November 17, 2019, 1 Peter 1:13-25

I.

On my first reading of this passage I had a sense of “overload.”

There is a lot going on here.  It starts with “… prepare … disciple … hope … conformed …”  And toward the end, “… withers … endures … good news … to you”

So let’s start at the end, “ … to you.”

Read the passage slowly (a couple of times) and pay attention to what is written “to you.”

II.

1 Peter 1:13-25 (New Revised Standard Version)

Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct;  for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.

Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.  For

“All flesh is like grass

    and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

    and the flower falls,

but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

That word is the good news that was announced to you.

III.

Now that you have read the passage once or twice prayerfully pay attention to what speaks to you with the most intensity.

What do you hear?  What draws and holds your attention?  I am tempted to offer suggestions, but today I am going to resist that.  This is to be about the relationship between this Scripture and you and where the Spirit speaks.

IV.

Why are you drawn to the words that hold you?

What today (or yesterday or last week) has prepared you to hear the passage this way?

And, what does the drawing offer you for your path today, tomorrow, this week?

V.

Don’t leave this work too quickly.  Let it settle in your soul and see what opens.

charles

{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}


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