Don Friesen
My introduction to this sermon may have little to do with the sermon itself. While studying the 1 Peter passage I was distracted by verse 19, which tells us that Christ "went and preached to the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:19, RSV) an obscure reference but one which caught the imagination of the Church in its infancy and is reflected in the Apostles' Creed, in the phrase, "he descended into hell". It's the most controversial phrase in the Apostles' Creed, prompting nineteenth-century Methodists to remove it from the creed and the compilers of our own hymnal to use a translation that softens it to read, "he descended to the dead".
This portion of 1 Peter is a confusing passage with an uncertain meaning, but that did not keep the first Christians from developing a notion that became known as the "harrowing of hell," the idea that between Jesus' death and resurrection while his body lay sealed in the tomb Jesus' spirit visited the world of the dead and brought the souls of the righteous into paradise. While there are a few other biblical passages (Psalm 16:10; 24:7-10; John 5:25; Ephesians 4:8-10) that might support this idea, it received its most colourful support from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, in which the two sons of Simeon tell how a bright light intruded into the darkness of hell, terrifying the evil spirits there but causing the righteous imprisoned there to rejoice!
The word, "harrow," is derived from a military term meaning "to make predatory raids or incursions." So it appears that Jesus, having three days of down-time between his death and resurrection, decided to raid hell for any deserving souls lingering there! A fascinating idea!
Left Alone!
A fascinating idea except that it fell into disrepute after a few centuries, raises no end of interpretive problems for biblical scholars, and appears to have little to do with the rest of the 1 Peter passage. The only literal link may be that after Jesus' death the disciples felt as if they had been through a harrowing experience!
Just before Jesus' ascension, which we celebrate this week, he told his disciples, "I will not leave you orphaned" (John 14:18) a good indication of how they felt about their situation. Other translations of this phrase read:
Left Alone in a Hostile World!
Old Testament lamentations and the bereft-ness felt by the disciples resonated with the Church to which Peter addressed his epistle. It resonated with them because, as I mentioned several weeks ago, these were Christians trying to remain faithful believers and a faithful church during the time of Nero. Nero was a Roman emperor. He was also a crazy man! He killed his mother, but only on the third try! Some say he killed his wife, who also happened to be his step-sister! He fed some Christians to lions, others to dogs! He entertaining himself by dipping Christians in oil and then setting them on fire! Many of them were burned to death at night, serving as "outdoor lights" in Nero's gardens, while Nero mingled among the watching crowds.
Nero reputedly set Rome on fire! Whether he did or not, he blamed the fire on the Christians! The fire completely destroyed four of fourteen Roman districts and severely damaged seven, and rumours held Nero responsible, but Tacitus (56-117), a senator and an historian of the period, wrote: "...to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on (the) ...hated ...Christians.... Accordingly, an arrest was ...made ...then... an immense multitude was convicted.... Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination...."
According to another prominent Roman historian (Suetonius, 69/75-130) of the period, Nero "showed neither discrimination nor moderation in putting to death whomsoever he pleased". Early Christian tradition also holds Nero responsible for the deaths of the Apostles Peter and Paul. The persecution was so bad that some of the early Christians believed Nero to be the Antichrist!
It could well be that the phrase about Christ's descent into hell was a comfort to these beleaguered believers. Christ's "harrowing of hell" may be of dubious biblical origin, but it certainly caught the imagination of writers and artists, a Byzantine rendering, called the "Anastasis," showing Christ reaching out to a crowd of saints while trampling the devil underfoot and planting the standard of the cross in hell! There are many art pieces depicting Christ storming or invading Hades, and a writer from the tenth century features a complaint by Satan that Christ has unfairly deprived him of guilty souls! (David Jeffrey, Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature, 1992, page 332)
It may well be that the thought of Christ's descent into hell was a comfort to the beleaguered believers Peter is addressing. It conveyed to them that no place is off limits to Christ's presence. No place, no experience, no darkness, no painful situation is off limits to the comforting and courage-taking presence of Christ! It is as the psalmist phrased it, "If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol [or hell, KJV], you are there." (Psalms 139:8) Nothing no place is off limits to Christ's gracious presence. Christ will leave no hell un-harrowed, for he is a relentlessly-seeking Saviour who, as the poet Francis Thompson (1859-1907) phrased so wonderfully, "wist to pursue" us. ("Hound of Heaven")
Maintaining Civility in a World Lacking Therein
Jesus' first disciples felt abandoned after he ascended into heaven. Left alone! Those to whom Peter wrote his letter also felt alone left alone in a hostile world! Rome dealt harshly with Christians, and they struggled with what a Christian response to an inhospitable environment should be. How does one respond to brutal and demeaning treatment? Does one try to placate those in power, fitting in as best as one can so as not to draw attention to oneself? Is an ingratiating witness a faithful Christian witness? Or is it better to go on the offensive and attempt a pugnacious Christian witness? Christian combativeness, if you will. Well, in Peter's context that would last about as long as it took Nero to ship in another truckload of lions! Or how about a conniving response? A Christian fifth-column, if you will. Or should one respond with detached equanimity? It's difficult, however, to remain cool and detached when Nero is sizing you up as a possible light fixture for his garden!
How does one respond to hostile people in an inhospitable environment? The Apostle Peter knew how Christians would be tempted to respond, and so he laced his letter with warnings: "Rid yourselves, therefore," he writes, "of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander." (1 Peter 2:1) Wouldn't at least some of these verbal and relational tools come in handy when dealing with tyrants? A little strategic slander might be well-deserved in some cases! Your opponent might think twice about treating you like a dog! Who knows, perhaps the Antichrist label was affixed to Nero by some Christian who had was beaten once too often! "Rid yourselves," writes Peter, "Rid yourselves of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander." (1 Peter 2:1) "Be obedient to God, and do not allow your lives to be shaped by those desires you had when you were still ignorant." (1 Peter 1:14, TEV)
Ignorance, however, has not kept people from responding to their tormentors in kind. The pages of history are filled with stories of people, including Christians, who took short-sighted shortcuts. The founders of Harvard, for example, wanted to prepare their students to shape the values of the new commonwealth, only not everyone climbed about the group-think wagon! They banished the dissenters to what they called the "cesspool of New England," in Rhode Island, whipping and hanging some Quakers along the way. Unwilling to sort through this in a civil manner, Harvard eventually solved the problem by discarding the explicitly religious basis of its school altogether! Some are realizing the barrenness of this approach and are trying to reinstate moral values in the curriculum, but without reference to the spiritual traditions that have nourished them over millennia. As Harvey Cox points out, "Without roots, disembodied values' become mere preferences and eventually dissolve into the ether." (Harvey Cox, "Warring Visions of the Religious Right," The Atlantic, November, 1995)
It's tempting, when met with resistance, to resist doubly to respond in kind, to fight evil with evil, curse with curse, lies with bolder lies! Avoid the temptation to act that way, says Peter. He suggests another way: "Conduct yourselves honourably," he writes, "so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honourable deeds and glorify God...." (1 Peter 2:12)
In our reading from 1 Peter, he suggests the following: "Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear...." (1 Peter 3:14-16) Respond to your tormentors "with gentleness and reverence," or as another translation phrases it, "with gentleness and respect". (NIV) "Do it courteously and respectfully" (AMP), says another translation. A Christian civility, if you will.
Civility, Respect, and Gentleness
Some long for Christians to interact with each other with civility Christian civility or any other kind! They say that it's time for Christians to move beyond the squabbles and struggles that characterize much of their interaction and move to the higher ground of Christian civility. (Russell Dilday, Higher Ground: A Call for Christian Civility, 2007) Civility, however, doesn't sound that compelling to me. A colleague (Ghenette Houston) described it as "unenthusiastic friendliness". It sounds wimpy! And as for Christians, Martin Marty, for years the editor of the Christian Century, observed that people who are civil often don't have very strong convictions, and that people who have strong convictions are often not very civil. What we need, Marty suggested, is a convicted civility. (Richard J. Mouw, "An Open-Handed Gospel," Christianity Today, April, 2008)
Civility is often called for in election campaigns because of the uncivil discourse that emerges when the stakes are high. I have been at civic meetings in my neighbourhood that were not civil at all. A call to civility may improve congregational life immensely in those congregations that suffer casualties from "friendly fire," but I would hope that Christian interaction could be warmer than civility suggests. Nonetheless, it's astounding advice in the hostile world to which Peter wrote his letter.
We've all experienced incivility of some degree. A store clerk is curt with you. A driver cuts you off. The leader of a discussion torpedoes any perspectives other than his or her own. Classmates tease and ridicule, on and off the schoolyard. One's teenage years can be hell, but the angst of my own teenage years was augmented by a severe case of acne. For a teenager that is a descent into hell! It makes one an automatic target for teasing. My acne was so severe that my mother referred to me as her rusted-out kid. I like to think that she said it in an affectionate manner, but it's hard not to be self-conscious about it at that age and civility was not always my first response to ridicule!
Maya Angelou tells a touching story of her mother, who began crooning spirituals rather than respond in kind to the taunts and offensive behaviour of the white youngsters teasing her. (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969) Being civil in an uncivil world is difficult, but it's hardly a wimpy response. It allows one's enemy or opponent whatever the level of his or her hostility the freedom to make choices untainted by our own hostility. Others may not make the same choices we make, and we may not agree with their choices, but we cannot begrudge them their choices.
Christian civility also maintains a respect for those who would tempt us to be uncivil. At the heart of civility is a fundamental respect for others, making us willing to listen to them, and to reach out to them. Our reading from the book of Acts shows the Apostle Paul in unfamiliar territory. It's Paul addressing the leading intellectuals of Athens at the Areopagus, the most prestigious council of elders in the history of Athens. Paul did not encounter hostility, but he was certainly ridiculed by these cultural icons, dismissed as a "babbler" (Acts 17:18, RSV), a trifler. Paul is a model for discourse in an inhospitable climate, in the sense that he was boldly challenging, but without showing disrespect for the views, habits of thought, and attitudes of those he was addressing.
Paul instructed his young colleague, Timothy, to "reprove, rebuke, and exhort" (2 Timothy 4:2, KJV), but he also advised Timothy to do so "with the utmost patience". Paul and Peter weren't just making up some arbitrary and vague rules of polite civility; their model was Jesus. Earlier in his epistle, Peter tells us that Christ left us an example to follow in this respect (1 Peter 2:21), telling us that "when (Jesus) was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten...." (2:23) The New Testament instructs us to "bless those who persecute (us); bless... do not curse them." (Romans 12:14) "Never pay back evil for evil." (12:17, NEB) "Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. ... if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink.... Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (12:17-18, 20-21, RSV) Furthermore, the Scriptures tell us "to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarrelling, to be gentle, and to show every courtesy to everyone." (Titus 3:2)
May our prayer for civility, respect, and gentleness be the prayer of the poet who wrote:
When gales and storms Thy love doth send
(Hannah Hurnard, Mountains of Spices," page 121)
"I will not leave you desolate" (RSV)
"I will not leave you orphans...." (JER) The Greek word (orphanos) used indicates that Jesus recognized the sorrow and feelings of abandonment his imminent departure evoked in his disciples. They would be left alone! They were astute enough to realize that persecution was not about to disappear, but to endure it without the comfort and strength of Jesus' presence made them feel forlorn, bereft, and very alone. Their experience and Jesus' words echoed the Old Testament experience captured in the exilic expressions of abandonment and lament. The Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lamentations 5), for example, give intense expression to the abandonment felt by Israel at a very dark time in its history. They are described, among other things, as orphans, because their fathers were killed in battle or carried off into exile, and left alone they became easy prey for all manner of hellish characters.
"I will not leave you comfortless (KJV)
"I will not abandon you" (LB)
"I will not leave you forlorn" (Barclay)
"I will not leave you bereft" (NEB)
(Dear God,)
Thy gentleness hath made me great,
And I would gentle be.
Tis Love that plans my lot, not Fate,
Lord, teach this grace to me.
That I with joy may meekly bend.
Thy servants must not strive nor fight,
But as their Master be,
Tis meekness wins, not force nor might,
Lord, teach this grace to me.
Quotations of Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.