Journal of European Baptist Studies, Volume 7, No. 3, 2007

relationship to the letter as a whole see John H. Elliott, ‘1 Peter, its Situation and Strategy: A Discussion with David Balch’, in Perspectives on First Peter , pp. 61-78. Elliot is in a conversation and debate with another scholar interested in the issues of distinctiveness and acculturation, David L. Balch, who takes the view that the household codes serve to encourage the recipient communities to conform to the lifestyle of the surrounding (hellenistic) environment (rather than the primacy of the Jewish tradition) and thus call for a greater assimilation with culture. Elliot’s article is a part of this conversation. Balch’s contribution appears in the same volume (pp. 79-101). 25 ‘Amzinyben kai nueisiu’ (original text Charles C. Luther), in Giesmii{ vainikas, No. 231. 26 For a more detailed account of the theology of social involvement of the post-soviet evangelicals see Lina Andronoviene and Parush R. Parushev, ‘Church, State, and Culture: On the Complexities of Post- Soviet Evangelical Social Involvement’, in Theological Reflections: Euro-Asian Theological Journal 3 (2004), pp. 174-227. 32 Journal of European Baptist Studies said by one’s behaviour. One of the songs under the section ‘The work in God’s Kingdom’ in our hymnal offers some buds of hope in this respect, very much echoing the spirit of 1 Peter: In this world, in quarrels and noise, You invite us to sow peace. People will calm down when they will accept you And will begin to believe your words. God, we ask you to bless us And to fill us with peace. As you embrace us with your fatherly arms, Set us on fire by the Spirit. 27 Here I see the second part of the challenge that the message of 1 Peter poses; a challenge that is even more difficult than the acceptance of suffering. If the worship of the worship services is both a shaping force and a reflection of the whole of life, then we can see the implications of taking the message of 1 Peter seriously in terms of our songs which both mould and echo our spirituality. If suffering is a part and parcel of being the chosen, estranged people, then God’s people should be ready for it. Yet that suffering has to have a purpose beyond itself, so that God’s people will be able to see how that suffering becomes worship, both as a response of the evildoers when they ‘see [the Christians’] honourable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge’ (2:12), as well as the sufferers’ sanctifying Christ as Lord in their hearts as they undergo distress and affliction (3:15). A lot has changed in Lithuania since it gained its freedom some fifteen years ago. The society is different; the churches have also become different—at times enthusiastically, at times reluctantly, at times unconsciously. The nature of suffering has largely changed and now, more often, involves the existential anguish of making sense of one’s own rather isolated life in changed circumstances. Yet the struggle is still the