On a blustery morning yesterday, 40 or so people gathered at St Swithun’s Church in Martyr Worthy for Valley Worship, in the second of a series of services concentrating on themes arising from 1 Peter. Nicky Barber led the service, Hannah Barber was interviewed in the latest ‘episode’ of Every Day Lives (a feature of Valley Worship for 10 or so years now) and Sarah Hunt, Sarah Noble, Fraser Noble and Tim Clapp all made great contributions to the service. Verity Greig led a typically spirited and well-attended session of the Ark in the Martyr Worthy Village Hall during the service, which also focused on what makes for real treasure and was clearly much enjoyed by the children.
John Barber spoke on verses 3 to 9 of 1 Peter, Chapter 1 (the text of which is replicated below), focusing on the meaning of the inheritance Jesus promises that ‘can never perish, spoil or fade’ and on how Peter’s history of great failure at the time of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion and his subsequent experience of Jesus’ complete forgiveness can be applied to our lives.
A link to the recording of John’s talk can be found here:
The text of 1 Peter 1, verses 3 to 9 and of John’s talk is set out below:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
As you all know, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month is one of the most important moments in our national life, when we gather across the country around War Memorials for Remembrance Day, as we did two weekends ago just up the lane here in Martyr Worthy. I always find these occasions so moving, as we contemplate the scale of the losses in the World Wars – shockingly, there are 16 names on our Memorial in this small village alone – and as we commemorate the sacrifices of the fallen who shall grow not old, as Laurence Binyon’s poem so beautifully put it in 1914 and as we repeat every year.
Unlike many members of our community today, who were willing – admirably – to sacrifice their lives as members of the Armed Forces to preserve peace and defend freedom, I was never put to that kind of test in military service. As a result I also find myself on Remembrance Day wondering how I would have reacted to being in battle and under fire – what would my own fight or flight response have been, how would I have reacted to situations of maximum stress like these, would I have buckled under the pressure or been courageous and resolute? Perhaps you can identify with these thoughts and questions, either in a military context or in another hugely demanding situation you might face.
I think we can readily imagine what Peter, the writer of this letter, might nominate as the time, place and situation when he was under maximum stress and tested to the full. Before turning to what that might be, let’s remind ourselves of the highlights of his journey with Jesus and of his incredibly close relationship with him, as recorded in the Gospels:
- Peter was casting a net into the Sea of Galilee with his brother Andrew when Jesus appeared and said, ‘Come, follow me,’ which the brothers promptly did.
- Peter was then an eye-witness to Jesus’ miracles and heard his teachings ‘live,’ as they were delivered to the crowds.
- Peter once leapt out of a boat enthusiastically to join Jesus, who was walking on the water; when he took his eyes off Jesus and started to sink, Jesus reached out his hand to rescue him.
- Later we learn that Peter was one of three disciples taken by Jesus up a mountain, where he saw Jesus transfigured, or transformed, and he heard the voice of the Father saying ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well-pleased. Listen to him!’
- Finally, after other disciples found Jesus’ teaching and ways too hard to follow and they turned back and deserted him, Jesus asked Peter – ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Peter replied, with great passion: ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.’
So, surely when a great test of love for and loyalty to Jesus came Peter would have passed it with flying colours. But – as we know from detailed accounts in all four Gospels – despite telling Jesus not long before his arrest ‘I will lay my life down for you,’ instead he vehemently denied knowing him three times. At Jesus’ hour of greatest need for friendship and support, Peter didn’t just abandon him completely to his fate, he cancelled him – to use a contemporary term — and tried to put as much distance between his best friend and him as he could.
One can hardly imagine a failure under maximum stress more catastrophic than this one; unsurprisingly Peter felt its impact immediately. Following his third denial a rooster crowed, just as Jesus had anticipated it would, making Peter realise what he had done. As the last line of Matthew, Chapter 26 says simply – ‘And he went outside and wept bitterly.’
As we turn to the detail of this passage, let’s keep Peter’s history in mind, both his abject failure before Jesus’ crucifixion and, ultimately, his restored relationship with Jesus after his resurrection. I think his biography makes what he has to say particularly credible and his perspective on Jesus’ promises especially valuable.
Let’s look at the first verse – after expressing praise ‘to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ Peter provides a reason right away for why that praise is merited. He speaks of God’s ‘great mercy’ in giving us ‘new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.’ Maybe we read a short passage like that and don’t really concentrate on how powerful its message is. But just put yourself in Peter’s place, remembering the emotional and spiritual roller-coaster that he went through just before Jesus’ death and afterwards as he met the resurrected Jesus and was forgiven by him – can you hear the passion in the words ‘in his great mercy’? This is a man who knows how undeserved that mercy is, yet how healing and releasing it is to receive it.
And what is Peter talking about when he speaks of ‘a living hope’ and, in the next verse, ‘of an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade,’ one kept in heaven for us? He is speaking of Jesus’ promise of eternal life, of a life after death in God’s presence that will never end, where we will be at home forever, safe and secure and without pain or tears.
I’d guess that when we hear the word ‘inheritance’ we probably think first of something of value we might expect to receive when a loved one dies, maybe a parent, a Godparent or even an eccentric uncle – it might consist of shares we could sell to buy a house or of a treasured painting or possession. In his down-to-earth way, Peter puts his finger on the practical limitations of that kind of human inheritance – it can perish, spoil or fade. The donor might turn against you and change their Will at the last minute, cutting you out of it; the stock market might crash just at the point when you planned to sell shares, leaving you with insufficient funds to buy a house; a painting might get damaged in a flood or jewellery might get stolen.
When we are thinking about an inheritance, we have to be recognise that, before it can be received, the donor has to die. As Peter knew better than anyone, Jesus died on the cross, taking upon himself the weight of sin of all humanity – past, present and future – and suffering the judgment of a holy God in our place. The price was paid by the most precious asset any father could offer – the life of his own child. To save someone else’s life, I can imagine throwing myself under a bus – but I can’t even conceive of sacrificing one of our children’s lives to do so. So let’s be frank – what greater evidence of how much he cares for us could God give than the sacrifice of his only son to make a relationship with us possible?
But the good news Peter conveys when he speaks of this living hope and imperishable inheritance isn’t just limited to a promise of a life with God after death. The inheritance offered to us can start now, in this life. We don’t need to wait to seek and receive Jesus’ forgiveness for the ways we’ve fallen short of his best for us. We can also have a relationship with Jesus now that lets us rely on his strength and guidance as we walk together, through good times and bad.
Returning to the passage, in verses 6 and 7, Peter – ever the realist — recognises that we face trouble in this life (as Jesus also said we would). Indeed, he goes further in saying we ‘may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.’ Yet he puts the stresses of our existence in very long-term perspective, making it clear that they will last only ‘for a little while,’ in contrast to the literally uncountable years of eternity stretching before those who accept Jesus’ saving invitation.
Do these words bring actual comfort to you? When you think about going through a hard situation of life – illness, grief, unemployment, financial pressures, concern about conflicts around the world, worries about climate change – does it help to remember that this life will just be a tiny blip when compared with an unending eternity in God’s presence, free of all these burdens?
I’d suggest that in isolation, simply as statements of fact or as some form of tough love, these may not be entirely life-giving, encouraging words to hear. They may be hard to accept if you are coming from a place of pain and doubt. This is where we have to turn our focus back to the character of the God in whom we are being asked to believe.
Let’s return to Peter’s story to see what it tells us about Jesus’ character and how he dealt with someone probably as burdened with regret at his actions as it is possible to be. In the Gospel accounts of the night of Jesus’ arrest, particularly in John Chapter 18, when Peter denies Jesus three times he is standing around a charcoal fire to warm himself on a cold night. In Greek, the original language of John’s Gospel, the word for charcoal is anthrakia – this is the first of only two times it is used in the whole New Testament.
The second time this word anthrakia appears is three chapters later, after Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus meets Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, after Peter hauls in a miraculous catch of fish. This is the very place where Peter was first called to be a disciple of Jesus. The Gospel account records that a charcoal fire is burning, on which a breakfast of bread and fish is cooked. After they have eaten, Jesus asks Peter a question – ‘Do you love me?’ — three times, once for each denial.
Let’s put ourselves in Peter’s shoes. Surely the glowing coals, the smell of smoke and the warmth of the fire would have been sensory and memory triggers, bringing back terrible associations with the night he abandoned Jesus. As he is brought face to face with the person whom he so callously cancelled, Peter is likely to be in the very place psychologically to which he absolutely does not want to go back. Is Jesus being cruel in setting the stage as he did?
On the contrary, I’d suggest Jesus is intentionally taking Peter back to his deepest valley of despair, so that they can take hold of what happened there together. In that dark place, their relationship can be restored, through Peter experiencing the astonishing grace of God as Jesus forgives him completely. Soon thereafter, in full knowledge of Peter’s failings and flaws, remarkably Jesus entrusts him with his flock, telling him ‘Feed my sheep.’
Think of the freedom and joy Peter must have felt after this valley to peak experience. Having met with living God so powerfully and been released so comprehensively from his burdens, is it any wonder that Peter sees faith in Jesus as worth any trial he, or we, go through? I say ‘we,’ for this letter reaches far beyond when it was written to speak to us today too. Let’s read verse 8, which is in the present tense – ‘Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.’ When Peter wrote this letter, he could no longer ‘see’ Jesus, the early Christians couldn’t see him and we can’t see him, but we can love him, believe in him and receive an inheritance from him that brings joy now and in the future.
The very same Jesus who rescued Peter is here with us, by his Spirit, today. What he has promised to everyone who believes in him has not changed. His character – endlessly forgiving and loving – is just the same as the one Peter met at his lowest point in life. Are you ready to take a step of faith towards him, maybe for the first time, or to bring him your regrets or burdens, asking him to take their weight from you?
And how do we do that? Let’s simply imagine Jesus’ arms open to us, just as they were to Peter, and let’s listen for his voice encouraging us, forgiving us, welcoming us – if you can or want to, imagine moving towards him and receiving that embrace. We’ll pause for a few moments to do this before I close in prayer.