1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Easter 7 - Year A

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Anyone here surprised at the “aft agley”ness of the world? Anytime you set about trying to create something in the image of a community it seems there is going to be at least one pyschopathic personality amongst the creative “our”.

If you wish to connect whatever gets defined as a “fiery ordeal” with Christ, that certainly has the potential to sharpen one’s sense of meaning. If you find another way to look at fiery ordeals, that is also alright. One of those other ways is the simple one of “discipline yourselves”.

Keeping faith with one’s grander meaning and larger view of the world takes much joyful discipline. If it is simply discipline we find ourselves with a dour mein. If only joy, there is no connection with reality. Here it is helpful to keep this oxymoron of joyful discipline in creative presence and tension with itself.

If you need some form of restoration to justify your suffering, then eternal glory may well be a helpful way to go. Simply know it is not the only option available. Eternal crucifixion is a far side, and yet still a side, of what may eventuate. In addition there are good old “lukewarm” ways to ignore any correction needed to move beyond the current scene.

The due time for exultation is not Tomorrow or Rapture Day in a couple more months. Exultation can only be a present action. Likewise, restoration is present oriented. We don’t have to think of these as earnings based on gritted teeth, but living in the model of Jesus’ life. This is not “test”, but growth. If you are not growing as you take a test, you are just repeating the past. In some ways tests are the logical next step of becoming.