While the epistle lesson for this week comes from 2nd Peter chapter three, it is helpful to read all of St. Peter’s short letter together. It has a definite emphasis on what the people of God should be doing and focused on, as they await the coming of their Savior. Chapters one and two highlight the distinctions between the faithful and the unfaithful, as both wait for the coming of the Lord—the one for salvation, and the other for judgment. Peter points out how the faithful will suffer with afflictions born of living in a world dominated by sin and rebellion, and living in a church that is infiltrated by heretics, false teachers, and covetous men who will make merchandise of the people. There is nowhere the Christian can hide from all this conflict and turmoil. We have only one world in which we are given to live; only one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church which is the Body of Christ into which we are grafted; only one body and soul we are given to struggle both by and within. The raging war of good versus evil that dominates the world and the church, also surges in the heart of every Christian, where we live out our reality of being both sinner and saint.
Many
people have despaired at this truth. The
Christian that tries to flee the world in order to escape the war of good
versus evil, has no other world to which he may flee. If he tries to escape into the cloisters of
the Church, he will find no monastery so remote, nor halls so hallowed, that
the war does not still rage. If he flees
the Church to find solitude as a hermit in the wilderness, he cannot escape the
battle within his own being. The People
of God are a Church at War in this world, surrounded by the horrors,
casualties, and sorrows of battle. There
are enemies we can clearly see, and they are terrifying—whether we see them in
the halls of government, as leaders of the Church, or rioting in our
neighborhoods. There are the enemies we
know are there, but cannot see—the wolves in sheep’s clothing, who pretend to
be supporters of civil society or of the Church, but inwardly seek only to
destroy and to devour those they can deceive.
There is the enemy inside ourselves, which we often refuse to see—the voice
of our passions and our lusts, which war against the Spirit given to us by
grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Each of these enemies, with demonic zeal, do great harm and devastation
when left uncontested, ultimately seeking to sever people from the saving grace
of God. Nations fall to tyrants and
butchers. Communities burn and are
looted. Children are stolen and
enslaved. Prisoners are tortured and
murdered. Churches fall into apostasy. People are led into damnable heresies, and
enslaved by cultic masters. The faithful
are fleeced of their money and their comfort, as their shepherds serve
themselves and their appetites.
Individuals yield to their darker nature, leave the faith of Christ, and
pursue the ways of the devil. It is a
world at war from its height to its depth—a war we cannot by our own power win,
or flee. It is a horrible and real war,
with real and tragic calamities.
In
the darkness, sadness, and misery of this war, our God speaks His Word of
hope. He promises that He will both win
and end this war, from the heights of heaven to the depths of the individual
human heart. He will come in all His
glory, to finish what He began so many millennia ago in the Garden, and what He
has begun in everyone whom He has grafted into Himself by the Blood of His Son. He has promised us that the Vicarious Atonement
of His Son for the sins of world is our salvation from sin, death, hell, and
the devil, and that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus. He has promised to end the war,
by sending judgment upon those who refuse His grace, separating the evil into
the eternal prison of hell built for the devil and his unholy angels, so that
His faithful people might shine forth with the glory He intended for them from
before the foundation of the world. He
has promised to give us faith to believe and cling to Him by the working of His
Spirit through His Word, and repentance by that same Word so that our sins may
be forgiven and we may resist the temptations of the evil one. He has promised to save His people, and given
them the sacramental signs of His covenant so that they might never forget His
promises.
But
for us, still stuck in this war, we are often tempted to doubt the promises of
our God. We are tempted to think that
God is slacking off on his promises, delaying them, and may never actually
fulfill them. We are tempted to think
that God is as unsteady, unfaithful, and undependable as we are. In our pain and our suffering of this war we
cannot escape, we are tempted to doubt God our Savior.
St.
Peter braces us, takes our eyes away from our pain, and puts our attention back
on Jesus. He is not slack or
unfaithful. On the contrary, He is
longsuffering, desiring all to be saved.
He waited for millennia, so that He could save you, and He will wait as
long as His divine love compels Him, to save everyone who will repent and
believe His Gospel. The fleeting pains
and suffering of this life, are nothing compared to the eternity of wonders
prepared for His people, and won through His Cross. He is coming, and He will save His
people. His promises are more sure than
the whole of creation, and He will accomplish what He has promised. Take heart, and fight the good fight of faith—for
He has already won your war, and your victory is sure in Him. Amen.
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