April 7, 2008 — 6:50 PM
Strength in numbers
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35
Have you ever tried to do something new? Something difficult? Something that you had a feeling you wouldn't be able to do if you didn't have the help of others to keep you going? I think we probably can all think of times when we've found ourselves facing a situation and wished we had others around us to help us reach our goal.
It's this kind of situation that has led to the development of some pretty amazing groups.
I come across one such group every time I run in Golden Gate park on a Saturday morning. Maybe you've encountered this group as well. It's actually many small groups that make up a larger whole. Every Saturday morning in the park groups of people gather to run or walk together as they prepare to complete a race. And throughout their training process, they raise money for leukemia and lymphoma research.
This is the Team-in-Training organization and they are a highly dedicated bunch of people. Not only do they have the folks who are doing the running and walking. But they also have people who provide water and snacks at various points along the training routes as well as during the race.
And then they have the cheer leaders.
I have run several races with large numbers of Team-in-Training racers. All along the race route there are people cheering specifically for those people wearing the Team-in-Training uniform. Some yell creative chants, but many yell the standard "Go Team!" To which the runner or runners respond with a "Whoop!" or something like that.
It's quite a thing to behold. Especially for an individual runner, like myself, with no spectators there to cheer her on.
People are drawn to this organization most definitely for the work they do to support important research. But people are also drawn to this group because it is very effective at helping people to train and run a race at a specific pace.
There are group leaders who watch the clock and make sure that they are making the right kind of progress to get to the finish line by a specific time. This helps those running with them to learn what it feels like to run a certain pace without having to try to figure it out on their own.
In addition to the Saturday morning training runs, there are also educational pieces to the Team-in-Training program. Education about nutrition - for both during the run as well as before and after. And education about lifestyle choices that affect how well one is able to perform physically. Being in shape to run a race requires a lot of things that those who join Team-in-Training may not have thought about before.
But, maybe most importantly, Team-in-Training provides the experience of being a part of a group that keeps the pressure on the runners and walkers to continue what they have started. It provides motivation when the individual might otherwise find none. It gets people out the door to run or walk when they would rather just sit on the couch and rest a while longer. It gets them to grab the apple instead of the gooey donut.
Being a part of a group helps the individual learn and make the changes necessary to train and complete a race - changes that the individual might not be able to make on his or her own.
The encouragement, the accountability, and the support of others who are going through a similar situation are major draws to lots of different programs that operate on similar principles. Programs like Weight Watchers or Alcoholics Anonymous, and to a lesser extent groups like book clubs and knitting circles.
I bet we could name lots more. Groups are important to help us when we are trying to do something that is unfamiliar to us, or which requires us to learn new patterns, or even to develop a consistent pattern of practice that we may already be familiar with. Often our will power to continue wanes unless we have others around us to help keep us focused on the goal and to remind us why we began this whole adventure to begin with.
The people being addressed in the epistle of 1 Peter were in a similar situation. They were Gentile converts to this new religion that we now call Christianity. They had heard the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who laid down his life to redeem creation. They accepted this gospel as truth and they decided to join in the way of being Christ-followers.
This couldn't have been an easy decision for them to make. It required them to turn their back on their entire culture, which was based on pagan rituals and observances. Making this decision often estranged them from friends, neighbors, and even their own family members.
We can be sure that many people, who at first thought about becoming Christ-followers, were eventually persuaded not to be. Maybe they were talked out of it by family members or friends. Or maybe they simply realized the enormous amount of change that would be required for them to actually leave behind all that was familiar.
But there were some who did choose to believe in God, who was revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And they were eager to learn more about this God and what being Christ-followers would mean for their lives.
It is to these people that the letter of 1 Peter is addressed. The letter is meant to give these people confidence in their decision. The author wants to help them to begin to understand what they must do to live lives that will be pleasing to God. And it all starts with finding a new family - one that will uphold them in their new way of life; one that is based in faith and hope in God; one that will love them constantly and deeply from the heart.
Our passage for this morning recaps the basics of the faith that these Gentiles have newly come to. These are:
- that they have been redeemed, not by perishable things like silver or gold, but by the precious blood of Christ;
- that they know this because of Christ, whom God raised from the dead and gave glory
- and that this knowledge gives believers faith and hope that God will do the same for them
The whole passage begins with a reminder that God's good gifts should evoke in the receiver a corresponding responsibility to do good works. The lives of the believers should show that they have been redeemed and have hope and faith in God who offers them eternal life.
But there is a large gap between knowing something intellectually and internalizing that knowledge so that it changes the way a person thinks and acts. The two disciples who were walking on the road to Emmaus are perfect examples of this point.
As disciples of Jesus, they would have spent a fair amount of time with him. They would have seen the miracles that he performed. They would have heard the predictions that he made about what would happen to him. And at some level, we would think, these disciples must have had a head-knowledge about who Jesus was and what would happen in Jerusalem during that fateful Passover season.
But we can see from their descriptions to this "stranger" that came up alongside them that they had never really internalized what Jesus had taught them. These two, like all the other disciples who are not walking with them, are saddened by the events that occurred. They believe that Jesus' death proves that he wasn't the Messiah as they had hoped before all of this happened. They even say as much when they state, "But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place."
Jesus had died and the faith and hope of his disciples seemed to have died along with him. Now the disciples are wandering, confused and alone, wondering where to turn next. The group that had given them encouragement and support in the past was now reduced to fearful individuals who locked themselves behind closed doors so that no one would come after them to offer them the same fate.
So this "stranger," who is really the risen Christ, tries one more time to help the disciples move from head knowledge to heart knowledge. As the text says, "beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures." Jesus opens the sacred Word to the disciples hoping that in this hearing they will be able to internalize the message that he really is the Messiah and that they should have hope.
The disciples hear him but it is not enough for them to simply hear words. They need more. They are not completely aware of their need but, when they come to a point of departure, something urges them to invite the stranger to stay with them instead of going on alone.
And it is here that Jesus is able to help the disciples make the connection between their heads and their hearts. This important connection comes when Jesus, as he has done several times before, takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. This act of providing nourishment opens their eyes - and ultimately opens their minds. It allows them to see that this one who is with them is really Jesus who had been crucified.
Finally, these disciples are able to have true, deep faith in God, who has raised Jesus from the dead. Finally, all that Jesus had previously taught them makes sense and they realize that all hope is not lost. It took both hearing the Word opened to them and receiving the bread to make the connection.
The early church understood these two actions as vital to forming them as a community of believers in God, who raised Jesus from the dead. Hearing the Word preached and receiving the Eucharist, or Communion, was central to their communities.
Through these acts, believers were able to learn about who God is and how God wants God's followers to live, as well as to receive the encouragement and support they needed to live this new life. And so, they gathered together regularly to hear the Word and participate in Communion so that they might encourage one another in their new faith.
Now, I dare say, that our situation looks quite a bit different from that of the believers in the early church and the people to whom 1 Peter was written. Their decision to trust in God and be Christ-followers was met with hostility by those who continued to value the pagan beliefs and practices which dominated the culture.
We live in a culture that openly values the Christian faith. A culture that has fought to keep "In God We Trust" on our money as well as the Ten Commandments in our court houses. We are not asked to daily justify our decision to trust in God who made God's self known through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As the on-going electoral process has shown, we are seeking a person to lead our nation who fully embraces that way of life. We have asked those who vary from it, such as Mitt Romney, to explain themselves and their faith. Many would argue that we live in a Christian nation - the exact opposite of the milieu in which the early Christians lived.
I'm not so sure that our situation is that different. The belief that we live in a Christian nation has accustomed us to thinking that our lives don't have to be different than those of the society at large. Since a majority of Americans identify themselves as Christians, it seems reasonable that our lives are going to look similar.
But I would argue that our nation is not a Christian nation. It is a capitalist nation. As is becoming clearer every day, it is the almighty dollar that motivates every decision that gets made. We are always worrying about the bottom line and profits - not about the people around us and if they have what they need to survive. Our society pushes us to always want more instead of acknowledging that we have enough so that we can share with those who have too little.
The message that God has redeemed us, not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ calls us to break out of the mold that our society pushes us into. God wants us to break away from the selfishness and self-centeredness that focusing on the bottom line can bring. Being Christ-followers means that we do not lay up for ourselves treasures here on earth were moth and rust corrupt. Instead, our focus should be on God's coming kindom, which overflows with God's good gifts.
To break from the ways of one's society is a difficult thing to do. To learn a different way takes support, encouragement, and accountability to others. If we're really going to learn what it means to be Christ-followers, we need our own Team-in-Training. And that is what God calls the Church to be - that is what the early church was.
The Church is to be a place where, in the preaching of the Word and the breaking of the bread, believers will be supported, encouraged, and held accountable for their lives. It is to be a place where, in the context of a loving community, people will be allowed to experience the head-heart connection that is necessary for fully understanding who God is and who God wants us to be.
God has called us here to this particular church to hear God's Word. And God has called us here to be fed at this, God's table. Let us open ourselves to receive God's good gifts.
Amen.
