1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Easter 7 - Year A
If the glory of Christ is seeing folks safely through (for who is not related to Jesus?) then, whenever we observe or participate in safety being extended we are to celebrate. In these days of preemptive war it is particularly important to celebrate safety for all as antidote to our spasmodic madness of doing in ourselves and one another.
It is easier to emphasize safety for all if we engage the virtues and values of humility, calmness of heart, alertness to temptation, and steadfastness of faith. May we continue to stir this up that they remain constantly present and not settle out.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/may2005.html
Let's try conflating these passages.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the anxiety in your midst, as though this were something strange. Rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's humility, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when steadfast faith is revealed. If you are reviled for resisting the ways of Wealth, you are blessed, because the power of G*D is alongside you.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/may2005.html
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Acts 1:6-14
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
John 17:1-11
In due time exultation. (1 Peter 5:6)
"Is this the time?" (Acts 1:6)
"Glorify me, now!" (John 17:4)
Sing to God. (Psalm 68:32)
Prooftexting is fun. We are always doing it, so it's good that it's fun.
Peter suggests humility now, to later receive exultation. Who wouldn't want to be exulted? So, some humility now may well be worth trying. In fact, if we do it well enough, we may even hurry the exultation.
Of course there is a tension between humility and constantly looking around to see if this is the time of exultation. Now? Now? Now? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Indeed, it is time for exultation. We have glorified God, time to get our reward in kind. Have we done enough humility and glorification, yet, God? Surely so.
I guess not. Let's sing another round.
x x x
On the other hand, exultation is always on its way. This also suggests it is always here as well.
Is this the time? When else, pray tell.
Didn't you know you were already glorified.
So let's sing a new song
- - -
sometimes we get the feeling
time is running out on us
it has been almost 40 days
or is that years
almost twice what we need
to begin a new habit
or break an old one
almost midlife crisissomething ought to be happening
'round here somewhere
what do you think?
has it happened
and we missed it again?
about to happen?
eventually, right?well, let's hang in a bit longer
we haven't hit bottom quite yet
let's try praying once more
perhaps another refrain
what's our discipline say
when lion-sized doubts arise?
protect one another
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html
Being reviled for following one's call from Christ is one thing when the difficulty comes from an outside culture that denies your call or an internal process of not doing what one desires or the other internal process of doing what one has resolved not to do, compared to being reviled by another person, also called from Christ, who claims you are incompatible with their call and therefore your call is invalid.
Here at General Conference we have been dealing with the last of these scenarios and it feels as though this intra-call reviling is the most difficult to deal with. Again, time after time, we refused to listen to the truth that we are differently called.
The matter of sexual identity is a very easy target and will not be something only suffered for a little while. It is also not an issue that is resolvable in some great by-and-by when some "glory" will swallow up the glory of sexuality in this paradise. This matter is very much oriented to our current relationships.
Until this matter is dealt with, there is no option but to find alternative "church" forms either within or beyond current denominations. This is a discipline that is hard to keep because of the comforts of established ways of thinking and acting and the comforts of power and payment for services rendered. You may want to rethink things in light of what the Church Within a Church Movement is doing.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html
"So be content with who you are, and don't put on airs.... Live carefree before God; [God] is most careful with you." [The Message]
Being content with who one is brings with it a blessing that one is also content with who others are. This is not to suggest that there is not learning and teaching to be done, but that the edge is taken off of needing to see that learning and teaching live up to some time-sensitive standard.
Reflexively comes the question, "Aren't there limits and laws and standards?" Yes, but they change as we grow. To have one standard good for all time becomes a cage. There are no standards that would limit kindness, charity, compassion, love, justice.
Living carefree emphasizes the virtues of life. Living carefully emphasizes the vices of life.
May we be pulled by kindness to more kindness. Living this way pushes away harm through the expansion of safety. The reverse is not as true - pushing away evil does not open one to greater hospitality (there is no end to that push and so no time to welcome).
Do I find the world works this way? No. Is that the deciding factor for our choice toward carefreeness? No.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/may2002.html
Anyone here surprised at the “aft agley”ness of the world? Anytime you set about trying to create something in the image of a community it seems there is going to be at least one pyschopathic personality amongst the creative “our”.
If you wish to connect whatever gets defined as a “fiery ordeal” with Christ, that certainly has the potential to sharpen one’s sense of meaning. If you find another way to look at fiery ordeals, that is also alright. One of those other ways is the simple one of “discipline yourselves”.
Keeping faith with one’s grander meaning and larger view of the world takes much joyful discipline. If it is simply discipline we find ourselves with a dour mein. If only joy, there is no connection with reality. Here it is helpful to keep this oxymoron of joyful discipline in creative presence and tension with itself.
If you need some form of restoration to justify your suffering, then eternal glory may well be a helpful way to go. Simply know it is not the only option available. Eternal crucifixion is a far side, and yet still a side, of what may eventuate. In addition there are good old “lukewarm” ways to ignore any correction needed to move beyond the current scene.
The due time for exultation is not Tomorrow or Rapture Day in a couple more months. Exultation can only be a present action. Likewise, restoration is present oriented. We don’t have to think of these as earnings based on gritted teeth, but living in the model of Jesus’ life. This is not “test”, but growth. If you are not growing as you take a test, you are just repeating the past. In some ways tests are the logical next step of becoming.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/06/1-peter-412-14-56-11.html
Every life and age has to find a way to deal with suffering loss. We come up with all manner of ways to deal with this. Each of the world-wide and indigenous religions have their model such as a once-for-ever earth to heaven or turning wheel to release or some unifying now.
There really is no surprise that life goes awry, that we block one another’s gifts and growth.
What is surprising is that a humility toward our circumstance cuts across all difficulties and opens us to wisdom found beyond our claimed givens. Humility here is not a passive acceptance, but entails a widening awareness through disciplines that narrow distractions and open more room to breathe. This humility will bring us to patient learning/teaching and revolutionary points of decision that here is where we will stand.
Whether our loss be long or our relief be distant, our solidarity in suffering is restorative, supportive, and strengthening. This is a potential core around which all our various perspective can find room for one another. Might you take one more step toward establishing a common cause with one more person who has lost sight of the kindness still possible.
Note: there is an elision in this pericope that does need to be present for us to continue to do good when feeling dismissed. The New Community Bible uses headings for sections. Here at the end of 1 Peter they run: “Suffering as a Christian”, “Advice to the Presbyters”, and “Advice to the Community” before concluding with “Final Greetings”.
It would be instructive to use this three-fold structure in a worship setting. Begin with our commonality of suffering. Use a variety of processes to draw forth not just the easy surface sufferings it is culturally OK to talk about, but those deeper sufferings behind our discomforts. Shift to how church and state have added to those sufferings by imposing theories absent the sufferers at the table. Analyze the disjunctures of prejudice and discrimination that isolate and continue injustice. Shift again to claim the communal power to raise the fallen and return the exiled.
This will all take time. It is not an hour’s worth of work, but a lifetime’s. If we are not intentional in coming as close as we can to some on-going rhythm such as: Suffering caused by privileged leaders can be rectified by a compassionate community—we are institutionalizing further suffering.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/05/1-peter-412-14-56-11.html