TJieodore W. Jennings, Jr. The Meaning of ... - Quarterly Review

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interpretation is, "It was not written to us," it must be followed inseparably and immediately by the second: "It was written to us." As we prepare to preach from these texts, we will, fully aware of all the risks involved, make the effort to listen to what they might say to us. 1 Peter 1:3-9 A thoughtful, close reading of this text threatens to overwhelm the would-be preacher with the sheer weight of heavy theological terms. The chimes are rung on a long list of categories fiindamental to the Christian faith: rebirth, hope, resurrection, salvation, eschatology, faith, joy. One could even be repulsed by the density of religious jargon (contrast the first paragraph of UCCCD above). Alternatively, the preacher might be tempted to "use" the Bible by adopting some of these key words as an agenda for a sermon or even to formulate a (seven-point!) outline. One could expound a bit on each item, fleshing out the topic with material from various sources. We preachers certainly have no difficulty coming up with interesting and inspirational material on "faith," "hope," "joy" and such. Is this listening to the text? Responsible preaching from this text might be better served by attending to its form. I have already stressed the hermeneutical importance of the fact that the document as a whole is in letter form. The Hellenistic letter typically began with a stereotyped prescript, "A to B, chairein (greetings)" (cf. James 1:1; Acts 15:23; 23:26), followed first by a stereotyped thanksgiving and/or prayer to the gods for the good health of the addressee and then by the body of the letter. Paul had already expanded and adapted this form as means of apostolic communication (cf. the first two paragraphs of all the Pauline letters except Galatians, which makes a powerful point precisely by omitting the customary and anticipated thanksgiving). First Peter follows the pattern that Paul had made customary in apostolic communication. Just as Paul had transformed the perfunctory "thanksgiving" into a means of Christian praise and instruction, the author of 1 Peter has one long, involved sentence of thanksgiving to God that extends from 1:3 through 1:12. This is broken up by most modern translations in order to make it more manageable for reading, especially in the public reading of Scripture 98 QUARTERLY REVIEW/SPRING 1993
in liturgical settings. Yet all of 1:3-12 is one sentence with only one main subject and verb, held together only by a series of conjunctions, prepositional phrases, and relative pronouns. 11 Although there are many twists and turns in the elaboration of subordinate phrases and clauses, the basic structure is very simple, consisting of the subject, verb, and predicate adjective: God (be) blessed All the rest of this enormous and labyrinthine sentence is an elaboration of the one word God. The sentence is not an explanation of "new birth," "faith" and such but a doxology, an ascription of praise to the God who is characterized by the long list of attributes. An appropriate sermon might well be in the same form. Here the preacher might need to reflect on the sermon as an act of worship directed to God in behalf of the congregation rather than a message from God to congregation (for which there are, of course, numerous other important texts). One might consider making the whole sermon (and not only this one) an act of prayer, preceded by an appropriate invocation and withholding the "amen" until the end of the sermon, thus bracketing the entire sermon with the form of a prayer. Along the way, some of the following exegetical points might be made: In 1:3, God is praised as the sovereign who takes the initiative in calling and creating the church. The begetting/birth metaphor for becoming a Christian is dramatically appropriate here, for no one decides to be born. To be human is to find ourselves experiencing the human adventure. First Peter celebrates life itself as a gift (3:7), a party to which we could never have invited ourselves. The church is the covenant community (the difficult v. 2: "chosen . . , destined. . . sanctified. . . to be sprinkled with his blood" is covenant language; cf. Exod. 24:1-8). But this covenant is not a 50/50 agreement into which we have entered with the Deity (or even 60/40 or 90/10); the covenant relationship is the unilateral act of God given to the covenant people, who then find themselves having responsibilities to God and each other. But the initiative is with God, to whom praise is directed in this thanksgiving. In 1:6 the NRSV "For this reason" translates the relative pronoun, which can be either masculine or neuter. Most modern INTERPRETING 1 PETER AS A LETTER 99
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Quarterly Review/Spring 1993 55.00
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Quarterly Review A Journal of Theol
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VOL. 13, NO. 1 SPRING 1993 Contents
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I have always rather liked the gruf
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of discipleship in the New Testamen
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imagine a week without visiting the
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transform all of life, and all that
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Contemporary North American Christi
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We must now see what it is that cha
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saying "call no one your father in
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13:12). There is no following of Je
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Both New Testament discipleship and
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17. "The Duty of Constant Communion
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earliest Christian congregations be
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his baptism to the experience of Ch
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Holy Spirit comes down willingly fr
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The Sacramental Nature of the Bapti
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to save them from "the wrath to com
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aptism—for mature youth and adult
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purpose of a rite of maturity is to
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church, namely, thatbaptism-chrisma
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31. John Wesley, Works, X: 151. 32.
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In Baptismal Covenant I, in the "In
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of God without being born of water
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they urged a stronger claim for a p
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After analyzing how American Method
Page 54 and 55: eferred to as "a symbol of an inner
Page 56 and 57: of baptism is "the washing away the
Page 58 and 59: Although there is only scant likeli
Page 60 and 61: ut the inner man, where we have put
Page 62 and 63: Notes 1. Lawrence Hull Stookey, "Th
Page 64 and 65: 44. Borgen, 159f.; Stein, 319, f, 1
Page 66 and 67: I am not a liturgical scholar or pr
Page 68 and 69: ounden duty...to consecrate our chi
Page 70 and 71: formed in the gospel not only by le
Page 72 and 73: life, for one could always lose gra
Page 74 and 75: However, I have focused on human ac
Page 76 and 77: Osborne, Kenan B. The Christian Sac
Page 78 and 79: It was raining pretty hard one Satu
Page 80 and 81: the same time a young man came to s
Page 82 and 83: theologically unpacked. A pastoral
Page 84 and 85: Elizabeth Achtemeier's Preaching fr
Page 86 and 87: prophets by the traditions of ancie
Page 88 and 89: eading; it seems as if one is heari
Page 90 and 91: Brueggemann's discussion of royal v
Page 92 and 93: limitations, even in quite valuable
Page 95 and 96: M. Eugene Boring Interpreting 1 Pet
Page 97 and 98: particular way. The particularity o
Page 99 and 100: in the capital of the empire felt m
Page 101 and 102: location but about the way we relat
Page 103: answer: Read. Interpret. Examine. B
Page 107 and 108: word accomplished by Jesus, who cal
Page 109 and 110: community that does what priests do
Page 111 and 112: kings, slavery as a divinely author
Page 113 and 114: wives and husbands. To each it migh
Page 115 and 116: etained some of the oral style appr
Page 117 and 118: Brox, Norbert. Der erste Petrusbrie
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