Easter 6: A Healthy Community for Sharing Jesus
“Compassion” by Joy Gonzales — © Made Seen. Used with permission. https://www.madeseen.com/
Introduction
Good morning friends. I’m Fr. Morgan Reed, the Vicar here at Corpus Christi Anglican Church. This week I heard a podcast interview about the history of the church growth movement.[1] The father of the church growth movement was a gentleman named Donald McGavran who had worked out church growing strategies on the mission field in India. He wanted to help churches grow mature disciples and multiply so that an area would be saturated with the gospel. He brought these principles back to the US to instruct missionaries, but the principles made their way into American protestantism which had an unintended consequence. Before 1970 there were less than 20 mega churches with a Sunday attendance of 2000 or more. By 2010, there were nearly 1600 megachurches with at least 2000 in attendance in the US. McGavran’s principles had been taken over and used to grow large churches rather than multiplying church. As churches have grown larger, have they made more disciples? The proof of effective discipleship for him would not have been in attendance, buildings, and cash, but in holiness and a church’s ability to multiply itself. How are the members of a church loving one another, how are they becoming more faithful men and women, moms and dads, neighbors, colleagues? How is their testimony of Christ’s work evident in the community of faith and in their individual witness in their lives? The proof of health is in the community, and that is precisely what St. Peter is driving at in our passage this morning.
The church is to proclaim the goodness of Christ in its communal life and in the individual testimonies of each of its members. It is not something new, but it is something to be reminded of. As we look at 1 Peter, let me pray for us:
“In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer, Amen.”
8-12 Love well — A rule of life to practice witness to Christ
As a reminder, St. Peter is writing this letter to Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor. These Christians have changed how they live because they now follow Jesus as Lord and King. They have put their pagan ways behind them and now do not look like their neighbors anymore. Because of their difference from the broader culture , they have become a persecuted minority. Peter is addresses the church and their conduct.
They should have a unity of spirit. This is the idea of a like-mindedness. We are not working against one another but for the good of one another. We don’t have to agree on every matter, but I think about it as a fundamental coherence in how we approach each other and the various ministries of the church. This is why, when people have good ideas, I have them work through a ministry plan form. I want them to think about how their idea applies to the unique charisms of this church so that we work together rather apart.
He calls them to be sympathetic. When Peter uses sympathy, the picture is of someone entering into someone’s suffering with them in a way that they need for healing. It reminds me of when my son and I went fossil hunting at Calvert Cliffs state park. It was low tide and the swamp was exposed. I looked up and my son had gotten his feet stuck in the swamp and I could see his water shoes floating on top. I responded quickly and jumped in after him only to realize that what looked like solid ground was very silty mud that acted like quicksand and I went in about thigh high. I went flat onto my belly and army crawled over to him to help. It was a good lesson in what to do with quicksand and it took me jumping into the muck with him to show him the way out. The church needs to be a place where people are willing to jump into the muck of life with us and help bring us back to the one who can bring us out of it. Christ is God incarnate who jumped into the mess of humanity to bring us back to God. We continue Christ’s work of suffering with someone, to help someone knows that Jesus sees them, and we continually bring them to the one who can show them the way forward.
The church should have brotherly love. Not every person will be equally safe or even easy to be around. That is the hard reality of being people on a healing process. But, I heard a phrase somewhere that I appreciate called “exhale friends”. These are the few people that when you’re in their presence you feel like you can breathe a deep exhale because your nervous system is calm and you know you can be vulnerable with them because they have space for you. Whether or not you have people like that in the church, aim to be that person for others. Aim to be an exhale friend. Similar to this kind of love, Peter also tells them to be compassionate with one another. The idea of compassion here reflects the ways lovingkindness is used of God’s love for his people in the Old Testament. There is a way in which we become aware of God’s love for us and give this love to others.
Finally, he tells them to be humble-minded. Someone can’t wish or think themselves into humility: “I’m really trying hard to be humble today.” This is a characteristic of our Lord who had an accurate understanding of himself and submitted himself to his father’s will. Humility is a right estimation of oneself in the context of the will of God. It isn’t self-abasement or self-hatred. It is a recognition of who we are, our proclivities, gifts, responsibilities, and our limits as we look for Jesus’ presence in the daily things he calls us to. A humble person doesn’t live out of insecurity, but by being securely rooted in their baptismal identity, with a rightly esteemed self-understanding of their place in God’s kingdom.
The church is to practice living out its witness of the kingdom of Jesus in community. That practice looks like growing in like-minded purpose, jumping into the muck with your brothers and sisters, becoming an exhale friend, loving as God does, and rightly esteeming ourselves and knowing our human limits in the kingdom of God. The reason he spends time on this is because this is what will hold the church together when a culture that is antithetical to the goodness of Jesus turns against the church. This will keep the church from imploding, fighting back with the depraved weapons of the world, or completely assimilating to the culture around it.
13-16 Do what is good and speak hope with gentleness — Ensuring an enduring witness to Christ
The church is called to practice these things well so that they become the presence of Jesus for the world around them. As I mentioned a few weeks back from the early Epistle to Diognetus, Christians were those who got married and had babies like their neighbors. But unlike their neighbors, they did not leave their unwanted babies exposed to the elements to die. They shared their tables in hospitality like their neighbors. But unlike their neighbors, they did not treat their wives as property or a commodity to be traded. Christians practice doing and becoming what is ultimately good in the church so that we can hold out what is ultimately good for the neighbors around us. In this way we follow what St. Peter says “but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.”
I remember growing up with videos in youth group of a guy who would stand on a platform and ask people if they’d stolen or if they’d lied. And then it was a bit of a “gotcha” moment where he’d say “well see, according to the Bible you’re a liar and a thief, if you’ve broken these commandments, you’ve done them all. You’re a sinner.” Then he’d move them to their need for Jesus to get out of hell, but not until he’s made them think about how bad they are. I’m not saying God cannot use that, but I want to move far away from that kind of 4-spiritual-laws, tract carrying, revivalist type of evangelism. It lacks connection, gentleness and reverence. At the same time, we must speak the truth because Christ is indeed Lord and we do not want to sacrifice the kingdom of God on the altar of insecurity, fearing that we might offend someone by telling them exactly what they need.
As we create rhythms of being with God and being with others, practice the virtues that St. Peter listed out in the beginning of chapter 3, learn to listen well and hold space for others, then listen to the Holy Spirit and point them to Jesus, we gain the tools we need to help others outside the community of the church see Jesus. As we coach sports teams, deepen friendships with coworkers, and meet neighbors, we have the opportunities to listen to peoples’ desires, fears, and hopes. These are gifts to honor and to bless, and we should point out the things others are longing for and show them the goodness of Jesus in those places, just like St. Paul did in our Acts 17 reading today. This kind of evangelism is kind, humanizing, takes a long time, and enters into peoples’ mess with them to show them the one who can deliver them.
Conclusion
To sum up, St. Peter has been helping the churches see how they live out life in Christ in community in the face of a culture that opposes them. They shouldn’t assimilate to it or fight it with the violence and abuse which it has experienced. Instead, they entrust justice to God either in this age or the age to come because, as Peter quoted from Psalm 34, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. Because we can entrust ourselves to a good and faithful creator, we are called as a church to grow in like-minded purpose, jump into the muck with our brothers and sisters, become exhale friends, love others as God does, and rightly esteem ourselves while knowing our human limits. We practice in the church what we live out in the world. The goodness of Jesus is presented to others through the testimonies of us who know Christ and who can hold others’ stories with gentleness and curiosity. Let’s bless people’s good desires and simultaneously hold out for them the goodness of what God ultimately wants to bring them into.
Let us pray:
O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace to take to heart the grave dangers we are in through our many divisions. Deliver your Church from all enmity and prejudice, and everything that hinders us from godly union. As there is one Body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so make us all to be of one heart and of one mind, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and love, that with one voice we may give you praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God in everlasting glory. Amen.
