2 Peter 1:1-11 (NRSV)
Participants of the divine nature
Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self control, and self control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self control, and self control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
This is one of those passages that reminds me woefully how much I fall short. Coming the day after Reformation Sunday, where we are reminded that we are justified by faith, not works, Peter here pushes us on to "make every effort…" In other words, work hard.
The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. As I look at Peter's list - goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, mutual affection - I do know that they are God's good intention for us.
But what strikes me this time as I read this passage is something I never noticed. It is, I think, the habit of Westerners to read passages like this on an individual level. But see what Peter says: "for if these things are increasing among you.." In other words, the plural you. So in your community.
Paul reminds us that all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. Myself included. But when we are together, we are stronger. We lift each other up. We support and love and guide and strengthen in ways that on our own we can not.
On my own, I am likely to keep messing up and staying mired in sin. But God did not mean for me to be alone. God meant for me to be in relationship. And God meant for the church to be a place where we together become participants in the divine nature and workers of God's kingdom.
Today is All Saint's Day. As Luther reminded us, we are all saints AND sinners. As Peter reminds us, when we are together, supporting each other, loving each other and guiding each other, the church's saints can do amazing things and live into being the creatures God intended us to be. Sometimes those individual saints will mess up, be ineffective, and blind. But where mutual affection abounds, forgiveness happens and life erupts with newness and hope.
Forgiving, gracious God, thank you for the community of your church. Thank you for all of my fellow sinners and saints who guide and endure and have strength when I do not. Help me to be a worker for grace in your community of love, supported by and supporting those around around me. Amen
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