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.
Life for the early Christian Believers was not easy. They were a persecuted minority, often mocked and misunderstood, and in the world’s eyes paying dearly for the faith that they shared. Many of them lived in communities where other religions thrived, and at times they must have struggled to believe that Jesus was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; the trappings of power and influence seemed to belong to those who believed and lived differently.
Just like the Hebrew slaves centuries before, they heard themselves described as God’s chosen people, yet had to live in submission to others, often in a society in which false rumours about them were able to abound. In such circumstances they might have been tempted to begin to believe differently; to allow those who would put them down to be those who dictated their identity.
Writers have powerful influence. If a story makes it to the front page of a newspaper, people begin to believe it, even though the fabrication and exaggeration that often generate such narratives is well-known. When a group of football fans died, the story that they were looters, trouble makers and the source if their own tragedy, did not struggle to take root, particularly amongst those whose purposes were suited by these deceptions.
We will often live within a narrative that others seek to impose on us. But the writer of Peter reminded his readers that whatever popular rumours might prevail, they were, in God's eyes, a people of real worth and value. Advent draws our attention back to what God says about us; strengthening us for the challenge of rising above the prejudices of our present age, to live as the people he has called us to be.
God of every people and nation, help me to see myself as you see me, to challenge those who speak wrongly of others, and to shun the prejudices of this world.
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