Pilgrims Progressing

Pilgrims Progressing

Third after Easter

Collect of the Day: Almighty God, who showest to those who are in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness; Grant unto all those who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s Religion, that they may avoid those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Epistle: 1 St. Peter 2:11-17

11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;

14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.

15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

When we were in seminary during a Christmas break we were invited to lunch at the home of the interim pastor of our church. He had been born in Japan to missionary parents and, after coming to the U.S. for education, had returned to Japan as a missionary.

This missionary had spent so much time in Japan  he seemed to belong to two countries. But the reality was that he was an American who had lived in and adapted to Japan. That is our position as Christian believers in this world. We are pilgrims progressing through a world that is not our homeland.

1.  Strangers and Pilgrims. St. Peter addresses us as “strangers and pilgrims.” He opened his letter addressing it to “elect exiles.” The picture in his mind is that Christian believers are like the Jewish people who had been exiled from their home country by the Babylonians and now were  scattered throughout the Roman Empire. They remained ethnically, religiously, and culturally Jews. But they could not withdraw into isolated enclaves. They had to make homes, work, raise children, and live out their lives wherever they found themselves. It was a balancing act - to remain Jews while living in and adapting to life the cities and provinces.

This “pilgrim outlook” is for God’s people in every age. It began with the call of Abraham. Though God promised Abraham he would give him a land, still Abraham and his descendants lived their lives as a pilgrims:

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.  For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out,they would have had opportunity to return.  But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one Hebrews (11:13-16).

It continues to be the outlook of New Testament believers. St. Paul wrote from imprisonment in Rome to the church in Philippi:

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20).

They lived in Philippi, a Roman colony where free people enjoyed Roman citizenship and lived under Roman law, but their true citizenship was in heaven, where their King, Jesus Christ, is. They are citizens from heaven, who live in Philippi, but are awaiting the coming of their King from their real homeland.

Whatever country we live in, whatever our citizenship, whatever privileges and blessings we enjoy as citizens, we are always strangers and pilgrims. Our primary citizenship is in heaven, and our primary loyalty is to the King who lives in heaven.

2. Two Citizenships

We Christians have dual citizenships. We are citizens of the United States and at the same time citizens of heaven. Our citizenship in Christ’s kingdom is far more important than our U.S. citizenship.

We do not withdraw from our citizenship in our country and our life in the world. We participate in the political process. We pay our taxes. We appreciate the culture. We enjoy the good pleasures of the world. We marry, have children, work at jobs, buy homes and cars, get educated, go to museums and theaters. Jesus does not call us to detach ourselves from the world or to withdraw into Christian enclaves. We are citizens of the U.S. who live in this world.

However, one of the big mistakes American Christians make is to think of the United States as though it were, like Old Testament Israel, the kingdom of God. They believe faithful Christians are supposed to call the U.S. to repentance so that our country can be returned to its special status as God’s kingdom. Christians who believe this quote God’s words to Israel at the time of the dedication of Solomon’s temple:

...if my people who are called by my name humble

themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).

But the United States is not God’s kingdom. The better way for us to understand our standing as Christian citizens of the United States is the counsel Jeremiah wrote to Jewish people who had been carried off to Babylon as exiles:

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.  But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare (Jeremiah 29: 4-7).

We are exiles in a foreign land. But we are not hostile to the land where we live, nor do we withdraw into Christian communes. For the present age we settle where we find ourselves and live normal lives. We pray for our country; we seek its welfare. Our welfare and our country’s welfare are bound up together.

3. The Limits

But there are limits. How far can an American citizen alien go in adapting to and adopting the culture and customs of countries where he or she lives? We cannot go so far as to deny anything that would deny our essential identity as an American citizen. The missionary who invited us to his home for Japanese food loved Japan where he spent so many years. His wife told us that he had to be served rice at least once every day. But he never gave up his American citizenship, and when World War II came he left Japan for his homeland.

As Christians we cannot adopt the values, practices, and culture of our country if those are in conflict with Christ’s kingdom - if being citizens of our earthly country and culture puts us in conflict with Christ’s kingdom and culture.

“I beseech you...flee from fleshly lusts.” Fleshly lusts are sinful desires that we experience through the needs and desires of our human flesh - our bodies. There are two ways that fleshly desires and needs can become sinful lusts. One is when sin twists a desire or need in an evil direction.

Human sexual desire is itself good, a gift of our good Creator. But sin twists this good thing into something evil when we seek sexual fulfilment outside the man-woman relationship of marriage. A fleshly desire becomes a fleshly lust. One of the biggest challenges to Christian faithfulness at present is the availability of internet pornography. It is an awful twisting of a good thing into a bad which causes great damage.

Another way that a fleshly desire can become twisted by sin is when a desire or need that is good begins to exercise control over our lives. Take internet games. Many of them are fun and innocent entertainment. But for some they become obsessions that enslave a person. Wine in a good thing that the Bible says “makes the heart glad” but a person can become so obsessed with wine and the gladness it produces that the wine takes control of the life.

Fleshly lusts are not limited to matters of sex or drink. They can involve the tongue, the temper, money, material things - any need or desire that sin twists and perverts to evil use.  

Christians may not conform to or adapt the fleshly lusts approved and practice by many in our country and culture. This does not mean that we are called to self-righteousness, or belligerence, or unmercifulness in our dealings those who by choice or compulsion indulge in the fleshly lusts. Our responsibility is not so much to condemn others -  though we should compassionately warn those who think God approves of fleshly lusts. But our primary responsibility is to ourselves, to one another, and to the church to avoid  from fleshly lusts.

These lusts make war on our souls. They are our enemies. They want to defeat us and to take control of our lives. If we do not fight vigorously against them and, when we fall, repent of them, they destroy our souls. They are enemies God, of his kingdom, and of our temporal and our eternal happiness.

St. Andrew of Crete wrote:

Christian, dost thou see them

on the holy ground,

how the pow'rs of darkness

rage thy steps around?

Christian, up and smite them,

counting gain but loss,

in the strength that cometh

by the holy cross.

Christian, dost thou feel them,

how they work within,

striving, tempting, luring,

goading into sin?

Christian, never tremble;

never be downcast;

gird thee for the battle,

watch and pray and fast.