A Peculiar People

I included 1 Peter 2:9-10 in my facebook status this afternoon as a way to remind myself and others of what we heard at the church service this morning. The ever-curious Andrew Hanson did not attend this church service and commented that he wanted to learn more of what this meant. So, that I might "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks me to give the reason for the hope that I have", let me gently and respectfully explain what this means. Then, Andy can write a long blog post about what he meant by "Do you miss me, Miss Misery like you say you do?".

There were three different readings this morning, all of them tied together by a common theme. I'll quote some other passages that help explain these, but for the time being just read them and ask what they have in common.

Hosea 1:6-2:1

Some exposition: Hosea was an Old Testament prophet who lived around 750 B.C. After being united under Saul, David, and Solomon, Israel was split into a northern part (called Israel) and a southern part (called Judah) around 930 B.C. Hosea was from this northern kingdom, and his main job was to tell everyone in the northern kingdom that they were being unfaithful to God. As a symbol of this unfaithfulness, Hosea is commanded by God to "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife [named Gomer] and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD." The northern kingdom fell to Assyria in 722 B.C.

Anyway, we read:

Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, "Call her Lo-Ruhamah, [which means "not loved"] for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the LORD their God."

After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. Then the LORD said, "Call him Lo-Ammi, [which means "not my people"] for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

"Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.' The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.

"Say of your brothers, 'My people,' and of your sisters, 'My loved one.'

Even though Israel turns away from God (with terrible consequences), God still promises that Israel will be restored. He will take a group who is 'not his people' and, by his grace, make them 'his people'.

Matthew 15:21-28

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."

Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."

He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said.

He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Jesus' ministry was first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. This Gentile woman recognizes this and knows that even the gracious crumbs that Jesus offers can help her daughter. Notice how this woman addresses Jesus: as Lord (that is, as the guy "in charge" of everything), as the Son of David (that is, as the Messiah, the chosen offspring of David), and eventually as God (shown when she kneels before him- the KJV translates this as 'then came she and worshiped him').

Even though Jesus has redeemed both Jews and Gentiles, his Earthly ministry was specifically first to the Jews. After the Great Commission, Jesus sends out his apostles to 'go and make disciples of all nations'. It's exactly this story of how God makes Jews and Gentiles into 'his people' that concerns all three readings.

1 Peter 2:9-10

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Peter is speaking here to Christians in Asia Minor, both Jews and Gentiles, and he quotes Hosea. His point is that the spiritual restoration promised by Hosea finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. We are not looking for Jesus- we are in darkness and dead in our sins- but by his love, Jesus calls us into his wonderful light.

This isn't the only place in the New Testament where Hosea is referenced. The same motif (along with parts from 1 Peter that I didn't quote here about cornerstones and stumbling blocks) is used by Paul in his letter to the Romans:

Romans 9:22-26

What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? As he says in Hosea:
"I will call them 'my people' who are not my people;
and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one," and,
"It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,
'You are not my people,'
they will be called 'sons of the living God.' "

In contrast to 1 Peter, here Paul is interested in how God has made the Gentiles (who are 'not God's people') into 'God's people'. Hosea originally refers to Jews alone, Paul quotes him to talk about Gentiles, and Peter quotes Hosea to talk about both Jews and Gentiles.

The theme of the sermon this morning, based on 1 Peter 2, was "The Bug on the Windshield". The idea was taken from a story about a man driving in the Nort' Woods whose view of a beautiful sunset was obscured by a dead bug on the windshield. Even though the Christians Peter was writing to were heavily persecuted- surely there were many bugs on their windshields- they should still take comfort in the 'sunset' of God's grace in choosing them from eternity, in allowing them access to God through the priesthood of all believers, and in sending His son to die for them. We should take comfort in this, too.

So that's what I was talking about, Andrew: God's comforting grace as shown in election, in the priesthood of all believers, and in the atoning death of Christ.