Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation..
(1 Peter 2:11-12)

The text of the sermon hymn for this morning was written in 1684 by John Bunyan, and is in and is taken from the book he published in 1678, which is officially named "The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come". More popularly known as simply "The Pilgrim's Progress", it was once a standard part of the reading list in public schools in this country.

Among the definitions in Webster's Dictionary for the word "pilgrim" are these: "... a religious devotee who journeys to a shrine or sacred place, or one who is on a quest for something conceived of as sacred, a traveler."

Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress while imprisoned for violations of the Coventicle Act, which prohibited the holding of any religious services outside the auspices of the established Church of England Not exactly our finest hour, of course.

The Pilgrim's Progress is an allegorical novel of the Christian's journey as a pilgrim (here represented by a central character who is named 'Christian') as he travels from the "City of Destruction" to the "Celestial City". Along the way he visits such locations as the Vanity Fair, the Doubting Castle, and the Valley of the Shadow of Death on his way to his destination in Heaven.

Bunyan lived in England, and had very little formal education and was from a humble background. Nonetheless Pilgrim's Progress is considered one of the masterpieces of English literature, and is required reading for Christians who are on the spiritual path in a world of temptations.

In the Epistle for today, St. Peter addresses his readers as "strangers and pilgrims" and gives them moral and civic instruction as they "pass through" the pilgrimage that every Christian makes in this world. Earlier in chapter 1, Peter expresses a similar sense of the Christian's journey through life when he writes in verses 16-18: "... Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

St. Paul is expressing much the same thought when he writes in Philippians 3:20 that "our citizenship is in heaven." One's citizenship refers to his legal relationship to a state or nation. Our citizenship is in heaven. A citizen, as you know, is one who belongs to the country in which he resides. He enjoys the privileges. A citizen has the rights and protection of his country. He speaks the language of the country. Our first and highest duty is to God. As Christians, our ultimate loyalty is to Jesus Christ because we belong to Him. So even as we strive to be the best possible citizens of our country, we must never forget to whom we belong.

Thus us to both "fear God" and to "honor the King." Jesus Himself taught us to "render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's."

In Colossians 1: 13, Paul states: "We are delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son through Jesus Christ, the Savior, who was given unto those chosen of the Father, sent into the world to take us out of the world, to perform a transaction, to release us from the bondage of this world and to give us an inheritance in the heavenlies.

So we are to be in the world, not of the world in the sense that we are just passing through this world on our way to a better place. Another old word for being this kind of pilgrim is being a sojourner. This literally means one who is a temporary resident, one who is passing through as on a journey.

When Peter instructs his readers in verse 11 by writing " Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul." The first thing to notice is that were are to be as aliens and strangers when it comes to giving ourselves over to the behavior that characterizes the unredeemed.

Jesus said "What will it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul. For what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt. 16:26).

Our modern culture is massively preoccupied with the inconsequential. Television, movies, marketing, newspapers, magazines, the internet, music, art, and literature all cater to appetites and a myopic self-centeredness that demands living only for the moment. We live in the wealthiest society in history, yet we want more. Furthermore we are always afraid of losing what we have or envious that someone else has more than we have. We live longer, healthier lives, yet we live in fear of losing our health. Affluence and influence consume our lives to the neglect of our spiritual health. So when Peter states in chapter 1, verse 1 and again in chapter 1, verse 17 that true Christians are aliens and exiles and strangers on the earth and then repeats this a third time in verse 11 "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers . . ." we must assume that he regards it as important.

Just before the beginning verse of our lesson this morning, Peter gives the reason for our status as resident aliens in verse 9: "You are a chosen race a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession . . . he called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." We belong to God, not to the world community and, ultimately, as much as we love our country, we do not belong to the United States of America, if it ever ceases to allow Christians the freedom to practice their faith. Our standards of morality and decency do not come from the Supreme Court, not from House of Representatives, not from Hollywood, or MTV, from the ACLU or from Planned Parenthood. They certainly don't come from the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3: 4-5:

"And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."

In that sense, we must, as Christians, cultivate the mindset of exiles. What this does mainly is sober wake and us up us up so that we don't drift with the world and take for granted that the way the world thinks and acts is the best way. We don't assume that what is on TV is helpful to the soul; we don't assume that the priorities of advertisers is helpful to the soul; we don't assume that the strategies and values of business and industry are helpful to the soul. We don't assume that any of this glorifies God. We stop and we think and we don't assume that the conventional wisdom of this age is God's wisdom. We get our bearings from God through his Word.

When you see yourself as an alien and an exile with your citizenship in heaven, and God as your only Sovereign, you stop drifting with the current of the day. You ponder what is good for the soul and what honors God in everything: food, cars, videos, bathing suits, birth control, driving speeds, bed times, financial savings, education for the children, unreached peoples, famine, refugee camps, sports, death, and everything else. Aliens get their cue from God and not the world. So one way to make God visible and weighty for the sake of our world is to see ourselves as exiles and refugees from heaven.

Peter furthermore states that we have a responsibility to show our faith to others. In 1 Peter 3:15: "Always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you." What they see is some external action, and what they ask about is your internal hope.

What Peter is saying here is that when people look at you what they see expressed in your actions is what you hope in. So they see a certain way of acting and they notice that you must not be hoping in what people usually hope – in self–exaltation, safety, money - and they are puzzled as to where your hope is. So they ask about your hope: where do you get your confidence, your contentment, your satisfaction when you act that way?

When we direct our desires to God and find hope and contentment in his mercy and power and promises, then our outward life starts to show what Peter calls "excellent behavior" – a humble love and fearless courage and self-denying generosity and joyful simplicity and peaceful suffering. These behaviors point to God's glory because they point to a stable, sure, satisfying object of desire and hope that is not of this world.

So if you see yourself as a pilgrim, a sojourner, an exile from heaven and focus your desires on God so that your hope is in him and not in this world, the result will be a beauty of character and a sense of assurance that allows a life free of constant fear, that seeks worldly affirmation, and a life that offers praise and glory back to God.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.