Wednesday • 11/24/2021
Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth Week After Pentecost (Proper 29)
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:145–176; Obadiah 15–21; 1 Peter 2:1–10; Matthew 19:23–30
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 11 (“The Third Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 60:1-3,11a,14c,18-19, BCP, p. 87); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 16 (“The Song of Zechariah,” Luke 1:68-79, BCP, p. 92)
No “discards”
Bob died not long ago. He was 92 years old, and he had been retired for many years from a long and productive calling as a pastor. Even though he led Bible studies up to the very end of his life, in his last few years he often wondered aloud to his daughter Donna if there was any more purpose to his life. Or whether he was a “discard.” She kept reminding him that he was precious to God, to her, and to the many people whom he had served and continued to serve in ministry.
A couple of weeks before his death, Bob got a new roommate, Manny. Manny noticed that Bob read the Bible a lot, and he asked Bob about it. Bob shared his faith in Christ, and, to Bob’s surprise, Manny asked if he could pray to receive Christ. Two days later, Manny died.
Donna told Bob, “See, Dad, God has no discards. You were here for Manny, and now Manny will be part of the reception party for you when the time comes.” The time for that reception party came a mere two weeks later. Donna, of course, shed (and still does) many tears. But there’s no small joy mixed with the tears, knowing her dad knew his gracious God had given him that one last mission.
The anchor of Bob’s soul was Jesus Christ, who himself knew what it was to be a “discard.” As Peter says, echoing Isaiah, Jesus was “rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight” (1 Peter 2:4 NET; see Isaiah 28:6). Any of us who feel like life has passed us by, or that people have turned their back on us, can look to Jesus. That’s the way they treated him, and if we belong to him, we can count our dismissal as a sharing in his suffering of rejection. Whether it’s an employer who has said, “We are going in a different direction,” a spouse who says, “I don’t love you anymore,” a child who says, “I hate you and want you out of my life,” or a friend who says, “Because your politics are so distasteful to me, we can’t be friends any longer.”
Jesus knew rejection. He also knew that to his Father in heaven, he was specially chosen, deeply known and deeply loved, in fact, before the foundation of the world. He knew that he was precious—the Greek at 1 Peter 2:4 is entimos, which means “highly valued.” He also knew that as “a living stone,” he was the anchoring stone (scholars puzzle over whether the term he uses makes him the foundation stone or the capstone) of an amazing new house his Father was building—a house in which God and we would reside together. Regardless of how others treated him, Jesus knew his mission was to anchor a building made up of other “living stones”—you and me, and Bob and Donna and Manny.
Peter writes to people who are now outsiders to Roman life. Many of these, because of their new life in Christ, became castoffs in their homes, associated no longer in shady business deals, and no longer patronized brothels with their friends. Peter wants them to know they are treasured by their Heavenly Father, ransomed by their Brother and Friend, and essential to the house of which they themselves are a part.
Peter augments the picture of their being “living stones” in God’s new building. He draws upon several vivid Old Testament images of the way God values and dignifies his people.
A holy and royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:5,9). While the world does not even know why it aches and feels cursed, Christ’s people stand between them and the God who loves them and they cry out, “How long, O Lord, until you end the aches and remove the curse?”
A chosen race (1 Peter 2:9). While the world descends further and further into an ugly and destructive tribalism, Christ’s people resolutely invite anybody and everybody to become a part of a new peoplehood being built around the Second Adam, the Last Man (1 Corinthians 15:45,47).
A holy nation (1 Peter 2:9). In a field of competing loyalties, Christ’s people point to one leader, one king, one commonwealth that is worthy of ultimate loyalty: the Kingdom of God in Christ.
A people for his possession (1 Peter 2:9). While the world grasps after and competes for more and more possessions (all the while becoming more and more possessed by those possessions) Christ’s people rejoice in the stunning wonder of counting themselves held, protected, and cherished by the God who has claimed them as his prized possession.
No longer “Not a people” nor “Those who have not received mercy,” but now transformed into “God’s people” and “those who have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10). In a world of people who secretly fear the worst about themselves—that they are and fully deserve to be “discards”—Christ’s people unrelentingly proclaim the excellencies of the God who claims precisely such people, forgives them, heals them, and beautifies them.
I’m grateful Bob knew the full measure of these precious truths. I pray you and I know them too.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+
Image: "ribbon, clasped hands, anchor, heart and cross" by Leo Reynolds is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0