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1 Peter 4:12-5:14
1. There is some literature we assign to younger people that is good for them to read but impossible for them to understand. I think many of Shakespeare’s plays fit this category as well as the book of Ecclesiastes. I might even put Peter’s letters in that category. His letters to the young church are written from the perspective of an older and wiser man who has experienced a great deal of suffering before he wrote. Peter could not have written these letters as a young man. 2. There are times I struggle with why people who are so obviously crooked or corrupt seem to get through life so easily.…
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Gone to Look for America
When our daughter, Haley, decided to drive from her home in Hollywood back to Texas for a visit, I asked her if I could fly out and then come along on the road trip. Yes, I was concerned about her being alone in the desert with a high-mileage, 10-year-old car, but I was equally enthusiastic about traveling the route itself.
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An Unremarkable Life
If all I knew about my grandfather was what I read in his 1952 diary I might think he was a man whose life was a monotonous string of colorless days. My grandfather, Bunyan Smith, was a pastor in one of the poorest sections of Nashville, and I knew enough about his life as a preacher to expect that his diary would not likely be thrilling. However, I was completely unprepared for how unremarkable it would be. His first entry on January 1 begins with, “Up about 7:00 a.m. Family worship at breakfast. Dressed for the day. Went to church to pray. Studied. Visited the sick. Wrote letters. Ate supper. Retired.” His…
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1 Peter 4:1-11
After a few weeks in the book of 1 Peter we should have noticed that those to whom this letter was written were in far different circumstances than we are this morning. There are several ways we can read these passages about suffering, persecution and the end of the world. We can read this as history that describes a particular time and place that was real but is no longer the case. It’s a picture of the pioneer days of the faith. These are our roots and our ancestors. We can read it as we would a memorial to our founders and as a tribute to them as we might…
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Lost Boys
My father left me three watches as part of my inheritance. The first, and oldest, was the one his parents had given him as a graduation present from high school in 1932. The second was a watch he bought when he left his corporate career and went into business for himself as a consultant. The third was a Rolex he bought and wore for almost 40 years. While I never asked him directly, I think that last watch signified something important to him as a child of the Depression. It was not pride but a marker of having made something of himself. It is also the watch I remember the…
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1 Peter 3:13-22
1. The early Christians saw themselves as living in the days of Noah. The culture was coarse, corrupt and full of violence. “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain…The earth was corrupt and full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.” The same could be said about our culture. We live in a coarse and corrosive culture…
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Imprisoned by the Past
The most memorable line President Obama spoke about his recent meeting with Raul Castro was, “The United States will not be imprisoned by the past.” I have thought a lot about that over the last few months, not only as an American, but what that means as a Christian. How can we know when we are imprisoned? And how can we change without losing our moorings and commitments to those permanent values that define us? Change comes in all sizes. Sometimes the transitions are almost unnoticed and we just wake up one day finding that things we once believed have been replaced by new beliefs. Things we once held dear…
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1 Peter 3:1-12
1. In the final chapter of John, Jesus tells Peter how he is to die – upside down. In a sense he also lived upside down from what he had been as a young man. The Apostle writing these letters is not the impulsive and proud person we meet in the Gospels. Instead, we see a man seasoned by age, circumstances and the Holy Spirit. Time and again, including the passage this morning, he talks about the virtue of submission and the power of endurance in the face of persecution. 2. My mental picture of Peter giving advice to women about beauty just confirms his living upside down. This is…
