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Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For,

\xa0\xa0 \u201cWhoever would love life and see good days
\xa0\xa0 must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.
\xa0\xa0 They must turn from evil and do good;
\xa0\xa0 they must seek peace and pursue it.
\xa0\xa0 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
\xa0\xa0 and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
\xa0\xa0 but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.\u201d (1 Peter 3:8-12)

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In my last sermon before leaving for vacation, I said I\u2019d be picking up a new, more intentional habit of personal devotions through the summer.\xa0 So, I\u2019ve begun praying again through the book, Seeking God\u2019s Face\u2014a book set with daily scripture readings, prayer prompts, and written prayers drawn from the Reformed Confessions compiled by a pastor just down the road from us at Clearview CRC in Oakville.

This passage from 1 Peter was part of yesterday\u2019s scripture reading in that book, and I thought it worth bringing to us here.\xa0 It echoed with what seems most important to me at this moment of church and Christian life, but also with a picture drawn for me at the wedding of Peter & Stacey Kranenburg this past Sunday.\xa0

At the wedding, our former pastor, Henry, spoke on Genesis 12 and the blessing given to Abraham.\xa0 \u201cWhat does blessing mean?\u201d he asked.\xa0 Then he told of us the word\u2019s literal meaning in the Hebrew, which is \u201cto bend the knee.\u201d\xa0 Illustrating what this means in practice, he invited one of his grandsons to the front to stand next to him and asked: \u201cwho of us is bigger?\u201d\xa0 The grandchild only stood about a meter high, so obviously, Pastor Henry was the bigger.\xa0 And then Pastor Henry, in his full suit and tie, bent down to his knee before his grandson.\xa0 \u201cNow who\u2019s bigger?\u201d he asked.\xa0 The answer had changed.\xa0

What it means for God to bless us is that he bends the knee to us\u2014serves us\u2014makes us bigger.\xa0 So far does God go that he empties himself and makes himself nothing, takes on humanity and the very nature of a servant, submitting himself to death, even death on a cross.\xa0 This is Jesus bending the knee to wash his disciple\u2019s feet.\xa0 He, the greater\u2014their teacher\u2014bends the knee to them.\xa0 He blesses them.

But this is also Jesus on the cross.\xa0\xa0In the face of evil\u2014our evil and that of the world\u2014Jesus bends the knee.\xa0 In the words of 1 Peter here, he does \u201cnot repay evil with evil or insult with insult,\u201d but rather repays \u201cevil with blessing.\u201d\xa0

And this, Peter says, is the life of blessing to which we are called that we may inherit a blessing.\xa0 The \u201cBlessed-to-be-a-blessing\u201d blessing of Abraham, but also the \u201cnow that you know these things you will be blessed if you do them\u201d sort of blessing offered by Jesus to his freshly foot-washed disciples.

The cross the picture of the sort of blessing God means for us to offer the world: responding to sin and evil by bending our knee to serve, making ourselves less, and so lifting others up.\xa0 So it is that peace is made and love is lived.\xa0

Let me close off with the closing prayer from\xa0Seeking God\u2019s Face: \u201cPrince of Peace, it is so tempting to repay evil for evil, to lash out instead of do good.\xa0 I can only give that up to follow your way of love and blessing when I know that you will not allow evil to go unpunished.\xa0 Thank you for freeing me to seek peace, leaving your justice to settle the score on all the evil ones who tyrannize, oppress, and torment in this world. Amen. [drawn from Belgic Confession, Article 37]\u201d

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