What is the Missional Church (Part 8)

What is the Missional Church? (Part 8)
Epistles: 1 Peter

1 Peter is a companion piece to Ephesians (see last post). The two letters share a number of similarities.

-both are disputed in terms of authorship. As in the case of Ephesians, though, I am not persuaded by the critics.
-both are circular letters to various churches in a region.
-both share a number of similarities in form and content, and
-both are tracts dealing directly with missional theology.

The difference between them, and what makes them companion pieces, is that whereas Paul addresses a group of churches that need an overview and introduction to missional theology, Peter’s churches are in the thick of the battle. They are living it out and some of are taking their lumps. Thus Peter writes to encourage, support, and nurture their continued commitment to the missional struggle. He offers them invaluable direction and insight to the nature and dynamics of what often happens when the rubber hits the road in missional living and witness.

Peter uses different language than Paul did in Ephesians to point to the great and gracious reality at the heart of our lives as God’s people and which captivates our hope as we live for Christ now. Paul named this “mystery” as God’s plan to gather everything up in Christ, the risen and victorious Christ, into that harmonious, interdependent abundance of generosity and well-being between all creatures, the creation itself, and the God whose very glory is “humanity fully alive”! Peter sees this reality too and he calls it our “living hope,” an “imperishable, undefiled and unfading” inheritance God holds for us in heaven (1:3-4), our “salvation” (1:5). This is the new world, the new creation opened up for us through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Like Paul’s “mystery,” Peter’s vision of our “inheritance” entails the union of Jew and Gentile in a new body of humanity, a new people, one that transcends all the old divisions and differences. The existence of this people, faithfully living out this new reality, is the chief mark of truth and credibility of the gospel.

This salvation we await is also the salvation we presently receive (1:8-9) as we live out our love for Jesus and endure the suffering such faithful witness generates (1:6-7) . Suffering in 1 Peter, it must be clearly understood, is suffering generated by living and loving as a follower of Jesus. It does not here refer to the various struggles and difficulties that befall each of us in our journey through life. No, the sufferings Peter addresses are those we would not have had except for following Jesus.

The Bible’s chief plot line stemming from God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 12:1-3 runs right to and through 1 Peter. Just prior to the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai God gives his people a new name befitting their coming nationhood. This people, whom God promised to Abraham and Sarah, the people he would use to bless the world, he now calls “my treasured possession . . . a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” (Ex.19:5-6). Peter applies just this passage to the church in 2:9! This gathering of Jew and Gentile into this new body of people in Christ is fulfillment of God’s ancient promise! And their mandate to bless the world is ours as well: “that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

But the reality isn’t always as grand as the vision! We still fight with ourselves, you see, over whether we really want God to be in charge of our lives or not. This inner battle (Rom. 7:14-25), what Paul calls the struggle with our “flesh,” as one source of resistance to missional living. And then there’s the “world” ; it did not welcome Jesus and it does not will not always (or even often) welcome us either. Finally, there is the “devil.” And Peter assures us that this malignant power is still on the prowl, in its death throes (as it were), seeking to inflict whatever damage it can before the end. This unholy “trinity” – the flesh, the world, and the devil – are the missional menaces every church desiring to live faithful to Christ has to face.

And that is how Peter outlines the task facing missional churches. These communities will face continual temptations from “the desires of the flesh” (2:11-3:12). Following Jesus’ way will not likely enhance our reputations in the world or indulge our passion to assert ourselves, go our own way, and make our own mark. In other words, we might well not look good to others or “be all that we can be” because of Jesus. For like him, we too are called to “submit” – to God, for Jesus’ sake, and to others, for the sake of the world (2:20-25).

In the next section Peter addresses our temptation to want to set the world. We want fairness and justice to prevail. We want our good conduct to be rewarded and accept that our bad conduct ought to be punished. And when it isn’t, when we suffer some outrage or injustice, we seek redress and demand a hearing. Except if we follow Jesus, Peter says. In the new world of resurrection he calls us to bearing just injustice is “blessed” and often offers us an opportunity to bear witness to Jesus, with “gentleness and reverence” (3:14-16). Indeed, such miscarriages of justice and decency usher us into the “sharing of Christ’s sufferings” (4:13) and to glorifying God (4:16), chances we might never have if we insist on adjudicating our own settlements for this slights and burdens!

Finally, we meet the “devil” (5:1-11). Our enemy seeks to stir up our pride, our resentments, our sense of offense at outrage at one within the church as well as without, thus making hash of the quality of the church’s community and its credibility before a watching world. Nurturing genuine humility, turning all our anxieties over to God, and remaining vigilant in these disciplines are our only hope. When we do this we put a bulls-eye on ourselves and become targets for the devil’s wrath (5:8-9). Thus it is with the church everywhere, Peter tells us (5:9) and we join in solidarity with them in the hope of God’s promise to “restore, support, strengthen, and establish” us (5:10-11)!

Jesus died for us that we might die to ourselves and love and serve the world!