Life Together After COVID
Today is not only Father’s Day, but also the first official day of summer. Which brings hope to Minnesotans. And now, vaccination rates are high, and new infection rates are falling, and deaths due to COVID are falling, and it could be all too easy to lean into summer and have selective amnesia about the last 15 months, put this all behind us, and quickly fill up our schedules, as formerly suspended activities and events come back with a fury.
For many of us, this has been one of the strangest stretches of time in our lives. The rest of our lives, I suspect, we will refer to 2020 and what an unusual year it was. It’s easy now to look back on March and April of 2020 and just say “bizarre” and forget how frightening it was to many. These have not been easy times.
Three Words for Our Moment
As we come this morning to 1 Peter 4, I’m struck how well this passage speaks into our moment as a church. Before we move on too quickly back to life as normal, or to the new normal, it would do us all well to rehearse again the reality of a global pandemic. It’s not that our “normal” lives are normal, and a pandemic is unusual. Rather, for most of us in America, and in affluent society, the “normal” we go back to is actually not normal for the age in which we are living. Pandemics are normal; pandemics remind us of what’s actually going on in this sinful world. Sickness, disease, tragedy, death — in the words of Romans 8:35, “tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, danger, sword” — these are normal in this age, alongside God’s spectacular kindness and grace.
And 1 Peter has three important words for us as a church this morning for “life together after COVID” — about our times, about our supply of strength, and our calling together as a church. These are for any time and season, but especially pressing for us in these days as we seek to find our feet again on the other side of COVID.
1) We Know Our Times
Verse 7: “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.”
You might remember from last week what set the table in verses 1–6 for Peter to mention “the end of all things” in verse 7. With the coming of Christ, God’s focus on the nation of Israel has now expanded to all nations. Jesus is good news for all peoples, and calls all people to repentance. The time has come, Peter says in verse 3, to summon, and win, unbelievers out of their “sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.”
In Christ, we do not join them in their sin, and when we don’t, they are surprised and slander us. And he says in verse 5, “they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” Which will happen at the end. And the end, Peter says, “is at hand.” What does that mean? Was he predicting it would come soon, and he was wrong? Or was he saying it’s the next step in history, all has happened and it could be any time? Or something else?
We saw earlier in this letter, in 1:20, that Jesus “was made manifest in the last times for your sake.” The coming of Christ marked the beginning of the last times. And in 2 Peter 3:3, this same apostle warns, “scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing” — and by that he means, not future but now. Scoffers have already come; Peter is responding to them, here and in his second letter. Similarly, Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:1, “Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty” — and by that he means now. Times of difficulty are here; scoffers are here.
So, when Peter says “the end of all things is near” — I don’t believe he is predicting that Christ’s return will necessarily be soon, in terms of happening in the lifetime of his first readers. It’s not as much as “the curtain could fall at any time” as “we’re living in the final era”; the final curtain will fall in days like these; we are in the days of difficulty, the days of scoffers, the days of tribulation. And we may try to insolate ourselves from it with American wealth and medicine and modern technology, but we are living in the end times, the final era of world history, between the first coming of Christ and his return. Brothers and sisters, the end of all things is at hand. You are living in the last days.
It’s not that the inbreaking of COVID a year ago was a glimpse in what the end times will be like. Rather, it was an expression of what these last days are, which we’ve always lived in. A global pandemic, times of difficulty, the presence of scoffers, should remind us we are living in that final season of history and should stay on our guard, not forgot the message of the global plague as its effects subside.
So Peter says, “therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded.” This is the second of three important charges to his readers in this letter to be sober-minded. Or we might say, “Keep your head.”
This is a major charge to the church in trying times, and a major failure of many in the last year. Keeping your head in the last days means neither being induced into a spiritual coma by the world, nor does it mean such a hyper state of vigilance as to never rest.
In Jesus’s parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25, it’s not that five slept and other five did not. All ten went to sleep. Matthew 25:5: “As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.” The difference is that five were foolish and had no oil with them, while five were wise and “took flasks of oil with their lamps.” When the midnight cry came, “Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him,” five were ready with oil; the other five were not.
Jesus’s point? Verse 13: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” It’s not that we don’t sleep, or feast, or marry, or have children, or play baseball. But we sleep ready. We feast ready. We marry ready, have children ready, play baseball ready. One way to say it is that there are vacations and time off and sabbaticals in life, but in them all, Christ calls us to stay vigilant, to stay ready, to stay watchful, in our souls. For Christians, there are no vacations from Christ, time off from Christ, sabbaticals from Christ. He is our great joy. He is our strength. He is our rest. Which leads to the next phrase and the amazing place of prayer.
Peter says, “be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.” Literally, “for prayers.” In other words, Christian, in the craziness of these last days, keep your head for your prayers — because prayer, talking to God, matters that much. It is your life, to know him, enjoy him, talk to him, not be pulling slowly away from him or have your heart grow hard to him. Keep your head, so you don’t lose what’s most important: speaking with God in prayer.
Brothers and sisters, stand in awe of how much your prayers matter! In the life and health of our own souls, and in what a role the most modest of Christians plays in history through prayer! This is how much prayer is a part and blessing of the everyday Christian life, that it would be a reason here to keep your head in hard days.
So, first, Peter makes sure we know our times.
2) We Know Our Supply
Verses 10–11: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
Verse 11 holds a special place for me. As many of you know, God planted this church in 2015 out of the life of our mother church, Bethlehem Baptist. I was a member at Bethlehem for 12 years. And oh do I remember praying verse 11 again and again and again, and it never got old. How do you pray that God would be glorified in your life? Verse 11 is tailormade for pre-service prayer, and for whispering as prayer before stepping up to preach or pray, and for praying before Community Group arrives at the house, or before going out on the street for a service project. This was in the DNA of Bethlehem in those days, and I would love it to be in our DNA as a church. Whether what God is calling you to in the moment is word-ministry or deed-ministry. Let him who serves, in word or deed, do so in the strength that God supplies that in everything God might get the glory through Jesus Christ.
There is an amazing dynamic here: that we might serve in the strength of another. Not in our own strength, not to our own credit, but serving, doing, working, acting, and doing so in another’s strength, and not just any other’s strength, but God’s own strength. That God would be at work in our working. But how? How does God supply us with strength?
Well, first, we might say, God gives us strength through natural, visible means.
Psalm 104:14–15: He causes “the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.” God provides food.
And Psalm 127:6: God “gives to his beloved sleep.” God provides sleep.
So, let’s not assume, or discount, God’s natural, visible means of providing strength. But I don’t think that’s what’s in view here in 1 Peter 4:11 but what we might call “supernatural, invisible means.” So what would those be? Well, for one, his word:
Psalm 119:28: “My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!”
Have you ever paused to ponder the amazing power of words for putting strength into a person? This happens both naturally and supernaturally.
Anyone been to a kids baseball game recently? Have you noticed all the chatter? Coaches and parents and fans do their talking in football and basketball and hockey as well, but in baseball it’s especially pronounced. Because there’s no clock. There’s space between every play, between every pitch, for thinking and for words. And especially when you have kids playing the game, there seems to be this need with just about every pitch to supply strength. The pitcher needs to strength to keep throwing hard. The batter needs strength to stay in there and try to hit the ball and not just wish for a walk. The catcher needs strength to keep fighting pitch after pitch with all that gear on, and some balls going into the dirt. The infielders and outfielders need strength to stay focused and stay on their toes and be ready.
God made humans with this amazing ability to be empowered, strengthened, supplied, motivated, or discouraged by words. Human words, yes. And words from God.
Think of Jesus in the wilderness, and Jesus on the cross. How did he keep going? How did he keep fighting for faith? Where was his supply of strength, facing Satan face to face after 40 days of fasting, and giving his own life, in agony, to rescue his people from their own sin? It was not bread or sleep. God’s word was his supply.
When Satan tempted him with physical bread for strength, Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” He lived it in the wilderness and on the cross, as he quoted psalm after psalm to sustain his soul when his hour came.
So, the first way we’re supplied supernaturally with strength is God’s word. Another, then, is God’s Spirit. Word and Spirit belong together in the way God runs the world and supplies his people with supernatural strength. Over and over again, God’s word is power, and God’s Spirit is power (Luke 1:35; 4:14; Acts 1:8; 10:38; Romans 1:4; 15:13, 19; 1 Thessalonians 1:5; 2 Timothy 1:7). In Galatians 3:5, Paul says God “supplies the Spirit” through faith, and he prays in Ephesians 3:16 that God “grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” So, I take it that both God’s word and God’s Spirit have a critical part to play in the supernatural empowering of God’s people. Not word alone, or Spirit alone. But Spirit takes the word and gives it life in the soul, and the result is spiritual strength God supplies for words and deeds that glorify him. The Giver gets the glory.
But there’s one more component of supernatural strength. We might call this the “supernatural, incarnate means”: God’s Son. Peter says “through Jesus Christ.” The strength that God supplies comes not only through his word, and his Spirit, but also through his Son.
“Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 2:1:)
And this strength is not just through Jesus, but from him. He gives it:
“I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord” (1 Timothy 1:12)
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)
And it’s not just through Jesus, and from Jesus, but also mysteriously, we might even say it is the strength of Jesus, that he is able, as the risen, exalted, reigning Lord of the universe, and as the God-man, to supernaturally give to his people “his own strength” — which I say on the basis of Colossians 1:28–29. Paul writes, Him [Christ] we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
In your moments of tiredness and discouragement, pray for Christ’s own energy. Ask for supernatural strength to do what he’s calling you to do, for his glory.
So, Cities Church, oh what grace we have to make 1 Peter 4:11 a banner in our life together and various callings and giftings we have. Whether word or deed. Whether here in this one hour on Sunday mornings, or the other 167 hours of church life each week. Whether in serving each other or serving our neighbors. Not only do we have access to supernatural, divinely supplied strength, but the very energy of the God-man himself as we undertake endeavors in his name. Let him who serves serve in the strength that God supplies — through his word, by his Spirit, and in his Son — that in all things God may be glorified in Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever.
Let’s admit our need, pray for help, trust his word and act in the strength that he supplies, and then circle back to thank him for it.
So, in Christ, we know our times, we know our supply, and finally, we know our calling.
3) We Know Our Calling
Verse 8: “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”
Think of all we’ve seen in this letter about being sober-minded and holy and conducting ourselves properly in the world and submitting to God’s established order. And now: “Above all.” Above all the other counsel and commands and exhortations comes one. We might even say this one “binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:14).
Peter was there the night before Jesus died, when he said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35).
What a calling, and calling card, to love one another — and all the more when “the end is near” and people feel the tensions of difficult times and are at each other’s throats. The context for love is critical here. When Paul wrote his memorable words in 1 Corinthians 13 about love, he did so to a deeply divided church. Love was not just warm feelings but costly actions in conflicted relationships. And when Peter writes, “Above all keep loving one another earnestly,” it’s because there are challenges. Their love is being tried. People in the church have offended and hurt each other. That’s why Peter says, “for love covers a multitude of sins.” There are sins in the church, against each other, that need covering, that need forbearing.
Such love is always needed in the church to maintain peace, but as you know there are times when it is particularly needed. When there are tensions. When people have been offended and frustrated by each other. When the wisest way forward is not going back and revisiting all the details from the past and showing yourself to have been in the right, but learning when to overlook the sins and offenses of others.
God has been kind to spare our church any major blowups or divisions in the last 15 months. But as we move into life together after COVID, we do so in a world with conflict and division and suspicion and revenge all around us. And Peter’s word comes to us this morning: “Above all keep loving one another earnestly.” You have loved through tension and conflict. Now, don’t give in to the world’s pressure and patterns. Keep loving one another earnestly.
Strangers No More at the Table
As we come to the Table, we finish with verse 9? “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” Which is a word for Community Group leaders and hosts and the rest of us in this time with fresh opportunities before us this summer to be hospitable in this new maskless, socially proximate season. We have new opportunities to love tangibly through greeting each other at church and inviting each other into our homes.
It’s not easy to host. It’s not easy to open your doors, especially to “strangers,” people you don’t know all that well, whether fellow Christians or not. That’s what hospitality is: love for strangers.
The reason Peter says “without grumbling” is because that’s a real temptation. Let’s “acknowledge that those who open their homes may grow tired of the service” (Schreiner, 213). Don’t greet or host through gritted teeth. Don’t just be externally hospitable. Do it gladly, with joy, without grumbling.
The table is where we come as strangers and leave as friends. We meet at the table, in our homes. And we meet here together at the Table to share together in the body and blood of Christ. This is where strangers become brothers. And that’s our prayer now, as a church, for our life together after COVID: that strangers would become brothers. That strangers to Christ would come to him, and be brothers, through our witness. That those of us who once felt like family to each other, but now after all this distancing feel like strangers, that we could come again to be brothers. And that those of us who are in Christ, but are strangers to each other, would become family here at the Table week in and week out, and in our homes, over our tables, week in and week out.