Noted psychologist Martin Seligman likes to play bridge. He’s good at it (he once took second in a national tournament) and he enjoys it, but he does not pretend that it has great significance. “I worry,” he admits, “that I am merely fidgeting until I die.” Similarly, author Neil Postman wondered back in 1985 whether we aren’t just Amusing Ourselves to Death.
Peter admits up-front that the logic of a sinful world may in fact lead to the illogical punishment of good people. This, he warns, won’t be any fun, but does redeem our days from the emptiness of amusing fidgeting. He offers a couple of suggestions for making the most of such attacks.
The first response is intellectual: Defense means an answer given under cross-examination. The apostle advocates apologetics as an appropriate response to persecution. Better still, however, is the argument from incarnation: a good conscience beats a good argument any day.
All of this comes down to taking Jesus’ example seriously. Calvin Miller tells the tale of a converted car salesman, a born-again Barnum who incorporated the plan of salvation into his patter but did not eliminate lies about the vehicles he touted. The pastor pointed out to him that, “while it was noble of him to love Jesus, it would be equally valuable to act like him.”
Peter dares to commend this kind of Christ-copying in the very shadow of the cross. Jesus’ death, far from invalidating his sacrifice, made saving love retroactive clean back to Noah’s flood. Following Jesus might get you killed, Peter admits, but death can’t get in your way. It’s all there in your baptism, the fisherman explains: that wasn’t a bathtub; it was a grave.
Fidgeting may distract you from death but it won’t keep death from coming. Crucifixion, by contrast, puts death up-front and thus replaces amusement with meaning.
We Are Not Amused!
Doug
Collect
Everlasting God, You save us from death and by means of death. Grant now that we who live by the death of Christ Your Son might die to self and live with Him so that the world might so clearly see Christ in us that all their arguments fall silent and only praise remains. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Benediction
May the Lord make you zealous for what is good,
That the world find no reason to harm you.
May the Lord let you suffer as one who is good,
That the world would see Christ in your suffering.
May the Lord drown you deep by baptism unto death,
That the world would see the risen Christ in your life.
In the name of the Father,
And of the Son,
And of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
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