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1 Peter 1:13-2:3 · Be Holy
Being and Doing as the People of God
1 Peter 1:13-2:3
Sermon
by Maxie Dunnam
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One of the most single television presentations during this decade, I believe, was the television series based on Alex Haley’s best-selling book, Roots. Millions of people read the book, and millions more saw the television drama. It was a moving presentation of a two-century epic of Kunta Kinte and the six generations who came after him. You will recall that Kunta Kinte was the great-great-great-great-great grandfather of Alex Haley, the author.

If you did not read the book, you may have missed one of the most significant episodes in the television drama - that moving experience of Kunta Kinte taking his baby daughter out in the middle of the night and re-enacting the ancient naming ceremony of the African people.

The first chapter of the book describes that custom concerning birth, and especially the signal event of naming the child on the eighth day. This paragraph from the book describes that ceremony “Omoro (the father) then walked out before all of the assembled people of the village. Moving to his wife’s side, he lifted up the infant, and as all watched, whispered three times into his son’s ear the name he had chosen for him. It was the first time the name had ever been spoken as this child’s name, for Omoro’s people felt that each human being should be the first to know who he was.” Isn’t that beautiful - each human being - And, as if trying to place the truth of the identity in proper dimension, after announcing the name to all who are assembled, Chapter One of the book concluded with the father taking his infant son out into the night, lifting him up to the heavens and proclaiming: “Behold - the only thing greater than yourself.”

In the television presentation, Kunta Kinte, against the wishes of his wife, because she was afraid lest the master discover that they were still living by some of the customs of Africa and great harm come to them - Kunta Kinte risked all that, whispered her name in her ear and then lifted her face toward the heaven above his head, and in a marvelous, dramatic moving moment, said, “Kizzie, behold the only thing in the world greater than you are!”

It was a great celebration of identity, an experience which a person could recall to remind her of her roots. Baptism is that experience for Christians. In baptism, commitment is acted out, death and resurrection is celebrated, we are initiated into the family of God, and God’s seal is placed upon us.

Even so, as dramatic as it is, and as often as we experience the baptism of others, we forget. So today’s sermon is a specific reminder - a rehearsal. We are nearing the close of our series on Dynamic Discipleship, and it is essential to recall who we are in the context of our call to Disciple ship. Or, maybe it should be stated the other way. We should examine our call to discipleship in the context of who we are. I want to talk specifically about “being and doing as the people of God.”

Our scripture lesson is a clear reminder of who we are. Listen especially to verses 9 and 10: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.

Two words are important: being and doing. Our identity as the people of God involves both. To seek to separate the two is like severing a plant from its root. Various interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount illustrate this. In the early church, the requirements of the Sermon on the Mount came to be viewed as a ‘council of perfection. It soon followed that these requirements were reserved for Monastic Orders – those who had made a deliberate decision to completely separate themselves from the world. Following Luther and the Reformation which ejected the double standard, Orthodox Protestants contended that no one live up to the demands, so the absolute standards of the Sermon on the Mount were calculated to drive people to a sense of failure and despair, and that they would accept the message of salvation by grace alone through faith.

In the Nineteenth Century, it was contended that Christ was not laying down a set of rules, but prescribing a fundamental inward disposition. His teachings bore not upon what we should do but we should be. Following this line of thinking, people could accommodate Jesus’ teaching to their own standard.

In every instance, when the emphasis has centered on either being or doing to the exclusion of the other, a distorted identity has emerged. Being and doing cannot be separated.

Let’s try now to get this down to where we live, so that we can go from i today with something solid to hold on to in our minds, something exciting which we can ponder in our hearts, and something compelling to which we can keep yielding our wills.

I

A CLAIM TO BE AND DO

First, note this: At the heart of life itself, however we choose to live it, is a claim to be and do. Let’s call some witnesses to that part. The ancient prophet, Jeremiah, expressed this claim,

“Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,

And before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

(I: 4-5 RSV)

Though not identifying the claim so specifically, Dag Hammarskhold affirmed,

I don know who - or what - put the question,

I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering.

But at some moment I did answer yes to and from that hour

I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life,

in self-surrender, had a goal.

Bonhoeffer, one of the great theologians of this century, concluded his searching, reflective poem, “Who Am I?”, with a simple but profound affirmation: “Whoever I am, thou knowest, 0 God, I am thine!”

Do you get it – a claim to be and do. It is woven into the very fabric of our existence. However, we choose to live our lives the claim is persistent. No matter where I am in my personal growth and maturity as a Christian, when I am I must acknowledge that I am not “my own man.” There is a claim upon me that I cannot shake. I may not always respond to it; in fact, most of us never respond to it completely. I may succeed in tranquilizing it, but it remains real and persistent. The times come when it stirs from the quiet numbness into which I have drugged it to disturb my satisfaction and tranquility.

Jesus said, “The Father and I are one – as the Father has sent me send I you.”

This claim is the claim of God. Our language to describe this may be different, but the claim remains. Or we may have responded, but are infants still in our discipleship. The claim is no less real. Listen to Peter in verses 2 and 3:

“Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual
milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation;
for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

II

A WAY TO BE AND DO

Now a second truth. As certain as there is a claim : to be and do, there is a way to be and do. Listen to verses 4 and 5 of our scripture lesson:

“Come to Christ, to that living stone, rejected
by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious;
and like living stones be yourselves built into a
spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

I know many for whom the claim to be and do is recognized, and, to some degree, responded to. Their lives have been remarkably altered because of this response. Yet they get stuck. ?heir way to be and do is primarily restricted to religious activity - going to church, giving some money, serving on committees, attending meetings, performing acts of piety - reading the bible and praying. But it never gets much beyond that. Their understanding of what it means to be the people of God s vaguely related to being religious, to being a church member,

This is where many of us are today. It isn’t the claim is less real than it has been. The problem is we are frustrated in working out a style of life fully responsive to that claim. We try to work it out in a lot of ways. The most common mistake most of us make it to reduce the Christian way to a set of do’s and don’ts. Mostly don’ts. Those negative restrictions change from generation to generation. But always whether we are living right is based primarily on what we are not doing.

Sometimes we add to that a list: read the Bible, go to church, pray daily and that’s it.

So we have a lot of people going around masquerading as Christians. They don’t drink or run around on the wives or husbands; they are religious in that they are perfunctory church members.

But their faces are pinched – there’s a sadness in their eyes – they strain at life. They lack joy. They have not discovered the way to be and do as Christians.

Let me illustrate. There were five men in the little group that gathered that evening, a well-trained psychologist with a keen mind and a precise tongue; a cynical, self-styled Atheist who had been ordained an Episcopal clergyman but had given up his ordination, and three ministers. The death of God theologians had been causing quite a stir. Theology was making the headlines, and theological speculation had left the dusty, mossy class rooms of university halls, and was being battered about with the man on the street. These five men had come together to talk about this new theology. I was among them.

They were all prepared. The precise psychologist had his notebook with all the notes he had taken on the books and articles written by Altheiser, Hamilton, and others. The self- styled atheist was equipped with a strong ego of “the man come of age” who had no need for the sentimental religion of which he had once been a professional proponent. The three minister all rather defensive and uncertain had put on their buckles of truth and their great shields of faith were well polished and obviously displayed. The discussion went on for about two hours, but it was a phony kind of mental sparring. Each had his own axe to grind, his pet prejudice or theory to elucidate. Each had his defenses and kept his own weakness disguised in a lot of intellectual palaver. One of the ministers grew weary of the whole bit, and dared to be honest. He loosened his tie, got down in the middle of the floor and shocked the group by suggesting that all of them were being dishonest, and were not really sharing their own feelings and convictions. “As for me,” he said, “nothing tonight has been meaningful and I think we ought to either get honest or go home.” When the gawfing had ceased, lie continued, “I don’t know much about this theology we are discussing, but in my own experience this is the way it is. Before I met Christ I didn’t give a damn, and now I care. Some may think that word a bit irreverent for a man of the cloth, too earthy - but the men didn’t miss it that evening. Nor do we! It doesn’t encompass the whole of the Christian experience. It isn’t a systematic doctrine of the work of Christ in a person. But it’s a pretty good description of what happens with a person who begins to take the Christian life seriously. That night that it was uttered, it broke down at least one barrier, and at least one man became honest.

The learned psychologist loosened his tie, left his chair to sit on the floor with the minister and confessed, “I’ll tell you my problem, I had a four year old daughter die of Leukemia. I find it tough to believe in a God who would let that happen.

So we need hope returning to the foundation. This is what Peter was saying, “Come to Christ, the living starts now. Listen.” To be a Christian means just this: to accept the graceful love and forgiveness of God in Jesus Christ, and to live out our life after the model Jesus provides. As the revelation of God, Jesus mirrors the nature of the One who has a claim upon us. As the revelation of man, He images the humanity we are to obtain as dynamic disciples. To be Christian then means more than being religious, it means responding to God’s claim and entering the hazardous venture of being and doing after the model of Jesus. And that model is clear – you can’t read the Gospels without being confronted with it:

Do unto others as you would have them do into you.
Love one another as the Father has loved you.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself

Take up the cross.

This is what Jesus was calling for when He said in Matthew 11:29: “Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me.” Two common words help us: disciple and apostle. A disciple is a learner, a follower. The word has the same root meaning as pupil. An Apostle is a doer – one who is to be alive as a disciple and learner and as an apostle. So is our way to be and do. If we are not becoming more like Christ in our character and in our actions we are not growing as Christians.

III

THE POWER TO BE AND DO

And that leads to one final truth. As there is a claim to be and do and a way to be and do there is also the power to be and do as the people of God.

I received a letter not long ago from a dear friend in another city – a woman who for a long time had been a dynamic disciple. But she fell away. She moved to another state, and a strange city. Failure to find quickly a vital Christian congregation, gradually getting away from the vital spiritual disciplines of scripture study, prayer, and small group sharing, resulting in the loss of the vitality of her faith. She shared and confessed a lot, then concluded:

“Well, I must close. Once again I have burdened you with my innermost thoughts. But this morning I write in joy! I’ve begun again, this time with a clearer picture of the struggle ahead than ever before. Yet, now once again, I can welcome it. I have the feeling that I am waking slowly after a long sort of unreal dream. As I now look back, I realize I never felt deserted - and I know God was simply waiting patiently for me to let go.”

There is a significant lesson in this witness. One of the greatest problems, as we seek to be dynamic disciples is our unwillingness to let go. We want to do it ourselves. We exhaust ourselves in ardent effort, rather than opening ourselves to receive the gift of the Spirit.

My friend, Joe Harding, shared something very interesting that happened in Hollywood a while ago. They were making a movie and one of the sets was a filling station. It looked exactly like a real filling station, except that it had no fuel, no energy, no power. The station was so realistic, in fact, the cars kept driving up asking for a fill up. Someone came out and explained that it was only a Hollywood set and after the shooting of a couple of scenes, the whole thing would be dismantled. Right after the shooting of the last scene, sure enough another car drove up. Several of the actors were still in the uniforms of service station attendants. They decided to have a little fun. They pretended to fill up the man’s tank. When the man started to pay, they told him there was no charge. They said the fuel was free as a part of a promotional scheme. So the man drove away, thinking he had a full tank and that he had gotten a terrific bargain. Actually he was still on empty. It looked like a filling station but wasn’t at all. There was no power there. I pity the poor man getting on a California freeway with his mistaken notion.

There are churches like that filling station. They look like churches. They sound like churches. They may smell like churches. There is, however, an emptiness, a deadness - something essential is missing.

For many years, Harry Emerson Fosdick was the pastor of the famous Riverside Church in New York City. He was one of the most influential preachers and leaders of the Protestant world. Some years before his death, he wrote these words. “The saddest failure of the church is not hypocrisy. I bear witness after many years in the ministry that I have run into very little conscious, deliberate hypocrisy. But the saddest failure of the church is that there are so many who have never gone beneath the form of religion to find the power which is at its heart.”

200 years earlier than Harry Emerson Fosdick, our father in the faith, John Wesley, expressed the same concern. He said, “I do not fear that the Methodist Church will cease to exist, I do fear that it will become simply a dead sect, with the outward form of religion but without the inward fire.” (“Building Dynamic Disciples” a sermon by Joe Harding).

Wesley and Forsdick put their mental finger on our primary problem. The same problem identified in the New Testament – a form of religion – but a denial of the power. We will remain forever frustrated in our faith – the feeling deeply the claim to be and do, and knowing clearly the way to do and do – but no power to follow through.

Most of our natural drives and instincts become perverted along the way. We need the converting presence of the indwelling Christ to bring these drives and passions and impulses together for our wholeness. That happens as we allow Christ to be Lord of all these.

Finally,

THE INDWELLING CHRIST IS AN EMPOWERING PRESENCE.

Paul said to the Ephesians, “The very power which raised Jesus from the dead is ours”. Think about that - the power which raised Jesus from the dead is ours. Think about it and tremble!

Here is that power in some persons.

A little three year old boy, Jon-Jo, was killed by a German Shepherd dog. It was a ghastly death that sent our community into shock.

Jon-Jon’s parents, John and Marion Setser are friends and members of our church. Throughout the ordeal, I have never been in the presence of two people who w more radiant in their witness. They were heart broken and grief— stricken, but there was something special about them.

It happened about three weeks before Christmas and I went by to see them - about four days before Christmas. You know what they were doing? Going through all of Jon-Jon’s toys and games, selecting all the best in order to make them available for needy children at Christmas time. Can you imagine being able to do that?

Our Christmas Eve service was one of the most powerful worship experiences I’ve known. We shared Holy Communion - that great act of the church which enables us to partake in a vivid way of the Living Body and Blood of Christ. Then John Setzer asked for the privilege of speaking. It was the first time they had been back to church since little Jon-Jon had been killed.

John’s big word to us was “Don’t underestimate the power of the Christian community and the Living Lord. In the most simple and moving way he told how our church had sustained them. How the power of Christ had been communicated through our love and prayers.

“Despite the emptiness in our lives, despite our broken hearts, despite the devastating loneliness, despite the pain that we sometimes think we can’t bear another minute, we are alive in joy because Christ is alive and we have the confidence that Jon-Jon is alive.”

That is not all of the story About three months later - the week before Easter - John’s father –bicycle - dog - accident.

“Dear Friends, Thank you for sharing with us, and praying for us, and supporting us in our most recent tragedy. We are sorry we can’t celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord in worship with you today. But please know that we know that Christ is alive and lie is sustaining us.”

ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., Collected Sermons, by Maxie Dunnam