Reflecting on First Peter

Jennifer Strawbridge has edited a great commentary, The First Letter of Peter: A Global Commentary. It is the Biblical resource prepared for the Lambeth Conference, originally scheduled for 2020, but now re-arranged for August 2022. The commentary was written pre-pandemic, but will still be used for the conference though, undoubtedly, with updated comment reflecting world events.

It’s has ended up as an extraordinarily good and relevant choice for the moment in which we find ourselves. “Peter’s letter not only offers encouragement for those living in difficult times, but also calls others to stand in solidarity with those who are suffering and not in judgement. The letter makes clear that those who are vulnerable don’t always have the luxury of resisting oppression or stepping away from suffering, continually returning to the person of Christ and his rejection, unjust suffering and exaltation.”

“Themes of hope and of holiness are as central to this letter as those of suffering and offer mechanisms for remaining resilient in the face of suffering and, at times, resisting oppressive systems.”

The book (and the commentary) certainly pick up important themes for today. “In the context of holiness and suffering, both of which are connected to God in Christ, 1 Peter raises issues for the Church today about how we engage with difference.”

There is a lot to be said too around themes of movement and migration. As the commentary points out: “1 Peter is highly relevant today, as the twenty-first century has been called ‘the century of migration’. The letter touches on the themes of exile, diaspora, migration, interreligious relationships, living as minorities, second class citizenship, gender relations and relationships to authorities. The strategies the letter offers to the suffering Christians in Asia Minor may not be applicable to all Christians living in different parts of the world today. Yet, it offers a mirror for us to examine power dynamics both in the public and domestic sphere.”

We need to be reminded so often that God’s way is different. This letter, and this commentary, helps us to embrace God’s alternative view. “As a letter written to ‘aliens and exiles’, it is fitting that shepherds in the Roman world were considered outcasts; they were outsiders to the upper classes, as dirty, smelly people. A call to shepherd the flock of God thus must be a call to be with and among the people, to be involved with the most vulnerable of the community, a call away from status to service.”