1517 Blogcast

If we’re perfectly honest with one another, 1 Peter 3 has some great but also uncomfortable content. Modern theology has no love of Peter’s words about men and women, suffering, or baptism.

Human beings are storytellers. From the time we get up in the morning and take that first sip of coffee until the time we go to bed at night, our daily lives are full of stories. It may be the short story told by your teenage son or daughter.

There is not much about being a Christian that is particularly groundbreaking: focus on Jesus-crucified for us sinners. Enjoy the benefits of his forgiveness, life, and salvation in words, water, bread, and wine. Love others by serving them in our baptismal vocations.

"Practice makes perfect.” I am sure you have heard this wisdom before. It’s good advice. You need to work at a particular craft to master it. You may have been born with a better aptitude towards woodworking than I was, but you were not born with a chisel in your hand.

Luke 12 repeatedly speaks about anxiety and fear, and even earlier in the gospel book, we are told another story about anxiety featuring the sisters, Mary and Martha. While Mary listened at the feet of Jesus, Martha kept herself busy flittering about to make sure everything at the party was just right.

The most well-known sentence of Peter’s first letter to the dispersed, exiled Christians sojourning throughout the Roman empire is also the high point of the letter’s second chapter. 1 Peter 2:9 reads, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

Righteousness is our commodity. It is what we buy and sell. It is what determines value. It is what we use to build our personal portfolio. It is how we judge one another. It is how we determine who is worthy and who is not. We trade in righteousness. 

Life is what we make of it unless life is located in the One who calls himself, "Life." Then, life isn't what we make of it but what Jesus, God's Word who speaks all things into being, makes of it. When life is what we make of it, making a mess of life is inevitable. We're flawed, fragile, creatures. We plot out life, but we don't know the best way to live. Life is what we make of it until we can't make anything of it anymore.

Ultimately it’s at the cross of Calvary, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the great Lion of Judah, that the stone table is broken, and everything sad does indeed finally come untrue.

What are the two things that should not be discussed in polite company?

If you answered “religion and politics,” you understand the essential rules of etiquette for anything from family dinners to boardroom discussions. On the other hand, if you spend any amount of time on social media or reading the news, you’ll find the fruits of this mannerly maxim.