Wrestling With Our Status

1^st Peter 2:18-25

The thought has crossed at least one person’s mind this morning, “What does this text have to do with us?” Peter is addressing Christian slaves. You’ve heard me say repeatedly over the years that one of the goals when we read scripture is to find “our story” in the story of scripture. That may seem a remote possibility for us in this text. While some of us might feel we’re slaves to our jobs or our schedules, most of us would use more politically correct language to describe our situation. And most of the time, the things we enslave ourselves to is a matter of choice. Speaking of “slavery” in the worst sense of the word is a potent and emotionally charged thought. We don’t talk about it much. But maybe we should.

Slavery didn’t die in 1865.[1] In Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America, slavery is alive and well. In Sudan, women and children still are kept as the spoils of war. In Thailand, children are still sold to owners of sweatshops. In Brazil, slaves work as laborers in the rain forests. And yes, closer to home, here in the United States, slaves are still suffering under dominating influences. Consider Beatrice.

She is from Nigeria. Beatrice was recruited at age thirteen to live with an American child welfare worker and her husband to help with housework and attend school. Her parents in Nigeria, hoping for a better standard of living and a better education for their daughter, agreed to send her to the land of opportunity. Upon arrival in to the U.S., however, Beatrice found herself enslaved in the worst sense of the word. She was locked in a suburban home, forced to work up to 20 hours a day, and denied education. Beatrice was regularly beaten while forced to hold her hands above her head and kneel on the floor. One day in 1998, after she was beaten for over an hour, Beatrice's screams caught the neighbors' attention. The police were called, and Beatrice was rescued. Beatrice had been held as a slave in the U.S. for nine years. According to CIA estimates, over 100,000 people are enslaved in the U.S. today. These victims, typically from the third world, are trafficked to locations across the country to work as domestic, sex, factory, or agricultural slaves.[2]

Hard to believe? Yes it is. Is Beatrice’s story simply one example that is statistically insignificant? Perhaps. But watch the newspaper over the next several months and see how many times you encounter a story similar to hers. Whether or not it is statistically insignificant, these are human lives and not percentage points.

Beatrice, in the biblical world, would have been known as an oiketia. It’s the Greek word for a special kind of slave – a household slave. Peter could have chosen to use the more common biblical word for slaves in this text – doulos – but instead he chose this word – oiketia. So there’s probably something he wants us to get from his word choice. But what?

This section of Peter’s letter addresses the household of the early church. And an oiketia, a household slave, was part of the family structure. Sometimes, these household slaves were treated more favorably, and much more like part of the family, but one can’t get away from the fact that they were still slaves. In the Roman period, Italy alone was believed to have 1-2,000,000 slaves. That is about one-quarter of the population.[3] They were branded, mutilated, castrated, raped, and subjected to the will and whim of their masters.

So, how can Peter say to these slaves, “…accept the authority of your masters with all deference…” and “…if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval”? This is a hard teaching, and here in this country this was one of the passages that slave owners used to justify their own abuse of other human beings.

It’s interesting to me that most lectionaries start this reading from 1^st Peter at verse 19. Verse 18 is not even included. And that puts a whole different spin on the passage doesn’t it? Suffering when we do right, following the example of Christ, not abusing when we’re abused are still all hard teachings but they’re not as hard as when we include verse 18. Putting these admonitions in the context of slavery should cause us to cry, “Foul!”

If we’re broadening the context today beyond the prescribed lectionary passage, let’s spread the net more than just a little. Let’s take this passage today in connection with 1^st Peter 2:16 which says, “As servants of God, live as free people…” Servants is a softer way of stating things. The Greek word for servants here is doulos – another biblical word for, yes you guessed it, slave! Peter is telling us then that Christians are slaves of God! Have you ever thought of yourself as God’s slave?

Of all the ways that we try and make the Gospel appealing to others, this is probably not the passage you want to preach on outreach Sunday is it? I believe Peter is telling us that when we’re redeemed by Christ we’re called to follow the example of Christ.[4] And we’re to follow Christ’s example as if our very lives depend upon it! Slaves know how to follow commands as if their lives depend on it. You might call it respect but we’d most likely call it fear. If you don’t follow commands, there’s consequence.

Perhaps we don’t always get it that we are in Christ’s household and God is our master. So when Jesus tells us to love one another,[5] it’s not optional. It’s expected! When we are told by Jesus to, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back,”[6] we should not ask, “OK, what else is available for us to choose from?” In our North American context, we’d rather think of faith as an “option.” It’s one possibility among many that we have to choose from. Peter reminds us that being a follower of Christ carries a potent, sometimes unpopular message.[7] Christ is our example. We should follow in his steps with urgency.

But now Peter’s analogy breaks down. God, as our master, is not the abuser who treats us as property. God expects us to obey, but does not wait with a stick ready to beat us if we don’t comply. God waits, as Peter puts it, as “…the shepherd and guardian of our souls.” When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave, he rose as our shepherd and guide. He rose as our redeemer. These are pastoral images of love and grace…not oppression and tyranny.

So what should we do with a passage like this?

First, no one should conclude that people forced to live as slaves to other humans is right. That is not Peter’s emphasis in this passage nor should it ever be our own conclusion. Wherever people, as groups or individuals, are being oppressed, we must take a stand against such abuse.

Second, Peter reminds us that suffering is a part of the human condition. Biblical scholar Pheme Perkins has written, “We must oppose unjust actions and words – especially when our silence might imply consent to such behavior. But we also know that at times we should walk away rather than respond to the violence directed against us.”[8] Jesus could have fought his suffering and persecution but chose not to. He is our example for how to live when this must be our own choice.

Third, we would all do well to remember that we are not lord of our own lives – God is. If you claim Jesus as your Lord, then you serve Jesus not as an option, but as a mandate of faith. Our full and complete service is expected. In the very best sense, we are slaves of God…all of us.

Fourth, our master and Lord, Jesus, is a benevolent and loving master. I can only imagine what Jesus may one day say and do to Beatrice. He will hold her in his arms and let her know how much she’s loved as one of His own. Carlo Caretto wrote in The Desert in the City, “Jesus’ resurrection makes it impossible for humanity’s story to end in chaos – it has to move inevitably towards light, towards life, towards love.”

Let us all serve Christ as our master.

Amen.

[3] John H. Elliott, The Anchor Bible, 1 Peter (New York: Random House, 2000), p. 514.

[4] Pheme Perkins, Interpretation: First and Second Peter, James, and Jude (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1995), p. 53.

[7] Walter Brueggemann, Charles B. Coursar, Beverly R. Gaventa, and James D. Newsome, Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV – Year A (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995), p. 288.

[8] Pheme Perkins, Interpretation: First and Second Peter, James, and Jude (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1995), p. 55.