1 Peter 2:9-12
February 5, 2017
“YOU ARE DIFFERENT”
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once 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.11Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Three thousand years ago wise King Solomon made an interesting statement in the Bible. He said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” People are always trying to sell us something, because they say it’s new and different. But when I look at the latest I-Phone that comes out, I don’t see that it’s really that much different from the old one I bought three years ago. When I buy a new neck tie, it’s about the same width as the ones I wore in high school in the 1960’s. And that brand new scientifically designed golf club? It doesn’t hit the ball any farther or straighter than the old golf clubs I got twenty years ago. Solomon was right. There really isn’t anything new under the sun.
Another thing that never changes in our world is sin. People sin like they always have. Sins are no different today than they were in ancient times. James scolded people for using bad language two thousand years ago, so the bad language that we hear so much of today isn’t new or different. People complain about all the sexual immorality in the media today, but sexual sins were old already when Moses wrote the Sixth Commandment and warned the people of God not to copy the Canaanites. Homosexuality was centuries old when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans and called it an unnatural perversion. Many today say they can be good Christians without going to church, but that was an old sin hundreds of years before Christ when the prophets scolded God’s people for neglecting their attendance at the Temple.
There’s nothing new or different under the sun. Neither the devil nor man ever come up with anything different. They just slap on the label “New and exciting,” and people are foolish enough to chase after all the same old sins that got Adam and Even kicked out of the Garden, got the world drowned in the Flood, got Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed, got God’s people carried off into captivity, and got the city of Jerusalem destroyed. There’s nothing new. Everything’s always the same. Except for you. You’re different. Jesus says so in our Gospel today, and Peter says so in our Second Lesson. God bless our faith today as Peter tells us “You’re Different.”
1-God made you different. Peter says you’re a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession. God made you and me different from all the rest of the world. In eternity before creation of the universe, God chose you to be one of his special people. He loved you and knew you and chose you before you were born to be a believer in Jesus and spend eternity in heaven with him. God made you a royal priesthood. You’re a king and queen. Everything is serving your good. You’re a priest. You don’t need a priest to say masses for your sins, you don’t need saints to intercede for you , you don’t need Mary to pull you out of purgatory. You are a royal priest who may stand before God’s throne alone with Jesus as your Savior. You’re part of a holy nation, and that’s not the United States of America. You’re part of the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the Body of Christ. You’re holy in the sight of God because the blood of Jesus Christ daily cleanses you from all your sins. You’re saints because the holiness of Jesus covers you like a blanket. The world is always the same, nothing new. But you don’t belong to the world. You’re God’s special possession. You’re different because God has made you different.
The world has a lot of people who think they’re different and special. Some think they’re special because they’re celebrities or movie stars or professional athletes. Some think they’re special because they’ve gone to school for a long time or have people they can boss around. But they’re really no different than the rest of the world. They are filled with sin, they are scared of death, they carry their guilt around with them. They die without peace. They live apart from God forever.
That’s why Peter wants you to remember how you became different. God made you different. And he did it because of his grace and mercy. Once you were not God’s people. Once you were not different from the rest of the world. Once you had not received mercy. But now you have. By grace you have been saved through faith, and this faith is not from yourself; it is the gift of God, so no one can boast. We were born sinful and on the way to hell like everyone else. We would have been lost forever. Except for God. Except for Jesus. Except for his grace. Except for the Holy Spirit. Except for Jesus’ life and death and resurrection. You are different. May you and I always remember it was only God and his grace that made us different.
2-How we live differently. Now what will we, God’s special people, do when we go out into this world? Will we do the same things as everyone else? Jesus said, “No!” He said in our Gospel today that we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Salt is used to add flavor to food. Without salt, food can be bland and boring. God wants us to add flavor to this same old same old sinful world. If the salt loses its saltiness, it’s not good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on. We’re the light of the world. God doesn’t hide his special chosen people behind the walls of this church. He sends us out into this bland, boring, tasteless world, not to be like them, but to be different. Not to sin, but to live holy lives. Not to blend in with the darkness but to shine like a city on a hill.
Peter tells us how God’s chosen people act out it in the world. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. You’re like strangers just passing through. Everybody else is headed for hell without faith in Jesus. You can’t be a beacon for them, if you’re light isn’t shining. If we don’t do anything or live any differently from everybody else, we won’t bring flavor to this world. There is nothing more boring than selfishly indulging all our itches like almost everybody else out in the world is doing. Jesus wants us to be salty Christians. He wants us to add flavor to this boring world. He wants our lives and actions to reflect the faith that is in us. While everyone else lives for this life, we look forward to heaven. While everyone else skips church, he wants the word to dwell in us richly. While most are living for their own pleasures, his love moves us to live for him. Abstain means quit it. Christians are a royal priesthood, a holy nation set apart for God, a people belonging to God.
The God who made us different gives us the power to be different. Let him talk to you every day in his word, the Bible. I don’t know about you, but I need the reminder constantly that I’m God’s specially chosen person and his dearly loved child. Let him tell you how again and again how much he loves you, how he chose you, how he forgives you and loves you and is preparing a better place for you. Talk to him every day and ask him for spiritual gifts. Speak to him and say, “Lord, help me to be different. Help me to shine my light today. Help me to shake my salt. Help me to be different and special as you have made me. Help me not to be afraid of what others say about. That’s nothing new. They’ve said all those things before. Help me to shine my light and say, “Christ died for all.” Then by God’s grace they may become special and different, too.
Conclusion: We pray:Dear Lord, thank you for making me different by placing saving faith in Jesus in my heart. Help my faith to shine through bright and clear so that others may be drawn to you through me. Amen.