First Presbyterian Church

First Presbyterian Church

Rev. Sam Pendergrast

April 27, 2008

1 Peter 3:13-22

 

 

“A Gentle Defense”

 

Milton Mejía is someone I would like you know about. Milton is the former executive secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia. He and his wife, Adelaida Jiménez, are Presbyterian pastors. She was the pastor of a congregation in Barranquilla, the port city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast while he provided leadership for the national church and was a prominent advocate for human rights. At least, that was their work until August, 2006, when they moved to Texas. For the past year, Milton Mejía had moved between Barranquilla and Bogotá from one safe house to another in order to keep his whereabouts secret from those who had threatened to kill him. Their sons – Ivan, 12, and Andreis, 9 – didn’t know why they moved away from Colombia. After all, said Adelaida Jiménez, how do you explain terror? How do you justify exile as the only way to keep hired killers or armed paramilitary soldiers from blowing their father and maybe his whole family to bits? How do you tell your children that staying safe means leaving home, maybe for good, or at least until the political climate cools down? So for now they are in exile, like Mary and Joseph and Jesus two thousand years ago when they fled to Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod.

 

At the time I learned of this situation, about one and a half years ago, Milton was preparing for advanced studies at one of the Presbyterian seminaries in our country. But the church would not say which one, in order to provide him and his family with the protection of anonymity. And all because he was a spokesman for the church as they sought to protect the common people from the violence of the drug wars in Colombia, violence that occurs because both the government and the drug gangs are suspicious of anyone who does not play the game by their rules as both sides seek to consolidate their power. When the church spoke out for social change and to protect the poor who have been displaced by the violence, they became targets themselves.

 

Like the members of the First Century Christian community to which the Letter of Peter is addressed, Reverend Mejia is someone who has suffered for doing good. Like the Apostle Paul and so many Christians since his time, he has discovered something of what it means to share the sufferings of Christ in the world. Milton Mejia did not demean the government or the drug gangs. He did not slander anyone. He did not speak disrespectfully or use insulting language. What he did was to speak about the hope he has. He spoke of the vision of a just community in which the poor have dignity and are able to live without fear of violence. He painted a picture of the Kingdom of God. Maybe he used the image that old Isaiah shared with us about everyone living under their own vine and fig tree with no one to make them afraid. He defended his hope with gentleness, and still he suffered.

 

Were I a member of the early church and read this letter, or if I were Milton Mejia, and I read those words: “Who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?” my response might be, “Are you kidding? What planet do you live on? Are you blind? Just read the news! Look down the street! Everywhere you go, people suffer and are mistreated for no good reason.”

 

The writer of First Peter knows this, of course. Later on in the letter he says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you as though something strange were happening to you.” He’s not talking about random violence, natural disasters or human frailty in the face of disease and accident. He’s talking about what Jesus makes explicit in the Beatitudes. He’s talking about being persecuted for righteousness’ sake. He’s talking about being misunderstood and abused because you try to follow Jesus.

 

Plenty of people will harm you if you try to do good, he implies. Despite the assumption that was present in much of the Old Testament that the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer, by the time of the early church Christians had begun to understand that the universe was not fair, that evil was real, that some people and institutions were oppressive and that sometimes in this life virtue has to be its own reward.

 

You will suffer, says Peter, but don’t be afraid. You might miss the quote from Isaiah because it’s only hinted at. When he says “Do not fear what they fear,” he is quoting Isaiah 8:12-13. “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what it fears, or be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” In other words, don’t be swayed by public opinion. Don’t be influenced by rumors and conspiracy theories. Live in awe and reverence of God. Let your faith and trust in God be your guide. If others stumble and fall, keep your eyes open.

 

Peter observes that, if Jesus suffered, how can we expect anything else if we are to be his followers. What he wants us to avoid is behavior for which we deserve to suffer. Included in that kind of behavior is the kind of response all of us are tempted to when we do suffer insults and abuse. The easy thing, the natural human response, is to strike out at those with whom we disagree. It’s not enough to say what I think and how I believe. I criticize my opponent; I talk about his stupid ideas or her bad intentions. You see it all the time. Talk shows, the Sunday morning political discussion programs, our partisan battles in the public square.

 

That’s what Peter wants us to avoid. “Always be ready to make your defense; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.” That means that you give an account of your own hopes and aspirations, your convictions and commitments, without being insulting or imputing evil motives to those who may disagree with you.

 

During the recent legislative Session there was much discussion of expanded gambling in Kentucky. A broad coalition of Christians from across the theological spectrum came together to oppose this proposed legislation. There were a variety of reasons for their opposition: moral, ethical and social concerns. Central to their position was the very same concern that drove Milton Mejia in Colombia – compassion for the poor. All of the information I saw was presented in the spirit that Peter recommended. They spelled out their opposition clearly and explained their reasons without resorting to some of the dirty tricks and distortions that too often characterize political campaigns and debates these days. I was thankful, both that the legislation failed and even more that the Christian opposition was presented in a gentle and respectful manner.

 

A primary resource for such a challenge is what Peter mentions – not to be afraid but to be grounded in your faith in God. When we act out of fear we tend to behave badly. We tend to forget to be gentle and respectful. Our defense becomes defensiveness. We see this kind of raised anxiety in the debate in the church over ordination standards and sexuality. Either side characterizes the other in apocalyptic terms and uses extreme language to accuse opponents of all sorts of bad motivation. I realize that Peter is not talking about disagreements in the church, but about Christians responding to persecution. But the principle is the same. Sad to say that Presbyterians are so used to conflict in the church that we have developed a document entitled “Seeking to Be Faithful Together: Guidelines for Presbyterians During Times of Disagreement.” One of the principles seems to have been inspired by Peter’s advice in this letter. Principle #5 is: Focus on ideas and suggestions instead of questioning people’s motives, intelligence or integrity; we will not engage in name-calling or labeling of others prior to, during, or following discussions.

 

To this advice I would add: not only can we stay anchored in our faith and not give in to fear and anxiety; we don’t have to give in to the temptation to take pleasure in seeing others stumble. That’s the kind of attitude that sets us up for our own tumble.

 

We can expect to suffer. After all, Jesus suffered, and our commitment is to follow where he leads. You might ask, if the church is not suffering, are we avoiding the difficult places where Jesus wants to lead us? Are we avoiding conflict? Have we given voice to the hope that is in us and discovered the places where we need to speak up?

 

As we do that, let us remember Jesus admonition, “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’. Anything else comes from evil.

 

It’s not always easy. Life is complicated. We give ourselves to many situations in fear and trembling. We try to be faithful even when the way ahead is not clear. As he sat in a Nazi prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote letters and kept a journal, later published as the book, Letters and Papers from Prison. He pondered what it meant to live his faith amid the complications and ambiguities of life. He said,

 

…I’m still discovering right up to this very moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In doing so, we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world – watching with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, is faith; that is conversion; that is how one becomes a Christian.

 

Can you give an account of the hope that is in you? And even more difficult, can you give that account with gentleness and reverence for those who may ridicule or abuse you? Can you do that without putting down or abusing those who may disagree or mistreat you? That is part of the crucible of faith that refines us and shapes us for following our Lord. None of us can do it alone. We need the support of one another. We need a life of prayer. We need a calm and sure trust that God will never let us go. And we need a vision of the world that God dreams of, the world the prophets have shown us, a world made new where love, peace, righteousness and justice are the foundation of the new community that gathers around the table of our Lord.

 

I think Peter’s advice is good to meditate on. It invites us to be willing to keep growing, to strive for both courage and humility as we make our gentle defense. “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.” May it be so for us. To God be the glory.