Devotional Thoughts: foreigners here in reverent fear

Continuing on ...

Since you call on a Father who judges each person's work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

What jumps out at you?

For me ...

"foreigners here in reverent fear"

and

"chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times."

I think one of the struggles of living out the Christian faith is finding the healthy tension between recognizing a higher calling (we belong to God) which leads us to be foreigners yet not become isolated from this present life in the process.

As an ethnic minority, I have experienced some of that "foreign-ness" in that there is sometimes not full acceptance by the majority culture. Some differences are innocuous and fall into the realm of mere "taste" or "preference." But some differences are real values clashes.

If we are living out the Christian faith, there will be times we feel like "foreigners." For example, today, there is a very aggressive strand of atheism that views Christians as intellectually deficient and the source of many problems in society. For less aggressive atheists, they view Christians as odd people but tolerable as long as they don't say too much.

Because of this, it will be easy to retreat to one's own enclaves.

But, of course, the life of Jesus and his message calls us to influence the lives of others by demonstrating love, calling people to turn back to God and building bridges. Thus, the temptation to retreat to a private precinct is to be resisted.

Its mind blowing to consider "chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times."

The mission of Jesus was planned before the creation of the world? Whoa.

As humans, we think in linear time: creation of world --> fall of humanity --> Jesus.

This passage says that Jesus was chosen to the sacrificial lamb before the creation... before the fall ... before it was necessary (in our sense of linear time)!

Jesus, as the sacrificial lamb, at that moment in human history, is effective not just for those in the first century but for us in the 21st century and for that matter for all time?!

And in God's time line, Jesus' revelation is "the last times."

People sometimes object to the Christian faith because it isn't rational.

In most people's mind, people believe that means Christianity is irrational and thus not true.

I propose for your consideration that that is inaccurate.

Rather, I consider Christianity supra-rational.

Is that a real word?

Yes.

Love cannot be comprehended by reason alone. It involves reason in that we observe the beloved and interact with words and deeds. But the choice of love, the commitment to love, the cherishing of the beloved requires more than reason.

Christianity posits that God is a person who is seeking to reconcile wayward creatures to himself and each other. Since this existentially is about relationships it cannot be exclusively a rational endeavor.

Do you buy it?

Lord, thank you for redeeming me. I was stuck in a futile path. I was alienated. I was without hope. But you have paid a price to transfer me from that lost life. Through Jesus' life, example, teaching, death and resurrection, there is hope and life and love. Help me to live in this truth with reverence. Amen.