9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God’s own possession. You have become this people so that you may speak of the wonderful acts of the one who called you out of darkness into his amazing light. 10 Once you weren’t a people, but now you are God’s people. Once you hadn’t received mercy, but now you have received mercy.11 Dear friends, since you are immigrants and strangers in the world, I urge that you avoid worldly desires that wage war against your lives. 12 Live honorably among the unbelievers. Today, they defame you, as if you were doing evil. But in the day when God visits to judge they will glorify him, because they have observed your honorable deeds.
Reflection
Our scripture today follows nicely with what Jess said on Sunday about being witnesses.
When I was doing some research on this passage, I saw that there is apparently some debate about whether Peter was speaking to the Jews, the Gentiles, or a mix of both people who were early Christians. The Jews would have known the language of the chosen race and the priesthood from the Torah, but both Jews and Gentiles who were Christians could have felt the alienation and would have stood out as aliens where they were living.
For us today, the message seems to be clear regardless of who the message was written for when it was written. The point of the scripture is that we who believe in Jesus are to be witnesses. One commentary said we are to be a walking advertisement for Jesus. What does that mean exactly?
Should we walk around with a sign board or stand on the street corner and preach? If that is your style, then by all means get out there and do it! I would venture that most of us would be uncomfortable with that approach though.
As Jess said on Sunday, witnessing means telling others how our story fits into God’s story. The things that have happened in our lives that show us, and can show others, that God is active in our lives and that we can trust God to help us get through the things life throws at us.
Witnessing will be different for all of us as we all have very unique lives and unique experiences – both good and bad. We all have different ways that we have experienced God in our lives – some people see signs, some people have dreams, some people just get a sense of things they should do, some people see something specific for them in scripture, some people are prayer warriors, and the list could go on and on.
I like to do jigsaw puzzles, and the visual of the jigsaw puzzle with the pieces all fitting together is a clear one for me. We are all part of the puzzle that God has created and there are different scenes within the puzzle, but we all have a space to fill in that puzzle. When we witness to others, we add to that puzzle in the Kindom of God.
by Janet Waryck
For Pondering and Prayer
What do you do to witness to others?
What else could you do?
One of the things I like to say to people is I will pray for you and I mean it, but if I know that they are not believers or if I don’t know what they believe I tend to say something like “I don’t know if you do or don’t believe in prayer, but I do so if it is ok, I will pray for you”. Nobody has ever turned me down. They may say “no I don’t but thank you”, but no one has ever said “absolutely not!”.
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for all you have done for us to make us your people. Help us to tell others of your wonderful acts of calling us out of darkness into your amazing light so that they may come to know your mercy. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.
