Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life in your neighborhood so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.
1 Peter 2:11-12(The Message)
During the six weeks of Eastertide, my Sunday messages were based on 1 Peter, Peter’s letter to the believers scattered throughout Asia Minor, the region now known as Turkey.
In his first letter, Peter assured the Christians that even though they were being persecuted, tortured, and even killed by the Emperor Nero, they had to keep from becoming lethargic. They had to maintain their energy, so as not to become victims of heresy, worshiping the false Roman Gods.
I am not going to preach on 2 Peter, but I think it is important enough that each of us read it and study it on our own. Peter continues his message to the Christians of Asia Minor, alerting them to the dangers of wrong teaching and showing them how to stay true to the Word of God.
It’s summer. Now is a good time to lie down in your hammock, stretch out on an outdoor lounger, or just sit in a comfortable chair under a tree with a good book. For the purpose of following my suggestion in this letter, that good book would be the Bible.
While the information age we live in has its good points, there can be a downside too: information overload. How do we sort it all out? How do we tell what is important, or even true?? Peter is telling his readers, both past and present, to not be taken in by the errors of these false teachers, by the culture.
Christianity in the United States, and around the world, is being tested by the 21st century culture. We have seen it, even experienced it, in the last year or two as we made the decision to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church (UMC). The UMC and most other mainline denominations have acquiesced to society, in my opinion, with the hope of retaining members and perhaps even gaining more. Well, statistics show that their efforts may have been futile. Until the 1960s, more than half of Americans identified with the “Mainline” Protestant churches that “have played an outsized role in America’s history,” says a Sept. 13 report from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). “Mainline” denominations, the most prominent of which are known to sociologists as the “Seven Sisters,” share a doctrinal commitment to pluralism or liberalism that contrasts sharply with conservative and “evangelical” Protestant groups. In the Episcopal Church, there was a 6% drop in membership from 2021 to 2022, the worst ever, and that total is down 23% over the past decade. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) reported 1,424,479 members in 1970. The denomination recently reported a decline to the current 277,864 members, a 21% fall in just three years, with average attendance nationwide of 89,894. The Disciples are now smaller than many younger evangelical denominations. The United Church of Christ, which likewise lets congregations leave at will, suffered a similar pattern. In 1960, years after its formation by merger of two groups, it had 2,246,610 members. As of 2020 it reported 773,539, with a loss of 285,000 over the past decade. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is “dying.” Membership has plummeted fully 63% since 1984, from 3.1 million to 1.14 million, and annual losses have accelerated since 2012. The most dramatic losses at the moment, as covered by GetReligion, are in the United Methodist Church, currently experiencing what’s likely the biggest U.S. schism since the Civil War. 7631 churches left the denomination as of December 31, 2023, approximately 25%. Shrinkage in the other two “sisters,” the American Baptist Churches and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is less drastic. One theologian thinks the shrinkage may be aligned with the clergy of the mainline churches holding more liberal views, both theologically and politically, than their members. There are not specific statistics to affirm this, but it is food for thought.
So, in closing, I encourage you to go back and read 1 Peter and then read 2 Peter.
LeValley and Berlin Center Churches are committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, and the work of the Holy Spirit in conveying God’s truth and grace to all people. Let’s reflect this through our own study of God’s Word and our witness to the culture. But when the Day of God’s Judgment does come, it will be unannounced, like a thief. The sky will collapse with a thunderous bang, everything disintegrating in a raging inferno, earth and all its works exposed to the scrutiny of Judgment. Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life? Daily expect the Day of God, eager for its arrival. The galaxies will burn up and the elements melt down that day—but we’ll hardly notice. We’ll be looking the other way, ready for the promised new heavens and the promised new earth, all landscaped with righteousness.
2 Peter 3:10-13(The Message)
Love in Christ,
Pastor Nancy
