“PETER’S EPISTALATORY GOSPEL 3”
1 Peter 3
Lent Midweek 3: 16 March Anno Domini 2023
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
People today who call themselves Christians; a whole lot of Lutherans; and anyone that you might want to catechize, evangelize, or use apologetics upon in order to help lower barriers, will never want to argue about Christ’s two-natures, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, or eschatology. Yes, I know, there are exceptions. Most American pagans (i.e., most Americans) whether they’re atheists, agnostics, or “nones,” only want to know why you Christians hate homosexuals (sodomites) and why you don’t believe in reproductive freedoms (i.e., why you don’t think they should be able to murder their unborn).
But not tonight. Let’s look at people like you—Confessional Lutherans. Do you not know that Lent also involves discipline of the mind, will, and attitude. Yes you should discipline your appetites but you must also discipline your will to rebel against things you don’t like. God isn’t making suggestions when He speaks through Saint Peter. This is The Word of The Lord: “likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands.” This reiterates what Saint Paul writes about women being subject to their “heads” as well as the entire corpus of the Old Testament. The fact that so many LCMS women chafe at these words is that they have been worshipping the gods of culture and power and relativism more than The God of the universe—The Word. The reason you have not heard more about this during your own life in the Synod is that pastors are cowards at times. But the mess we find ourselves in, in both the culture at large and the church culture of the Lutheran Church, is that we have stopped teaching the God pleasing Word of The Lord involving “headship,” submission, and patriarchy.
The way women treat men—their husbands—is totally antithetical to at least 1,900 years of New Testament Church history. It is sinful.
Women are to be chaste—period. That is a good Lenten discipline. America would be changed for the better, the less sinful, if wives, daughters, sisters, et al spent more time in “wearing a meek and quiet spirit” than gold and flashy (or trendy, or sleazy) clothing and apparel.
God considers modesty and obedience of “great price.” But look at us, all of us. Even confessional women and wives become mortally offended whenever it is suggested that they would do well to obey God—Obedience.
Saint Paul said “be imitators of me” [1 Cor. 4.16]. Was he wrong? No, of course not. You women should be imitators of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Am I wrong? No! She is the icon of The Church—her virtues should be imitated by women and men.
All Christians are subject to Jesus. Jesus obeys His Father. Wives obey their husbands and parishioners obey their priests and pastors when those under-shepherds are fulfilling their roles as preachers, teachers, catechists, exorcists, celebrants at The Altar of Eucharist, and confessors.
There may be no better Church season than Lent to have all of us focus on our lack of obedience and our chaffing at Biblical order and “headship.”
So, my sisters in Christ Jesus, be like Sara, “who obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well.”
And lest anyone think that only the weaker vessels are subject to chastisement: you husbands, stop being weak and weaselly. You were not called by God into your vocation as husband to me milquetoast but to be protector and provider, and housefather of the faith! You wear the pants and you wear the armor and Lent is an appropriate time for you to get off the couch, out of the “man cave” and into the arena of Church, work, and care for your spouse and children. Peter speaks to you too: “give honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life.” Paul’s letter to the Ephesians bolsters these words of Cephas.
By loving and honoring one another both husband and wife icon/image The Church itself—Christ and His Holy Bride. By obeying her husband, the wife reflects the first Eve before the fall and The Blessed Virgin restored by her Savior. By sacrificing and dying for his wife, the husband reflects what Adam should have done and what Jesus has done.
There’s still time in Lent 2023 to start doing what you should/must be doing all year round.
Be of one mind with your spouse and with all the Saints. Have compassion one of another. Forgive. Give of yourselves in true Christ-like pity. Be courteous and bridle your tongue. Stop complaining, stop being drama-queens, stop making everything about yourselves and do good to others.
All Law tonight, Pastor? Yes and no. You are Christians. In Lent Christians can strive, and work, yes work, to live and be more Christ-like. Or, as Saint Peter exhorts: “finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love…for the eyes of The Lord are over the righteous.” Peter knows that only Jesus is Righteous but he still, by The Spirit, calls Christians righteous. That’s because you all ARE the obedient wife; you are The Church; and Christ the sacrificing, protecting, and providing Husband “hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by The Spirit.”
Once, yes, but always we preach Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins. And always you Lenten Christians trekking through the desert carry your own crosses of obedience and self-sacrificing for the Saints.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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