Today we press on to what follows immediately after 1 Peter 2:9-10. More words of who we are. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. It is too easy for us to be "no people." There are always forces that send that message. In fact, we send that message to others. That is the way the powers of the world - evil - the Father of Lies - try to make the world go round and round doing the same old, damn evil to one another. When we have been sold the goods that we are 'no people' we go to war. We step out into the world looking for someone else we can call 'no people' or we simply try to make them into 'no people.' In such a world as this, there is no mercy - there is only death and condemnation. But again, we are God's people - people who stand with and alongside and offer ourselves up for the welfare of those who are called 'no people' - we are a CHOSEN RACE - A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD - A HOLY NATION. We are these new people as a gift so that we will be a gift to others and the endless cycle of making and being 'no people' will come to an end and the shalom of God's Reign will be seen again and again. Connection: There is nothing more grand than being somebody. That is our beginning point. We are somebody in the face of a world that tries to make each of us a nobody.The beauty of being a somebody - called into being by our God - is that no one can take out a measure and claim that we are not good enough to be somebody. We are already - before a word is spoken against us - somebody in the eyes of God - and that - is where we begin again and again and forever. In the middle of what is so common, O God, you still claim us as your own and we become somebody for the welfare of all. Thanks be to you, O God. Amen. |
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