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"The Former Nobodies are God’s Somebodies"
I Peter 2:1-10
A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
April 28, 2002
University Baptist Church
Minneapolis, MN
If this scripture is not a prescription for the people called the church, then I don’t know what is.
We know the first letter of Peter is addressed to many churches, not just one particular congregation. But the call is the same. Peter wanted churches to believe in themselves – to see themselves as a force with which to be reckoned. Back then, churches were not great institutions in the mainstream of society. They did not have big buildings or any kind of standing in the community. They were house churches on the fringes of society, trying to do their mission in spite of the world around them. Not only that, but members of a church were looked on as oddballs. Church members were seen as nobodies.
Mike Regele in his book, The Death of the Church indicates that from the time of Constantine in the fourth century until very recently, the Christian Church was identified with the empire. It became a church very different than the Biblical model. The church supported the empire and gave holy sanction to its leadership. The early church would have never had a Roman flag in its place of worship, but it is common in most churches to have a US flag in their sanctuaries. In this empire era, people went to church for status and to garner influence in addition to meeting their spiritual needs. The empire listened to the church and the church backed the empire.
These days, the empire is using the church once again to give its support of war, consumerism and in some cases injustice. But not everyone is buying it. In this postmodern age where there are competing views of reality the peacemaking church, the welcoming and affirming church is once again on the fringes. The empire is calling us nobodies. We get scoffed at, told by church growth gurus that we need to embrace the culture in order to grow. What that means is that we need to embrace conservative evangelism and blind patriotism as our only hope. It’s hard to keep the faith in such a narrow box. That is unless, we are convinced that God is on our sides. I Peter says, "the former nobodies are God’s somebodies."
The most important aspect of our ministry ought to be a unifying principle for all Christian churches. It is to make sure that the former nobodies are recognized as God’s somebodies. That means welcoming and advocating on behalf of the outcasts and also to have the outcasts recognize that God loves and values them. That ministry in and of itself sadly makes this church an outcast church. The empire either persecutes or ignores the outcast and the church has too often followed suit.
There are a whole lot of people who have been told they are nobodies by their families, by those in their workplace, by their so-called friends and even by the church. But our distinctive voice needs to say again, the former nobodies are God’s somebodies.
Look again at the 10th verse of I Peter 2. The Revised Standard Version says, "Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy."
Again, I like the translation Clarence Jordan gives us: "The former nobodies are now God’s somebodies; the outcasts are now included in the family."
This renegade Baptist Church is full of outcasts. But we are not outcasts who wallow in our collective despair. We are outcasts who have often chosen to be outcasts so that we can love the outcasts. We are people who have received the mercy of God. Alone, we were no people, we had no community under God, but in this community, we see God’s face shining bright and God saying to all of us, Welcome home. You are somebody here. Don’t ever let anyone convince you that you are a nobody.
The former nobodies are God’s somebodies.
Peter says, "Come to him, to the living stone, rejected by people but in God’s sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ." It used to be that only the priests could offer sacrifices and offerings in the temple. But Peter says, we don’t need to wait around for a priest to do our work as God’s disciples.
We can all make spiritual sacrifices. We believe in the Baptist tenet that comes from this very scripture--all believers are priests. We all have ministry and work to do. We all have direct access to God and we are all responsible to God.
Since nobody is a nobody here, we all have ministry to do. We all have gifts to share.
Susie, Tyler, William as well as Michael and Drew have all begun to explore their ministries. They have all been meeting with mentors. You five have taken seriously your ministry and proved it on Youth Sunday last week when you gave us a dramatic and powerful worship experience. I can’t wait to see what you do next. I hope you know that you are somebodies in the eyes of this church and in the eyes of God.
And today, Susie, Tyler and William have chosen to formalize their commitments through public confession of faith and the rite of believer’s baptism.
Janet Wolf, an inner-city pastor tells a story of Ricky, a person not much older than the three of you who was part of the drug underworld. He used to walk in the ways of violence. But he learned of Jesus’ ways and realized that those ways could ultimately save him and others. He realized that God could give him the power to resist all of the evil and injustice and temptation in the world. He renounced his sins and trusted on God to show him the grace he needed to live in a new way. To symbolize this transformation, he got baptized. And he took his new life seriously. He got a job and stopped dealing drugs and tried to live as a new person.
But the power of his past life reared its ugly head. He opened his apartment door one day to find one of his buddies there with a gun. He told Ricky that one of his former gang brothers had killed someone, a rival dealer. The person said "you are his alibi. You go to court and tell the judge and jury that the person could not have killed the other dealer, because he was with you." The Ricky replied, "I can’t do it, I’ve been baptized." The man with the gun said "you mean you would rather risk your own death than to lie on the witness stand like so many others have done for you?" Ricky replied, "I have to. I’ve been baptized, I’ve been baptized. There’s no turning back." The man with the gun walked out of the apartment with his gun in his hand shaking his head, "I’ve been baptized, he says."
It’s amazing what can happen when we set the spirit free in those who have been baptized. You have taken a huge step toward God and the world had better watch out. There are people here who have the Spirit of God upon them. And I’m not talking just about you three. I’m talking about all of us who remember our own baptismal vows or who look forward to taking them one day in the future.
We all have that same power to walk in the ways of discipleship.
We all have that same Spirit of God alighting on our shoulders.
We all have that same power which comes from God alone and is nurtured by God’s community.
We are powerful, committed people who look at the world and respond to the world in a different way.
The apostle Paul tells us to not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of our minds.
Hear these words of Peter as he calls churches to live transformed lives: "…put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander." Or as Clarence Jordan says it, "Sweep you house clean of all meanness and fibbing and double-dealing and green-eyedness and all cattiness."
They are saying, look at the most important things. Deal with the important things first, and everything else will follow, or at least they will be in proportion. The important thing is reminding people that the former nobodies are God’s somebodies.
Think of the people who think they’re nobodies. Might you have a way to let them know by word or deed that they are God’s somebodies?
Peter goes on to say, "Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation, for you have tasted the kindness of God."
Oh, to have the mind and the innocence of a child before being corrupted by the complications and the trauma of this world.
One of the images of Baptism is that we are reemerging from the womb, what some people call being born again. We have all of the expectation, all of the power, all of the innocence and all of the need of newborn children. Only we come into that rebirth as adults, as believers, as people who know the way to live and love. That is a powerful witness.
We are called to drink of the spiritual milk of the gospel and to be transformed by it. Living in radical departure from the rest of society.
That means for us to live in right relationship with one another. That means for us to lovingly challenge each other when it is necessary. And it is necessary from time to time. That also means doing your ministry, whatever that is. It means taking care of the important things first. Newborns have it right, they need milk, someone to wash them and someone to love them. Everything else follows. A newborn that has all of this is treated as a somebody. That’s the way God looks at each one of us. We are as newborns hungry for affection and nourishment. A Christian community in right relationship offers that.
The great philosopher said, "I think, therefore I am"
It was a notion that to exist as a human is to think. Well, I like to think that to be a Christian takes more than just thinking.
They will know we are Christians by our love, right?
Couldn’t we be so bold to say I am a Christian, therefore, I love?
I’ve been baptized; therefore I no longer will walk in the ways of evil.
I’ve been baptized; therefore I will no longer take things at face value.
I’ve been baptized; therefore I will look for and witness to the breakthrough of God in this sin-sick world.
I’ve been baptized; therefore I live in loving relationship with my fellow human beings and with the earth.
I’ve been baptized and I will no longer call anyone a nobody because we are all God’s somebodies, even my enemies.
And isn’t that what this whole scripture is saying? We are no longer nobodies. We are God’s people. We are somebody. People know this and can see it by our love. By how we put away all that holds us back from loving ourselves and one another.
We drink the spiritual milk of babies which is an unconditional love.
You see, we are no longer just people who walk the streets dazed and confused about our future or the state of the world. We are now God’s people.
We are now the living example of Christ in this world.
We are now the light to a world which seems to be in the bleakness of doubt. We are a beacon on the horizon showing ships where to travel. We are not alone. The church is here with us. God is with us—giving us mercy, love, hope and fortitude. God is with us as our firm foundation. We are no longer nobodies, but now we are somebodies in God’s eyes.
Don’t forget that.
Witness to the newness, which God creates in you.
Welcome the outcast, including that part of yourself that you might have had cast out of you.
Remember that you are loved and precious in God’s sight and in the sight of this community.
What is the vision of God’s church?
That the former nobodies are now God’s somebodies.
The outcasts are now included in the family.
Thank God.
And we have the power because of the waters of Baptism, to look at, commit to and be the new creation, because God is as active as that Holy Spirit alighting on each of us.
We all have the power of God lifting us up and setting us on the right path.
We and the world, will never be the same again.
May it be so.
Amen.