A GROWING PRIESTHOOD (22 OF 52)
Scripture: 1 Peter 2:1-10
This content is part of a series.
A Growing Priesthood (22 of 52)
Series: Lectionary, Year A
Christopher B. Harbin
1st Peter 2:1-10
Today is Mother's Day in most countries around the world. It is a time of reflection on mothers, motherhood, and the nurturing contributions mothers bring us. Not all women are mothers. Not all mothers are worthy examples of selflessness for the benefit of their children's welfare. Some women are not mothers but still provide maternal support to many. We like to publicly sound the trumpets and offer blanket honor to groups and classes of people that fit popular notions that are often far removed from the reality lived by many. It is right to give honor where honor is due. Our efforts might be better focused, however, on those who have nurtured our growth and development, despite the official roles and titles bestowed by social norms. We all need nurturing. It is also a calling into which we all should grow.
Peter was addressing the disciples scattered throughout the Roman Empire in the Dispersion. Life had taken a drastic shift before them. They had been uprooted, cast out of the major cities of the Empire, and left adrift. The center of Judaism forcibly shifted from a destroyed Jerusalem toward Babylon, from being Temple-centered to a rabbinical model following the Talmud. As Judaism was seeking new moorings, so also Jesus' followers were feeling uprooted and grieving the loss of a geographic foundation for their lives as they were being exiled.
Life in the Roman Empire could be harsh anyway, but it was an especially difficult time to be a Jew of a follower of Jesus. They were uprooted. Many felt themselves floundering as they sought some sense of stability, a way to make a living, and security in a time of large-scale uncertainty. Having been expelled from the Roman centers of civilization, they were feeling threatened as outsiders wherever they happened to land. As migrants and refugees, they attempted to make their homes in new places amid cultural d ...
Series: Lectionary, Year A
Christopher B. Harbin
1st Peter 2:1-10
Today is Mother's Day in most countries around the world. It is a time of reflection on mothers, motherhood, and the nurturing contributions mothers bring us. Not all women are mothers. Not all mothers are worthy examples of selflessness for the benefit of their children's welfare. Some women are not mothers but still provide maternal support to many. We like to publicly sound the trumpets and offer blanket honor to groups and classes of people that fit popular notions that are often far removed from the reality lived by many. It is right to give honor where honor is due. Our efforts might be better focused, however, on those who have nurtured our growth and development, despite the official roles and titles bestowed by social norms. We all need nurturing. It is also a calling into which we all should grow.
Peter was addressing the disciples scattered throughout the Roman Empire in the Dispersion. Life had taken a drastic shift before them. They had been uprooted, cast out of the major cities of the Empire, and left adrift. The center of Judaism forcibly shifted from a destroyed Jerusalem toward Babylon, from being Temple-centered to a rabbinical model following the Talmud. As Judaism was seeking new moorings, so also Jesus' followers were feeling uprooted and grieving the loss of a geographic foundation for their lives as they were being exiled.
Life in the Roman Empire could be harsh anyway, but it was an especially difficult time to be a Jew of a follower of Jesus. They were uprooted. Many felt themselves floundering as they sought some sense of stability, a way to make a living, and security in a time of large-scale uncertainty. Having been expelled from the Roman centers of civilization, they were feeling threatened as outsiders wherever they happened to land. As migrants and refugees, they attempted to make their homes in new places amid cultural d ...
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