What a Change Your Christianity Makes!

5th Sunday after Epiphany, 2/9/14
1 Peter 2:9-12


What a Change Your Christianity Makes!
I. It changed who you are.
II. It changed what you do.


“It changed my life.” More than once we’ve heard someone state that very thing. They experienced a heart attack at a young age, but survived. And now they have a new appreciation for life and have made a host of changes in how they live. Or perhaps they were involved in a horrific accident but came out of it without a scratch. Their experience caused them to focus on what really matters in life.

I’m sure those of you who are mothers would readily state that having a child changed your life. It brought a completely new focus and responsibility into your life.

But there are also situations in which our lives change, but only for a period of time. Who hasn’t started a healthier diet, only to slip back into enjoying what’s better tasting but less healthy as well? Who hasn’t started a program of increased physical activity aimed at shedding some weight and feeling better about ourselves, only to find a couple months later that we’re back to our sedentary ways? We make a change, but not for long.

For the vast majority of you, decades ago your God caused a change in your life of eternal proportions. It’s likely at a font much like this one here that God the Holy Spirit used your baptism to bring you to faith in Jesus and make you a child of God. You became a Christian.

And that’s not simply a label. It’s the deepest, most incredible change you’ll ever experience. But there are times in our lives when we forget that. There are times in our lives when we wonder just how much meaning that change has for us in that particular moment.

The people to whom the Apostle Peter first wrote these words of our text were facing the same questions, the same doubts, the same misgivings. So the Holy Spirit used St. Peter to remind them and encourage them with these words. He does the same for us this morning. What a change your Christianity makes! May we receive divine assurance and encouragement as we take that saving truth to heart!

Part I.

It’s common for parents and teachers who are dealing with young children to remind them of who they are. I can recall going on field trips in elementary school and, before we left the school building, our teacher would spend a good deal of time telling us to remember who we are as we made our way into the public. She wanted us to represent our school well. Parents are known to use a similar tactic in encouraging good behavior. They might tell their child, “You are a Smith, and Smiths don’t talk and act like that!” Children need that reminder from time to time.

So do adults. That’s exactly what Peter is doing with the opening words of our text. He writes, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” He begins by contrasting his readers with those who reject Jesus as their Savior. First he calls them a chosen people. Your God did not close his eyes, reach out his almighty hand, and shove it into the mass of humanity and grab onto whatever humans he could. He chose you. In fact, he chose you before the creation of the world to be one of his children, a Christian. He knew you by name. That boggles the mind!

What’s more, he has chosen you for a special function. Peter calls you a member of a royal priesthood. In the Old Testament Aaron was a priest but he wasn’t a king. David was a king but he wasn’t a priest. In the New Testament, your God tells you that you are both. Your God tells you that you rule with him and that you serve him in the highest way possible as you participate in his kingdom work. What a lofty position! But that’s who you are.

And together with the rest of your brothers and sisters in the Christian faith, you form a holy nation. It seems like everywhere we look these days, we see the seedy underside of nations—war, crime, abuse, dishonesty. But your God has raised you far above all that. By faith in Jesus he has sanctified you—made you holy in his eyes, and has joined you together with all other Christians in the Holy Christian Church, which Jesus calls his bride. You aren’t some afterthought in the mind of your God. You’re at the heart and center of his saving plan! That’s who you are!

One more description. Peter tells you that you are a people belonging to God. The Greek words here contain the idea of God’s private possession. He prizes you! How refreshing to hear that truth in a world in which we so often feel like we’re being used and abused! Not from your God! You belong to him as his dearly loved child.

If those four terms aren’t enough to convince you how changed you are, Peter takes us back and reminds us where we came from. He writes, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” It’s been said that you can’t appreciate where you are unless you recognize where you came from. In a word, your God has rescued you from eternal separation from him. He brought you out of Satan’s kingdom to his kingdom. And it’s all by his grace through faith in Jesus as your Savior.

What a change your Christianity makes! It changed who you are.

So, why would Peter tell his original readers how special they were? Well, he wasn’t trying to butter them up before asking them for a favor. So what was the reason? They weren’t so sure that anything had changed when they came to faith in Jesus. If anything, the changes weren’t positive. Ever since they renounced their pagan beliefs and customs and embraced Jesus as their Savior, life had become more difficult for them. They were suffering all kinds of trials and persecutions. They were beginning to wonder if God had forgotten about them, if their faith in Jesus was really worth it. They were considering going back to their old pagan faith.

I’m going to assume that becoming a pagan isn’t a huge temptation for you. But who among us can say that they have never been discouraged? How often does it happen that the difficulties and even the daily stresses of our lives cause us to wonder what’s wrong with our relationship with our God? What does he have against us? Why is he treating us so harshly? Why isn’t life easier for me? It’s at times like these that we need to see our Christianity in a much larger context. Our God didn’t change us to be his people so that he could make our lives a fairy tale here. He changed us so that we can have life with him now and forever. We are his people. We do belong to him. It’s all because of what Jesus did for us. It’s what his life and his death are all about—to change us forever. What a change your Christianity makes! It changed who you are.

Part II.

I’ve only spent a few days in a foreign country. Some of you have lived on foreign soil for extended periods of time. Let me ask you this: Do you ever get over the feeling that you don’t belong there? I guess it depends on whether or not you plan on staying there the rest of your life. If you plan to return to the US, you probably always feel like you don’t belong there.

After telling us who we are—God’s people—Peter helps us put that life into practice. He states, “Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world.” What makes us aliens and stranger in the world? The fact that you’ve been changed by your Christian faith. We literally have been set apart from the world for our God. Thus Peter urges his readers, “Abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” Our world is a cesspool of sinful desires. All around us are the encouragements and enticements to indulge in them. The world insists that if it seems right to you and it will bring you happiness, then, by all means go right ahead. Peter reminds us, “That’s not who you are, therefore that’s not what you do.” As brothers and sisters in Christ we’re here to encourage and support one another in our quest to live as aliens and strangers in our world.

In fact, we’re here to proclaim who we are because of the change our God has made in us. Peter states that we are God’s people to proclaim God’s praises—the God who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. That’s a lofty way of saying, “Tell people what your God has done to save you. Tell them that Jesus is your Savior from sin.” Even our children are able to do that wonderful work.

But that glorious task can be done without saying a single word. Peter echoes our Savior’s encouragement to be the salt and light of the earth with these closing words, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” Draw others to Christ by your actions and attitudes. Make people want to hear what you have to proclaim about Jesus, because they can tell that you’ve been changed.

Indeed, what a difference your Christianity makes! It changes what you do.

If only we’d remember that truth. But we forget. Too often we find that what we’ve done hasn’t made someone admire our faith in Jesus; just the opposite. But that’s another opportunity to let them know. You have failed to live the life God demands just like everyone else. But you’ve found the solution. It’s Jesus. In him you have forgiveness. Through him comes the power to live the changed life. May that Savior feed your faith through word and sacrament so that your life reflects the change that he has accomplished in you! What a change your Christianity makes! Amen.