“Peter, and apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:1)
Imagine you were living in the first or second century, a citizen of one of the above cities called Asia Minor, present-day Turkey. The great apostle to gentiles like yourself, Peter, addresses you as a pilgrim, although you never moved more than a few miles from your birthplace. He means that as one baptized into the Body of Christ, you have been chosen by Christ to bear witness to His gospel of salvation for all mankind. St. Peter has in mind that those like you, once with nowhere to go on earth, are taking the place of the original migrants, the Hebrews who followed Moses from Egypt into the Promised Land. From Palestine they were taken to Babylon and returned in order to be a “Light to enlighten the gentiles, and the glory of [God’s] people Israel.” They failed to follow the Light of the world, Jesus, choosing rather to reject Him—and so to fill the void, God the heavenly Father chose you to take their place.
St. Peter, himself a Jew, writes that all that happened was anticipated and realized by the Father, including your own election. Perhaps you had surmised that already. Maybe in searching for something, some philosophy or religion to give more meaning to your life than just survival, amusement, eating, drinking and carousing, you happened upon the Jewish religion. You were tolerated, but unfortunately, like with certain ethnocentric Orthodox Christians in our day, you were not welcomed with enthusiasm—you were not one of them.
And you hear the way St. Peter demonstrates that you lack nothing by not being a Jew. He puts it poignantly. You are among the “elect.” Not some nobody. The Father had chosen you before even time existed to play a role in His plan for inviting humanity to have a share in things divine. You live among the “Dispersion.” Christians are scattered like spores in the wind to plant the good news of Christ’s gospel of the Kingdom of heaven everywhere human beings live. As one chosen by the Lord to spread the gospel where you live and elsewhere, there is the requirement of obedience. You know the invitation of Jesus to “Take My yoke upon you…for My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:29). It means that you no longer drift about without purpose or direction. You have a goal—the Kingdom of God—and a direction, a Way to get there through a world that may be full of challenges, suffering and even death. Every monk and nun is given a certain task called an obedience. Those in the world outside are encouraged to discover their own obedience.
Then the divine apostle writes something quite touching: “sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” Every Jew would understand the reference to the tenth miracle of Moses. The night of Passover, when the Hebrews were prepared to flee from the wrath of Pharoah, the angel of death would visit all houses and take the firstborn son, but he would pass over those homes where the blood of a sacrificial lamb had been sprinkled over the entry. The true living Lamb of God who was crucified—Jesus Christ—His sacred blood is sprinkled over you, so that you will live beyond your death and burial. Here is the gift surpassing all possible presents on earth. His life for yours. Your earthly pilgrimage will end only when you reach the Kingdom of the heavenly Father. Despite your former life, you were chosen, selected and elected to surrender your self, whatever that implies, so that you may offer your self in obedience to the will of Christ, and thereby achieve a meaningful existence throughout the days which the Father gives you here on earth to fulfill His will from heaven.