Lambeth ’First Peter’ Bible Study — Week 4

“Suffering is mentioned more times in 1 Peter than in any other book. He [Peter] is writing about the suffering of Jesus Christ, and suffering in Christ’s name.”
“We have a temptation to think that all suffering is redemptive, or to put it in simple language to think that it’s good for you. It makes you a better person. But all of us know from pastoral work that that is not the case.”

Peter challenges that statement and says that when we equate all suffering with Christ’s suffering we blur the issue of what Christian suffering is and we can even find that we advocate staying in abusive situations.

Suffering if we allow it only to be redemptive can become an excuse not to do anything about injustice or wrong. But people told to bear abuse to be saved, brings us right back to Tuesday’s conversation [Week 3 – Resistance and Resilience] about power and the misuse of power… how easy it is to be complicit in the misuse the abuse of power.

Peter was writing to a small group of Christians, a minority in their own culture who lived in a hostile empire which was increasingly nervous about their beliefs and viewed them with deep suspicion. In this context Peter was writing about the suffering we endure in the name of Christ something immensely familiar to many here. He’s pointing to persecution.

“In some parts of the world persecution takes the form of being mocked, or ridiculed would be true in schools and universities, very often in this country. In other places it involves the daily threat of physical violence, suppression, oppression, and death. ”
“We should not claim the language of persecution before we listen to and acknowledge the depth and reality of suffering for the Name of Christ in our world. And we must be aware of how suffering is understood in different ways across our communities and context.”

The Greek word of hospitality is φιλοξενία philoxenia which is literally love for the stranger, love for alien and exile. A call to love the stranger, the alien and exile, is being made by alien and exile, Peter, to aliens and exiles, those to whom he is writing. Because they share the same alienation from the world they must offer a welcoming home to one another. Those who are aliens and exiles have been given and identity as God’s chosen people. So, hospitality changes the identity of those who offer it and those who receive it. They are no longer strangers.

 
“Hospitality involves risk. It makes us vulnerable. ”
 

Peter makes clear that we cannot do this by our own strength. Christ and the grace of God remain absolutely central, remember that the theme in much of this letter is that without Christ we can do nothing, we are lost in our sins, we are simply aliens and strangers. Aliens and strangers from God not just from the world.

“Peter calls all to hospitality and support for fellow Christians who face suffering and persecution for their faith, to be drawn together not pulled apart in our diverse and shared sufferings. ”
“Peter tells us to be hospitable to suffering. to import suffering. That means sacrifice, whether it’s money or power. It means the powerful willingly becoming less comfortable in order to lift the weight of suffering for others. ”

So the question has to be, how do we maintain love and offer hospitality. How do we campaign for the displaced and the stranger. How do we share with each other when we see suffering. How do we offer Christ hospitality and imitate Christ in our hospitality.

These are only a few of the quotes about suffering and hospitality from 1 Peter 4: Suffering in Christ.

The 1 Peter Bible Study is now ‘soul-ly’ on Zoom Wednesdays! 😊 The next and last session is August 9 from 6–8pm.

To access this worldwide Bible study, email Bonnie Bivins at blbivins@verizon.net to get the Zoom link and study materials!

Watch the 1 Peter 4 Video Here:

 
 

Ways to participate:

  • Come Wednesdays from 6–8pm and participate LIVE.

  • View the current week’s video and come Wednesday at 7pm to reflect on the questions LIVE.

  • View the previous week’s video and find a friend, family member, or Trinity Church member to pair with, and discuss the study material.

Come and listen to Archbishop of Canterbury Welby leading next week’s Bible text with global contextual reflections.

Week 5: Authority in Christ, August 9, 1 Peter 5:1-14.

If you want a digital copy to access the links and Bible study materials, send me an email to my address above and I will happily send you a digital copy! 😊

Homefront School Supply Drive

Trinity Church is once again soliciting donations to our school supply drive for Homefront. This year we've set a stretch goa—100 backpacks full of supplies!

We have the backpacks, but it’s up to you to fill them. See the Amazon wish list and have your donation delivered to 'Kara's List Address' on the menu, or you can enter the church address manually: 33 Mercer St, Princeton NJ 08540.

P.S., I know you’re reading this announcement right now thinking, “This sounds great, I need to remember to do it later.” You don’t need to remember if you click the link right now!

Let’s shoot for 100! We can do it!

Register for Church School and Youth Group

Linked below is the Registration Form for Trinity's Church School, and for Youth Group, restarting in September 2023!

Church School meets on Sundays at 9:30–10:20am and is geared toward children ages 3-10, from PreK–5th grade. Emily Pruszinski teaches Church School with help from our clergy, interns, parents, and teen volunteers. 

Youth Group meets on Sundays from 6-7:15pm and is geared toward pre-teens and teens ages 11-18, from 6th–12th grade. Our wonderful Lay Pastoral Associate, Wesley Rowell, will co-lead Youth Group this year with Emily Pruszinski. 

Parents and Caregivers — If you are interested in volunteering to help run classes, bring snacks, wrangle sheep at the Christmas Pageant, we welcome your help! There are options listed below for both weekly and seasonal events. If you have any questions, please email Emily Pruszinski (pruszinskie@trinityprinceton.org). 

Complete the questions in the attached form to register your child for Church School on Sundays for the 2023-2024 school year. Please fill out a separate form for each child you are registering. 

Lambeth ’First Peter’ Bible Study — Week 3

“1 Peter makes visible powers of authority and the invisible power structures of the world.”
“1 Peter holds the tension between faithfulness and survival.”

This letter aligns the unjust suffering of the persecuted with the unjust suffering of Christ.

These readings have been used to justify great evil; to support slavery, to uphold colonialism, and empire, tyranny, despotism, mass killings, even genocide, and they have been used to defend those who carry out domestic violence, and they've been used to defend those who engage in sexual violence and conflict, gender based violence.

We know these are all wrong, yet we are part of a global church, empire, and Anglican Communion where history is wrapped up in empire, power seeking, and subjugation. But we also have a history of resilience and resistance think of Desmond Tutu.”

 
“Power is according to context and contacts.””
 

Wives and slaves are explicitly compared in 1 Peter. We are very comfortable in condemning slavery, but we are less confident in condemning systems that keep women, girls, wives in situations of domestic violence, abuse, and exploitation.

 
“We are challenged by one Peter. Are we to accept the power of all human institutions?”
 

So Peter asked the question, how do we reconcile the world systems in which we live, the different ones, with the single system of freedom and grace we all receive in Jesus Christ. And the answer is “Sanctify Christ as Lord”.

“Those that live under conditions they cannot control whether it’s injustice or others; disability, exile, displacement, refugees, all live as children of God.”
“The central affirmation of this chapter indeed the central affirmation of the whole book is that we are not left comfortless!”

How do we challenge systems of power but also dismantle fear especially when power does threaten death and when that fear is very real indeed? We recognize our own power.

Power is not a zero-sum game: the more you share it, when it comes from God, the more there is; the more you hold on to it, the more it slips through our fingers.”

These are only a few of the quotes from 1 Peter 2:13-3:22: Resistance and Resilience.

The 1 Peter Bible Study is now ‘soul-ly’ on Zoom Wednesdays! 😊 The next sessions are August 2 and 9 from 6–8pm.

To access this worldwide Bible study, email Bonnie Bivins at blbivins@verizon.net to get the Zoom link and study materials!

To Watch the 1 Peter 3 Video Click Here:

 
 

Ways to participate:

  • Come Wednesdays from 6–8pm and participate LIVE.

  • View the current week’s video and come Wednesday at 7pm to reflect on the questions LIVE.

  • View the previous week’s video and find a friend, family member, or Trinity Church member to pair with, and discuss the study material.

Come and listen to Archbishop of Canterbury Welby leading next week’s Bible text with global contextual reflections.

Week 4: Suffering in Christ, August 2, 1 Peter 4:1-19.

If you want a digital copy to access the links and Bible study materials, send me an email to my address above and I will happily send you a digital copy! 😊

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