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Thursday's Theological Thoughts
Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christl,
I have been reading and studying First Peter, a magnificent but much-neglected epistle. The following passage is characteristic of the epistle's tone and the extent to which the epistle is so Gospel-oriented:
The end of all things is at hand.Therefore, be serious and sober for prayers. Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. As each one has received a gift, use is to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. I Pet. 4:7-10)
If we "unpack" this densely-filled passage with its variety of Christian virtues, we find four practices that are meant to exemplify a genuine Christian community/parish:
- prayer in v. 7
- love in v. 8
- hospitality in v. 9
- service to one another in. v. 10
Through these practices, a Christian community will stand out from its immediate environment, and environment that often enough finds no interest or meaning in just such practices. Love in v. 8 "covers a multitude of sins." We find this thought already in the Old Testament (Prov. 10:12; Ps. 32:1); and elsewhere in the New Testament (Jm. 5:20). By love, the believer fulfills the Gospel's greatest imperative, and this in turn leads to receiving the great mercy and forgiveness of God.
The teaching of the Lord and the apostles is meant to be practiced "in season and out of season" (II Tim. 4:5). However, I believe that we do have a tendency to either forget these deeper scriptural truths, or treat them with a certain formalism, not exactly aflame with a love for both God and neighbor! With that in mind, we can be inspired in the approaching "season" of Great Lent, to recover what we have lost through forgetfulness or indifference; or by the sheer overwhelming daily responsibilities and cares that can swamp the best of our intentions.
Great Lent is after all, a "school for repentance," a genuine "turning" from one mode of existence to another. Could the Apostle's teaching then serve as what is called a podvig in our spiritual tradition - a conscious and exerted effort that we take up as a way of returning to the love and embrace of God? Could an intensification of prayer, love, hospitality and service to one another be that much-needed "lenten program" that will make any ascetical fasting meaningful and not simply a cultural or legalistic undertaking devoid of any lasting significance?
The Apostle closes this section of teaching with further exhortations and then a doxology in praise of God through Jesus Christ:
... whoever speaks, as one who utters oracles of God; whoever renders service, as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies; in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belongs glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (I Pet. 4:11).
In jus a few verses an entire "worldview" that combines theory and practice with Jesus Christ as the Cornerstone (Is. 28:16; I Pet. 2:6)!
