often, Christians thrown to lions in the colosseum or tortured and crucified. At least according to the historical records we have, very few Christians were actually martyred in the first two hundred years after Jesus. In fact, we can name only a handful. So, when the letter of Peter says things like, “even if you suffer for it,” and “when people throw mud at you,” it’s talking about the kinds of hardships we can encounter and experience in our everyday lives as well.

Peter says, “If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you think you can be stopped?” Christians were quite enigmatic in Greek and Roman society. They often elicited confusion from Roman officials who didn’t know what to do with them. We have letters written to Caesar characterizing Christians as orderly, charitable, productive and in every way good citizens except they do not follow local religious practices and customs and encourage others to release from them as well. There are many stories of early Christians interfering with the societal norms, some brutal and cruel, such as leaving unwanted babies to die of exposure. Doing good and not being stopped by being ostracized or aspersion.

Certainly, from all we read in the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters we know the early church did not have an easy time of it. And I think if we sat down over a coffee and talked about it, we’d soon agree that our world, and our situation as Christians in it, is not so much different from that early church Peter was writing to. We sometimes still bask in that hey-day of the Christian Church, our ‘roaring 20’s’ if you will, when everybody went to church and, at least on the exterior, everyone was ‘doing good’. You could get away with a lot of evil if you hid it well, but you could always do good out in public and be praised.

Yes, maybe a little idilic, but it’s only to highlight that things have changed, and we certainly can say, “We’re not in Kansas anymore.” Deciding in our Christian community what is right and good and applying those decisions to our daily life can set us apart, at odds with popular thinking. Going to church on Sunday just makes us different but usually no one minds unless you ring the church bell too early. But there are times in business, or social circumstances or as a member of an organization or a committee when conscience leads you to actions and decisions that are completely at odds with your fellows. You could lose your position, your friend, and often elicit what Peter called ‘mud slinging’.

Peter’s advice about this to his listeners seems a bit cavalier, “Don’t give the opposition a second thought.” That’s kind of difficult when they hold your career, position, or relationship in their hands. We might first think that Peter’s a little out of touch with the reality of these kinds of situations. But considering who’s writing the letter, we may want to withhold judgement. Rather than addressing our fears, stemming from the reality we see, Peter redirects our attention to the reality he knows saying, “Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master.” And that’s really the test isn’t it? Can we see and live in a situation in which everything screams, “You’re going to get trounced, laughed at, scorned or worse!” and still keep our eyes on the Master, Jesus. Remembering that he is master of everything, not just our own selves.

What I find really interesting is that Peter doesn’t even consider that you might be in a dilemma about what to do. Jesus is your Master; you know what to do! Peter wants to ensure you are ready to give a witness to why you are living the way you do. Why you’re making these choices. And he wants you to speak, “always with the utmost courtesy” because you can only do that from the high ground, where you know Jesus is the Master and you neither need defend nor justify your actions, only giving the reasons “you’re living the way you are.” Peter knows how difficult this is, that every fibre of your being will want to defend your actions to avoid being judged by others, so you can’t give even an inch. You need to be ready with an answer you’ve prepared in your heart and can deliver with control and courtesy, not defensive emotion.

Peter keeps our focus on what’s important. We’re to’ “keep a clear conscience before God,” not the people questioning us. Don’t you find that interesting? That the state of my mortal integrity is dependent or my conduct in God’s eyes not the opinion or viewpoint of those who would slander me? The mud just won’t stick. Peter even suggests this would be a witness revealing to themselves their own wantonness and need.

So again, our sights are set on God although, in the heat of a situation, our hearts want to melt away. “It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad.” Small comfort sometimes when you’re faced with a decision where the stakes could be high. But the point Peter is making is the small addition in the middle of the quaint proverb. He reminds us that this is not a random chance. God is there, sovereign, and if you suffer for doing good it is because it is for a His purpose. And that’s the crux and the point of everything else Peter speaks about in this passage.

You see, obeying God, doing what is good and right, isn’t even a question. There’s no doubt that if you are walking with God your life will, it must, be different and the only concern is whether you’re prepared a ‘yourself’ to “speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are … always with the utmost courtesy.”

Peter brings up the case of Noah a portion of which we read this morning. Noah was the ultimate example of living contrary to popular wisdom and being steadfastly obedient to God. Spending 100 (Gen. 5:32 & 7:6) years building a football stadium sized water proof box (Gen. 6:14-16) in a land with no lakes or rivers and where rain was unknown. A mist coming up from the ground (Gen. 2:6) was the water source for plants and animals. Peter says of Noah, “God waited patiently all the days that Noah built his ship.” God was faithful and rescued Noah and his family and all the plants and animals of the earth and then, as we read, sealed his covenant with the earth in the rainbow we see even today. It answers the question, “Why be faithful to God? Because, He is faithful; “When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth.” (Gen. 9:16)

The Psalmist cried, “I’ve thrown in my lot with you … Don’t embarrass any of us who went out on a limb for you,” and echoes his own reply, “God is fair and just.” God is faithful.

Here is where Peter brings it home. He goes back to speaking about a clear conscience before God so that the mud slung at us doesn’t stick. That clear conscience, like Noah being saved through the waters, and we being baptised with water, is only meaningful because it presents us through Jesus’ resurrection before God with a clear conscience. It is not in us to “keep a clear conscience before God.” But through our baptism in Christ, our confession of him and our desire to be like him, He presents us to God with a clear conscience.

So why should anyone ask you, “Why do you live like that?” Maybe it’s because, whether you consciously do something or not, you have been presented to God with a clear conscience and maybe that shows. You’ve been baptised, you’ve passed through the waters and live now in a new creation, post Noah’s flood and post your baptism, under the covenant of the rainbow, God’s faithful promises. This is a reality about you, that dwells in you, the resurrected life of Jesus Christ and you can’t hide it. Peter knew that, which is why he never considered that his audience wouldn’t be asked why they live as they do. If you have been baptised into new life with Christ, then that new life will be seen. Like Peter, the only concern you have is being “ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are.”

Amen