By Steve Hall
It’s easy to get sidetracked into a conversation about morality when the topic of Christianity arises. And when one considers the pagan cultures that those bringing the Good News have stepped into across the centuries — and still do today — it is easy to understand how consequences might become more important in conversation than the message itself. But the message starts with the plan.
Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, Priest
I Peter 1:10-16
Mark 10:28-31
Our opening reading this morning comes from the first chapter of Peter’s first letter. After the customary greeting and a brief prayer for the people to whom he is writing, Peter turns to the blessings his readers have already received “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” That is: their salvation, a fact by which they have been “born anew to a living hope,” says Peter.
Understandably, he goes on to describe the reality and the practical implications of the gift they have received. He starts with the prophets. Listening to the Spirit, these men foretold “the grace that was to be yours.” They “testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the glories to follow them.” Salvation will come! That was their vision and their promise. And Peter makes it clear that the message of those prophets was for those yet to come. “They were serving not themselves but you with regard to the things that have now been announced to you by those who preached the Good News to you.” Only after reminding his readers of the grace they have received does Peter turn to the consequences.
Peter sends the message, but Paul, in his eloquence, spells it out more clearly in his letter to the Ephesians.
“He has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:9-12)
It’s easy to get sidetracked into a conversation about morality when the topic of Christianity arises. And when one considers the pagan cultures that those bringing the Good News have stepped into across the centuries — and still do today — it is easy to understand how consequences might become more important in conversation than the message itself.
But the message starts with the plan which Paul says has been made known to us; and the plan is clear: “to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” After centuries of preparation, the promise reached the final stage of fulfillment in the birth of Jesus. He was and is the one in whom all things will be united. So the Good News is that he has come, and through him, so too has salvation.
The moral teaching of the Scriptures is secondary.
“For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.” (Psalms 62:5-6)
That being the case, one must question whether sin has been overemphasized at the expense of the core of the Good News we have received.
God has a plan. According to that plan, all things both in heaven and on earth will be united in Christ to the glory of God the Father. When that happens, what is not of God will be gone. For that to happen, those beings who can choose must align their essential being with God's being. Peter gives the admonition: “Be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, ‘Be holy because I am holy.’” Paul offers the same instruction when he says in Romans:
“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
Our awareness of sin may reveal our distance from God and our movement away from him. But a lack of sin in our lives (assuming that is even possible) does not necessarily mean that I live according to his will, according to what is good and acceptable and perfect. It certainly does not mean that I am holy. Again, we must return to the heart of the Good News. Salvation is now yours in and through Jesus.