Today's Reading: 1 Peter 3:8-15

Daily Lectionary: Judges 3:7-31; Acts 13:42-52

But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. (1 Peter 3:14)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. "Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?" For some reason we read that and assume there should be no answer. If we really love God, how can He let us suffer? Peter wrote that line to a church experiencing martyrdom. Turns out he'd die a martyr himself, crucified upside down. He made his defense for the hope that was in him upside down. On a cross. I don't think he's trying to make the point we think.

We imagine that Christian witness is about power, intellect, charisma. "Look how that person found Jesus and got his life together." We imagine a witness apart from lowliness, humiliation, suffering. Nobody signs up for that stuff. We want a Christianity that makes our lives easier. It leaves us in the awkward position of trying to witness about a religion whose symbol is the Cross. When we imagine a Christianity apart from suffering, we imagine a Christianity apart from the Cross. When you flee from suffering you flee from the Cross. Peter calls suffering for righteousness' sake a blessing. As someone who hates paper cuts, that's discouraging. I don't want to hurt.

Peter doesn't promise a religion apart from suffering, but He doesn't speak of a God apart from it, either.

You will not find God in a place with no suffering. You find Him on the Cross for you. That doesn't just change how we see suffering. It changes how we see ourselves. Jesus didn't bear the Cross for those who were zealous for what is good. He bore the rCoss for the people who got what they deserve, who suffer for doing evil, for the sinners. For us. And that Cross names you forgiven. Righteous.

I don't know if Peter had courage or cowardice upside down on that cross, but I know he's baptized. I know that afraid or not, God had already saved him. The upside down cross they put him on became a joke we tell each other. The world calls it satanic, but the Petrine cross is an ancient Christian symbol, a reminder that salvation is ours today no matter what they call us. God bore the Cross first, so that ours would be like His. We are the baptized. We don't stay dead. Here is your hope. Here is your defense.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The band of the apostles in glory sing Your praise; The fellowship of prophets their deathless voices raise. The martyrs of Your kingdom, a great and noble throng, Sing with the holy Church throughout all the world this song: "O all-majestic Father, Your true and only Son, And Holy Spirit, Comforter--forever Three in One!" ("We Praise You and Acknowledge You, O God" LSB 941, st.2)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch