Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous…
Patriotism begins at home and the home I refer to is the Oikos, the House of God, the Family of Christ’s Church, whose citizenship is in Heaven. That is the greater patriotism whose object of affection and loyalty is Christ our God and King. There is a lesser patriotism that is appropriate. It is the affection and loyalty owed to our earthly commonwealth. The way we express our loyalty is through obedience to her laws, but especially by distinguishing between the greater and the lesser knowing that our duty to the lesser is most perfectly know through our love and loyalty to the greater, to Christ. By this action we may also present to our earthly commonwealth an example of true and permanent community.
When Christ ascended to his Father, he made two promises that loom large: the Father would send the gift of the Holy Spirit and Christ will return for us. For us! Now count ten days from his ascension! His disciples were together in a rented room in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit fell upon them. They were regenerated, filled with the Holy Spirit and immediately began preaching the Gospel of the Resurrection.
Jerusalem was filled with Jews celebrating Pentecost and many of them were converted to Jesus, were baptized, and they carried the message of Christ back to their hometowns. Little communities of disciples sprang up all over the world. It is estimated that there were close to 40,000 Christians by the time Peter’s first epistle was delivered by Silvanus – which was probably about 30 years after the Resurrection. Some parishes grew while other fell apart. Stresses from within and from without gain momentum as the original leaders, the Apostles and their immediate successors, were hunted down and killed.
Hermas was a Christian businessman writing from Rome around 95. He was arrested for being a Christian. He wrote a book titled, The Shepherd. His business, which had something to do with oil and wine, was seized. But more than the external threat, he worried over the internal stresses. Many Roman Christians, and there were not that many, were so enamored with business and making money they didn’t go to Church on Sundays like they should. They didn’t care for the poor. They were ambitious and they envied the success of others. And, militating against the cohesion of the community, their emotions ran wild and they vented their anger toward fellow believers! He worried the community would go up in flames.
Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous…
In the epistle for today Peter exhorts the disciples in these parishes scattered all over Asia Minor to conduct themselves honorably within and without the Christian community. He too is concerned that cohesion of the community would not hold.
Finally, all of you…
Peter addresses the whole community listing five imperatives that describe honorable conduct within the Church of God. This behavior is absolutely necessary for the internal cohesion – the pulling together of the Christian community.
The first imperative is “like-mindedness.” Our text has it translated, “be of one mind.” This exact term occurs nowhere else in the Bible, but Paul frequently uses an equivalent expression. That “like-mindedness” is ultimately to be found in our loyalty to Jesus and our intentional appropriation of his way of life. Paul exhorted the Philippians to “have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” As we shall see “like-mindedness” is not empty-mindedness. This like-mindedness is to be marked by the remaining four imperatives. All virtues embodied in the life of our Lord.
So, Peter writes that we all should be like-minded in that we all have“compassion one of another.”The word here is “sympathies.”It means pretty much what our word “compassion” literally means – “to suffer with, to feel with” your brother or sister in Christ – “to feel with.” This is close to the language we saw John using a couple of weeks back when he referred to feeling something in the “inward parts of a man.” We might say, “I feel it in my gut.” John was referring to a situation where a Christian not only turns his back, but he also shuts off feelings of compassion for a needy brother or sister. What John stated negatively, Peter is stating positively. “Have deep feelings of compassion for one another. Passover to one-another’s points-of-view. Feel one another’s pain. Feel one another’s joy.” Nurture these feelings.
Peter next describes single-minded Christians as those who “love as brethren — as siblings.”The word used here is “philadelphoi.” We are probably at the very heart of Peter’s exhortation. “Love” is the greatest of all the gifts, according to St. Paul.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
It is true that Paul is speaking of love for God here, but as I have said before, the overflow of our love for God is love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Love is the sum of it all. Again, surprising to me, this word actually denotes an emotional attachment and commitment to one another — not only behavior. It is all of this: emotional attachment, felt commitment to one another that issues in loving behavior toward one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Our family is the Family of God. Our home is the Oikos, the Household of God. This brotherhood and sisterhood among us is by virtue of our Baptism into Christ. In this case, Christ and the Apostles would insist that “water is thicker than blood!” Our spiritual kinship is based upon the fact that we have the same Father as Jesus Christ – who is our elder brother. We should follow his example in love. The fact that Christians regarded one another as brothers and sisters did not go unnoticed by outsiders. Lucian of Samosata a satirist wrote a play around the 125 AD titled The Passing of Peregrinus in which the lead character takes advantage of the generosity and gullibility of Christians. The reputation of Christians for love was already common currency in Antiquity. Lucian could use Christianity as a foil and everyone got the joke. He lampoons Christians whose “first lawgiver persuaded them that they are all brothers to one another.” Christian love was a mark of distinction even for pagans. Centuries after Peter’s epistle, Christians were rounded up to die in the arena and the crowds would shout, “Look how these Christians love one another!” Christian love was public knowledge and it certainly drew outsiders to faith in Christ.
Next, I want to handle the last two adjectives together. The first is similar to “compassion,” but the way it is used here is more of disposition than a response. “Compassion” is feeling with a brother or sister – a response. The translation we have here is “pity” while others translate it as being “tenderhearted” toward one other. The idea is that we are already pre-disposed with tenderheartedness to one another. It is a wonderful word and paired with the first reference to “compassion” we see just how important the “feeling life” of the parish church was to the Apostles. Feelings were not dismissed or belittled. Our emotional life is part of our humanity, just as it is part of our Lord’s incarnation. He felt deep sadness and grief over the death of his friend Lazarus. And he was tenderhearted toward Mary Magdalene and even the thief beside whom he was dying. Be tenderhearted to one another.
Finally we get Peter’s last word describing “single-mindedness” within the community:
Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous…
“Courteous” is a very poor translation. The word is “humility.” “Be ye all humble minded toward one another,” is much better. Remember what I said about humility a few weeks back? The Greco-Roman world radically opposed Christian humility. In the highly aggressive and socially stratified world of Roman antiquity, only the degraded and dishonored person was “humble.” The weak and shameful were incapable of defending their honor. “Humility” was a character flaw revealing self-contempt and for that matter contempt for proper social order. From the point-of-view of their neighbors in the world, Christians were downright subversive.
But for Christians they were following in the footsteps of Jesus whom they love. All these imperatives were descriptive of how they conducted themselves within the Household of God. They deeply loved one another and they were committed to one another far beyond anything that made sense to their pagan neighbors. One could feel the solidarity and cohesion that bound their lives together as the Family of God. It is your duty as children of God to consciously and intentionally live these imperatives – individually and as a community. It is your duty to curb your feelings of envy and to control your tongue. No one is entitled to blast another Christian with anger. There’s enough of that in the world. Rein in your feelings. Protect your brothers and sisters in Christ. Be tenderhearted toward one another. Learn to cherish our cohesion and solidarity with one another. By doing so we may be a living icon of true community and love to our lesser commonwealth and thus live as true patriots. Let us define true liberty in this parish, as we do in Morning Prayer, knowing that our worship of God is perfect freedom. Thus this little parish may be a shelter from the storm for you and your family, a haven of peace and blessedness.
Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, and be humble-minded toward one another…