Skip to main content

Peculiar People

     But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (I Peter 2:9-10)

          In the King James Version, “God’s special possession” is translated as “a peculiar people.” I have to admit that I liked that notion. Like a lot of people, I would like to be special. Of course, it wouldn’t be enough to be different. If I had purple skin, I’d be different, but so what? Purple would only be skin deep. No, the difference needs to be something more significant. It needs to be a difference with a purpose, a connection, or, to be honest, a sense of superiority.

At the same time, I’ve never felt as if I fit in.  I was a Conservative in a Liberal city, a Protestant among Catholics, etc. Once, I drove into my driveway blaring Tchaikovsky’s Overture of 1812. My brother pulled in almost immediately behind me, and I don’t remember what his radio was blaring, but it was Rock. At one point, when I was trying to explain introversion to a coworker, she said, “You mean they could give you medication and you’d be normal?” These sorts of things happen with some regularity. Sometimes, they’re amusing. Sometimes, I wish I could be “normal.”

None of that fits what this passage is talking about. The whole point of the chosen people, the royal priesthood, and the holy nation is that there was nothing spectacular about them. They are not the focus. The priesthood isn’t perfect. It’s not made of special people. It’s made of people who are chosen, but not chosen because they deserve it. In fact, it might even be said they are chosen because they don’t deserve it, and they go on to prove they didn’t deserve it even if they try to live up to the standards set for priests. Priests are chosen because they’re normal, not special. If the NFL draft were like the selection of priests, I’d be a first-round pick. So would you.

So maybe it would be a good idea for us to start to learn what it means to be a priest.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more