Gentleness and Reverence

Sunday, March 1st, 2009
Lent 1B
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
1 Peter 3:13-22
Theme: Our attitude – Christ’s attitude

“13Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15but 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; 16yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. 17For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. 18For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. 21And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.”

The concept I grew up with of sharing the Gospel was of one person, the witness, having total command of the situation. There was no question this person couldn’t answer. There was no scripture this person couldn’t quote. There was no obstacle or objection that this person couldn’t overcome.

It was always an intimidating image for me, and it was always way out of my comfort zone. I never felt ready to DO that. As some of you who have seen me in tense situations know, I tend to become flustered or simply quiet down and don’t say ANYTHING, when a situation presents itself and there are strong emotions expressed.
Some time ago there was a situation here at church, and a member asked to speak to me in private. When we sat down together, this person began to speak, and almost immediately was overcome by the depth of the emotions that were being felt, to the point where the voice quavered and the hands shook. The person was able to … move through the emotion and speak what was on their mind in such a way as to get across the point they were trying to make, and in the process I was moved to the point of tears myself – by simply being so aware of the depth of conviction with which this person was speaking.

That is in essence what happens to me when I begin to speak on a subject that is close to my heart when I am unprepared, and in the context of wanting to defend it, or argue about it. I forget to breath, and the lack of oxygen scrambles my thoughts and I’m left either with a blank stare or a silly grin on my face or worse.

So when I read this passage, I tend to focus on the first part of what it says –

Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands
from you an accounting for the hope that is in you;

I stop breathing right there, because that is where that image of the Superchristian fills my head. So, I wonder where that comes from.

Think for a minute about who we are supposed to idolize in our contemporary culture, and to one degree or another, we come up with someone who is a cross between a movie star like Charlton Heston, the president of the United States, a university professor and a brain surgeon. And throw in a heaping tablespoon each of Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II for good measure. We generally look up to just such a person. Someone who is competent, in control, who can handle the most difficult situations with a cool head and clear thoughts, and who is, in truth, the farthest thing from a real person as there is. We tend to fictionalize the reality and make these people into caricatures – cartoons – of who they really are. And in the process, we set ourselves that much more at a remove from who WE are supposed to be when it comes to being genuine, caring emissaries of Jesus Christ.

Part of the difficulty in this reading is coming to terms with the words into which the Greek has been translated. “be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting” those terms – defense, demands, an accounting – they are not exactly words that conjure up an image of a warm and fuzzy conversation between friends. In truth, the words accurately conveyed the tenor of the confrontations that those early Christians the epistle was written to were facing. The thrust of the message of 1 Peter is to stand strong in the face of persecution. And if the writer had stopped there, we would expect a courtroom style drama to ensue. Lawyers arguing with a witness who puts up a solid front – again, the Superchristian rears his or her head.

But the entreaty to take up that defense does not end there. The next phrase completely changes the image we might have in our minds of what the event might look like.

Yet do it with gentleness and reverence

How many events can we point to where people of different faiths have sat down together to discuss differences or come to some common understanding and have done so with gentleness and reverence?

We look at Bosnia Herzegovina in the early 90’s, and find that the history there was one of oppression and slaughter of the Muslims by the Christian community. We look at the unspeakable genocide that took place in Ruanda in the mid 90’s, and find that it was carried out by people who called themselves followers of Christ. In the Middle East, Muslims and Jews clash and Christians are caught in the crossfire. In Iraq, Sunni and Shi’a Muslims are attacking each other. In predominantly Hindu India, radical Hindus are attacking and killing Christians, to say nothing of being constantly on the brink of all-out war with their Muslim neighbor Pakistan; and in the countries of the former Soviet Union, the resurgent Russian Orthodox Church is supporting the political persecution of Christian religious minorities as well as other faith traditions. And even here, in the United States of America where hooded Protestant Caucasian men by night terrorize Catholic and Jewish neighbors (as well as fellow Protestants of other races), it’s not exactly a blueprint for a peaceful interaction between people of differing faith traditions.

There’s got to be a better way to do it.

Maybe it is Christ's way, according to the writer of the epistle.

The people being written to lived in a time of violence, of suffering due to religious persecution. The writer called upon his community not to bludgeon, not to make war, not even to crusade or convert, but to give a defense, to give an explanation, to make a witness for the hope that is within you and to do it with gentleness and with respect. And he based his call on Christ’s example.

“Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. 17For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. 18For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit,”

So if they – and we – are to take our cue from Jesus, how is it that we are supposed to approach this business of being witnesses for Christ? Our first step is to gain a hearing. But in order to gain a hearing, we must, must, MUST stand for EVERYONE’S freedom to tell THEIR story. That is the only way that WE can then justifiably ask to be heard ourselves.

There was an interfaith conference several years ago where there were a variety of religious leaders present: Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian and Jew. The degree of politeness in the room was extreme. All any of them wanted to DO was listen. None felt comfortable SPEAKING. Finally, one of them spoke up and stated the obvious: “we must each be willing to TELL our own story, so that the others can receive it.”

And that is our challenge. We DO need to be willing to tell our story, but at the same time we must be prepared to receive another’s story. I would almost say being willing to hear the other story and engage it is the first thing we should be willing to do, because that allows us to enter into a relationship with that person, and entering into relationship gives us entry into each other’s lives, and it is in the sharing of our lives that we then have the opportunity to introduce someone to the life of Christ.

Because remember, we’re not talking about a religion here. We’re talking about a relationship.

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

Christ was never bothered trying to be someone he was not. If we are to follow his example, we must be as open and honest with others as we are with God. We can play at being Superchristians all we want, but I suspect that the people we run into, who have gotten to know us either through our shared history, through shared experiences, or as community-family, will be able to see through to the ‘real’ us pretty easily. So why try to put on a façade when the only people we’d be fooling is ourselves?

It is much more convincing and encouraging to stand next to someone in worship and know that they struggle with the same issues we do, who are just as disappointed by the week’s events as we are, who might be just as lonely, or depressed, or angry about something as we are, but whom we know feels just as strongly the need to come together with a family of faith where they will find, maybe not answers, but strength and courage and encouragement to keep on working out what they believe on any number of things – on God, on Jesus, on sin, on salvation, on baptism, on the bible or on the church.

Finding a place to be able to ask the questions that may not have answers HERE ON EARTH is as important as working towards those answers themselves.

Jerusalem can be and should be and I believe IS the sort of place where we welcome not only the questioners, but the questions; where we offer various points of view, yet can gather in worship, where we understand that we are all, servants of Christ and of each other. Richard Gillard put the thoughts into a beautiful hymn we’ve sung here before, but I would invite you to listen to the words of The Servant Song one more time:

We are travelers on a journey, fellow pilgrims on the road. We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load. I will hold the Christ light for you in the nighttime of your fear. I will hold my hand out to you; speak the peace you long to hear.

Sister, let me be your servant let me be as Christ to you; pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too. Brother, let me be your servantlet me be as Christ to you; pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.

I will weep when you are weeping, when you laugh, I'll laugh with you.I will share your joy and sorrow, till we've seen this journey through.When we sing to God in heaven, we shall find such harmony, born of all we've know together of Christ's love and agony

Let’s pray.