Higher Ground

Eastertide
May 12, 2017

Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 2:2-10

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.Once you were not a people,
   but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
   but now you have received mercy. –1 Peter 2:9-10

The word translated here as race is from the Greek word, genos*, and, yes, it stems from the same Greek word ginomai as our English word gene. Do you think the ancients were saying that being made in the image of God is saying God is in our DNA? Probably not what we imagine when we read “a chosen race”.  The English word race does relate to heredity or tribe and that is most likely what our ancestors in faith were referencing. Other countries may do it too, but we in the USA have no trouble appropriating this language applying it to ourselves: a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people. I think 1 Peter is speaking to all of God’s people but it is not talking about being more worthy or better than others. Being chosen by God entails taking responsibility for doing the work of God. Now that we know God’s love, we are compelled to share it with all God’s other people.

Classifying and ranking people by race, income, ethnicity, etc. seems to be on the increase. Perhaps it just feels more comfortable in public now. My dad remembered the KKK marching in parades in the 1920’s when he was a child, just before the Great Depression following a period of Anything Goes**. Why do you suppose it is necessary for some to feel that they are better than other humans? Perhaps it was needed to justify greed that enslaved people. Much of the science of racial differences arose in the 18th and 19th centuries. Greed is rampant in our world today as a chasm grows between the haves and the have nots and the middle-class shrinks.

God’s love for all his offspring is unconditional. What more proof of anyone’s worth is needed?

Lord, lift me up, and let me stand
By faith on Canaan’s tableland;
A higher plane than I have found,
  Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.***

Prayer: Lord, heal my soul so that I understand your love is enough for my self esteem. Amen.

*http://biblehub.com/greek/1096.htm**Anything Goes is a musical about the 1920‘s. Learn more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anything_Goes***Chorus from hymn, Higher Ground see at https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/396

All scriptures are quoted from the new Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.