March 1, 2009

2 Peter 1:3-12

Self Examination

Have you ever used the Bible as a kind of weejie board to try and get God’s advice for you? You know what I mean. You open up the Bible to a random page and with your eyes closed you point to a spot on the page. Then you open your eyes and read it. It is sort of like magic in which you can control God. There is a story about a fellow who really championed this process and bragged to his friend about how he once did this and his finger landed on the word “wealth” so he pursued it and he now is rich. His buddy went home to try this for himself. He got his Bible off the dusty shelf and with his eyes closed he opened it up and pointed to a spot on the page. He then opened his eyes and read, “Chapter 11”.

I did this little game once. I know this is a terrible misuse of scripture, but I was young and dumb and quite depressed. I did not know where to turn. I was just beginning my second semester of my sophomore year in college in February 1963. Maybe it was just the sophomore blues, but my life had been so full up to this point in time and it now seemed empty and pointless. I didn’t seem to care about anything. I was in my dorm room alone. I sat on my bed and opened up the Bible to a random page – I made sure I was in the New Testament because I did not want to march around the walls of Jericho and have them come tumbling down, or wrestle God like Jacob did, or fight Goliath. The words that I pointed to were the words that I read a few minutes ago in 2 Peter.

My finger pointed to “endurance” Wow! Did this passage speak to me. God has given me everything I needed through the knowledge of him. I must make every effort to support my faith with goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. If I do I am fruitful; if I don’t I am blind. And Peter intends to keep on reminding me of these things. And of all these virtues “endurance” is what is needed. I sucked it up and endured five and a half more years of higher education … and enjoyed it.

I didn’t really pay much attention to this scripture text again. What an obscure little passage. I never studied it in seminary, nor delivered a sermon on it, nor read about it, nor heard anyone else talk about it until…I was installed here at FPC as your pastor in January of 2002. Dr. Charles Hendricks gave the Charge to the Minister and used this as his Biblical text. How did he know about my secret little scripture passage? You could have knocked me over with a feather. I could hardly breathe. Peter did say that he “would keep reminding me of these things.”

Well, I haven’t given this passage much thought since until this week. I began studying the four scripture texts of the lectionary readings for Sunday. The Gospel reading was about John the Baptist and Jesus’ baptism, and we have dealt with that twice this year already. I wasn’t up for a third time. The Genesis reading about Noah and the Psalm reading I did not think appropriate to use for the first Sunday in Lent either. And as I flipped to the New Testament to read the 1 Peter passage, I came to the first chapter of 2 Peter first and I reread it. Then after reading the 1 Peter lectionary passage, I could not get the other out of my mind and decided for the first time to not utilize the lectionary text and use this one. What a rebel am I.

I want to offer you the opportunity to use this passage this week for an examination of your faith and life as we begin the season of Lent. To start with, you must ask yourself several questions: Do you want to be productive and bear fruit in your relationship with God? Do you want to grow in your Christian faith? Do you dare to have God transform you life? True discipleship means that you be passionate for a relationship with God and that you intentionally develop the spiritual discipline for the transformation of your character into the mind of Christ. Keep this upfront in your mind: It is what you become that matters to God. Your growth into the likeness of Jesus Christ will produce the doing and the fruits of the spirit.

For disciples of Christ, our faith is one that grows us into the mind of Christ whereby we live like him with agape love. This kind of love is a self-giving love that never asks “what’s in it for me.” There is no I’ll love you if…, or I’ll love you when…, but I love you unconditionally. Remember Paul’s writings in 1 Corinthians about the nature of love? He says, “…if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”

Peter gives us six steps or six virtues on the ladder of our growth from the beginnings of our faith to our loving others unconditionally. These steps are not difficult to understand; even a college sophomore can grasp them. They are goodness – moral actions and thoughts; knowledge –immersing yourself in God’s word; self-control – controlling your harmful emotions and actions; endurance – perseverance even when there is doubt and suffering; godliness – being obedient to God’s will; and mutual affection – being kind to one another. When agape love is the way you relate to others, then all the other virtues are also present.

I have to admit, I did not understand the fullness of Peter’s message 45 years ago. I just took what I needed at the time. Now it’s time for me to reconsider it and examine my life. I invite you to do the same.