Last
week we came to the end of our sermon series on 1 Peter. I don't know about
you, but over the past few months this letter has really come alive for me.
Because the theme of the letter – how to live as Christians in a hostile world
– is as real as an issue as when the letter was first written. So Peter's words
have been a great encouragement, reminding us of the privilege of suffering
with Christ, of our identity as a chosen people and royal priesthood, and of
the unfading crown of glory that awaits the faithful. We've needed to hear
Peter's words, and I hope that in the weeks and months to come you'll return to
them, read, learn, mark and inwardly digest them as you learn to live for
Christ day by day.
So
today I want to ask a very simply question: who was this Peter who wrote such
an amazing and relevant letter? Was he a top-class intellectual with loads of
degrees to his name? Or was he a great philosopher with a library stuffed full
of the greatest literature? Well, the answer's in the reading we heard just now
from Luke's gospel. He was…. Can anyone tell me who he was?
That's
right, he was a fisherman - a very ordinary, practical, down-to-earth sort of
guy. Someone who didn’t have the highest level of education, someone who knew
what it was like to do an honest day's work. And I think that's a really
important point to make. Some people think the Christian faith is only for
really clever people, or for people who use long words. Maybe they've been to a
church where the vicar has preached such a deep and meaningful sermon that
no-one has been able to work out what he's been saying, or the choir have sung
something beautiful in Latin – without anyone explaining what they're singing
about. If that's been your experience of church, I'm genuinely sorry. Jesus
wants ordinary, plain folk. After all, he himself was a carpenter. He knew what
it was like to get your hands dirty, and a splinter in your finger. Whatever
your trade, how many exams you have passed or failed, Jesus wants you. I can't
put it simpler than that.
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