AJM Holy Trinity 21 Sept 02, evening service.
Good evening. I want to take you back with me to one particular day 25 years ago. It was August 1977, I was 18, and I was on holiday with my parents and my brother in Scotland. My father’s mother was Scottish, and over the years we’d had lots of family holidays dotted up and down the west coast of Scotland. This time we’d gone right up to the northern county of Sutherland, which is the top left hand bit. It’s an amazing landscape. It’s the oldest part of the British Isles. It is made of gneiss, and was formed nearly 3000 million years ago. Nearly 2000 million years after that a layer of sandstone was deposited on top of the gneiss, still before most of Britain was thought of. And it’s still all there. On the coast you get just the gneiss. It has been worn down over millions of years, and now forms a landscape of hard, flat rock pitted with innumerable small lochs. A little inland you get the sandstone as well. Sandstone is soft, and it much of it has been worn away. The result is that in the middle of this landscape of gneiss you get sudden lumps of sandstone. The lumps are round and smooth, and up to 2 ½ thousand feet high. They form individual mountains sitting like pimples on the hard flat landscape.
It was one of these my father decided we were going to climb. Its name was Quinag, and it sat 2653 feet above the lochs and islands of the coast. There was no path up it, but details like that never used to bother my father. So we parked the car at the bottom and set off. It took us the whole day, clambering across springy heather and avoiding bogs, and gradually getting higher and higher above the sea below. Eventually we got to the top. And at the top two things happened. The first was that my father decided it was the perfect location to listen to the cricket score on the radio he’d brought with him for the purpose. Reception wasn’t very good at sea level in Sutherland. But the other thing was that I suddenly realised I was gazing at the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen. I still think it is one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. The sun was shining and the sky was clear blue. Beneath us stretched the dotted grey and green landscape of rock and grass and loch; beyond that was the deep blue sea. And as I looked out to sea I realised I could see the Hebrides – nearly all of them. To my right was North Rona and the landless sea beyond. Straight ahead I could see the chain of the Outer Hebrides, Lewis and Harris and the Uists. Beyond them were Skye and the Inner Hebrides, rising misty in a sparkling sea. To my left, inland, were the green rocky mountains of the North West highlands. I was looking at one of the oldest landscapes in the world, stretched out before me in the calm sunshine of a summer’s day, with nothing between me and it. I came to an instant conclusion. Life is more beautiful than I’d thought it was.
I’m telling you all that because I think that’s exactly how Peter wants the readers of his letter to feel. It’s an immensely encouraging letter, full of hope. He is writing to many people, people from different backgrounds and living in different places, but he wants them all to feel the same thing. He wants them all, whoever they are and wherever they have come from, to catch a vision of where they are going, of the beauty laid up in store for them. And he wants them to catch that vision because he wants them to live their lives with the beauty of what has been created for them shining in their eyes, knowing that if they do, they will live a different way.
Let me remind you, since it’s 3 weeks since we looked at it, how Peter begins his letter. He begins by reminding them that they are people chosen by God and that they live as strangers in the world. He reminds them that they are being changed by the Holy Spirit so that they may be obedient to Christ. He reminds them that that is who they are. They are here, in this world; but they have been chosen by God to live in another, for which they are being prepared.
Then he goes on. He tells them about their salvation. He tells them they have an inheritance in heaven. He tells them they are shielded by God’s power, that they have something more precious and long lasting than gold, that they can allow themselves to feel great joy, an inexpressible and glorious joy. He reminds them that the prophets and the angels have not been able to understand these things; but that they are receiving them. He says he knows that life brings them grief and trials; but he reminds them that through the work of Christ they will enter into the most perfect joy. Life, he says, is more beautiful than you ever thought it was. Life, he says, can be looked at with a different perspective from the one you used to have. Seeing your life from the perspective of heaven, you may rejoice. He is trying to describe to them the view from the top of the mountain. Because once you have seen the view from the top of the mountain, the route up feels different. You don’t get so discouraged at the difficulties. You don’t get so grumpy at the pain. You know where you are going, and you know what awaits you. I don’t think anyone ever climbed a mountain for the joy of the climb alone. It’s the getting to the top that makes the difference. A mountain with no top and no view just would not feel the same.
So that’s as far as we got last time. You have been chosen to go to a beautiful place, by the Lord who made it.
Well, that’s great. But what difference does it make in practice? What difference does it make in the here and now? And that’s what Peter comes to next. At the beginning of verse 13 he changes gear. He stops waxing lyrical about the view from the top, and he says, therefore. And now he begins to tell them what difference it makes. He begins to tell them what their part on this journey is, what is required of them in response, and how they are best to prepare themselves for the moment when they will finally raise their heads and look at the view. And these are the two themes which he will continue to interweave as he writes the rest of the letter. Life is more beautiful than you thought it was, is one way of thinking about this letter. Another would be, from there to here. You come from there, you are going here. You were this, scattered bricks picked up from the debris of a battered society; but you are being made into that, a spiritual house. You were this, living in darkness; now you walk in light. You were not free, but now you are, and you may live as if you were. You were like sheep lost on the way, but now you are being guided by the shepherd. You were tossed in the waves of a desperate and selfish lifestyle, but now you may live in love. All these are pictures which Peter will offer. You are being moved from there to here. From the bottom of the mountain to the top. And knowing what awaits you, what the world really looks like once you get to see it from above, that is what will keep you going on the journey.
And so he says, therefore. Put on your boots. Roll up your trousers. ‘Gird up the loins of your mind’, it says in the Greek. The NIV translates it ‘prepare your minds for action’. It’s another picture. They used to wear long robes, and for any practical task they had to pick up the hems between their legs and tuck them into their belts. They called that girding up their loins. The nearest I can think of is when Katy was trying to ride her bike the other day in a skirt. She kept having to stop because the hem was getting caught in the brakes. So I told her to tuck her skirt into her knickers, if you’ll pardon the expression. Once she’d tucked her skirt into her knickers she could set off. And that’s the picture here. Tuck your skirts into your knickers and get on your bike. We’re going up a mountain.
What else. ‘Be self-controlled’, it goes on. Well actually, it doesn’t, in the original. What Peter actually said was, be sober. Again, it’s very practical advice. It’s hard to ride a bike if you’re drunk at the time. It kind of interferes with the balance. So, make sure you are sober, in body and in mind; not intoxicated with either the spirit for which Scotland is famous, or come to that the spirit of the age, which is much more difficult. And finally, set your hope on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. At the end of the letter Peter says the reason he’s written it is to encourage them, and to testify that this is the true grace of God. It’s always hard to define grace, because it was a common and clearly understood word then but it has become just a religious one now. The old mantra, God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense, is quite a good way. Another is to remember that grace is what you are grateful for, and what you are grateful for is what you have been given. So in this context grace just means that which God wishes to give us – all the blessings which will be fully ours when we reach the top of the mountain.
So, get ready, he says. Keep your minds on the beauty of your destination. And – here comes the crunch – don’t live like that, live like this. Don’t live like you used to live, like your family has always lived, like everyone in the world around you lives; live like this. Live differently. Because knowing where you are going makes all the difference.
I think at this point it would be good just to remind ourselves who Peter is, and where he’s coming from. Peter used not to be called Peter. He used to be called Simon. That’s what his mum and dad called him. He was a fisherman. He first met Jesus when his brother Andrew took him to meet him. Jesus took one look at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Peter’. Peter means rock. I’d have liked to have seen the look on Andrew’s face at that point. I bet his eyebrows shot off the top of his head. Either that, or he must have split his sides laughing. Because Peter just wasn’t very rocklike. As the gospels go on, we get a picture of a man who constantly jumped to conclusions, lost his temper, and said the wrong thing. The climax of his natural career came when he assured Jesus he would give his life for him, and the very next day, when Jesus was arrested, denied 3 times that he’d ever met him and then burst into tears. But six weeks later Peter received the Holy Spirit. And then this fisherman stood up in front of Romans and rabbis and addressed a crowd of thousands. He became the leader of the church in Jerusalem and pastored it faithfully for over 30 years. He undertook various missionary journeys, stood before courts and experienced imprisonment, and eventually died for his faith, probably in Rome, in about the year 64. The Roman Catholic church traces its origins back to Peter.
So what happened? I think the only explanation is that Peter was given what he talks about in this chapter, new birth into a living hope, and an inheritance in heaven. He had been changed by the Holy Spirit, and he had set his hope on the grace to be given him when Jesus Christ is revealed. Nothing else will explain the change in Peter from the impetuous man whom Jesus first met into the rocklike pastor of the early church. Peter was a man who’d been to the top of the mountain. He had understood where he was going, and he came back down to live his life a different way. And that is what he wants these Turkish Christians to do too. He wanted to say to them, life is more beautiful than you thought. Let me encourage you to get your act together, to live in the light of the beauty of what you have received, to step out of the darkness and learn to bask in the sunlight.
This is how The Message, which is the most contemporary of the Bible translations, puts what Peter says next.
Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, ‘I am holy; you be holy’.
Be holy. What does that mean. It’s another religious word. It just means, be different. It’s a quotation from the Old Testament, the book of Leviticus, chapter 11 verse 44. God is holy because he is separate from evil. Holy things are things which are set apart from normal usage and dedicated to God, and that’s how we normally use the word. And Peter says, you be like that. You be set apart. You be different. Don’t do things the way you used to do them. Don’t do them the way everyone around you does them.
The Message goes on: You call out to God for help and he helps – he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living. Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God.
People often make one of two mistakes when they think about how to live their lives in the light of eternity instead of just looking to the here and now. The first mistake is to think that it doesn’t really matter all that much how we live, that God loves us and he understands, and it’ll all be all right on the night. That’s the mistake the Corinthian church was well known for making when they drank a lot and slept with each other, and Paul had to write to them about it. It’s also the mistake we are more likely to make, as children of a self-indulgent society.
The other mistake is to go to the opposite extreme, and live in fear of judgment, of losing our salvation. That was the mistake made by the hellfire and damnation preachers of the Victorian age, but it is one which many people still worry about today. And here Peter shows us the balance. Verse 17. God is your Father, and he loves you. He isn’t going to stop loving you. But he isn’t going to sit there and let you get away with stuff. If you come in drunk at 3 in the morning when you were meant to be in by 11, he isn’t the kind of Father who’ll be asleep in bed and not mention it in the morning, he’s the kind who’ll be up waiting for you demanding an explanation. God is impartial, the NIV says. That is, he notices what you do that isn’t holy, whoever you are and however much he loves you. He has no spoilt youngest children. And so you should be aware of that. Live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear, he goes on. Strangers, because you are meant to be different from the world around you, to do things a different way, to stand out against the crowd. Fear, because you are going to have to stand before God and talk to him about it, later if not sooner. And it doesn’t have to be later, it could well be sooner. God does intervene in people’s lives, he brings blessing and he brings discipline. He allows miracle and he allows testing. Often I am aware that whilst I think I make the decisions, he could change my life overnight in any way he likes. He is in charge, and it is as well to bear that in mind. Not with a crushing fear, but with a reverent one. For sometimes he allows us to learn things the hard way.
But that doesn’t mean we will lose our place in heaven on the day of judgment, as the Victorian preachers liked to threaten. Peter makes it clear that we won’t. The whole of the first part of the chapter makes it clear that our salvation is already in the bag. When we received new birth, we also received an inheritance that would never perish, spoil or fade. It’s yours forever. You will receive the goal of your faith, the salvation of your soul, whatever mistakes you make. But it is also true that you are on a journey. You haven’t arrived, you are still travelling. And so you must do your best to travel well. You owe it to God, for he paid a lot of money for your entry ticket to heaven. He paid in blood, the blood of his Son. And he wants it to mean something to you. He wants to see you grow.
I got this advert through the post the other day. I’ve filled in one of those forms which say we don’t want junk mail, but still it keeps coming. Anyway, this one is from the Halifax, who once gave me some free shares and have been trying to get me to spend them ever since. It’s another map. We’ve already looked at one, the map of northern Scotland. But this one is a bit different. This one shows a relief map of the UK, and across the top is written, ‘The easy route to the car you want’. A leaflet comes with it. ‘Your route planner’. Let me read it to you. Step 1. You’re looking for the car of your dreams. First, decide how much you want to borrow. Step 2. Call 08457 243444. Step 3. Get a decision in 10 minutes. Step 4. Sit back, recline your seat. Step 5. You’re nearly there! Your cheque could be with you in 20 minutes. Odd, that one, given the state of the PO. But perhaps they have some other method. Step 6. Enjoy the spending power you get from having the cash in your pocket. Step 7. Drive away in the car of your dreams – with nothing to pay for 3 months. Step 7. Spend the rest of your life paying back the interest. Oh, no, it doesn’t actually say that. But you see what I mean. We live in a world which thinks that what you get when you reach the top of the mountain is a cash bonus, and so you may as well use that as security to take out a loan in the here and now, because what makes you happy is having spending power. We live in a world organised round money, and we think that we can buy happiness. But money doesn’t make you happy, it just enables you to look for happiness in more places.
What does Peter say about that. Verse 18. You were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers. The Message translates it, It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. It’s one thing to take on board what he said earlier, about not living according to your evil desires. It might come hard, but it’s reasonably straightforward. If you are into drink or drugs or sleeping around, if you steal or tell lies or cheat at work, then you know you’re doing it, you know God doesn’t like it, and you have a straight choice.
But sometimes it’s more complicated than that. We live in a world which is based on a whole set of assumptions which we are only half aware of, because we know no others. Everyone in our society would rather have more money than less money, more goods than less goods. And yet I know when I go to Tanzania, which is the second poorest country in the world, that it is not money which makes people happy; because often I find they are happier than us. Well, that’s a reasonably obvious one, it’s not hard to see. But there are others, empty ways of thinking which surround us and creep up on us. Let me suggest two.
1. Firstly, let’s ask, what gives our lives meaning? How do we decide what we are meant to do in life? We are surrounded by values, values which aren’t necessarily God’s. I have a friend who went into accountancy just because it would provide a safe income for life. Many of my university contemporaries went into the City because they wanted to get rich. We live in a funny world, a world where no one knows who they are or why they live the way they do. It’s been said we used to have heroes, and now we have only celebrities. Our world looks up to people who are well known for being well known, and for very little else. But we don’t belong to this world, we just live here, and believe God has equipped us and called us for a purpose within it. So the question is not what do the voices of your world say is the way to live, but who are you? You are a stranger here, you don’t belong here. You are going somewhere far more glorious. So who are you? When God looks at you, who does he see? Forget the other audiences, and be that person. That way you may not be safe, or rich, or belong to the right set; but your life will make sense.
2. And then there’s the personal part of our lives. It’s easy to get caught up in the whirl of work. But what about relationships? We live in a world where relationships are under constant strain – people don’t see each other because they’re working, they don’t talk to each other because they are too busy doing the other things they think it’s important to do; and more people are divorced or depressed or lonely than ever before. 6 years ago Roger was in hospital wondering whether he was going to die. And he realised he’d spent hours and hours doing things that didn’t really matter, just because people wanted him to do them. It’s often said that on their deathbeds no one ever wishes they’d spent more time at the office. Increasingly I find that relationships are what matter, and that is what Peter will go on to talk about next. It isn’t so, in the world we have inherited. But we don’t have to live there; we belong to a different world, a world where people love one another, ruled over by a God who is love and a Christ who loved us so much he gave his life for us. That’s the real world, not this one.
So where does that leave us. Peter wants to encourage the readers of this letter to live according to what they have received. He wants them to know what that is, to know how wonderful everything looks from the top of the mountain. He wants them to know that life is more beautiful than they thought it was, that although the world in which they live is one to which they do not belong, they may live in it differently from other people, with a freedom which they do not have. He wants them to know that although it doesn’t look as if there is a path up the mountain, in fact there is, and it has been trodden for them by Christ. He wants their faith and their hope to be in God, and for that to change their whole perspective on the troubled world they live in. Peter’s vision is one of hope.