“Now You Are the People of God”
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
Sunday, February 12, 2023
What does it mean to be the people of God? In our First Reading today (Exodus 19:1-8), we heard God’s own words to his Old Testament people, the Israelites. If you recall, that reading told us that it recorded what happened in the third month after the Israelites left Egypt. The people camped in the wilderness could remember what had happened. They knew exactly what God meant when he said, “you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” After centuries of those people and their ancestors living as slaves in Egypt, God worked amazing miracles. He brought plagues that caused their Egyptian slave masters to suffer. He convinced them to release the people. He even opened a pathway in the sea for them to walk through while the Egyptians who had changed their minds were pursuing them. And he caused that pathway to collapse and drown the enemies. His people were safe. His people were saved. His people were free. And the people, reminded of God’s work for them, responded to his instruction by saying, “Everything that the Lord has said, we will do.”
What did it mean for them to be the people of God? It meant that they had been rescued by God and that they would obey him.
That message is echoed in the words of Jesus in his famous sermon. We’re only spending a couple weeks on this sermon in our worship, so we won’t get through anywhere near all of it. But what we heard today was Jesus telling the people who were following him what it meant to be people of God. It meant that God had done the work of making them his people and that they were invited to share his love in the way they lived their lives. You are salt…go out and live in a way that preserves and enhances the world around you. You are light…go out and live in a way that breaks through darkness. Your righteousness should surpass even the people that most of your society consider the greatest.
That message is also echoed in the words of our sermon text today. The Holy Spirit moved Peter to write these words to Christians scattered throughout the area of modern-day Turkey many years ago, around 60 AD. These words reminded those Christians, who were facing suffering because of their faith, that they were God’s own people and that they should live as God’s own people. And his words apply directly to you and to me today. We do well to pay attention as he tells us, “Now You Are the People of God.”
So what does it mean for us to be the people of God? It means that God has made you to be his own. There are some pretty amazing pictures Peter uses as he by inspiration describes this truth. He calls us “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, the people who are God’s own possession.”
God chose you to be his own. Whenever Scripture invites us to think about this truth, it drives home the point that God made a choice before we did. He made a choice before we were born or conceived, or even considered. He made a choice before he even created the world that he would make you his own. He chose the Israelite. He chose the disciples and apostles. And you are here, and you are one of God’s people, because he chose you. And don’t even bother trying to figure out why. You hadn’t done anything good to make him want to choose you. In fact, until he chose you and changed you, you wouldn’t have done anything good at all. He chose you anyway, and that is why he did everything that needed to be done to make you his own.
God’s chosen people is also his royal priesthood. If we were to go back again to the time of our First Reading, to the mountain in the Wilderness of Sinai, we would hear God give his commandments. We would hear God direct his people to set aside his chosen priests. We would hear about the special privileges and responsibilities for the priests, who would go to God on behalf of the people and would offer sacrifices for them. God has now made you his priests. He has given you the privilege of coming to him in prayer and offering your praises. And not only have you entered into that priesthood, yours is also a royal priesthood. You are members of the family of the King. You have that close connection to the power and authority of the ruler. And there is more. You are a holy nation, set apart for God and made to be with him. You are, in fact, his very own possession.
Really, everything that God wanted his Old Testament Israelites to be, everything that we heard about in the First Reading, the kingdom of priests and holy nation—they never lived up to it. They couldn’t keep up their end of the covenant with God there at Mount Sinai. They could not be those things, not in the way that God wanted them to. But now you are those things. Now you are God’s people. The old way, the Mount Sinai way, used the word “if” a lot. “If you listen…if you keep my covenant…then you will be my special treasure.” But Peter doesn’t say “if” to you. He says, “At one time you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. At one time you were not shown mercy, but now you have been shown mercy.”
No one has ever deserved the opportunity to be the people of God. No one has ever earned the right. Adam and Eve were even made in the very image of God, but they were God’s holy people for only a short time before they sinned. The Israelites left Egypt after signs and wonders and powerful displays of God’s power and splendor, and before they even got to Mount Sinai they were grumbling and complaining. If you think that you are better equipped or better prepared or better qualified to be the people of God, why don’t you try to make out your resume? Try listing your qualifications. Try to explain away all the times that you have failed to live up to God’s Ten Commandments. Try to make a convincing case that you out of all the people in the world should belong to God.
And that take your piece of paper, take that resume, and crumple it up and throw it in the trash. And then marvel at the fact that God writes to you what he does through the pen of St. Peter. “[N]ow you have been shown mercy.” “[N]ow you are the people of God.” “[He] called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Another resume was placed on the desk, so to speak, of God our heavenly Father. That one belonged to Jesus. Not a mark on it. Not a misstep or a false move. From the time he was conceived to the moment of his last breath he loved God perfectly and he loved his neighbor perfectly. And God didn’t just accept the resume of Jesus, he accepted it for you. Jesus made a trade and took all of the dark black marks of sin from your resume, and he took the blame. He took the fall. He suffered for it and died. He defeated sin and death and hell. He rose again. And that is how you know that God accepted what he did for you. That is how and why God says to you, “Now you are the people of God.”
And nothing is going to change that truth, but that truth changes everything about you. Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world.” And so he says that you should let your light shine and you should allow your good deeds to be seen by others. And Peter echoes those thoughts when he says you are meant to declare the praises of him who called you into his marvelous light. You are…so be. You are the people of God, so go into the world and be people of God.
Peter warns us: we all have a sinful flesh. The desires of our flesh wage war against our souls. In this world that remains a dark world, we face temptation not just out there around us but also right here within our own hearts. But when he made you his people, God equipped you with everything you need. When he baptized you, he washed your sins away and gave you a new life and a new heart that beats for him and his holy will. To this day he strengthens your faith through his Word. He feeds you with Christ’s body and blood. He repeatedly reminds you that you are his.
Don’t try to dig out that old, crumpled, ratty resume. Don’t start thinking for even a moment that now you’ve added enough good to overcome the evil of your past. What does it mean to be the people of God? It means that you know that you could not have made that happen, God did. Rely on him and live for him. Live in a way that even the people who call evil good and good evil and slander you because of it will have to come to the conclusion that your deeds are noble. They will ultimately glorify God.
God’s people once gathered around Mount Sinai. Now they gather around his Word and sacraments. God’s people once crowded on a mountainside to hear the Savior’s Sermon in person. Now they hear it through the pages of Scripture. God’s people once received a letter from the Apostle Peter even though they were scattered around Roman provinces. Now they read the same letter scattered around the face of the whole earth. And what does it say to all who believe in Jesus their Savior? It says, “Now you are the people of God.”
The Text: 1 Peter 2:9–12 (EHV)
9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, the people who are God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10At one time you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. At one time you were not shown mercy, but now you have been shown mercy.
11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and temporary residents in the world, to abstain from the desires of the sinful flesh, which war against your soul. 12Live an honorable life among the Gentiles so that even though they slander you as evildoers, when they observe your noble deeds, they may glorify God on the day he visits us.