Brothers and Sisters,
In the New Testament reading for this coming Sunday, from 1 Peter 2, we see a powerful glimpse of who we are as Christians and of our calling in the world. In verses 9 and 10, we read:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
As believers, as Christ’s people, we are chosen. We are servants and sons and daughters of the King. We are a nation called to be holy, to be set apart from the world. Our identity is that we belong to the Lord. Our story is a stunning story of redemption. We weren’t always God’s people, but, through faith in Christ, now we are. We were once under condemnation for our sins, and now we’ve received mercy. We were once in darkness, and now we’ve been called into the marvelous light of the Lord.
The Lord has called us, and the Lord has claimed us as his own. That’s not all. Our text tells us that he has called us into a mission. We belong to him, so that we may proclaim the excellencies of our Savior. The call to be a Christian is a call to mission. The call to be a Christian is a call to proclaim Jesus to a world still in darkness. We’ve been redeemed and are now called to go those who are lost, as we once were.
Our identity is in Jesus. We belong to him. He has rescued us and called us his own. Having been redeemed by Jesus, we’re now called to proclaim Jesus. It’s all about him.
In Christ,
Fr. Caleb