Presence Weekly 11/3/2024, "The Paradox of Obedience, Part 2"

¹³Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹⁴As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, ¹⁵but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” ¹⁷And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, ¹⁸knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. ²⁰He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you ²¹who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

²²Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, ²³since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; ²⁴for

“All flesh is like grass 
and all its glory like the flower of grass. 
The grass withers, and the flower falls,
²⁵but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you. 1 Peter 1:13-25 

As we move through Peter's letter, we are slowly making our way from foundational elements like identity and hope towards those aspects that tend to be more visible to those around us.

Peter writes in verses 14-16, ¹⁴As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, ¹⁵ but as he who called you is holy, you also BE HOLY in all your conduct, ¹⁶ since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy. ”

Peter knows that the elect exiles of Asia Minor are beginning to feel the weight and tension of their cultural differences with those around them. But it’s not just their Jewish ancestry, or their recent conversion to Christianity that signals their difference among their neighbors - it is their beliefs and practices. Christianity produces differences that come from obedience to Christ, and ultimately to God. We are not supposed to conform to the culture around us, or the random pursuits of the joy of the moment, or, as Peter references, the passions of our former ignorance. I love the way Peter calls our disobedience the passions of our former ignorance. As His children, God wants us to know the better way. 

We are not to be conformed to whatever our culture says is acceptable, let alone, lauded behavior. We are called to be different. We are called to be holy. The language that Peter uses here is ripped from Leviticus, a book that spends much of its time talking about the behavior of the people of God, and the remedy of sacrifices that were required when the people of God fell short. 

In Leviticus 19:1-2 it says,

“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”

And in Leviticus 20:24b-26,

“I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples. You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine." 

At Faithful Presence we spend a lot of time referencing 1 Peter and Leviticus. The reason is simple. Peter is writing a pastoral letter on how to live in a secular world to a group of Christians who have limited political agency but also a great opportunity to bring about flourishing through their daily living, by participating in Christ’s mission of making all things new. Leviticus is a book almost entirely devoted to a detailed explanation of how to properly worship God. What makes the careful reading of Leviticus important is that one quickly realizes that most of our worship takes place through our everyday lives. Those the conversational connection between the two in Peter's letter.

As such, the practice of obedience is supposed to consume our entire lives. 

In the Whole of Life

Our practice of obedience involves our academic and professional lives. This means not trying to present someone else’s work as your own. Our holiness is a holiness that gives credit where credit is due;we realize that our righteousness is a gift to us from God through Christ. Our practice of obedience involves our vocational lives. Our call to holiness means that we honor the wages paid to us by our employer by not Facebooking the day away and justifying it by saying that everyone else is doing it. It also involves taking seriously the policy discussions that we engage in by doing the necessary prep work for drafting legislation and giving briefings . Our practice of obedience involves our relational lives. The means that we are quick to forgive. It means that if we think that someone has something against us we go to them and seek reconciliation before coming to worship. Our practice of obedience involves our sexual lives. As such, we allow God to define the terms of our sexual relationship, regardless of our personal passions. It means that the way that we engage our sexuality says a lot about how we understand the dignity that God has given us and others. Our practice of obedience even involves our financial lives. It means that we don’t see the primary use of our finances as accumulating wealth and lives of ease, although neither of those are wrong in and of themselves, but we understand that we are called to offer our tithes and offerings sacrificially, and not just after we have made sure we have everything that we want. As an example, we are eager to use our wealth to care for those who have needs that they are unable to meet.

For the Whole of the Public Square

Of course, the practice of our obedience includes our political lives. Those serving and leading in the public square take seriously the practice of obedience knowing the important role ethics played for Joseph in Pharaoh’s court, and for Daniel in the government of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The practice of our obedience in the political realm applies as much to what we support as it does to how we support it. Without a well-informed Biblical ethic and knowledge of how God seeks our worship through the entirety of our lives, we will never properly develop the grid through which to ask and seek answers to the Four Questions of Faithful Presence:

• What is good that requires encouragement?
• What is broken that needs restoration?
• What is missing that awaits creation?
• What is evil that demands opposition?

Notice that the answer to each of those questions expects action: encouraging, restoring, creating and opposing. A Biblically-faithful practice of obedience has much to say about the how of these actions. 

This call to the practice of obedience is a call to be different. As Christians, our obedience on Wednesday will involve the manner in which we speak about the election winners. The paradox of our obedience will lead us to do the very thing Peter will suggest to his original readers later in this letter, 

^“Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” (3:17)

We are never going to fully fit into this present culture until Christ returns and ushers in the New Heavens and the New Earth. Until then, the call to practice obedience will always mean that we are going to make different choices than those around us. Those choices are how we participate properly in Christ’s mission of making all things new.

Application Questions

1. What is an area of your life where the practice of obedience makes you particularly feel the tension of living differently?
   
2. What does the practice of obedience look like for you as we approach the election on Tuesday? How about after the election?
   
3. Offer one specific area of your life to God this week (vocational, relational, financial, political, etc.) as you seek to practice obedience.

• Monday: Morning: Revelation 14:1-13, Luke 12:49-59, Psalm 56,57 //
  Evening: Psalm 64,65
• Tuesday: Morning: Revelation 14:14-15:8, Luke 13:1-9, Psalm 61,62 // Evening: Psalm 68:1-20, 24-35
• Wednesday: Morning: Revelation 16:1-11, Luke 13:10-17, Psalm 72 // Evening: Psalm 119:73-96
• Thursday: Morning: Revelation 16:12-21, Luke 14:18-30, Psalm 70 // Evening: Psalm 74
• Friday: Morning: Revelation 17:1-18, Luke 13:31-35, Psalm 69:1-21,29-36 // Psalm 73
• Saturday: Morning: Revelation 18:1-14, Luke 14:1-11, Psalm 75,76 // Evening: Psalm 23,27
• Sunday: Morning: 1 Corinthians 14:1-12, Matthew 20:1-16, Psalm 93,96 // Evening: Psalm 34

• Cabinet Agency: The Federal Election Commission, an “independent regulatory agency charged with administering and enforcing the federal campaign finance law. The FEC has jurisdiction over the financing of campaigns for the U.S. House, Senate, Presidency and the Vice Presidency.”
• Think Tank, Lobby group, NGO: The Center for Election Innovation and Research whose “two specific goals are to restore trust in the American election system and promote election procedures that encourage greater voter participation while ensuring election integrity and security.”
• Weekly delegation: For the staff and congressional delegation from the District of Columbia who do not vote, but represent the interests of over 500,000 people living in the nation's capital. 
• News: For many many individuals working on transition planning for both parties. For election officials across the country working to ensure safe, fair, and accurate elections. For the many exhausted campaign workers and Congressional staff who have spent many months working 18 hour days. 
• Personal requests: Someone “looking for a position in editorial management, book publishing, academic research management, or strategic communications (referrals).” For a couple moving into a new home. For a number of friends waiting to figure out “what’s next.” For several folks living in Washington, D.C. worried about the potential for local violence Tuesday night. For a number of grant applications Faithful Presence has made recently

• Read this first → The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University has an important and eye-opening research piece on the huge number of Chrstians (over 34 million) who do not plan on voting in Tuesday’s election. Note: Dr. George Barna is the Director of Research at Arizona Christian.
• Read this next → Christianity Today has a long piece with a high return on investment by Carrie McKean, “The Antidote to Election Anxiety.”
• The Dobson Cultural Center has Owen Strachan’s response to a recent opinion piece in Christianity Today ("Voting Is Important to Me. That's Why, This Year, I Won't Vote.") regarding the “binary choice of the election.”
• The Washington Post has a timely piece highlighting the fact that despite the polarization of the election, Washington is united around one joyful truth: the Washington Commanders are 7-2 for the first time since Clinton/Gore defeated Dole/Kemp!

• Tuesday, November 5, is Election Day! Vote, then head to one of the many watch parties around the city. WAPO has a great guide to area parties.
• Friday & Saturday, Union Market hosts the That's So Vintage Market. “The vintage market DC deserves! That's So Vintage is a two-day biannual market that brings together the DMV's best vintage under one roof.”
• Wednesday, November 6, 5:00 - 6:30 pm, The American Enterprise Institute hosts an in-person event regarding the election, “What Happened and What’s Next?”
• Thursday, November 7, 6:30 - 9:30 pm ET, Dock 5 at Union Market is hosting the 2024 Whiskey, Wine, and Spirits Festival! (tickets are only $80.00)
• Friday, November 8, 12:00 - 1:00 pm, Faith & Law’s Friday Forum presents, “Optimism and Opportunity: Faithful Perspectives on Technological Advancement.”
• Friday, November 8, 5:30 - 8:30 The Yards neighborhood is once again hosting, Side Yards! “Back for another year, this immersive carnival extravaganza will transport you into a world of awe and spectacle with a stunning lineup of performers and activities for all ages.”

If Madam Secretary and Homeland had a child, it would probably look a lot like The Diplomat. Many will invariably say, “That’s not how it really is!” Sure, but “The West Wing” was a Beltway favorite during its run. Why? People love considering a world that is different from the reality that they experience every day. What makes Season 2 of The Diplomat well-worth watching is the rare combination of the consistent writing from Debora Cahn and Peter Noah, Kerri Russell’s pitch-perfect acting reminiscent of The Americans, and the satirical interaction between her and her on-screen husband. The series has plenty of suspense, action, and character development, along with a high production value that makes it an easy binge-stream or slowly consumed drama. 

The story lines are developed and controlled in a way that does not exist in real-life foreign service; yet, the emotional, relational, vocational, ideological, and cultural aspects of navigating the public square provide plenty of opportunity for the application and assessment of our own personal formation while we munch on snacks.

Season 2 of The Diplomat is now streaming on Netflix.