Therefore,
beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at
peace, without spot or blemish… (II Peter 3:14)
On Advent II it’s all about John the Baptist,
locusts and wild honey, and much repenting.
I retreated to the Epistle for the day, which is a fire-breathing
passage in II Peter, not often visited. I
have discovered it’s more fruitful to study these impossible passionate
writings after some 60 years, than it ever was in student days. We may note that whoever wrote II Peter it
could scarcely have been the Apostle Peter, and it certainly wasn’t whoever
wrote I Peter… we actually don’t have any idea who wrote this. That’s exciting for a start -- it was someone
from epic and lively days in the church, and it was someone who didn’t mince
words. Consider, about believers who
revert to pagan ways: It would have been better for them never to
have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back… The
dog has turned back to its own vomit… the sow is washed only to wallow again in
the mud. Speak as uncompromisingly
as that in the modern church… insist that there are standards and changes
required in personal life and values…
While
you are waiting for these things.., he writes. Here is the theme of waiting again. We meet it regularly. The infant church was waiting for the final
deliverance, the return of Jesus in power and glory and judgement. They thought that’s what they had to do. But you can think of Christian life in any
age as, in one way or another, a process of waiting. Jews know how to wait, wrote someone I read
recently – the Book of Psalms is full of waiting and longing. But our current culture keeps crying, I can’t wait…! The Now
of prayer is also the Now of waiting,
knowing how to be still in a frenetic age, knowing what to do with anger and
fear and endless unresolved issues, knowing how to live deeper than
materialism, entertainment, possession and control. While you are waiting, he writes…
…strive
to be found by him at peace. Note the phrase… found by him… It is not a
matter of how we appear in the eyes of others, or hope we appear, nor even what
we think of ourselves. …and be found in him, writes Paul in
another place[1]. Prayer is where we are found… once we have set
aside the busyness and the role-playing, the dreaming and dressing up. Jesus finds us, at peace. So far as it lies with us, we are refusing to
be at odds, to have enemies. We do not
carry aggressive weapons. We study
living without fear. We seek to make
peace. We instinctively recoil from
hate-speech and the vitriol that seems to sustain so many, and maintain
divisions, these days. We do our best to
be at peace with the environment. We no
longer have patience for any Christian church in which egos are dictating
discord and disorder, since it simply ceases to be credibly Christian. That is prayer – being found, at peace. It does not mean untroubled, of course. Troubles may abound. But as St Paul put it, Grace does much more abound.[2]
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