Dear Family at Christ Community,

     On Sunday, we will gather to be nourished by the word read, confessed, prayed, sung, preached, and witnessed in the Lord’s Table. In 1 Peter 1:13-21, our sermon text, Peter transitions from the foundational indicatives of God’s redeeming love for us to the imperatives of how then we should live in response to God’s love. We will be challenged to be holy as God is holy. For many of us, when we hear the word “holy,” we think “perfect.” This can make us think that God is calling us to the impossible task of being perfect or that this is a lofty theological ideal for some future time that really doesn’t impact how we live today. However, to be holy as God is holy is not a call to perfection or an unattainable theological ideal. It is a call to display God’s image and attributes in contrast to the fallen, sinful ways of the world. It is a call to live out the redemptive story in contrast to the worldly narrative of despair, meaninglessness, and death. It is a call to be missional ambassadors of reconciliation for God’s glory for the life of the world! Christopher J.H. Wright captures God’s calling for His people from the start in Knowing the Holy Spirit Through the Old Testament:  

Being holy fundamentally means being different or distinctive. God wanted Israel to be a model of how human life ought to be. He wanted Israel to be a society that was visibly, socially, economically, politically and religiously different from the nations around. They would be as different from the other nations in their quality of life as Yahweh, the God of Israel, was different from the gods of the other nations in his moral character. So Israel’s mission was to reflect Yahweh their God in the midst of the nations—to be holy as he is holy; to be light as he is light.

     We have this same calling as Peter reminds us in both 1 Peter 1:13-21 and 1 Peter 2:9-12, which serves as our weekly congregational confession. How we live out our faith matters. We were redeemed for a purpose greater than just ourselves. Tripp York sums it up succinctly in The Devil Wears Nada when he writes, “Biography is the best theology.” The Lord’s Table serves us a glorious reminder of the foundational indicative of God’s love for us accomplished and sealed in Christ. It will also nourish us to live out the worshipful, missional imperatives as our response. The broken bread and overflowing cup help us to set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ in His final coming and live holy lives between this now and that not yet.

     Take time this week to give thanks for God’s redemptive love for you so beautifully displayed in Christ. Thank Him for inviting you into this grand narrative of reconciliation and renewal that He is unfolding in this broken, dying world. Praise Him for gifting you with talents, abilities, and opportunities to express your love for Him and for the good of your neighbor that will bring you joy. Remember that you are forgiven and so remind others of the same for them by being forgiving. Seek peace without growing weary of so great a good. Come to worship and the table as God’s beloved child prepared to receive what you need, both mercy and grace!

In Christ,
Cameron