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[3521.86 --> 3524.86] And so you might have heard during that time,
[3524.86 --> 3529.86] to be a true Canadian is to be anti-communist.
[3529.86 --> 3531.86] Now, it's historically reasonable to presume
[3531.86 --> 3535.86] that the same kinds of things are happening when Peter is writing
[3535.86 --> 3537.86] and to whom Peter is writing.
[3537.86 --> 3539.86] Right? Whether you were a Roman triumphalist
[3539.86 --> 3541.86] and you wanted to see that colonization came in,
[3541.86 --> 3543.86] or you were an Anatolian historicist
[3543.86 --> 3545.86] and you wanted to see the region remain the same,
[3545.86 --> 3547.86] or you were a Parthian champion and you wanted them to win,
[3547.86 --> 3554.86] the people in that time are being forced to decide on their allegiances.
[3554.86 --> 3559.86] They're being forced to pick an identity.
[3559.86 --> 3562.86] And in the turmoil that's going on around them,
[3562.86 --> 3564.86] if you don't pick correctly,
[3564.86 --> 3567.86] it is an end for you socially and politically.
[3567.86 --> 3571.86] It is an end for you in their industry guild or whatever.
[3571.86 --> 3573.86] Right? For the parallel,
[3573.86 --> 3575.86] think about the way that communist sympathizers
[3575.86 --> 3578.86] or people who were charged as agents of communism
[3578.86 --> 3580.86] were treated in that time.
[3582.86 --> 3584.86] And into that tension,
[3584.86 --> 3587.86] Peter writes and he says,
[3587.86 --> 3590.86] you are elect exiles.
[3590.86 --> 3593.86] You are a chosen people.
[3593.86 --> 3596.86] You are God's special possession.
[3596.86 --> 3599.86] You are God's beloved.
[3599.86 --> 3601.86] And he says,
[3601.86 --> 3603.86] because that's who you are,
[3603.86 --> 3607.86] you are foreigners and exiles,
[3607.86 --> 3610.86] strangers and aliens,
[3610.86 --> 3613.86] sojourners and pilgrims.
[3613.86 --> 3616.86] You may live in Pontus,
[3616.86 --> 3618.86] but you're not Pontian.
[3618.86 --> 3620.86] You may live in Galatia,
[3620.86 --> 3622.86] but you're not Galatian.
[3622.86 --> 3624.86] You may live in Bithynia,
[3624.86 --> 3627.86] but you're not Bithynian.
[3627.86 --> 3629.86] Exactly when people are doubling down
[3629.86 --> 3633.86] and solidifying their identities as Roman citizens,
[3633.86 --> 3635.86] offering sacrifices to the emperor
[3635.86 --> 3638.86] as their version of the pledge allegiance to the flag,
[3638.86 --> 3641.86] or when they're solidifying their identities as not Roman,
[3641.86 --> 3643.86] but Parthian or Pontian Galatian,
[3643.86 --> 3644.86] Peter says,
[3644.86 --> 3646.86] no,
[3646.86 --> 3648.86] you are so much more.
[3648.86 --> 3651.86] You are something different.
[3651.86 --> 3655.86] There's huge cultural pressure in either direction,
[3655.86 --> 3656.86] right,
[3656.86 --> 3659.86] to Romanize or to hang on to the old ways.
[3659.86 --> 3661.86] And Peter says,
[3661.86 --> 3664.86] you have to go a third way.
[3664.86 --> 3667.86] Now I think,
[3667.86 --> 3669.86] and I would suggest to you,
[3669.86 --> 3671.86] that this is happening,
[3671.86 --> 3673.86] and this needs to happen,
[3673.86 --> 3675.86] right now,
[3675.86 --> 3676.86] in our world today,
[3676.86 --> 3677.86] in our culture.
[3679.86 --> 3682.86] Instead of the anarchist's cry from generations ago
[3682.86 --> 3683.86] of no gods and no masters,
[3683.86 --> 3685.86] our culture says,
[3685.86 --> 3686.86] you,
[3686.86 --> 3688.86] you are the master of the universe.
[3688.86 --> 3692.86] Instead of our identities being connected to families
[3692.86 --> 3693.86] or to a past,
[3693.86 --> 3698.86] our identities are chosen by an exercise of our own wills,
[3698.86 --> 3699.86] or our own feelings,
[3699.86 --> 3700.86] our own whims,
[3700.86 --> 3701.86] right?
[3701.86 --> 3703.86] You just have to feel your way to yourself
[3703.86 --> 3706.86] in order to be true to yourself.
[3706.86 --> 3707.86] Right?
[3707.86 --> 3709.86] Our culture approaches a religious identity
[3709.86 --> 3712.86] from the perspective of absolute tolerance
[3712.86 --> 3714.86] where everything is the same
[3714.86 --> 3716.86] and everything means the same.
[3716.86 --> 3720.86] They're just different expressions of the same fundamental idea.
[3720.86 --> 3723.86] Now the same fundamental idea is that ultimately,
[3723.86 --> 3727.86] religious experience is about how to be good and moral in the world.
[3727.86 --> 3731.86] And then the secret of our contemporary modern culture
[3731.86 --> 3733.86] is that if you know that secret,
[3733.86 --> 3734.86] you don't need religion.
[3734.86 --> 3735.86] Right?
[3735.86 --> 3736.86] But you can be spiritual,
[3736.86 --> 3737.86] whatever that means,
[3737.86 --> 3739.86] because you can be good and moral
[3739.86 --> 3743.86] apart from a system or a community who shares your belief.
[3743.86 --> 3744.86] Right?
[3744.86 --> 3746.86] In our culture,
[3746.86 --> 3751.86] the world is simultaneously disenchanted.
[3751.86 --> 3754.86] And what I mean by that is that we have removed God
[3754.86 --> 3758.86] and the miraculous from it because of our positivism
[3758.86 --> 3760.86] or because of our strictly materialistic worldviews.
[3760.86 --> 3764.86] And yet, at the same time, seemingly unaware of the contradiction,
[3764.86 --> 3768.86] our world is magical and still yet spiritual.
[3768.86 --> 3769.86] Right?
[3769.86 --> 3772.86] That you can have access to the powers built into the world
[3772.86 --> 3774.86] in order to make yourself better
[3774.86 --> 3777.86] or to make your circumstances more affluent,