Dear friends, don’t be surprised about the fiery trials that have come among you to test you. These are not strange happenings. Instead, rejoice as you share Christ’s suffering. You share his suffering now so that you may also have overwhelming joy when his glory is revealed. If you are mocked because of Christ’s name, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory—indeed, the Spirit of God—rests on you. Now none of you should suffer as a murderer or thief or evildoer or rebel. But don’t be ashamed if you suffer as one who belongs to Christ. Rather, honor God as you bear Christ’s name. Give honor to God, because it’s time for judgment to begin with God’s own household. But if judgment starts with us, what will happen to those who refuse to believe God’s good news? If the righteous are barely rescued, what will happen to the godless and sinful? So then, those who suffer because they follow God’s will should commit their lives to a trustworthy creator by doing what is right. (1 Peter 4:12-19, CEB)
We all as Christians have thought about how we suffer for our faith. Some of us say we suffer when actually we are just having to deal with the fact that people will not ned over and give us what we want because we say we are Christians.
And saying one is Christian does not actually mean one is a follower of Jesus. Going into a sanctuary and staying for a worship service or returning weekly for worship does not make one a Christian, any more than standing in a garage makes one a car. And suffering in the sense of the reading is not because we do not get our way.
Suffering, according to the reading, is actually loving as Jesus does and welcoming all, and getting hit by the stones being thrown by those claiming to follow God.
Love like Jesus and follow the path of inclusion and be prepared to get hit by a stone.
aSacredRebel 