“Keeping on course”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Friday, December 16, 2022

2 Peter 2:17-22 (Forward, p. 48) CEV p. 1284

Have you ever been lost? It’s a pretty scary and traumatic experience, and not one that anyone would willingly subject themselves to. Yet it is a possibility that is surprisingly and readily easy to happen, even with the best of intentions and safeguards.

Let me give a couple of examples of how easily this might happen. Twice in my life I head off in the wrong direction when entering a highway—simply because I missed the directional signs. Yes, that’s all that it took, a missing directional sign!

And that wasn’t the only time that I have gotten lost. Once, in the Cypress Hills I strayed off the beaten track to look at something in the surrounding woods. I was off the trail by only a few feet, but that was enough. I was completely disoriented and couldn’t find my way back. And, surprisingly, when I did find my way out, I discovered that I’d been going in circles and had often been only a short distance from the safety of an open space.

Some of the early explorers in northern Canada also got lost, again through no intention of theirs. They had faithfully using map and compass, only to discover later that our magnetic north pole is different from the north pole as shown on maps. A slight re-calibration was necessary.

Those that engaged in the sport of car rallying have discovered the same sort of thing. The route maps and instructions are very, very precise and exacting, both with regards to times and distances, and should the pilot and his or her navigator be ‘out’ of sync in either of them, the results can be pretty ‘disastrous’. They can end up nowhere near their destination.

In many ways the Christian life is like this. It is far too easy to stray off the main path, to become disoriented. Or, to read the map (that is, the Bible) incorrectly or without the necessary ‘adjustments’ to one’s time, place and situation.

It is very situation that the apostle Peter waxes so eloquently about in today’s passage. We see this all the time within the public arena: leaders, who should know better, espousing lifestyles that are most decidedly off the mark, lifestyles that are marked by greed and sensuality and a desire for power and control, or for this thing they call ‘freedom.’ What a terrible and destructive example they set!

However, in particular in today’s passage, Peter focuses on leaders within the church. He focused on how they can go astray and how they can, as a result, lead other people astray as well. He mentions how they can be corrupted—just as with our secular leaders--by a desire for wealth, for sensual pleasures, for power or for something they espouse as ‘freedom.’ The problem is that it is far too easy to simply ‘turn aside’ for a moment from the tried and true way, just to ‘check’ something out, and then not easily find one’s way back. And, it’s equally easy just to disregard the rules, the teachings of the church, ‘for a moment’, again with disastrous consequences.

And, in case we are thinking that this applies only to those in ‘official’ positions of leadership—in church or in state, it can actually apply to each and every one of us. Each of us has a ‘sphere of influence’, a circle of friends and family and acquaintances that look to us for inspiration and guidance and example. And so, we need to be just as careful to remain on track, to keep on course, as do anyone else, and so, we all need the help of God and the prayers and guidance of others, to do so. Amen.

Forward notes: “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them” (verse 19).

“I say I love to work, but my friends have pointed out that this is cover for workaholism. While I put up a vigorous defense, they understand me more than I understand myself. Scientists say we may be wired for addiction of one sort or another; certainly the author of 2 Peter understood that we are slaves to whatever masters us.

“Engaging in addictions to work, shopping, substances, food, worry, and countless others means we’re preoccupied and unable to be present to others. As slaves to our addictions, we can’t create the intimacy we crave, and we chase what appears to be necessary for our enjoyment.

“As we move toward Christmas, this is a good time to examine our behaviours that keep us enslaved to joyless living. As we await the Light of the World, let us cast off the works of darkness that imprison us in a jail of our own making.”

MOVING FORWARD: “What keeps you from living your best life as a follower of Christ?”