Presence Weekly 9/30/2024, "The Mission of Grace & Peace"

Peter uses the first paradox of the early Christians of Asia Minor as elect exiles to lay the foundation for the rest of his letter. Their new identity and new perspective are critical for them to understand and embrace their new mission.

His goal is to ground them in the understanding that their present circumstance is “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ.” We, too, must rest in the reality that our present and future situations are “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ” - no matter how confusing or frustrating it may seem. 

Now, Peter is ready to answer the money questions: “How shall we then live?” and “Why am I here?” Put more succinctly, “What is my mission?” The answer Peter gives is as simple as it is complex. The mission of the church is what it has always been: to experience and extend the grace and peace that come to us through the life-changing love of Jesus Christ. 

If we, like the Christians of the first century, are elect exiles according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, then obedience to Christ becomes missional for us as well. We must have the mindset of learning obedience to Christ, who calls us to experience and extend the grace and peace that come to us through the life-changing love of Jesus Christ.

If that statement is correct, then we are saying that our mission is not to change the world but to change how we live in the world. 

Peter’s greatest desire is for the church to be both the primary recipient of grace and peace, but also the primary extender of that grace and peace to those around them!

As Christians, we are called to receive and multiply grace in our lives, in our churches, and in the communities in which we have been placed. The phrase “grace and peace” may seem like it’s only serving as an opening salutation. But I do not think that is what Peter has in mind for the reader. As we have already stated, the purpose of this letter is to move the elect yet exiled readers from lives of confusion and frustration to lives centered on grace and peace. In fact, Peter is quick to say, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you” because, for the mission that they are called to, they will need grace and mercy in abundance. 

Peter calls the church to experience the transformation that he experienced when he finally grasped the grace and mercy of Jesus, which moved him from sword-wielding showboater to pastoral leader. Despite frequently outshining the other disciples in his willingness to venture into unknown territory, Peter always managed to follow his successes in obedience with increasing levels of failure. Hours after declaring that he would never allow Jesus to be taken and that he would never deny him, Peter follows up slicing the ear off of Malthus with a thrice-repeated emphatic denial of ever knowing Jesus. 

Denial is the last thing that Peter ever does to Jesus before watching him die a horrific death. But because Peter’s life is unfolding according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, three days later the resurrected Jesus restores Peter by asking him, “Do you love me?” and then charging him with the mission of feeding his sheep. It is at this moment that Peter must have experienced the phrase we have been omitting up to now, “and for sprinkling with his blood.”

It is this phrase upon which everything holds because this is the gospel proclaimed. Peter is reminding the elect exiles of “the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” that they have been “sprinkled with his blood.” To make his point, Peter uses the covenant ceremony of the rescued and redeemed slave from Egypt in Exodus 24: 

³ Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” ⁴ And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. ⁶ And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar.
⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” ⁸ And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” Ex 24:3–8

This passage proclaims our need for the gospel because it reminds us that our promises of obedience can never be fulfilled by us. When Moses sprinkles the people with the blood, he is binding them together as a people and foreshadowing their redemption through the blood of Christ, which is the gospel. Peter, perhaps more than any of the disciples, understands the magnitude of this passage. 

When we grasp the gospel, we approach our mission of experiencing and extending the grace and peace that comes to us through the life-changing love of Jesus Christ in the manner we are supposed to: as elect exiles rooted in our new identity and seeing others and the world through our new perspective. As a result, we embrace our mission not as the church belligerent and judgmental, and not as the church fearful and withdrawn, but as the church engaging through a posture of faithful presence.

What does it mean to live in a posture of faithful presence? It means that we have embraced our transformed perspective and are rooted and growing in our identity as the elect people of God. It means that we understand that we are not exiles because we are forgotten or because some part of God’s plan has failed. Instead, we take comfort in our exile to this earth because it is by the foreknowledge of the Father. As such, we should take our cue from Jeremiah’s words to the exiles in Babylon, that we are to seek the welfare of the city in which we have been placed, and in seeking their welfare, we will also find ours (Jeremiah 29:7). Our faithful presence comes from living as Christians in the small dark corners of our lives and in the whole of the public square. 

With an upcoming election, an increasingly polarized country, and a church that is largely seen as irrelevant and extreme, the pull toward frustration, confusion, anxiety, and fear are strong. These emotions can frequently lead to belligerence, hostility, or isolationism. All of those responses undermine our ability to experience and extend the grace and peace that comes to us through the life-changing love of Jesus Christ. This is precisely why Peter offers what the gospel offers: “grace and peace be multiplied to you.”

In the rest of this letter, Peter will unpack the concept of faithful presence and apply it to every area of our lives. This faithful presence will give direction and encouragement in the midst of difficult times and unending cultural pressures, and it will become the basis for our relationship with other believers, with outsiders, with our families and bosses, with authority, with culture - and, yes, with the public square.

Application Questions

As you consider difficult situations in your life, do you find yourself drawn to frustration, confusion, anxiety, and fear, or towards grace and peace? What types of situations are hardest for you to rest in grace and peace? 

How does this passage impact your thoughts about the upcoming election and its results?

What are some ways in which you could experience and extend the life-changing love of Jesus in your present context?

• Monday: Morning: 1 Samuel 22: 6-23, Romans 15:14-33, Psalm 38, 39, 40 // Evening: 1 Samuel 23, Luke 8:1-21, Psalm 38, 39, 40
• Tuesday: Morning: 1 Samuel 24, Romans 16, Psalm 44, 45, 46 // Evening: 1 Samuel 25:1-43, Luke 8:22-56, Psalm 44, 45, 46
• Wednesday: Morning: 1 Samuel 26, 1 Corinthians 1:1-25, Psalm 50, 51, 52 // Evening:1 Samuel 28:1-29, Luke 9:1-17, Psalm 50, 51, 52
• Thursday: Morning: 1 Samuel 30, 1 Corinthians 1:26-2:16, Psalm 56, 57, 58// Evening: 2 Samuel 1, Luke 9:18-50, Psalm 56, 57, 58
• Friday: Morning: 2 Samuel 2:1-3:1, 1 Corinthians 3, Psalm 62, 63, 64// Evening: 2 Samuel 3:2-39, Luke 9:51-62, Psalm 62, 63, 64
• Saturday: Morning: 2 Samuel 4-5:12, 1 Corinthians 4:1-17, Psalm 68 // Evening: 2 Samuel 6, Luke 10:1-24, Psalm 68
• Sunday: Morning: Judges 16:4-31, Mark 9:30-50, Psalm 71, 72 // Evening: 2 Samuel 11, Acts 8:26-39, Psalm 71, 72

• Cabinet Agency: U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office), which is responsible for leading the Department’s global engagement to combat human trafficking. 
• Think Tank, Lobby group, NGO: International Justice Mission in their efforts to protect people in poverty from violence by rescuing victims, bringing criminals to justice, restoring survivors to safety and strength, and helping local law enforcement build a safe future that lasts.
• Weekly delegation: For the staff and congressional delegation from the state of North Carolina as they deal with the deadly and devastating aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
• News: For workers at the State Department’s TIP Office, International Justice Mission, and World Relief as they embark on a five-year, $10M Child Protection Compact (CPC) grant to address child trafficking in Romania. For the servants and leaders at FEMA as they deploy resources to North Carolina and the other states impacted by Hurricane Helene.
• Personal requests: For a couple trying to get back into the groove after a vacation. For several defense contractors working on fiscal year-end projects today. For individuals considering transition team work for the two major candidates. For someone dealing with the sorrow of losing their mother. For several, substantial, capacity-building grants for which Faithful Presence has applied.

• Go here first →  The Ideos Institute’s (Re)Union Project will launch 31 Days of Unity. For the 31 days of October, you can receive daily texts — each with a prayer for unity, scripture reference, and a link to a short video reflection. Faithful Presence is participating in this initiative. 
• Read this first → First Things has a great piece from Ryan Anderson on The way forward after Dobbs. Note: This will be the focus of the next Faithful Presence, “Pastor’s Briefing,” out this week. 
• The Bipartisan Policy Center just released a survey of Americans about the opioid crisis and the government’s role in addressing it ahead of the upcoming election.
• The New York Times has a thought-provoking opinion piece by Ross Douthat, The Possible Meanings of a Masculine Religious Revival.
• Religion and Liberty Online (Acton), has an excellent review of Katy Faust’s new book Pro-Child Politics: Why Every Cultural, Economic, and National Issue Is a Matter of Justice for Children.
• From the Lausanne Congress, as promised, comes part four of four on workplace evangelism, “Talking to People about Jesus” as they return from last week’s gathering in Seoul.

• Go here first →  The Ideos Institute’s (Re)Union Project will launch 31 Days of Unity. For the 31 days of October, you can receive daily texts — each with a prayer for unity, scripture reference, and a link to a short video reflection. Faithful Presence is participating in this initiative. 
• Read this first → First Things has a great piece from Ryan Anderson on “The way forward after Dobbs.” Note: This will be the focus of the next Faithful Presence “Pastor’s Briefing,” out this week. 
• The Bipartisan Policy Center just released a survey of Americans about the opioid crisis and the government’s role in addressing it ahead of the upcoming election.
• The New York Times has a thought-provoking opinion piece by Ross Douthat, The Possible Meanings of a Masculine Religious Revival.
• Religion and Liberty Online (Acton), has an excellent review of Katy Faust’s new book Pro-Child Politics: Why Every Cultural, Economic, and National Issue Is a Matter of Justice for Children.
• From the Lausanne Congress, as promised, comes part four of four on workplace evangelism, “Talking to People about Jesus” as they return from last week’s gathering in Seoul.

Welcome to Oktoberfest everyone! As mentioned above, there are plenty of options available to engage in and enjoy this wonderful German export to the world. However, your celebration will not achieve its full glory without a visit to Prost. While it's a relatively new player in the D.C. Oktoberfest scene, it seems quite content on dominating the competition.

Prost features a grand and diverse selection of "biers," as well as all the necessary accompaniments: bratwurst, weisswurst, giant pretzels, schnitzel, and, of course, the best sauerbraten (traditional German pot roast, served with german potato dumplings and pickled red cabbage) in town!

From now through October 6th, Prost is leaning into Oktoberfest with several delightful specials.