More on the resurrection, and its power to change the world. As the author* of I Peter notes, the resurrection affects not just our souls, not just our bodies, but our ways of being in the world.
How so? By giving us a second chance at life. Peter speaks in the opening of this letter about a “new birth,” a profound shift in beliefs and behaviors.
In this part, he’s ready to spell out what that means: “If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile,” he tells his readers.
There’s two parts to his statement. Those who claim the Jewish God as their own should be prepared to live by that god’s rules, obviously.
But just as important is the flip side of the equation: Peter’s readers chose God, and God chose them. No longer is there a distinction between Jew and Greek in the “economy of salvation”. All will be judged according to their deeds, not the accident of their birth. This is no small message at a time when there was popular interest in Judaism, but many would-be converts felt held back by the burdens of Jewish law.
The resurrection has changed all that. God will be constrained by law no more. Which means the gentiles will be consigned to a meaningless death no more. You can take this salvation to the bank, says Peter:
You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ…
Peter’s readers have made an intentional choice to live with values different from those of the surrounding culture. If you weren’t looking for something new, you wouldn’t be here, he reminds them.
Which sets us up perfectly for the punchline:
Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed…
Set aside the language of purification and obedience. The message here is simple exhortation: you have found the right way to live, and you’ve seen the results. So keep it up! Because what you’ve found is something that will last, if you’re willing to keep with it…
In light of last weekend’s mini-civil war, Peter has a lesson for this community, believers and skeptics alike. You and I and all the rest of us have chosen to be here because the values of the dominant culture don’t work for us. Or would you rather live in a world where lying, economic oppression, unnecessary war and torture are the norm?
I didn’t think so.
We’re here because we want to be, and because this community offers something the larger world can’t: genuine mutual love.
That love has as its foundation more-or-less shared political values, but we’ve all seen how much deeper it can go. Every year, Markos wishes his kid a happy birthday, and gets hundreds of responses chiming in. Look at the support that Meteor Blades, Drain Bamaged, Nephalim, Maryscott O’Connor–and yes, myself–have received from this community. And those are just a few of the more notable examples. Every day, there are countless examples of small blessings being given out around here, in ways that are not “virtual.”
And we’d want to piss all that away over the Pope and ratings why?
Well, I said it was a simple message, so I’ll climb down from my high horse and close with a simple reminder. We chose to be here, you and I, and the community has chosen us by not zeroing our asses out of existence. And I don’t know about you, but I’d like to think I’ve tapped into something lasting in this community. I’d like to think I’ve found a place filled with genuine mutual love.
Put it to you this way: I love you all deeply from my heart. How about you? You willing to share the love around?
You willing to live like you’ve been given a second chance?
*1 & 2 Peter have a strong odor of pseudonymity. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll refer to “Peter,” assuming that the apostle really did write the letter.
Thank you, God–by whatever name you are known–for the grace of leading us to this community, and to all the communities that sustain us. Grant us the further grace to live in ways that uphold the values of our communities, and to build them up in mutual support and love. Amen.
This is lovely, Pastor Dan.
And how about tolerance? Right now, my diary on Roemer — over at Kos — is. Well, let’s just say things aren’t going well. I’ll probably get zeroed out of existence.
Abortion isn’t a yes, do it kinda thing for me. It’s terribly serious and it affects a potential life. I believe in choice 100%, but I also think we should honor people in the Democratic party who are anti-abortion, so long as they are willing to allow others to make their own choice.
More for the sake of the “parents” than the potential child(too damn many kids in the world already, if you ask me), I wouldn’t wish or reccommend it to anyone.
I think anyone who would is either quite loopy or has never gone through one.
Of course, to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven, so we should keep the option legally available and safe.
it looks like you got caught in some nasty cross-currents. FWIW at this late time, I agree with your basic point: that being personally opposed to abortion but publicly in favor of choice should not be a bar to service in the party. It’s a contradictory position, and one that I don’t find very satisfying, but there it is.
Where this goes wrong, of course, is that Roemer’s not a very good example of such a person. He’s a little too close to the wingnuts for most folks on dKos to accept with open arms.
And I can understand your concerns with some of the comments – one of which was especially unfortunate in tone. I did, however, think you opened up a very interesting discussion, with a wide range of perspectives. And much like the Palestine/Israel debate – its a sensitive subject that’s bound to illicit strong emotions on both sides.
It seems that we share much the same opinions of the matter. (I find the T shirts couterproductive and yes – even offensive, but that’s just my opinion and it’s obvious that others feel quite differently.) I also find it difficult to view abortions in the same category as a minor dental procedure.
The big difference between us is that I don’t have the courage to put myself out there with such a heated topic. More power to you, and I certainly wouldn’t allow the reaction of some to hinder your future writing – it’s just the nature of the beast.
Susan did open up some important discussion. I should have said that in my comment.
Your words are wise and powerful, Pastordan.
Well, pastor, I’m all in favor of folks being nice to each other, and supporting those who are going through hard times, and trying to make the world a better place, and so on.
But I really, truly have no idea what you’re talking about when you get into being “re-born”, or when you thank God for making all of this possible.
Because, you know, as for being re-born… I’ve been pretty much the same person my whole life, which is over half a century now; it’s not as if I used to be some kind of mean-assed shit-kicker or something.
And as for thanking God, well, it seems to me that whatever we’ve got, we’re the ones who take the credit when it’s not too bad, and we’re the ones who have to own it when it’s shitty.
And normally I would just let a post like yours go by without comment, but I guess a week of pope mania on CNN really has worn me down; and someone says, well, a billion people can’t be delusional, and I think, well, maybe so, but no matter how I try, I can’t make heads or tails of it. Not at all. Not even a little bit.
So I’ll wish you good night, and go back to my garden.
And susan: of course no one is “pro-abortion”. Who could be in favor of something as quintessentially dreadful as that? And who besides a zealot could claim that the decision to abort or not belongs to everyone except the woman concerned? It’s only because American political discourse functions at the level of bumper-stickers that the national debate on this issue could be so unbelievably stupid.
I feel somewhat constantly reborn, myself. If I consider myself as I am now and consider myself as I was even six months ago, I can see a difference. There’s most definitely some kind of an improvement or elevation over my prior state.
The same could be said if I were to make the same comparison at virtually any point along the line of my past. I feel that I’m in a constant state of evolution.
This is what I consider the benefit of spirituality, or faith, if you want to call it that. The feeling that you are becoming a better and better person with each passing day.
I can also say for myself that I’m not “Born Again”. My spiritual progress has been an unbroken (if somewhat jagged) line from the moment I first realized I had consciousness.
That’s perhaps one of the reasons that I, growing up in one of the bible belt’s latch holes, felt so out of place with Christianity. It required rebirth and I didn’t want rebirth, I was perfectly happy being who I was.
But then, that’s the wonderful thing about the universe, isn’t it? Christianity wasn’t for me, but something else was, and while that won’t fit for someone else, they can always turn to Christianity.
I have faith that whatever path someone chooses it will lead them where they want to go, and I’m not fit to judge the fitness of it.
But I didn’t always think that way…
this text was not written for you. It was written for people who really did feel like they had been re-born.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t get something out of it.
were just discussing – well, it was one of those “two kinds of people” discussions which are always over-simplistic, but can contain a little germ of truth. That we’d noticed that some people are constantly seeking to find a better way to live, have an essential optimism perhaps, that they can change themselves and find ways to be more loving, happier, more productive and useful in the world. They’re the ones who talk long into the night about the “meaning of life,” undergo therapy, seek spiritual enlightenment, or whatever form this takes for them.
While others seem to think that whatever they are doing is the best life can be. They resist and fear changing themselves. Some of these types are just shallow and selfish, but many are deeply scarred by life – they’ve found a way to survive, but are convinced that any change would be for the worse, that they might lose whatever is holding them together in the process.
My friend is Jewish, I’m an atheist, so neither sees ourselves as “reborn in Jesus.” But as always, pastordan, I do get something out of your thoughts. Thanks.
Well, I’m still clueless… but if you can convince other Christians to live and act lovingly and inclusively, instead of living and acting out of fear, hatred, and exclusion; if you can convince Christians that child molesters are the problem, not gays; that AIDS is a problem, not birth control; that appealing to an unhappily pregnant woman’s conscience is OK, but bullying her is not; and so on… then I’m all for it, and you will go down in history as the most remarkable Christian preacher who ever lived. I’m sceptical, but no one will be happier if you succeed.
And my response was to the one who asked about rebirth.
That doesn’t mean we can’t get something out of it.
Like I said in that response, Christianity is a perfectly acceptable spiritual path for people with a certain kind of mindset, and I can respect that, and gain wisdom from the scriptures. It just isn’t framed in a way that I can accept.
In all sincerity, I appreciated the bulk of your “sermon”.
I thought I was here for creative lubrication and to alleviate some boredom.
It’s the internet, folks.
Just the internet.
We bump into each other again. That one gave me a chuckle–thanks!
My sublimest pleasure.
I’m still adjusting to the local paradigm…
in the community, then I’m afraid you won’t be able to understand. Very real things happen over there.
Luckily, very real things happen to me every day.
If folks are finding happiness through internet message boards, by all means, let them find happiness, and I will find happiness in being smugly bemused by the practice, and everything works out by everyone getting exactly what they want out of the deal.
I personally won’t go as far as pursuing “mutual love” from a group of strangers on the Internet, but mutual respect is certainly a good thing.
PastorDan – if you’re still out there, I’d appreciate some insight regarding the picture of Jesus on the Faith Forward ad. I find it rather disturbing, and I was hoping you could share the meaning behind that visual. Thank you.
at least not in the sense that you have to dig very deep for it.
I picked it up originally because it was a great graphic: it touches on the traditional views of Christianity, while presenting them in a new context. (The picture, BTW, is from a site dedicated to the restoration of sculpture, with no greater meaning than to show a work in progress.)
But after I thought about it for a while, it seemed to me to say something about Christianity’s need to be restored, about Christ’s continued suffering in the midst of war, intolerance and oppression. We need to keep that vision before us.
Actually that does sound like deep meaning (or maybe just deep for me). Your comments in the last paragraph hit the nail on the head regarding my personal understanding of the graphic (in that I assumed it involved restoration).
It might be less disturbing to me if Jesus didn’t look so “broken”, but it sounds as though that’s likely the whole point.
Thank you.
Christianity should be disturbing. If we’re not troubling the waters, then what the hell are we doing?
I don’t know – teaching, nurturing, spreading the word, (sharing cookies and snark)?
in a world like this, that is troubling the waters.
You’re obviously quite good at what you do, and I’ve enjoyed your contributions immensely, so I hope you enjoy your line of work – no matter how troubling or disturbing it may be. (In all sincerity – and with no intentions of sucking up – I would feel blessed to be one of your parishoners.)
What is your biggest challenge, and what do you like the least about “pastoring”?