December 16, 2019
1 Peter 1:1-2
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
New International Version (NIV)
                “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.”  Dorothy’s words in the Wizard of Oz mirror our own experience.  How did you get where you are?  Do you ever wonder?  Many of us are many miles from where we were born.  A more mobile society gives us freedom that few generations have ever experienced.  A violent and corrupt world has put many others to flight just to save their own lives.  Mass migrations mark the decade just past.  More will follow. 

                Still, even in the first century, people were displaced, not by choice but by persecution.  Peter who had to flee from Jerusalem, himself, writes to the elect exiles of the dispersion.  Christians born in other places suddenly found themselves in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.  How do we live the Christian life in exile?  It’s a good question.  Stanley Hauerwas contends that we are all “resident aliens.”  Or as the beautiful old spiritual put it, “This world is not my home.  I’m just a passin’ through.”

                At a grocery store I met a new checker.  Her attire and her accent told me she has come to our country from far away.  I tried to imagine how different this world is from the one she fled under threat of ISIS.  Once she lived in her home and everything made sense.  Now she is in a strange world where many of the people espouse a religion strange to her.  How did she get here?  Could it be that she is here to find a Savior she could not have found in her home country?  Will she find Christ in the way Christ’s followers treat her?

                Peter helps exiles like us to care for others when he tells us we are here “according to the foreknowledge of the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Christ.”  Try those words on today.  No question about it:  where you are, there you are.  But God knows you are there.  The Spirit is setting you apart for God right where you live.  Today you can obey Christ and be forgiven.  God gives grace and multiplies his peace to you.  No need to fear.  God has this.  God has you.  He will never leave you.
Pray with me:       
Father, we thank you that you know exactly where we are because you are here.  God with us, Emmanuel, help us to so live in your presence that when we meet those who do not yet know you, we will be asked the reason for our hope.  Let us so love as you have so loved the world by giving your only Son.  Set us apart by your Spirit so that we may become obedient to your great commission to make disciples as we go and your great commandment to love all of our neighbors.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.
This year our Every Day with Jesus readings will follow The Bible Project Read Scripture Plan.  Copies of this reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download 
the app at readscripture.org.  Read through the Bible with us in 2019!
Joyfully, 
Duane 
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