1 Peter 1:3-4
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
April 12, 2026
Easter at Covenant last Sunday was an all-out joy!
Though this Sunday we have fewer people, flowers and guest musicians, the Bible tells us we’re supposed to have the same foundational joy – today and every day.
When Paul listed the different aspects of “the fruit of the Spirit”, he put “joy” in second place, preceded only by “love”. And when Jesus spoke to His disciples just before His execution, He promised those men who’d soon be persecuted and executed themselves that they’d soon “rejoice” with a joy that no one could take from them. Jesus also prayed that, even under hardship, they’d have “the full measure” of His joy within them.
Those words of Jesus must have been on Paul’s mind when he gave what sounds like an impossible command: “Rejoice in suffering!” That’s a command I struggle to fulfill! For, in order to maintain my gladness of heart, I depend a lot on my physical health, achieving my goals and being in harmonious relationships. Yet, Jesus promised a joy that is independent of circumstances!
How can I grow in my capacity to keep Paul’s command to “rejoice in suffering”? By growing in my capacity to keep another of Paul’s commands: “Rejoice in hope!” The Apostle Peter saw the connection between those two commands as clearly as Paul did. I guess I do as well. For as much as I struggle to rejoice in suffering, I struggle to rejoice in hope. The struggle is written into my DNA, as I was raised to avoid hope because, I was told, it only sets one up for disappointment.
In today’s scripture Peter is writing to people who are undergoing severe persecution. He begins his letter by blessing God for having blessed them with “a living hope”: a hope that the initial gifts God has already given cannot be lost and that even better gifts are yet to come.
Let us reflect phrase by phrase on two verses in Peter’s letter.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! The blessing of a living hope is buttressed by an appreciation of the loving, close relationship between God the Creator and God the Savior. Peter reminds his readers that they work in concert. In a unity of power and purpose, they make sure every promise is realized at last. There’s no stopping God!
By His great mercy! The blessing of a living hope is obtained – not by human effort, achievement or merit – but entirely by God’s compassion, kindness and grace. His mercy is the surest foundation there is on which to build a life abounding with consolation and anticipation.
He has given us a new birth! The blessing comes, not by our agency any more than our first birth came by our agency. God did it all in bringing us into this world by means of mothers who provided us helpless babies protection and food despite our howling in protest when they pushed us out into the open air. So too God did it all in bringing us into a new life in Christ by means of the Spirit who gives birth to new character and conduct!
Into a living hope! God gives us an eager and excited expectancy that is more than just wishful thinking. He embeds His promises into our head and heart, and injects into our faith-generated anticipation some of the vigor and vitality of His own Spirit. That makes our hope, not merely a form of human positivity, but a steadfast believing in God’s reliability in fulfilling His word with generosity. He gives us the faith that gives us the courage to act on the daring conviction that, despite the dangers encountered thereby, pursuing the dreams God instills justifies our taking the risks and our paying the costs it involves.
Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! We truly count on God’s promises when we bank on the reality of a historical event that we believe was of cosmic significance. We have “living hope” when we depend on its being the case that Jesus came back to life in a humanly impossible happening. If Jesus really did resurrect, then could anything be out of the question for God? Why, He might bring us into both a living hope…
And into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you! God not only preserves the faithful in the present but also reserves them a blessed place in the future, one wherein they’ll receive their entire inheritance of grace, a gift of infinite and eternal value. We who are faithful are staking our lives on our receiving that inheritance because Christ has signed and certified the guarantee of it with the ink of His own blood and His glorious resurrection!
Yes, we don’t now see Jesus, as the disciples once did, and don’t yet see all the riches that await us, as the saints in glory now do. Our living hope is rooted in an invisible reality, so that we have to, as Paul put it, “walk by faith and not by sight”. By faith, we trust in Christ’s death and resurrection, something no longer visible, and rely on His inheritance, something not yet visible.
What are we to take away from all this?
First, we can rejoice in the living hope that no one and nothing can take away the initial gifts God has already given – gifts better than wealth, looks, prestige and worldly power – gifts like the fruit of the Spirit and a vibrant relationship with Christ. Of course, we may suffer the loss of many good gifts: but Christ did not suffer that we might not suffer on earth but that we might suffer as He suffers – over injustice, cruel indifference to the needy, alienation from God and/or a community of love – and that we might suffer in a way that teaches us empathy, compassion and our own need for God. Christ may not give us better times, but He will use bad times to give us a better life.
For example, in my youth a man with significant authority over me would work out his own issues on me. For even minor infractions, he would lacerate me with berating and seemingly endless tongue-lashings that were the psychological equivalent of the Chinese torture of “death by a thousand little cuts”. They left me feeling humiliated, demeaned, deeply ashamed, deeply guilty, deeply unworthy. But they also gave me that “poverty of spirit” that Jesus says makes people aware of their need of God and thereby makes His kingdom their own. Further, the put-downs made me sensitive to the pain of others and eager to alleviate it. Because God has healed my wounds, I have a “living hope” of His healing others.
Second, we can rejoice in the hope that even better gifts are on their way. One day all the people broken by injustice and prejudice will be made whole, all the unfair suffering will be made up for, all the fearful hearts will be put at peace, all the alienation will be overcome, all the crimes of humanity will be rendered to hurt anyone anymore – and all will become beautiful, true and right.
We cannot yet see the whole reality of that hope. It remains as invisible as sound, but it exists as substantial as the music of violin, organ and human voice.
Let us then walk by faith and not by sight, and rejoice in the living hope Christ gives!
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