Finding the Good News
Rev. Lee Ann Bryce
Community Christian Church
May 22, 2011
For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. I Peter 2:19-25
I have a long personal history with this passage. I committed it to memory many years ago and at an earlier point in my life, found comfort in it. Now, however, I honestly find it a difficult text on which to preach. In this passage, many understand Peter’s purpose as encouraging people to endure suffering gracefully. We all have suffering in our lives and sometimes, we can’t do much to change it. And so our attitude toward that suffering can become very important. If that’s your life experience, then maybe this is helpful advice.
Or here’s another way to look at it. Maybe we find in Peter’s words an affirmation of non-violent resistance. Peter calls us to do as Christ did when we are threatened. Jesus had the opportunity to resist his arrest and trial but there’s no indication he did. When he was arrested in the garden and his disciple drew a sword to attack the guard, what did Jesus do? He insisted the sword be laid down and he willingly gave himself over for arrest. Peter is saying, we, too, should not answer threat with threat.
This language of endurance and perseverance in the face of hardship and persecution may be good advice in certain situations. Peter’s words appear to be sincere counsel to those seeking to live as Christ lived. Nonetheless, there is a potentially devastating message that can be taken from this text and we need to address that. Let me be clear - God does not call us in order to suffer abuse, nor should we perpetuate situations that lead to our abuse.
And yet we have v. 19: For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. And a bit later, If you endure when you do right, and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. Think about it. What does this say to the many people in our day who have suffered abuse – spouses, children, people with deep scars from years of harm committed against them (often by someone they loved)? What does this say to people with fragile mental health who join the church in search of safety and solace? Reading this text uncritically, with its injunction that God wants us to endure suffering, even if it is undeserved, can inflict more harm on already tender souls; it seems to say that suffering is somehow ordained by God and that anything but a submissive response to suffering is sinful.
At the state women’s conference a few weeks ago, I happened to have a conversation with a woman who told me about an experience she’d had with a church. A few years ago, she had sought counsel from her pastor regarding her abusive marriage. She had made a heart-wrenching decision to leave her husband, to end the abuse she had suffered at his hands for years, and she went to talk it over with her pastor. He told her in no uncertain terms that she should remain with her husband, despite the severe abuse that had become commonplace. And the pastor to whom she spoke pointed to this very passage to say that she was to follow the example of Christ by enduring her suffering. Divorce is sin, he said. You will find favor with God if you remain in your marriage and endure your suffering.
Most of us would agree that that pastor’s response was hurtful, and inappropriate; a misuse of scripture. And yet it’s easy to see how he could look to this passage to support his position.
Today’s passage comes from the Revised Common Lectionary, a 3 year cycle of assigned readings designated for each Sunday. It is our church’s tradition to follow the lectionary and we usually do that. The reading provided in today’s lectionary includes exactly the verses we read, I Peter 2:19-25. (Technically, this is last week’s reading, but I was gone last week, so I delayed it a week.) It’s funny, but when they assigned the verses for the day, the lectionary editors cut off a key verse that tells us to whom Peter is speaking. It’s important information in order to understand any text, right? Look at the verse that immediately precedes our passage. Let me read it to you, then you can guess why they chose not to include it. I Peter 2:18 reads: “Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle, but also those who are harsh.”
You can imagine why preachers are uncomfortable reading this verse in church, much less preaching from it. It’s far easier to take the route of the lectionary editors and just leave out that little part about slaves obeying their masters! Start in v. 19 and this passage is a little dicey, but if we start reading in v. 18 things get worse: we hear Peter telling the most vulnerable members of his community, the slaves, to “suck it up.” When we read in v. 18, that God wants slaves to obey their masters, we’re forced to admit that Peter apparently accepts the master-slave relationship. All of the tap dancing in the world up here in the pulpit cannot change the fact that Peter says, Slaves obey your masters; not only the nice ones but also the abusive ones. We can imagine what the life of a first century slave is like and Peter is telling them, not only to submit to their station but to the abuse that comes with it.
Please tell me, what exactly is the good news in this text? If this passage clearly supports the institution of slavery, and in addition, can be read to perpetuate the suffering of the abused, what do we do with it? Can reading the Bible be hazardous to your health??
As a preacher, it seems to me that sometimes the most faithful thing I can do is to speak honestly about how difficult it is to reconcile parts of the Bible with what we know to be good news. Today is one of those days. We cannot read this text today, without admitting how early Christian acceptance of slavery legitimized it in our own nation. Today we must speak plainly about how texts like this can harm those who have suffered abuse. Today we must admit that the church has ignored this fact for far too long.
Peter, as admirable and courageous as he was, was no more infallible or enlightened than we are. He was a product of his own age and culture, just as we are. To say this does not let Peter off the hook. What he wrote here is a message of oppression, not of liberation. But for us to acknowledge this fact is a form of confession. If this great saint on whom the church is built wore blinders, what is it that we may be unwilling to see?
And after speaking the truth about this passage, we can return to it to seek the good news in these verse. Perhaps it is there – in the injunction to refrain from returning evil for evil; in the exhortation to meet inevitable suffering with the confidence that Christ knows what it is like; that Christ shares our suffering. And with the assurance that we may return, again and again, to the “shepherd and guardian of our souls.”
There is good news here, hidden beneath all the cultural rubbish that is also there. Sometimes finding the good news takes a little digging. And sometimes it helps to take the nugget of truth that often can be found, even in difficult passages like this, and reframe it in terms that might be easier for us to relate to.
Hard Times
By Jamie Owens
Is the rain fallin’ from the sky keeping you from singing?
And is that tear fallin’ from your eye ‘cause the wind is stinging?
REFRAIN:
Well, don’t you fret now child, don’t you worry.
That rains to help you grow, so don’t try to hurry the storm along.
The hard times make you strong.
Don’t you know the seed could never grow if there were never showers?
And though the rain might bring a little pain, just look at all the flowers. (refrain)
I’ve known how long a day can seem when storm clouds hide God’s face.
But if the rain dissolves your dream, just remember, amazing grace.
Don’t you know the sun is always there even when the rain falls?
And don’t you know the Son will always care when he hears your voice call? (refrain)
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