The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

Readings: 1 Peter 5: 5 – 10; Luke 15: 1 – 10
 
“Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith.”
It’s a striking phrase, isn’t it.  And it may also be familiar because it’s used towards the end of the late evening service of compline.  This is also the connecting image between our epistle and our gospel passage this morning.  We’re in the territory of sheep here.  In the epistle, the focus is not on the one lost sheep, but on the flock, the ninety nine remaining and their predicament as they’re surrounded by predators out in the wilderness. 1 Peter was written to Jewish Christians who lived in various towns in the diaspora, that is, in exile from Judea.  Such people were regarded as resident aliens; they could always be thrown out of the places where they had settled.  Their social status was probably also relatively low – another reason for feeling insecure and vulnerable.  The particular danger they faced at the time of the letter seems to have been not major and systematic persecution, but persistent low level local harassment which might weaken their faith or cause them to abandon it altogether.  The aim of the letter is to encourage these scattered Christian communities to keep going in tough times.
So, how can they deal with the metaphorical prowling lion? How does the writer encourage these Christians to deal with their predicament?
First, they’re to show mutual respect and humility, recognising that they’re all of equal status.  All have been saved by the death of Christ and are called to live a new kind of life (1 Peter 1: 2 – 22).  In the light of the example of Christ (1 Peter 2: 21-24) it’s inconceivable that anyone could either openly claim to be superior or play covert power games.   Secondly, they are to be sober, vigilant and to resist the devil, who, like a lion, would really like a tasty sheep dinner.  This is vivid imagery, and perhaps to us seems a little unsophisticated.  But it is often when we feel in some way under attack that we hit out at the people who are closest to us.  I know this is the case for me.  Sometimes, if it’s been a particularly busy or stressful week and I’m very tired, I can get quite grumpy and resentful – and it’s my family who are often on the receiving end of this.  These Christians are to pattern themselves on Christ (1 Peter 2: 21 – 24).  Neither retaliating to outsiders, when people abuse them for their faith, nor taking it out on anyone within the community.  Not easy to do!  We’re probably not in quite the same position of persecution here in Hampstead, but we all face other, perhaps more subtle temptations to behave in ways that are less than Christlike.  I find these words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer both sobering and helpful:
“If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even when there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith and difficulty; if on the contrary we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.”
Things might be very different in Hampstead Parish Church if we too were vigilant in this way, so that we could remember always to operate in a spirit of thankfulness to God for one another and to encourage one another.
But the writer of this letter has further encouragements for his readers.  He assures them that God cares for them (1 Peter 5: 7).  Their difficulties and sufferings do not go unnoticed. He reminds them that others are suffering in similar ways in other places (1 Peter 5: 9).  In this way, also, they are not alone.  These things will not go on for ever (1 Peter 5: 10) – in other words as the well-known proverb puts it “This too will pass” and, finally, perhaps most importantly, the God of all grace will restore them (1 Peter 5: 10). 
We often skate over the phrase ‘the God of grace’, or ‘the grace of God’, but into that little word ‘grace’ is packed all the graciousness, goodness and love of God.  The love which created all things and which through Christ rescues us from sin, cleanses us, makes us new and brings us back into loving relationship with God.  This is the grace which our Gospel passage so vividly describes in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin.  This is the grace which is freely available to us, the beloved flock, all of the time.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space” said Viktor Frankl, a neurologist, psychologist and holocaust survivor, when he recounted the way in which some rare souls were able to respond calmly in the face of extraordinary provocation in Auschwitz, “In that space is our power to choose our response, in our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
As we relate to others, especially when we are tempted to retaliate, let us ask God for the grace to recognise those spaces, to slow down and to respond as He would have us do.
If we are imaginative types we may even catch a glimpse of that lion as he slinks off into the bushes, ears and tail drooping.
Amen.