Vive La Difference
A Church in Exile is Just Weird. And That's Okay.
Given the number of times Sesame Street featured the song “One of These Things Is Not Like the Others”, you might conclude that Oscar the Grouch, among others, was a slow learner. On the other hand, given that the intended audience of that song was, perhaps, four or five years old, maybe I should cut the puppets some slack. They were doing it for the children.
Looking at the first two verse of 1 Peter, I attempted to establish that this book is written to a Church in Exile. Not that it’s addressed to a single congregation - the recipients are believers and churches who were scattered throughout Asia Minor, at the far end of the Roman Empire. Many of them may had to leave Jerusalem at the time of a persecution which arose after the death of Stephen. They had been uprooted and, for a time, on the run.
But the exile Peter describes cannot be reduced to geography or even persecution. These were “elect exiles,” and their exile had God as its reason and its source - “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling with his blood.” This is not something you outgrow. It is not something you can jettison by becoming landed gentry. It’s a mark of the Church. It’s a work of God which makes the Church what it is.
After his opening greeting, when Peter resumes his letter, he has a lot to say about what is ours in Christ - our present joys, the hope which awaits us, and the difference that makes in the lives of those who have embraced Christ. This is what we find in Peter’s first words:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
What began as God’s foreordination before time has resulted in a work of new life in the present, a work whose power extends that life perpetually, establishing a certain hope that we will, in the end, be fitted for eternal life. The glory of this end is not fully revealed, but when it is, the true glory of what God has done through Christ will be made manifest.
The immediate importance of these truths is not lost on Peter, who observes that the joy of God’s salvation is a needed buoy while experiencing unwarranted rejection and opposition from the world. The pain inflicted by the world is real, and grief-inducing. But in the midst of this pain, joy can be found, a joy which rests on the God who through the fire of trials is producing a life of faith - a faith which will receive its due recognition at the return of Christ.
Them Then, And Us Now
There is a clear continuity between the lives of Christians in the first century and we who live in the twenty-first century. How?
Like them then, we live on this side of the incarnation of Christ, his ministry, his death, resurrection, and ascension
Like them then, we live in “the last days”, the period of time between Christ’s ascension and his second coming
Like them then, this period in which we live is one of tribulation, because as the gospel is spread throughout the world, it is met both with faith in some, and opposition from others
Like them then, we do not and cannot see Jesus in the flesh. But also like them, seeing the earthly Jesus in the flesh would add nothing to the salvation which is in Christ
So we are left with this conclusion: Like them then, we are God’s Church in Exile now.
As the entire New Testament testifies, in this life we will not be immune from suffering, and that because of the scandal of the gospel. We will be villified as naive or intolerant or “on the wrong side of history.” That is the nature of being “elect exiles.”
A Church Set Apart as Different
Subsequent chapters of 1 Peter will spell out how the Church as God’s people gathered and scattered can make the most of the very differences which made them outsiders to the surrounding world. That the church is different from the world is not a disease to be cured. It is, instead, characteristic of being “sanctified” - set apart for God’s purposes.
If the Church is not different from the world, it endangers its status as salt and light (Matthew 5:14-16). The church which simply echoes the world’s messages and embraces the world’s values undercuts its very reason for existence.
This is why Australian pastor and author Stephen McAlpine advises Christians to embrace the fact that they are different. In a blog post entitled, “We Need More Repellently Attractional Churches”. he notes that the church has always had a repellently attractional difference to it, as evidenced by Acts 5:
The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonade. No one else dared to join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.
McAlpine draws attention to the paradox: “No one dared join them, but they were held in high favor.” The significance of this he describes this way:
The early church defied the categories of the day…There was a plausibility to the church which overrode their seeming numerical disadvantages and theological outsider status. They were, after all, aligned with a man who every person in Jerusalem knew had been crucified.
You see, if your version of you most authentic self has you crafting a career and lifestyle and financial security that comes up against a church that teaches that being rich toward God is your goal, and that it is the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, is going to repel you
But here’s what I’ve noticed. Quietly, just quietly, mind you, there’s a growing sense among a whole bunch of non-Christian people that the followers of Jesus they know have the kind of lives they themselves would like.
Bottom line? A Church in Exile will possess the power to invite inspection, and with the inspection, some will come to know Christ, and find themselves among the exiles.
And that ain’t bad.