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Easter 3 – God’s Word of Life
Dr. Christopher Graham
The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo (1511)
Easter 3
Dr. Christopher Graham
Isaiah 43:1-12, 1 Peter 1:13-25, Luke 24:13-35
A House of Wisdom . . . A House of the Word
“Since you have purified your souls in obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brothers and sisters, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. . . . And this is the word which was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:22-23)
In introducing our time in 1 Peter, Fr Doug told us last week: “Together, we are becoming the house of the Lord. That’s what Peter is telling us in his letter. Wisdom’s perfect house. We are becoming that house of wisdom.” Wisdom involves applying a knowledge gained from experience to life. This includes recognizing the power of our words and then using those words well. This is certainly the reason that Scripture provides so many proverbs about watching our words.
But in our passage this morning, Peter is not speaking of our wise use of words in the house. Instead, he speaks of the Word that causes this house to be a house of Wisdom. This morning, we are reminded that our acts—even our speech acts—in this house of wisdom are an extension of God’s action because who we are and what we do is rooted in who God is and what He does by his Word. This Word composes our identity and then tunes us to live in harmony.
Our passage this morning begins “Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all behavior.” In the next chapter, he will say that God “has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God” (2:9) By his word, he composes his people.
As our OT reading reminded us, it was this same Word that composed his people Israel.
“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”
This Word defines, even creates our reality because that is what the Word does as the active agent of God’s will. It is this creative Word active in Genesis 1, “And God said. . . “ It is this creative Word that the Psalmist extols: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made.” It is this Word that was in the beginning, John tells us, that takes on flesh. That same Word calls us, defines us, composes us.
The struggle, of course, is to hear just this Word over all the other words that form a twisted and broken cacophony. Some of these words are just static, noise that keeps us from hearing. Some of seek to de-compose us. Some of these words come from those in our world. For many of us, though, these are own voices that we say to ourselves with words that run counter to the Word.
Peter himself faced this struggle. He cannot hear the calling “Follow me,” without remembering his rebuffs of Jesus’s Word his denial after making the bold proclamation I will follow you anywhere. And as he hears the call “Follow Me!” “Peter turned around and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following” So Peter, upon seeing him, said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?” 22 Jesus *said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”
This calling, this Word defined and re-defined Peter in spite of his own doubts. And this is the Word now that defines us. The Gospel is that, as Philip Cary, opining on Martin Luther says, “The word of address gets me thinking about myself as the object of God’s love and grace; for the Gospel truth is that Christ died for me, to forgive me, a sinner. . . . To be justified by faith alone is therefore to focus my attention on the word of Christ alone, and not on anything I do about it—not on the depth of my contrition nor even on the firmness of my faith when I say, “I believe.” Word and faith require each other, but they do not have equal footing, for “faith builds and is founded on the Word of God rather than God’s Word on Faith”
This Word that composes us as his people, defines us as his children, his elect, his workmanship (poema) as Paul phrases it—this Word then keeps us in tune and in tempo. Peter says in our passage that because “you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God” fervently love one another from the heart. And because “this is the word which was preached to you. . . rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and allslander and long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”
We are surrounded by voices—whether others or our own—using words of malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander. Words that if they don’t decompose us at least distort us. And so, each we encounter the Word during our worship seeking for him to “Tune my heart to sing that grace.” Last week Fr. Doug’s said: “Our Christian walk is not a dour struggle through the wastelands of a sinful world. It is a joy-filled dance amidst a world at odds with Christ. Peter is encouraging us today that Christ is present and He will sustain us.” Each week, we are sustained as we encounter the Lord in our Eucharist. Each week, we the Word of the Lord brings us back in tune from a week that has distorted us. Sometimes we are indeed returned to a joy-filled dance. Sometimes it is a lament over the perversion of justice. Sometimes, love is not a victory march, it’s a cold, and it’s a broken Hallelujah. But, as Fr. Doug said, the Word never sets us to the key of “dour struggle.”
Our ministry of the Scriptures, the living and active Word, cannot be a lifeless exercise. As our reading from Luke 24 shows, it quickens us as it did for the two on the Emmaus Way. When they thought of their experience, the two said, “Did not our heart not burn within us?” When the second century bishop Irenaeus thinks on this passage, he says, “The man who loves God shall arrive at such excellency as even to see God, and hear His word, and from the hearing of His discourse be glorified to such an extent, that others cannot behold the glory of his countenance. . . . Thus, then, I have shown it to be, if anyone read the Scriptures.”
We hear the Word as we attend to, listen to, and incline our ear to the reading of the prophets and apostles. We hear the Word as our Pastor speaks words of comfort, words of absolution, words of assurance. We hear the word through each other. Wonderful words of Life, as our hymn called it. Through our prayers. Through our peace.
“Peace be with you,” we say. This is not a passive, declarative statement. The Spanish here is La Paz esté co Usted.” The verb there is not esta it is an imperative “esté” of estar. ” Like when I say to my kids “Be good.”
Why? Because Jesus says to the disciples after his resurrection:
Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
He tunes their hearts to Peace with his presence and his words. This is the same Word who said to the stormy waves “Be Still.” This Word who, Paul says, made peace through His blood on the cross and is, in fact, our Peace.
The Gospel is not only that the Word has accomplished this peace but that you are invited to participate in that peace. To accept his Word to you: retuned in this this house of the Wisdom, this house of the Word. This week, Peter urges us to open our ears and to hear the identity-shaping Word. “I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” “He has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God”
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By Rev. Doug FloydDr. Christopher Graham
The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo (1511)
Easter 3
Dr. Christopher Graham
Isaiah 43:1-12, 1 Peter 1:13-25, Luke 24:13-35
A House of Wisdom . . . A House of the Word
“Since you have purified your souls in obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brothers and sisters, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. . . . And this is the word which was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:22-23)
In introducing our time in 1 Peter, Fr Doug told us last week: “Together, we are becoming the house of the Lord. That’s what Peter is telling us in his letter. Wisdom’s perfect house. We are becoming that house of wisdom.” Wisdom involves applying a knowledge gained from experience to life. This includes recognizing the power of our words and then using those words well. This is certainly the reason that Scripture provides so many proverbs about watching our words.
But in our passage this morning, Peter is not speaking of our wise use of words in the house. Instead, he speaks of the Word that causes this house to be a house of Wisdom. This morning, we are reminded that our acts—even our speech acts—in this house of wisdom are an extension of God’s action because who we are and what we do is rooted in who God is and what He does by his Word. This Word composes our identity and then tunes us to live in harmony.
Our passage this morning begins “Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all behavior.” In the next chapter, he will say that God “has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God” (2:9) By his word, he composes his people.
As our OT reading reminded us, it was this same Word that composed his people Israel.
“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”
This Word defines, even creates our reality because that is what the Word does as the active agent of God’s will. It is this creative Word active in Genesis 1, “And God said. . . “ It is this creative Word that the Psalmist extols: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made.” It is this Word that was in the beginning, John tells us, that takes on flesh. That same Word calls us, defines us, composes us.
The struggle, of course, is to hear just this Word over all the other words that form a twisted and broken cacophony. Some of these words are just static, noise that keeps us from hearing. Some of seek to de-compose us. Some of these words come from those in our world. For many of us, though, these are own voices that we say to ourselves with words that run counter to the Word.
Peter himself faced this struggle. He cannot hear the calling “Follow me,” without remembering his rebuffs of Jesus’s Word his denial after making the bold proclamation I will follow you anywhere. And as he hears the call “Follow Me!” “Peter turned around and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following” So Peter, upon seeing him, said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?” 22 Jesus *said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”
This calling, this Word defined and re-defined Peter in spite of his own doubts. And this is the Word now that defines us. The Gospel is that, as Philip Cary, opining on Martin Luther says, “The word of address gets me thinking about myself as the object of God’s love and grace; for the Gospel truth is that Christ died for me, to forgive me, a sinner. . . . To be justified by faith alone is therefore to focus my attention on the word of Christ alone, and not on anything I do about it—not on the depth of my contrition nor even on the firmness of my faith when I say, “I believe.” Word and faith require each other, but they do not have equal footing, for “faith builds and is founded on the Word of God rather than God’s Word on Faith”
This Word that composes us as his people, defines us as his children, his elect, his workmanship (poema) as Paul phrases it—this Word then keeps us in tune and in tempo. Peter says in our passage that because “you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God” fervently love one another from the heart. And because “this is the word which was preached to you. . . rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and allslander and long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”
We are surrounded by voices—whether others or our own—using words of malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander. Words that if they don’t decompose us at least distort us. And so, each we encounter the Word during our worship seeking for him to “Tune my heart to sing that grace.” Last week Fr. Doug’s said: “Our Christian walk is not a dour struggle through the wastelands of a sinful world. It is a joy-filled dance amidst a world at odds with Christ. Peter is encouraging us today that Christ is present and He will sustain us.” Each week, we are sustained as we encounter the Lord in our Eucharist. Each week, we the Word of the Lord brings us back in tune from a week that has distorted us. Sometimes we are indeed returned to a joy-filled dance. Sometimes it is a lament over the perversion of justice. Sometimes, love is not a victory march, it’s a cold, and it’s a broken Hallelujah. But, as Fr. Doug said, the Word never sets us to the key of “dour struggle.”
Our ministry of the Scriptures, the living and active Word, cannot be a lifeless exercise. As our reading from Luke 24 shows, it quickens us as it did for the two on the Emmaus Way. When they thought of their experience, the two said, “Did not our heart not burn within us?” When the second century bishop Irenaeus thinks on this passage, he says, “The man who loves God shall arrive at such excellency as even to see God, and hear His word, and from the hearing of His discourse be glorified to such an extent, that others cannot behold the glory of his countenance. . . . Thus, then, I have shown it to be, if anyone read the Scriptures.”
We hear the Word as we attend to, listen to, and incline our ear to the reading of the prophets and apostles. We hear the Word as our Pastor speaks words of comfort, words of absolution, words of assurance. We hear the word through each other. Wonderful words of Life, as our hymn called it. Through our prayers. Through our peace.
“Peace be with you,” we say. This is not a passive, declarative statement. The Spanish here is La Paz esté co Usted.” The verb there is not esta it is an imperative “esté” of estar. ” Like when I say to my kids “Be good.”
Why? Because Jesus says to the disciples after his resurrection:
Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
He tunes their hearts to Peace with his presence and his words. This is the same Word who said to the stormy waves “Be Still.” This Word who, Paul says, made peace through His blood on the cross and is, in fact, our Peace.
The Gospel is not only that the Word has accomplished this peace but that you are invited to participate in that peace. To accept his Word to you: retuned in this this house of the Wisdom, this house of the Word. This week, Peter urges us to open our ears and to hear the identity-shaping Word. “I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” “He has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God”