Third Sunday in Easter

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Obstinate to Christian: “What are the things that thou seek, since you leave all the world to find them?” — Christian responds: “I seek a place incorruptible, one that is undefiled, and that fadeth not away; and it is laid up in heaven and safe there, to be bestowed, at the time appointed, on them that diligently seek it. Read it so, if you will, in my book.” — Obstinate obstinately replies: “Tush! Away with your book; will you go back to the City of Destruction with us, or no?” — “No, not I”, said the other, “because I have laid my hand to the plough and cannot look back [to that country from whence I came].”¹ 

It was not John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress that conceived this framework of being a stranger in a strange land – it was Christ JESUS. In John’s Gospel, 18.36, Pilate (the Gentiles’ representative, who would forsake the LORD), queried JESUS about the nature of His Kingdom. JESUS said: “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now, My Kingdom is not from here.” — King David understood this concept as well, crying out to GOD: “Now therefore, oh GOD, we thank You and praise Your glorious name … For all things come from You, and of Your own we have given You. For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, as were all our fathers; our days on earth are as a shadow, and without hope [unless they be in You and for You] (1 Chronicles 29.13, 14b-15).  

To this sense of the Christian identity (the sense of being a foreigner in a foreign land, hoping someday to obtain to the far better Country of GOD in Christ), St. Peter appeals in our Epistle Lesson. There he writes: “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul…” (2.11). Peter implores all Christ-followers to abstain from fleshly lusts, not because they are bad in and of themselves. Rather, forged by GOD and for His glory when enjoyed in the proper context and volumes, eating, drinking, and procreating are virtuous appetites. It is the longing, coveting, lusting, and indulging in fleshly desires that are so detrimental to the human soul, Peter says. And besides being superfluous and naughty in every respect, such lusts do not characterize well the civility or morality of the citizenry of those who belong to Christ’s Religious Kingdom. 

As strangers, pilgrims, and sojourners in this world, Christians are not to have their spiritual convictions and commitments influenced by the flesh, but by the Spirit. Saint Peter underscores this truth by appealing to the Christian’s pilgrim-nature, which should be our true identity in this life. Saying the same thing, Saint Paul puts it another way, when he exhorts the Christian society in Ephesus to remember GOD’s desired outcome for their lives, having been brought near to GOD’s Country from afar off, by the Blood of the Lamb. — Paul reminds the Ephesians of their once civil and morally disobedient nature, viz-a-vis their fleshly lusts. He says, you Ephesians, you who “once walked according to the courses of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh … [you, GOD] made alive together with Christ (for it is by grace you have been saved)” (2.2-3a, 5). Thus, if we have been saved by GOD’s grace from the country in which we once lived, moved, and rebelled against GOD, being translated into the glorious Kingdom of His Son (cf. Col. 1.13), Peter exhorts us to do as Christian did in his ‘progress.’ That is, as Christ’s sojourners, we are to seek a place incorruptible, one that is undefiled, and that fadeth not away. — As the author of Hebrews would describe it: “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is GOD” (11.10). 

This inheritance and this citizenship that Christians are journeying toward in this life belong to a New City – a New Country – a New Creation. Thus, Saint Peter calls us to the civil and moral obedience of those whose current and future citizenship, therein lies. — She is, of course, ‘already, but not yet’. — The gates of this New City first swung open when Christ JESUS burst forth from the Grave on Easter Morning, but this New City, this New Jerusalem, is not fully realized yet, just as her citizens are not fully realized. Though we participate in the beauty of worship and feasting within the gates of this already heavenly City, she is not yet fully accessible by her citizens living in this country. To Saints Peter and Paul’s point, though, this should not diminish our pursuit of this Royal City in this Royal Country. She is very real and approachable to us, being described by the author of Hebrews in this way: “But [now], you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living GOD, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to GOD the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to JESUS the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel” (12.22-24). 

But as for her ‘not yet’ character and nature, we can know for certain that we have not yet attained to it. That part of her reality is yet to come – awaiting our participation at a future Day and Time. If it were not so, then why does Saint Peter implore us, as strangers and pilgrims, to live lives contrary to the foreign country in which we now reside? That by living moral and virtuous lives as citizens of that Country and not this one, we might “conduct ourselves honorable among the Gentiles, so that they would, by our good works in a foreign land, which they observe, glorify GOD in the Day of Visitation? (cf. 1 Peter 2.12-13) For a day cometh, says Saint Paul, “when GOD shall judge the secrets of men’s hearts by JESUS Christ according to the Gospel” (Romans 2.16). It is our duty, as Christ-followers, until that Day, to live lives that reflect that future Kingdom glory. By so doing, we will reveal, as Christian did to Obstinate, that those outside of GOD’s City are without hope. Their only solution is to flee this City of Destruction with us.  

The Collect for today is keen on this theme as well. It states: “Almighty GOD, who showest to them that are in error the light of Thy truth, to the intent, that they may return into the way of righteousness”², (viz. the way to the Celestial City). — Lest we forget, the 1928 Prayer Book, in the Office of the Penitent (pp. 60-63), reminds us of GOD’s sentiment expressed clearly in Holy Scripture. That is that the Most Mighty GOD, “and merciful Father, has compassion upon all men, and would not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his sin, and be saved.”³ Thus GOD desires for His people to love and serve Him, as Saint Peter says, “by having our conversations honest among the Gentile [unbelievers] … that by our good works, which they shall behold, they might glorify GOD in the Day of visitation” (1 Peter 2.12), and GOD willing, repent and take up their cross and go on pilgrimage with us too. 

Whether Peter means that unbelieving Gentiles see our good works and repent before GOD at the Day of Judgment, in some day of calamity, or in the day of their own personal crisis, it matters not, for the effect will be the same. Our honest conversations in word and deed before unbelievers will cause their reproaches of us (if there are any), to stop, and for them to more seriously and honestly consider the GOD we serve and the Country that we pursue in Christ. If we, as Peter exhorts us, will act, not as residents of this world, but by word and deed, reveal that we are citizens of a far better Country – a New Jerusalem – then we will find ourselves participants in Christ’s great, ‘already’, Spiritual Commission to the world.  

Now, brothers and sisters, I hope Peter and Paul’s promotion to flee from fleshly lusts that war against the soul, clinging, as strangers and sojourners in this world, to the virtues of Christ’s Heavenly Kingdom instead, has convinced you to make your conversations honorable among unbelievers.  — Let us acknowledge that this is not only a mandate, but also a template for the Christian life. — Perhaps some will make the point that Christianity is not the only world religion that teaches virtuous living and peace with one’s neighbor? No, it is not. Yet, it is the only religion that claims its Master is the Author, Savior, and Redeemer of the whole world. It is also the only faith system that teaches that GOD is not only the LORD of believers, but He is also Father to them.  

Father, not only because He is the progenitor of the human race generally; or that He has formed and fashioned all things good, true, and beautiful that cause our hearts to soar with awe and praise; nor, only that all wisdom and power resides in Him and the He gives to us our daily bread from His bounty, so that we might know Him and the wonder of His creation – terrestrial and extraterrestrial. GOD is our Father, for He has known us since our mother’s womb; He is with us no matter where we go; even if mother and father were to abandon us, He will never leave us nor forsake us; He pities us and forgives us; He protects, feeds, nurtures, cares, and blesses us; He has adopted us and put His Name on us; and most importantly, He sent His only Son to die for us, that we might become His children. We are His family, His priests, His sons and daughters, and He has brought us into His Kingdom through regeneration, sending His Spirit into our hearts, whereby we call Him Abba, Father. GOD as Father, revealed in the Son, allows us not only to know who we are, but also Whose we are. 

And thus, Peter and Paul’s admonition is not the admonition of earthly children unto an earthly father. Rather, it is of heavenly children unto their Heavenly Father. As His children, we bear proudly the Family Name, soldiering bravely and faithfully under our Father’s and His Christ’s flag against the world, the flesh, and the devil. It is in Christ and through Christ that we obtain the victory by participating in His divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust (cf. 2 Ptr. 1.4). The conversations we are encouraged to have as foreigners and strangers while in this world, testifying that we are just passing through on the way to our True Home, are to uphold Christ’s Religion and elevate the glory of GOD our Father. To do so, the Divine Nature is essential, and to this JESUS begins a discussion with His disciples in the Upper Room about how they will change the world in the Father’s Name. They will do so, He says, with the aid and assistance of the Holy Spirit. It is He Who is the source and reason for our connection to the Divine Nature of Christ, and our ability to overcome this world. We will focus on the Holy Spirit, and what JESUS has to say about Him, in the Sundays ahead, leading up to the Feast of Pentecost. 

For today, Saint Peter gives us four ways we can fulfill our calling as Christians – strangers and pilgrims. He tells us to “Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear GOD. Honor the King” (1 Peter 2.17). Peter frames these commands by telling us that as servants of GOD, we are not to use our freedom from the temptations of this world as a cloak of maliciousness against the world. “Surprisingly to some, Christian liberty from sin is the freedom to live as servants of GOD; fulfilling His will and not our own … Thus, we are to honor all men and to show respect to all people. For as Christ died for the whole world, it is possible, by the grace of GOD, that the Divine Likeness could be restored in these people too. Further, we are to love the brotherhood of Christians for they are made lovely in Christ. We are to fear GOD and approach Him with reverence at all times. And finally, we are to honor the king, for through him (if he be a just ruler), GOD acts to bring justice and peace in the world.”⁴   

So, fellow pilgrims and strangers…I invite you … abstain from fleshly lusts that war against your soul and have your conversations honest among the Gentiles. And may GOD the ALMIGHTY, grant us, who have been admitted into the Faith of Christ’s Religion, to keep it, that we might avoid the things that are contrary to our profession of the Faith. And may we follow all such good and agreeable things that show us faithful citizens of the already but not yet New Creation – the New Jerusalem – that far better Country. It will not be easy, but it will be worth it, as Christian reminds us, as he approached the Celestial City: 

“This hill, though high, I covet to ascend; The difficulty will not me offend. For I perceive the way to life lies here – [in this New City incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away]. Come, pluck up, heart [dear friends]; let us neither faint nor fear. Better, though difficult, the right way to go, than the wrong, though easy, where the end is woe.”⁵ And may the death of death and hell’s destruction, being led by the Great Jehovah, land us on Canaan’s side. 

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.  

— 

1 Bunyan, John, Pilgrim’s Progress: From this World to That Which is to Come, Delivered Under the Similitude of a Dream, (The Religious Tract Society: London, 1886), 16.  

2 1928 Book of Common Prayer, 173.  

3 1928 BCP, 62.  

4 Carson, D.A., France, R.T., and Motyer, J.A., New Bible Commentary, (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Academic, 1994), 1377.  

5 Bunyan, 62.