Born Anew of Imperishable Seed

T

The Easter Season during the Year of Matthew finds us reading portions from the First Letter of Peter.  As in Week 2, now in Week 3 we find ourselves in the first chapter.  The writer continues to lift up the mighty acts of God, undoubtedly concerned that those reading or hearing this letter might be struggling spiritually during their time of exile.  This letter becomes for us a reminder of all God has done and is doing, lest we too, in our exilic COVID-19 time, might flag in faith. It will be the preacher's job to lift up this good news.

(The following questions have been developed to answer questions around the functioning of the Word, a central concern for Law and Gospel preachers.  Law and Gospel preachers understand that as the Word is functioning, so ought a sermon on that Word be functioning.  For more on this method, and on Law and Gospel preaching in general, see my brief guide, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock. com or amazon.)

1.  How does the Word function in the text?  The Word here functions almost completely as Gospel.  The writer reminds us that we were "ransomed from... futile ways," that Christ was revealed "for your sake," and through Christ "you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory."  These are all reminders of what God has done and is doing - pure Gospel.

2.  How is the Word not functioning in the text?  The word of Law, which exposes our need for Christ, is not present in a direct way in this text.  We are reminded in the opening verse that we ought to live in "reverent fear" because we know God as impartial judge, yet there is little here that announces our need for a Savior.  The mentioning of the "futile ways" of the ancestors is again an indirect reference to our need for a Savior, yet here we are told that we have been rescued from this, not that we are now living in these ways.

3.  With whom are you identifying in the text?  We are part of the initial body of listeners.  We receive this word as spoken to us:  it is we who have been ransomed, we who have come to trust God, and we who know what it is to live in futile ways.

4.  What, if any, call to obedience is there in this text?  There are a number of classic calls to obedience in this short passage. The clearest one is verse 22:  "Now that you have purified your souls... love one another deeply from the heart."  This is the classic call to obedience where we are invited to live in response to what God has done.  Because we have been ransomed from futile ways, and God has been at work again and again "for our sakes" we are invited to love deeply.  This is the call to obedience.

5.  What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text?  The language in this short passage provides fodder for a number of couplets:  futility/fulfillment; dead/born anew; sinful/purified.

6.  Exegetical work:  Pheme Perkins, in her commentary on this passage, notes that many of the original listeners to this letter were likely household slaves.  She argues that the use of redemption language would have been very familiar to them:  "Since many resident foreigners came to live in other cities because they had been taken there as slaves, references to 'ransoming' may have connected the readers' experience with the biblical imagery of Exodus (Exod. 6:6; 15:13).  Though they have been ransomed, the letter's readers remain in exile and subject to the constraints of obedience.  However, readers have been 'freed' from another form of slavery, that of their ancestral way of life." (Interpretation series, First and Second Peter, James, and Jude, p. 38).  The question of what the "futile ways of the ancestors" were is open to speculation.  The Book of Acts offers several stories which seem likely candidates.  In Act 16:16f we hear of "money-making by fortune telling."  This practice was one which the apostle Paul identified as enslaving.  Again in Acts 19:23f we hear of the lucrative business of selling idols, another practice which Paul called into question.  It seems likely that these practices and others like them were those practices the writer of I Peter called "futile."

7.  How does the Crossings Community model work with this text?  Archived under its reference is a concise analysis of this text by Mark Marius. He does an excellent job of taking the specific language of this text and moving from diagnosis to prognosis, all the time sticking to the language provided. Excellent.  See for yourself at crossings.org/text-study.

Blessings on your proclamation!