If a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully....

Christ the Good Shepherd c.1540

Lucas Cranach the Younger

Angermuseum, Erfurt

A Sermon for the Second Sunday after Easter

(Good Shepherd Sunday)

26th April 2020,

at Saint John’s Church in Savannah

From the FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF SAINT PETER THE APOSTLE 2:19 i

.

In the ancient world slaves supplied needed muscle in mines and fields, skilled labor in

workshops and households. They occupied positions of responsibility as managers,

doctors, teachers, and scribes – but in law they were chattel, things not humans. Their

marriages had no legal force, their children belonged to the slave-owner, evidence from

them was valid in court only if obtained by torture, and if a slave-owner were killed by

slaves, all his slaves were crucified, even those who had no part in the killing. When

treated harshly or unfairly by overbearing masters they had no recourse, no escape or protection (ii)

It is to Christian slaves that Peter is speaking in today’s epistle lesson

(though that opening verse that says so is omitted (iii), and it is precisely this issue – of  “wrongful

suffering” – that he is addressing: how to respond to unfair and unjust treatment……