If You Could Call God Down from Heaven, Would You Dare?

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.

It is a dare.  It is a dare to invoke the Living God as the measure of their work and worship.  Peter has spoken of the power of Jesus.  He has called his readers to active service.  Now he is daring them to actually take on what it would mean to serve God.  

IF you invoke as Father…  If they dare to walk down this path of holiness that Peter calls them to live, he wants them to understand exactly what path it is that they are following.

If you invoke as Father…  It is a choice that they are dared to make, one they must make if they are going to heed Peter’s call to service in the name of Jesus Christ.  It is not a fool’s errand, it is what is necessary for them, and for us.

An invocation, that is part of the liturgy of the church, calling upon the name of the Lord.  It is used a little more graphically in horror moves when the devil, or Satan, is invoked.  It is not simply calling on the name of the devil, it is calling up the presence of Satan from hell itself to be there, present and at the beck and call of the one foolish enough to invoke his evil name.

To invoke as Father, it is to call down into your presence the Father, to reach up into heaven itself and demand the presence of the Father in the here and now of earth.  It is an arrogant call, but it one that Peter dares his readers to make.

It is a call they must make, if they truly seek to serve the Lord.  Is it a call we are prepared to take as seriously here and now?