From the Epistle: “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and
pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.”
St Peter’s “fleshly lusts” are the temptations of the material world
that lead to the worship of creation rather than the creator.
The King James translation connotes sexual incontinence and physical
indulgence; but Peter has a far wider scope in mind than the rather narrow
category usually attributed to this scripture.
It is remarkable that in many ways our modern American society closely
resembles first century Rome. The
parallels are certainly not exact; but they are close enough for discomfort.
Christians today are carefully scrutinized by the government
and the media for any indiscretions, real and imagined that embarrass our
morality and betray our flawed humanity.
The more salacious and outrageous the allegations or the conduct
the better. Comments from the
pulpit on the political scene have been grounds for the revocation of tax
exemption when such remarks are politically disfavored.
Secularists and others are correctly certain that Christians
are the enemy of an amoral and Godless society.
In first century Rome Christians were believed to be scofflaws and cannibals.
Scofflaws because they did not indulge in emperor worship or
support pagan worship through the
local temples which were economically important in the ancient classical
world; and cannibals because of a misunderstanding of the body and blood
of the Eucharist.
By the middle of the first century, Rome and her empire had made the transition
from the Republican virtues of thrift, public duty, moral restraint and
personal rectitude to the imperial trappings of Eastern sensuality, hedonism
and gross sexual conduct; exemplified by such leaders as the Emperor Nero
who was, in fact, emperor at the time
Peter wrote this Epistle. Rome
had become a society having the same social maxim as our 21st
century society which says: if it
feels good, do it.
The entire sense of Peter’s exhortation to abstain from fleshly lusts
becomes distilled, for example,
in the arguments now being advanced by certain scientists and politicians
for experimentation with human fetal tissue and the cloning of
fetal cells for one purpose or another.
The moral justification seems to be the curious and, rather cannibalistic
notion (since we did mention cannibalism earlier) that life is an end in
itself; and that the prolongation
of one life existing warrants the deliberate extinction of another life just
beginning. Living becomes an extraordinarily
meaningless exercise of eating, drinking, and consuming as well as one possibly
can until the next sunrise when the process can be started all over again.
Peter reminds us Christians that we are aliens and exiles in this world.
Our true and eternal home is with God.
This does not mean that creation and material things are bad.
God Himself declared that all creation was good when He made
it. Nevertheless, it does mean
that we, as Christians, have a better destination than the next sunrise.
Therefore, our purpose here, as well as our conduct between ourselves
and others, must be informed and inspired by our faith in the Risen Christ
and the hope of life eternal with our God.
Without this faith in God’s promise our entire existence becomes
chaotic and irrational.
The notion, implicit in so much of modern society, is that physical death
is final. This is a philosophy of
poisonous despair that obviates any moral conduct, so called,
except that behavior which advances the survival of ones own
person, group or interests. Any contrary
behavior within that scheme of things would be irrational and irresponsible.
The idea that life is an end in itself is, paradoxically the
triumph of death. It is the very
foundation of the reasoning, that makes rational the notion that it is morally
justifiable to destroy one innocent human life in order to extend another
one. Another proffered justification
is the promise of the cure of disease and genetic defects.
This is just another moral smoke screen designed to obscure the
fact that we will be cannibalizing a human fetus.
The end does not justify the means.
The essential moral question is the purpose of human life and
that is not resolved by replacing one abomination with another.
It is this sort of fleshly lust that is the war against the soul.
Peter enjoins us to obey the law; particularly the civil laws of society
which ensure good order and conduct.
We all know that disregard of regulations for public hygiene or the reckless
operation of an automobile create risks others in the community.
Criminal conduct must be restrained by government authority for
the safety of all citizens. It is
this sort of obedience that Peter has in mind.
Christians should be exemplary citizens
irrespective of the moral character of the occupant of the imperial
throne or is governor of the province.
This good citizen conduct should be second nature to Christians.
We are creatures of an exquisite Divine Order.
That order is everywhere evident in the universe.
It is an aspect of God Himself in creation.
The universe operates according to fixed immutable physical laws.
That is to say, everything operates according to fixed laws except
for one notable exception. Human beings.
God created man from the dust of the earth just as He did every other
living creature. Except that He
made man in His own image and endowed him with free will.
The free will to give or withhold worship of God and even to
violate Divine Order and impose chaos in its place.
The chaos which obscures the true Divine purpose of man and often
succeeds in dressing up evil in moral authority.
Jesus Christ reconciles us to God and restores
order to the universe; and Peter reminds us today that we are
creatures of order and dignity not of chaos and moral squalor.
It is to that end as Christians that we are called upon to respect
the government and obey the laws so long as such conduct is not inconsistent
with our duty to God.
Our Anglican Liturgy, as I am so wont to say on occasion, is itself order,
obedience, dignity, respect, and love for God.
Worship of God in the Eucharist is obedience to the law and Peter’s
Epistle reminds us of how such obedience is also reflected in our physical
and social lives.
Ths Psalmist reminds us of the relationship between our heavenly destination
and our earthly journey when he says: “Except the Lord build the house,
their labor is but lost that build it.
Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
It is but lost labor that ye haste to rise up early, and so late
take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness; for so he giveth his beloved
sheep....”