The Letters of Peter and the Message of Hope

"Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you-- not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him."

--I Peter 3: 13-22

Since the second week of Easter we have been reading from the First Letter of Peter.  We’ve got one more week to go with that letter, but since—spoiler alert—next week's blog will be about the Ascension, it’s now or never if we want to talk at all about the First Peter this year. 

An icon of the author of the Letters of Peter...maybe.

The big question most of us probably have is:  did the apostle Peter actually write these letters?  Well, Dude, we just don't know!  Issues surrounding the style of Greek and the fact that the writer uses Peter rather than Cephas or Simon—which were the names Paul and Jesus most used for the guy—have caused speculation over exactly who wrote the two Letters of Peter and to whom they were written; in fact, it wouldn’t be until the later part of the fifth century that the letters were being read throughout the whole Church. Nevertheless, in spite of all of this the Letters of Peter got in, and we’re still reading them and searching them for meaning and messages of hope. 

Hope is what I would classify as the theme of the letter we’ve been reading, and we hear that today.  The writer is clearly addressing Christians who are going through terrible times, enduring sufferings that we today cannot even imagine.  The writer tells the audience that they are blessed, even when they are harmed, and that they should sanctify Christ, rather than give in to fear and intimidation.  You can see why this letter was so popular, despite the controversies.  Stand firm and be hopeful, even when there are hardships.  This was and still is Good News.

But where does such hope come from?  It comes from Jesus Christ, of course, namely Jesus' own sufferings. The letter reminds believers of Jesus' hardships in order to give them hope in their own.  More than that, however, the writer points out that Jesus “went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey.”  In other others, Jesus went to hell.  Let that sink in for a second.  This is one of those icky parts of our faith, but it’s right there in our Apostles Creed—not the Nicene, but that’s another blog post.  “He descended to the dead.” is what our Creed says (or if you are a 1928 Prayer Book fan, "He descended into hell.")  We even affirmed so at our church last week when we renewed our baptismal vows during our Confirmation liturgy, although some of us may have muttered that affirmation under our breath; after all, it's easy to see Jesus enthroned in glory, but in hell?!  That's tough.

At this point it's worth noting that what first century followers of Jesus knew as hell is not what we know.  Our image of hell is due in large part to the influence of Dante's Inferno, where hell is a place of punishment and torment.  For Jews and Christians in 1st century Palestine hell was not a place of torment, rather it was a place of shadow.  It went by many names--hell, Tartarus, Gehenna, Hades, the Pit--and it was a place where all souls went after death.  This hell was the worst place imaginable, not because of torture, but because it was the one place God could not reach.  To be in dead and in hell meant that you could not be in relationship with God, or anyone else.  It is this place to which Jesus went and preached, thereby destroying any power that death had over humanity and closing the gap between the dead and God.  Thus, this is the hope that Peter—or whoever—was giving those early believers.  You can endure your sufferings and face any challenge because Jesus has gone to hell and destroyed all meaning that suffering once had.

 Jesus goes to hell.

Maybe that’s why this Christianity thing took root and gave hope to everyone from the richest to the poorest.  Everyone suffers, after all.  It cannot be avoided, no matter who you are.  But being a Christian isn’t about avoidance.  It’s not as if once we decide to follow Jesus our job problems go away, our terminal disease magically heals, or we are sheltered from the harsh social and political realities of our days.  If anything, it sometimes means all these things get worse!  But because Jesus has died, because he has gone ahead of us into the depths of hell itself,  we don’t have to.  Because he has suffered he has made it possible for us to endure suffering and has helped us find meaning and hope.  As one person told me, her conversion to Christianity didn't fix the problems, but it gave you the strength to face the problems.

That is why Jesus going to hell is so important.  By facing death and going to the place where the dead people resided, he took away the power that death and suffering had.  No longer need we fear any adversity because Christ has already endured them and has given us hope.  It's that hope that sustained the martyrs as they marched to their deaths.  It's the hope that tells a  Coptic Christian girl not to fear when her church is bombed.  It's the hope that says to the young gay Christian man, "You are beloved and need not live in fear!"  We have this hope, too.  How do we know this?  Because Jesus made a promise to his disciples:  

"I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees her nor knows her.  You know her, because she abides in you, and she will be in you."

--John 14: 16-18

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, is the gift that Jesus gives to his followers, so that they will always have that hope.  Forever.  That's how long Jesus gave the Spirit to those who love him, which means that the Spirit is still alive today, still moving in us, and still giving us that same hope.  We can face anything.  We can endure anything.  Because Jesus already has.  

Some of you may be enduring sufferings right now, and if you’re not you at least know someone who is.  This is the message of hope for us this week:  that Jesus has endured every suffering, and has conquered every evil, and in doing so has made it possible for us to do the same. Suffering and hardships are still a reality for us all, but thanks to Jesus, we can face them, and we have the hope that we are free from whatever power they may have had. And when we forget all of that, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, is there to remind us.  Thanks be to God for the hope that the Letters of Peter gave to our fathers and mothers and are still giving us today.