1 Peter 1:3 April 21, 2013

Sarah Whitley 1 Peter 1: 3

".. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

Today we read a word of hope from the letter written by the apostle Peter. One does not have to look very far to find someone who seems hopeless. There are people close to each one of us who have received devastating blows to their hearts and souls. These blows may have come in the form of the loss of a job, the foreclosure on a house, the death of a child, the suffering of a loved one, the loss of a marriage, and the list could go on and on. Yet, in all of these circumstances, God is with us. God is revealing himself to us if we but open our eyes and ears and see and hear his Good News. The Good News that Peter shares with us is that God has given us a new birth into a living hope. This hope is not something we can order up or even understand. This hope is beyond our ability to explain. It is one of the mysteries of our faith. Hope is not wishful thinking, but, like faith, it is the assurance that God is in control, doing something mysterious that we might not understand until we see it in hindsight. Peter tells us we have a living hope through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Frederick Buechner writes, "Here and there even in our world, and now and then, even in ourselves, we catch glimpses of a New Creation, which, fleeting as those glimpses are apt to be, give us hope both for this life and for whatever life may await us later on." Let us hang on to the promise of that living hope given to us through the resurrection that makes possible those fleeting glimpses of the New Creation. Even when all hope seems lost, God was at work ushering in the day of gladness, the New Creation in Christ our Lord.

Prayer: Almighty God, grant us the peace that passes understand­ing as we put our hope and trust in the promise of new birth and the New Creation. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.

edited for time specific material.